November 8, 2017

F R E E N o v e m b er 8 , 2 0 1 7 / V o l u m e X X X V I I I , N u m b e r 1 2 / O u r 4 6 t h Y e a r

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Newsline City Of Ithaca

VOL.X X XVIII / NO. 12 / November 8, 2017 Serving 47,125 readers week ly

A Decade Underground............ 8

City Of Ithaca

The story of a cultural whirlwind.

New In 2018: A Taking A Stand Chance To Weigh In T On The Budget

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aybe you’ve been frustrated about that unavoidable pothole on the street outside your apartment that makes the basketball hoop you set up for the neighborhood kids out on the curb impossible to use.

Perhaps your neighborhood has a corner that’s poorly lit and makes people nervous, or maybe an area with a lot of mischief happening in the night that might be deterred with a camera. Maybe there’s a broken swing set on your block (or a lack of one), or maybe your neighborhood’s meeting spot might have a leaky pipe nobody can afford to fix. For years, you might have gone to your Common Council representative to complain about it and try to get something done, only to see it get lost in the city budgeting process as discussions wore on, some other needs in the city addressed before yours.

Thanks to a group of teenagers, a few community activists and several years of effort, those days may soon be limited.

Starting next year, residents of the city’s Second Ward will have the ability to participate in a concept called “The People’s Budget,” a participatory budgeting program that will allow a neighborhood true democratic control of a $10,000 piece of the city’s budget. The hope, organizers say, is to encourage the community to discuss the spending in a way that will give a voice to otherwise ignored perspectives in the community who may have, otherwise, been removed from the complexities of the city budget, therefore involving them directly in the process.

This new initiative, part of a Youth Organizing Fellowship run out of Ithaca’s Multicultural Resource Center is defined as a youth-led community organizing program using a lens of racial justice to transform Ithaca into a more “equitable and socially just community,” according to its website. The goal, its organizers continued on page 4

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Reviving a tradition of the days of King Arthur.

he corner church at the intersection of Aurora and Court Streets has, for some years now, stood out from the street for something other than the imposing rounded portico towering high above the sidewalk: the rainbow-colored bunting hanging above its main entrance, symbolizing the church’s solidarity with the LGBTQ community.

Since the congregation of St. Paul’s Methodist Church first hung the banner above the door at least a decade ago, (“longer than anyone can remember,” the pastor here says) the flag was seen by members of the church as statement against the traditional standards of Methodist teachings, a protest against the church’s stance that the practice of “self-avowed, practicing homosexuality” is incompatible with Christian teaching.

“Many particular Methodist Churches and conferences disagree with this stance,” said Pastor John McNeill, the church’s leader since 2012. “We’re one of those.”

The flag, while merely symbolic to some, meant quite a bit to others, a true affirmation of the church’s statement that all persons are of sacred worth – lending to their status as a “reconciling congregation,” one of many Methodist churches who agree with the sect’s traditional stance.

Then, two weeks ago, a man in a truck came by and ripped the flag down.

After being confronted by some bystanders, he jumped into his pickup truck and sped away.

According to the pastor, some-

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one nearby got a good description of the man, the truck and a partial license plate and called the police to no result. But where justice could not be had, there was strength and solidarity.

Before the start of the morning’s service on Sunday, Nov. 5 the congregation – with a borrowed f lag hung in its place – gathered for a brief act of witness in an attempt to show that “love’s story is always the better story.”

“We are also demonstrating that we stand in solidarity with people in our congregation and community who feel like there is no ‘safe haven, (not even this church) because of violence,” McNeill wrote in an email before the event. “The story and the Spirit of love and inclusiveness and reconciliation of all God’s children will not be silenced by haters or vandals. We will continue to hold a safe space for that Spirit.”

The significance of the event – just days after All Saint’s Day – marked to the congregation the opportunity for contemplation on the compassion of the saints, calling on each of those in atten-

T a k e ▶ Should a living wage be a constitutional right?

Starting at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 14, four of Cornell’s most politically active campus groups will debate such a question up in room G22 of Goldwin-Smith Hall.

Hosted by the Cornell Speech and Debate Society the event, will pit the Cornell Young Democratic Socialists (YDS) and the Cornell Organization for Labor Action (COLA) against the staff of the Cornell Review and the Cornell Libertarians.

Pastor John McNeill (Right) Watches over a demonstration of solidarity outside Saint Paul’s Methodist Church on Sunday.

dance to embody their spirit and welcome all in the community.

And embrace the opportunity they did.

Slowly but surely, the morning’s audience began to approach from all directions, huddling around the church steps on a dreary, but otherwise temperate morning. After a brief song, a woman addressed the crowd: “Today, we bear living witness to Jesus’ inclusive love,” she said.

“Here together, we join in grief and solidarity with all victims of hate and exclusion. Here and now, we commit ourselves anew to the call – God’s call, Jesus’ call, our historic Methodist call – to reconciliation and love.”

And then, after a brief prayer, the crowd – as one – walked under the flag and through the church doors to begin worship the way it always had: with love in their hearts and their forgiveness, granted.

–Nick Reynolds

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▶ GIAC’s Harvest Fest Dinner is approaching! The Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC) will be hosting its annual Harvest Fest Dinner, Friday, November 17, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. (dinner served until 7:30pm) at Beverly J Martin Elementary School (BJM). Dinner will consist of turkey and all the trimmings and is FREE and open to all.

Fat Jack’s BBQ will be preparing and smoking all the mouthwatering turkeys (donated

by Wegman’s) to be served.

▶ IT’S CORTACA WEEKEND. This weekend is the date of the biggest little game in the nation when Ithaca College takes on SUNY Cortland at Butterfield Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Red Dragons, at 6-3, aren’t a playoff team this year (they do have a bowl game) and should prove a fair challenge to the Bombers, who are producing an equally fair inaugaural season for coach Dan Swanstrom at 6-3.

Should be an epic one.

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INQUIRING

City Of Ithaca

Tompkins County

PHOTOGRAPHER How A Few Teens Inspired Action

By C a se y Mar tin

On these cold, rainy November days, what is your favorite comfort food or drink?

“Black coffee from Gimme!” ­—Jeff Kotlowitz

“English Breakfast tea with honey and pie.” ­—Abby Strange

“ My Mom’s Meso Soup and chai Tea does the trick.” ­—Becky LeDonne

People’s Budget

“PIZZA!” ­—Bernie and Art From Binghamton

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“Mom’s Chicken Noodle Soup and Grilled Cheese.” ­—John Kittlefield and Jenni Royer-Barnett

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t may not look like much now, with only some woodchips laid down in a fenced area with a hoopless basketball court adjacent, but soon the small patch of land across from the 210 Hancock housing project will be a fully-formed playground.

Serenity Dixon (L) and Oni Gbengbe (R) (Photo: Casey Martin) Four local teenagers were h on o r e d Mo n d ay n i g ht b y neighborhood group Northbefore presenting it before the tion, though. side United a nd t he Cit y of city’s Planning Board.

“We had a big group swing, Ithaca for their dedication to the Dixon, 14, first had the idea but couldn’t do it,” Dixon said. project. The day was officially when she was just 12-years-old “But it could fit like a lot of deemed Northside United Youth in the winter of 2015, which she people on it,” the 15 year-old Empowerment Day by proclafirst presented at a Northside Gbengbe is quick to add, her mation of Ithaca Mayor Svante United meeting. The group was voice excited before falling with Myrick, as read at the meeting asking for ideas from the crowd a hint of disappointment. “But

by Second Ward alderperson about what was most needed in because of safety precautions Seph Murtagh. the community, drawing mostly and stuff like that, they didn’t Serenity Dixon, Oni Gbengthe customary suggestions of want kids getting hurt.” be, Keylai Barnett and Tomi more affordable housing and the Dixon had the idea before Johnson were all rewarded for l i ke. Di xon, she knew about the 210 Hancock their work in her youth, project, but the housing and the on t he projs a i d s h e playground fit together pretty “I think it’s good ect, t hough wasn’t inter- naturally. Both Gbengbe and because they’re only Di xon ested by those Dixon said they liked that the and Gbengbe not going too far recommenda- play area was being built at an could attend. from their homes. tions, instead affordable housing project, and The 210 Hancan give potentially vulnerable It’s right there, you submitting cock Street the idea of a kids from 210 Hancock and the housing projknow where your playground, surrounding area a place to go ect is owned by kids are and it’s one directed instead of getting lost in any Ithaca Neighat kids closer illicit activity. fenced in.” borhood to her age “It’s good to have a place Housing Seri n s t e a d o f where kids can go instead of v ices, which toddlers. selling drugs and doing illegal formed a partnership with the In terms of execution, the things,” Gbengbe said.

Northside United group during girls seemed to have produced “I think it’s good because the playground’s development. most of what they wanted to they’re not going too far from The kids enlisted the help of othsee in the playground. Their their homes,” Dixon said of the er students through the Greater favorite part is the basketball playground, which is easily visIthaca Activities Center, Beverly court, which they didn’t think ible from the back of the buildJ. Martin Elementary School and was going to be added, and they ing. “It’s right there, you know Boynton Middle School to comboth feel good about the ability where your k ids are and it’s plete the design and compiling to make something happen even fenced in.” about 80 signatures on a petition just as kids. There is one excep–Matt Butler

say, is simple: To recognize the inherent gaps in the city’s current budgeting process and to address them by reaching out directly to the people who have fallen through the city’s traditional ward system.

“If you have a large, diverse communit y in your cit y, it’s important they’re part of making decisions in your city,” said Emma Dennis, the group’s organizer who helped initiate the effort several years ago. “They have a better understanding of

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what their needs are, and there’s none of that for a lot of communities in Ithaca. Latinx, formerly incarcerated people of all demographics, youth… this process makes it easy for those people to actually have a say.”

W h at Is Pa rticipatory Bu dgeting?

The concept of participatory budgeting – which is now practiced in hundreds of cities across the globe – actually has its origins in Porto Alegre, Brazil, where the program was first

implemented in 1989 and today, helps decide how approximately 20 percent of the city’s funds are spent.

The concept is simple: in the budgeting process, the city appropriates a certain amount of money, whether it be an at-large lump sum to be spread citywide or a more modest allocation to a district or neighborhood. A group of facilitators then solicits community feedback, be it through “pop-up polls” or by canvassing, in order to gauge that neighborhood’s priorities.

As budgeting season approaches, the group – taking all they’ve

County Joins Effort To Sue Big Pharma’s Role In Opioid Crisis Tompkins County may join a statewide coalition of counties attempting to sue the pharmaceutical industry for a practice, officials say, of deceptive marketing that had a role in compounding the rise of the opioid crisis.

In a meeting of the county’s Government Operations Committee on Wednesday, members of the legislature discussed the logistics of joining the effort, which would make Tompkins County one of dozens of counties to file against drug companies for, what a standardized complaint is expected to argue, purposefully misleading doctors and the public on how addictive their medications actually were.

We d ne s d ay ’s re s olut ion, wh ich wou ld aut hor i z e t he county to sue for damages from a number of companies resulting from abuse of opioid pharmaceuticals, is actually fairly late-coming: counties across the state began filing lawsuits far earlier in the year, with Suffolk County in Long Island among the first to file.

Tompkins County is attempting to hurry into the litigation in order to maintain momentum of the suit in the state courts: The original eight county coalition began proceedings in a Central Islip courtroom on Sept. 27.

–Nick Reynolds

gathered – puts those priorities up for a vote. Based on the results, the funding will then be allocated to the top vote getters on the ballot until all allocated funds are expended.

There are many examples of this type of program’s success throughout the United States, with active participatory budgeting programs in 250 cities including Buffa lo ($250,000 annually), Seattle ($800,000) and New York City ($38 million). The concept had even been attempted once in Ithaca, back in 2013 continued on page 11

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Cayuga Heights

City Of Ithaca

Cayuga Heights Seeks To Limit AirBNB Presence

Walking On Water Aims To Create Something New

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ven after a life spent in as varied places as the low and jagged hills of Northern Georgia, the bustle of Chicago’s busy streets and the thin strip of activity that is Virginia Beach, Priscilla Hummel has always had one constant in her life: the water is always close by.

In a theater career spanning more than a decade, Hummel has practiced her art within a stone’s throw of three lakes and one ocean, gaining her bachelor’s degree in Georgia (Lake Lanier), a master’s in Virginia (the Atlantic Ocean) and her start in professional theater in Chicago (Lake Michigan).

In the true vein of that old myth of the Cayugas, it’s only natural she eventually return to the place she grew up to ply her trade in more familiar waters.

“You can see water is kind of a key image in my life,” Hummel said.

It’s with that theme in mind – the expanse and intrigue of these bodies of water – that went

City Of Ithaca

Planting Seeds Of Sustainability

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everal weeks ago, students at Stepping Stones Preschool – a Montessori School in the City of Ithaca – learned about turning scraps into soil during a demonstration about how to compost their leftover food and yard waste, hopefully giving them a little experience in sustainable gardening early in life.

Enfield Rural Youth Services Program Educator Eric Carter and Compost Educator Adam Michaelides of Cornell Cooperative Extension involved the students in the gathering and piling process, bringing sticks and leaves to the school’s playground.

The class had also saved food scraps and pumpkin remains from a classroom activity to fill out the composter’s basin. For ease, Michaelides called the composter an “earth machine.”

Priscilla Hummel. (Photo: Nick Reynolds)

into the name of Hummel’s new theater company, Walking On Water Productions, a declaration of her own independence and her initial foray into managing her very own acting troupe after nine years in independent theater wearing a number of different hats for Provision Theater Company in Chicago, a small nonprof it t heater where she worked in any number of roles from stage manager to education director – what she said an opportunity for her to really

explore all facets of what it took to manage a theater. “It was my training wheels,” she said.

