COLUMN HERZIG STATE OF CITY 2020 Year Of Action Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from Oneonta Mayor Gary Herzig’s State of The City speech, delivered to Common Council Tuesday, Feb. 4, in City Hall. Hundreds of people gave of their time during the past three years, to help us map out a vision for the future – and we owe them our thanks. They worked to provide us with a new Comprehensive Plan, Artspace study (SUNY), Oneonta Theater study…
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Opinion - Page 179
LETTER from KEITH WILCOX Gunmen More Scary Than G-Men To the Editor: Rick Brockway states “every Democratic candidate…will take our guns away.” If he means the candidates advocate the confiscation of all guns owned by law-abiding citizens, he’s wrong. None of them takes that position. They are for stricter gun control, as well they ought to be. The guns, Mr. Brockway, I and other Upstate folks had growing up were nothing like what we’re faced with today. We’ve had, and…
COLUMN FOSSIL FUELS: Stanford Says, Recapture CO2 Editor’s Note: This is the first of occasional articles, from university public-relations departments, on research into burning fossil fuels more cleanly. Here, Stanford University tells how faculty there are targeting “super-emitters.” In the United States, most electricity from the grid comes from power plants that run on coal or natural gas. These plants generate 35 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. Climate scientists say we need to reduce global…
EDITORIAL Good News, Jobs Aplenty; Bad News, No Housing Anyone who’s paying attention around here has come to a double conclusion: ►One, pretty much every employer, big or small, has vacancies that can’t be filled. ►Two, if new employees are hired, they often can’t find a convenient, affordable place to live. No workers. No worker housing. A double bind. If misery loves company, then economic developer Jody Zakrevsky, CEO of Otsego Now, went to a jobs forum hosted by Congressman…
COLUMN WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER Acquittal Emboldens Trump, For Now No, Chicken Little, the sky is not falling. Donald J. Trump has dodged the impeachment bullet just as he dodged the Mueller Report. He may feel emboldened to continue to ask others to dig up on his opponents; to continue to look the other way as Russian trolls do dirty work for him; to continue to require Republican politicians to swear fealty and kiss his pinkie ring. He will…
EDITORIAL Are Fossil Fuels Part Of Climate-Change Answer Some of you may have heard our Adirondack neighbor Bill McKibben’s NPR interview a year or two ago. Unless all buildings in the U.S. are made energy-efficient by 2030, the war against Global Warming will be lost, he said. The interviewer asked, is that possible? No, said McKibben, who is among the nation’s foremost advocates of stemming greenhouse gases. In different words, McKibben is saying, we’re lost. • Too much of the…
VIEW FROM FLY CREEK Let Home Rule Guide Sanctuary Movement By ADRIAN KUZMINSKI • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com As Americans have become dissatisfied with various policies imposed by the federal government, they have sought ingenious new means of resisting them. One strategy, first developed by activists upset with federal immigration policy, was to establish “sanctuary” communities to protect undocumented immigrants, particularly from Central America, who were targeted by the federal government as illegal aliens to be deported. In 1985, San Francisco…
VIEW FROM WEST DAVENPORT How To Best Reduce CO2 – Trees Or Solar Panels? As I’m sure many of you did, I read with great interest about the proposal to build a 3,000 acre solar farm near West Laurens. It’s a great opportunity for the affected landowners – much like the Marcellus gas and the Constitution Pipeline would have been for many New York landowners. Why is the solar farm being greeted with enthusiasm while the potential to drill for…
FRONT PORCH PERSPECTIVE Seizing The Moment By JIM ATWELL • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com You know me. A synapse sparks inside my skull, and I’ve shot back 1,000 years to grab a good story. Sorry, but it’s an old habit. And after four-score years, I’m unlikely to break it. And, besides, in this instance, this one’s not a 1,000-year leap, but only 954. That takes us back to 1066 AD, a date that’s been stuck to the inside of your skull…
OTHER VOICES Downtown Business Improvement District Can Help City Thrive By DANNY LAPIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com “What does Downtown Oneonta need?” This is a question I’ve heard and asked nearly every day since I moved to the City of the Hills in mid-2015. Answers vary but they usually fall within three categories: more people, fewer storefront vacancies, and more stuff to do. In 2017, the City of Oneonta received a $10 million award through Governor Cuomo’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative.…
