Citi Bank to Sponsor State Parks

Citi Bank has come to the rescue of some 55 New York State parks that have been closed as a result of state budget woes. The $25,000,000 deal, inked in a closed door session last night includes the following provisions:

1. Allegany State Park will now be known as the Citi Allegany Fun Spot.

2. Swimmers at the reopened Stony Brook swimming area will be required to wear speedos with the CitiBank logo across the ass.

3. Seneca Lake will be dyed "CitiRed" every year on CEO Vikram Pandit's birthday.

4. Each state legislator will receive a complimentary $20,000 CitiBank Ultimate 5-yr CD locked in at 3.85%.

5. The Moinihans of Jamestown, NY will be required to rename their annual Bona Vista State Park Memorial Day Picnic "The Moinihan's BBQ brought to you by Citi." Each invitation mailed shall include one application for a CitiBucks platinum credit card.

Reason Magazine has an interesting article outlining the benefits of state park privatization here (sorry Glenn Beck haters, he's right on this one). Our power-hungry lawmakers have an aversion to forfeiting control of anything. However, if they can't even keep our parks open, shouldn't we give the privilege of oversight to someone who can?

Allegany State Park Trees Granted Stay

If a tree falls in the woods and there's nobody around to hear it, does it make a sound? Who cares, as local tree-huggers have successfully blocked the state from entering into commercial logging contracts at Allegany State Park. What on the surface seems to be a victory for the environmentally conscious, actually is another decision counter to the needs of the Southern Tier.

It's an unpopular opinion that state parks and forests are a hindrance to local economies, but the evidence is clear. They lock up tens of thousands of acres, drastically diminishing the potential tax rolls of towns and counties (most do nothing to add to the local economy). Phillips Creek State Forest, in my "neck of the woods," is a mostly unvisited area of 2,709 acres that consumes parts of the towns of Alfred, Ward and West Almond in Allegany County. Here, what was once rolling fields was reseeded in the 1930's to weed trees such as red pine and scotch pine. The original plan for the forest involved careful stewardship, including thinning and selective logging. Unfortunately, since the state wiped the land off of the tax rolls, the trees have been abandoned and left to strangle each other. The end result is an absurd expanse of toothpicks planted very neatly in rows upon rows, as far as the eye can see, appearing nothing like what one would think a forest should.

So now that the state has wrestled land from its rightful owners, environmentalists have blocked them from properly caring for the forests. Commercial contracts would enable the DEC to profit from the appropriate care-taking of state lands. Only two other options remain;: either the state will ignore the health of the forests at Allegany State Park, or the costs of providing such care will be passed on to the people of Cattaraugus County.

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