With Walking on Water, she leaves that place of safety and security to pull from that motif of risk and mystery: it’s a phrase to capture what it feels like to be physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally engaged in something, a test of faith in approaching the unknown.

Sean O’Brien is a local architect who serves as the Chairman of the Green School Committee for the Upstate New York chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and has lobbied schools in the area to hold events previously. He and Stepping Stones teacher Meg Allen were responsible for organizing the session for the class of about 20 kids. He said one of the metrics he uses for the success of his committee improving sustainability of the community is to assemble more outreach events, particularly at schools, which can take on a variety of forms.

“It’s for public education and awareness,” O’Brien said. “The program isn’t focused on gardening or compost, it can be anything. We’ve done programs at schools like an energy audit, or a No Paper Day.” O’Brien said for his part, he aims to integrate the Green Apple Days in either the curriculum or a current construction project, with varying degrees of intensity based on the ages of the students.

By hopping on an already-ongoing project, the day can be more

productive and less disruptive of a teacher’s plan.

Since the compost won’t be ready for a year, Allen said for this upcoming spring, the class would buy their own compost to kick-start the small garden in the playground. It’s good the kids have a garden in their own playspace so that they have at least a small connection to what they are working on too, Allen said, instead of the compost going to a more random spot.

Allen said her interest in bringing the event to her class was fueled by her past in Seattle, where there is a citywide compost materials pick-up service. Wanting to start something similar for her own class, she said the event seemed to fit well into that process.

“That was just second-nature to me, to save food scraps,” Allen said. “So when I moved here, I wanted to start collecting foodscraps for a collection but when I learned that there wasn’t really a collection, I thought ‘Why not start it up here?’”

Read more online at Ithaca.com

–Matt Butler

proposed zoning overhaul in Cayuga Heights has some residents fearing the financial impact the changes will have on property owners in the neighborhood, while village officials warn the revisions are necessary for residents’ comfort.

After a contentious public hearing on the zoning revisions was held last week, was scheduled for Nov. 20, during the regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Trustees. The tension revolves around how the zoning will impact the short-term rental market in the village - until now, that had remained unaddressed in Cayuga Heights’ zoning code.

Mayor Linda Woodward, and village attorney Randy Marcus, interpret that as meaning they are tacitly illegal despite that it’s not codified either way.

The new zoning, meanwhile, would directly address shortterm rentals, officially legalizing them but only for a maximum of 14 days per year. “Short-term rental” is legally defined as anything under 30 days, so any student rentals would presumably not be affected, since they last much longer. The limit was set at 14 days, Woodward said, based off a rough estimate by the village government of how many weekends throughout the year see the largest influx of tourists to the Cornell area specifically, like move-in weekend, graduation, alumni weekend, etc. “ T here’s probably s ent iment for changing a variety of things,” Woodward said, noting that making substantive changes to the proposal would trigger another round of public hearings, but that she was comfortable with that. “We’ll have to go through that process again, and I’m pretty sure we will [...] Because there was a lot of contention on the short term rentals, we will be taking that up again to see whether or not we should be making any modifications to it.”

Woodward supports the regulations, and said she was hoping to regulate short-term rentals for two main reasons: she views them as a business, and she said they take away from potential housing stock Tompkins County needs. The village is trying

Ups&Downs ▶ Everyone who ran for office this year It was a wild, drama-filled year. A lot of mean things have been said about some of you on social media. You may have been subjected to a few too many emails, phone calls, text messages and Facebook messages

by Ithaca Times reporters. But you know, it took a lot of guts to dive into the race, especially considering all you wanted to do was help your respective communities be a little bit better. People like you – all of you – make our democracy stronger. ▶ People who voted against the ConCon This could prove to be our ‘Dewey Defeats Truman’ moment: after all, we laid the paper out on Tuesday, hours before polls closed. But assuming it was always an uphill battle (we endorsed it on Sunday), we’re assuming the measure failed. Welp, there goes an opportunity for comprehensive reform. I guess we’ll see you in Albany, complaining about how lame things are for the next 20 years.

If you care to respond to something in this column, or publish your own grievances or plaudits, write upsanddowns@ithacatimes.com, with a subject head “U&D.”

Heard&Seen ▶ Top stories on Ithaca. com this week are...

1) Tompkins County charging homeless to stay at the shelter 2) IAC announces 2017 boys soccer all-stars 3) Myrick breaks deadlocked vote, denies historic status for Chacona Block 4) Police investigating late night shooting in Ithaca 5) Editorial: Why we’re voting yes

question OF THE WEEK

Discussions on reforming the tax code are being discussed this week. Do you actually understand what’s going on?

Please respond at the Ithaca Times Web site www.ithacatimes.com.

L ast Week ’s Q uestion : D id you plan on voting?

84.8 percent of respondents answered “Yes” and 15.2 percent answered “No.”

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Ithaca Notes

Tom R e e d k nows h is st u ff. S o w h y is h is ec onom ic v ision s o pu z z l i ng?

By St e ph e n P. Bu r k e

Reed’s Prayer For The Region T his week, a man Tompk ins Count y voted nearly three to one against in the 2016 election will be one of the key voices in deciding what the nation’s tax code – an arcane document that dictates whether or not you can buy a boat or pay your bi l ls – may soon resemble.

A member of the House Ways And Means Committee, Congressman Tom Reed – a Republican – was an outlier last week among New York’s Congressional Representatives when he, joined

by Western New York Congressman Chris Collins, were noted as one of just two of the state’s nine Republican representatives to vote for a budget that included, within it, a proposal to rewrite the tax code. His vote was odd , ma ny noted , for New Yorker’s reluctance to vote for a proposal to eliminate or scale back income-tax deductions for state and local taxes: a deduction which, in 2015, was utilized

by 40 percent of taxpayers making between $50,000 and $75,000.

His line of thought, demonstrated in the committee’s first two days of discussion this week, have so far aligned with the traditional views of his colleagues and the concepts they’ve debated, but had zero traction with for years: that tax cuts are the thing holding the economy back from the level of significant growth that will figuratively “raise all boats.”

On Monday a f ternoon, Reed defended his vote before the committee in stating that the loss of deductions are not one in the same with the loss of tax credits, adding that in his time traveling New York ’s 23rd District, he found current policies have fostered a system where people earning a higher income lose the benefit of that deduction over lower income taxpayers as itemizers tend to be part of the higher income tax brackets.

I llu stration By Marshall Hopkin s

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Over The River

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ver The River And Through The Woods” is often presented as a Christmas song, but originally it was for Thanksgiving. It was published in 1844 as “The New England Boy’s Song About Thanksgiving Day.” Not ex ac t ly a bof fo t it le, a nd Thanksgiving never really caught on as a singing holiday, so it’s good it got new life as a carol, at least a little, as nobody seems to know more than the first few words, just like the bridal chorus at weddings.

Into the airport and on the road go a lot of Ithacans at Thanksgiving.

Town really clears out, as in any given year at least a quarter of our population has lived here fewer than four years, and probably a solid majority of us come from somewhere else, and Grandmother’s house is a good ways away. It puts a major strain on our transportation systems every year.

If you wish to f ly from Ithaca to New York City for Thanksgiving, you might as well continue enjoying your present column-reading leisure rather than rushing to your computer to book a flight, because it’s already too late, at least for a Wednesday-Sunday roundtrip. I imagine you must have to do that as much in advance as they will let you, like getting a hotel room here for a graduation weekend..

You might possibly be able to book a flight out of Syracuse, for about what it costs to fly to Cairo.

I’ve never taken a bus from Ithaca at Thanksgiving, but I have the idea there are plenty of buses and they don’t sell out, as flights do, and that if they raise prices, it can’t be that much, and it beats hitchhiking.

I luck out on Thanksgiving, because my family convenes near the Delaware

YourLetters

got it right. At the Traffic Calming Open House Wed October 25th at Southside Community Center, a group gathered at the corner and discussed the temporary bump out experiment and the question of whether Plain & Clinton needs better traffic control.

Though unplanned, we helped people cross during the 5:30pm to 6:30pm time frame, since there were so few breaks in the flow of cars on Clinton St that it was hard for a person to get across unassisted.

Bike Walk Tompkins will host more open houses and offer other opportunities for input and feedback in the months ahead, leading up to a December 2018 (not 2017) release of a ‘Blueprint for Better Bicycling’ for Ithaca and Tompkins County.

With regard to other current issues and concerns, such as the MLK Jr Street Bridge Redesign Project, Bike Walk Tompkins looks to principles outlined by the Vision Zero movement as a guide. We believe that the bridge reconstruction is not an ‘us vs them’ issue at all, and that the already approved changes to the bridge lead to a much safer, more equitable, and more efficient travel environment for all, whether crossing by foot, bike, wheelchair, truck or car.

Finally as wonderful as the Hallowe’en Lighted Bike Parade was, it was not an official project of Bike Walk Tompkins in any way, although the Ithaca Time’s photo caption might have lead some people to think that.

We received one email of concern about

Guerillas, Not Outlaws

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t is great to see the recent level of interest and reporting on local issues concerning traffic and the safety of our streets for people who walk, bike and drive. The latest edition of Ithaca Times does beg for a bit of clarification, however. On the 3rd page with the photo of the Halloween Bike Parade as well as the article entitled “Guerilla Urban Planning Finds Foothold”, one might mistakenly think Bike Walk Tompkins flaunts the law. Absolutely not. Though it was not completely clear in the article, I would like to assure our community that the temporary bump-out traffic calming experiment at the intersection of Plain and Clinton had a City permit to proceed, with the City’s DPW Engineering Division’s full knowledge and support.

For those interested in further information about Tactical Urbanism and its sanctioned role in current progressive traffic engineering practices, please look up Mike Lydon’s book Tactical Urbanism, which was voted one of Planetizen’s top 10 planning books for 2017. Mr. Lydon was a visiting speaker in Cornell’s AAP (Architecture, Art & Planning) Department at the beginning of September this year and greatly inspired students and community leaders alike, including members of the Bike Walk Tompkins.

The rest of the article pretty much

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contin u ed on page 7

IthacaNotes contin u ed from page 6

Water Gap, about three hours from here, which is close enough for a oneday roundtrip.

Making this trip over many years, I’ve come to realize that three hours is the threshold for comfortable driving.

If you’re driving to New York City, at a certain point you need to stop, stretch, use the restroom, and dispel the thought that you’re tired of this and you wish you were there already.

On November 23 I will leave Ithaca around nine and get this feeling around noon, but will brighten and beam as I realize I am, in fact, there already.

If you’re having trouble with your Thanksgiving travel schedule, I have found that sometimes irrationality and superstition can help.

One Thanksgiving it looked as if, with complications at work, I might not be able to travel. So I responded creatively and, in terms of reason, groundlessly. yourletters contin u ed from page 6

the biking on the Commons. Again, we wish to reassure our community that Bike Walk Tompkins is not in the business of encouraging people to break the law. It must also be said that, like so many others who were there, we did find the sculptural creations of this group of inventive artists rolling slowly in our streets, and yes, momentarily on the Commons, a completely delightful thing to behold, and yet another reason why we love Ithaca so much.

–Victoria Armstrong BikeWalk Tompkins

Reach Out To Both Sides, Please.

This comment refers to an article that appeared on Ithaca.com entitled ‘Top Legislators Come Out In Favor Of A Constitutional Convention.’

U

nfortunately this article quotes only the viewpoint of Democrats. No Republicans were quoted. There are many problems with a con-con (constitutional convention).

Upstate interests will be overwhelmed by the downstate interest majority. The Democrat comments show they want a con-con to aggrandize power for themselves. Ending unfunded mandates may be good for county/local governments, but it does nothing to lower the total tax burdens New Yorkers groan under, just shifts them to another level. It also gives more power to Democrats in Tompkins.

A con-con could use “gerrymandering” to dismantle the Republican controlled state Senate, which checks the liberals in Albany. The commenting Democrats would likely end corporate contributions in politics but leave open union contributions. And, public financing

I had never cooked a turkey in my life, but decided I would, because if I couldn’t travel, I’d at least have an aspect of Thanksgiving; and – conversely, and my real thought – if I took the trouble to buy and cook a turkey, it would end up I could go.

And that’s what happened.

Nobody had to tell me it didn’t make any sense, because I knew it didn’t, but that it would work.

In the process, I found out how easy it is to cook a turkey. You put it in the oven for three hours and don’t do anything, not even open the oven door.

I also found out that if you cook a turkey in an apartment as small as mine, the place will smell of it for a long, long time.

Good luck with your Thanksgiving plans, but don’t be any more creative than you must.

Stephen P. Burke is a columnist for The Ithaca Times. His column, Ithaca Notes, appears biweekly. of elections forces taxpayers to finance both parties including the one they don’t want to support. It is probably not possible to limit the scope of a! con-con or prevent its delegates from being partisan. The dangers a con-con could create, even perhaps limiting free speech, are so great that voters should think long and hard before tampering with the stability constitutions provide by making them too easy to change.

Finally, it would be nice if Ithaca.com sought out positions from leaders of both major parties when running these stories.

–ConsultKramer via Ithaca.com

Editor’s Note: If Republicans decide to host their own press conference, we would be delighted to attend. But no Republican legislators were in attendance and therefore, not immediately available for comment. Goes both ways.

