The subhead of an article on rich folks and tourist towns by Barbara Ehrenreich, is “In the era of the superrich, if a place is truly beautiful, ordinary people can’t afford to be there.” Possibly that’s the chicken-and-egg question — maybe Ehrenreich believes these places are “truly beautiful” because that’s where the rich people […]

In the comments of the previous post, Simon notes the big trucker rally in Albany today protesting Thruway tolls and gas prices (are they also protesting the Finger Lakes trash truck agreement?) Hate to say it, but I wonder if that honking sound you hear is the sound of dying dinosaurs. I was […]

CNY ecoBlog catches up with the state of the Great Lakes Water Compact, the nondiversion agreement that’s close to being “ratified” by eight states and Canada, and points out that there could be a stumbling block in Washington for U.S. assent to this pact, since the Great Lakes states are losing political power (along with […]

Up the Creek!, the blog project about Onondaga Creek, has made some self-guided walks available. You can download an MP3 file, put it into your player, and take a tour of the creek.
Sharon Wager, a Camillus real estate agent, has a blog. I’ve linked to it because she has some occasional personal observations […]

One of my favorite childhood books was Richard Adams’ Watership Down. His follow-up novel, Shardik, was very different (and less popular; I can’t remember if I finished it, to be honest). It was set in a fantasy world where the central figure of worship was a giant bear, whose mysterious appearance and journey […]

The ESDC has done a big re-launch of the famous I Love New York tourism brand. The new ads are going to be targeting Northeastern states, trying to get economically strapped vacationers to drive over the border and head Upstate instead of just down to NYC. Good timing for it, I suppose. […]

Or, to be more precise, park-ing: New York State Park camping reservations are up 16 percent. This mirrors a trend in other states. So this summer, the fens and spinneys of New York may very well be filled with folks trying to save a buck on vacations, blowing up their propane stoves and […]

It’s not just Choppergate.

Are the white deer at Seneca Army Depot fair game?

Time to hunker down for the winter and clean out my cache of photos from the year.