The undersigned Tompkins County social justice and renewable energy leaders are concerned to learn of Dr. Luis Aguirre-Torres’ resignation from his position as the Director of Sustainability for the City of Ithaca. We are writing to express our gratitude for his leadership and accomplishments and to implore the City to redouble their support for the Ithaca Green New Deal (IGND) and its ambitiousbut essential - timeline.
Passed unanimously by the City’s Common Council in 2019 with a vision toward making Ithaca “the most climate forward city in New York State”, the Ithaca Green New Deal (IGND) aims to achieve community-wide carbon neutrality by 2030, while reducing historical social and economic inequities. Overall, the IGND will benefit the health and welfare of residents while creating well-paying green jobs, improving the building stock, and supporting the local economy.
The City could not have found a better match for its ambitious goals than Dr. Aguirre-Torres. According to the City’s press release, Aguirre-Torres had more than 15 years of domestic and international experience working with government, non-profit and business sectors in green technology, policy development and implementation, emissions reduction, green entrepreneurship, and related issues.
Aguirre-Torres wasted no time in setting Ithaca on the path toward decarbonization of the building, transportation, waste and power sectors. Together with Sustainability Planner Rebecca Evans, over the past 18 months they have conducted a comprehensive inventory of Ithaca’s building stock, transportation use, and greenhouse gas emissions, and from that developed a detailed 5-year climate action plan to guide the City toward its decarbonization goals. In collaboration with existing community partners, they initiated a regional green jobs program to train and employ disadvantaged workers and youth in the green economy. And they have outlined a Justice 50 vision that commits at least 50% of the economic, social, and environmental benefits from the IGND to
Emily Adams, NYS Democratic Committee* member, 2nd vice chair Tompkins County Democratic Committee*, chair Tompkins County Progressives*
Theresa Alt, Member, Ithaca Democratic Socialists of America*
Sharon Anderson, retired Environment Issue Leader, Cooperative Extension*
Peter Bardaglio, Coordinator, Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative
Anna Sims Bartel, Ithaca resident
Karim Beers
Laura Branca, Building Bridges Tompkins
Sarah K. Chalmers, Visiting Lecturer, Grand Challenges, Cornell Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management*
Carol Chock, retired County Legislator, City of Ithaca District Three
Diane Cohen, Executive Director, Finger Lakes ReUse*
Sara Culotta, Member, Green Jobs Corridor Advisory Committee
Cait Darfler, Vice Chair, Tompkins County Environmental Management Council*
Stacey Dimas, 1st Vice Chair, Tompkins County Democratic Committee*
Brian Eden, former Board Chair, HeatSmart Tompkins
Jeff Furman, President, Social Ventures
John Graves, Ithaca Community Power
Katie Hallas, Community Food System Planner, Tompkins Food Future*
Charleen Heidt, Co-founder and Principal Consultant, Charged!
Sara Hess, Facilitator, Campaign for Renewable Energy
Thomas Hirasuna, Co-Chair, Climate Reality Finger Lakes Greater Region NY Chapter*
Susan Holland, Historic Ithaca*
Robert Howarth, Professor, Cornell University, and Member, NYS Climate Action Council*
Paula Ioanide, Principal Researcher & CEO, Rise to Equity Excellence, LLC
Lynne Jackier, United Against Hate
Laurie Konwinski, Catholic Charities Tompkins/Tioga*
Jose Lozano, Director, Ithaca Community Power
Jennifer Lyons, Chair, City of Ithaca 5th Ward Democratic Committee*
Lisa Marshall, Program Director, HeatSmart Tompkins
Ithaca’s disadvantaged communities that are disproportionately affected by climate change.
In addition, drawing on his expertise in energy finance, Aguirre-Torres attracted $100 million in private financing, as well as financial support from the US Department of Energy and New York State’s Energy Research and Development Authority to help the City realize the goals of the IGND. We expect the plans they’ve developed position Ithaca well to receive support through the federal Inflation Reduction Act.
While Aguirre-Torres’ expertise and accomplishments have earned international recognition and broad-based community support, his remarks upon resigning lead us to question whether he has found similar support within the City’s leadership and administration. For example, prior news articles have pointed to an 8-month delay from when Common Council authorized a contract with BlocPower to manage electrification of Ithaca’s buildings to when the City finally executed it. In June of this year, climate activists and other community groups held a rally urging the City to act more swiftly on climate goals.
The 2019 resolution authorizing the IGND recognized that "to be successfully implemented, the Ithaca Green New Deal must have the support of the City of Ithaca at all levels of government.” We are pleased to see Mayor Lewis’ statement that she is “deeply committed to fulfilling the goals of the Ithaca Green New Deal” and we agree with her well-placed confidence in Sustainability Planner Evans to deliver on them.
After resigning, Aguirre-Torres tweeted “The commitment needed to achieve Net Zero extends to BOTH the community and city leadership, especially when it comes to social justice issues.” The undersigned community leaders emphasize the urgency of addressing these issues, and pledge to do our part to keep the momentum going to realize the IGND’s inextricably linked goals of decarbonization and social justice. We urge the City to do their part as well.
Signed,
Gen Meredith, Professor of Practice, Cornell Department of Public and Ecosystem Health*
Guillermo Metz, Community Member
Hallie E. Mitnick, Esq., Vice-Chair, Second Ward Democratic Committee*
Dawn Montanye, Community Member
Taili Mugambee Program Director, Ultimate Reentry Opportunity
Gay Nicholson, President, Sustainable Finger Lakes
Tina Nilsen-Hodges, Principal and Superintendent, New Roots Charter School*
Christa Nunez, Farmer and Executive Director, Khuba International, CAN Cooperative Media, and The Learning Farm
Pete Nunez, Farmer Educator, The Learning Farm
Sheila Out, Organizing Member, Mothers Out Front Tompkins
Holly Payne
Miranda Phillips, Co-leader, Southern Tier & Finger Lakes Chapter Citizens’ Climate Lobby
Raquel Pinderhughes, Executive Director, Roots of Success
Anne Rhodes, White Allies Against Structural Racism
Martha Robertson, former Tompkins County Legislature Chair
Todd Saddler, Extinction Rebellion Ithaca*, Ithaca Catholic Worker*
Elan Shapiro, TC Showing Up for Racial Justice*
Linda Shi, Cornell Department of City and Regional Planning*
Diane Stefani, Co-Chair, Climate Reality Finger Lakes Greater Region NY Chapter*
Regi Teasley, Chair, Tompkins County Environmental Management Council*
Jamie Vanucchi, Cornell Landscape Architecture*
Irene Weiser, Coordinator, Fossil Free Tompkins
Anke Wessels, Center for Transformative Action*
David West, Planner, Town of Danby*
Charley Willison, Assistant Professor, Cornell Department of Public and Ecosystem Health*
*for identification purposes only; does not indicate institutional support
Three out of four progressive-backed candidates won positions on the Ithaca City Board of Education following the election asco that took place on May 17. A er the certi cation of the contentious election, two new members lled the positions formerly held by long-time board president Rob Ainslie and Kelly Evens.
Ainslie and Evens were replaced by Karen Yearwood and Jill Tripp. Incumbents Erin Croyle, Eldred Harris and Moira Lang all retained their positions as members of the Board of Education. In addition, over the summer Nicole LaFave resigned from her position on the Board — creating a vacancy that has yet to be lled.
Currently, it looks like the board is choosing to keep the position vacant because the alternatives of appointing someone or holding a special election to ll the position aren’t worth the trouble associated with them. For example, some board members said they felt uncomfortable with the prospect of appointing a replacement given the “messiness” of the last election, and holding a special election would cost the district somewhere between $60,000 to $80,000.
Despite the transformational election one of the biggest issues for the board has continued to be communication and transparency. For example, parents in the district have recently complained about a lack of communication around bus schedules, and district retirees have complained about changes made to their healthcare without their approval.
Karen Yearwood is an involved Ithaca parent with years of service as a PTO member and parent advocate. She is also involved in the community through
participating in the Equity and Inclusion Leadership Council, Cornell Cooperative Extension and e Village at Ithaca. In addition, Yearwood has also served as the co-lead to the City of Ithaca’s reimagining public safety process, which has been the subject of ethics investigations by the county.
e Times reached out to Yearwood multiple times for comment but never received a response.
Jill Tripp is a retired school psychologist who says that she has experience at every level of the district and is also the parent of an Ithaca graduate. Tripp recently told e Times, “I have wanted to be on the school board since my high school years in Conklin, NY. My thirty plus years as a school psychologist in Ithaca have given me a unique perspective on our schools.” She continued saying, “Watching my son go through the school district brought another perspective, and three years a er retirement I am ready to share my experience and energy.”
Yearwood and Tripp got elected on student-centered platforms that also focused on the workers in the district who o en feel overlooked by the Board of Education. Additionally, Erin Croyle — who was elected to the board as a write-in candidate in 2019 — was re-elected to continue her e orts at improving how the board communicates with the public about the district’s policies.
District Administration O cer Daniel Breiman responded to the complaints about the lack of communication about bussing saying that it’s a result of the district adding seven bus routes that will help improve ride times. As a result of these additional routes, the district will see 400 more students riding the bus this year. In response, the district has hired 12 new bus drivers — and 11 more are in training.
The Ithaca Times made multiple changes to an October 11 article titled “Housing Fund Key To Creation Of A ordable Units.”
regarding the county’s Community Housing Development Fund (CHDF) were made. These errors were pointed out by Heather McDaniel, president of Tompkins County Area Development.
the article con ated a housing policy by the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) with the CHDF. The article attributed a new housing policy by the IDA to a new policy by the CHDF, which is incorrect. The new housing policy came into e ect in
Newly-elected Karen Yearwood was looking to effect change on the Ithaca City Board of Election.
So far, that change is not yet apparent.
e district has apologized for the lack of communication about bussing and has announced that it expects bussing delays “to begin to ease over the next two weeks.” In the meantime, the district will be working on improving communication on transportation updates.
e President of the Board of Directors for the Village of Ithaca, Karl Madeo, addressed the Board of Education about the issues retirees have been facing as a result of changes the district made to their health insurance in 2017 and 2021. Madio was representing a group called watchdogs for health insurance in retirement (WHIR).
Madeo told the Board that “the longtime ICSD bene t of being able to remain on the health care plan changed in 2017 when the district decided to move Medicare retirees to a Hartford Medicare supplemental plan.”
en e ective January 1 2021, the district made an even more dramatic change to Medicare retiree health coverage by moving all retirees involuntarily o their original Medicare and onto a private Aetna Medicare Advantage plan. Madeo says that retirees did not ask to be removed
Continued on Page 15
THE ENTIRE CONTENTS OF THE ITHACA TIMES ARE COPYRIGHT © 2022, BY NEWSKI
2019 by the IDA, which says that developments that receive incentives must produce 20% of units as a ordable, or make payments into the CHDF.
Second, the article quoted the 2017 Tompkins County Housing Strategy report, but did not include full context. The report says that the county built 3,200 units during the 2007–09 economic recession, but less than 10% of the units met the a ordability goal while using funds from the CHDF. By not including the stated time period, The Ithaca Times improperly represented the CHDF.
