The new year means new starts, new hopes, new ideas and—for some—a new hangover. Welcome to the first day of 2010. Drink in one man’s wish list for the next 12 months:

A job-generating industry— Hey, if you cannot wish big, why bother? I have lived here nearly 30 years and I— we—still await an economic engine half as powerful as the steel mills and full-throttle auto plants that once fueled Buffalo’s growth and polluted its skies.

There is plenty of promise and pretenders. Bioinformatics remains more about potential than payoff. SUNY Buffalo is slowly branching into downtown. We have the iconic buildings and museums to tap into the cultural tourism industry— but it is an economic accessory, not an engine. We seem ideally suited— on a nexus of rail, road and waterways— to jump on the growing industry of windmill manufacturing. That notion only recently dawned on our business marketing officials and seems beyond the grasp of state development types.

Until we find job-growing industries, the landscape will not change. God, are you listening?

Less government— Our clutter of boundaries inflates the number of local politicians, jacks up the cost of delivering services and reinforces the small-picture thinking that keeps us battling among ourselves instead of fighting together for our share of the global economy. Any elected official who claims he is indispensable should be sent to Charlotte to report back on how its regional government manages with one-fifth as many politicians as less-prosperous Greater Buffalo. Now that would be a public service.

Regional sanity— Little makes less sense to me than the stretch of small manufacturers lining Walden Avenue far outside of the city. The outer-suburbs location separates the army of inner-city poor from decent-paying, lower-skilled jobs. It encourages sprawl and undercuts public transportation. It ignores the existing network of roads, rail, sewer and water lines in the city. While hardly the only example, it stands as Exhibit A of the painful consequence of our lack of regional planning. More than 10 years after national experts at the Chautauqua Regionalism Conference laid this all out, we still hardly have a clue.

Erie Canal Harbor— State officials have for years been dragged kicking and screaming into maximizing the site’s historic potential. A recent promise to add signage that acknowledges—hello?— that the nation-building canal officially opened here is heartening. But a road trip to Toronto’s Distillery District and Baltimore’s Fell’s Point is recommended for harbor board members seeking models for our coming cobblestone streets and canal-era-type buildings. If it has the phony feel of Ye Olde Canal Village, we might as well wave the white flag.

Makeover model— We saw recentlyhow— inspired by a reality TV show —a horde of volunteers, activists, donors, contractors and developers trans-formed a West Side neighborhood. The challenge is to take the mold and replicate the model across the city. If egos do not intrude, and City Hall is an aid instead of an obstacle, it could happen.

A playoff football team— Is it too much to ask? I know that we suffer mightily from the bad-image, small-city affliction of putting too much civic stock in our NFL team. But in a revenue-sharing, salary-capped league, there is no reason— other than inept management— not to occasionally field a winner. As a parting gesture to long-suffering fans in his deep-golden years, the perplexingly revered “Mr. Wilson” should hire some competent help. The Bills should serve as an escape from the reality of our economic woe, not an emotional trap door.