Oh, me.

With the national news media hinting at bankruptcy for Kodak, it's a somber time here. So I was hoping our full-speed-ahead governor would announce something big in his State of the State address last week. I was hoping he had exciting ideas for popping up the state's economy - maybe even something for us up here in the Forgotten City by the Lake.

But no. There wasn't much to shout about in the Cuomo vision for growing the economy. He wants to repair the state's infrastructure - replace the Tappan Zee Bridge, fix other some bridges, fix the roads.... All of these need to be done, but they're short-term job boosters. They'll provide construction jobs for awhile, but then they'll go away.

Nor is there a big pot of money sitting in Albany to pay for all this. The governor envisions public-private partnerships to fund the projects. Money from union pension funds, for example, would help pay for the Tappan Zee project. According to Gannett reporter Joe Spector, a Cuomo official says that in the partnerships, "investors would gain equity in a state asset, but not ownership."

So... what? Union names and corporate logos will start adorning highways and bridges and parks around the state?

Cuomo did offer ideas for longer-lasting job growth, but here, too, I'm holding my head in pain. He wants to build a new convention center in Queens. He promises that it'll be the biggest convention center in the nation.

Coincidentally, just a few days before Cuomo gave his speech, the Wall Street Journal published a fascinating op-ed piece headlined "Have We Got a Convention Center to Sell You!" (You have to subscribe to the Journal to read the article, but you can read a similar version on the City Journal quarterly's website.)

The gist of the article: This is risky business indeed.

There's an enormous glut of convention centers in the US, dating back to before the recession, said the Journal piece. And it keeps getting worse. While the number of convention-goers has dropped precipitously, cities have been expanding their convention centers and building new ones.

Chicago enlarged its McCormick Center - which is now operating at 55 percent capacity. The State of Massachusetts funded a new center in Boston that opened in 2004, with officials promising a healthy increase in the number of visitors and a big increase in hotel occupancy. Neither happened, so now the state wants to double the size of the center.

"The whole thing is a racket": That's the Journal article's quote from Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby.

And it made me a little twitchy to read in a Times article last week that the big convention center in Queens will be "a joint venture with a subsidiary of the gambling company Genting Group."

Casinos themselves are another of Cuomo's proposed jobs boosters. He wants gambling allowed at locations other than Indian reservations. Yes, casinos could create new jobs (which Cuomo says will pay well). But casino complexes often include restaurants and hotel rooms, which compete with nearby restaurants and hotels. Job losses at the older businesses can offset the new ones at the casinos.

It's just discouraging. And maybe I'm naïve, but when I think about improving the state's economy - really improving the economy - I don't think about opening casinos and building a big convention center. (I don't think about repairing roads and bridges, either. That's simple household maintenance.)

When I think about improving the state's economy - really improving the economy - I think about medical research, high-tech businesses, science, manufacturing. If we really want to boost the economy of New York State, we ought to be investing in education, in research and development.

To be fair, Cuomo didn't completely ignore those things in State of the State. He promised a second round of regional economic development awards, some of which, presumably, will go to projects with long-term potential.

But Cuomo's own vision is of casinos and the biggest convention center in the nation. And that's a small vision indeed.