All rights reserved. Events are listed free of charge in TimesTable. All copy must be received by Friday at noon. The Ithaca Times is available free of charge from various locations around Ithaca. Additional copies may be purchased from the Ithaca Times offices for $1. SUBSCRIPTIONS: $89 one year. Include check or money order and mail to the Ithaca Times, PO Box 27, Ithaca, NY 14851. ADVERTISING: Deadlines are Monday 5 p.m. for display, Tuesday at noon for classi ed. Advertisers should check their ad on publication. The Ithaca Times will not be liable for failure to publish an ad, for typographical error, or errors in publication except to the extent of the cost of the space in which the actual error appeared in the rst insertion. The publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising for any reason and to alter advertising copy or graphics deemed unacceptable for publication. The Ithaca Times is published weekly Wednesday mornings. Offices are located at 109 N. Cayuga Street, Ithaca, NY 14850 607-277-7000, FAX 607-277-1012, MAILING ADDRESS is PO Box 27, Ithaca, NY 14851. The Ithaca Times was preceded by the Ithaca New Times (1972–1978) and The Good Times Gazette (1973–1978), combined in 1978. F OUNDER
OOD T
By Matt Dougherty
of any kind can be incredibly di cult for Ithaca residents during the seemingly endless upstate winter season. For pedestrians, bicyclists, and other transportation users, the process of getting around Ithaca a er a snowstorm can be the cause of tremendous anxiety — the problem is even worse for people with disabilities and senior citizens.
As a result, the Coalition for Snow-free Sidewalks and Crosswalks has joined with Bike Walk Tompkins, Finger Lakes Independence Center, Tompkins County O ce for the Aging, and a growing number of Ithaca residents, to urge city government to take pedestrian snow clearing seriously.
e city’s comprehensive plan — known as PlanIthaca — prioritizes pedestrians and active transportation over motor vehicles. e Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) also requires the city to make walkways accessible. However, according to Coalition for Snow-Free Sidewalks and Crosswalks member, Eric Lerner, “Ithaca’s local law and DPW policy on snow plowing embody di erent priorities.”
e City of Ithaca requires property owners to clear snow from sidewalks in front of their property. However, many property owners are unwilling or unable to do so, and properties that are vacant or owned by absentee landlords are routinely le with mountains of snow piling up around them.
Lerner says, “A er storms there are hundreds, if not thousands, of properties not in compliance. When one property on a block is unplowed, the entire block
may be impassible.” He continued saying, “Traveling on foot a er snow can mean navigating a complex labyrinth to nd walkable stretches of sidewalk.”
ese snow piles are the worst at intersections because street plows routinely leave a ridge of uncleared snow and frozen debris at the ends of crosswalks, blocking pedestrian access to the curb ramp. ese plows dump new snow onto curbs that owners have already cleared. “A er this happens countless times the owners learn not to bother and stop clearing the snow,” said Lerner.
In addition, crosswalks are o en blocked by ridges of ice days a er both the driving lane and the sidewalk are clear because the Department of Public Works (DPW) does not regard it as part of their job to clear crosswalks and make them passable. A survey was conducted in 2019 on pedestrian snow removal in Ithaca and large majorities were not satis ed with Ithaca’s snow clearing policies. In fact, a large majority supported the city government doing more to make the city walkable during winter months.
According to Lerner, “Enforcement of the current law is muddled and ine ectual. e charter creates two separate enforcement mechanisms, one in the Public Works Department Streets & Facilities Division, and another in the Planning Department Building Division. Both are unsuccessful.” He continued saying, “there are about 5,500 properties in Ithaca, so if just 10% are uncleared a er a storm that would be about 550 violations. Even the best enforcement program could only reach a small fraction of those.”
A growing number of residents believe that Ithaca can and should do more to make the city pedestrian friendly during the long winter season. For example, similarly to how Itahca recently shi ed responsibilities for sidewalk repair to the city instead of the property owner, it could do the same for sidewalk snow removal.
Lerner says that Ithaca can learn from policies that have been adopted in other upstate cities such as Rochester and Syracuse. According to Lerner, “ e City of Rochester does citywide sidewalk snow clearing a er 4 inch snowfalls. [ e city uses] short-term contractors to provide additional labor and equipment as needed. Ithaca could do the same thing”. He continued saying, “ e City of Syracuse clears sidewalk snow on priority pedestrian routes and Ithaca could do that as well.”
During a recent Common Council meeting, Ithaca resident Joanne Vicki said, “I have personally been a ected by the mounds of compressed snow and ice especially at the corners of virtually every block in my neighborhood a er snowstorms.” She continued saying, “I’m 76. I walk for exercise and to get places and I walk between a half a mile and a mile and a half almost every day. However, over the past few years, walking during winter has become increasingly stressful given the accumulation of ice and snow, especially at the end of each block.”
ere are many serious repairs, maintenance issues and sta ng shortages facing the Department of Public Works so expanding snow clearing responsibilities might seem like a lesser priority. However, the dangers of falling on icy walkways limit the activities that residents can
KID?“One of the Wright brothers with a stick on mustache”. – Reid R. “Dancing silhouette from the ipod commercial”. – Lauren F. “A bag of trash”. – Tina D. “Esmeralda from the Hunch Back of Notre Dame” – Kasey M. “Kaneda from the lm Akira”. – Jason D. Coalition for Snow-free Sidewalks and Crosswalks member Eric Lerner
The Tompkins County Workers Center is continuing its ght to make the minimum wage in the county equal to its living wage. In upstate New York, minimum wages increased from $9.60 to $13.20 between 2016 and 2021. However, the living wage for a single person living in Tompkins County is currently estimated at $16.61 an hour — and the living wage for a family with children is much higher.
A living wage calculation is made by Alternatives Federal Credit Union every two years based on cost of living data such as prices for rent, food, transportation, communication, recreation and savings. According to data from the workers center, “For full-time employees between 2015 and 2022, AFCU’s headline gure rose from $13.77 to $16.61” However, they say that it’s lower for workers whose employers provide health insurance.
e statewide minimum wage for New York is currently set at $14.20 an hour and is not calculated in relation to any cost of living standard. In fact, the statewide minimum wage actually drives people into poverty and forces them to depend on social services to survive.
A study published by Drexel University said that if the federal minimum wage kept pace with the average cost of living, the minimum wage would be more than $20 per hour. According to the study, “a true living wage that supports a basic
standard of living without food and housing insecurity would be between $20 and $26 or more per hour depending on the state.”
As a result of means-testing social services people are required to maintain poverty level incomes in order to be eligible for receiving assistance.
In a means-tested system there’s always a cut o point, so many people living paycheck to paycheck who may seem nancially stable but would genuinely bene t from receiving assistance are excluded.
In addition, it has long been known that large numbers of needy people tend to miss out on assistance programs because they either don’t know about the programs, don’t realise they are eligible for them, or they’re reluctant to claim them.
For example, social services like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are dramatically underutilized in Tompkins County. e Executive Summary of the Tompkins County Food System Plan explains that of the “Tompkins residents who are eligible for SNAP, only 30–40% are enrolled.”
e summary continued saying that programs like SNAP don’t cover all food costs and their enrollment processes are challenging to navigate. For example,
“one-third of food insecure residents earn too much to qualify for public food assistance programs yet struggle to stretch a limited food budget.”
While the state’s periodic increases in the minimum wage are a step in the right direction, it continues to fall short of a Living Wage. According to the Tompkins County Workers Center, “That is the difference between a basic but secure living standard and a living standard defined by impoverishment, insecurity, periodic family crisis and dependence on social services.”
The working group commissioned by the county to look into the feasibility of passing a law to require businesses to pay a minimum wage that is equal to the living wage has found that most businesses in the county are supportive of the plan. According to the working group’s study, “63% of employers surveyed were in favor of living wage legislation in 2019, and that number had climbed to 78% when surveyed in 2021.”
e group also found that the county’s largest employers are in education services, food services, healthcare and retail. All of those businesses employ workers who make less than the living wage in Tompkins County.
If living wage legislation is implemented it would lead to pay increases for “up to 40% of all workers, and up to 75% of Black workers.” e working group also found that an estimated 3% of workers would lose access to means-tested social services as a result of increased income due to the living wage legislation. However, the vast majority of workers would be able to continue receiving assistance.
Those who are skeptical about the feasibility of making the minimum wage a living wage want to continue looking into whether or not jobs would be destroyed or unemployment would increase as a result of living wage legislation.
e Ithaca Times reached out to the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce to get their perspective on the topic but they have failed to respond to comment at the time of publication.
Great news: We learned we were mistaken last week and Not My Dad’s isn’t closing for good and will be returning again next summer. Our soft serve jones are relieved.
Antisemitic gra ti and hate symbols have appeared this semester at Beebe Lake at Cornell last month, at multiple buiIdings thaca College last week, and most recently at a Commons business.
An Ithaca resident was arrested with over 100 grams of cocaine laced with Fentanyl in Schuyler County a few days ago.
The Tompkins County COVID index has been moved from Low to Medium by the Tompkins County Health Department following an uptick in cases and hospitalizations.
IF YOU CARE TO RESPOND to something in this column, or suggest your own praise or blame, write news@ithacatimes. com, with a subject head “U&D.”
What are you most looking forward to about fall?
67.6% Apple cider donuts.
Pumpkin spiced everything.
Snow...noreally. I love it.
N EXT W EEK ’S Q UESTION :Should Tompkins County mandate a minimum wage that is equal to a living wage?
Visit ithaca.com to submit your response.
“...between 2015 and 2022, AFCU’s (Ithaca living wage estimate) rose from $13.77 to $16.61”
—Tompkins County Workers Center
Everyone knows that Awards Season kicks o with the most coveted of accolades—the Ithaca Times’ Best Of Ithaca contest. Last week, there was a nasty email from Oslo in the editor’s inbox, as once again the announcement of the Best Of winners totally stole the Nobel committee’s thunder. Inevitably, due to limited space, some of the categories in the Best of Ithaca 2022 results were omitted, so now that some of the dust has settled, we publish them here for the very rst time.
Best place to open your NYSEG bill— Someplace with a lot of pillows on the ground, maybe a mattress. It’s embarrassing as hell, as they’re evidently burning hundred-dollar bills to generate electricity and need us all to pitch in, but I let out an involuntary, girlish scream before fainting every billing cycle now.
Best place to get run over by a college student—Trader Joe’s parking lot. It’s well-known that a pedestrian’s best shot at surviving an encounter with a studentoperated vehicle is to get the hell out of the way in the four seconds between ignition and when they start texting. I’m told it’s unintentional, but I swear there were three silhouettes of townies stenciled on
the side of the Mercedes SUV that almost pancaked me yesterday.
Best place to run over a college student— Cornell Campus. You want a target-rich environment? Nowhere on the planet earth do so many (16,000) obey so few (zero) tra c control indices. Why look up? You’re texting! e world will stop while you randomly walk into the road…
Best urine stains on a building—State Street/MLK Street walls of the Chanticleer.
ese are actually so varied and suggestive that local psychiatrists have been known to bring patients and engage in Rorschachstyle shape identi cation exercises.
Best place to hear artistically-hurled obscenities— e Commons in front of the Ithaca Visitor Center. Weekday evenings the competition for most creative use of the F-bomb can be so intense that the facades of nearby buildings can literally begin to ake o . Bring the kids and make an outing of it.
