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

Chapter 11 Different Strokes

139 Chapter 11 Different Strokes As the new millennium began, central New York seemed different. Metropolitan Utica had lost more than twenty thousand residents between 1980 and 2000, and the racial and ethnic balance had changed. More than 36 thousand whites had left the region during that time, whereas the area gained almost fifteen thousand blacks, Latinos, and Asian Americans. The black population had nearly doubled during those twenty years, the Latino population grew by 182 percent, and the Asian American population grew by 287 percent (Lewis Mumford Center 2001). Otsego County gained slightly more than a thousand residents; with a population of 61,676, the county contained more residents than Utica (60,651) for the first time since the 1890 census (Shupe et al. 1987). But the biggest change was not to be found in census records. Noblesse Oblige Residents of Cooperstown may be surprised to learn that tourism is not the largest employer in the area; rather, it is Bassett Hospital. Located three blocks from downtown, the hospital had little impact on the character of Main Street shopping and restaurants as most employees could easily travel to and from work without going downtown . The result was that tourism became the most visual element of Cooperstown’s economy, with the hospital acting in the background. Beneath the high visual impact of tourism and the economic generator of the hospital, many residents perceived the common thread holding the village economy together: Look, I don’t care if they say the hospital is bigger. It may be, but baseball is what you see. But there’s really no difference between the two: they’re run by 140 In Gotham’s Shadow the same crowd. The engine behind Cooperstown is the Clarks—you want to understand Cooperstown, you have to untangle their web first. With a family fortune rooted in Singer Sewing Machines, the Clark family has had a tremendous impact on the fortunes of Cooperstown through two major mediums: Leatherstocking Corporation and the Clark Foundation. Leatherstocking Corporation was the “for-profit” segment of the local Clark empire. Headquartered in New York, the corporation ran the historic Otesaga Hotel, the Cooper Inn, as well as numerous smaller functions throughout the village. Larger and more pervasive was the Clark Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the family. The Clark Foundation, as of 2000, held assets of about $450 million. Also headquartered in New York City, the foundation spent about $8 million in the Cooperstown area during 2000, including about $4 million spent performing such community functions as operating the Clark Sports Center (a health and fitness center), the Clark Scholarship Program (for local college students), and a beautification program for the village. In addition, the foundation has been influential in the creation and financing of Bassett Hospital, the New York State Historical Association, and the Baseball Hall of Fame. The family also owned, in conjunction with other local families, a greenbelt of undeveloped land that completely surrounded the village. In the Clark fortune was found a form of elite patronage that helped to link the community to outside sources of capital and talent. Such patronage was uncommon among rural communities, and for this Cooperstown was quite unique. It was through the continued efforts of the Clarks that Cooperstown was able to gain some of the unique institutions that enabled the village to prosper even as the region suffered: the Baseball Hall of Fame, the New York State Historical Association, and Bassett Hospital. As Cooperstown faced the trends of upscaling and agricultural decline, these institutions helped to keep the village afloat. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the rise of Bassett Healthcare. A Modern Health Care System Bassett Hospital was named after Mary Imogene Bassett, a local physician who counted Edward Severin Clark as one of her patients. Popular belief suggests that Clark had heard of Bassett’s desire for a good lab facility in the village, “and granted her wish, building not only a laboratory, but a fully-equipped 100-bed fieldstone hospital building” (Bassett Healthcare 2001). The Clarks were heavily involved Different Strokes 141 in the success of the hospital throughout the years, turning it into one of the better-known rural hospitals in the country. The hospital also started education and research facilities, and by the 1980s was advertising its affiliation with Columbia University. In 1988, O’Connor Hospital of Delhi, more than forty miles from Cooperstown, merged with...