TompkinsWeekly: May 2015

Sunday, May 31, 2015

TompkinsWeekly for the week of June 1st

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Alternative Zoning Examined
A dialogue designed to support alternative land use regulations proposed by local governments will be offered by the Form Ithaca zoning reform initiative, which will bring to Ithaca this week leading urban designers, traffic engineers and development experts to collaborate with citizens, officials, local planners and design professionals in a four-day intensive work session exploring how to implement forward-thinking planning ideas of the City and Town of Ithaca.

Promoting Israeli-Palestinian Peace
In an effort to promote nonviolent social change, Ali Abu Awwad, a leading Palestinian activist, and Hanan Schlesinger, an Israeli Orthodox rabbi, have launched a joint grassroots initiative named Roots/Judur/ Shorashim. Their current tour brings them to Ithaca on Wednesday, June 3, at The Space @ GreenStar, with dinner and text study at 5:30 p.m. and the main event at 7 p.m.

Cyclists help promote heart health page 2
A group of some 150 cyclists will come together on Saturday, June 13, to raise awareness of a health hazard that nearly killed King Ferry Winery Peter Saltonstall two years ago and remains the number-one killer in America: heart disease.

New cider house opens its doors page 3
The Finger Lakes Cider House celebrated its grand opening on May 25 in conjunction with the fourth annual Asaparaganza festival at Good Life Farm in Interlaken.

Children’s book is a tribute to noted artist page 5
You can’t live in Ithaca without hearing the name Louis Agassiz Fuertes at least once in your life. Especially if you visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where there is an auditorium bearing his name.

Coworking gains a foothold in Ithaca page 8
“What do you do?” We answer this familiar question with our occupation, rather than our hobbies or lifestyle—and for good reason. Americans spend roughly half of our waking life at work. It’s a big part of who we are, and it affects our quality of life.

Comicbook heroes on the big screen page 9
And from the opening frames it acts like one, with a kinetic, even frantic opening attack on the Sokovian lair of Baron Wolfgang von Strucker (Thomas Krestschmann, who even wears the requisite monocle) to retrieve Thor’s scepter. In quick beats, each superhero comes into view, then a money-shot of the whole team as it clicks into place. As the Avengers coordinate their attack they suffer the one-two punches of genetically modified twins Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) aka Quicksilver, a Flash-type, and his spookier sister Wanda/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), a mind-bender and telekinetic. Scarlet Witch gets into most of the Avengers’ minds, sending them deep into illusions built on their personal fears.

Sunday, May 24, 2015

TompkinsWeekly for the week of May 25th

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Final Fracking Review Released
It took seven years, numerous meetings, formal hearings and a couple drafts, but on May 13 the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) released its final SGEIS. Weighing in at 2,000 pages (about 20 pounds), this report lays the groundwork for what many believe will be a statewide ban on fracking.

County Mulls Health Care Measure
Asked to reaffirm its earlier actions in 2006 and 2009, the Tompkins County Legislature on May 19 rejected a resolution advocating continued support for a single-payer approach to health care coverage in New York State.

Walking map is a guide to better health page 2
Alternative transportation options are on the rise around Ithaca, with the Cayuga Waterfront Trail, Safe Routes to School and the Cayuga Street Bike Route receiving attention. The newest option to come to fruition is the Ithaca Neighborhood Walking Map, produced by the Human Services Coalition (HSC) of Tompkins County with funding provided by the New York State Department of Health’s Creating Healthy Places to Live, Work and Play grant.

Ithaca Festival celebrates togetherness page 3
Summer officially arrives in Ithaca this week—never mind the June solstice—when the Ithaca Festival returns, from Thursday through Sunday, featuring plenty of homegrown talent, food and libations, and an opporunity to celebrate many of the reasons we call this place home.

Large-scale solar farms dot the landscape page 5
Solar energy operations are cropping up throughout the area, resulting in significant reductions in our collective carbon footprint and introducing cutting-edge technology that holds promise for the future.