Best place to get the stink eye for having a TRUMP 2024 bumper sticker— e stop sign at the corner of Cascadilla and Cayuga when Gimme! is open. Best to
LocalHero Colter Nemechek, with the help of terri c volunteers and sta , is renovating the intake building at the SPCA. Originally an old house, the SPCA decades ago retro tted it into an area for receiving helpless animals delivered or rescued by the SPCA’s Animal Control. is sturdy, humble building was the point of entry which promised medical care and loving, healthy shelter for homeless animals. And families seeking their lost pets and new pets came through the same door. Now so many years later this well-known shelter is in desperate need of more dog runs, so that sheltered dogs can be outdoors as much as possible.
Colter Nemechek is the facilities manager of both the attractive, spacious main SPCA building where animals are sheltered and cared for and also the intake building. And despite his youthful appearance and high energy, he actually previously served for 14 years as the head of Animal Control, on call and on duty throughout the years.
Municipalities are required to provide minimal funding for stray dogs. Cat care on the other hand, does not generate municipal funding, yet much of the SPCA population consists of homeless or recovering cats. Since Animal Control is privately funded by small municipal contracts and private funding from generous individuals, much of current renovation work and much of the routine maintenance is done with the help of volunteers. Snowplowing, eld, and grounds mowing (where dogs are walked) and now architectural work as well are made possible through the generosity of the community.
“Gerald amm is our mainstay,” explains Nemechek. “For several years he has been showing up 25-30 hours a week. He knows all the sta , all the critters, and all the buildings. With his architectural and electrical construction background, he has provided invaluable professional expertise for our construction projects. When we apply for municipal permits, we have blueprints and drawings in hand for projects that will meet our needs.”
Nemechek adds that “Norm Paterson keeps our ve acres of lawn and elds mowed. is cuts down on the weeds and bugs and provides safe and attractive access for our devoted volunteer dog walkers to our trails, all the way down to the junction with Cornell’s Monkey Run trails. Dogs and their human buddies love those trails.”
Colter Nemechek (on left) and Rob Swarthout are part of the team hard at work renovating the intake building at the SPCA facility (Photo: Gerald Thamm)
“We are always in need of walkers,” Nemechek notes. “It’s a great way to comfort homeless dogs a er a short Dog Walkers’ training program. Loyal dog lovers showed up and went outdoors with their fans through Covid. Never missing a shi . is really made a di erence during stressful times.”
Continuing his role call of thanks, Nemechek says that “Rob Swarthout (of the local Swarthout Buses) is our lead driver for pickups. What do we pick up? Donations. Empty deposit cans for Cans for Causes, cleaning, o ce, and custodial supplies from generous companies like BJ’s, Pet Smart, Target, Ithaca Feed, Agway. We depend upon the community’s kindness for building materials, pet food, pet toys and bedding. Generous local hotels send old bedding, which becomes part of our pets ‘comfortable bedding.”
When asked what else the SCPCA needs, Nemechek has ready answers: “Newborn kittens, who are separated from mama, need bottle feeding. So, we are always recruiting foster homes who can bottle feed. We are also in need of more kitten scales; we send a kitten scale home with kittens to each foster home. When the kitten weighs one pound it can be spayed or neutered to avoid more homeless, sick, starving animals in the future. We also send baby bottles and formula home with kittens. e more kittens we can care for, the more volunteers and donations we need.”
In 2019, four Ithaca Police Department (IPD) o cers…were called to break up a ght, but instead committed violent and disturbing acts against members of the community they were sworn to protect… According to Judge John Rowley, who presided over the case, “Ithaca Police o cers overreacted to the initial situation” and “made no e ort to defuse the situation,” actions Rowley described as “inexplicable” and “regrettable.”
Even when the news spread and videos of the [incident] went viral, Ithaca’s Police Benevolent Association (PBA) refused to issue an apology. ey wouldn’t vow to do better next time. ey said nothing about lessons learned or better policies implemented. And a er an internal review, IPD refused to punish the o cers. ese cops are still on active duty in our streets. And now, city taxpayers will have to foot the bill to defend them in two new lawsuits… With the news…[of] lawsuits against the four o cers…we are starkly reminded that not even Ithaca is immune to the nationwide problem of police violence. When recruitment practices are not rigorous, when cops are overworked to the point of burnout and stress, when it’s been demonstrated time and again that dangerous white supremacist culture is leaking into forces across the country, it’s no wonder that we see police violence perpetrated everywhere—even here in Ithaca.
Violent, biased, and traumatizing police culture has been eroding public trust in law enforcement long before George Floyd’s murder. e increase in public awareness has been an ironic boon to those ghting for public safety reform for decades.
e PBA here in Ithaca seems to view its job as solely to spin media for its ocers, but it could and should be more than that. It could and should serve its community, supporting outreach and relationship building with all Ithacans. Instead, what we see is unconditional defense of its membership, o en to the detriment of our community. We should be concerned that the PBA is defending violence perpetrated by its o cers, while at the same time denying a culture problem among its ranks.
But we should also be hopeful, because whether or not the association gets onboard, policing is evolving here in Ithaca. Reimagining Public Safety has been passed by our Common Council, and a special committee has already been set up to address implementation and ne-tune recommendations. In the end, Ithacans are smarter than the PBA gives us credit for. We won’t stand for cheap excuses and lies. We will stand for a better and more accountable police force.
Alana Byrd is a Fall Creek resident and Campaign Manager of Ithacans for Reimagining Public Safety
Best place to hear someone refer to themselves in the third person as “Mama”—Walmart. No real surprise here.
Wehave all heard about the challenges many leagues in many di erent sports are having when it comes to nding enough quali ed referees, or umpires to make it possible to get all the games in. On any given Sunday, the Rotary Youth Soccer program (run by the Ithaca Youth Bureau) will host 10-12 games, and thanks to some community-minded people and some solid networking, the program is fortunate to have enough referees show up.
“I have known Mindy Quigg (Ithaca College’s Head Soccer Coach) for a long time, said Youth Bureau Recreation Program Coordinator Gordy Begent. “and when I took this job she congratulated me and we talked about the team’s commitment to community service and its community engagement process.”
at conversation was three years ago, and it led to several carloads of Bomber soccer players showing up to serve as referees for the games, and when they not o ciating, they are nding other ways to help out. In Begent’s words, “ e players do a bunch of stu for us. ey run drills for the players, they’re helpful to the coaches, and they do this on Sundays, their only o -day of the week.” Gordy was pleased to add, “ ey don’t just come and go, the connections stay deeply-rooted.”
Sundays can be very hectic, as there are eight second and third grade teams, ten fourth and h grade squads and three to four teams made up of sixth through eighth graders. ose numbers translate to up to a dozen games from 1-4 pm, and that keeps the players hustling.
Ithaca Womens Soccer coach Mindy Quigg was able to lead her players to pitch in to help Ithaca's youth leagues.
Meanwhile, on the pitch, the Bomber women are 9-2-3 overall and 4-1-1 in Liberty League play with three games remaining.
● ● ●
I had the good fortune to be invited to this year’s Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony, hosted by the Hornell Alumni Association, a few towns down the road. It is a Section V program, but there is a local connection, so hang in there...
I was a guest of the Scavo family, as Dominic Scaco was inducted in his rst year of eligibility. Dominic chose to tell the story of a college game he started at quarterback for Alfred University, and he made light of the frustrating game as he pointed out that it went poorly, the Saxons lost, and he did not start again.
come to a rolling stop and then oor it before you get swarmed.
Best martini in Ithaca—Maxie’s. Change my mind.
Best hulking, vacant, likely-to-behaunted building downtown—Masonic Temple. Local legend has it that the structure was designed by a demented architect named Ivo Shandor who decided he would try to bring about the end of the world with a secret society of Gozer worshippers that performed rituals on top of the building, and the roof itself was meant to be the gateway to allow Gozer into our world. at’s all highly improbable, of course, though there is a veri ed underground river of unstable ectoplasm owing directly beneath the structure.
Best place to recover your stolen bike—300 block of West State/MLK Street. Nobody told those guys that LimeBikes aren’t a thing any more. Or that not all bikes are LimeBikes. Or that cutting a lock o a parked bicycle wasn’t ever a part of the LimeBike experience in the rst place.
Best wa es—Not Wa e Frolic any more. Sad face.
Best pothole—Albany Street between Clinton and Titus. is is a moving target, of course, but the whole block was used by the Cornell Center for Astrophysics & Planetary Science to test the Mars Rover.
Best place to watch the 2022 midterm election returns—Deep in an underground bunker. It’s the same as the best place to watch the January 6 hearings.
Begent is also the head coach for the Ithaca High so ball team, and he is willing to work his connections at Ithaca College whenever possible. Being an Ithaca College grad (with a degree in Health and PE), Begent feels connected, and he said, “I always try to reach out to the people I know at I.C. For example, I have known Dave Valesente (Bomber baseball head coach) for a long time, and he will be bringing a group of his players to help us out with park cleanup, and to help with the Hoop Shoot event.” Begent is not shy about making these requests, as he sees the collaborations as a win-win. “We’re really trying to utilize resources, that’s true,” Begent o ered, “and it’s really nice to see the colleges engaged. Our kids get to go to the games and watch them play, so the arrangement is mutually bene cial.”
at story stood in contrast to the list of achievements listed by the program’s emcee, who o ered a little overview of Scavo’s high school accolades. A threesport athlete, Dominic won a truckloads of varsity letters and garnered numerous All-League, All-Conference and All-State awards, but it was his run as Hornell’s eld general that was most noteworthy: ree years as a starting quarterback, 39 wins, zero losses, and three state championships.
I love the fact that all six of the inductees knew virtually everyone in the room, and that those cherished relationships spanned decades, and generations, and they embodied everything that is beautiful about smalltown sports. It was a pleasure to be a part of it, and I am so grateful for the invitation.
Oh, yeah... the local connection... Dominic – now a practicing attorney - spent one semester at Ithaca College before transferring to Alfred, AND, he and my daughter (who played so ball at Alfred) are six years into a committed relationship, they share a home in Florida, and maybe, just maybe... Oh, never mind.
Lastweek, we looked at the increasing development in the West End and Waterfront areas of Ithaca, as well as some of the obstacles to that development. In Part II, we put those obstacles and the current state of the area in the context of its history as a part of the city that has o en been neglected, ignored and marginalized. e future of the West End and the city’s stated goals of increasing density, encouraging compact mixed-use development, and the building of new a ordable housing hinge on whether those deeply-rooted issues can be successfully navigated.
