VOL. XLIII / NO. 52 / August 23, 2023
Serving 47,125 readers weekly
On August 16, Cornell University announced that it would not be renewing its contracts with Starbucks and that it would be working with the student assembly dining committee to find a new coffee vendor for the school. The change likely won’t take effect until the current contract expires in June 2025.
The announcement comes months after the student assembly passed a resolution calling on the university to stop participating in the “We Proudly Serve Starbucks” program in response to Starbucks closing all three locations in Ithaca after workers unionized.
A statement signed by students, faculty, and community members to support ending the program said, “By selling Starbucks products… Cornell is actively using student tuition to support rampant union-busting… If Starbucks wants out of Ithaca, Ithaca wants nothing to do with Starbucks.”
Following Starbucks’ decision to shut down its Ithaca locations, Cornell students organized protests against the university’s
relationship with Starbucks, which saw students occupy Cornell’s administrative offices inside Day Hall before university police kicked them out.
In a statement following the announcement Cornell’s Vice President of University Relations, Joel Malina, said, “Cornell Dining does not intend to serve Starbucks Coffee in its café venues after the current agreement with the company expires in 2025.” The statement continued saying, “As President Martha Pollack mentioned in her response to a
This summer the Cayuga Lake Watershed Network is celebrating 25 years of stewardship for our region’s water resources. The Anniversary Celebration will be held on Thursday, August 24th, 6:00-8:30 pm at the Cayuga Shoreline event center in Interlaken.
Over the past quarter-century, Cayuga Lake Watershed Network volunteers, members, and staff have been at the forefront of protecting the ecological integrity of our home for people and nature. In August 1998, the Network’s first official meeting
was organized by community members with the vision of fostering a sustainable future for the watershed for generations to come. Since then, the organization has become a trusted leader in community engagement and advocacy; continuously informing and engaging our communities in the complex process of protecting Cayuga Lake and its creeks.
In honor of this milestone, the Anniversary Celebration will include a look back at programmatic and advocacy successes over
related Student Assembly (SA) resolution, Cornell Dining — in consultation with the Student Assembly Dining Services Committee — will initiate an inclusive process to select its next coffee product offerings and to ensure a smooth transition to a new vendor in 2025.”
Cornell’s decision not to renew their contracts with the multi-billion dollar coffee chain comes in the wake of a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling on July 7, stating that the closure of the Starbucks on College Ave “was done in large part or discourage unionization efforts in Ithaca and elsewhere.”
The College Ave location was the first of three Starbucks locations in Ithaca that voted to unionize in 2022, making Ithaca
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l arry h o C hberger , a SS o C iat E p ubli S h E r , x 1214 larry @ i thaca t im E s com
F r EE lan CE r S : Barbara Adams, Stephen Burke, G. M Burns, Alyssa Denger, Jane Dieckmann, Charley Githler, Ross Haarstad, Steve Lawrence, Marjorie Olds, Henry Stark, Bryan VanCampen, and Arthur Whitman
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the years and a look forward toward priorities during this era of rapid change. Members and nonmembers alike are encouraged to attend. This is a great opportunity to connect with friends around the lake and a chance for everyone to learn more about the organization’s legacy and ways to help protect Cayuga Lake.
To join the Network for an evening of good company, dinner, and celebration pre-register online at www.cayugalake.org. For more information contact: Molly Newman, Program Associate, programs@cayugalake.org or call 315-367-4805.
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“Cornell Dining does not intend to serve Starbucks Coffee in its café venues after the current agreement with the company expires in 2025.”
— Joel Malina
The Common Council has approved a resolution that will see the City of Ithaca partner with global consulting firm KPMG to create flood risk simulations for areas of the city impacted by the expansion of flood zones in the 2022 FEMA flood maps. The partnership is part of KPMG’s pilot netzero urban program and will come at no cost to the city for the remainder of 2023.
The resolution passed by the Common Council said that KPMG will work with the city to develop visual simulations of “peak flood levels, approximation of receding time for peak flood levels, simulations of disruption of emergency services, expected evacuation needs in the event of a flood, and other simulations related to flooding as dictated by planning and DPW staff.”
Director of Sustainability for the City of Ithaca, Rebecca Evans, has been in conversation with representatives from KPMG for the last several months and answered questions from members of the Common Council before the resolution was approved.
Evans told the Common Council that initial conversations with KPMG focused on building electrification and modeling of the grid, but “after hearing a lot from the community and talking with DPW and planning staff, it became apparent that flooding is a top priority for our residents.”
According to Evans, many residents are concerned about the risk to their properties and being priced out of their homes due to being required to purchase flood insurance. Due to these concerns, Evans said that her conversations with KPMG changed to focus more on “trying to supplement the modeling and mitigation strategies that DPW and planning staff are already exploring.”
With the help of KPMG and their partnership with Augment City — a private entity that specializes in digital modeling — city officials will be able to develop simulations that can accurately depict the impact that potential floods will have on specific locations. This will allow residents to improve preparations by raising the height of mechanical equipment in their basements, among other things.
The partnership will involve training city staff to maintain the data and tools used to run the simulations. As a result, the city can run additional simulations for other projects without the help of KPMG or Augment City.
Evans told the Common Council that “the funding runs out for this program at the end of this year, so it’s in KPMG’s best interest to start moving things along, and if we want to take advantage of these programs and services, then it’s to our advantage as well.”
Third Ward Alderperson Donna Fleming questioned the priorities of KPMG, saying, “KPMG is in the business of making lots of money, so what’s in this for them?”
Evans responded by saying that KPMG will be doing this pro-bono project in Ithaca throughout the rest of 2023 to build experience for what they are planning to sell to other communities around the world as a consulting service.
“[KPMG] has an arm specifically focused on infrastructure and decarbonization, and I believe that they’re trying to build out that experience and provide a pilot that shows real value,” Evans said.
She continued, “If they intend to charge millions of dollars for a service like this, then they’re not going to get anywhere, and neither are the cities that are trying to decarbonize.” Evans added that city staff and community partners have made it clear to KPMG that their services must
remain affordable if the city continues working with them beyond 2023.
The partnership would come at no cost to the city for the remainder of 2023, and Evans explained that the city “would be able to keep the licenses to the software after that.” However, she added that “consulting on policy and infrastructure would no longer be included, so if we wanted to continue that, we would have to pay for it.”
First Ward Alderperson Cynthia Brock expressed concerns about the potential for simulations to be run using inaccurate data, saying that she would feel more comfortable moving forward after receiving input from experts in the county that are already doing work on flood mitigation and analysis.
“I see the opportunity here, but I would like to have the input of individuals in the country with expertise because I think the last thing we want to do is have a simulation that goes public and have it based on erroneous data,” Brock said. She added, “I would like the opportunity to do more vetting into the organization before making any commitment.”
Despite questioning the priorities of KPMG, Alderperson Fleming said that “Given the tight time frame described, I would be okay with moving this along if the majority [of council] is, but I would want it to be with the explicit goal of helping the city and the county” Fleming continued saying, “If at any point it becomes apparent that city staff are using time to help KPMG develop their products, then that’s time to pull the plug.”
