At the beginning of this month the Nirvana Spring Water Bottling Company of Forestport announced that they were throwing in the corporate welfare towel after over a decade of sucking NY state grants and paying kickbacks to your “leaders”. It’s just the latest in a parade of Chapter 11 filings and withdrawals from CNY of businesses that were touted by political goons as “the next big thing” prior to their folding up or selling out and dashing with taxpayer cash.
It should be noted that Nirvana has spent a decade stuck on the NYS taxpayer’s teat leeching millions in return for political support and LLC kickbacks.
Ahh isn’t this just so “CNY economics”? My, where have we seen this played out before? It’s pretty much a “business plan” for that area.
A basic internet search indicates numerous articles detailing the welfare handouts to Nirvana and its owner Mohammed Rafizadeh, most recently in 2013 as they collected yet another $3.2 million from Tom Dinapoli.
“In August, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli visited the company’s headquarters to announce a $3.2 million loan made to Nirvana. The loan is from the New York Business Development Corp., which grants small business loans through a program funded by the New York State Common Retirement Fund.”
It should be noted that this company seemed to be a local media “darling”. One of many “bidnissez” in CNY that were highly touted ( usually by those who stand to benefit ) in the local substandard “media” you’re stuck with there. Many flowering, pollyannish Observer Dispatch and WKTV articles gushed about the “economic development” you and CNY would gain from supporting this company… a small fish in a big business pond. According to resident Observer Dispatch dingbat Elizabeth Cooper and a few others writing for CNY “media” this was newsworthy and positive.
In retrospect, now that they are folding up, it seems like the only people who really gained are the owners, the phony pollyannish “media” and the Usual Suspects… like corrupt ex-DA Michael Arcuri (who spent hundreds on bottled water!) and current Oneida County DA Scott McNamara, the fellow who still calls Mike his “mentor”! ( Much much more on this guy in the future… )
Scott and Mikey collected thousands ( that we know of! ) from these people in return for publicity, favors and more grants. Anyone remember this blast from the past during one of Scott’s election campaigns?
Scott even had Nirvana water re-branded and given away during past re-elections! Mmmm! Just the kind of crony-capitalists you want in public office! It’s another example of the political scum adopting some unrelated (except by common scammage) element and tying it to their own wagon in an effort to cycle and justify the product.
So now a decade and tens of millions of NY taxpayer welfare bucks later we learn what we’d always suspected and expected: The company was on shaky ground in a fast-moving industry and as usual, New York’s meddling in private business ventures have failed. Surprise! You’re in the hole for over $15 million for this sideshow! You know… $15 million that could stay in state coffers earning interest and preventing the next tax increase… they even spent $5 million of your money on building improvements alone. I wonder which local CNY “mover and shaker” will snap up the facility if Nestle doesn’t buy it to ship straight to Europe? What a deal. Despite the bankruptcy, I bet Mo Rafizadeh isn’t crying.
At least it was fun while it lasted for the CNY Usual Suspects… they got paid too!
All while these grants were being doled out to Nirvana, the local “media” was dancing, singing and doing their usual political analingus while asking few-to-NO follow up questions or for proof of potential. A particularly scurrilous example is the gullible and peculiar Elizabeth Cooper of the Utica Observer Dispatch: She’s notorious for asking zero follow-up questions and just regurgitating the party lines about how “wonderful” the jobs will be… how much the economy will benefit… yada yada yada.
I’m not going to bother to tally the many Nirvana articles in CNY media, it’s withering enough reading their ridiculously lies and gerb, dumbed-down for Utica goofbag consumption… I’m having a hard enough time counting the over 100 lie-laden “Nano Utica” articles for a future post here!
Typical to the OD, WKTV and to some extent WIBX… they don’t give actual interviews… most of CNY’s “reporters” give what we call “foot massages” and “manicures”. Look how they treat the highest paid NYS employee “Mr. Nano Rainmaker” (who really isn’t) SunyPoly’s Alain Keloyeros while he’s running from the truth about his nano billions and refusing legal FOIA requests other – more astute – media has lodged. Whereas other media is going up Ft. Schuyler Management’s ass, the local CNY media is still polishing his dick almost daily in the news – all for fear of never getting another “interview”. And since the local media doesn’t so any investigative or fact-finding work beyond repeating what the manipulators say, it;s that or “no news today”.
Liz is so notorious for drinking proffered Koolaide and acting smug and defensive about it, we are shocked she actually wrote a “follow up story” on the closing. As you see here, she ignored the true extent of her own vapid, salivating cheerleading and omitted several million dollars she herself wrote about going back to 2009 and earlier. While I’m not shocked she “overlooked” the extent of grants and loans, I am surprised she grew the balls to even broach the subject of the failure at all. With follow-up reportage and the OD‘s credibility being as poor and “In the Tank” as it is there in the worst media market in the US, this is actually a rare self-correction – if you can even call it that. How bad is it? Look at how the headline itself is editorialized: “Nirvana: A tale of success, and failure”. What the fuck is that?
Really you silly bitch? Only in CNY do they truly think a decade on corporate welfare is “success”! Just like their corporate-welfare funded, patronage-plagued “Utica Comets Hockey” is a “success”? Or perhaps it’s their way of justifying the unjustifiable: “Well, it worked for a while so we weren’t wrong!”
This kind of phony, pollyannish, Soccer-mom-friendly “reportage” is the legacy former publisher of the Observer Dispatch Donna Donovan’s three-headed-monster wrought, and despite the hire of Terry Cascioli as the new publisher at the OD… it’s obviously not going to change!
Doesn’t this disingenuous “local CNY media” game this sound familiar Nano-Watchers? ( Warning: Don’t open that link unless you’re comfortable with the mental picture of Liz Cooper stuck to her chair writing that ‘5000 JOBS! 45 BILLION WITH A CAPITAL B!!’ line!)
Yes I understand the Observer Dispatch is a washed up, dying, incredible newspaper with no staff and no motivation to do anything but parrot the local leadership’s crackpipe grant-addiction dreams… but you’d think they’d see the benefits of at least trying. Ok yeah, I expect too much. We’re talking “Utica people” here. They prefer to live lies and attack people pointing out their failures by simplistically calling them “Debbie Downers” and “Negative Naysayers” because that’s about the highest intellect most CNY folk can float when confronted with an uncomfortable truth. I actually question these people’s motivations (and so should you!) when I hear them blather these ostrich-like responses to valid critiques: Only people profiting from the degradation of CNY would want to keep promoting lies and attacking the people pointing out the rather obvious lies and pipedream claims.
When will you learn CNY?
BTW: Your Utica Corporate Welfare Comets lost their shot at the Calder Cup to the Manchester Monarchs. ( glorious ESPN link here ) Still think that’s some “economic engine” or do we have to roll out the studies that show it hardly does dick squat for “economic development” to subsidize team sports at the expense of taxpayers? More on them from a leaking insider with lots of good dirt about their patronage, family-hires and bullshit later! In due time kids!
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