Local governments in rural areas of New York State, as in many other states, are struggling to keep up with the demands of a changing society and an increasing rural population. Relative poverty, increasing costs of essential community services, frequent turnover of elected and appointed officials, insufficient training, geographic isolation, and…

In New York, as in many states, "rural" is not synonymous with "agricultural." The Commission on Rural Resources (CRR) supports preservation of agrarian New York State, but also seeks to assist rural citizens with many other challenges: in education, transportation, forestry development, housing, health care, viable business…

Symposium participants identified trends, strengths, and weaknesses in local governments in rural New York and clarified the current status of the state-local governance and management partnership. Among the trends cited were a population shift from urban to rural areas and a corresponding need for more services, increasing state mandates and…

Participants in a symposium on economic development in rural New York State analyzed existing strengths and weaknesses of the state's rural areas and made policy suggestions relating to three broad goals: (1) ease government constraints on rural businesses in order to encourage growth and development; (2) build on and strengthen the positive…

This document is the last of 10 reports resulting from New York's 1983 First Statewide Symposium on Rural Development and is intended to be used primarily as a resource document for the development of public policy proposals. The 9 preliminary reports generated discussion at 12 public hearings, plus written testimony, and served to catalog rural…