Fleming says, “If we can take advantage of a free service to the benefit of the city and our sister communities who are also at flood risk, it’s fine with me, given that caution.”
“The funding runs out for this program at the end of this year, so it’s in KPMG’s best interest to start moving things along, and if we want to take advantage of these programs and services then it’s to our advantage as well.” — Director of Sustainability for the City of Ithaca, Rebecca Evans
The City of Ithaca has been working for several months to develop a plan to regulate where homeless residents are and aren’t allowed to camp within the city. A working group consisting of several members of the Common Council came up with a draft plan that called for creating green zones where people would be allowed to camp, along with amber and red zones where camping would not be permitted.
The draft plan states that Green zones where camping would temporarily be permitted would be located in the area behind Walmart and Lowes, which is the 90-acre city owned property formerly known as Southwest Park. Amenities such as bathrooms and showers would be provided to unhoused residents camping in the green zone.
According to the draft plan camping would be “strictly prohibited” within the red zone, which includes the area between Cecil A. Malone Drive and Taber Street and the 4.3 acre city-owned 119 Brindley Street parcel, as well as “any areas under active city use for public or municipal functions,” such as the commons, parks, sidewalks, and public parking areas.
While camping in amber zones is also prohibited, the draft plan indicates that there is a lower priority for enforcement in these areas. The plan says that enforcement of camping bans in amber zones would be “triggered by specific negative impacts of particular campsites rather than mere presence of a campsite.” According to the plan, amber zones would be classified as all areas of the city that aren’t green or red zones.
The plan was initially scheduled to be voted on at the August 16 Planning and Economic Development Commit-
tee (PEDC) meeting, but the meeting's agenda was changed before it began to make the draft plan a discussion item that would not be voted on. Third Ward Alderperson Gob Gearhart said he hopes to “bring [the plan] back so that we can vote on it next month.”
The draft plan has been at the center of an intense debate between community members and elected officials regarding whether or not the proposal would criminalize homelessness. Supporters of the project, like First Ward Alderperson George McGonigal, have insisted that the plan doesn’t criminalize homelessness because it involves creating a sanctioned area with amenities like bathrooms and showers where camping would be allowed, which currently doesn’t exist within the city.
In addition, residents from Nates Floral Estates — a mobile home park near the encampments — have supported the plan because they see it as the city taking a step towards addressing an increase in criminal activity that has spilled over from the encampments and impacted the predominantly elderly neighborhood.
Others who oppose the plan, such as the Ithaca Tenants Union, have stressed that it does criminalize homelessness because it involves enforcing camping restrictions in certain amber and red zone areas through issuing non-criminal tickets to those who don’t comply with the restrictions. Tenants Union member, Katie Sims, spoke during the public comment period of the meeting, saying that if those non-criminal tickets are missed, “the standard procedure is the issuance for a warrant of arrest, which is a criminal charge.”
Before the meeting, the Ithaca Tenants Union submitted a petition to the commit-
The Varna Volunteer Fire Company has been awarded a grant of $121,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) program. This funding will be used to purchase approximately 20 new Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA), a crucial advancement in our firefighting capabilities.
Downs
Reports of burglaries are increasing in Tompkins County. The Department of Emergency Response received 42 calls relating to burglaries in July, nearly double what was received in June.
tee explaining their opposition to the draft plan. The petition included signatures from 549 community members.
The draft plan has indicated that outreach workers could potentially be used to warn individuals camping in amber or red zones that they should move to the green zone to receive amenities and avoid further interactions with law enforcement, but outreach workers have indicated that they do not want to be used as an enforcement mechanism for the plan.
Outreach worker Natalya Cowlich opposed the plan saying that it would undermine the work outreach workers are doing to build trust with unhoused residents and connect them with the social services they need. According to Cowlich, “The really important part of what we do and how our services work is that it’s voluntary…We don’t force people to do anything. I’ve never seen good results in any social work where you’re forcing somebody to do something.”
Currently, camping is not allowed anywhere within the city, but that policy has never been enforced because the city has been reluctant to utilize its understaffed police force to implement the policy. As a result, questions have come up regarding how the city would manage to enforce an effective camping ban in proposed amber and red zones.
In an attempt to make matters more simple, several members of the committee seemed to agree on editing the draft plan to get rid of the amber zones entirely and make everywhere that is not a green zone into a red zone. Fourth Ward Alderperson Tiffany Kumar said, “My issue with the amber zone is that it relies on citizen complaints…[which] can be problematic.”
According to Kumar, “We don’t know what would cause somebody to call the police on somebody who’s camping based on
Senator Lea Webb’s Back to School Supply Drive for Teachers will be accepting contributions until August 30. Tompkins County Locations are Lansing YWCA (50 Graham Rd W, Ithaca, NY 14850)
Southside Community Center (305 S Plain St, Ithaca, NY 14850)
Senator Webb's Ithaca District Office (217 N. Aurora Street, Ithaca, NY 14850)
Seen
On August 21, Senator Lea Webb and her team, local elected officials, and community members celebrated the grand opening of the first New York State Senate office located in Tompkins County in more than a decade.
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.”
How do you feel about an unelected City Manager being the new CEO of the City starting on January 1, 2024?
20.8% Good. The City Manager will improve government operations. 52.2% Bad. It creats more unnecessary bureaucracy.
30.4% I don’t care.
“The really important part of what we do and how our services work is that it’s voluntary… We don’t force people to do anything. I’ve never seen good results in any kind of social work where you’re forcing somebody to do something.”
— Natalya Cowlich
Ienter Ithaca every other weekend via Rt. 79 and then take Rt. 96. The streets coming into Ithaca are appalling. Considering there are a vast amount of tourists, I am really surprised by the condition of the streets coming into Ithaca. You practically have to crawl in order to not destroy your tires and/or tire rods. The two private colleges bring a lot of money to the town and which means that there would be funding to fix the streets.
— Fran SalaWe enjoyed reading Marjorie Olds’ article “Back to School” in the August 16, 2023 Ithaca Times. We know firsthand about Dr. Angela DiFrancesco’s “upbeat, energetic, engaged manner.” How fortunate we are to be working with her as well as Brian Burns, Alexandra Rosin and Anne Reilley of Reilley Physical Therapy. Each one is a dedicated, knowledgeable, and
As I sit on my porch on South Hill reading of the devastating wildfire in Hawaii, I raise my eyes to take in the beauty of the woods that surround my home on all sides. Today the leaves are a lush green, lulling me into a calm complacency that “it can’t happen here”. Or can it? How many stories have we seen in recent years of natural disasters in areas where they haven’t happened before?
We have entered into a “new normal” regarding potential disasters from floods, fires and other climate catastrophes. We party on in complacency at our own peril.
I started wondering if Tompkins County would be ready if our treasured forests turned on us in such a deadly manner. Do we have an early warning communication system in place? Have our various fire departments prepared to fight forest fires and not house fires, and what is the backup plan if our local resources are inadequate to the task? —
David Moriahin October”
“I feel that, coming from a staff writer, this piece should inform the reader on how this issue uniquely affects
Ithacans. Instead, I finished feeling frustrated that the staff writer uses the topic to inflict their own opinion on readers by selective use of facts and narrative.
