"Although I did talk about the idea of dissolving the city during my first campaign for mayor (2006), I don't think we are at that point. But we may have to look into it in the future if the tax burdens continue to increase," Kasprzak said. "We are landlocked, and we have no place to grow and get more revenue to help deal with these problems."Go for it. Because if the mayor can't see that rewriting zoning laws so they're more open to density and mixed commercial/residential use would go a long way to improving the city's attractiveness and business climate, then he should just shut the whole thing down. No, we don't have room for a mall or suburban subdivisions in the city. That doesn't mean it can't grow. There are plenty of vacant storefronts around. But the city won't grow unless attitudes change (sorry to disappoint all the glibertarian Ayn Rand cultists, but we do need taxes if we want things like roads) and the governance improves. The current city leadership can't perform simple tasks like watering the grass on playing fields. How can we trust it to figure out tough budget issues?
So take the mayor's advice. Kill it. Dump the strong mayor city-government system, since its only function is to air strange local factional grievances that are beyond earthly understanding. Then get a city manager, or shut the city down and merge with the Town of Plattsburgh. Of course, it's doubtful the town would have us.
Guess we're stuck with listening to people elected to do a job bitch about it.
