Oneonta Mayor Gary Herzig delivered his annual State of the City address Tuesday night.
"We’re 'Onta' Something” is a new slogan of Oneonta, New York – displayed during Mayor Gary Herzig’s State of the City address. In a follow-up interview with WAMC, Mayor Herzig said the city, home to Hartwick College and SUNY Oneonta, navigated a variety of ongoing challenges last year.
“We, like most upstate New York cities, have had a pretty rough economy for the last 50 years," says Herzig. "Jobs have been scarce, we don’t have the quality housing for any of our income levels. We’re very, very fortunate to have two wonderful colleges here, but students do compete with families for housing, so that has been a real challenge.”
A lot of the city’s response to those challenges comes in the form of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative, or DRI. Oneonta received $10 million from the state for the DRI in 2017, and spent the past year researching and planning its implementation. The award set aside $2.3 million for façade and signage improvements to local businesses, and developments in upper story housing. Former Mayor Kim Muller, who led a special Project Selection Committee for the grants, says more than 100 businesses applied.
“This was a bit like putting together a puzzle where the components of each application required a lot of research and consideration," says Muller. "Regardless of whether it was for a sign for a business, or for a much more extensive and detailed upper story housing or transformative project.”
Muller announced 63 awards Tuesday, most for Main Street businesses like the Autumn Café, Tino’s Pizza, Roots Brewing Company, and the Greater Oneonta Historical Society. Mayor Herzig says development on these projects should start soon.
“That means that, in the coming year, we’re going to see a redesign of our downtown," says Herzig. "One not created in City Hall, but created by all of our individual business and property owners.”
Grants totaled roughly $1.9 million, meaning the city will host a second round of awards for the remaining funds. But Mayor Herzig says that round will be solely apply to upper story housing applications. As for the rest of the DRI, plans include revamping the city’s Market Street, and construction of a new transit hub and welcome center. Herzig says the hub will be multi-modal.
“When I say multi-modal, it’s not just about buses and cars," Herzig clarifies. "It’s also about bike share, it’s about charging stations for electric vehicles. We’re going to be redesigning our municipal parking garage, creating a new pedestrian-friendly streetscape.”
The DRI also provided funds to research the feasibility of an arts community and artist housing in Oneonta. Considering the nearby colleges and presence of centers like the Community Arts Network of Oneonta, non-profit Artspace recently gave the city the “all clear.”
“Now we are exploring all options," says Herzig. "One option, of course, is working with a large not-for-profit like Artspace. But we’re also exploring the option of having a private developer do a similar project. But we are very assertively proceeding with the development of an ‘Artspace-type’ project in downtown Oneonta.”
Still on the table, but not as “assertively” in development: reviving the Oneonta Theatre, which dates to 1897. Webb Management Services of New York announced in February three different business plans to get the building back up and running. Mayor Herzig encourages the theatre, which has struggled with local competition for years, to work with the nearby Foothills Performing Arts Center.
"The most basic restoration would be about $3 million. If you wanted to do top-of-the-line, it could be as much as $10 million," Herzig explains. "We have not [chosen a plan] - you know, we just received this a couple of weeks ago. But it's good to lay out what our options and costs are."
Herzig says he’s happy with the last year’s efforts. With the announcement of Tuesday’s awards, the city is moving from planning the DRI to implementing it.
“We literally had dozens of focus groups, task forces, committees – everybody had an opportunity to weigh in and contribute their ideas," Herzig notes. "As a result, I think that our plan going forward is a strong one because it was created by decision makers that are the citizens of the community, not politicians.”
Oneonta is home to almost 14,000 people. Herzig is a Democrat who has been in office since 2015.