Creative problem-solving at IHS page 8
Students in Ithaca High School Art Teacher Jackie Richardson’s sculpture class were recently tasked with solving a problem—gravity— with art. Given limited supplies of only tape, newspaper and wire; they were encouraged to create a standing four-foot structure.

A woman haunted by her past page 9
Next week we shall plunge into the popcorn pulp of summer, but I’d like to pause for one last refreshing dip into the quieter pools of spring’s indies.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

TompkinsWeekly for the week of May 18th

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School Budget on District Ballot
On Tuesday the proposed 2015-16 Trumansburg Central School District Budget will be put to a vote. District residents will cast their ballots on a $26,016,051 budget and three additional propositions.

Lifton Backs Education Reform Bill
The last few months in Upstate New York have seen turmoil in communities uniting in defense of public education. In the aftermath of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget proposal, Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton is championing legislation that she has signed onto that proposes several alterations to laws pertaining to teacher and student evaluations.

School budget and board members are on the Dryden ballot page 2
The Dryden School District is proposing a 2015-16 budget totaling $37,979,493 with a levy increase of 2.23 percent, which is slightly below the tax levy cap. This budget contains $1 million in restored Gap Elimination Adjustment funds, which have been withheld from the district since 2009.

Concerted effort is required to fight Lyme Disease page 3
More than 400 people attended the Lyme Disease Conference at Binghamton University on May 9, hosted by the Southern Tier Lyme Support Group. Attendees were able to visit vendor tables and hear lectures on the latest research, testing and treatment for this rapidly expanding tick-borne illness.

Honor Flight is a tribute to veterans page 5
Twin Tiers Honor Flight Inc. honors America’s veterans for their contributions and sacrifices by transporting veterans (male and female) to Washington, D.C. to visit, and reflect at, their respective memorials. Nancy Kane, cofounder of the regional chapter, says that she decided to become involved with the non-profit organization Honor Flight Network because her family has a history of service to their country. “I discovered that there weren’t any flights in our area. Our veterans had to go to Rochester or Pennsylvania,” she explains.

Ithaca Shakespeare Company sets summer schedule page 8
In July, the Ithaca Shakespeare Company (ISC) will present the most popular of Shakespeare’s plays in his own time alongside his most popular play today.

Star-crossed lovers in a dangerous affair page 9
“Félix and Meira” is a romance happily shorn of the typical Hollywood trappings. Rich in detail of place, culture and the day-to-day of its characters, it also is delicately understated in the unwinding of its plot. The film recently opened at Cinemapolis after triumphal screenings at the Toronto Interna-tional Film Festival and several other sites.

PEAKS program establishes crowdsourcing platform page 10
PEAKS, a program of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County (CCET), is the region’s original crowdfunding and event registration platform, helping local non-profit agencies raise money through online giving. In the past three years, PEAKS has helped more than 60 area organizations raise over $400,000 of funding for a variety of programming including financial literacy, free and low-cost health care, youth educational opportunities and community development.

Sunday, May 10, 2015

TompkinsWeekly for the week of May 11th

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City Parcel Eyed for Park Land
Taxes on a single family home and adjacent property that abut Fall Creek across from the Ithaca Falls Recreation Area have not been paid for over two years, for which the property could go to auction should the City of Ithaca decide to sell it. Seeing this situation as a rare opportunity to expand the city’s park lands, the Natural Areas Commission (NAC) is encouraging the city to consider its options.

Voters to Decide ICSD Budget
A $115 million spending plan is on the ballot for voters in the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) who will go to the polls on Tuesday, May 18 from noon to 9 p.m. The 2015-16 school budget represents a 1 percent increase from this year’s total, with a tax levy increase of 2.99 percent.

Seneca Lake protesters’ case dismissals now in doubt page 2
Protesters charged with trespass and disorderly conduct for participating in a civil disobedience blockade to stop Houston-based Crestwood Midstream Partners’ planned methane expansion storage facility under Seneca Lake thought their cases would be dismissed on April 30, based on a settlement their lawyers had reached with prosecutors.