From Ithaca’s earliest days, the West End and Waterfront area has had a di erent history than the village, which was centered more or less where the Commons is today. Also from the beginning, the Cayuga Inlet was a port, even as far back as the War of 1812 when an embargo on British goods made Ithaca an important transit point for commodities like gypsum. It was thought at the time that the scores of rough-hewn and unruly boatmen, teamsters, and laborers working the waterfront gave Ithaca its initial reputation for lawlessness.
e Inlet itself is one of four creeks that ow through Ithaca, and though all of them have shi ed their course as the marshes and wetlands that used to be the ats of Ithaca were drained and lled, none
has been altered as much as the Inlet. At the outset, trees were cut down and some structures built, and the tangle of vines and bushes were cleared to create access to the water. For a long time, though, the area was muddy and marshy and frequently ooded, and when Ithaca incorporated as a village in 1821, the recognized center of town was the corner of State (then Owego) and Tioga Streets where all o cial notices were posted. ough not really far away, there was an uninhabited gap between the village and the waterfront.
e rst big boost to the West End/Waterfront was the connection of Cayuga Lake to the Erie Canal in 1828. All of a sudden, the rest of the world was much more easily accessible. e village’s population was nearing 3,600 at the time, and prospects looked bright enough that there was even a brief urry of local land speculation in the early 1830s. For the next hundred years, the Waterfront was a hub of commercial activity, though it would never be the major port dreamed of in those giddy early days.
e area was quickly transformed, though. Businesses did ourish, but canal workers had a reputation for ghting, drinking, staging cock ghts and various other forms of mayhem. Also, the water quality su ered badly. Lead and oil from the boatyards seeped into the water, and the hundreds of boats that passed
By the 1850s, along the Inlet was a motley collection of run-down houses, squatter’s shacks, lean-tos and dwellings made of packing crates, scrap lumber and pieces of tin. This is Sandy Gardner’s house in the “Rhine.” (Photo: Freddy Johnson, Jr.)
in and out every season used the canal as both bathroom and dump. e waterway brought disease as well as commerce. ough workers tended to live close by, they didn’t generally own the property on which they lived. It wasn’t seen as a desirable place, both because of the water quality and the risk of ooding.
A look at a map of the City of Ithaca from about 1840 that shows both struc-
tures and streets, reveals that much of downtown Ithaca was still uninhabited at that time, and there were vacant stretches separating the village (East State, Seneca and Green, intersected by Tioga, Aurora and Cayuga), an industrial pocket around Ithaca Falls, and the Waterfront. e physical distance was not great, and in fact even today you can stand on the corner of Albany and State/MLK Streets and see both
the Commons and the Waterfront, but the neighborhoods were, and are, decidedly di erent in character.
In all likelihood, it was the canal trade and the associated businesses that gave rise to the community that came to be known as “the Rhine.” e story of the name has long been that a member of Cornell’s crew team with a robust imagination somehow saw a resemblance between the Inlet and Germany’s Rhine River. However, Ithaca’s Rhine was rst mentioned by name in the Ithaca Journal on March 29, 1870, in connection with a coroner’s inquest, and Cornell’s rowing program started in 1873, so it’s di cult to see how that happened. In any event, by the 1850s, along the Inlet and extending north through the marshy area then known as the “Hog’s Hole” (now Cass Park where the dog park is) and up to the west shore of Cayuga Lake was a motley collection of run-down houses, squatter’s shacks, lean-tos and dwellings made of packing crates, scrap lumber and pieces of tin. It housed a population that to many in the rest of Ithaca had the unsavory reputation of being violent, thieving, immoral, intemperate, brawling dri ers. People got by with shing, poaching, scavenging, and doing seasonal work, and it was an area that respectable citizens scorned and avoided.
en the railroads came to downtown Ithaca in the early 1870s and by the 1890s they had become an established presence in the city. Two separate passenger and freight lines passed along the Inlet and up either side of Cayuga Lake—the Lehigh Valley (west of the Inlet along Taughannock Boulevard) and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western (east of the Inlet, along Fulton Street) Railroads. Each had a passenger depot in the West End: the Lehigh Valley passenger station is the current Chemung Canal Trust Company building on the corner of Taughannock Boulevard and West Bu alo Street, and the D, L & W pas-
senger station was the Greyhound Bus station and now houses a branch of Tompkins Trust Co. between West State and West Seneca Streets.
With the trains, the Inlet was not only a transportation hub, but it also became downright industrial. ere were warehouses, coal sheds, signal houses, loading docks, and extensive rail yards with numerous spurs to all manner of utilitarian buildings. And there were railroad people: gandy dancers, freight handlers, conductors, Pullman porters, ticket agents, warehousemen, also con dence men and pickpockets.
e area has retained some of its industrial character from Cherry Street over into Inlet Island, and some of the old warehouses survive.
It also remained a smoky, unsanitary and unhealthy place. A 1914 survey of the health conditions in the Inlet area determined that it had 36 percent of the city’s wells, crowded hard by 46 percent of the privies. It also had 41 percent of the typhoid cases in the 1903 epidemic and 28 percent of the city’s tuberculosis cases. Just as bad, the crime and poverty seemed intractable.
e waterfront was the home of Ithaca’s most underserved populations, including the poor, the unemployable, seasonal workers, and dri ers. e Rhine was also referred to as “Silent City” even in Ithaca City police blotters, because when the constabulary came to investigate incidents, nobody would talk. Police o cers called duty in the area “the Watch on the Rhine”.
Author Grace Miller White used the Rhine as the setting for several of her novels, most notably Tess of the Storm Country, published in 1909. In its opening pages, she touches on the class divisions between the Rhine and the eastern reaches of the city: “When they glanced up from their work (cleaning sh), and looked beyond the southern borders of the lake, they could see, rising from the mantle of forestry, the
towers and spires of Cornell University in Ithaca City. An observer would have noticed a sullen look of hatred pass unconsciously over their faces as their eyes lighted on the distant buildings, for the citizens of Ithaca were the enemies of these squatter shermen and thought that their presence on the outskirts of the town besmirched its fair fame.” (Mary Pickford played Tess in a 1922 lm adaptation of the book, which was not lmed in Ithaca)
Like a lot of downtown Ithaca, the West End/Waterfront was originally a wetland, but it began to see some residential development when large areas were drained and lled in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As the Erie Canal morphed into the Barge Canal system between 1905 and 1913, the Cayuga Inlet was widened and deepened (to a depth of 12 feet), and some of the swamps were lled in. e modern park region, including what would soon be Ithaca’s rst airport, where the Hangar eater now is, opened in 1914.
ca Streets shows residences and businesses with the names of the immigrant families: Battisti, Chervanak, Bordoni, Yengo, Ciaschi, Guidi, Mazza, Lucatelli, Christopolous, Paolangeli, Petricola, Raponi and Kindjurski. It had developed into a community, less transient and, at least initially, decidedly working-class.
The “Rhine” housed a population that to many in the rest of Ithaca had the unsavory reputation of being violent, thieving, immoral, intemperate, brawling drifters. (Photo: Tompkins County History Center)
Around the same time, Ithaca saw its share of the larger wave of immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe, especially Italy. Federal census records for Ithaca show that in 1900, native-born Italians numbered 42 out of a population of 13,136. By 1920, 275 residents identi ed themselves as having been born in Italy, and by 1930, almost 500 native-born Italians had come to Ithaca. ese tended not to be wealthy people, and many of them settled in the West End, where there were both jobs and recently-built economical housing. A scan of the city directories from the 1920s and 1930s for Meadow, Fulton, West Bu alo, West Court and West Sene-
Of course, there was still the poorer population in and around the waterfront, and the situation invited mission work, most famously that of Mrs. Elizabeth Beebe, who devoted her life’s work to caring for the sick and poor around the Inlet. From its construction in 1883 until its demolition in the 1960s, what came to be known as the Beebe Mission provided the kinds of services that would only start to become the charge of the government with the New Deal in the 1930s. Nearby, West Side House, built in 1918, was a meeting place for clubs, dances and other kinds of recreation. ese two structures stood more or less across the street from each other where West State Street and West Bu alo Street used to intersect (a little west of where the Dandy Mini Mart parking lot now is).
e Children’s Home, an orphanage, was on the north side of the 500 block of West Seneca, in the building that now houses Ithaca Community Recovery, Inc.
By the second decade of the twentieth century, e Rhine had come to be regarded as something of an embarrassment for the city. e Erie Canal was now the larger Barge Canal system, the focus of railroad tra c was becoming passenger service, and the West End was becoming more res-
idential, so the shacks of Silent City were seen as an eyesore at an entry point to the city. Starting in the 1910s through the mid 1920s, the City of Ithaca bought or condemned most of the properties that constituted the Rhine. Finally, on a cold and gray January 4, 1927, the City put the remaining shacks to the torch, scattering the residents, and the Rhine disappeared, leaving no real physical trace. According to the next day’s Ithaca Journal, “one aged woman occupant was taken to the county almshouse. Others probably sought shelter in the cheaperrent sections of the city.” It’s thought that most of them moved nearby to the newlyrenamed Floral Avenue.
e West End neighborhood lived on, home to scores of working- and middleclass families, for another four decades. What brought about its end was the ood of 1935. Flooding had always been a threat in the area due to the di culty of managing the lake level, with especially massive oods having occurred in 1857 and 1901. Until the work associated with the Barge Canal, there was virtually no control of the lake and Inlet water level. On July 7-8, 1935, seven inches of rain fell in 24 hours. While ooding in the West End was a perennial problem, this time the ood penetrated into downtown. e water was ve feet deep where the Wegmans parking lot is now. e West End was submerged, but so were parts of North Cayuga, Tioga and Aurora Streets.
Such was the damage that the residents and the Common Council recognized the necessity of a comprehensive project to control ooding. It took some time
(World War II intervened), but the project was folded into the Federal Flood Control Act of 1960. It was a time of urban renewal and even some of the hallowed structures of downtown fell to the wrecking ball before more preservation-minded heads prevailed, but there was little of that protective impulse in the West End. e project was huge, and included re-aligning, deepening and widening over two miles of the Inlet channel from the intersection of Spencer Avenue and Elmira Road to the vicinity of Cascadilla Creek, creating the Flood Control Channel. To make this happen, 185 parcels had to be acquired by the city and state, as well as demolition of 69 homes and businesses, the Beebe Mission, West End House, and the recon guring of many of the West End and Waterfront streets. 55 of the 65 West End residences disappeared in the process.
When the dust settled in 1970, a er ve years of delays, miscommunication, construction, demolition and digging, Cass Park as we now know it and the basic arrangement of the area as it now exists were the result. e project le just one bridge over the Inlet, creating a ve-road bottleneck known to all as the “Octopus.” And the neighborhood, at its peak the home to hundreds of residents, was, to put it charitably, a shattered remnant of what it had been.
Of course, vehicle tra c kept increasing in the ensuing decades, and by the early 1990s, the congestion had become unsustainable. Yet another West End project to remedy the situation took place from 1994-1997, which added two more bridges over the Inlet, and split Route 13 in the West End into two three-lane, one-way roads (Meadow and Fulton Streets). It did in fact alleviate much of the congestion and
the Octopus was no more, but it took away considerable street parking on West End streets and made the neighborhood even less hospitable to pedestrians.
One pocket of residential development that occurred in the wake of the Flood Control Project is Nate’s Floral Estates, a 115-site mobile home park built in the early 1970s on Cecil A. Malone Drive, across the ood control relief channel immediately west of Wegmans. It exists directly on top of what was the City of Ithaca’s land ll for three decades until it was shut down in 1970. Remediation of the site consisted of covering it with a layer of soil ranging from 1.5 to 4 feet deep. Toxicity issues remain, though the DEC determined in 2018 that contamination “is not considered to rise to the level of an inactive hazardous waste listing at this time.” Nonetheless, the Tompkins County Health Department currently requires residents to plant any fruits and vegetables in raised beds or planters and not directly in the ground. It’s tempting to speculate whether there would be greater scrutiny brought to bear if the neighborhood were in a di erent part of the city.