Firstly, Matt gives a slanted view of the legal arguments involved, chalking the result up to a “conservative majority” on the Supreme Court. Matt states “Supporters of the forgiveness plan and the court's liberal Justices insisted that the HEROES Act allowed the President to direct the Secretary of Education to eliminate a portion of student debt for some individuals”, but this is not entirely true. Matt completely glosses over the fact the President himself and many supporters in his political party publicly doubted the legal ability of the Executive to forgive student loan debt. It was on dubious legal grounds to begin with, and the President was aware of that. The court ruled correctly.
The President feigning surprise at the ruling then is political pandering. According to a 2022 midterm poll by the Student Borrower Protection Center and Seven Letter Insight, “Among voters aged between 18 and 29 who cast a ballot, 77 percent of voters said that student debt relief was a motivating factor, with 47 percent saying it was very motivating and 12 percent saying it was the only reason they voted”.
Is Matt angry at all that the President basically bribed and duped young voters?
Matt trudges on with the “right-wing radicalization” boogeyman when he states forgiveness is dead with a Republican majority in the house, but somehow forgets that both Houses including the Democrat-majority Senate passed bills earlier this year to repeal the student loan relief plan. He forgets too that the President had strong Democrat majorities in both houses until the mid-terms when he could have worked with Congress to legally pass student debt relief. The President obviously didn’t.
Matt proceeds to cast his personal speculation on various arguments against student loan cancellation. He attempts to reason that, because college is more expensive today, the “I paid off my loans, they should pay off theirs” argument of yesteryear’s is invalid. Does Matt apply that logic to all debts? Because I have a car loan I'd like to talk to him about.
Finally he enters pretzel logic diatribe on a number of things including how he doesn’t think forgiveness will benefit white rich people. Over and over Matt confounds numbers, facts, and averages to fit his view. He claims for example that “the Federal Reserve was pumping up to $1 trillion into the financial system every
day” during the pandemic, but when you follow the link Matt himself provides you find that banks had “…not borrowed nearly as much as the New York Fed is offering, and the loans are quickly repaid”. Then, like a jealous gossiper, Matt talks about how much we spend on the military industrial complex but won’t just forgive student loans. Because we’re willing to waste on the one, we should be willing to spend on the other is Matt’s logic.
I think only a small portion of the American public spend this way, and many of them live in D.C. and spend other people’s money. They’ve put us collectively $30 trillion into debt, and student debt forgiveness only transfers some of the debt of 40 million individuals to the greater 330 million. Not very democratic or fair. Furthermore, it does nothing to address the root cause of the issue, and in the end basically amounts to political bribery. As for the piece: I’m less likely to read the Ithaca Times when opinion is presented as fact by the staff.”
— Jason Evans“Thanks, Jason! It’s always a wild ride through the mind of conservative who think that predatory loan programs should be paid back in full with interest for the rest of someone’s life for a simple bachelor’s degree. The mental gymnastics it took wore me out! Seems like someone like you who is so “anti-government” would big a huge proponent in NOT paying anything back to the federal loans– FAFSA. But then I’m guessing you’d have to one day make the logical leap that the federal gov’t pawns these loans off to private companies and that might make you a little ... uneasy. You know, to admit, that privatised corporations (your emblem of the free-market!!!) and the United States Government are one in the same??? What’s next? That your heroes– Reagan, Bush, and Trump, used free-market narratives to convert you blue collar workers into trusting their monopolistic economic control?
Make no mistake, I fully understand that Biden is a lukewarm moderate inept at providing any real change. But your delusion that the government of the united states of america is not inextricably tied into multinational corporate interests, harms all americans, and is a blight against a true democracy just proves how you are unable to make the most logical of all conclusions — $$$ is the only thing they care about, not you, the red, white, or blue.” —
Chris JohnsThe Hidden Costs
In his pathbreaking 1971 book, The Closing Circle, Barry Commoner proposed four laws of ecology: Everything is connected to everything else; Everything must go somewhere; Nature knows best; There is no such thing as a free lunch. We are inclined to forget that any technology designed to make life better comes with a cost—not just a monetary cost but also a cost in health, psychology, the environment, or social values.
Remember all the promises of nuclear energy? All benefit and no (announced) cost. So it is now with electric vehicles as an antidote to the climate crisis.
EVs require six times the mineral input of an ordinary car. Mainly because of the heavy lithium battery, EV production releases nearly 70 percent more greenhouse gases than are produced in an ordinary car’s manufacture.
Lithium and other battery mineral components require extensive mining. The expanding international competition over access to these minerals is not yielding riches for mine workers and landowners, only devastation of local environments, health and safety concerns for miners, and exceptional profits for global corporations and the governments that preside over the mines.
Besides lithium, cobalt, bauxite, and nickel are also crucial for batteries; they are mined in various parts of Africa and Latin America. Hence the international scramble, a familiar story that has played out with fossil fuels extracted from the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia, to the overwhelming benefit of the oil companies and the repressive governments that invited them in.
As a New York Times graphic shows, China dominates the supply chain in all phases of EVs—from mining and processing the key minerals to assembling the battery cells and manufacturing the autos. China has a controlling interest, about 80 percent, in the processing of lithium, manganese, cobalt, nickel, and graphite, as well as the manufacture of battery components.
How to get past China’s chokehold on minerals is the subject of ongoing
international discussions that involve the US, the European Union, Japan, Canada, and Australia. In May, at the most recent G7 meetings in Hiroshima, the members agreed to take the first steps toward cooperating on reducing dependence on Chinese supplies.
Agreements will not be easy to negotiate or implement, however, for at least two reasons. Making the supply chain more secure—meaning more secure from China—would also require that corporations that normally compete would have to share supplies. Politically, a formidable obstacle is the human rights and environmental policies of the host countries. Working closely with those governments will (and should) arouse criticism, in much the same way that getting in bed with Middle East autocrats has been controversial.
Forming a “critical minerals club,” one of several proposals being considered by the US, the EU, and other countries, leaves open the question of the club’s rules when it comes to labor and environmental standards. As we have seen in various trade agreements, such as NAFTA, imposing those standards raises political problems both within and between the parties.
As for the producing countries, such as Indonesia, high international demand is an invitation to create an OPEC-style cartel so as to gain greater revenue from investing companies. Those countries have every incentive, as the OPEC countries have shown, to discount human rights. As a cartel, OPEC has the power to ensure that human rights and environmental concerns never feature in pumping and marketing agreements with the major oil companies.
EVs are obviously going to be around for a good while. Consumers have spoken; everywhere you turn, EVs comprise a fastgrowing proportion of car sales. Governments are cranking up subsidies and tax breaks for manufacturers and buyers.
Lithium battery investment and production capacity are likewise growing exponentially. Yet all that effort will be eclipsed before very long. That’s when solid-state batteries replace lithium batteries and hydrogen becomes the fuel of choice. Meantime, gas-powered vehicles
By Charley Githler
Every now and then a property becomes available that makes me wish I weren’t so comfortably ensconced in my own house. The Miller-Heller House, on Eddy Street, is such a property. William Henry Miller, Ithaca’s most celebrated architect, built the house and lived in it for over 40 years, and it’s what you would imagine the home of a creative, curious, artistic person to be like. It’s historic, gorgeous, loaded with possibilities, and for sale.
