Here’s the thing. There is so much happening in the world. Too much. We are all on overload. We want to stay informed but wee are bombarded with news. Most of which is bad. There is little traction for good news. Which, we desperately need. Many of us want to do our part to make this world a better place. But it is hard to feel like we can make a difference.
We often hear that trying to work in our local community is a good way to build support for initiatives we care about. But in many areas our local representatives won’t even hold meetings with their constituents. Meetings over many important local issues take place at inconvenient times. Or behind closed doors. Or baring public comment. And then when the public does have an opportunity to speak up it feels like we are often ignored. Especially when it comes to big money interests.
I give a lot of credit to the people who show up to speak at meetings and protest etc. I really wanted to attend a recent meeting over an issue that is important to me, but I just couldn’t not muster the strength to engage in that manner. But, I am a writer. I have written articles in the past about issues I care about. And some of those have been published. So I am going to do what I can to make my voice heard on an issue I care about.
The local government keeps trying to sell off the land surrounding Sperr Memorial Park for development. First they tried to sell off the land directly across from the park for a giant industrial truck stop. Seems like a great place to have a children’s playground right. Luckily that project seems to have died.
But now our government wants to sell of a large parcel of land directly adjacent to this park for an Amazon warehouse.
I am an active outdoors person. I run. I hike. I take photos. I walk my dogs. I ride my bike. I watch birds. I think being able to get outside in a variety of different ways is important or the physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing of people.
In my local area there are dwindle few areas that are set aside for outdoor recreation. This is increasingly true in small cities and towns on a local level. We are fortunate to have beautiful state parks and forests but they often require at least a 45 minute drive to get there. But we do have a few, just a few natural parks in our local communities. And forests some reason our local governments seem determined to ruin them.
One of few local parks we have in my area is Sperr Memorial Park. This park was created and dedicated to commemorate a state trooper who lost his life in the line of duty. I don’t want to say that building an enormous warehouse next to a park dedicated to a fallen state trooper would sully the memorial because that is not the case I am making, but it really would be a shame for that reason as well.
I have been coming to this park before it was ever Sperr Memorial Park. Site of the former Time To Sperr 10k. I have been hiking and photographing this area since it was just a lonely rail trail near a pond. A beautiful trail with wetlands and trees. A place of solitude for the wildlife and for people like me who just wanted a place to look at the trees and see some birds.
I love going to this park and seeing people enjoying the trails. Fishing in the ponds. Children playing on the playgrounds. Runs and rides intimated and finishing at this park. It is a great place for so many people to enjoy all types of activities they enjoy. It is a respite from all the built structures in life that we have to contend with. There are not many places where we can get out and stretch our legs band listen to the birds chirp without everything being drown out by cars driving right next to us.
I come to this park in all seasons. I have seen all sorts of wildlife here. Birds from tiny migratory sparrows to eagles and osprey fishing in the ponds. Tiny mink to deer. Snakes and snapping turtles. It is also a great place to have a picnic. Or to just relax with a loved one and watch the sunset. Which I have done numerous times.
Our government sees its job as developing land. They apparently think this means developing lands for business use not for public use. Develop land so that businesses can. Make money at our expense. They do not seem to care if developing one parcel of land degrades or completely eliminates that value of the piece of land right next to it, which is a public park. And make no mistake, putting an Amazon warehouse next to a park with only one way in or out of the park, which would require driving by a 24 hour Amazon warehouse completely invalidates a public parks existence. Our government cares about its perception of trying to bring Capitol to our area, but they do not care about our actual wellbeing.
If our government cared about our wellbeing the prudent thing might be to expand this tract of land into the park that already exists instead of building a giant warehouse there and ruining the existing park. And They literally would not have to do anything to make that a park. Just let nature take its course. Maybe mow a walking path once in a while. And guess what, the community and the children would get endless hours of joy and entertainment from it. It would benefit our community and not Billionaires.
Whenever this issue is talked about on social media there will inevitably be accounts commenting that we need this because we need jobs in this area. I can only interpret these accounts as bots, because no one has ever commented as “I want to work in this Amazon warehouse”. If someone wants this to be built because they want to work there then please says that, but I have never seen that comment be made. By all accounts Amazon warehouses are not good jobs. There might be a few good jobs created in the construction of the site, but those won’t last after construction has been finished.
Also, Amazon uses a lot of robots in their warehouse to reduce the human workforce. Here is an article from Amazon themselves about all the robots that they use in their warehouses: Amazon has more than 1 million robots that sort, lift, and carry packages—see them in action
And they want to automate more and decrease human employees. This article is from 2025. From The New York Times: Amazon Plans To Replace Half A Million Jobs With Robots.
And a lot of people talk about we need to build this to get this piece of property back on the tax roles to help our local governments financial situation. But if you read any reporting on businesses moving into new communities you are probably aware that big businesses are often given big tax breaks to move into an area because they promise to create jobs. Check out this one for example. Published by our own NY State Senate. “Amazon warehouse project in Wawayanda back on track, sparking outrage over $80M tax break”
So increased jobs and increased tax revenue is not really a good issue to use to promote this. What this does is put more money in the pocket of billionaires instead of our local economy. If we really want to do something to promote business in our local economy we should be giving grants to local entrepreneurs to build their businesses. Give this 80 million dollars to local people who have ideas and see if they can make it happen. Then at least the money will go to local people and be spent in our local economies.
Also we have plenty of already industrialized zones in our area where this warehouse could be built. I am sure that it is being proposed here because it is cheaper for Amazon, not because it is a better location for the citizens of our state or our local municipalities. And on top of that literally a block away is an entire industrialized area with office buildings and firms where this could probably be built. Oh yeah and one of them currently stands empty. It was a huge WAYFAIR office buildings. Why don’t we put the Amazon warehouse in that area? Probably because it would cost more. But Amazon is worth 2.29 Trillion dollars. I think they can afford it. We as citizens can not stand to lose one of our few natural parks. And how do we know that a few years after we build this warehouse despoiling the park it then ends up sitting empty just like the WAYFAIR building?
I am just not sure anyone can explain exactly how this new Amazon Warehouse will benefit our community bey being built in its currently proposed location. There are already constant streams of Amazon delivery trucks everywhere. I don’t think we need more traffic in our small towns that cannot afford to fix their roads. Aside from the vague arguments “we need jobs” and “tax revenue” that seem very dubious given everything about how we know corporate America works by paying as little as possible in taxes and employing as few people as possible.
Also, in nearby Horseheads there is an entire industrial park that is so big that an entire new road was built to connect them to the highway. Maybe that would be a better location for this warehouse that will operate 24 hours 7 days a week. Because eI am sure that the best location is not next to a beautiful local park where people love to go to play with their children and walk their dogs. A road that by the way is a dead end. So all the people who might want to use this park would now have to navigate the endless streams of tractor trailers shipping products to and from the warehouse and I assume the delivery drivers picking up their goods for delivery. I use Amazon and my packages come fast enough. I do not need this in my life. None of us need this. Non of us want this. It only serves big business. Not local businesses. Also did I mention that there are houses on this street with the park as well. I bet they don’t want all this added so they have to contend with all this additional traffic as well every time they want to come and go form their homes.
Building industrialized zones is not the end all and be all. And if it is we need to be building them on top of the old remnants of empty buildings that are eyesores in our communities instead of “paving paradise to put up another parking lot”.
