More than just a major piece of infrastructure, I-81’s community grid reflects where Central New York is headed. [That is] a future where economic and community development decisions benefit groups that have historically been overlooked or left behind. 

Our community is proudly on a new trajectory, one of growth and evolution, thanks to investments like Micron. We can no longer allow Central New York to be mired in old ways of thinking and problem-solving. A status-quo mentality represents a shortsighted vision and will only stand in the way of truly realizing this opportunity to drive new investment and progress. We must move forward, learning from our history, to create a new economy that serves the interests of all Central New York residents and businesses.

Many business leaders and people of this region rallied around the selection of the community grid as the best plan to replace the aging viaduct, and CenterState CEO has long advocated for additional improvements that strive for the best outcomes for our entire community. Thirteen years of planning and community engagement cannot be undone. The laborious and meticulously thorough process led by the New York State Department of Transportation, which included data-backed decision making and the voice of thousands of citizen and stakeholder comments, cannot be discredited. 

Yet, [this fall], longtime opponents of the project brought forward a lawsuit to challenge the approvals of the I-81 reconstruction project. A judge [on Nov. 10] issued a temporary restraining order creating a new delay for the future of the highway. This new, frivolous lawsuit represents nothing more than a transparent attempt to further stall what has already been resoundingly decided by the majority of this community. The plaintiffs put parochial self-interests above maximizing regional benefit and hold Central New York back from reaching the full potential of this opportunity. Neither data, environmental progress and protection, nor fiscal responsibility align with this effort to delay. At the very least, additional delay adds hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of construction, wasting tax-payer dollars on a project that needed to be completed several years ago.

Together, we have done the hard work and now it is time to move toward a more prosperous and equitable future. We deserve nothing short of the transformative impacts that are supported by the community grid. I call on all those who seek to delay and prevent this community from moving forward to work with the stakeholders and leaders of this community to advance the community grid and help position Central New York for the bright future that is before us.        

Robert M. Simpson is president and CEO of CenterState CEO, the primary economic-development and chamber of commerce organization for Central New York. This article is drawn and edited from the “CEO Focus” email newsletter that the organization sent to members on Nov. 17.

If you followed this year’s [mid-term] elections, at some point the question probably occurred to you: Why do people do this? You see the endless campaign events, the constant scrutiny — and increasingly, the real and alarming threat of political violence. What drives someone to put up with it all?

I suspect that if you asked a roomful of politicians, you’d get a roomful of answers. For many people, there is no single motivation, and in all my years of talking to other politicians, I have never found one reason that predominates.

But I have found some common threads. For one thing, it’s hard to find a more-challenging job. The range and complexity of the problems that an elected official faces are astounding; I’ve never met a politician with a short to-do list. Politics is as intellectually challenging as any occupation I can imagine, and when you succeed at somehow changing your community or state or country for the better, it’s also as satisfying. One thing I can certainly say: I have encountered plenty of accomplished people in other professions who’ve told me that, after a certain point in their careers, they got a bit bored. Not once have I heard a politician say that he or she was bored. Stretched for time, certainly. Frustrated, often. But bored? Never.

I suspect part of the reason is that few other professions put you in touch with as many people of different viewpoints, lifestyles, backgrounds, and convictions. If you’re really serious as a politician in the U.S., you engage with conservatives, progressives, voters of every station in life, people of deep faith, people of no faith, and every possible ethnic identity. It’s one of the great attractions of the job: the chance to meet an unforgettable array of citizens.

In recent years, it has sometimes seemed to me that more people each election are getting involved because they are angry. They’re motivated by something the Supreme Court did, or they believe the people in power are taking their towns, states, or the nation in the wrong direction. But then I remember that negative feelings have always been a strong motivator — after all, we have a United States because people rose up against policies imposed on them by the king and British politicians. Over my time watching politics, I’ve met plenty of people who were motivated to get involved because something happened at some level of government that angered them. 

At the same time, though, I have also met plenty of people who were motivated by idealism. I was one of them: I first ran for office because I wanted to contribute to my country. It was nothing fancier than that. That is still true of many politicians.

Though as anyone who has run for office knows, it’s a bit more complicated than that. For one thing, it takes money. It’s not like you’re handed a check by the government to run for elective office. It’s been many decades since this happened, but I still remember that, when I decided to run for Congress in the early 1960s, I went to visit a community leader in a part of southern Indiana. At the end, he wished me luck and gave me a check for $100. It was a splendid moment. I later told him how crucial that had been — giving someone who had nothing to spend on a campaign some funds. His act of generosity gave me hope that I might be able to pull it off.

Then, too, I think many people who run for office — and certainly those who get elected — are driven by a search for power. From afar, you can see what holding elected office allows: the chance to change things. But once you’re in office, you come to recognize that progress is measured in inches: You might be able to get a new bridge or library built, but just as often, obstacles stand in the way that make it impossible. 

Yet somehow, people keep running. In the end, I think it’s because they understand a simple thing — there is no United States without democracy, no democracy without politics, and no politics without people willing to become politicians.           

Lee Hamilton, 91, is a senior advisor for the Indiana University (IU) Center on Representative Government, distinguished scholar at the IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hamilton, a Democrat, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years (1965-1999), representing a district in south-central Indiana.