Three years ago, American writer James Howard Kunstler sat down with famed urbanist Jane Jacobs in her Toronto home. Kunstler asked her why she’d settled in Toronto. “We came in protest of the Vietnam War,” said Jacobs, who grew up in Scranton and came into her own in New York City, struggling against a highway […]
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Table scraps: odds and ends from the Monroe County budget talks
The 2004 Monroe County budget may or may not include big social service cuts. It may also include putting welfare on a charge-back system. Safety Net is a state program for people not eligible for the federal welfare program. The cost is split between the state and the county. One proposal floating around in the […]
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Wound-lickers need not apply
Coming up on her one-year anniversary as Democratic Party chair, you might not think Molly Clifford has much to celebrate. Look no further that this year’s county executive race, where Democratic candidate Bill Johnson lost to Republican Maggie Brooks by nearly a 2 to 1 margin. The results, Clifford says, were surprising because polls […]
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Gay marriage: untying the ‘not’
You could be forgiven for thinking of Galileo in the dock. Up in Ontario this June, perceptions of the universe changed radically when a provincial court legalized gay marriage. But in September, Bishop Ralph Spence of the Anglican Diocese of Niagara effectively declared his solar system would continue to operate by previously accepted moral […]
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Partial truths
The ban on so-called partial-birth abortion is all talk and no teeth. And it has created a weird middle ground in an otherwise polarizing debate. “The devil himself would have signed this bill,” says the Rev. Flip Benham, national director of Operation Save America/Operation Rescue. “This piece of legislation will not save the life […]
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Dumping on the city
So much for that city-county romance we were promised post election. The county legislature may vote this week on a $972 million budget proposal. Republican county legislators say they are running out of options to close a $42 million chasm in the 2004 budget. The sales tax increase proposed by Jack Doyle is dead […]
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Health scare: So long, school nurses?
It seems exactly backwards: guaranteed medical care for suburban school kids, but none for city kids, where the need is greatest. “Sometimes, they’re [school nurses] the primary health-care provider for our kids,” says city schools spokesperson Barbara Jarzyniecki. The county health department administers the city’s school-nurse program. It has done so since it […]
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Sooty skies: all ‘downwinders’ beware
Love it or hate it, this region has its share of hazy, if not lazy days. Credit the “lake effect” in part. But there’s also an atmospheric effect that could be termed “coal comfort.” The Great Lakes region has long been dependent on large coal-fired electric-generating plants. And despite the availability of cleaner technologies, some […]
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To our readers
It is City Newspaper‘s practice to refrain from campaign commentary the week prior to an election, to help insure that candidates have the opportunity to respond to our views. We are breaking from that practice, reluctantly, this week, to analyze and comment on the proposed 2004 county budget. The county’s fiscal condition is the […]
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Goodbye, to that old black magic
We hold these truths to be self-evident: 1) You can’t cut taxes and maintain the same level of services; and 2) Even acknowledging the truth of the first, people will punish the candidate who says tax increases are a possibility. But Bill Johnson’s not the only person who says Monroe County might have to raise […]
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Follies 2004: hard sell for the sales tax
With his 2004 budget announcement, County Executive Jack Doyle showed even a lame duck can spin like a top. Consider his proposal to increase the sales tax in Monroe County by 0.6 percent, making the full rate rise from 8.25 percent to 8.85 percent. Doyle characterized this increase, designed to erase almost $42 million […]
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DA endorsement? No conviction
Taking off on a book title from Texan gadfly Jim Hightower: If the gods meant us to give an endorsement for Monroe County District Attorney, they would have given us a candidate… who firmly opposes the death penalty. Unfortunately, both candidates on the ballot, Mike Green (Democratic and Crime Prevention parties) and Ann Marie […]
