Republican View: Downtown is declining while Asteri implodes

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this column are those of author Zachary Winn and are not representative of the thoughts or opinions of Tompkins Weekly. 

The 1st of June saw an arson fire at the Asteri building, with traffic on Green Street shut down for almost four hours. The suspected arsonist is a former resident of the Jungle who had been given an apartment at the Asteri and could often be seen panhandling in front of the Tompkins County Public Library with his dog.

Following the fire, at the June meeting of the Common Council, members of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance (DIA) outlined their concerns about conditions downtown. Their complaints ranged from a poor business climate to continuous open air drug use and drug dealing, aggressive panhandling, harassment of passersby, dog and human waste, needles, graffiti and general filth.

“Today, we face declining investment, lost businesses, and an exodus of residents across all income levels,” DIA CEO Nan Rohrer said.

“Downtown business is on life support. The issues that we’ve faced have gotten bad enough that we’ve started losing the essential ground floor businesses that make our downtown what it is. Apartments on the Commons, once nearly impossible to find at any price, are starting to see real challenges leasing,” DIA board member John Guttridge said. “All of this leads to a real deterioration in the business climate. Businesses that have been in downtown for decades are leaving. When they go, they won’t come back.”

Board member Ben Sandberg, Director of the History Center on the Commons described “a really scary incident at the museum several months ago where someone having a mental health crisis locked a bunch of fifth graders into the museum that were there on a field trip, wouldn’t let them leave, and had even grabbed a child as they were coming out.”

Megan Vidler, the owner of Home Green Home, Vice Chair of the DIA said “Prospective Cornell moms ask me if this is a safe place to send their children. I am well aware that Ithacans love to complain that downtown Ithaca isn’t safe and doesn’t have enough parking. I have spent the last 15 years refuting those claims. I’m here to tell you that those once false perceptions are now becoming a reality.”  

In response, the Ithaca Police Department (IPD) announced additional patrols on the Commons, with the intent of enforcing rules against smoking, drinking, unpermitted amplified sound, unleashed pets and their waste. The viability of this plan is questionable. IPD only recently replenished its ranks following the disastrous “police reform” effort instigated by former Mayor Myrick, and still lacks the numbers for a persistent presence on the Commons. 

Much of the antisocial activity on the Commons is emanating from the Asteri. Only a year after its opening, the Asteri is now the #1 location for calls for police in the city, with over 800 in just the first half of this year. There have also been more deaths in the building, with one occurring in June and another in July, with police dispatch audio indicating the July death was a probable overdose.

July’s meeting of the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency saw a serious discussion of potentially rescinding the tax incentives that were extended to Asteri’s developer Vecino Group, described as the “nuclear option.” Were this to happen, the project would become financially unviable. The meeting also saw several members of Vecino Group’s management stating their intention to get the building under control, with more stringent vetting of future tenants and a large number of evictions a virtual certainty. The conference center is also suffering, with bookings a fraction of what was anticipated. The entire project, built on land that used to belong to the City of Ithaca, is objectively a failure and a blight on downtown.

This entire debacle is a result of Democrat policies coming to their inevitable conclusion. The “Housing First” model provided apartments with no preconditions to individuals actively struggling with addiction. Tenant protections make it nearly impossible to evict even the most problematic residents. Bail reform laws mean individuals in crisis cannot be kept off the street. These policies were implemented by elected Democrats, and the consequences are now unavoidable.

There is a maxim that says: “The purpose of a system is what it does.” Not what it claims to do. Not what its architects intended. What it actually produces in the real world. By that standard, Asteri is performing exactly according to its current design: concentrating high-needs individuals in a poorly managed space, draining public services, and destabilizing the downtown area.  

If Vecino cannot correct-course, quickly, the “nuclear option” must be deployed. Rescind the tax breaks. Elected officials must hold the developers accountable. In turn, the public must hold elected officials accountable. Good intentions don’t excuse bad outcomes.

Ithaca deserves better. The future depends on systems that work. If Democrats want different results, they must build different systems.