If a bedrock institution like the newspaper business falls onto unprecedented hard times, how can anyone suppose that higher education, or even the Colossus of our health care system, are immune?

CNY Speaks has an article today inviting the community to critique an action plan that touches on crime, economic development, the arts and (of course) parking. Also highlighted recently in the Post-Standard was the Sibylline TXT SYRACUSE project. This is a deal where you take your cell phone, go to various locations around the city, [...]

This post requires some background reading. Go read some recent posts on Sean Kirst’s blog about downtown (here and here), and all the comments. Then, when you are done with those, go to Syracuse B-4 and read her latest, and all the comments there. (Make a cup of coffee or pot of tea, because the [...]

Those outside of the Syracuse media market probably haven’t heard the talk of the town around here: a large group of bald eagles has returned to the area, and is overwintering at Onondaga Lake. You can read a column by the Post-Standard’s Sean Kirst, a blog post with many comments, another blog post with more [...]

I really only have one thought about Syracuse China closing (my grandfather worked there until the late ’60s): We’re running out of things to be taken away from us. Pretty soon we’re going to reach a point where there is nothing else they can close and no more jobs to take away. There’s a certain [...]

You hear a lot about the Dow these days. It’s the only barometer of economic health that most people know. But it’s really not a terribly great economic indicator — not only is it gamed by all sorts of interests, but it isn’t really a leading indicator. As a public service, I’m telling you about [...]

Over at Burgh Diaspora, Pittsburgh’s future is considered: The ability to keep foreign born skilled labor is tough to do. Immigration law often stands in the way of graduates remaining in Pittsburgh. A recent amendment provides the foreign born with another way to stay: Create more jobs in the entertainment industry. Other Pennsylvanian communities might [...]

Can someone please explain to me what this is supposed to do? Because I’ve read this story several times and can’t figure it out. An example of the types of collaboration COLA B hopes to work on just happened over the weekend, when it brought together students from 10 different majors to work with local [...]

The Post-Standard writes on the fate of the run-down Blodgett School on the West Side. My mom tells me that her aunt (who was only just a few years older than her) went to Blodgett School in the early ’50s or so, when it was even back then deemed a “scary old” school “full of [...]

Traditional Syracuse performance art: the sound of people talking past each other.