William Henry Miller, was born into a prosperous farming family in 1848 in Trenton (now Barneveld), New York, a tiny hamlet near Rome. He was a member of Cornell’s inaugural class in 1868, but had a varied and considerable educational background before coming to Ithaca, having received private instruction and having studied at the Mechanicsville Academy and the highly-regarded Clinton Liberal Institute. Cornell, at the time he entered, didn’t have an Architecture program, and though he took courses in Art and Drafting, probably the most important thing he did while at the university was to establish a deep and lasting friendship with president Andrew Dickson White. Not exactly an autodidact, he took this patchwork education and forged a remarkable career, leaving Cornell after two years and starting his architecture practice in 1871.
It didn’t take long, with the connections he had cultivated, to get commissions remodeling and then designing houses and buildings in Ithaca and at the university. His house on Eddy Street he designed and had built in 1876. At the time, there were only five other structures on Eddy Street.
For most of the next 45 years, his office was in the Sage Building on East State Street (designed by Miller), upstairs from where Paris Baguette is now. Over the course of that time, he remodeled or designed at least 90 hoses and buildings in Ithaca, mostly on East Hill, the Cornell Campus, and downtown. More than half still survive, and it is no hyperbole to suggest that the look and feel of the City of Ithaca owes as much to Miller as to any individual.
In a long and distinguished career, he designed scores of public buildings familiar to Ithacans. By no means a complete list, but on Cornell’s campus, Uris Library (where his portrait hangs), Barnes Hall and Stimson Hall come to mind. There are the Unitarian Church, the First Baptist Church, the Old High School (now DeWitt Mall) downtown. His residential work ranged from mansions to fraternity houses to smaller homes, mostly on East Hill. The house most likely to be familiar to Ithacans is the William Henry Miller Inn on the corner of East Buffalo and Aurora Streets, built in 1880.
His public buildings tend to be sturdy, Romanesque structures of brick and stone, but his residential work reflected many other styles over the decades, including Mansardic, Stick Victorian, Neo-classical, Renaissance Revival, and English Half-timber. While the exteriors weren’t necessarily genuinely innovative, he was know as a master in his use of light, decorative details, and free-flowing space in the interiors.
It is a testament to his influence that buildings constructed long after his death still bear design elements that deliberately evoke William Henry Miller. At the south end of Eddy Street, on the corner of East State Street, is the Greycourt Apartment building, designed and built by Miller in 1909. Directly across State Street is the brand new Collegetown Terrace apartment complex, which has numerous architectural details that purposefully mirror the components of the Greycourt building.
Miller’s own house is, as one might expect, reflective of his eclectic and shifting architectural interests over the years. Designed in the ‘Romantic Chalet’ style,
Exploding onto the internet in late 2022, ChatGPT, a breakthrough artificial intelligence chatbot, was nearly impossible to escape. While the online hype around the technology may have subsided, for colleges and universities entering a new semester, the elephant in the room continues to grow larger.
Artificial Intelligence is nothing new–the term was first coined in the mid-20th century. What is new, however, is the breakthrough in what AI technology is capable of. While AI chatbots have existed for the past decade (with varying degrees of success), past advancements pale in comparison to the seismic rise of ChatGPT.
ChatGPT, built by San Francisco AI company OpenAI, is capable of activities once thought to be hallmarks of humanity: writing stand-up comedy jokes, programming workouts and developing recipes– all it needs is a prompt and some time to process. Moreover, the chatbot has the ability to write code and develop essays while other AI tools, such as DALL-E 2, have the power to generate digital images from descriptions, creating particular concerns for educators who have for years graded students on their ability to do exactly those things. Now, developing an argument for a final paper or writing code for a website is as easy as the click of a button. Even awardwinning art pieces can be completed digitally within minutes, much to the chagrin of artists.
The focus of college professors around the world has thus shifted to better understanding the role of AI in education, a task taken on by plenty of faculty at Cornell University and Ithaca College. Professor Craig Duncan, who teaches in the philosophy department at Ithaca College, will be changing his essay prompts to be more dif-
ficult for AI tools to answer and he won’t be assigning take-home exams as often as he once did. Duncan likens this unsure period to the start of the Industrial Revolution: full of promise, yet also uncertainty.
‘It’s kind of like the first water-powered weaving factory … that was the dawn of the industrial revolution, which of course transformed human life and there is a potential for AI to be similarly transformative for both good or ill,” Duncan said. “In many ways, we’re the beneficiaries of the industrial revolution that humans did 250 years ago, but at the same time, it was enormously disruptive when the industrial machinery first appeared and that suggests we may be facing some disruptive decades in the near future.”
Ithaca College Associate Professor Doug Turnbull, too, intends to mitigate the power of AI tools in his computer science courses by emphasizing the necessity of understanding material, rather than just being able to complete assignments.
“One thing I did is almost for every assignment [is], I showed the solution, like I asked ChatGPT to produce the solution in front of the students so they could see that, yes, here is this perfect solution,” Turnbull said. “I wanted to sort of make the students aware that the goal is not to produce the answer to this one problem, but to really internalize the material, unpack the concepts so that they could then apply them in more complex and deeper ways.”
However, not all professors are convinced that such modifications are necessary, or even possible due to the rapid pace at which AI technology continues to evolve. Professor Christopher J. Earls of Cornell University doesn’t have any intention of amending his engineering courses in light of recent developments.
“I don’t intend to [change the course], the Genie’s out of the bottle,” Earls said.
“It’s not the students’ fault [ChatGPT] exists. Why would I try that? So you can’t use this thing that is obviously going to be a gamechanger? I have no intention of limiting it in my class.”
Many course instructors in Ithaca, Duncan and Turnbull included, argue that AI may not be as threatening as the hype makes it seem. Professor John Barr, who has taught computer science at Ithaca College since 2015, compares the rise of ChatGPT to the rise of calculators. While new technology certainly changes things, he argues, it is not as big of an issue as some people have made it out to be. Rather, ChatGPT is just yet another tool.
“I think in a way it’s a little bit overblown … it’s just new technology. We’re getting new technology all the time,” Barr said. “[Using] a calculator doesn’t mean that you don’t know how to create an equation, right? You still have to know how to create the equation, the right equation to use, the way to set it up, and everything, and then once you get it all set up, well, you punch
the numbers in the calculator and you solve it, right? So you don’t have to do the arithmetic part anymore. It takes away that kind of tedious low-level part and it’s the same thing with [AI] now.”
Moreover, while acknowledging potential negatives, Barr sees good that can come from the use of ChatGPT and other similar tools, namely, using the chatbot as a place to start when brainstorming for a paper. Similarly, Cornell University Professor of Psychology
Morten H. Christiansen sees other benefits of integrating AI into the classroom.
“I think the advent of these systems is an opportunity also for instructors more generally to rethink how we teach, how we measure how well students are learning, what we teach, and so on,” Christiansen said. “I think it’s an opportunity, at least in some cases, to move away from more boring parts and then focus on more aspects of critical thinking.”
