The City of Rochester sold approximately 7,000 acres of land around Hemlock and Canadice lakes to the state in 2010 to make sure that the waterfronts remain safe from development. And yet the lakes are currently at the center of a controversy about gas and oil drilling. That’s because the state’s proposed plan to manage […]
environment
Posted inNews & Opinion
Lake Ontario offshore wind not a dead issue
The state Department of Environmental Conservation recently released its Great Lakes basin action agenda — 10 items and related goals compiled from existing plans and studies. The document is full of important and interesting goals and objectives, but some are going to get more attention than others. Offshore wind power development is one of those issues. A […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Rochester City Council extends gas-drilling moratorium
Last night, City Council voted to extend a Rochester’s moratorium on natural gas exploration and extraction for another year. The resolution says the city extended the moratorium “in order to preserve and protect the public health, safety, and welfare of the residents of and visitors to the City of Rochester from known and suspected dangers […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
New lake levels plan proposed
The International Joint Commission is advancing yet another proposal to change how it regulates Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River water levels. But the new proposal projects that shoreline property owners may face some additional costs from water damage, which is an issue that’s driven their successful opposition to past plans. The IJC has used […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Flight pattern
Local birders have long known about the birding hotspots near Lake Ontario — wisdom gained through long hours on the lens and guided by intuition. Now those assumptions are backed by hard science. A recent study conducted by the Nature Conservancy of Central and Western New York, Audubon New York, and the New York Natural […]
Posted inCulture
CHOW HOUND: Wylie Chayote and more
“This is so far removed from Flour City Diner cooking,” says chef Jerry Manley, who recently put his popular comfort-food repertoire on the back burner in order to try his mano at Mexican cuisine, which involves a bevy of ingredients that Manley hadn’t worked with professionally… until now. Lucky for us, the results of this […]
Posted inMovies
“After Earth”
Despite the end of the Cold War, the collapse of the Evil Empire, the empty fears about Y2K, the uneventful coming and going of the millennium, the film industry regards the future with a love for both panic and profit. For some decades now, the post-apocalyptic vision has dominated science fiction movies, and when Hollywood […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Emerald county
With camping season set to begin, it’s time to talk firewood and its role in preventing the spread of the emerald ash borer, a destructive invasive species that has been found in Monroe County. Members of the Monroe County Emerald Ash Borer Task Force are trying to reinforce a simple message: don’t transport firewood from […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Rochester’s poisoned past
A graffiti-covered building hulks over the end of Flint Street — a dilapidated monument on a blighted landscape in southwest Rochester’s Plymouth-Exchange neighborhood. The building is part of the Vacuum Oil site, a 24-acre property along the Genesee River waterfront that once held an oil refinery (it shut down in the 1930’s). In the decades […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
A new CO2 record
Yesterday, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels either broke 400 parts per million for the first time in recorded history, or came incredibly close to doing so. The figure depends on who’s doing the reporting, but either way, it’s not a good milestone. Carbon dioxide from human activities, particularly fossil fuels, is driving global climate change. Leading […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Directory dilemma
In San Francisco, if you want a copy of the yellow pages, you have to ask for it. City law prohibits delivery of the phone books to anyone who hasn’t specifically requested them. A similar opt-in system could cut down on the number of unwanted or unused phone books that sit in piles at Rochester-area […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Week Ahead: Sierra Club’s annual environmental forum
Today is Earth Day: a day meant to focus the collective consciousness on the environment, locally and globally. And on Thursday and Friday, the Rochester chapter of the Sierra Club will hold its annual environmental forum. This year’s event features keynote speaker Maude Barlow, a Canadian activist who’s well-known for advancing the concept of water […]
