| Times Herald-Record
Ulster County leaders recently released a 20-year economic development plan, committing to measuring progress by creating better-paying, better-insured, more sustainable jobs for ordinary people.
County Executive Pat Ryan’s administration produced the goal-setting report, “Building A People Centered Economy,” a year-long effort.
It found the county’s economy has steadily grown stronger in recent years, based on conventual measures such as unemployment, gross domestic product (the sum value of all goods produced and services rendered) and median income.
But far too many ordinary residents are still struggling, with the county’s poverty rate rising to one in seven residents (14.3%) in 2018, up 2.7% from 1998, Ulster’s County leaders wrote.
Four in 10 Ulster residents are living under or near the poverty line, according to the United Way of New York state, which conducted research before the coronavirus pandemic socked locals’ finances.
That figure is similar Hudson Valley-wide, said Jonathan Drapkin, president and CEO of Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress, a local research institute with work that inspired Ulster County’s leaders.
“I commend Ulster County’s leaders for using a magnifying glass to show the difference between those people who have money and those who don’t,” Drapkin added. They’re focusing on “what it means to be able to live well, to have a house and a job that pays for basic expenses.”
The region’s cost of living presents a challenge. A single Ulster County resident must earn $48,036 annually to adequately pay bills, while a family with two adults and two children needs $109,754, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit research group.
“We don’t want people to think our economy has somehow failed us — it’s just been too narrowly focused on certain metrics,” said Tim Weidemann, assistant county executive and director of innovation. “So, the thesis, the collective wisdom, of our working group was that we need to focus more on helping (ordinary) people.”
The economic plan — the county’s first since “Ulster Tomorrow” in 2007 — focused on creating and retaining good-paying jobs in business “clusters.”
A dozen-member group, including Bread Alone CEO Nels Leader, Rondout Savings Bank Cheryl Bowers, Kale Kaposhilin of Radio Kingston and the Rev. Gregory Simpson, suggested the county help and invest in:
♦ agriculture, food and beverage businesses, creating a stronger local supply chain for them, with restaurants, residents and stores more closely linked to farmers, farmland better protected and agritourism promoted;
♦ makers and creators, ensuring artists and artisans have production and retail space, incentives to work locally, training and even a brand of locally made products;
♦ clean energy and the environment, including more renewable sources, research and jobs;
♦ and health, wellness and care, which the county defined broadly to include access to better broadband and more (and better quality) health services, especially in rural areas.
County leaders said businesses such as Lite Brite Neon Studio, a 21-year-old, 15-employee firm that moved to Kingston from Brooklyn in 2017, is just the sort of company they want to attract.
The business helps internationally known artists produce neon works and creates signs and displays for Apple computer and major retailers.
“ ‘What kinds of jobs can we bring?’ was very much on our minds,” said Matt Dilling, 41, Lite Brite Neon Studio’s principal owner. “It’s fraught – economic development, capitalism – but without turning it all upside down and shaking it out, there are ways to fix things.”