Other potential benefits to using AI include the use of artificial tutors that meet
“There is a potential for AI to be similarly transformative for both good or ill.”
— Ithaca College
Professor Craig Duncan
“It’s just new technology. We’re getting new technology all the time.”
— Ithaca College Professor John Barr
“The advent of these systems is an opportunity also for instructors more generally to rethink how we teach, how we measure how well students are learning, what we teach.”
— Cornell University Professor Morten H. Christiansen
the specific needs of each student, which is already being utilized by sites like Khan Academy, and increased workplace productivity, although critics have concerns regarding the impact of AI on job security.
Christiansen is among the sixteen Cornell University professors who began working last spring to write voluntary guidelines for instructors on how AI is to be handled in classrooms across the campus. The committee, which is chaired by Dean of Cornell Bowers College of Computing and Information Science Kavita Bala and Professor of Labor Relations and Conflict Resolution at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Alexander Colvin, is comprised of faculty from a number of different departments who were selected by the University’s Provost.
The written report developed by the committee, which will be made public sometime soon, makes recommendations for instructors given the nature of their course, according to Christiansen. The report does not take a firm stance for or against AI, rather, it affords Cornell educators three choices.
“One option is to prohibit, which certainly some people have done in some cases,” Christiansen said. “The second option is to allow the use of ChatGPT and similar generative AI with attribution, meaning that you can use it, but you have to indicate how and where you’ve used it … Finally, there is where it gets incorporated into the course in some way, where students are expected perhaps to use it for certain tasks.”
This position is shared by the Cornell University Center for Teaching Innovation, which has the mission of “facilitat[ing] the development of vibrant, challenging, and reflective student-centered learning experiences.”
“[The center doesn’t] promote specific changes for faculty to make. We encourage faculty to learn more about artificial intelligence, and we share ways they might develop assignments that ask students to critically use AI tools,” Executive Director Rob Vanderlan wrote in a statement. “Ultimately, faculty are the best judges of what students need to know and how best to help students learn.”
At Ithaca College, although an official policy regarding AI has yet to be made, the College’s Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards Assistant Director Katie Newcomb says that the decision of how to handle AI will be left in the hands of professors.
Associate Professor of Computer Science at Ithaca College, Doug Turnbull, plans on emphasizing underlying material rather than just being able to complete assignments with AI.
(Photo: Ithaca College)
“We really expect [that] students … should be following whatever the protocols are as dictated by the faculty,” said Newcomb, whose office handles academic integrity violations. If a student is found to be using AI in a course where it is not permitted, however, Newcomb and her office will take disciplinary action as described in the Ithaca College Standards of Academic Misconduct.
As the use of AI becomes more integrated into Ithaca’s college campuses, professors will need to be careful due to the technology’s potential negative impacts. ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms are subject to “hallucinations,” confident responses to prompts that are in reality completely made up. Thus students who choose to rely on AI technology for coursework could unknowingly become peddlers of misinformation. As such, Barr argues that if a student decides to use AI technology, their lack of expertise may be to their detriment.
“In order to use [ChatGPT] well, you have to know what you’re doing. But when you’re a first-year college student or secondyear college student, you don’t know what you’re doing,” Barr said. “So you’re trying to use it, and yet you don’t even know how to tell if it’s giving you the right answers.”
Ithaca College
Computer Science
Professor John Barr has compared the rise of ChatGPT to the rise of calculators.
(Photo: Ithaca College)
are regularly subject to biases. In the past, AI speech and facial recognition tools have been criticized for their failure to recognize Black Americans and other marginalized groups. Similarly, ChatGPT and DALL-E 2 also have the potential to produce biased responses, racially and otherwise, although OpenAI has attempted to reduce the frequency of such responses.
“The best thing we can do is … prepare [students] for a workforce where using AI tools is allowed or even expected,” said Cornell University Assistant Professor of Information Science Allison Koenecke. “This includes rigorous education on writing prompts effectively, understanding the underlying biases in and limitations of generative AI systems, and identifying when misinformation (such as "hallucinations") occur.”
Cornell University Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Christopher J. Earls says that he does not intend to change the way he teaches his course in response to the onset of AI.
(Photo: Cornell University)
express ourselves beyond the ready-made formula that would be attached to what we believe we are? So if we want more, then very clearly, ChatGPT is not going to give us [that].”
— Ithaca College
Professor John Barr
Due to the difficulty of managing such an expansive and accessible technology, students also have an important responsibility. Professors concur that while they can make changes to their courses, the decision of how AI will impact a student’s college and future success is ultimately up to the student themself.
“Especially at a place like Cornell, where somebody is paying loads of money to go here … and you can get a first-class education,” Christiansen said. “A part of that is to learn to do some of these things by yourself as a way of getting those skills. So if you sort of take shortcuts, then the person you’re cheating the most is actually yourself and I think that’s a pity.”
Cornell University Professor Laurent Dubreuil offers a humanist perspective on the issue of AI, arguing that because ChatGPT simply regurgitates consensuses of research, overreliance on AI limits the capabilities of the human mind.
“The question is, do we want to be happy with the sort of algorithmic reality we are being faced [with]? Or do we want more meaning and more significance or simplification?” Dubreuil said. “Do we want to
Regardless of personal feelings, artificial intelligence isn’t going anywhere. Thus, professors and students alike must learn to adapt to the changing educational landscape, says Barr.
“Pandora’s box is open. The first reaction from a lot of [professors] … was, well, how do we stuff this back in the box and jam it all in? We can’t do that,” Barr said. “It’s open, all those demons are out. And so the question is not how do we control AI, it’s how do we use AI? And can we use it?”
Christopher Walker is a reporter from the Cornell Daily Sun Working on The Sun’s summer fellowship at The Ithaca Times.
“Ultimately, faculty are the best judges of what students need to know and how best to help students learn.”
— Executive Director Rob Vanderlan
“The best thing we can do is … prepare [students] for a workforce where using AI tools is allowed or even expected.”
— Cornell Assistant Professor Allison Koenecke
“The question is not how do we control AI, it’s how do we use AI? And can we use it?”
By Steve Lawrence
Irolled into Cass Park to catch the bestof-three series between the 607 Contractors and the X-Presidents to determine the league championship in the Ithaca Slowpitch Softball Association, and I was puzzled to see another team — the Cass Park Closers — gathered under pop-up tents, as if they were waiting to play. I went over to my friend Stu Bergman — looking sharp in his Closers uniform, although not quite as spry as he did when he first suited up in 1981 — and I said “Stu, I thought this was the championship series. Is your team playing next?” Stu replied, “No, we made it a few games deep in the tournament, but we like being here and we’re like a big family. We always stay and close the place down... hence, ‘The Closers!’”
A younger guy came over, and seeing that Stu and I clearly had a connection of some sort, said, “Hi, I’m Bobby Bergman. I’m 34, and I’ve been playing softball with my dad for 17 years.” Bobby — who is a teacher in the Marathon schools — stayed around to chat for a while, then drifted over to talk to a teammate.