Letter From The Editor

I

n last week’s Election Guide, County Legislator Martha Robertson reached out to criticize our exclusion of several uncontested candidates in Newfield, Groton and in Danby. A number of editorial decisions were made for sake of space, namely in focusing on higher-volume readerships and contested races. Now we realize, in doing so, we inadvertantly discouraged engagement in the process by somehow minimizing the race’s significance.

To bolster understanding of how your local media operates, we always seek to be transparent in our process and are willing to answer any inquiries that do not compromise our editorial independence. Feel free to reach out any time.

–Nick Reynolds

ourOpinion

contin u ed from page 6

News Quick Hits

This much is true and, assuming those who own small businesses with the most ability to create jobs would tend to be higher on the wage scale, this stance makes sense for the Southern Tier: You can’t pay higher wages if your margins are already tight.

Yet, under the latest federal plan, New Yorkers would be able to deduct up to $10,000 in property taxes. Yet, considering many New York counties have annual tax bills higher than that, this would actually hurt a number of homeowners, particularly commercial property owners. Also in line with their proposal, a number of provisions utilized by those making between $20,000 and $40,000 per year (middle class in Tompkins County, according to a TCAD estimate, is about $35,000-$106,000) are expected to expire in 2023 and it is unclear if the growth in GDP will be able to compensate for the loss in tax revenues that once funded it.

Reed’s confidence assumes tax cuts are what are needed to once again, get industry booming in America. As one member of the House How will eliminating tax benefits for students help us to retain talent and reinvest here, from the bottomup?

claimed on Tuesday, companies today need to go offshore “not to thrive, but to survive” and, true or false, the somewhat-credible Tax Foundation (Left-leaning economists like Paul Krugman and numerous other groups, notably, are not fans) has been cited by the United States Chamber of Commerce for its estimate of 63,000 new jobs for New York State. But when we’re talking about rebuilding our economy, consider this: how will provisions like ending student loan interest rate deductions or eliminating tax benefits for students help us to retain talent and reinvest here, from the bottom-up?

How would a repeal of a deduction that makes our self-imposed high tax burden in New York State even higher help us to reinvest in our communities?

Reed ’s argument, in the context of the Southern Tier and its relationship with property tax, has some merit: the impact of this tax reform bill, as Crain’s New York noted in a recent article, could be greatly exaggerated in its anticipated impacts on the middle class and that, as Reed argued on Tuesday, high income taxes might be the biggest contributor to the loss of New York’s largest taxpayers. Under Reed’s theory, maybe these cuts will lure international corporations and their already high corporate profits back to the United States and maybe, encourage wealthier entrepreneurs to invest here. However, as written, this plan will allow them not to cheat our tax system, but to cheat the taxpayers instead. If that’s the case, maybe it’s not the tax code that’s the problem – maybe it’s the very nature of our economy.

We should focus on people actually willing to invest in a new one. This proposal does not do that.

This is a topic we’re very interested in and would love to hear alternate opinions. Email us at editor@ithacatimes.com to weigh in.

Nove m ber

8 – 14,

Longtime Legislator Jim Dennis Ditches Democrats Jim Dennis has been a Tompkins County legislator representing District 5 for over 10 years now, and for a few short months he had planned to try for that seat again. The long-time legislator then announced over the summer that he had changed his mind, he would not be running for re-election to the county legislature, and ended up endorsing Keith Hannon, who ran for Dennis’ seat on the Independence and Cayuga United party lines. But along with no longer running for the legislature, Dennis is also leaving the Tompkins County Democratic Committee, in part, because of this endorsement.

Dennis has been on the TCDC for 30 years, but according to a press release, he is choosing to tender his resignation “in light of the fact that he was facing expulsion for supporting candidates who are opposing endorsed Democrats.”

Check the story by the Trumansburg Free Press’ own Jamie Swinnerton at Ithaca.com.

Van Etten inches toward possible dissolution CGR Group, a nonprofit consulting firm hired by Van Etten Village, shared the results of a dissolution impact study at a presentation Oct. 25 in the Van Etten Elementary School gymnasium.

CGR found that if the village dissolved and became part of the town, Van Etten residents would see an estimated $284 reduction in their local government services tax bill for a $90,000 (median value) home, though many attendees of the meeting were skeptical that the savings would amount to that much.

Residents will be asked to vote on whether or not the village should dissolve at a special election to be held Nov. 13. The village is obligated to hold the vote because of a petition signed by 139 Village residents submitted in August.

Jaime Cone of the Spencer Random Harvest has the story on Ithaca.com.

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A Decade Underground After 10 Years, Ithaca Underground’s Influence Is Now Unavoidable.

By Christie Citranglo

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2017

P

osters and badges cover the walls at the Community Arts Partnership space in Center Ithaca. A long list of professional illustrators contributed to the collection, but among the works are photograph collages; framed, handwritten letters; a busted guitar; a flag made of black fabric with a handsewn pattern: works born out of a passion for music, a passion for community.

For 10 years, Ithaca Underground has been bringing punk and experimental music to Ithacans of all ages. Familiar local spots such as Sacred Root Kava Lounge and Tea Bar, The Chanticleer Loft and The Haunt have become venues for local and international artists to perform music that falls outside of the mainstream. With a five-part music series in November and at least two shows a month, IU has blossomed into a staple for the underground music community.

The Beginning

In the early-to-mid 2000s, a hardcore and punk enthusiast graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh, eager to move to a town he heard had a reputation for its punk scene.

Hailing from Long Island, he grew up listening to underground music, and the vibrant punk community in his hometown harbored his love for the music.

He attended shows in Plattsburgh that were held in church basements and integrated himself into the community while he was a student. Underground culture thrived in Plattsburgh, but still, it needed room to grow.

Founder of IU Jayme Peck began the next part of his life in Ithaca. The whispers of Ithaca’s punk scene meant he wouldn’t be far from his roots in Long Island and Plattsburgh.

At the time, Ithaca’s punk scene peaked and valleyed: some months would see several punk shows, followed by months of nothing. Peck arrived during a low point in the scene, frustrated at the amount of talent in the area but the lack of performances.

“I came to Ithaca and I asked, ‘Where are all the punks?’ And I was told, ‘Oh, they’re working at the deli at GreenStar,’” Peck said.

Peck and his girlfriend at the time, Helen Stride, rounded up underground enthusiasts in the community, which led him to join a band. His group performed shows at No Radio Records — local author Bob Proehl’s former record shop, which is now home to The Shop — and he

recruited other bands to perform at No Radio, too. With only one reliable venue, Peck and Stride sought to expand, and they expanded to perhaps the most reliable venue: his house.

The DI Y K ickoff

After settling in at the 1000 block of Coddington Road, Peck and Stride sit around a fire in Peck’s backyard. With them are friends and bandmates, tossing remnants of what was left behind in the basement of his house. Peck gathers, from his observations, that the place used to be a slaughterhouse. Each of them goes into the abattoir, pulls out some sort of junk and throws it into the fire. Among the trash the group finds an assortment of things, such as an old bathtub — which proves difficult to rid of — and, to their surprise, a molding bag of marijuana, which also died in the fire as everyone plugged their noses.

Part of IU’s style is DIY: do-it-yourself shows anyone can contribute to, homegrown even in your own backyard. There are no rules or restrictions: The music demands to be heard, and whoever craves the music has the freedom to put on the show in whatever medium they can.

And this demand extends to minors as well. Music at its core is devoid of an age requirement. With constant legal regulations at different venues to serve only 18+ or 21+ guests, listening to music and going to shows outside of the mainstream is difficult for high school and most college students. Keeping this in mind, Peck and Stride founded IU on the condition that all shows be all ages.

“Punk tends to be more outside of the community, but I’ve also seen communities embrace it and understand it on a certain level,” Peck said. “I remember in Plattsburgh, we used to have shows in a church. Which is kind of weird when we have bands that are atheist and/or Satanic.

But these churches didn’t care … they wanted to support us because we were giving a space to kids.”

With Peck’s house and No Radio the prime spots for all-ages, Peck and Stride’s adventure to grow Ithaca’s punk culture exploded into an community of overwhelming support and passion.

“It’s definitely evolved: It’s no longer just a couple people trying to do shows and handing out a few fliers,” Peck said.

IU grew too big for Peck’s home, and No Radio closed its doors in 2009. In only two years since its inception, IU gained dedicated volunteers to craft shows and

promote the organization. What began as an initiative in the backyard of an old slaughterhouse branched out to the budding Ithaca punk community. And when Peck and Stride’s lives went in a different direction, they knew where to turn the organization to.

“And this kid and his girlfriend said, ‘Hey, we have a house. The bands can stay with us,’” Peck said. “And his name was Bubba.”

N ew Bl ood Ta k es Ov er

The walls of a young couple’s kitchen is filled with torn notebook paper and notes scrawled in thick Sharpie marker. Scotch tape keeps the notes from falling, but a few corners resist the tape and fall forward.

“Bubba & Mel for president! Thanks so much for your kindness!! Love, Lazer/ Wulf + Manray,” reads one of the notes.

“Thank you Pirate House!! Love, Fight Amp” reads another.

“Bubba and I would drive to Philly and Syracuse and Buffalo on weeknights to go to some of these shows,” said Melisa Casano, one of the driving forces who kept IU running when Peck and Stride moved on from their roles. “[A friend of mine] told Bubba and I that someone was trying to bring these shows to Ithaca, and I immediately jumped in there.”

The new house for IU became Casano and Bubba Crumrine’s home. Casano said her and Crumrine bought their house with IU in mind, thinking it would be big enough to house visiting band members. Their home quickly became known among the underground community as the “Pirate House” — and just as quickly, did the house die as a venue.

Casano and Crumrine not only housed band members but used their basement as a stage. They crafted a flag, a black banner with a silver skull and two number fives. After a local news outlet covered their house as an alternative music space, the City of Ithaca shut them down in late 2009 because their home was not zoned for business.

With the Pirate House no longer a venue (though still a hotel for the visiting bands), IU was forced to expand outside of the basements and homes it was born out of. As more time passed, IU gained more community members eager to engage with the punk scene. Many were high school volunteers, and many others carried the passion left behind Peck and Stride.

With Crumrine as the new president Nove m ber

8 – 14,

and venues such as The Haunt, Sacred Root and The Chanticleer Loft now hosting shows, IU became a 501(c)(3) not-forprofit. Today, nearly 100 volunteers help to produce the more than 60 shows a year.

IU Today a n d Tomorrow

The DIY, all-ages underground music continues in Ithaca. Since its inception 10 years ago, IU has been diversifying its shows, giving voices to young artists, artists of color and women artists all involved in the punk and hip-hop scene.

Peck said punk can feel like a “white boy’s club,” and IU works to move against its potentially exclusionary nature.

“Every time I go to shows, I see more of a balance of women to men, at least in the crowd,” Peck said. “And that’s exactly what needs to happen: people need to get involved, and they can. And that’s the thing with punk or DIY: you can do it, too, with anything.”

The shows still have the organic, madewith-love charm, but on a larger scale.

The audiences are bigger, the volunteer team continues to grow and each show is at a venue in town and not someone’s house.

“We’ve amassed all these volunteers and a lot more input, which is great because if it were still Bubba and me, we’d just be like, ‘Let’s do another punk show in our basement!’” Casano said, and then laughed. “We didn’t set out to create a huge not-for-profit. We were looking ahead for the next six months or so. It was not really our intention, but we’re delighted it’s grown that much.”

Casano and Crumrine have been at the helm of IU for more than half of its lifespan. The two are getting married in the near future, which means their time at IU may be coming to a close. While this may mean uncertainty for the next 10 years of IU, Peck said the beauty of punk is that anyone can do it — and anyone in Ithaca can lead IU down a path just as strong as the previous.

“Empower them: let people know they can do it,” Peck said. “Not that you can do it for them; you’re not getting them involved, they’re getting themselves involved, but you’re creating that space that helps people learn and understand that.” • The Ithaca Times also reached out to Helen Stride and Bubba Crumrine, but they were not available for comment. For any loose ends, don’t worry: just go to a show. They’re easy to find.

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sports

An Iron Will

By Ste ve L aw re nc e

I

keep track of local athletes when big events (like the New York City Marathon) are being held, and I learned through a reliable source (Facebook) that one of Ithaca’s most ambitious runners would not be running what would have been SALE 149.99 her second NYC Marathon and$30th marathon overall. Jocelyn Stark wrote that on her birthday weekend,$her daughter would

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inclined to give her a break when she told me, “I have been running and swimming, but my legs just don’t have that pep back yet.

I’m dragging a little.”

Jocelyn and Tyler Wagenet – her good friend and training partner – started talking about this three years ago when they traveled a few hours south for the Maryland Ironman. The fun began with a 2.4-mile swim in the Choptank River. “The swim was actually pretty easy,” Jocelyn said, “although the be swimming in the Sectionals, and she water was a mixture from the (Chesapeake) said “I’m so proud of her work ethic and her Bay and it was a little brackish.” (While Jocdrive.” That was Reason #1… elyn and Tyler did train a lot together, they W hile Reason #1 is by any measure decided to do their own thing during the enough to earn Jocelyn a pass, when one race, given they were stronger in different factors in Reason #2, any lingering doubt events.) vanishes. In October, Jocelyn – who is a SALE Next up was the 112-mile bike ride, and member of Cornell’s Athletic Training Staff fortunately, the course was mostly flat (but – completed her first Ironman, and I was very windy). The temperatures were in the Ea.

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Jocelyn Stark (L)

low ‘80s, and Jocelyn said, “It was a beautiful day… for the spectators.” She added, “I’m not the strongest cyclist, and my longest training ride was 105 miles, so I was surprised I did as well as I did.”