Inlet, though the remnants of dock pilings and concrete walls still line parts of the old channel.
What’s le are some of the physical and cultural challenges to the development envisaged in the city’s Comprehensive Plan: the soil quality, the tra c, the Jungle, the old or nonexistent infrastructure. It’s the legacy of its commercial and industrial past, the days of rail yards and canal boats, and its history as the quarter of the city where the most underserved populations gravitated, very o en out of the consciousness of the larger community.
On July 7-8, 1935, seven inches of rain fell in 24 hours, submerging the West End and flooding downtown. The water was five feet deep where the Wegmans parking lot is now. Here’s an image of the flood waters on North Aurora Street. (Photo: Tompkins County History Center)
ere’s a lot of history in the West End. ere are vestiges of earlier chapters all over. e re-purposed train stations, the layout of the roads and waterways, the Lehigh Valley House, the Airplane Factory, the warehouses, and the old Brindley Street bridge tell a story. Having dinner at the Boatyard? You’re looking out over a basin that was choked with canal barges and steamboats. When you’re at Pete’s Liquor Store, you are standing where the old Lehigh Valley tracks were. ere’s also a lot that has changed. Strolling or bicycling on the path on the west side of the Inlet in Cass Park on a sunny day, it’s hard to imagine that’s where the Silent City once boiled with life. And there’s precious little in the way of physical evidence that remains of canal days on the
It’s a part of our city with its own charm and its own story, with the ingredients for greatness, but to walk on West State Street from the State Diner to, say, the Dandy Mini Mart, day or night, is to see some of the challenges to development up close. ere are some popular businesses—Franco’s, Gimme!, the Westy, Liquid State—but also panhandlers, and a street scene that betrays the problems of poverty, poorlytreated mental illness, and substance addiction. Crossing Meadow Street, then Fulton Street, then the railroad tracks, then Seneca Street is not a welcoming pedestrian experience. It doesn’t jibe with the city’s plans for the area.
e promise of “a sustainable built environment that provides opportunities and economic security for all residents” in the West End/Waterfront area is enticing, and there’s no denying that Common Council and city planners are aware of the challenges ahead. Still, sometimes a city founders not on barricades or in oodwaters, but on committee tables. e issues are complicated, and city resources, especially an understa ed and overstretched police force, are limited. e development of the district is proceeding apace, and without successfully addressing those issues, we may be nding out what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object.
OperaIthaca will launch its 2022 season with the Opera Ithaca Festival, running Oct. 22 through Nov.6 — this will be the rst season since the onset of the pandemic that features completely live presentations. e festival will include a popup concert series and recital featuring Opera Ithaca’s Apprentice Artists, a Double Bill performance of Missy Mazzoli’s “Proving Up” and William Grant Still’s “Highway 1, USA,” and a production of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Nabucco.”
“We’ve been planning the logistics, repertoire, and line-up of this event for over a year and a half,” said Ben Robinson, who has served as the artistic director of Opera Ithaca since 2019. “ e last two years have been hard on us all, but we’ve taken strides at Opera Ithaca to assert ourselves by seizing the moment. We’ve put in the work to make this festival the most complex operation we’ve ever done, and it’s surreal to watch it come to fruition. It has involved preparing two operas at the same time, while also rehearsing a recital.”
Since 2014, when Opera Ithaca was cofounded by Zachary James and Lynn Craver, a huge part of the company’s mission has been to prioritize underrepresented voices. e founding team began by setting a goal to produce work written by female composers and have since produced three operas written by women. Robinson says this mission has expanded over time to include voices that have not been given their fair share of opportunities in the traditional opera canon.
Showcasing underrepresented voices is only one way Opera Ithaca ghts for equity within the arts. “It’s our responsibility as artists to recognize that opera has been historically written, produced, and performed by elitist white men,” Robinson said. “We need to take an active role in nding where the con uences are between social issues and the arts and provide equitable opportunities for all, helping opera remain essential and critical within this larger conversation.”
is mission will be very clear throughout the Opera Ithaca Festival. In choosing operas to produce for the event, Robinson said the executive creative team actively sought out work that dealt with signi cant social issues. “Proving Up” and “Highway 1, USA” both question the validity of the American Dream, with “Highway 1, USA” speaking directly to Black
experience in America. “Nabucco” extends the conversation, containing major themes of anti-Semitism and authoritarianism.
Forty- ve minutes before each mainstage performance, a panel of scholars, activists, and artists with globally represented perspectives will congregate on stage. ey’ll engage in conversation about how social justice issues and the arts intersect with one another, discussing how they’d like to see change, especially moving forward from the pandemic.
e festival will begin with a series of popup concerts and a one night only recital. ese events will all be hosted outside artist studios, providing a natural visual backdrop.
e rst pop-up concert is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 22. from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ( e time is currently wrong on their website). is event is free and will be performed at Artist Alley, located in the South Hill Business Campus (950 Danby Road).
e second is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 29. from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Treman Center, located at 95 Hines Road in New eld, New York. is event is also free and will be followed by a Halloween party (Come in costume!).
is series will conclude with the Young Artist Recital titled “Voices Represented” on Saturday, Nov. 5, at 4 p.m. at the CRS Barn, located at Triphammer Arts (2622 N. Triphammer Road). Ticket prices vary.
e Double Bill, featuring Mazzoli’s “Proving Up” and Still’s “Highway 1, USA,” presents a unique experience, as it’s the rst time these operas have been performed together.
Composed almost a half-century apart, they both investigate the question of what’s holding people back from accomplishing their dreams.
Still was writing during the mid-twentieth century and was known as the dean of African American composers. He’s well-regarded for blending poignant sound and harmony to re ect the positionality of African Americans in U.S. society, of which he had much concern. “Highway 1, USA” premiered in 1963.
Mazzoli’s a lot more modern, having just composed “Proving Up” in 2018. She’s one of the most prominent composers in opera today, having become one of the rst two women to receive a commission from the Metropolitan Opera House in 2018.
e Double Bill is directed by Cynthia Henderson, a local professional actor and
director who’s also a professor of Acting at Ithaca College. is production marks her opera directorial debut.
Performances will occur on ursday, Nov. 3, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 6, at 2 p.m. at the Hangar eatre.
“Nabucco,” Verdi’s rst real big hit, explores the power dynamics and other struggles of ancient Babylon. Although the plot seems complicated, with the inclusion of many subplots, it primarily follows the plight of the Jews as Nabucco, the Babylonian king, assaults, conquers, and exiles them from Jerusalem. Understanding the relationships between characters can be a huge help when following along with the opera’s events.
Many scholars have connected Verdi’s operas, written between the 1840s and 1850s, to Italian nationalism. One of “Nabucco’s” choruses, “Va, pensiero,” has been interpreted to be a call for unity, especially given the context of when it was written (1841).
Opera Ithaca’s “Nabucco” is directed by Robinson. “When stepping into this role, I asked myself, ‘What in our modern psyche is really interesting about Nabucco?’” he said. “Verdi was commended for being a composer who threaded his political beliefs into his operas. In my directorial work, I never focus on the traditional. Instead, I create modern productions that insert pivotal themes from the original material. I hope audiences can see how I’ve intertwined political issues of today into this age-old piece, giving it life in a new and inspired way.”
ere will be one performance on Friday, Nov. 4, at 7:30 p.m. at the Hangar eatre.
e Double Bill and “Nabucco” star wellknown performers of opera from all over the world. Be sure to read more about them on
The last time Steven Wright played the State eater, he did a bit about going to the video store to rent a movie starring Nicolas Cage and Hayley Mills, and I howled. And that was just the set-up to one of Wright’s patented surrealist one-liners that he’s been telling since his breakout success in the early 1980s. He’s also been in lms like “Reservoir Dogs,” “Natural Born Killers” and “Half Baked.” Steven Wright returns to the State eater on Saturday, October 22 at 8pm. He spoke to the Ithaca Times about “Dr. Katz, Professional erapist,” COVID and what constitutes a good batting average for new jokes.
Ithaca Times: I was just looking at some of your “Dr. Katz Professional erapist” episodes. It seems like your particular brand of stand-up really gave the animators a lot of room to be even more surreal than the usual episodes.
Steven Wright: anks. When he asked me to do that, one of the things I told him was, I would do it, but I wasn’t gonna do any of the material from my act. So he was ne with that, so I went over to the studio where they did it and we would just make stu up for, I don’t know, an hour, and then he would cut it down to what he liked, you know? at was really fun to do that.
IT: And didn’t they give you a drawing of yourself?
SW: Yes, they did, I have it somewhere, yes.
IT: How was your COVID time?
SW: is March I started to do shows; it was two years and four months that I hadn’t done one. And it was interesting not doing it. But I still wrote things all the time, some of it stand-up, some of it not. I mean, in my mind, I couldn’t go on the road and do a show, but my mind never stopped at all. And it was interesting ‘cause I hadn’t done it that long since I started, you know, I’ve been doin’ it since 1979. e longest break I ever had before that was six months. And it was interesting to not be doing it. And then when I came back to doing it, stepped right back in. ere’s no other place like being on the stage. It’s very alive and electric, and being in front of the audience. So now I’m back into doin’ it again. Have you ever performed on a stage?
IT: I started doing stand-up in 2013, and prior to that I’d done a lot of acting, since the age of six.
Steven Wright says only one in four of his new jokes gets a big enough laugh to stay in his act. (Photo: Provide)
SW: Did we talk about that [in the last interview]?
IT: Probably. I don’t know how o en you’re interviewed by someone who’s done it, you know.
SW: Very rarely. Occasionally. You still doing it?
IT: Yes. ere’s a great twice-monthly open mic down the street from the State at the Downstairs. You ever say something and just get nothing back?
SW: Are you kiddin’ me? So you know what it’s like. ere’s no other place that I’ve experienced. You know that being onstage is di erent than anywhere else. Only one in four jokes that I write gets a big enough laugh to stay in the act. One in three or one in four. So that means that I’m constantly weeding out material, and that means ¾ of what I write doesn’t work. So when you see a show that I actually do, it’s taken years to weed out what doesn’t work. And one in three is good, actually, one in four is good. Like, a baseball player is batting .300, that’s good. But he got out seven out of ten times. So, anyway, you’re asking me if it happened to me, it happens to me all the time with new material. And in my opinion, that’s the hardest thing about doing this, is to stand there and say something and you get complete silence. And then you just have to move on. at is the absolute hardest thing of doing this.
IT: Well, let me ask you this. You started with Barry Crimmins at the Deng
By Bryan VanCampen
Richman and Tommy Larkins
used to come to the Haunt every few years, but now that the Haunt is no more, JR and Tommy will play at the Hangar eater on October 22 at 8 p.m.
It was the summer of 1986, right here in Ithaca. I was driving around in my ’76 Chevy Nova and this song came on the Ithaca College station that changed my life: “Corner Store,” by Jonathan Richman. Everything else at the time seemed like it was immaculately produced: lots of synths and drum machines. Jonathan Richman’s tunes sounded like they were recorded in a high school bathroom, as lo- as you could want, but he still rocked.