“That’s my pride and joy,” Stu told me. “He’s the reason I’m still playing at 71.”
Stu is definitely the league’s Elder Statesman, and a look at the pitcher for the X-Presidents conveyed that this was serious. He was decked out in shin guards and a helmet with a face mask, and when a 30-something guy that weighed about 250 pounds and wielding a $400 composite bat sent a line drive smoking up the middle, the pitcher’s gear made a lot
of sense. The outfielders were playing so deep it seemed that a walkie-talkie might be needed to communicate with them, and as we watched the next batter launch a sky ball about 375 feet, Stu said, “Back before these bats, it was a big deal to hit a 'Pole Shot' at Cass Park (meaning a ball that was hit out to the light poles). Now, it’s commonplace.” Bobby added, “These technology-aided bats put 30 to 40 feet on everyone’s hits.” Pointing to the pitcher
— who looked like he was a member of a S.W.A.T. Team — Stu said, “I was pitching for a while in this league, but after she saw me take line drives to chest, the leg and the head, my wife said that was enough!”
Stu called over another of his proteges, and said, “This is Kevin Faehndrich, the League Commissioner, hand-picked
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Ifounded the “New to Me” Film Festival in the depths of COVID and the need to isolate. I looked at all the unseen movies on my shelves and decided to stay in and watch some movies. The NTMFF has slowed somewhat, but it continues.
Last November, I bought Criterion Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman box sets. That turned out to be fortuitous timing, because Barnes and Noble then gutted their Criterion section: at press time, there are no box sets of any kind to be had at B&N. “I Vitelloni” (1953) emerged as a gem following my Fellini crash course — I’d only seen “8 ½” — and while I’ve only scratched the surface of the 39film Bergman set, I really dug “Summer with Monika” (1952).
Random goodness: I saw Leo McCarey ‘s “The Awful Truth” (1937), marking Cary Grant’s first great comedic performance; Alfred Hitchcock’s “Marnie” (1965), the last of the maestro’s oeuvre to feature a Hitchcock blonde (Tippi Hedren); and Hayao Miyazaki’s “Porco Rosso” (1992), which became my favorite Miyazaki film; the English dub voiced by Michael Keaton in the title role was awfully good.
I saw a ton of Disney stuff dating from the 50’s to the 2000’s. The favorite was probably “That Darn Cat!” (1965), starring Dean Jones and Hayley Mills. But improv comedian Michael McShane had the best joke in a 1997 TV movie called “Tower of Terror” starring Steve Guttenberg and Kirsten Dunst: “I could have been an actor, but I can’t act.”
There was some chaff in all that wheat. I also looked at Tom McLaughlin’s “Billy Jack series, where the paradoxes are endless, and ultimately, frustrating. “The Born Losers” (1967), “Billy Jack”, “The Trial of Billy Jack” (1974) and “Billy Jack Goes to Washington” (1977) are incredibly violent tributes to the concept of non-violence. The plots lurch back and forth between deadly earnest political stuff “torn from the headlines” and too many bouts of shaggy-headed improv. McLaughlin, directing under the pseudonym T.C. Frank, is so stiff as an actor, he makes Peter Fonda in “Easy Rider” (1969) look like prime Jim Carrey.
More cinematic crud: I finally got around to checking out “Dirty Dancing” (1987). Yeesh! This is 80’s rom-com piffle, and any sense of it being a period piece is ruined by the new songs recorded for the movie. Even by Roger Corman’s “liberal” interpretation of what makes an entertaining horror flick, “The Wasp Woman” (1959) is all dull talk, and the special effects are threadbare. And “Invasion USA” (1985), Chuck Zito’s reactionary garbage action movie starring Chuck Norris, is just another dumb 80’s Cannon slice of cheese.
Here are my thoughts on three recent discoveries.
Hepburn’s vocals were all replaced by Marnie Nixon, in “Funny Face”, Hepburn’s singing, not just her dancing, made the final cut.
A big part of the NTMFF is looking back at movie stars I’m unfamiliar with, and as I was working through a 7-DVD Audrey Hepburn box set, I stumbled across Hepburn in Stanley Donen’s “Funny Face” (1957). The film stars Hepburn as a shy book shop clerk who gets drafted to be the next big thing in the world of women’s fashion, thanks to photographer Fred Astaire and fashion magazine publisher Kay Thompson.
I didn’t know that Hepburn had trained as a dancer, but she shows she’s got serious chops, particularly in a Bohemian-style nightclub number with lots of kinetically cool, stylized dance moves that surely inspired a lot of Bob Fosse’s choreography style. (“Ant-Man” director Peyton Reed studied that nightclub sequence when he was prepping a similarly styled beatnik sequence for “Down with Love”, his 2003 “Pillow Talk” spoof.)
Donen is a master at staging head-to-toe musical numbers, and this time, he demonstrates a real flair for pop art colors, sets, camera angles and effective, rhythmic, propulsive editing. And unlike “My Fair Lady” (1964), where
It was driving me crazy. More on that shortly.
As the title tells us, “Original Cast Recording: Company” (1970) is D.A. Pennebaker’s account of the recording session immortalizing Stephen Sondheim’s first solo musical success. The cast album recording is generally done on the first Sunday following opening night. There’s a lot to do in one session, and there’s a lot of tension as to whether the “Company” cast will be able to get everything recorded. (Elaine Stritch is last up, and her struggles to achieve a good vocal take are Broadway legend; Disney star Dean Jones left the show once his songs had been recorded.)
It was fun spotting New York character actors as they stepped up to the mike. I recognized George Coe, who worked on “The National Lampoon Radio Hour” and acted in
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“Hello! My name is …….and I’ll be serving you tonight.” So goes the prelude to dinner at a popular Ithaca restaurant. Perhaps it’s because 11 entrées are offered at $12.99 before 6 p.m., Monday through Thursday.
Texas Roadhouse
719-25 S Meadow St, Ithaca Mon.-Thurs. 4-10; Fri. 4-11; Sat. noon-11;
(607) 272-1621
Since Texas Roadhouse opened on Route 13 on May 20, 2016, it has served a large, and varied, selection of quality food at popular prices. Nothing is over $30 and that includes a total offering of 16 steaks of
Rolls and butter and fried pickles are popular as starters but steak is the main course at Texas Roadhouse.
Tid Bits: The number of calories is listed next to each entrée.
There isn’t a direct entrance for vehicles. If driving south on route 13, make a left turn just before the General Nutrition/ Fed. Ex. building and make your way around Ollies to park. There’s a kid’s menu ($5.99-$11.99) for children 12 and under and a small, separate menu for vegetarians.
Earlville Opera House Presents Thank you to our sponsors: Community Foundation for South Central NY, NBT Bank, Preferred Mutual Insurance Company, R C Smith Foundation, Hamilton Community Chest, sfcu, Bruce Ward, Architect, Good Nature Farm Brewery, Bullthistle Brewing Co., Gilligan s Restaurant, and Poolville Country Store & B&B
The Wailers 18 East Main St Earlville NY Tickets available at: earlvilleoperahouse.com//315.691.3550 For show: Premiums apply to select rows For show: College students half off with ID // Youth $10 (17 and under)
Sponsored by Pre-show Party BASH! $40/pp, 4-6pm (Show ticket sold separately) Themed food, beer (custom tumbler, beads, 2 free drink tix!), music by Laughing Buddha Episodes. MUST BE 21!
delivered to the table before the meal, as an appetizer, and is chock full of cuttings from their steaks. The chili is prepared the 4.50 5.00 Sept. 1 @ 7PM // $60/$54 "ROOTS REGGAE LEGENDS!"
