Byzantium's Shores: chronicling the misadventures of an overalls-clad hippie

In news from the old stomping grounds, the big DestiNY USA project ran into a big roadblock this week, as the New York State Legislature failed to pass a bill that would have given DestiNY the tax breaks that it says were necessary to get construction funded. Now, the DestiNY people are looking over their options, including packing up shop and going someplace else. Like, say, Massachusetts or Pennsylvania.

I liked the idea of DestiNY. I like gigantic shopping malls, believe it or not. And I suspect that there really is no long-term hope for the Syracuse economy outside of finding some way to encourage tourism there -- the town's manufacturing base just isn't coming back, high tech isn't big there, et cetera. But there's something "fuzzy" about DestiNY, with its constantly-shifting plans and size. The project never seemed to come into focus, and no one could ever really say, "This is what it will look like" -- instead, there was a constant stream of "Here's what we want to build" and "We'd like to have this" and "Wouldn't this be neat" statements.

I don't know if DestiNY is dead or just slightly wounded. But they need to make a decision, soon.