After those two little warm-up segments, Jocelyn took off to run the 26.2 miles. Again, that was something she has done many times, but it was more difficult than she was accustomed to. “I had kept my heart rate in a certain range during the bike ride,” said the woman who makes her living by helping other athletes stay safe while reaching peak performance, “and knowing that I had a marathon to run afterward, I had to slow it down during the second half.”

Despite the fact that her legs felt a little heavier than usual during the run, she stayed on the pace she had set for herself. “The course was run on a loop,” she offered, “so I got to see Tyler a few times. Plus, when there are 1,500 other athletes on the course, you feel energized to keep going.”

Stark went into the race hoping to turn in a sub-13 hour time, and when she hit the tape at 12:50:39, she was happy. “I had perceived this as a bucket list, one-anddone endeavor,” she stated, “but after we recovered some and talked about it, I started thinking that I would do it again, for sure.”

She added, “I learned a lot in the process, and the next time I think I will train a little smarter in some ways.” I asked her if the built-in cross-training component was helpful, and she replied, “Definitely… changing things up helps me recover more quickly from my runs.”

Looking back at the experience, Jocelyn said “Tyler’s wife, Megan, is my best friend, and to see the level of support she provided so we could do this was amazing. I’m a mom too, but my daughter is 14 and a lot more self-sufficient than their 6 and 9 year olds. I really give her a ton of credit for all she did to make it possible.”

Circling back around to the swimming Sectionals, Mackenzie – the aforementioned 14 year-old – appreciated the fact that her mom wanted to spend her birthday weekend watching her compete, so she dove in and won the 500-Free. She also finished 4th in the 100 breast, 1st in the 200 medley relay and 2nd in the 400 free relay. According to her mom’s Facebook post, “That was the best birthday present ever!!!!”

Four exclamation points? Okay, we’ll go with that…

cultural Resource Center, Black Lives Matter Ithaca and Showing Up For Racial Justice in an effort to ensure those who, for a long by then-resident Matt Green – who is now, time have been excluded from the process, as Deputy Chief of Staff and Community will be included.​After all the proposals have Affairs & Director for the Participatory Bud- been considered and delegates selected, the geting process in New York City, overseeing proposals will then be put to a vote open the nation’s largest participatory budgeting to anyone 12​ years of age ​or​ ​older​ ​who​ ​live,​​ process – but was unsuccessful, in part due work,​ or​ ​go​ ​to​ ​school​ ​i n ​t he City of Ithaca​, the idea being people who might not be from to a lack of a broad enough coalition. the neighborhood might be involved in contributing to it in other ways and therefore, How W il l It Work? be truly representative of the community Like all participatory budgeting systems, fabric. each is catered specifically to the communiWhile they’re starting small, the endties in which they will be used. game for the effort, they hope, is to have a say Basing its approach loosely off the sys- in 1 percent of the city’s $72.2 million budget tem in place in New York City, the People’s – leaving about $722,000 of the city’s annual Budget will begin preparations for the vote expenditures up for the people to decide. in November, where the group will actively But wouldn’t that be quite a bit to leave reach out to community members in order to the citizen’s discretion, considering how to educate them and make them aware of often in these complicated, tight budget disthe process itself. (Newspaper articles, it cussions popular programs like youth recreseems, are part of this.) With the community ation or replacement basketball hoops may informed, the budget’s organizers will then get minimized for less-attractive measures begin the process of brainstorming ideas like paving streets and fixing streetlights? with the community in January, holding “That’s a lot,” Dennis admits. “But if you court at venues such as community​ ​centers,​ put it out to the community, you’re having restaurants and churches.​ Anyone​ who​ this as a discussion. People informed about comes​ ​​to​ ​t he ​meetings​ ​can​ ​suggest​ ideas for the city’s expenses who know about what’s how the budget will be spent, which​ ​w ill ​be​​​ being discussed and who care about it will recorded and ​g iven​ ​to​ ​t he​ ​PB​ delegates to be a part of that... that’s a different story than forge into formal proposals ready to sub- just everyone saying ‘let’s buy stock with it’ mit to the city for collaboration and final or something.” approval in the budget.​ Delegates, which in New York City are Want to learn more? Visit pbithaca.weebly. fielded in an open-call and appointed by the com city, will be designated by PB’s organizers to include liaisons from various community –Nick Reynolds groups, like neighborhood associations, to representatives from groups like the Multi-

Budget

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walk the fine line between hurting its current residents and retaining neighborhood character, Woodward said.

One possible solution could be differentiating between owner-occupied and nonowner occupied housing; a separation seen in some other nearby municipalities like the Town of Ithaca. The mayor said she had heard several people speak to the efficacy of such a differentiation, but did not sound like she had been convinced.

“On one hand, I understand the argument that if you’re occupying a home, the chances of people getting rowdy and out of hand and disturbing other neighbors will be minimized,” Woodward said. “But the irony is, for things like graduation weekend, people move out of their house and rent it. Then it’s no longer owner-occupied, you can’t have it both ways.”

Resident Nina Kohn, who often rents out part of her house to short-term renters of various lengths, said Cayuga Heights is an attractive spot for visiting academics who want to be close to Cornell University but might not want to spend their nights in a stale and sometimes expensive hotel room. Contrast to the mayor and village attorney’s position, Kohn contends short-term rentals are indeed legal and that the fact they generate income also does not make them illegal under the current zoning.

The village did release a “Short Term Rental Clarification” on its website which outlined that though the rentals are not permitted, public comments made during Trustees meetings would not be used as legal grounds

for enforcement; Kohn, though, posits that the mere statement of illegality discourages some residents from speaking against the ordinance.

Another Cayuga Heights property owner, who did not want to use their name due to possible legal implications, wrote in an email that Airbnb offers a variety of benefits to homeowners who utilize it. They called the proposal “extremely disappointing” and said the impacts will hurt those who have paid to improve their homes to make them more inviting to guests, beyond taking away income they could generate which generally exceeds that of renting long-term.

Cayuga Heights Planning Board Chair Fred Cowett said the zoning review process began in May 2014, when the previous mayor assembled a zoning review committee in response to the adoption of the village’s Comprehensive Plan. He said short-term rentals were not even a primary focus of the initial zoning revision efforts, though over the last year it had emerged as a more prevalent topic as short-term rentals rose in popularity.

In terms of enforcement, Woodward said not much will change. The village will still have to rely on reporting by community members in order to react to and investigate potential violations of the short-term rental policies. Regardless, after seeing the public reaction from both sides, Woodward seems resigned to the thought that not everyone will be satisfied whatever the outcome.

“Nobody is going to be completely happy, that’s just the way it has to be,” Woodward said.

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BusinessTimes A Century And A Quarter With Hickey’s It’s Had ups. it’s had downs. it’s still standing

By Matt Butler

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he tall shelves teeming with musical over the store’s keys to those who remained. scores still stand against the wall, a They trusted him to always have the music resilient vestige of the store’s origins they wanted, or know how to get it; he trusted that remains occupying a section of Hickey’s them to lock up when they left in the wee Music Center even after at least 60 years. hours of the morning, having finally finished The scores that the shelves hold are one of their search. the main reasons Hickey’s rose to prominence That simple interaction seems to embody in the mid-20th century, boasting a vast and the spirit that customers and employees alike expansive library seem to think is of selections that what has kept had been bu i lt Hickey’s around over the previous for as long as it decades. Its repuhas been. Though t a t i on q u ic k l y it’s unclear exactly grew in the music the date the store community was of f icia lly locally, and soon opened, DePaolo the store origi- Hickey’s receipt from the 1920s. (Provided by Margaret Hobbie) sa id t he sta f f ’s nally named after research shows a founder J.F. Hickey Hickey’s advertisebegan to seep up and down the East Coast. ment in the November 28, 1892 copy of the Celebrating its 125th anniversary this month, Cornell Daily Sun, the earliest recorded evithe store’s name is now known worldwide. dence they can find.

Legend has it, according to long-time All 125 years haven’t exactly been a employee Chuck DePaolo, at times in the smooth ride. Some lean times in the 1970s 1950s and 1960s there would still be a line of and 1980s cast doubt upon Hickey’s chances musicians and teachers waiting to be helped for survival. A couple from Poughkeepsie had in their quest for music at closing time, so purchased the music center and, though they then-owner Fred Wilcox would simply hand were well-funded and well-intentioned, the

Simeon’s American Bistro Dean Zervos and Richard Avery, Owners

Business Index pg. 15 TC3 Workforce pg. 16 Challenge Industries pg. 17

store was enduring a prolonged tailspin. working really, really hard, and we should all “They realized it was going down really be making more money. I’ve got great, great hard,” DePaolo, who’s been with the store people here and we’re all suffering through since 1987 and became a co-owner just over a this thing. But we see some light at the end decade ago, said. “It was the Titanic, and they of the tunnel. And I don’t think it’s another were trying to pump it out with baby straws.” train.”

In 1990, David Zimet bought the store, Perhaps poetically, Zimet excused himself combined it with his instrument repair busi- from the interview for about 20 minutes to ness and moved it to its current location in assist a customer and her mother who were the Ithaca Calendar Clock Factory on Adams testing three different mouthpieces to see Street in Fall Creek. Why would he invest in a which would allow her the best performance. store that had fallen on such dire times?

Unfortunately that same predicament has “Well, I figured if I could hamstrung any celebrations fix an oboe...,” Zimet said of their 125th year. With with a laugh. the employees, Zimet and Soon after Hickey’s forDePaolo included, working tunes began to change, most themselves to the bone just significantly highlighted by to make sure the store can a revitalized outreach cammaintain itself, there’s not paign to the music programs spare time left over to mount at local schools and colleges, much of a marketing camalong with a 1994 consultapaign. tion with a group of students Dick Ford was a student at Cornell that resulted in a at Ithaca College in the 1950s Hickey’s website, complete when he first ventured into with an ordering platform.

Hickey’s, which was at that DePaolo estimates the store time located up near Aurora may have been the first in Street. In those days, Ithaca the music community with College’s music program a legitimate online presbuilding was near DeWChuck DePaolo. ence, and having a reliable site itt Park and having a music (Photo: Casey Martin) attached to their known brand store so close was of “critical” has only become more valuable in the time importance to music students at the time. since. DePaolo said the website “keeps us in “It was easy to go over there and you’d the hunt, across the board.” always run into some other musicians,” Ford Now Hickey’s exists in the middle, a spot said. “Music teachers from all over the state they acknowledge but aren’t necessarily would buy music from Hickey’s and they still comfortable with. The business is big enough do [...] It’s more than a local music store.” to survive, but still must fight every day.

That’s another balancing act that Hickey’s DePaolo and Zimet aim to draw from the pulls off effectively: the store that sends music trust the store has built and the staff’s blend and instruments all over the world on a daily of musical experience and comprehension to basis while retaining the feel of a neighborseparate Hickey’s from the entities threaten- hood enclave of music expertise. ing any small business in existence now, like “I see all the musicians I know there, it’s big box retailers or Amazon. really a community music store,” said Nate “If you need us to go through the product Marshall, a local musician and performer and tell you what note is on page 9 in the sec- who rents space at Hickey’s to teach music ond clarinet, we can do that,” DePaolo said. lessons. “Each music store has its own little “People on Amazon have zero idea about scene [...] Ithaca is small enough and there’s what they’re selling. All they know is there’s a not that many music stores and so you’ll see number on a sheet of paper, they grab it off a folk musicians, guys who play in rock bands, shelf and they put it in a box, and they get paid and some people who work there are classical peanuts to do it.” musicians. It’s really an eclectic mix.”

“We get paid peanuts to do that here, but at least we know what we’re talking about,” Zimet said with a laugh, but later turned Read more online at Ithaca.com serious. “I’d say we’re happy with what we’re doing, but we’re not comfortable. We’re all

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B usiness T imes

Business Briefs History Center, Cornell University Press Announce New Partnership

Bring in five canned food donations for area food banks and we will install a free set of D’Addario guitar strings!

Six string guitars only. Excludes Floyd Rose bridge guitars.

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Nov 18th 10am-3pm

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T

he History Center in Tompkins County and Cornell University Press are pleased to announce the start of a new partnership. The two esteemed Ithaca-based organizations will actively cooperate to bring the best local and regional history and authors to Ithaca.

This collaboration will primarily take the shape of talks and events from authors published

by Cornell University Press held at The History Center on E. State / E. MLK Street. There will also be opportunities to highlight new themes in documenting history.

The series of events, “CUP Talks,” will be open to the public Rod Howe and are intended to generate interest in local history.

Cornell University Press marketing director Martyn Beeny said, “we are excited to be partnering with Rod Howe and The History Center. The work they do is important and stimulating and we believe the books we publish tie in perfectly to the center’s mission.”

The first event in the new CUP Talks will be held November 11 at 2:00pm. The talk features a variety of panelists with local connections, including Robert J. Mrazek, author of the new novel, And the Sparrow Fell, published by Cornell University Press.

“We wanted to kick CUP Talks off with an important topic that connects local experiences with global events,” said Rod Howe, Executive Director of The History Center. “With all the recent attention on the Vietnam War as a result of the Ken Burns documentary, it made perfect sense to bring in Bob Mrazek.

Bob’s book is fiction but it is historically accurate and reflects what Ithaca was like during the Vietnam War.” For more information on CUP Talks contact The History Center in Tompkins County at (607) 273-8284 or visit thehistorycenter.net.