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remain on the road, far more numerous than EVs and dirtying the air as before. Perhaps the politically and environmentally correct car strategy is to keep the vehicle you have for as long as you can. If it’s of fairly recent vintage, it should last for decades with proper care. That way, you lower the costs, hidden and wellknown, of new car production and old car disposal.
Or you move in an entirely different
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by me. I had that job for 17 years, but that was enough.” Kevin said, “Yes, Stu groomed me for this,” and when asked what the “job” entailed, he said, “I keep a good relationship with the town, communicate with the other five teams and the umpires. I try to use Stu’s sage advice as much as possible.”
Another Closer came over to say hi, and Davey Bennett said, “I’m 66, so Stu and I have Social Security cards of a similar vintage,” and as Davey took a long swig of his adult beverage, it was clear that the camaraderie component was a big part of the whole experience. “Our team is like a family,” Bergman said, “12 months a year.”
“NEW
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many commercial parodies and sketches in the first season of “Saturday Night Live”. Back to what was driving me crazy. There was this actress singing in a group number, and at first, I thought it was Julie Hagerty from “Airplane!” (1980). A look at the cast list revealed her to be Beth Howland, who played Vera the waitress on the sitcom “Alice” (19761975). In just under an hour, Pennebaker shows us an up-close-and-personal take on a longstanding Broadway tradition.
direction: two- and three-wheel electric vehicles. “Globally,” writes David Wallace-Wells in the New York Times, “there are 10 times as many electric scooters, mopeds and motorcycles on the road as true electric cars, accounting already for almost half of all sales of those vehicles and responsible already for eliminating more carbon emissions than all the world’s four-wheel EVs.”
Mel Gurtov, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Portland State University and blogs at In the Human Interest.
Back to the young guns... The 607 Contractors were, as the two-time defending league champs, the #1 seed, so the X-Presidents would have to win two in a row. The Prez squad pulled out a 1-run squeaker to force the deciding game, and when 607er Justin “JLO” Jackson — a fleet-footed outfielder and crafty left-handed slap hitter — told me, “We’re here to win another championship,” he sounded serious. He was, as was his team, and they burst out of the gate with 11 runs in the first inning. It would turn out to be a convincing win, and the Contractors were three-peaters.
While I congratulate the champs, I saw Stu over there, formulating next year’s game plan. It was clear, he was planning out his workout regimen for next year when he — at age 72 — will return.
Michael Fitzpatrick based on Flannery O’Connor’s 1952 novel, is not the work of some out-of-touch fuddy-duddy past his prime. It’s one of those tough films that could only have been made in the 1970s.
“Wise Blood” (1979) was John Huston’s 33rd film. He’d already directed his father Walter to an Oscar win for “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948) and helmed many other classic pictures, including “The Maltese Falcon” (1941), “The Asphalt Jungle” (1950) and “The African Queen” (1951). And yet, it’s clear from the first scene that “Wise Blood”, adapted by Benedict and
Fresh off his Oscar nomination and Golden Globe and BAFTA wins for “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975), Brad Dourif stars in “Wise Blood” as Hazel Motes, veteran of an unspecified war. Hazel comes home, surveys the wreckage of his parents’ dilapidated home and becomes a street preacher, founding the Church of Truth Without Christ. Everything Hazel does is rooted in his bitter disappointment with the human race. Filmed in real locations in and around Macon, Georgia, “Wise Blood” takes place in seedy hotels and back alleys, and the film is populated by angry, desperate characters played by the likes of Ned Beatty (“Network”), Harry Dean Stanton (“Repo Man”), Amy Wright (“Inside Moves”) and Dan Shor (“Tron”).
I can’t see any movie studio or production company daring to make anything like “Wise Blood” today.
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their perception without the proper training or understanding that social workers or law enforcement officers might have.”
She said she “would support a version of this proposal that may include law enforcement if we provide the community another reason other than punishment from police officers to move to the Green Zone.” Kumar added, “This means a heating and cooling station, bathrooms, showers, dumpsters, and some sort of needle exchange.”
Additionally, Fourth Ward Alderperson Jorge DeFendini — who is part of the working group that came up with the draft plan — proposed that red zones should be eliminated as well and that the goal should be to focus on developing a green zone with amenities that would attract homeless residents to the area. Doing this would seemingly eliminate the uncertainty surrounding how the city would enforce a camping ban in certain areas, while allowing efforts to provide a sanctioned site with amenities for unhoused residents to move forward.
McGonigal disagreed with DeFendini’s proposal to eliminate the red zones saying that he doesn’t believe that they criminal-
ize homelessness. DeFendini responded by saying that red zones would criminalize homelessness because “if we’re not allowing somebody to be in one area and they get a citation for being in that area, and they get a warrant for their arrest for not showing up to court for being in that area, that’s the result of them being homeless in that area.”
According to DeFendini, “We all agree on having a very attractive green zone and not trying to maneuver through a logistical nightmare trying to enforce something that we’re half-hearted about, and we might not have the manpower to follow through on.”
Gearhart said that he would feel comfortable taking the green zone-only approach “because we’re saying we already know that camping is not allowed on public land in the city of Ithaca, and if we create a green zone, then we identity a place that would explicitly allow that, which seems like a good solution.” However, Gearhart also said that he continues to be troubled about how the city is going to deal with people who set up encampments in places outside of the green zone.
Ultimately, it seems like the draft plan will be subject to several changes before it is brought back to the PEDC for a vote in September. If the plan is approved in September, it will be brought to the Common Council for final approval in October.
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the first city in the country where every Starbucks location was unionized.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has agreed with previous complaints that Starbucks engaged in unionbusting tactics and released an in-depth complaint against Starbucks in November 2022, saying that the board “found merit in the union’s claim” that the College Ave location was closed in retaliation for union organizing. The NLRB ruled that the College Ave location had to be reopened and fired workers had to be rehired with back pay, but they gave no timeline for that to happen.
The NLRB has issued 39 official com-
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The hand cut steaks are the stars here. Of the five basic types: sirloin, ribeye, NY strip, filet mignon, and porterhouse, sirloin is the best seller although all are beautifully prepared. I’ve never had a more tender filet mignon anywhere.
There’s a large selection of chicken offerings too, including a section of chicken specialties, the most popular of which is the barbecue. I’ve also enjoyed herb roasted chicken ($15.49), a butterflied breast seasoned with mild herbs and spices. Smothered chicken ($15.99) also makes for a wonderful meal. It too is a butterflied breast and is marinated and topped with sauteed onions and mushrooms and your choice of house made cream gravy or melted jack cheese. If you like chicken but these entrées don’t appeal to you, you might try chicken critters with a 6 oz. sirloin steak ($19.99) or some ribs ($18.99). Finally, you could choose a combo of grilled BBQ Chicken with a sirloin ($22.99) or ribs ($21.99). My personal “go to” selection is Grilled BBQ chicken and ribs ($21.99).