Soon a er that, I heard that Jonathan Richman and the last line-up of the Modern Lovers would be playing a show at the old Haunt on Green Street, and that Richman would be doing a record signing at Rebop Records in Collegetown. I made sure to be at the signing and the show. (I bought a vinyl copy of “It’s Time for Jonathan Richman” that JR signed for me. A few months later, I needed money and sold the record. Years later, I saw my album in the window at Autumn Leaves and bought it again—for $35.)
At the Haunt I ran into a friend from school who had just done a sound check with the band. I asked him how it had been. He rolled his eyes and said, “A joke.”
Richman and the band played one of the three best rock n’ roll shows I have ever seen, and a er the show, I ran to my friend Paul’s house, and while he packed for college, I used the word processing program on his Amiga computer to knock out two stories, one about the record signing and the other about the show. e next day, I submitted those stories to the late, lamented Grapevine, which ran an edited version of the two pieces: my rst professional sale as a writer.
Jonathan came back to play the Haunt in 1991, and I remember walking up to the door with my friend, and I held the door for the guy who came up behind me. Turns out it was Jonathan himself, guitar case in hand. He was known for touring via Greyhound, so he may have just gotten into town. During the show, JR’s cheapo guitar wasn’t staying in tune, so there was
a lot of tuning going on. At one point, a guy in the crowd yelled, “I came all the way from Bu alo to see you!”
Without missing a beat, Jonathan said, “Well, I better tune up really good, then,” and kept right on twisting pegs.
Falling in love with Jonathan led me down a rabbit hole of amazing records, including the rst Modern Lovers album, “I, Jonathan”, “Rockin’ and Romance” and many others; and tunes like “Government Center”, “ at Summer Feeling”, “Road Runner” (heard in Richard Linklater’s 2003 lm “School of Rock”) and “Party in the Woods Tonight”.
For years, when people asked me who my favorite musician was and I would tell them about Jonathan and how much his soulful Boston honk has meant to me, not one person knew who I was talking about. Not one. en a nice thing happened. Two other big JR fans named Bobby and Peter Farrelly put Jonathan and his drummer Tommy Larkins into their comedy lm “ ere’s Something About Mary” (1998) as musical narrators of the story. e movie was a huge hit, and now a whole lot of people knew who Jonathan Richman was. A er that, when people asked me who my favorite musician was, I would say, “You know that guy who sings
participate in during Ithaca’s long winter season.
In response to these concerns, DPW issued a statement saying, “DPW strives to balance the needs of the public. e City considers numerous and o en con icting suggestions, complaints, priorities, and opinions on the City’s snow removal activities. DPW will always prioritize safety rst, then convenience.”
e statement continued saying, “Labor and equipment for additional snow removal capabilities are expensive, and the City must budget tax revenue to provide all important functions and services to the community throughout the year within that budget.”
DPW Superintendent Michael orne explained that “ e Building Department
continued from page 3
from their original Medicare — they were switched involuntarily to a private Medicare Advantage plan that the district promised would be equal to or better than the coverage retirees had as active employees.
While the district administration and Board of Education members who approved this change believed that the Medicare Advantage plan would provide coverage equal to or better than what we had as
continued
all throughout ‘ ere’s Something About Mary’? He’s my favorite.”
I’ve seen JR twice since that lm came out, once at the Bug Jar in Rochester, and
continued
Ho in Boston in 1979. When did you rst realize that “one in three or four” joke ratio theory?
SW: Well, right from the beginning. First time I went on an open mic ever, I
continued
Opera Ithaca’s website, https://www.operaithaca.org/2022-festival.
“ is festival forges something brand new, o ering opera in a way that’s more accessible,” Robinson said. “Opera Ithaca uses our art to transcend people’s expecta-
enforces sidewalk snow removal policies and will issue citations to property owners who don’t comply. If DPW has available resources, we will remove sidewalk snow and bill owners who haven’t cleared their sidewalk.” However, he continued saying that DPW sta ng is “currently very low” and that they haven’t done that “in recent years.”
Vicki told the Common Council that “improving snow and ice clearance is a very visible, tangible and serious way for residents to see how their city government is working to improve our lives.”
In response, Common Council member George McGonigal said, “Wintertime doesn’t play by anybody else’s rules except wintertime. It may be too big a li to clear every sidewalk in the city, but I think we do need to focus on plowed in corners and opening those up more quickly.”
the active employees. Madeo said that “we are here to tell you that the experiences of many retirees have involved denials of coverage for prescriptions, procedures and therapy.”
WHIR sent out a survey that was completed by more than half of its 250 members which showed that while some retirees were satis ed with the advanced plan, 76% of the respondents rated the Medicare Advantage plan as not equal to or better than the Blue Cross Blue Shield plan they previously had from the district.
one last time at the late, lamented second Haunt on Willow Avenue. Both times I happened to be near the stage exit, and both times I was able to look him in the eye and thank him for coming through town.
I really appreciate that connection. Rock on, Jonathan.
did about two minutes, and half of it didn’t work. And I was so disappointed because I was so naïve, but a friend of mine who was already doin’ it talked to me and he said, “No, no, that’s actually a good ratio.” So the rst time was one in two, but it was never that good again. As I kept doing it, I saw the batting average. I realized it.
tions, teaching audiences that opera isn’t as daunting as they believe it to be. It’s exciting to be in such a place [Ithaca] that’s accepting and curious about so many different types of art.”
e Opera Ithaca Festival. Running Oct. 22 through Nov. 6. Festival passes and individual ticket options are available on Opera Ithaca’s website.
participants who attend an estimated 60-90-minute in-home product consultation will receive a $25 Visa gift card. Retail value is
by
Limit one per household. Company procures, sells, and installs
This offer is valid for homeowners over 18 years of
mailed to the participant via first class United States Mail within 10 days of receipt of the promotion form. Not valid in conjunction with any other promotion or discount of any kind. Offer not sponsored and is subject to change without notice prior to reservation. Offer not available in the states of CA, IN, PA and MI. Expires 10/31/22.
Deep Dive House Big Band hosted by Professor Greg Evans | 8 p.m. | Deep Dive, 415 Old Taughannock Blvd. | Free
Raedwald | 5 p.m. | South Hill Cider, 550 Sandbank Road
Big Red Icon Redux: A Night of Bands from Cornell | 8 p.m. | Deep Dive, 415 Old Taughannock Blvd. | $10.00
Mikaela Davis | 7 p.m. | Deep Dive, 415 Old Taughannock Blvd. | $15.00 - $20.00
Live music feat. Khalil Jade | 11 a.m. | Treleaven Wines, 658 Lake Road Cielle on Solid Ground | 5 p.m. | Two Goats Brewery, 5027 State Route 414 | Free Jazz Jam | 6 p.m. | The Downstairs Ithaca, 121 W. State St. | Free IU: Overcalc, Flose, Elk Cloner | 7 p.m. | The Rest Gallery, 113 W State St | $10.00
FREE SHOW SUNDAY w/ Maybird | 8 p.m. | Deep Dive, 415 Old Taughannock Blvd. | Free
Jazz Monday with Dave Davies RhythmMakers | 5:30 p.m. | South Hill Cider, 550 Sandbank Road
Magic Beans w/s/g Amongst The Monks | 8 p.m. | The Upstairs Ithaca , 106 S. Cayuga St | $15.00 - $20.00
Junior Recital: Hannah Schultz, ute | 7 p.m. | Hockett Family Recital Hall, Gym Rd
Pierre Bensusan at the Conservatory | 7:30 p.m. | Trumansburg Conservatory of Fine Arts, 1 Congress St | $20.00 - $25.00
Midday Music: Thomas Feng, piano: CU Music | 12:30 p.m. | Lincoln Hall B20, 256 Feeney Way | Free
Elective Recital: Lila Weiser, ute | 8:15 p.m. | Hockett Family Recital Hall, Gym Rd
Elective Recital: Andrew Woodru , piano and Casey Delsandro, bassoon at Nabenhauer Recital Room | 8:30 p.m.
Junior Recital: Ashlyn Darpino, soprano | 7 p.m. | Hockett Family Recital Hall, Gym Rd
Muriel Anderson | 8 p.m. | Center for the Arts of Homer, 72 S Main St
Miri Yampolsky and Ariel Tushinsky: CU Music | 8 p.m. | Barnes Hall, 129 Ho Plaza | Free
Elective Recital: Alexa Chalnick, singer-songwriter at Nabenhauer Recital Room | 8:15 p.m.
Cornell Chorus Twilight Concert: CU Music | 6 p.m. | Bailey Hall, 230 Garden Ave. | $8.00 - $17.00
NYS Baroque presents Vivaldi North to South | 7:30 p.m. | First
Unitarian Society, 306 N. Aurora St. | $10.00 - $30.00
JONATHAN RICHMAN featuring TOMMY LARKINS on the drums | 8 p.m. | Hangar Theatre, 801 Taughannock Blvd. | $36.00
Junior Recital: Laura K. Van Voris, cello | 1 p.m. | Hockett Family Recital Hall, Gym Rd
Elective Recital: Ash Plummer, bassoon and Olivia Hawthorne, oboe at Nabenhauer Recital Room | 3 p.m.
Organist Rachel Laurin in Recital Premiering her Second Organ Sonata | 4 p.m. | St. Luke Lutheran Church, 109 Oak Avenue
Junior Recital: Zachary Kelly, baritone | 4 p.m. | Hockett Family Recital Hall, Gym Rd
Babylon Sisters - The Music of Steely Dan - CNY Songbirds | 4 p.m. | Center for the Arts of Homer, 72 S Main St | $29.00
Elective Recital: Nicholas Ionta, euphonium and David Castro, tuba at Nabenhauer Recital Room | 7 p.m.
Miri Yampolsky, Ariel Tushinsky, and Yuval Herz: CU Music | 8 p.m. | Barnes Hall, 129 Ho Plaza | Free
Faculty Recital: Richard Faria, clarinet | 8:15 p.m. | Hockett Family Recital Hall, Gym Rd
Renaissance | 8 p.m. | Center for the Arts of Homer, 72 S Main St
Elective Recital: Aubren Villasenor, violin and Katie Dursi, viola at Nabenhauer Recital Room | 8:15 p.m.
ABBA Mania | 8 p.m. | State Theatre of Ithaca, 107 West State St African Drumming and Dance at Ford Hall | 8:15 p.m.? Ithaca College
Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards Salon: CU Music | 5 p.m. | A.D. White House, 121 Presidents Dr | Free
Into The Woods | 8 p.m., 10/19 Wednesday | Ithaca College - Dillingham Center, Danby Rd | 10/19-10/27Check IC website for times and tickets. | $10.00 - $20.00
The Roast of the City of Ithaca Nothing Is O Limits | 6 p.m., 10/21 Friday | Rochester comedians Mark Maira and Shane Allen are teaming up with Ithaca’s funniest comedians to make some jokes at the City of Ithaca’s expense.