DIA Says Hello To Two New Businesses Downtown 430 West State Street, Ithaca

607-273-8807 • bishopscarpetone.com

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he Downtown Ithaca Alliance (DIA), City of Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick, and other city officials will welcome Walking on Water (WOW) Productions and Metro PCS to the community during a pair of ribbon-cutting

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ceremonies on Thursday, Oct. 26.

MetroPCS, a wireless provider supplying phones, no-contract plans, accessories & repair services, launched in Upstate New York in May of 2015 as part of its parent company T-Mobile. After opening stores throughout Western and Central New York, it expanded its market to bring its wireless plans and a reliable network to the Ithaca area during this past summer.

WOW comes to downtown Ithaca as a new professional theater production group founded and directed by Priscilla Hummel, an Ithaca native who earned a Masters of Fine Arts in Acting and Directing from Regent University and honed her performing arts skills by acting and dancing in Chicago-based performance groups and acting in commercials and indie films before returning to her hometown to create this new group.

WOW will present its first production, Godspell, an iconic rock musical, from Nov. 10-12 at the CSMA. Additional information about WOW, including production information and tickets, are available at www.walkingonwaterproductions.org.

Tompkins Financial Hosts Topping Out Celebration for Headquarters Building

O

n Wednesday, November 1st, Tompkins Financial held a topping out ceremony to celebrate a critical construction milestone of its new Downtown Ithaca headquarters. A “topping out” ceremony is a traditional celebration held when the last beam, brick or other exterior material is placed atop a structure during its construction.

Once completed, the seven-story building will allow approximately 300 employees, including employees from Tompkins Trust Company, Tompkins Financial Advisors, and Tompkins Insurance Agencies, to work together under one roof at Tompkins Financial Headquarters. This consolidation will improve efficiencies and provide better services

A rendering of the Tompkins Trust Company Headquarters currently under construction on Seneca Street. This is what the building should look like when the scaffolding comes down.

for customers and business partners. This project has been in development for just under three years; the finished building has a projected occupancy of April 2018.

With the support of LeChase Construction and Holt Architects, the $40 million project has remained on time and on budget. The decision to build the new headquarters in Downtown Ithaca reaffirms Tompkins Financial’s commitment to supporting the economic vitality of the City of Ithaca.

“Keeping our Central New York employees in Downtown Ithaca was extremely important to us,” said Steve Romaine, president and CEO of Tompkins Financial. “We made a conscious decision to invest in a community that has supported us for over 180 years.”

Once completed, the 110,000 square foot headquarters will house a retail branch with an ATM located on the first floor.

Hotel School Hosts Entrepreneurship Workshop For Veterans

T

he Cornell School of Hotel Administration welcomed military personnel to the annual Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) from Nov. 4-Nov. 11.

The program provides entrepreneurial training and education specifically geared to twenty-first century veterans with service-related disabilities. The Hotel School is one of a network of colleges and universities that provide this program at no cost to our veterans who are developing their entrepreneurial businesses.

SHA’s three-phase program welcomes veteran entrepreneurs who seek to develop a hospitality-industry business, particularly in the food and beverage segment.

B usiness T imes

IthacaBusiness Index

Another All-Time High

By E l i a K ac a py r

T

he Ithaca Business Index declined to a level of 170.18 in September from a revised mark of 170.92 in August. This amounts to a dip of 0.4 percent. A drop in home sales combined with losses in employment and the labor force weighed the index down.

Moderate gains in retail sales, hours worked, a nd help w a nte d advertising were not enough to push the index into positive territory. Compared to September 2016, the index was 1.8 percent higher.

The Ithaca metropolitan area, which is the same as Tompkins County, lost 200 jobs in September bringing total employment to 65,300 on a seasonally adjusted basis. The number of jobs was up 1.6 percent compared to September 2016. Job growth has stalled after increasing appreciably in the first half of 2017.

The Ithaca labor force fell 1,200 to a level of at 50,000 persons. Anyone residing in Ithaca with a job, part-time or full time, is in the labor force. In addition, anyone residing in Ithaca

without a job, but actively seeking employment, is in the labor force as well. A smaller labor force means less economic potential.

The volume of retail sales generated in Tompkins County rose a moderate 2.3 percent in September. Compared to September 2016, retail sales were off 0.7 percent. The retail sales

figures include an estimate of online sales originating in the County. However, many have questioned the accuracy of online sales estimates. Experts expect online sales to be about the same as brick and mortar sales this coming holiday season.

The average work week in Ithaca inched up to 33.0 hours in September from 32.9 in August.

This figure is indeed an average that includes

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both full and part-time employees in the private sector.

Home sales in Ithaca fell 37.3 percent in September on a seasonally adjusted basis. The drop gives back the entire gain in home sales realized in August. Compared to September 2016 home sales were down 14.8 percent. Home prices, however, increased over the year. The median home sold for $232,000 compared to $210,100 in September 2016.

Help-wanted advertising improved 4.0 percent in September. Compared to September 2016, help-wanted advertising was up 8.9 percent. Gains in help wanted advertising can signal future growth in employment.

The Ithaca economy is on track to grow about 4.0 percent in 2017.

That would make it the best year since 1999 when the local economy grew by 6.3 percent. The growth in 2017 can be attributed to a pop in employment early in the year.

Things have flattened out since then, but they have not turned down.

This brings us to the all-important last quarter of the year. Retail experts are expecting a robust holiday shopping season. It is not clear what that means for local retailers given the huge presence of online sales. One thing is certain: like a lot of America, Ithaca has seen significant economic progress thus far in 2017.

In January 1985 the Ithaca Business Index stood at 100.00. In September 2017 the Index reads 170.18. This means that the Tompkins County economy has grown 70.18 percent in those 393 months.

From 1985 until 1989, the Ithaca metro region grew at a rapid clip.

The average annual growth rate was 5.7 percent. The Ithaca Business Index reached a peak of 130.78 in April 1989. A recession brought the Index down to a level of 111.70 in April 1992. This 36 month slide was much longer and more severe than the national recession which lasted only 8 months. Since then, the County economy has recovered, but annual growth rates of 1.0 percent are more typical these days.

There was a less severe version of the Great Recession here in Ithaca that started in April 2008 and ended in July 2009. The most recent recession began in October 2014 and ended in May 2015. There was no national recession during this time, but economic activity in Ithaca fell 0.2 percent in 2014 and 1.4 percent in 2015.

2016 registered a growth rate of 2.2 percent. The all-time high for the Ithaca Business Index is 172.05, its reading in February 2017.

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TC3’s Role In The Workforce

By Austin Lamb

A

college or university’s role pertains to more than just its impact on students in the classroom. It’s about making a positive contribution to its surrounding community, whether it’s with programs open to the general public, or helping local businesses prosper through economic development. For community colleges, this especially rings true, and will continue to be a part of new TC3 president Orinthia Montague’s agenda as she moves forward in her first year of leadership.

For the 12th year in a row, Tompkins Cortland Community College has acquired a grant from SUNY’s Community College Workforce Development Training program.

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area of TC3 that, before applying to receive the grant, worked in collaboration with local organizations to outline a training program that would fulfill important business demands and skill gaps in the region.

Since the community college began the program, more than $900,000 worth of training has been administered to local businesses in Tompkins and Cortland counties, benefitting nearly 8,500 employees overall. That number includes this year’s program, where 122 individuals will receive specialized training relative to their profession, in effect enhancing the productivity of their respective businesses and boosting the communities where they live.

That’s not to mention that the program is available at an extremely low price, as the SUNY grants reduce the training costs to a fraction of their original fee.

“It allows these organizations to afford the training they need to continue to thrive and remain vital in our community,” says Martha Hubbard, the director of TC3’s Corporate and Community Partnerships initiative, which is aimed at offering customized training programs for businesses wishing to improve skills in disciplines such as leadership, manufacturing, technology, and customer service.

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And though the training won’t earn employees degrees, it can improve their job security, as well their business’s overall success. “The competitive grants are designed to provide workforce development training programs that support the creation and retention of employment opportunities in the state and local community,” says Hubbard.

This year’s training, which will be finished by no later than June 2018, will be administered to five local businesses and organizations: Alternatives Federal Credit Union in Ithaca will receive supervisory development training; employees at Pall Corporation in Cortland will be engaged with team and project leaders; Higgins Supply Company in McGraw will undergo computer numerical control training; Byrne Hollow Farms in Cortland will receive yogurt and hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) training; and Family Counseling Services of Cortland County will be given employee engagement for supervisors. On how the five businesses were selected, Hubbard explains, “We routinely work with organizations like this, and this year these are the organizations that expressed interest and had needs that the grants could support.”

Over the past five years, Tompkins Cort-

land Community College’s total enrollment (which includes local high and summer school students taking for-credit classes) has decreased by nearly 12 percent, and core enrollment (fall and spring semester students) has declined by 30 percent. And with these drops, the college’s revenue has suffered accordingly. However, the grant’s $60,000 will not be put towards closing the gap in the school’s budget, which stood at $2 million going into the 2017-18 academic year. Instead, the money will simply pass through the hands of TC3, says Hubbard, as the intent behind the SUNY grants is not to directly strengthen the recipient colleges and universities, but advance the economic prosperity of their nearby communities and businesses.

“The key here is not the amount [of revenue], but rather what this does for area organizations,” she maintains.

As a community college, TC3’s regional image and accessibility are high priorities, beyond serving as a cost-effective avenue for higher education. “External relationships are very important to us. We look to the business community to provide input on programming, opportunities for our students, and employment for our graduates,” says Hubbard, adding: “This is just one way we can partner and support organizations and our community. Training and development are very important, particularly today, with increasing demands and competitiveness.”

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B usiness T imes

A Workforce Challenge

By Nick Reynolds

A

fter leaving Ithaca several years ago to try her hand at management in a number of surrounding counties, Teri Tarshus, the current General Manager of the Ithaca Hilton Garden Inn, noticed a fairly common problem in all of her hotels, from Corning to Cortland: recruiting and maintaining staff isn’t an easy thing to do.

Hospitality, as one would assume, isn’t always a steady industry. It’s prone to the ebb and flow of the season, staff being added and let go as guests come and go with festival season, parents weekends and the dog days of summer. And for its demands – a cheerful smile, a good work ethic – it often becomes difficult to recruit and train staff, even in an industry where opportunities, locally, are plentiful. Especially when every hotel, bar and restaurant is competing for the same staff.

This, for Tarshus, is a common story.

Out of every ten people she interviews, she said, eight of those don’t make the cut for a hire. And for those who do? Only one, she estimates, makes it longer than two weeks on the job, a major loss of time and training especially when overseeing a staff of approximately 60 people between the hotel and the attached bar and restaurant, Kilpatrick’s.

Since starting the job in September 2015, Tarshus has started to go a different route.

Over the past year, she has turned to workforce development firm Challenge Industries – a nonprofit, vocational organization for people with disabilities and employment barriers – to fill the gap, now counting close to 20 percent of her staff as Challenge clients.

“When I came back to Ithaca two years ago, that was the biggest no-brainer for me,” Tarshus said. “People would say we don’t have enough staff, we don’t have a good enough pool of candidates, I would say ‘we need to reach out to Challenge,’ because I’ve worked with them in the past and this is what they’ll do. ‘They will help us.’ And they did.”

Challenge Industries, though known largely for its in-house operations like document shredding and scanning, has for the past several years made an effort to reflect a changing sentiment in vocational training for people with disabilities, far removed from the old model defined by sheltered workshops and an isolated workplace experience. The

reliable workforce,” said Sammons. “If this was as simple as connecting people to job positions, we’d basically be a staffing industry but for Challenge, we don’t just match a resumé to a job description; we do a full cycle of services to get people ready for successful employment, from assessment to skills building. People need to learn, and they’re going to make mistakes, so we provide an environment where people can learn and practice.”

This often means a little bit of give and take, both between employer and Challenge Industries itself. At the Hilton, there is some training involved – both with team members from Challenge and for the people already employed there – to appreciate and understand differences in how each new employee goes about their work. One housekeeper,

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Teri Tarshus, GM of the Hilton Garden Inn

best practice for people with disabilities, says Joe Sammons, executive director of Challenge Industries, is to be mainlined and integrated into the community through the workforce, empowering them and the people around them to recognize everyone’s value within the local economy.

It just so happens one of Ithaca’s strongest sectors – the hospitality industry – allows for plenty of opportunities to do so.

“Our job is to connect people who want to work who may have a disability or some other barrier to employers who want a diverse,

who works a little more slowly than others for example, has begun working with a timer on her cart, allowing her to keep a sufficient enough pace to do the job as effectively as other members of staff without need for much oversight from another staff member. Challenge will even do transportation training, educating its clients on how to use the bus system or other forms of public transit to get from their homes to work on time without hangups. They may have clients do “test runs” both on the job and in the physical act of actually getting there to make sure their attendance is timely and their performance, impeccable.

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B usiness T imes

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dated, that advantage matters little.1,2

Key Estate Planning Mistakes to Avoid

By Jennifer L. Alfieri

M

any aff luent professionals and business owners put estate planning on hold. Only the courts and lawyers stand to benefit from their procrastination. While inaction is the biggest estate planning error, several other major mistakes can occur. The following blunders can lead to major problems.

Failing to revise an estate plan after a spouse or child dies.

This is truly a devastating event, and the grief that follows may be so deep and prolonged that attention may not be paid to this. A death in the family commonly requires a change in t he terms of how family assets will be distributed. Without an update, questions (and squabbles) may emerge later.

Thinking of a will as a shield against probate.

Many people think if you have a will, you do not have to go through probate or the court system. However, that is not true.

