Published: July 02, 2008 12:18 am            

DUVALL: T-NT game decision stinks

Did you read the sports story by Jay Skurski last week that says this year’s T-NT game isn’t really the 100th? Come on. Really?

Apparently a game played in 1896 doesn’t count in the rivalry. After months of study, officials from both districts decided that Tonawanda High School wasn’t formally recognized by the state until two years after the first game. Thus it doesn’t count as being played between Tonawanda and North Tonawanda.

Talk about splitting hairs.

It reminds me of those people who insisted that the millennium didn’t start until 2001 because there wasn’t a year zero. They might have been right on the facts, but seriously, who was going to celebrate the millennium a year late?

Maybe one of the two teams playing wasn’t really from Tonawanda High School. Maybe there were a couple of ringers, people who weren’t students.

It was 1896, who cares?

Now we all have to wait another year to celebrate the historic rivalry’s 100th anniversary. If I was a senior on either team this year, I’d be a little ticked that I couldn’t play in the 100th game. And somehow I doubt the guys who played in 1896 care either way.

Maybe history has been served, but I can’t say the same for the players.

•••

Hey, the system actually worked. For once.

Credit Gov. David Paterson and the state Legislature for finding some common-sense solutions to the problem of wasted state tax credits for the cleanup of old industrial sites.

Billions of dollars were being thrown around — frequently on projects that didn’t measure up to the standards originally intended to receive the money. The result was that good projects around here suffered while projects downstate that could have happened anyway sucked up an unfair share of the money.

The state, while revisiting the procedures for getting brownfields tax credits, threw up a moratorium that was largely unnecessary, but the end result was a good one, so I’m inclined not to gripe too loudly.

We have an obligation as a state to fix the problems of generations past. To change for the better upstate communities that are dotted with decaying buildings. Those places once housed the jobs that made this area boom. Their vacancy remains both a sign of our region’s lack of progress and a practical impediment to growth.

If these sites aren’t fixed — if this plan doesn’t work — stick a fork in Western New York’s hope to rebuild.

Lots of other states have figured out how to make this work. Rustbelt cities across the Northeast have seen their former factories turn into shopping districts. Here, we just count the number of windows shattered and graffiti drawings.

The new deal worked out by the state increases the amount of money available for the good projects and makes it tougher for downstate developers to get a free ride when taxpayers aren’t needed to help spur progress.

Locally, the Remington Rand project will be moving forward. The $14 million deal that will refurbish a Sweeney Street factory into lofts, a restaurant and a museum on the canal will help downtown, to be sure. Local leaders joined together to call for the moratorium to be lifted.

Just a few weeks later, it was. Remington will go forward. Local residents will see some changes downtown and we all benefit from state leaders’ decisions.

When was the last time we could say that?

Managing Editor Eric DuVall’s column appears every Wednesday and Sunday. Contact him at 693-1000, ext. 112 or by e-mail to duvalle@gnnewspaper.com.

        

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