Economic Hope in the Hudson Region is Spelled AMD

Although the cities of Troy, Albany and Schenectady are not what they once were there is still hope for economic revival in the Hudson Valley. Former Governor George Pataki had a vision of the Hudson region as “America's next Silicon Valley” and he backed up his words with his actions by offering enormous incentives to AMD, a microchip processing company and Intel’s biggest rival, to locate their new plant in the Hudson area, just north of Albany. The former Governor's ploy worked and New York was selected over Germany and points in Eastern Asia as the location for the new plant. The plant is expected to create upwards of 5,000 new jobs both within the company and outside it as a support structure as well as another 2,000 construction jobs that should last atleast two years.

New York’s New Governor, Elliot Spitzer, has a similar vision of the Hudson. The new Governor ran a campaign with the economic revitalization of the upstate area as one of his centerpieces.

The beauty of software companies such as AMD is their relatively high positive impact on the economy and their relatively low negative impact on the environment. With all the environmental and economic problems the Hudson region has faced, companies like AMD are vital to its resurgence.

Information from the two articles listed below was used in this post:

"AMD Chooses Upstate N.Y. for Chip Plant." Associated Press 23 June 2006.
Hakim, Danny. "Spitzer Picks Pennsylvanian to Spur Upstate Economy." New York Times 23 Jan. 2007.