A revocable living trust is designed to avoid probate. However, for the revocable trust to be effective, your assets must be retitled into the name of the trust. If they are not Going years without upretitled into the trust and are held in your name alone with no beneficiary designadating beneficiaries. tion, then the assets will be distributed in Beneficiary designations on accordance with the terms of qualified retirement plans and your will. Before an executor is There are life insurance policies usuappointed or any assets can be multially override bequests made collected and distributed, your millionaires who go no in wills or trusts. Many people will must go through probate further than never review beneficiary desand the court system. An india will when it ignations over time, and the vidual can clearly express “who comes to estate gets what” in a will, yet end up estate planning consequences planning. of this inattention can be serihaving the courts determine the ous. For example, a woman distribution of his or her assets. can leave an IRA to her granddaughter in a will, but if her ex-husband Supposing minor heirs is listed as the primary beneficiary of that will handle money well IRA, those IRA assets will go to him per when they become young the beneficiary form. Beneficiary designations have an advantage – they allow assets adults. to transfer to heirs without going through probate. If beneficiary designations are outThere are multi-millionaires who go

no further than a will when it comes to estate planning. When a will is the only estate planning tool directing the transfer of assets at death, assets can transfer to heirs aged 18 or older in many states without prohibitions. Imagine an 18-year-old inheriting several million dollars in liquid or illiquid assets. How many 18-year-olds (or 25-year-olds, for that matter) have the skill set to manage that kind of inheritance?

If a trust exists and a trustee can control the distribution of assets to heirs, then situations such as these may be averted. A well-written trust may also help to prevent arguments among young heirs about who was meant to receive this or that asset.

Too many people do too little estate planning. Avoid joining their ranks, and plan thoroughly to avoid these all-toofrequent mistakes.

Jennifer Alfieri may be reached at 607.273.0037 or jalfieri@tompkinsfinancial.com.

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The evolution of i3° and the first album

W

hen the Argos Inn first opened its cocktail bar in January 2014, they played around with hosting a variety of musical acts to set the mood, from jazz and rock to reggae and solo piano. But, according to Autumn Greenberg, who was one of the three opening bartenders, nothing really fit.

Some musicians would bring in a quiet crowd that sat in silence to listen to the music, without buying any drinks. Other bands performed so loud that the bartenders couldn’t hear customers’ drink orders.

“People had a hard time trying to figure out how to play that space,” Greenberg said.

The building is a bit of a challenge. Constructed in 1831, it has high ceilings, fireplaces and original plaster crown moldings. As a boutique hotel, the bar was hoping to attract a certain type of crowd: people who valued good conversation and quality beverages they were willing to pay more for.

When three jazz musicians approached the bar about performing a regular happy hour jazz trio, the staff were skeptical. Bands that had offered to play in the past usually didn’t draw in a consistent crowd. But, because the jazz band offered to play for free, the bar agreed.

“We thought, ‘Well, there’s nothing left to lose!’” Greenberg said.

The trio, i3° (pronounced 13 degrees), is made up of Nicholas Walker on bass, Gregory Evans on drums and Nick Weiser on piano. On their very first Wednesday evening show, they drew a crowd and, after their performance, the bar insisted on paying them, and that they come back again the next week.

“They built what happens there on Wednesday nights,” said Tippy Ard, the bar’s co-manager.

The trio plays a diverse range of songs, from classical music and jazz standards, to soul, gospel and some originals. The band has even covered pop songs by Whitney Houston, Lorde and the Beatles. Once the audience recognizes these hits being played in an unusual genre, they always crack a smile, Walker said.

“People are delighted to find sounds they know out of context, and they’re excited to see what we do with it,” Walker said.

They all met as faculty members at Ithaca College and have been playing music together since 2012, often playing in large group settings with other teachers. Though established, by 2014, they were looking for a more intimate, meaningful musical experience.

“The music wasn’t really alive because it wasn’t in the context of a community,”

Walker said.

That’s when the trio decided to approach Argos.

“We were looking for a way to contextualize and not have the music in a vacuum,” Evans said.

The Wednesday evening performances quickly became a tradition, drawing in regulars week after week.

“We’d get this rush,” Ard said. “There’s a crew of people that come in every Wednesday.”

Jim Scarpulla, a jazz musician himself, is part of this crew. He has been attending the Wednesday evening shows for the last two years, and has taken piano lessons with Weiser.

“I’ve only seen groups generate that kind of scene once or twice,” Scarpulla said. “You just had to go. It was on my calendar, I went.”

The band played a solid two hours, with no breaks, which is unusual for a jazz band, according to Scarpulla.

“The band played off the audience and recognized the audience,” Scarpulla said. “Jazz musicians can be aloof sometimes and they were everything but that … It was like inviting a band to your living room. The attention was on the band. It was about what was going to happen next.”

Indeed, Argos became a casual, supportive place where i3° could experiment and be vulnerable as musicians.

“It didn’t feel like it was a gig,” Evans said. “It was just like an open rehearsal, a space where we can try things and feel comfortable not succeeding for whatever reason. The audience was there with us, trying all this stuff out with us. It turned into this beautiful relationship between

By M ic a h Wi l k i ns

i3° at the album release. (Photo: Micah Wilkins)

the music and the room and the people who came into the room, either regularly or randomly.”

Linda Wyatt has been a regular of the Argos Wednesday evening shows for almost two years, and has watched how the audience has evolved.

“The community that has grown up around this weekly event is an interesting combination of people of different ages, from different backgrounds,” Wyatt said. “We may not have anything to do with each other’s lives any other time, but for a couple of hours each week, we share something beautiful.”

Judy Hoffman and her mother, Ruth, would invite their children, and their children’s children into Argos whenever they could, and sometimes there would be four generations of family members in Argos listening to i3°. Regulars would have their retirement parties and birthday parties at Argos on Wednesdays, and everybody came together at Argos the day after the 2016 presidential election.

“There’s something that happens when music is in a social setting — things happen there that would never happen if we were alone in a room playing,” Walker said. “There’s a cast of characters and they get to watch this spontaneous creativity.”

According to Walker, Wednesday evenings are “the high point for our week,” playing music for a dedicated audience, and playing alongside their close friends.

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be with two human beings who I love,” Evans said. “It feels no different than just hanging out with them.”

But it looked like the weekly shows had to come to an end. Earlier this year, Weiser was made an offer he couldn’t refuse: a tenure-track, full-time position at SUNY Fredonia as the Head of Jazz Studies.

“From a professional standpoint, it was a thrill and sort of the obvious right more,” Weiser said. “It’s also the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make.”

Weiser moved to Fredonia for the 20172018 school year, leaving behind Ithaca, his friends, St. Paul’s United Methodist Church (where he was the music director) and Wednesday evenings at Argos.

“One of the hardest places to acknowl-

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edge [my leaving] was at Argos,” Weiser said. “That’s sort of been our home base for the last three years basically. That feeling of support and that general feeling of community, I knew that I wasn’t going to have that in place in Fredonia initially. Stepping away from some of those communities was phenomenally difficult.”

The band eventually had to break the news to the Argos regulars that this tradition that had been going strong for three and a half years had to come to an end.

“It was sort of bittersweet,” Ard said.

“I’m so happy for him, but I’m sad they’re not there on Wednesdays. i3° can’t just go away.”

None of the regulars wanted the band to just go away, either. Bill Benson, whose

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artwork often hung at Argos, and Scarpulla, who are longtime friends, struck up a conversation in light of the imminent end of their cherished Wednesday evening tradition.

Benson proposed that they record i3° live performances at Argos and make an album.

Benson, Scarpulla, Judy and Ruth Hoffman, Cynthia and Jonathan Lunine, all regulars for the shows at Argos, decided to become investors for this project, not for the money incentive, but to preserve their Wednesday evening jazz tradition.

“There could quite possibly be no financial return on this — kind of like owning a boat,” Benson wrote in an email to Scarpulla. (The two own a boat together.)

That didn’t stop them: The old Argos piano was tuned, the mics were set up near all of the instruments and at 5 p.m., the band would play. Over the summer, three of the i3° performances at Argos were recorded thanks to Al Grumwell of Finger Lakes Recording who, according to Scarpulla, worked for far less money than he normally would have.

“The recordings are just us being spontaneous,” Walker said. “We forgot the mics were there immediately and just did our thing.”

At the end of it all, they were left with 10 hours of music they had to distill down into 140 minutes. Grumwell mastered the recordings, and the band members, Benson and Scarpulla combed through the tracks to find their favorite 20 songs to put on two discs.

“We take a lot of risks,” Walker said.

“We fall down, and sometimes we play better than we actually play. I don’t think people mind that. It’s not product-oriented.

It’s a community experience. It’s like having a great conversation with somebody.”

The investors and the band members wanted a live recording, rather than a studio album, because they wanted to capture the musical honesty and essence of Wednesday evenings at Argos; complete with the solos, the hiccups, the applause, the muffled conversations, the children’s laughs and the rattle of cocktail shakers coming from the bar. Benson even noted that the mixologists shake their cocktails in time with the songs.

“It’s totally subconscious,” Ard said.

“We’re just flowing with the rhythm of the music.”

On Sunday, Weiser drove in from Fredonia and the band gathered again at Argos for their album release show, where they were selling their CDs and posters.

“It’s been amazing that everyone has gathered around the music,” Walker said to a packed house on Sunday night. “Without the community being here the music doesn’t really live.”

According to Evans, the album is an artifact that memorializes the musical experiences that have been happening at Argos since 2014.

“It’s a tangible thing to hold, and say ‘Hey, this is what’s been going on here and this is what it sounded like,’” Evans said.

“It’s not all about the music, it’s about what the music can be and what it can do in this community” Walker and Evans are still playing shows at Argos every Wednesday evening with guitarist Gabriel Condon, and Weiser drives down from Fredonia at least once a month to perform with i3° on the weekends. The next i3°performance is Dec. 2 at Argos from 5 to 7 p.m.

“It’s rare that you find a group of musicians with whom it’s so easy to exchange ideas and it’s so easy to play,” Weiser said.

“When you find a special musical or personal connection like that I think it’s worth making every effort to keep that going.”

In case you missed it, the two-disc album is available at Argos, GreenStar Co-Op, Angry Moms Records, Sundries in Trumansburg and online at www.wmbenson.com for $15. •

dining

A Meal Worth the Trip

Stella’s Barn serves comfort food in a warm setting

By Peg g y Haine

HENRY E. AND NANCY HORTON BARTELS 2017-18 WORLD AFFAIRSFELLOWSHIP LECTURE

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Give the Gift of Music This Season!

O

n a recent Tuesday night, Newfield’s Stella’s Barn was humming. Many of the patrons seemed to know each other, bantering congenially of weather and cake wheels, with good-natured joshing from one table to another. Women friends were having a night out, a multigenerational family gathered and a proud grandmother beamed over a young couple and well-behaved baby.

The place is cozy, the staff welcoming and professional. With its board-and-batten interior walls of rough pine bedecked with period photos (our favorite was a headshot of a farmer and his team of four mules), the place has both charm and good acoustics, and you have to listen really hard if eavesdropping is your game.

Old Elmira Star-Gazette issues were laminated onto our table top, bringing back memories (for those of us who were around in 1951), of a time when a bar of Cuticura Soap sold for 14 cents and three bars of Lifebuoy for 23, cigarettes were 18 cents a pack, and a furniture outlet’s “occasional chair” sold for about the price of today’s Bloody Mary. Announcements of church card parties raising money for organ repairs, NAACP meetings, a dessert-and-card party for the IOOF Temple Association, the Guardian Angel Committee of the Ladies of Charity and events sponsored by the local Eastern Star and a group called the Futurettes spoke of a time when few women worked outside the home and centered their lives around church and family.

Water arrived in replica pint canning jars with handles, and our waitress brought a basket of sweet cornbread. Salt and pepper grinders on each table invited us to roll our own.

The martini menu offers the requisite lemondrop and chocolatini, but we played it safe with a not-overly-sweet margarita followed by small salads to get digestive juices flowing An order of broiled seafood brought a hunk of what appeared to be haddock, a few large scallops, and some decent-sized shrimp (don’t get me started on the inconvenience of having to remove tails from

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A family eats at Stella’s Barn.

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sauced shrimp – it’s enough to stain your best pair of white gloves!), all served in a pleasing white wine sauce spiked with a shot of fresh lemon juice. Veg-of-the-day was buttery green beans, warmed through, but still crunchy. As a second side, I opted for diet-busting, buttery, garlic mashed potatoes, comfort food at its wicked best.

In the middle of the week, we were delighted to find prime rib on the menu, and a hefty slab of tender, medium-rare beef arrived dressed in a hail of mushrooms, onions, and peppers, held together by a raft of melted provolone; essentially a solid cheeseburger on steroids. Grill marks attested to the beef’s unusual flash encounter with high heat, which added to its flavor, and, with its baked potato and green bean sides, it was a portion so generous that Ralph-the-Wonder-Dog was excited to enjoy a post-prandial snack later at home.

A family place, its kids’ menu offers such delicacies as a corn doggy basket, grilled cheese, mac and cheese, and spaghetti with sauce. For the grownups, there’s a selection of burgers, grilled chicken sandwiches, pulled pork and veggie-burgers, a great listing of pastas, both vegetarian and not, and chicken and steak platters, along with nightly specials.

Desserts included a four-layer carrot cake with cream cheese icing, a glutenfree flourless chocolate cake and a creamy lemon cake that could have used a bit more lemon, but which was otherwise good, all reasonably priced at $6.

