Note: I wrote the following article for the Sunday Gazette several years ago, but since little has changed as far as preserving the Mohawk Valley’s beauty and history, I am republishing it here.
The Mohawk Valley’s two prime assets are its history and its beauty and both are in jeopardy. Let’s start with its beauty. Poorly planned development has created eyesores along the river that detract from it and the surrounding valley. Three buildings, erected within the last decade, will suffice to prove my point.
The most egregious example is the Target Distribution Center on Route 5S in the Town of Florida. While beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, it would be difficult to find someone who finds any aesthetic value in this quarter mile long building squatting above the river and dominating the local landscape, its architecture apparently inspired by Brutalism or some archaic Soviet school of architecture. My son has appropriately dubbed it “the death star.” Then there is Billy Fuccillo’s “huge” car lot on Route 5 near Nelliston, and not far beyond that is Logan’s giant salt storage shed that can be seen for miles in every direction.