The ribs are delicious. They’re seasoned with a dry rub, which includes salt, pepper, paprika, sugar, as well as garlic and onion powder, marinated for 12-24 hours, and cooked for four hours. About 500 lbs. are served weekly.
Not into beef, pork, or chicken? There’s a few dockside favorites with one grilled salmon, one grilled shrimp, and a fish & chips offering.
Although it’s part of an international chain, the managing partner was born in Tompkins County and has lived in this
plaints against Starbucks, encompassing over 1,400 alleged violations of federal labor law. The allegations accuse the company’s management of firing union organizers, slashing hours, and illegally threatening to deny pay raises and other benefits to unionized stores.
For any of the complaints to be enforced, the NLRB would need to file an injunction in federal court, which has not been done as the NLRB has suffered from severe underfunding and understaffing issues that have plagued the agency for years. As a result, Starbucks has been allowed to continue undermining workers' efforts to unionize without being held accountable.
Starbucks has yet to reach a single contract agreement with any of its more than 300 unionized stores.
area all his life. Key managers and the staff of about 125 also live locally and contribute to the local economy.
Much of the Ithaca operation is dictated by the national organization. For example, the basic size, floor plans, and menus of all 600 restaurants are similar. When you enter, you’ll be greeted at a workstation by hosts who will cheerfully guide you past an open refrigerated display of appetizing hand-cut steaks to a table. You’ll be offered a complimentary bag of peanuts and freshly baked rolls with homemade cinnamon/honey butter.
Homemade sweet rolls are made approximately every two hours and more than 2000 are served every day. Butter blocks weighing 30 pounds are softened and spun with cinnamon and honey to accompany the rolls.
The wine menu, which comes with significant direction from the national organization, is not a strong point. Wine is not a great revenue producer here (beer outsells wine almost 3:1), there are only four reds and five whites, two of which are chardonnays. Since local establishments may add local wines and beer, I believe our Texas Roadhouse should offer a New York Riesling and a Dry Riesling since we produce such good quality in the Finger Lakes. The selection of reds could do with a Malbec, and perhaps, a Syrah. It would also help some of us to make a more reasoned selection if vintages and prices were provided.
The beer selection is fine (nine taps and twelve bottles) plus one just-added local draught, Genesee Ruby Red Grapefruit. I had never experienced grapefruit flavor in a beer, and I liked it. There’s also a good selection of interesting cocktails.
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“Chris, it was fun reading how you think the government is “predatory,” “harms all americans,” and is a “blight against a true democracy,” and you then think I’m crazy for being “conservative” or “anti-government” (to be clear: your words, not how I’d describe myself).” — Jason
Evans“Since you are unable to parse out complex statements, I’ll help: It is the corporate interests that are gouging the American people for a simple college education, one that is free in many other developed nations across the world. It is the corporate interests who have flooded politics with dark money through conservatives to make sure that big oil, big tobacco, and big real-estate continue to rape the average american’s wallet. It undermines democracy to allow these multinationals to give our politicians millions of dollars to represent their interests, which is always about keeping their profit margins growing. THAT is the “blight” and the “harm”, not the government itself. However, gov't co-opted by and for these corporations is what we are currently stuck with. The very point you are trying to make- that Biden is corrupt and students need to pay their loans back despite those loans being predatory is an argument FOR corporate interests and was placed inside your brain by a very meticulous narrative consciously arranged by
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the main part dates to 1876, but there were at least seven major subsequent additions. There is a very good virtual tour available (https://unbranded.youriguide. com/x4npn_122_eddy_st_ithaca_ny/) but it doesn’t truly do justice to the richness of all the design flourishes throughout the house. There’s a plaster replica of a bas-relief by the 15th-century sculptor
Luca Della Robia in the entry hall, various Moorish details, intricate leaded windows, wood carvings, and painted fireplace tiles. Miller having been an accomplished musician, there is also a built-in 10-rank organ, installed in 1879, which at one time was powered by tapping into the Eddy Street trolley’s electrical line.
It’s a house rooted in a different time. When it was built, Collegetown was still mostly small farms and undeveloped lots. Ithaca was still a village, and streetlights, paved roads, sewers, streetcars, telephones,
neo-conservatives who think capitalism = freedom, government strangled = democracy, and profit margins = the bottom line, despite the reality that america has never been more in debt, poverty stricken, uneducated, and misinformed by mainstream media outlets. Who controls all of that? Follow the money” —
Chris John
As a new resident of Town of Ulysses, I am very appreciative the discussions here. Thanks Katelin Olson and your team for your effort and time. My concern about this potential recreation center in the middle of a farm land (in contrast to building it next to Trumansburg) is the carbon footprint it will bring to the town and the earth! This is a good opportunity to think about a long term land planning (in 10-20 years) for a sustainable and environmentally friendly community. —
Mingming Wu
Ilive in Seneca Falls and only want to quibble with the references to “scheduled to close.” Landfills get timelimited permits to operate that require renewal when they expire. The end of a permit period is not an indication of a closure date. Do you stop driving when your license expires, or do you renew it?
— Martin Toombs
and electric service all lay in the future. There were 561 students at the university. By the time Miller died in 1922, Ithaca was a city, with movie theaters, automobiles, and an airport, and Cornell was the city’s major employer, with an enrollment of 5800. During that time, he created an architectural legacy still very visible today.
After Miller’s death, the house was purchased from his heirs in 1932 by Lillian Heller, who resided there and boarded architecture students in exchange for household help. Mrs. Heller transferred the property to Cornell’s College of Art, Architecture and Planning in 1957, which has used it since that time for school functions, and boarding students and visitors to the College.
The house holds a special place in the hearts of generations of members of the Architecture School community. It’s a unique and historic property, with possibilities ranging from use as a single-family residence to multiple units, to a bed-and-breakfast. It’s an exciting prospect for some lucky buyer.
Bone health is cr ucial for individuals of all ages, but it is par ticular ly impor tant for the elder ly As people age, their bones become more f ragile and susceptible to f ractures, severely affecting their overall health and qualit y of life Poor bone health can also increase the risk of osteoporosis, which causes bones to become weak and brittle. To maintain strong bones, the elder ly should incor porate calcium and vitamin D into their diets, engage in weight-bearing exercises such as walking or dancing, and avoid habits that can weaken bones, such as smoking and excessive alcohol consumption. By prioritizing bone health, the elder ly can
reduce their risk of f ractures and other complications and enjoy a better qualit y of life as they age
Bone loss affects women and men, but unfor tunatel y, most people don’t realiz e they have a fragile bone until it breaks because there are no symptoms. Osteoporotic bones can break easil y, increasing the risk of fractures, especiall y in the hip, spine, and wrist.
To learn more about the ser vices Kendal residents receive, call the marketing team at (607) 266-5300 to schedule a tour to see our facilities and learn more about lifecare at Kendal at Ithaca. Find us on the web at http://kai.kendal.org/