A few years ago colleagues and I enjoyed the occasional lunch at Stella’s Barn but, even though it was a great getaway, Newfield seemed a long way to go for lunch from downtown Ithaca, so it wasn’t a great surprise to learn that they now serve lunch only on Saturdays and are open for dinners every evening but Sunday. It’s just a few miles from downtown Ithaca and, to me, well worth the drive – and, if you arrive by twilight, you get to see what’s left of the fall colors draping Newfield’s beautiful Hills. •

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dining

Trek Through Stars and Plants

CLARKS, BORN, TAOS & NAOT

Ten Forward Cafe a cozy, vegan-friendly cafe

By Chr i s tie Cit rang l o

2017/18 SEASON

BY LYDIA R. DIAMOND

by DUNCAN MACMILLAN

NOV 11 - DEC 10 “A life-affirming comedy with plenty of jokes, high-octane energy, and connection between the one performer and his audience”

- The Nation

Central New York’s Off-Broadway Theatre TICKETS: 607.272.0570 KITCHENTHEATRE.ORG 417 W. STATE / MLK JR. STREET 22

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Tammie Olsefski (left) and Mortisha Williams (right) hold up their made-to-order vegan eats.

(Photo: Casey Martin)

S

pending a rainy af ternoon in one of Ithaca’s many cafés doesn’t divert from the many other days of t he average It haca n. Wit h dozens of options on each hill, finding new and interesting spaces designed to sip coffee and spend too many hours on laptops is difficult. But not for Ten Forward Café.

A café in the loft of Autumn Leaves — the former home of that hip, pirate-themed café, The Crow’s Nest — feels quaint, and spending time there is like a few cozy hours at your grandmother’s house, if your grandmother was a vegan Star Trek fan. Bobble heads and memorabilia of various Star Trek icons are littered over the bakery counter, right next to a golden platter of free stickers. Behind the counter, each drink, sandwich, soup and dessert is made to order, with the members of Starfleet looking on with encouragement.

With so much warm quirkiness in one space, it’s only natural the quality of the food matches the café’s atmosphere.

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Being a vegan isn’t a requirement to enjoy the food — I’m not a vegan — which is what makes Ten Forward so remarkable. Becoming acclimated to the world of plant-based foods can be intimidating, and it’s a common misconception that most of the food is bland, boring and not hearty. It doesn’t take long for Ten Forward to shatter these myths, and the creativity in the café’s recipes can unlock a new perspective on vegan eating for the skeptics out there.

When I thought about what to order at Ten For ward, I began to realize how accessible the staff made vegan cuisine.

The prices are standard for a traditional café — $8-9 for a gourmet sandwich, $2-5 for a fancy coffee and $5 for a vegan milkshake hefty enough to be a meal on its own — which makes branching out into a plant-based diet much easier than dabbling into overpriced, gimmick y food. The menu reads like a non-plant-based café, welcoming any eater into a new world of food with open

arms. The staff is also friendly and genuine, ready to answer any questions about the menu — no matter how silly they may seem at first — or to just chat for a minute about your day. If you’re someone with food allergies, they are also quite accommodating as long as you detail your needs.

I wa s su r pr ised by how quick ly I began to love the menu — I’ve spontaneously gone back for several afternoon teas and milkshakes since my initial visit. My go-to drink has become t he Di lit hiu m Crystal milkshake, which is a blend of frozen bananas, peanut butter, chia seeds, cacao nibs and soy milk (though I usually swap the soy for hemp milk, but that’s just a personal preference). The bitter chocolate flavor from the cacao nibs is softened by the creaminess of the sweet banana, and the peanut butter gives the shake a pop of savory. If I’m in a rush, which I usually am, it’s great for an on-the-go breakfast, especially because it will keep me full for hours. And I can’t

feel terrible about drinking a milkshake for breakfast if that shake is packed with vitamins and protein, yet still tastes like candy.

While the sandwich options range from a vegan takes on Reubens to BLTs, I have a hard time resisting the build-your-own option. Ten Forward doesn’t charge extra for each additional topping, which means I usually go all out and get almost everything on the list — and it still tastes exceptional. As someone who is bra nchi ng out i nto new dietary habits, building your own sandwich is an easy way to try new foods that fit your taste.

The breakfast sandwich is probably my favorite, still.

An English muf f in topped with cheddar “cheese,” veggie sausage, tomato, seitan and a house-made sauce is simple and the right amount of savory for any time of the day — which is perfect because you can get the sandwich even later at night.

But if you’re in the mark e t for s ome t h i ng on t he unhealthy side, try something off the Star Truck menu. The café was born out of a food truck in Press Bay Alley, and the familiar menu of mac and “cheese,” garbage nachos and veggie dogs hangs on the wall as a nod to the old truck. I’m a sucker for mac and cheese, so going with that is never a bad option — especially since the food is vegan, I don’t feel as physically terrible after I eat what should have been an unhealthy meal.

Food and aesthetics aside, Ten Forward seems to have a keen commitment to sustainability. When ordering in, the food and drinks are served in reusable cups and plates. Fairly standard, but even for to-go orders, shakes are served in recyclable cups and guests can buy a metal straw in house to cut down on plastic waste. Ten Forward also sells a travel spork and t ravel plate, washable a nd reusable for to-go orders. They still wrap some to-go orders in Styrofoam and foil; it’s impossible to get everyone to carry around a plate and spork. But just giving guests the option to limit their waste is still far more than most cafés do.

With friendly staff, a warm environment and food that can please any food lover, Ten Forward will quickly become you r go -to c of fe e s p ot i n Ithaca. •

music

Percussive Strings

Tommy Emmanuel comes to the State Theatre

By C hr i s tie Cit rang l o

Tommy Emmanuel will perform his bluegrass music 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11, at the State Theatre of Ithaca.

Tommy Emmanuel on the guitar.

(Photo: Alysse Gaf kjen)

n a small country town in Australia, a child of the ’60s becomes fascinated with music for the first time. Drums, guitars, bass — anything that piqued his interest. More than 50 years later, this same small-town “golden boy,” as he was once

called, still plucks his guitar; only now, he’s performing all over the world, and he’s just released a new album with bluegrass legend David Grisman.

Tommy Emmanuel is back on tour, and he’ll be taking over the State Theatre

I

of Ithaca. He’s traveling with Grisman, and their newest album, Pickin’, marks the first time the two musicians have worked together on an album.

Working with Grisman was a sort of distant dream for Emmanuel. In Australia, the bluegrass scene is scarce, so Emmanuel often drew on American influences for his work. But crafting an album with Grisman 40 years later? Much different.

“I discovered [Grisman’s] music in the early ’70s when he was playing a swing bluegrass unit, which was unusual music for us,” Emmanuel said. ”We’ve never had something that sounds like bluegrass, but it’s jazz. It was so different: David was kind of inventing another genre.”

Emmanuel traveled to Washington State to record Pickin’, which was recorded entirely in Grisman’s living room. They set up microphones all around the room, then ran cables down to the studio in his basement. Grisman wrote most of the music, and through a collaborative effort, the two jammed out and recorded the songs.

Grisman, a Hackensack, New Jersey, native, has been playing bluegrass tunes for even longer than Emmanuel. When the seasoned players gathered together, the recording process unraveled naturally.

“We actually did the album in his lounge room,” Emmanuel said, and then laughed.

“If you have good digital recording equipment and some decent microphones, you can record anywhere. It’s what going into

the mic that matters.”

Emmanuel’s guitar playing on this album — and any of his other albums — acts like a full band. Emmanuel, at the age of 7, was inspired by the master Chet Atkins, who played his guitar like a piano or a drum. Like Atkins, Emmanuel plays his guitar like he would a full band. He can play the melody and accompaniment on guitar, just like one would on a piano. He uses different percussive props on his guitar at times, such as a plastic drummer’s brush, in order to capture different sounds.

“Because I’ve always been a drummer, once we got the technology in our guitars where the electronics wouldn’t pick up the sound of the body of the guitar, that was a whole different ball game,” Emmanuel said, “The guitar body itself is just a box, isn’t it? And you amplify that in a certain way, you’ve got drums and you’ve got all sorts of overtones you can work with, so I started doing that.”

Emmanuel, the one-man band as he called himself in his TEDx Talk, hasn’t missed a beat in his performances. Even after decades, getting up on stage and creating music is still a passion for him “I have a friend who calls me the abominable showman,” Emmanuel said. “I’m here for all the same reasons, and I’m for the fun of it and the challenge of it. I’m here for taking all the people there out of their normal existence and shaking them up a little: that’s the fun part.” •

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Nove m b er

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stage

Wonderful Night on the Town Ithaca College’s Wonderful Town nails the story

By Ros s Ha ars ta d

I

thaca College offers a pitch-perfect rendition of a “Golden Age” ’50s musical about 1930s Greenwich Village, swinging with colorful Broadway visions of ‘Bohemia’ in a candy-colored design.

Wonderful Town (1953) is the middle musical in Leonard Bernstein’s New York City trilogy (between On the Town (1944) and West Side Story (1957), and his second with lyricists Betty Comden and

Adolph Green.

While it doesn’t have the voltage and hits of the earlier On the Town (the first musical by all three, with the book also

by Comden and Green, choreography by Jerome Robbins — all then ‘kids’ in their 20s) it has a zany loveliness of its own.

While six months’ work had gone into On the Town — their own baby, Wonderful Town was a four-week rush job. Based,

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The leads of “Wonderful Town are two sisters who moved to New York to follow their dreams.

(Photos provided)

Famed director George “Mr. Broadway” Abbot (who had helmed their first musical), had an option on a musical based on the play and film My Sister Eileen with only a small window to use the film’s star Rosalind Russell. In the play, two sisters, Ruth and Eileen, give up Columbus for the bright lights of 1930s NYC, landing in a dump on Christopher Street amongst the painters, dancers, actors, streetwalkers, poets and radicals of the Village.

The creative trio met the deadline and knocked out the Tonys, including Best Musical and Best Actress in a musical.

Unlike the trio’s previous musical, this was a star vehicle with an existing book (by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov).

As such it was tailored to Russell, both her personality — wry, no-nonsense and fast with a quip — and her limited singing range. Surprisingly, Ruth Sherwood is a great singing role in the right hands, or throat, as well as a ferociously funny role for a take-charge woman who thinks she’s a wallflower.

In IC’s production, Kylie Heyman nails it, with a brassy commanding belt that can shift to a clarion soprano, especially in her solo “One Hundred Easy Ways to Lose a Man,” (in essence, just show you are smarter than he is.) She lands the quips, plays it real and easily holds the stage. Heyan is blissfully partnered by Veronica Ortiz as Eileen. Ortiz possesses a silvery coloratura and pertly plays the girl who can’t help landing the men. The two blend rhapsodically in the show’s best known song, “Ohio.”

The male lead, Robert Baker, is given two operetta style baritone ballads. The whole show plays with the ’30s Broadway of the Princess Theatre shows, both about love. Luckily, he is introduced much more wryly as yet another transplant trying to

make it in the Big Apple. Daniel Heyward plays him with brash suave energy, and an open, very warm singing voice.

The rest of the show is peppered with “characters.” Richest of these is Wreck Loomis, an off-season football player given goof ball charm and warmth by Bernie Baldassaro, who of course is in love with an upscale girl (a sweet and vivacious Lea Sevola) with a snobbish mom (Bretana Turkon, all aggrieved propriety). Corey Kline finds the soulfulness in Eileen’s hapless beau Frank, while Justin Albinder is all schemes and passion as the Greek landlord/modern painter Mr. Appopolous. Peter Garza and Zack Collins put out a bit of sleaze and urban know-how as a night-club proprietor and a womanizing reporter respectively.

Comden & Green’s wisecracks and lyrics keep the ball rolling while Bernstein provides a very eclectic score that branches out into great dance numbers.

Director/choreographer Courtney Young makes a feast of these, building each piece on character movement that falls into dance patterns as if by accident. Pacing is superb, and the cast simply seems to fly in her hands. Two standout moments are the great Act One closer, “Conga” and the sultry introduction to the Vortex night club.

She is more than ably assisted by the designers. Scenic designer Daniel Allen provides a cut-out flats and wings cartoon NYC while Greg Robbins goes to town with a multi-ethnic bouquet of costumes with some crazy silhouettes. Paul Vaillancourt lights everything with gorgeous splashes of color.

And how many theaters today feature a 27-piece orchestra? The overture is a glory in itself under music director Christopher Zemliauskas. •

film

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Thor film and Stranger Things exceed expectations

By Br yan VanC ampe n

Left: Chris Hemsworth as Thor; Right: Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven (Photos provided)

Thor: Ragnarok, directed by Taika Waititi, playing at Ithaca Stadium 14; Stranger Things 2 on Netflix. never could related to Thor when I was a kid. A teenage nerd who gets bitten by a radioactive spider? I get that. But what do I have in common with a demigod? For me, the Thor movies are the relative runts in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The first film felt bloated, pretentious and frankly, hard to identify with.

Gods? Aliens? What is going on here? And the second Thor movie felt even more like a placeholder, with a completely generic and forgettable villain.

From the first fade-in, Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok lets us all in on the joke, and for the first time we have a Thor movie that is really a great buddy comedy with a most welcome light touch. We first see the God of Thunder narrating his latest adventure to a skeleton he shares a cage with, and the usual interrogation scene gets mucked up when the chains that Thor (Chris Hemsworth) hangs from keep twisting the wrong way. Hemsworth, channeling the charm of Roger Moore-era Bond, keeps apologizing for things not going better. Later, when someone warns him about the consequences of his actions, Thor simply says, “It usually works out.”

Finally, a Thor movie finds the humor that the character has shown in the Avengers films.

