The #1 e-mailed story in the NY Times right now is from the real estate section. It reports a drastic decline in the real estate market in upstate New York, from of the threat of chemical drilling for gas, known as fracking, in the region.
A guy in Hancock can't sell a 5-bedroom house on 14 acres for $107,000. A fellow from Brooklyn looking for a weekend house in the Catskills will only consider properties near reservoirs, where fracking is banned. A family in Delaware County is putting off repairs to their 240-year-old house because it seems a poor investment now.
Fracking might be a good thing for gas corporations whose stockholders don't live here, and for politicians they pay off. For residents, it is a ruinous prospect for our environment, infrastructure, and finances.
Stephen Burke
for Ithaca NY Blog
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