The issue of failing infrastructure–and how to fund the fixes so badly needed–was the lead story on the Sunday, November 23 edition of 60 Minutes on CBS. If those watching football prior to the show stayed in front of their […]
continue readingPosts Categorized: Posts by Geography

Fighting invasive vines with local youth
This past weekend Empire State Future teamed up with the Green Tech High Varsity Basketball Team and Youth-EdVenture Nature Network (YENN) to cut down invasive vines on the Corning Preserve bike trail in downtown Albany. We even had the Mayor of Albany, Kathy […]
continue reading
Syracuse downtown seeing booming residential population grow…
Syracuse’s downtown has seen an astonishing 47 percent increase in residential population in the last decade, including a 21 percent spike in just the last three years. Cynics will probably say the statistics are impressive only because the downtown population […]
continue reading
Hug a Tree: Help Our Youth, Your Commute and Your Community
[Photo courtesy of Groundwork Hudson Valley] Trees are our greenest form of infrastructure. They provide shade, cooling, beauty, and oxygen. Trees support road and rail embankments by holding soil in place. They help drainage. They sequester CO2. They can also […]
continue readingWhy Developers Love Parks
A former director of the Empire State Development Corporation explains why parks such as the High Line in New York City are magnets for the kind of development and developers we seek in our communities. Read more at Planetizen […]
continue reading
Corning-based preservation architect focused on bringing lif…
For over two decades Elise Johnson-Schmidt has focused her preservation architecture efforts on buildings in Corning–and has branched way beyond, dedicated to bringing new life to the upper floors of historic buildings in communities throughout the state. Her projects include […]
continue readingAcross the River from Albany, a Vision for Rensselaer Emerge…
Across the Hudson River from Albany is Rensselaer, known now as the location of the impressive new Albany train station. But Rensselaer is a city, too, and an ambitious plan is afoot to transform it. Read more in Albany Times […]
continue reading
I Marched Too.
I too was a drop in the river of 350,000 climate change marchers in Manhattan a few weeks ago. I was glad to be there amidst the largest climate change event ever. The buzz that day reminded me of the […]
continue reading
Let Them in. Bring Them Here.
(Photo courtesy of Syracuse.com: Supporters of the plan to house immigrant children on the campus of the former Maria Regina College) If it were only a case of 50,000 destitute children interned for trying to enter the United States, we would […]
continue readingSolarCity: a huge boon, bonanza for Buffalo
Solar City will open the Western Hemisphere’s largest solar panel manufacturing operation in South Buffalo on the site of a former steel plant, and is poised to bring with it more jobs (3,000 possible) than the steel plant ever had, […]
continue reading