Merging City and Town . . .
Finally, someone is getting the message! From Capital 9 News, an Amsterdam alderman — and mayoral candidate — is proposing a merger of the City of Amsterdam with the Town of Amsterdam.
Amsterdam Alderman (R) Anthony “Babe” Pallotta said, “We work together, we play together, we shop together and we should be all one entity.”
Are the city and towns of Amsterdam really ready to become one?
Pallotta says yes and now’s the time for the two to merge.
“The town is expanding and growing and the city is withering on the vine. I say by combining both entities together we can grow together,” he said.
“We work together, we play together, we shop together . . . ” One can say the same thing about Utica and New Hartford/Whitestown/etc. In both places, neither city nor suburbs can make significant decisions without affecting each other. In both places boundaries and attitudes divide and disconnect a population of shared interests from effectively controlling its destiny. The result in both places has been urban sprawl — no real growth — with regional populations dropping.
It will be interesting to see if in Amsterdam the concept moves beyond mere election season talk. The town supervisor seems reticent, perhaps feeling threatened. But Mr. DiMezza might make a good mayor some day!
The City and Town of Amsterdam have a lot going for them in this regard compared with Utica and environs. There are fewer jurisdictions to deal with. Water and sewer are still part of city government rather than separate agencies. City and Town share the same name. They share the Greater Amsterdam School District. Merger of the City and Town seems like a “natural.”
Merger can reconnect a people with the interests they share in common. Instead of city and suburb wasting energy competing with each other, the energy can be used to propel both forward.
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Update 10/16:
Amsterdam water and sewer figure prominently in relationships between city and suburb, and are now playing into the “merger” talk: See “Amsterdam’s water issues back on tap.”
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