Ag Zoning District – Rural Tompkins County

“The World According to Doctrine” — Turning “have-nots” into the have-nothings

When the rich, Cornell-sponsored agribusinesses decided to take over north Lansing, NY for their sole benefit and profit: Cornell’s planner stated that the existing rural residents “didn’t deserve to live there” – and rather than this being denied – all of the Town of Lansing, Tompkins County, and Cornell officials continued to use this bias statement as the foundation for their every policy decision and regulatory agenda of the last 15 years.

Tompkins County’s rural people are disposable; and in the County’s “vision of the future” Comprehensive Plan: they no longer exist — they’ve been disposed of.

“The World According to Doctrine” — Their favorite cover crop is bullshit

The Town of Lansing is about to turn the rural community into an AG Zoning District for the sole benefit of a handful of rich farmers. Non-farming residents [the poor 95%] have had all their land uses removed except for having a house – this will force them to sell all other land to famers; or face the regressive tax burdens of AG structured assessments. The rural community have had no meaningful participation, representation, or respect from the unilateral planning authorities.

This is how Progressive government works: the rich get richer – and the poor get stepped on . . . and demeaned . . . and disposed of

“The World According to Doctrine” — They keep changing lenses

Tompkins County policies are all about following the money – and their policy making is all about finding a usable lens that excuses it.

The Town of Lansing’s AG Zoning District re-zones agricultural activities along the lake to Lakeshore residences: because those areas “are environmentally sensitive” and “potential problems related to steep slopes” [and because rich people want lakeshore houses] – but ignores mile after mile of equally steep slopes of unbuffered agricultural activity along nearby Salmon Creek: one of the major sources of agricultural pollution and impairment of the lake.

Preservation of agriculture is so important that the AG Zoning District radically changes the zoning and allowed activities of a 200 year old rural community: leaving poor non-farming landowners no choice; but to sell out to the rich farming interests – or go under through a regressive tax structure.

And behind it all is Cornell: making lenses for their friends.

Tompkins County: where the rich get richer – and the poor get stepped on — all according to plan.

“The World According to Doctrine” — Their policies just connect the dots

Policy making in Tompkins County is a purely mechanical process: every outcome is decided before the issue is revealed.

The round of comments, and meetings and surveys is only a meaningless backfill for an edifice whose foundations have already been laid.

The “meeting” for a radical zoning change for the rural Lansing community is called an “Open House” – a PR phrase for an exclusionary paradigm shift that denied that same rural community any participation in its planning.

When you connect all the dots — it’s a picture of money.