ComedyFLOPs 3rd Friday Improv Show To Support Loaves & Fishes | 7 p.m., 10/21 Friday | Virtual, https:// www.youtube.com/comedy ops | ComedyFLOPs’ 3rd Friday streaming Improv Shows in support of local area non-pro t organizations. This month we’re supporting Loaves & Fishes! | Free
Crankie Cabaret | 7:30 p.m., 10/21 Friday | The Cherry , 102 Cherry St | A variety show of Crankies, with live music, stories, art, puppets and absurd theatrics for adults! | $15.00 - $25.00
Hands Four Dancers of Ithaca Double Contra Dance | 4 p.m., 10/22 Saturday | Beverly J. Martin Elementary School, 302 West Bu alo St. | Hands Four Dancers of Ithaca double contra dance (4-6 pm challenging contras; 7:30-11 pm contras for all). | $12.00 - $26.00
Steven Wright: Live In Concert at The State Theatre of Ithaca | 8 p.m., 10/22 Saturday | State Theatre of Ithaca, 107 West State St | $25.00
The Mush Hole | 7:30 p.m., 10/28 Friday | Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, 430 College Ave | Cornell University welcomes the internationally-renown indigenous Canadian dance troupe Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, to perform their poignant and powerful theatrical dance performance, The Mush Hole. | Free Dark Stories in a Dark Room: The Norse Creation Myth | 7:30 p.m., 10/29 Saturday | Cherry Artspace, 102 Cherry Street | Come take part in a theatrical experiment in which storyteller Jay Leeming will perform the Norse Creation Myth in an entirely blacked-out theater, bringing alive a world of frost-giants, | $10.00$20.00
Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them | Kitchen Theatre , W. State St.| 7:30 p.m., 11/1 Tuesday |
Cornell Biennial “Between Nothingness and In nity” by Mellon Public Curatorial Expression at Human Ecology Building | 10 a.m., 10/19 Wednesday | Johnson Museum of Art, 114 Central Avenue | Funded by the Mellon Public Curatorial Expression Program and curated by Lauren Siegel, Sarah Then Bergh, Marie Lambert, and Romain Pasquer, Between Nothingness and In nity asks: What are the Cornell Biennial Screening of “The Ways of Folding Space & Flying” by Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho at Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art | 10 a.m., 10/19 Wednesday | Cornell University, 144 East Ave | Moving from global warming bunker to virtual highway, Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho situate their protagonist in a digital archival bubble that oats free of a future Venice inundated by warming
2022 Cornell Biennial: Ken Feingold Installation | 11 a.m., 10/19 Wednesday | Johnson Museum of Art, 114 Central Avenue | Experience Ken Feingold’s new media installation, “The Animal, Vegetable, Mineralness of Everything,” at the Johnson Museum of Art from July 18 through October 21, 2022. | Free 2022 Ink Shop Member Show | 1 p.m., 10/19 Wednesday | The Ink
Shop, 330 E. MLK/State St | Opening Reception 9/2. The Ink Shop launches a Member show annually giving our membership the opportunity to exhibit their newest work. | Free 2022 Cornell Biennial “At what point does the world unfold?” by Sara Jimenez at Goldwin Smith Hall | 10/19 Wednesday | Cornell University, 144 East Ave | At what point does the world unfold? is a new installation by Sara Jimenez on Cornell University’s Arts Quad.
Cornell Biennial “Circulating Matters” by Felix Heisel and Circular Construction Lab at Arts Quad | 10/19 Wednesday | Circulating Matters is an outdoor installation for the 2022 Cornell Biennial, Futurities, Uncertain, that identi es the potential of a future, local circular construction industry in Ithaca, New
Local Futurities | 10/19 Wednesday
| The Cherry Gallery, 130 Cherry St.
| This is a corollary exhibition to the 2022 Cornell Biennial, which tweaks the Biennial theme of Futurities Uncertain to highlight the vibrant artistic activity of our Upstate region. The exhibited artists were selected from a competitive regional call for submissions. Open Wed-Sat 12-4pm through 10/30. | $5.00 - $10.00
Between the Equinox | 12 p.m., 10/20 Thursday | State of the Art Gallery, 120 West State Street | Between the Equinox exhibit is a three artist show of Patricia Hunsinger, Guinevere Fullerton and Mary Ann Bowman that explores a range of societal issues.
| Free
Pop In Studio Night | 4 p.m., 10/20 Thursday | Artist Alley at South Hill Business Campus, 950 Danby Road | Several artists studios and the gallery will be open to the public every third Thursday from 4-7pm.
Artist Talk: Xu Bing | 5 p.m., 10/20 Thursday | Johnson Museum of Art, 114 Central Avenue | Xu Bing, an A. D. White Professor-at-Large and Cornell Biennial artist, will discuss his work . His talk is cosponsored by the Johnson Museum, the Cornell Council for the Arts, and the A.
Pop-Up Opera | 10:30 a.m., 10/22 Saturday | The Gallery at South Hill, 950 Danby Road | Pop-up Opera at The Gallery at South Hill. Opera Ithaca will be presenting a pop-up performance inside the gallery. “Interpretation of Line x 2”, a two woman exhibit by Ariel Bullion Ecklund and Domenica
Brockman will be on display while the opera performs. | Free Draw-A-Thon Cafe Fundraiser at the Trumansburg Conservatory of Fine Arts | 1 p.m., 10/23 Sunday | Trumansburg Conservatory of Fine Arts, 1 Congress St | Join us in celebrating the universal language of drawing! Art materials are provided for free and all skill levels are welcome. | Free
120 E. Green St., Ithaca
October 21-October 27, 2022.
Contact Cinemapolis for showtimes. New lms listed rst.*
Riotsville U.S.A.* | Welcome to Riotsville, a ctional town built by the US military. Using all archival footage, the lm explores the militarization of the police and creates a counternarrative to the nation’s reaction to the uprisings of the late ‘60s. | 91 NR
Triangle of Sadness* | A cruise for the super-rich sinks thus leaving survivors, including a fashion model celebrity couple, trapped on an island. | 150 mins R
Bros | Two men with commitment problems attempt a relationship.| 115 mins R
Don’t Worry Darling | A 1950s housewife living with her husband in a utopian experimental community begins to worry that his glamorous company could be hiding disturbing secrets. | 122 mins R
Pearl | The story of how Pearl became the vicious killer seen in “X”.| 102 mins R
See How They Run | In the West End of 1950s London, plans for a movie version of a smash-hit play come to an abrupt halt after a pivotal member of the crew is murdered.| 98 mins PG-13
Moonage Daydream | A cinematic odyssey exploring David Bowie’s creative and musical journey. From lmmaker Brett Morgen, and sanctioned by the Bowie estate.| 135 mins PG-13
All lms are shown at Willard Straight Hall on Cornell campus.
Nosferatu | 10/19, 7:15PM | This special centenary screening of the lm will be accompanied by the Austinbased The Invincible Czars performing their original score that incorporates parts of Bela Bartok’s Six Romanian Folk Dances and utilizes looping, samples, and e ects-laden vocals.
Dressed in Blue | 10/20 & 10/22 at 7:00PM | A group of transgender sex workers discuss with themselves and the audience the realities of their
transitions, their work, their loves and their lives.
Mr Klein | 10/20 at 9:00pm; 10/23, 7:00pm | In this “slow-burning French thriller,” Alain Delon plays Mr. Klein, a Catholic art dealer in 1942 Paris under German occupation, who uses the plight of local Jews to buy their Old Master paintings low, then sell high; that is until he is confused with another Mr. Klein, a Jew.
Sambizanga | 10/21 at 7:00pm; 10/23, 4:30pm | Based on a true story of a young resistance leader Domingos Xavier whose arrest by the Portuguese authorities helps ignite an anti-colonialist uprising and leads his determined wife Maria on an epic journey by foot to save him.
Thor: Love and Thunder | 10/21, 9:15PM; 10/22, 9:00pm | Thor’s retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher, who seeks the extinction of the gods.
Emmanuel Lefrant: The Secret Forms of Emulsion | 10/24, 7:30PM |
Emmanuel Lefrant lives and works in Paris, where he makes lms, all selfproduced, exclusively on celluloid. The lms lie on the idea of representing, of revealing an invisible world (the secret forms of emulsion), a nature that one does not see.
Dog Star Man |10/26, 7:30PM |
This rare 16mm screening of Stan Brakhage’s Dog Star Man will be
Moore Family Farm Fall Festival at Moore Family Farm | 10 a.m., 10/22 Saturday | Come get lost in our “Let Freedom Ring” theme corn maze, pick the perfect pumpkin from the patch, test your aim at our apple cannons, bounce on the giant pumpkin, and take instagram worthy Trunk or Treat at the YMCA | 3 p.m., 10/22 Saturday | YMCA of Ithaca and Tompkins County, 50 Graham Road West | Outside the YMCA, Trunk or Treaters of all ages will nd a variety of fun activities, goodies from local community organizations, a costume contest, and more. | Free Cayuga Club Toastmasters Open House | 5:30 p.m., 10/24 Monday | Riley-Robb Hall at Cornell University, Cornell University, 111 Wing Drive,
Cornell Men’s Ice Hockey vs University of Guelph - Exhibition Game | 10/20 Thursday | Ithaca, N.Y., Lynah Rink | C
Cornell Women’s Ice Hockey vs Mercyhurst University | 6 p.m., 10/21 Friday | Ithaca, N.Y., Lynah Rink |
Ithaca Volleyball vs Vassar College | 7 p.m., 10/21 Friday | Ben Light Gymnasium |
Cornell Sprint Football vs Chestnut Hill College | 7 p.m., 10/21 Friday | Ithaca, NY, Schoellkopf Field |
Cornell Women’s Polo vs University of Connecticut | 7 p.m., 10/21 Friday | Ithaca, N.Y., Oxley Equestrian Center |
Cornell Men’s Cross Country vs John Reif Memorial | 10/21 Friday | Ithaca, N.Y., Moakley Course |
Cornell Women’s Cross Country vs John Reif Memorial | 10/21 Friday | Ithaca, N.Y., Moakley Course |
Ithaca Women’s Soccer vs Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | 2 p.m., 10/22 Saturday | Carp Wood Field |
Ithaca Volleyball vs Bard College | 2 p.m., 10/22 Saturday | Ben Light Gymnasium |
Cornell Field Hockey vs University of Louisville | 11 a.m., 10/23 Sunday | Ithaca, NY, Dodson Field |
Ithaca Field Hockey vs William Smith College | 1 p.m., 10/23 Sunday | Higgins Stadium |
Ithaca Men’s Soccer vs RIT | 4 p.m., 10/25 Tuesday | Carp Wood Field |
Ithaca Field Hockey vs Nazareth College | 4 p.m., 10/26 Wednesday | Higgins Stadium |
Seniors & Students Day, Friends of the Library BOOK SALE | 10 a.m., 10/19 Wednesday | Seniors Day & Students Night at the Friends of the Library Book Sale: On Wednesday, Oct 19, seniors (age 60+ or anyone with a disability) may shop from 10am to 4pm.
