The local government profession is filled with passionate, thoughtful, innovative leaders.   Voices from the Hall is our tribute to those folks, and an opportunity to capitalize on the pure talent that is rampant in the public sector. 

I met Mayor Rick Hauser, of Perry, NY, just about the same time I got to New York.  At the time, Rick was an innovative young urbanist and architect (he still is), and was helping our community showcase our downtown assets.  A few years into our friendship, Rick told me he was thinking of running for Mayor of his hometown.  He saw things that needed fixing, and had ideas about how to leverage the community’s assets to fix them.  Several terms later, his passion for redevelopment and community investment is paying off. 

This week, I asked Rick (Mayor Hauser to you–just kidding; he’d never make you call him that) what he saw as the unique challenges of public leadership in a smaller community; particularly in an area of the U.S. that isn’t seeing tremendous population growth.  Here’s his take…

The Village of Perry (2010 census population 3,673) is bearing the fruit of a decade of broad-based revitalization efforts. Beyond the people and businesses who deserve the credit for each individual effort, the usual suspects are in part to be acknowledged:

• Catalytic downtown events that have helped brand the community and generate new energy, citizens and pride;
• Major private-sector investment in downtown building stock, supported by local, county, state and federal programs;
• Infrastructure and streetscape investments and transformations;
• A dynamic Main Street Association working on a variety of fronts.

Over $4.5m of private dollars has been invested in downtown buildings and businesses alone in 10 years, and the district has seen a net increase of 35 businesses and 85+ workers. 

Challenges Met

Along the way, here are some of the small community-scaled challenges we’ve encountered and how we’ve responded, along with more to come:

• Chronic vacancy and disinvestment: Perry pioneered a bottom-up, broad-based investment strategy called “Main Street LLC” that has been put to use on the rehab of a number of otherwise intransigent downtown properties totaling about 38,000 sf, and to raise capital to launch a microbrewery. It’s a “put your money where your house is” approach to community investment where, by citizen-members contributing cash, they become downtown’s newest advocates, helping ensure the success of the enterprise. Citizens realize that the prerogative and the obligation of small town living is involvement – if you want something done, you are empowered to do it yourself.
• Economic development (with no planning department or budget): The Village has aggressively sought fresh partnerships. Perry spearheaded the Letchworth Gateway Villages (LGV) Program, reaching across the county line to partner with nearby Geneseo and Mount Morris.  We now have a full-time director and are working towards a regional, Geotourism-based strategy for economic development built around the logic of Letchworth State Park, “America’s #1 State Park” and “NYS’s #1 attraction” (at least according to USA Today polls over the last 2 years). LGV represents the importance and necessity of thinking regionally and leveraging partnerships to do things at scale that small communities cannot tackle alone.
• Growing a regional reputation when you’re small: By articulating a clear vision for Perry, that doubles down on a strong arts presence and successful regional events such as the Chalk Art Festival, and Shake on the Lake, we have helped others help us. Wyoming County provided that boost when they launched the Rural Arts Initiative which has helped support artists and artisans in Perry, plus two theaters and the New York State Puppet Festival, all in downtown spaces in the last couple years.
• Older housing stock, neighborhoods and population in decline: A dedicated part-time property maintenance officer and pro-active neighborhood compliance efforts have already resulted in well over 200 fixed-up residential properties and another 100 in process, over the past 4 years. Amidst all this the tax base has been increasing and tax rates dropping.

Perry has set a clear goal for the 2020 census, to stop the population decline, a drop of 14% from 1990-2010.  If we can “net” 10 new families per year between 2010 and 2020, we will have turned around that decline and be moving in the right direction. Neighborhoods and housing diversity are keys to this strategy and we have been active in recruiting, incentivizing and supporting those goals. By 2020, downtown residential units will be up by 20. A chronically vacant former knitting mill a few blocks away will have 48 accessible apartments, and a 1908 former school an additional 24-32 market-rate units.

Challenges Ahead: My Questions to You

Even if population stops its drop, what does the future hold for some aging, vacant building stock at the edges of downtown and scattered through residential neighborhoods? Is the downtown too large for the foreseeable future and can privately-owned buildings still in decay, and with few prospects, limp along until a change of ownership and the next wave of reinvestment arrives? Should they be rezoned? Acquired and either fixed or demolished? Tolerated or mothballed until demand and generational change makes their redevelopment viable? The same questions apply to neighborhoods and infrastructure.

Importantly, what role does (and should) a local government have in guiding these various trajectories? What signs should we be looking for to help us place our bets on a future that may never need some of these buildings, or never need them for downtown functions?

As with so many things, the problems are scaled down to the size of the community. This has generally been a very good thing for Perry. We have been able to get our arms around our problems relatively quickly, galvanize the expertise, energy and funds needed in the private and public spheres, and get them done. This is not the same conversation as Detroit or Buffalo. Not sure how similar it is to Jamestown or Oswego. Once we understand what we need to do, we can do it.

So, what do we need to do?

Have ideas for Rick?  Drop a comment to this post below.

Voices from the Hall is a feature of SmarterLocalGov and MRB Group.  We’re hoping to leverage the talent and expertise of amazing local government leaders in hopes of creating a strong professional public management sector.  If you’ve got an idea, want to contribute a column, or know someone who should, please send us a note at matt.horn@mrbgroup.com.