What is return on investment for Lake Placid?
Tingley speaking to Glens Falls Rotary Club on Thursday
By Ken Tingley
You can make a case that this competition was “The Betty Little Games.”
It was a nearly a decade ago, that then Sen. Little used her connections in Albany to lay a little guilt on her colleagues about how the North Country is always ignored. She got a commitment to upgrade the competition facilities in Lake Placid in hopes of securing the World University Games in 2023.
You may not realize that those games just concluded.
You also may not realize that New York spent some $500 million upgrading the competition facilities in Lake Placid to make them world-class again.
And if you are old enough, it may have escaped your attention that 43 years have passed since Lake Placid hosted the 1980 Winter Olympics.
Those Olympics didn’t turn the tiny little village in the Adirondacks into a boon town and the early returns indicate the World University Games did not have much of an impact.
Upgrades were made to the ski jumping complex, the Olympic arena, the speed skating oval, the Mt. Van Hoevenberg cross country skiing complex and the Saranac Lake Civic Center.
Downtown Lake Placid got a $13.6 million makeover as well.
“What we really wanted to do was make Lake Placid relevant and they are now,” the retired Little told North Country Public Radio while watching a hockey game during the games last week.
NCPR also reported that several business owners were underwhelmed by the impact the games had.
“My responsibility and the responsibility of everyone in state government and at ORDA and in local government is to say, `Alright, how can we maximize the value of this investment?’ Instead of just saying wow that was a lot of money we spent,” state Sen. Dan Stec told NCPR.
But, wow, that was a lot of money the state spent and you can’t help but wonder if it could have been better spent.
Lake Placid, which also hosted the 1932 Olympics, has always had a soft spot in the hearts of the sports world. After all, it was the site of the one of the greatest upsets in sports history - the United States’ Miracle on Ice. It is a wonderful little alpine village that might be more popular in the summer than the winter.
The relevance of Lake Placid internationally has been debated for the past 40 years. The question now is what is the return on the $500 million taxpayer investment? Would the state be better served by pouring money into infrastructure for a surging hiking industry, battling invasive species in Lake George and Lake Champlain or expanding the reach of high speed internet everywhere?
Lake Placid has several national and international events on the horizon, but a few events each season are not going to make a difference to these communities.
It’s a not a question of whether Lake Placid needed the upgrade, but if other parts of the Adirondacks could have used the money for more important projects like high speed internet or the new sewer treatment plant in Lake George.
Ultimately, the biggest problem with Lake Placid is that it is remotely located. It is isolated and off the beaten path. You can’t change that no matter how much money you throw at it.
Radio interview
Mike Morgan has a radio show called “Community Issues” on Adirondack Broadcasting. You may not have heard it before because it is on pretty early on Sunday mornings. But he interviews lots of local people about local issues.
Morgan wanted to interview me about my criticism of Rep. Elise Stefanik recently. We talked about my two books, but we also talked about Stefanik. He was surprised at how often I have written about her in the past.
I went back and reviewed many of the columns and each time my criticism centered on her inability to tell the truth to her constituents. So, I stand by my columns.
You might want to give it a listen.
Plattsburgh commentary
The title of my book “The Last American Newspaper” is a metaphor for what is happening to small community newspapers all over the country.
A couple weeks ago I submitted a commentary to the Press-Republican in Plattsburgh to add some perspective to what readers are seeing in their own newspapers.
There is a lot of criticism these days about local newspapers because they aren’t as good as they used to be. That is just a matter of resources. The Plattsburgh newspaper is down to one news reporter. Most other small newspapers have the same problem.
You might want to check out the commentary.
Next event
I will be speaking to the Glens Falls Rotary Club members on Thursday at noon. If you know someone in Rotary willing to invite you to the luncheon, you can check it out.
I will also be speaking at Northshire Books in Saratoga Springs on Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 6 p.m.
I will be signing books afterward.
Over the years I’ve done a lot of business in the Lake Placid area. My business is very different than a retail store on Main St in Lake Placid. If I want to keep working for another couple of decades these games will pay off very handsomely for me. The alpenglow of repeated winter games in Lake Placid keeps the luster for the very wealthy. They’ll buy a $1million home in the area and tear it down to build something nicer. I’ll sell them some custom chandeliers and wall sconces. They may go into town and buy a stick of beef jerky once or twice but they’re not going to vastly improve the daily retail economy. It’s getting pretty hard to find a $1million home to tear down anymore. If you happen to be a housekeeper or caretaker in the region you probably have a half dozen or more billionaires in your phone contacts - and they will take your call. Meanwhile every 2 years for decades Little and Stec promised better cell coverage for the region. For these games the cell companies brought in a bunch of temporary cell towers, COWS, so people who don’t live here could get service for a couple of weeks.
It’s funny (not funny) to all of a sudden hear Dan Stec talking about the value of investment over the long term. Usually he’s talking about things like giving money back to the taxpayer - even as infrastructure ordinary people need to scrape out a living crumbles and is replaced in the most expensive and inconvenient way possible, on an emergency basis like the culverts on Bay Road or in Johnsburg last year. You’d probably be surprised at how many times I had to take the detour from South Johnsburg Rd during that time. Those poor people who live there were tremendously inconvenienced and with the price of gas last year it cost them $$.
We don’t have a lot of elected people who built a business, who work for themselves, who don’t draw a paycheck if they don’t keep their promises. Stec gets a check every single pay period. People like him. They love Betty.
Great perspective. I streamed most of the games and kept admiring the facilities, albeit the snow was scarce. It also made me think back to when I traveled to Italy with the National Guard in the 80s. We were winter training and had a day off where we could go to ski at Sestriere. Not easy to get to, switchbacks up through a pass and down the other side. The Adirondacks remind me of those windy Euro roads spilling into a town or resort here and there. Prime candidates for winter sports venues require mountains with significant elevation. The games this year were held all over, with most hockey being played up in Canton and Potsdam, curling in Saranac Lake and snowboarding and aerials at Gore. I appreciate the exposure it got, yet understand these are not big draws for spectators, especially during the work week. My attitude is that world class athletes deserve good facilities to compete and I'm glad we have some.