In Gotham's Shadow: Globalization and Community Change in Central New York

Chapter 9 Deconstructing Utica

113 Chapter 9 Deconstructing Utica The despair of the 1990s approached that of the 1970s. The region lost thousands of jobs, residents fled the area, and entire communities were forced to question the function they served in the global economy. A general pattern emerged in which children graduated not only from high school but from their hometowns as well. And the patterns established during the 1980s served as the basis for continued adaptations to an increasingly marginal position in the world. The region that contributed so much to the establishment of the information age and the consumer economy found itself enmeshed in that system without an obvious role of its own. No Rest for the Weary During the time that Utica lost many of its administrative functions and struggled to retain its industrial base, its sister city of Syracuse was continuing its trend of growth and regional dominance. With a larger and more educated population than Utica, Syracuse had distinct advantages over Utica as early as World War II. So despite a metropolitan area population of more than three hundred thousand, Utica suffered the same trends of upscaling as its smaller neighbors to the south. Not because of population, but because of its proximity to a city of even greater population. Located less than an hour apart, the two often competed against one another for increasingly important investment by non-local firms. Home to Syracuse University and two smaller colleges, Syracuse was poised to dominate the region to a degree it had not before. In contrast, Utica had only Hamilton College in nearby Clinton as an educational institution prior to the establishment of Utica College after 114 In Gotham’s Shadow World War II. Despite government investment in the city, Utica remains the only major metropolitan area in New York State without a major university, doctoral programs, or a professional school. Machine leaders during the 1950s recognized the competitive disadvantage this represented and worked to establish Utica College, Mohawk Valley Community College, the main campus of the State University of New York, and even to move Ithaca College to Utica. The most promising opportunity seemed to be the establishment of SUNY Institute of Technology (SUNY Tech) during the 1960s, but opposition to a full-fledged technology university by cost conscious politicians and representatives of the two-year Agriculture and Technology colleges resulted in SUNY Tech becoming an “upper division” college that offered only the last two years of a bachelors degree. Instead of becoming a public version of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the college instead became what a Cooperstown High School graduate referred to as “a freak school. Spend two years at Morrisville and transfer to (SUNY) Utica/Rome. Right! If I’m gonna spend two years at Mo-ville, I’ll transfer to (Rensellaer Polytechnic Institute).” This also prevented SUNY Tech from developing into a major research institution that might have attracted both employers and employees to the region and could possibly have helped to retain the computer industry that had been nurtured in the city and then moved away. A SUNY Tech competitive with other universities would not have given Utica a competitive edge over other metropolitan areas with their own universities, but neither would the area have been at a competitive disadvantage. In contrast, Syracuse was comnpetitive. The expressway system similarly put Utica at an ultimate disadvantage vis-à-vis Syracuse. As the demise of the emergent urban growth machine became apparent, the ability of area officials to win funds for the metropolitan area became hampered as the mayor and city council tended to bicker amongst themselves. The 1960s witnessed competition among metropolitan areas to secure interstate highways that connected them to other cities and local expressways that connected the cities to the growing suburbs. Syracuse did well in the competition, eventually winning not only Interstate 81, which ran north to Canada and south to Binghamton, but several other expressways that crisscrossed the area. Although the grand vision of Syracuse engineers was never fully realized, a substantial proportion was completed and thus the city embodied an aura of progress into the 1970s. In contrast, Utica planners envisioned an arterial highway through the city that, due to the opposition of some residents, was built with traffic lights in the heart of the city—the only major metropolitan area in New York where the major expressway does so. Additional plans for expressways running from the New York Thruway in Westmoreland (to the west) [18.220.154.41] Project MUSE (2024...