Given your background in finance, I am genuinely interested in your take on this region and how we could improve it.
The area is the Southern Tier of the state of New York. Specifically, Elmira NY, born and raised, but moved to NYC for several years for work and back. The Elmira/Corning area had a booming industrial economy before the effects of neoliberalism and offshoring.
Very few people in tech, but there are a handful remote workers in the area like myself. Typically, the area is more of a service and industrial economy with a small amount of tourism from the nearby Finger Lakes region. Nearby Corning Inc. is laying off thousands and talking about moving their headquarters down to NC, which would decimate the area even further.
There is talk about NYS and Chuck Schumer wanting to inject millions to make this area a lithium ion and fab production hub, but many locals are skeptical that will materialize. While near-shoring and re-shoring trends sound promising, many feel as if this area does not have the same geographical advantage it had during the gilded age and into the early-mid 20th century.