Activism Good, For City, Nader Tenure Proves

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In a county where activist government is little evident, John S. Nader – Hometown Oneonta’s Citizen of The Year for 2009 – is an exemplar of its value.
In a county notable for the gap between the very rich around Otsego Lake and the relatively poor, Oneonta is the one community with a thriving middle class.
And it didn’t just happen.
Public works have been part of the City of the Hills’ landscape for decades, back to the very beginning, when a group of leading citizens lobbied the Delaware & Hudson to locate its roundhouse midway between Albany and Binghamton.
The city’s fortunes were made, but fortunes aren’t made forever.
From the 1920s on, when Hartwick College was lured from up-county, through the expansion of the one-time Normal School into modern SUNY Oneonta in the 1960s, city fathers have been looking ahead, preparing for the always-uncertain future.

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John Nader fits into that tradition.
He called his father, former Mayor Sam Nader, one of his heroes, and recounted how, back in 1962, he was first in line in Washington, D.C., to emphasize Oneonta’s interest in the first federal public works project of the JFK administration.
Sam Nader’s interest paid off:  The city received a $2.5 million grant, sufficient to upgrade the water and sewer systems to accommodate an expanded SUNY.
Progress doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and the second mayor Nader learned and applied the lesson.

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Thus John Nader’s personal crusade:  to ensure the Bresee’s project – it includes improvements to Wall Street and renovation of buildings on Dietz – will continue to fruition after he retires from public office Jan. 1.
He made sure Gov. Eliot Spitzer knew about it, and the former governor specifically mentioned Bresee’s in his 2007 State of the State speech. 
Likewise, Gov. David Paterson’s office was kept in the loop, and a $2.2 million Restore New York grant, received in September, was the final fiscal piece that made the Bresee’s project financially viable.
This is political fence tending at its best.
Nader considers the recruitment of a particular high point in his administration:  Without a quality developer, you won’t have a quality project.

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In the years ahead, as you see Bresee’s transformed, its penthouses leased, its apartments rented, its stores and offices filled ...
As you see Deitz Street revived, and parking expanded in a leafy landscaped stretch next to Library Park ...
As you see businesses upgraded along the block, and then throughout the downtown, and smiling shoppers going back and forth ...
Remember Oneonta’s tradition of progress, and put a face to it:  John S. Nader, Hometown Oneonta’s Citizen of The Year for 2009.