After a welcome cameo from Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), the bulk of the film finds Thor stripped of his powers and forced to fight the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) in gladiatorial games run by the malevolent Jeff Goldblum. Thor, Hulk and newcomer Tessa Thompson — a terrific addition to the cast — become a great team together.

But for all the lightness of tone the film gets right, particularly a ridiculously selfaggrandizing history play conceived by

I

Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and a great scene with Loki playing Odin (Anthony Hopkins), Marvel really needs to work on their villains. Cate Blanchett shows up looking like a cut-rate Malificent and chews the usual scenery. But her character is not well-integrated into the plot. It’s as if the movie forgets about her until the obligatory third act special effects showdown.

Still, for the image of Thor shorn like Samson, and for not one but two uses of Led Zeppelin’s “The Immigrant Song,” compared to its two predecessors, Thor: Ragnarok actually does rock.

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Some TV series only had one good season in them. (Yes, I’m looking at you, Heroes). I enjoyed Stranger Things on Netflix so much that I was leery about going back to the well. In my own mental Upside Down, part of me was screaming, “Quit while you’re ahead!”

Stranger Things 2 is even better. The time is Halloween, 1984 — a great year for movies — and a new mystery takes hold of the residents of Hawkins, Indiana. This is binge-watching entertainment at its finest; over the course of its nine episodes, the characters and situations get deeper, more emotional and more complex. There’s a strong subtext involving ’80s cinema like Ghostbusters, Gremlins and Aliens, and the casting of Paul Reiser and Sean Astin isn’t just nostalgia for Goonies fans. And considering his involvement with these series and the recent adaptation of It, young Finn Wolfhard is a shoo-in to win ’80s Trivial Pursuit contests for life.

And if you still can’t get enough, check out Netf lix’s companion show Beyond Stranger Things, where host Jim Rash (Community) interviews the cast and crew.

But don’t watch it until you’re done with Stranger Things 2: spoilers abound. • Nove m b er

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GeT An ideA. get a loan.

So you need a business loan. But it’s Saturday. Or it’s 3 in the morning. It’s all good. Because you can apply for a business loan wherever, whenever.

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Darlingdecorating: A social Cake Decorating Event

Hangar Theatre, Ithaca, Friday, Nov. 10, 8 p.m.

Bandwagon Brew Pub, Ithaca, Sunday, Nov. 12, 5-7 p.m.

Ithaca natives, Annie and Marie Burns have traveled across the world performing various folk tunes and original songs and have shared the stage with some of the greatest folk artists in history, such as Tom Paxton, Jimmy LaFave and Holly Near.

(Photo provided)

Novices and experts can learn the ropes of cake decorating. Each guest gets a six-inch cake to decorate and learn from the master pastry chefs. And once the masterpiece is completed, guests can bring home their cakes to enjoy for dessert.

(Photo provided)

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The Burns Sisters: United We Stand

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David Crosby

The State Theatre of Ithaca, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 8 p.m.

David Crosby makes his way over to the State Theatre of Ithaca. Known as a legend in the singer-songwriter community, Crosby is also a two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His new album, “Sky Trails,” recently came out. And even after all of these years, Crosby still brings something fresh to his work.

(Photo provided)

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Ithaca College Showcase The Haunt, Ithaca, Friday, Nov. 10, 8 p.m.

Ithaca College is full of talented musicians and performers, and some of these talented students will be taking the stage at The Haunt to perform for the Ithaca community. Among the performers are Kyra Skye, South Hill Revival, Olive & the Pitz, The Troy Boys and The Bad News.

(Photo provided)

Heads Up Ithaca College Showcase

by Christie Citranglo

Ithaca College Showcase, 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10, The Haunt. thaca College began as a music conservatory 125 years ago, and while the college has grown and branched off into other disciplines since then, music and creativity still remains at the core of the institution.

Showing off this creativity, The Haunt will host a showcase of Ithaca College bands and one solo artist. Not all of them study music, but that doesn’t stop them from writing original music and recording tunes in their free time as students — free time which is infrequent.

Here’s a look at who’s performing Friday:

I

South Hill Revival: A rock revival band, South Hill Revival formed in 2016 and was originally made up of three Ithaca College roommates. The group met in 2014 and unofficially formed.

Since then, the group has gone through several members, rotating out students who graduated and keeping students who still attended the college. The current members are David Vinder on lead vocals and guitar, Colby Daboul on bass, Matt Gurbarg on drums, recording, mixing, mastering and album art, and Dylan Radigan on guitar. They have on EP out now, featuring three original songs. The band is inspired by rock primarily, both classic and new.

Kyra Skye: Kyra Skye is a sophomore Sound Recording Technology major, going solo after performing in the band Izzy True. Her first album, Summer Nights, was released in August of this year.

Skye wrote, performed, produced and mastered the album on her own. Some of her influences include Glass Animals, The 1975 and alt-J. Olive & the Pitz: Olive & the Pitz is an indie-rock group made up of four friends from Northern New Jersey who also study at Ithaca College. The band features Nick Iacobelli on drums, Ross Greenberg on bass, Kyle Cooke on lead guitar and Olivia Riggio on vocals and guitar. Olive & the Pitz is passionate about feminism, a theme that appears in its music. The group released its first EP, Landlocked, last year.

The Troy Boys: The Troy Boys met like most Ithaca College freshman do: in the towers dorms. But they’ve moved on from dorm living into a house on Troy Road, hence The Troy Boys. The group is inspired by the psychedelic pop/rock movement of the late ’60s, a theme that shines in many of the group’s songs. While the boys draw on older rock, they also incorporate their own sounds and styles.

The Bad News: The Bad News is made

up of three Ithaca College sophomores.

The group features Jacob Mollot on guitar and vocals, Bennett Maupin on bass and vocals, and Eric Myers on drums. The Bad News has a punk and lo-fi sound, and the members just released five recorded songs September of this year. •

On Common Ground

The Cherry Artspace, Ithaca, Monday, Nov. 13, 7-8 p.m.

Sacred Root Kava Lounge and Tea Bar, Ithaca, Friday, Nov. 10, 7:30-11 p.m.

Fulbright scholars bring Pakistani artists to Ithaca to collaborate with Ithaca College theater and writing students in a staged reading of the culmination of their work entitled “On Common Ground.” The reading is part of an 18-month project, sponsored by a U.S. embassy grant, co-hosted by Ithaca College and the Central NY Chapter of the Fulbright Association.

(Photo provided)

As part of its November series, Ithaca Underground will host a show at Sacred Root Kava Lounge and Tea Bar. IU is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

(Photo provided)

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IU November Music Series: Zenizen, Pruven, Wrists, Misses Sick07 Keanu Stryker

The Troy Boys (Photo provided)

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Town & Country

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Special Rates:

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Southern Cayuga Schools, anticipates hiring a cleaner for a FT position, competitive salary, apply online with the Support Staff Application: go to southerncayuga.org/644, click on the application in the right column, deadline Friday, November 17, 2017, Loretta Van

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employment

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Southern Cayuga Schools announces continuous recruiting for Substitute School Bus Drivers, $18.00 per hour, also seeking PAID Bus Driver Trainees, competitive hourly rate, apply online with the Support Staff Application: go to southerncayuga.org/644, click on the application in the right column; Loretta Van Horn, Business Administrator, SCCS, 2384 Route 34B, Aurora NY 13026, SCCS EOE.

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is accepting applications for the following: Data Entry Specialist: Currently, there is one vacancy. Min Quals: Graduation from HS or HS equivalency diploma. Salary: $30,451 (2017 rate) $31,060 (2018 rate). Residency; Resident of Tompkins County or one of its 6 contiguous counties. Exam: Given at a later date. Deadline: 11/15/17. City of Ithaca HR Dept., 108 E. Green St., Ithaca, NY 14850 (607)274-6539 www. cityofithaca.org The City of Ithaca is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversifying its workforce

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Loving family from Europe, looking to adopt a baby into home filled with happiness, security, unconditional love. We whole-heartly welcome a child of any race/ethnicity. Please contact Chantal, Geoffrey and big brother Noah, through our NY adoption agency! 1-914-9391180, adopt@foreverfamiliesthroughtadoption.org (NYSCAN)

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The Broome Developmental Disabilities State Operations Office (DDSOO) is seeking a Recreation Therapist for a full time position at Valley Ridge CIT in Norwich, NY. Candidate must have a Bachelor’s Degree in Therapeutic Recreation, or a Bachelor’s Degree in Recreation, Physical Education, or Adaptive Physical Education with one year of experience working in a Therapeutic Recreation Program.

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State of New York Mortgage Agency

LOAN TODAY. HOME TOMORROW.

Join the nYS Workforce aS a LicenSed PracticaL nurSe (LPn) Hiring Salary: $35,915 The Broome Developmental Disabilities State Operations Office (DDSOO) is seeking LPNs. Broome DDSOO serves Broome, Chenango, Delaware, Ostego, Tioga, and Tompkins Counties. LPNs at OPWDD, under the supervision of Registered Nurse, are involved in the treatment of people with developmental disabilities.

Minimum Qualifications: Must have current license and registration to practice in NEW York State, or a limited permit to practice in NYS, or and application of file for a limited permit to practice in NYS. For more information: Broome DDSOO Office of Human Resources 607-240-4786 Or opwdd.sm.broome.jobs@opwdd.ny.gov NYS Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) Office of Human Resources 249 Glenwood Road, Binghamton, NY 13905 An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer

Mortgages with down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers

Ithaca’s only

hometown electrical distributor Your one Stop Shop

Since 1984 802 W. Seneca St. Ithaca 607-272-1711 fax: 607-272-3102 www.fingerlakeselectric.com

Call (800) 382-4663 or visit sonyma.org

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For rates and information contact Cyndi Brong at

10% off Total Check

Peaceful Spirit TAI CHI classes

Will it be What You Want?

Classical Yang style long form

Get unbiased funeral planning information

277-7000 p h o n e 277-1012 f a x

and price comparisons from

120 3rd Street, Ithaca

Funeral Consumers Alliance

Anthony Fazio, LAc.,C.A,

of the Finger Lakes

www.peacefulspiritacupuncture.com

607-277-8888

LINK Multimedia

Latest Technology. Affordable

Audio-Video System Design

Les - 607-272-9175

Services & Sales Web/Network,

* BUYING RECORDS *

Multimedia Production, Acoustics

LPs 45s 78s ROCK JAZZ BLUES

ROLL, RESET AND RESTORE Experience the benefits

607-882-9254 Link-multimedia.com

PUNK REGGAE ETC

Landscaping Inc.

Protect Your Home with a Camera Surveillance System

(607) 280-4729

4 Seasons

607-272-0114

info@fingerlakesfunerals.org

http://www.allaboutmacs.com

722 S. Meadow (near Tops)

Quaker Meeting House

www.fingerlakesfunerals.org 273-8316

Macintosh Consulting

Tokyo

Tuesdays 7:30-8:30 pm

cbrong @ ithactimes.com

AAM ALL ABOUT MACS

With Greenback Coupon at

It’s Your Funeral

of yoga balls!

Angry Mom Records

607-272-1504

No yoga experience necessary

Love dogs?

115 The Commons Basement

lawn maintenance

319-4953 angrymomrecords@gmail.com

Friday, Nov. 11 * 3:00-4:00pm

Check out Cayuga Dog Rescue!

spring + fall clean up + gutter cleaning

MIGHTY YOGA

patios, retaining walls, + walkways

“CLEAR IT OUT”

Adopt! Foster! Volunteer! Donate for vet care!

Voted Best of Ithaca

landscape design + installation

Basements, Barns, Garages & etc.

www.cayugadogrescue.org

Visit www.mightyyoga.com, 272-0682

drainage

Reliable and Affordable

www.facebook.com/CayugaDogRescue

snow removal

Richard F. Vogt

Save 10%

Call 387-4190 water1945@live.com

on Total Check with

dumpster rentals Find us on Facebook! $5.00 off any purchase

Luna offers $5.00 OFF

Get Qualified for the

Poke`land

Careers of the Future

Greenback Coupon

308 E. Seneca / 206B Dryden Rd.

Health Care Training:

310 Stewart Ave / 113 N. Aurora

with Greenback Coupon at

Phlebotomy Technician Oct. 2-Jan 4

DiBella’s Subs

Pharmacy Technician Oct.17-Dec.14

222 Elmira Rd.

Medical Admin. Assistant Oct.17-Dec.14

254-2432

Call 607-844-6586 or

Men’s and Women’s Alterations

email: biz@tompkinscortland.edu

for over 20 years

A+ Taxi

256-5862, 269-6139

RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL

WORLD CLASS MARTIAL ARTS Self Defense & Kick Boxing Private & Group Classes

Independence Cleaners Corp

(607)533-8294

Greenback Coupon at

(minimum order $20.) with

401 E. State St. Ithaca 227-6932

Fur & Leather repair, zipper repair.

Yoga Farm

Same Day Service Available

Sacred Sundays: Free Yoga & Meditation Weekly

Best Service and Prices

Janitorial Service * Floor/Carpet

John’s Tailor Shop

Out of Town Rides

High Dusting * Windows/Awnings

John Serferlis - Tailor

All Airports, Buses & Trains

24/7 CLEANING Services

102 The Commons

607-227-3025

FIRST YOGA CLASS FREE

Call for Estimates

273-3192

www.YogaFarm.us - 280-2010

Private Lessons & Educational Courses

{NEW CONTENT EVERY DAY} ITHACA.COM News | Arts | Entertainment | Restaurants Blogs | Searchable Events Listings Ithaca and Beyond.

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