From GEO:
Cooperative organizing, development, and technical assistance services are needed in upstate New York. This void has been slowly—very slowly—shrinking for decades. It is hoped that the creation and evolution of the New York Cooperative Network between 2011 and now can speed up that shrinking dramatically and help usher in a new era of solidarity economy for this region.
Why has the upstate New York region lagged behind when at the same time momentum in New York City has seen great growth? Besides a general lack of readiness from the business and entrepreneurial culture of upstate (which could be described as conservative), geography and scale are likely star actors in this drama. One of which there is too much of (the challenges of organizing across the vast breadth of upstate), and one of which we have too little (small and independent cooperative developments have difficulty acquiring necessary funding without a larger scale movement and population density supporting them).
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