Technology plays pivotal role with KDT page 3
Kids Discover the Trail! Ithaca (KDT) is a unique program that brings all pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade children in the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) on educational field trips to one of the eight Discovery Trail sites each school year. Teachers regularly use technology tools to extend KDT’s place-based learning in powerful ways.

Financial goal set by county legislature page 5
As the first step in the process of developing the 2016 Tompkins County budget, the county legislature on May 5 approved a financial goal that directs the County Administrator Joe Mareane to prepare a recommended operating and capital budget that can be supported with a tax levy increase of 1.3 percent.

Delving into love/hate relationships page 8
“Swimming in the Shallows” by Adam Bock, directed by Rachel Lampert, Kitchen Theatre, through May 17; 272-0403, www.kitchentheatre. org. “Swimming in the Shallows” opens with two women, Barb (Karina Arroyave) and Carla Carla (Lesley Gurule), discussing the value of material possessions. Barb has recently discovered that Buddhist monks only keep eight things in their lives, and it’s clearly a struggle for her to envision how one could live so simply. Nevertheless, the idea of having fewer material possessions holds a strong appeal for her.

Festival connects readers with writers page 9
The sixth annual Spring Writes Literary Arts Festival closed on an appropriate note, with readings held in the swanky Argos Inn’s outdoor porch. Tall windows were in an upright and locked position to muffle East Hill traffic and to keep any “birds thou never wert” from taking wing.

Signs of Sustainability poll award winners are announced page 10
According to a recent poll, Ithaca’s most popular “power couple”— renewable power, that is—is Melissa Kemp and Brice Smith.

Sunday, May 3, 2015

TompkinsWeekly for the week of May 4th

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Mayor, Chief Extend Outreach
Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray. These are now familiar names to most people, and all of them were black men who died from police actions within the past year. Fires burned throughout Baltimore last week, the result of intense anger following Freddie Gray’s death in police custody.

Old Library Site Plans Studied
The special legislative committee charged with recommending a preferred developer for the Old Tompkins County Library has taken the next step in the review process, scheduling presentations from three prospective developers who responded to the County’s Request for Proposals.

High school robotics team finds success page 2
The Trumansburg Robot Raiders just returned from the FIRST World Robot Championship in St Louis, where they competed against 600 of the best teams from around the world.

IC students put their game faces on page 3
Students on Ithaca College campus, mentored by Television/Radio professor Peter Johanns of the Park School, are currently in the process of creating a TV game show called “Assemble THIS,” funded by a highly successful IndieGOGO campaign.

United Way tops campaign objective page 5
United Way of Tompkins County (UWTC) has announced that it has exceeded its 2014-15 Community Campaign Goal of $2,150,000 with donations to date totaling $2,155,335. It is the 11th consecutive year UWTC has exceeded its annual goal. These funds, raised throughout the community, will strengthen education, income, and health programs throughout Tompkins County.

Kitchen Theatre marks milestone page 8
What is a quarter-century? In theater- time, it might be an almost geologic span. The oldest continuous regional theatre in the U.S., the Cleveland Playhouse, is poised to celebrate its 100th birthday. The Alley and Arena Stage, grandmothers of the regionalization of American theate,r are in their early 60s, while the Guthrie just recently turned the page on 50.

Museum adds massive dinosaur mural page 9
Local artist Mary Beth Ihnken is painting a large mural inside the Museum of the Earth as part of the redesigned “Dino Lab” exhibit. The mural will be an extensive wall-towall Late Jurassic Landscape realistically portrayed with vibrancy and color.

The many regenerative benefits of reuse page 10
All of the problems in today’s world can seem overwhelming. The good news is that major challenges are being recognized and worked on, often with positive results. Reducing wasteful practices, and investing time and energy in systems that are “regenerative” are two of the most important and accessible ways positive change can occur.

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