Jamestown, like most other small Upstate New York Cities such as Dunkirk, Lockport, Lackawanna, Niagara Falls, Salamanca, Olean and Elmira, is faced with constant challenges that are often beyond its means to deal with.

While these small cities find it very difficult to improve their situations, their elected leaders must do no harm to their struggling communities.

All of these cities have shrunk since 1960. For example, Dunkirk has declined from 18,000 residents to 12,700, down 40%, Jamestown declined from 41,800 to 28,700, down 31%, and Niagara Falls fell from 100,000 residents to 48,000 in 2020, down 52%.

An important lesson is, when a struggling city has 3 options, for example, to meet the needs of its residents, do not pick the most expensive one.

Another important lesson is for an upstate city like Jamestown locked into its 1886 borders, is to be very careful how your most valuable land is used. Commercial property, not residential and not industrial property, always provides the highest assessments and, therefore the highest property taxes.

A chain drug store was just in the news getting a slight reduction in its assessment, but leaving it assessed for over $2,000,000. In Jamestown that means that one drug store is paying $100,000 a year in taxes to support the city of Jamestown, the Jamestown Public Schools and Chautauqua County.

If that commercial property were converted to a government office building, it would become tax-exempt, costing the community $100,000 a year to pay for police, fire, teachers, etc.

If the most valuable strip of commercially-zoned property in Jamestown is used for a City operation, for example, there is a tremendous loss of revenue to the community for decades to come.

City or county operations need never be located on the most valuable land the city contains.

Historically, new car dealerships on Fluvanna Avenue and on Washington Street have been Jamestown’s biggest taxpayers. Automotive retail will never be tax exempt and highly unlikely to get a payment-in-lieu of taxes (PILOT) from the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency.

The new mayor and City Council must carefully preserve the highest tax-paying commercial property Jamestown has left.

Another important lesson is to do the hard work of prioritizing the use of city funds. If, for example, the city suddenly has $100,000 of “mad money,” it is politically tempting to give ten groups $10,000 each, making no real difference in Jamestown’s future, even if giving one project $100,000 could make a lasting impact on the city.

Currently the city, facing a 2024 budget deficit, has prioritized the construction of two splash pads over leaving $500,000 in the budget for demolition of Jamestown’s worst condemned buildings. These buildings are not salvageable and are a plague on our neighborhoods.

Has it really been thought through that building two splash pads and not tearing down 15-20 deplorable buildings results in Jamestown being a better community?

Effective politicians usually look for responsible compromises. For example, the city could build one splash pad instead of two, even by bonding for it (along with a new roof for City Hall) and use some of the city’s $7,000,000 fund balance to fund a demolition program of $500,000.

Or even better, instead of the city borrowing for a splash pad, the city could reach out to other groups for funding a splash pad. Perhaps the Ralph Wilson Foundation would aid this project. The Ralph Wilson Foundation has already aided the creation of a children’s playground in the Jackson-Taylor Chadakoin Park. Perhaps groups such as the Allen Park Women’s Club, Rotary Clubs and others would contribute financially for a splash pad project.

Running Jamestown city government (or Dunkirk’s) is never easy. Jamestown’s new mayor and 8-1 City Council majority can only strive to do no harm to the community and to have the courage to do what is “right” no matter what interest groups become upset.

Fred Larson is a former at-large Jamestown City Councilman from 1979 through 1982, served as a Chautauqua County Legislator from 1986 through 1993;in 2014 and began serving a two-year term on the legislature this year, and is a retired Jamestown City Court/Housing Court Judge.