Award Winners Book Club | 1:30 p.m., 10/19 Wednesday | Tompkins County Public Library, 101 East Green Street |
Author Visit with Mary E. Maki | 10:30 a.m., 10/20 Thursday | New eld Public Library, 198 Main Street | Mystery writer Mary E. Maki’s history began in the Finger Lakes. She joins us October 20 for a lively discussion via zoom to discuss her writings and her life. Her books include “An Unexpected Death,” “Fatal Dose,” “The Death of Cassie White,” and recent mystery novel, “Deadly Secrets.” | Free
A Generative Poetry Workshop: Crafting Memory in the Moment | 11 a.m., 10/20 Thursday | Tompkins County Public Library, 101 East Green Street |
The Richard Cleaveland Memorial Reading by Sandeep Parmar | 5 p.m., 10/20 Thursday | RhodesRawlings Auditorium, G70 Klarman Hall, 232 Feeney Way | Join us for the third event of the Fall 2022 Barbara & David Zalaznick Reading Series featuring Zalaznick Distinguished Visiting Writer, Poet & Critic Sandeep Parmar. | Free
Friends of TCPL Book Sale at 509 Esty Street | 10 a.m., 10/22 Saturday
| Tompkins County Public Library, 101 East Green Street |
Storyteller’s Gathering | 3 p.m., 10/22 Saturday | Covenstead Workspaces, 203 N. Aurora St | Literary Workshop “Storyteller’s Gathering” With Local Author Annie Westphal on Saturday, October 22 at 3 PM at Covenstead Workspaces (203 N. Aurora St., Ithaca). | $0.00 - $10.00
Open Mic Night at Center for the Arts | 7 p.m., 10/25 Tuesday | Center for the Arts of Homer, 72 S Main St | Want to play music to a live audience? Have you crafted a poem or short story you’d like to share or want to tell some jokes? Come join us Tuesday nights for a weekly Open Mic!
S.T.E.A.M. Book Club: Sal & Gabi Break the Universe | 3:45 p.m., 10/26 Wednesday | Tompkins County Public Library, 101 East Green Street |
LEGO Club | 4 p.m., 10/19 Wednesday
| Cortland Free Library, 32 Church St | Come join our Lego club & have some building fun! Each session we’ll have a challenge & a game. LEGO Club meets on the rst & third Wednesday of each month at 4 p.m.
Preschool Story Time | 10:30 a.m., 10/20 Thursday | Cortland Free Library, 32 Church St | Stories, songs, and activities with a di erent theme each week. All ages are welcome but this program is designed for children ages 3-5 yrs. Registration is recommended for each child.
Groton Public Library Storytime at Groton Public Library | 6 p.m., 10/20 Thursday | Join the Library for a monthly storytime. This months theme is around The Winter Olympics.
Friday November 11, from 4-7pm. FREE MINI-TREATMENTS, classes, and demos featuring acupuncture, osteopathy, massage, craniosacral therapy, martial arts, yoga, and breathing class. Located at NINE RIVERS OSTEOPATHY @ 407 Taughannock Blvd in Ithaca. Experience traditional healing arts...get back to
best for the
OCM BOCES Special Education program has a substitute opening located at the Cortlandville McEvoy Campus. The successful candidates will provide individual and group counseling to K-12 students, as well as provide support for the program team in developing positive, poractive interventions. NYS certification as a School So cial Worker is required. Anticipated employment starting on or about October 10, 2022, through December 23, 2022. Register and apply: www. olasjobs.org/central. For more information, visit our website at www.ocmboces.org. EOE
BathWraps is
for
who are
but
Call 866-531-2432
Chemical Engineer (Dimensional Energy, Inc., Ithaca, NY): Duties include: Modeling of chemi cal reactors, reactions, materials properties, and performance. Optimization of catalysts and reactions involving reverse water gas shift reactions. Use of COMSOL, Python, Excel and other programs. Onsite operation of test reactors. Requires: Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering. Send resume to: Dan Cogan, Chief Operating Officer, Dimensional Energy, Inc., 409 Weill Hall, 526 Campus Rd., Ithaca, NY 14853.
Ithaca Times is seeking an experienced journal ist with strong organization, reporting, and edit ing skills. You would oversee both the news and arts & entertainment sections of our community weekly. Duties include copy editing all content, layout coordination, reporting, feature and edito rial writing. You need to develop stories, plan several weeks ahead, and set the course for the editorial direction of the newspaper. A staff reporter and several freelancers report directly to you. You must have a strong sense of place to do this job; the Ithaca Times is about Ithaca and Ithaca is fascinating. Respond with cover letter, writing samples, and resume to jbilinski@ ithacatimes.com and Larry@ithacatimes.com.
Up to $21.09 NYC; $20.22 LI; $15.20 Upstate NY! If you need care from your relative, friend or neighbor and you have Medicaid, they may be eligible to start taking care of you as personal assistant under NYS Medicaid CDPA Program. No Certificates needed. 347-713-3553 (NYSCAN)
Ithaca-based business seeks video editor for social media shoot. Contact Michael@ curiousyellow.com
Love what you do at Wegmans Food Market. 607-277-5800, Ithaca, 500 S. Meadow St., Ithaca, NY 14850
Teachers assistants, Substitutes. Starting pay $15-16/hour. $500 hiring bonus. More informa tion at www.icthree.org or call 607-257-0200, Ithaca Community Childcare Center, 579 Warren Rd, Ithaca, NY 14850.
OCM BOCES Career and Technical Education program has the need for a Teaching Assistant at the Cortlandville Campus, Cortland. Success ful candidate will provide teacher support with group and individual instruction to High School students in both the CTE Cosmetology class room and lab settings. NYS Teaching Assistant certification is required. NYS Cosmetology License preferred. Applications accepted online only. Register and apply by 9/30/2022 at: www. olasjobs.org/central. For information, please visit our website at: www.ocmboces.org EOE
The Southern Cayuga School District is seeking applicants for school bus drivers and substitute school bus drivers. Full-time (27.5 hours) bus drivers receive a competitive wage and benefit package, including health and dental insurance. We offer competitive wages for substitute bus drivers and offer paid bus driver training. Apply online. Go to southerncayuga.org/644, click on the Support Staff application in the right column.
Southern Cayuga Central School, 2384 Route 34B, Aurora NY 13026. SCCS EOE.
for
They
With 2 Year
Call 888508-5313 (NYSCAN)
Single Ch 7 Bankruptcy $599 Legal Fee
Res Real Estate Closing $599 Legal Fee Auto Accident, Slip Fall Injury, Wills Mark Gugino 144 Bald Hill Danby NY Bk@twcny.rr.com or 607-207-0888 Attorney Advertising Debt Relief
PAYING TOP CA$H FOR MEN’S SPORT WATCHES! Rolex, Breitling, Omega, Patek Philippe, Heuer, Daytona, GMT, Submariner and Speedmaster. Call 888-320-1052 (ANN CAN)
Reduce payment by up to 50%! Get one Low affordable payment/month. Reduce interest. Stop calls. FREE no-obligation consultation, call: 1-855-761-1456 (AAN CAN)
ARE YOU BEHIND $10K OR MORE ON YOUR TAXES? Stop wage & bank levies, liens & au dits, unfiled tax returns, payroll issues, & resolve tax debt FAST. Call 888-869-5361 (hours: Mon-Fri 7am-5pm PST) (NYSCAN)
Eliminate gutter cleaning forever! LeafFilter, the most advanced debris-blocking gutter protection. Schedule a FREE LeafFilter estimate today. 15% off and 0% financing for those who qualify. PLUS Senior & Military Discounts. Call 1-877-763-2379. (NYSCAN)
Never Pay For Covered Home Repairs Again! American Residential Warranty covers ALL MAJOR SYSTEMS AND APPLIANCES. 30 Day Risk Free/ $100 OFF POPULAR PLANS. 833-398-0526
Spectrum Internet as low as $29.99, call to see if you qualify for ACP and free internet. No Credit Check! Call Now! 833-955-0905 (ANN CAN)
Home IT/home automation support services. I come to you to help with new projects, or to sort out pesky gadget configuration issues with PCs / laptops, printers that won’t print, Alexa (con necting to power strips, lights, doorbells, locks, AC etc), poor or intermittent wi-fi, networking is sues, NAS devices etc. www.graybeardgeek.org
LONG DISTANCE MOVING: Call today for a FREE QUOTE from America’s Most Trusted Interstate Movers. Let us take the stress out of moving! Call now to speak to one of our Quality Relocation Specialists: Call 855-787-4471
For
119 West Court St., Ithaca 607-273-1511 tclifelong.org
Macintosh
http://www.allaboutmacs.com (607) 280-4729
ANIMALS
LAND & SEA FingerLakesAnimalRights.org
Ithaca City School District 150 Bostwick Rd, Ithaca 607-274-2128
CASCADILLA SCHOOL
4 to 1 Student to Faculty
607-272-3110
CLEANING SERVICES
RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL JANITORIAL* FLOOR * CARPET INDEPENDENCE CLEANERS CORP 607-227-3025 / 607-697-3294
Are you or someone in your home su ering from Allergy
Asthma? Have your heating ducts
to remove Dust, Fungi, Mites, Lint & Sout.
now before heating season starts.
ANCHEATING.COM (607) 273-1009
Welcome Shop at the COOP
Service Grocery
GREENSTAR FOOD CO+OP 770 Cascadilla St., Ithaca
FLYITHACA.COM
Convenient-Clean-Connected
e New Ithaca Times Mobile App Available in Appstore & Google Play
ITHACA NEWS
Delivered to your inbox every day Ithaca Times Daily Text ITHACA to 22828 to Sign up
ITHACA TAX SERVICE
Quali ed, Competent, Caring
Years Experience
Enrolled Agent of the IRS 607-339-0532
LOOKING FOR WORK? WE ARE HIRING VISIT US ONLINE www.wgaforchildren.org or call 607-844-6460
THE WILLIAM GEORGE AGENCY
BOOST YOUR FALL BUSINESS Call Larry at 607-277-7000 ext: 1214
Find out about great advertising ad packages at: Ithaca.com & Ithaca Times
Men’s and Women’s Alterations for over 20 years Fur & Leather repair, zipper repair. Same Day Service Available John’s Tailor Shop
John Serferlis - Tailor 102 e Commons 273-3192
New, Used & Vintage Instruments & Accessories
ITHACA GUITAR WORKS DEWITT MALL 607-272-2602
No Long waits for Dermatology Appointments Finger Lakes Dermatology Brad Yentzer, MD, FAAD 607-708-1330 ngerlakesderm.com
Ooy’s Cafe & Deli 201 N. Aurora Street Ithaca, NY 14850 (607) 319-4022
** Peaceful Spirit Tai Chi **
Yang style all levels Fridays 6-7 pm at NY Friends House 120 3rd St., Ithaca 607-272-0114
Rebuilt, Reconditioned, Bought, Sold, Moved, Tuned, Rented
Complete Rebuilding Services
No job too big or too small Ithaca Piano Rebuilders (607) 272-6547
950 Danby Rd, Suite 26 South Hill Business Campus, Ithaca
Upgrade your home with replacement windows, we manufacture and install.
SOUTH SENECA VINYL 315-585-6050
REAL LIFE CEREMONIES
Every life story deserves to be told, and told well. Steve Lawrence, Celebrant 607-564-7149
WEGMANS FOOD MARKET NOW HIRING 607- 277-5800
500 S. Meadow St., Ithaca JOB.WEGMANS.COM
308 E. Seneca St * Ithaca 845-244-0868