The latest census enumerations show that the city of Syracuse’s population has fallen to a new low of 139,000. This, as Phil points out, leaves Syracuse dangerously close to “small city” status in New York. As a suburbanite, I think of “Syracuse” as the entire metro area, however. No doubt the metro […]

It’s amazing stuff, $4 gas is. People are just busting out all over. They’re on the sidewalks, walking. They’re on their bikes, riding. They’re at the bus stops, waiting. They’re playing in their front yards. I have seen this with my own eyes — the stories are […]

So you think you’ve got it made with that gas-efficient Smart Car? Think again!

The Dow went down 350 points today. They’re callin’ it the worst June since the Depression!
Wal… shoot!

The finance blog Calculated Risk picks up on a Wall Street Journal story about how a “fast-growing” new retail chain’s explosive growth was apparently bankrolled by payments from malls. The chain, Steve and Barry’s, was being paid to fill up empty space in the malls by desperate mall owners facing excessive vacancies, and apparently […]

A further thought on this discussion, before leaving town for a few days… on the question of what a greener, less war-framed and more honest future could be like:
When I was a kid, some of us would sometimes amuse ourselves on the playground by shutting our eyes and trying to walk straight. As for […]

Poor William James Howard Kunstler. The way things are going, he’ll soon be out of business as America’s sole fiery Jeremiah of the peak oil apocalypse. This piece (hat tip to Sean) is a good read: Wake Up, America. We’re Driving Toward Disaster.
Kunstler stresses a need for honesty. Here are […]

Dan Gundersen fell on his sword for Gov. Paterson yesterday, as Buffalo banker (and former NYC deputy finance commissioner) Robert Wilmers was named the new “voluntary chair” (unpaid) of the Empire State Development Corp.
Gundersen, like Eliot Spitzer, was a political outsider (hailing from Pennsylvania). And because Spitzer also took the revolutionary (and correct) […]

Cookin’ in the ‘Cuse is celebrating a birthday. Happy bloggiversary to Syracuse’s leading food blog! Jennifer also posts about her busy schedule and quotes E.B. White:
If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the […]

WSYR reports on gas prices finally spiking to above $4 in some places around Syracuse. This was supposed to be the magical, mythical number that would cause Americans to abandon their cars along the side of the road en masse. Well, I saw a guy proudly driving his Hummer down on Erie Boulevard […]