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In Focus
IN FOCUS: How do you avoid closing schools?
Last week we took a look at school enrollment across the Finger Lakes and Upstate New York. This week we ask a simple question: What has to happen to stop schools from closing or merging? ... more
IN FOCUS: Turning talk into action (podcast)
Environmental activist Yvonne Taylor joins Josh Durso on this episode of In Focus for a conversation about advocacy, persistence and what it takes to turn concern into action. Taylor launched Gas Free Seneca in 2011 ... more
IN FOCUS: Separating fact from fiction on the environment (podcast)
This week on In Focus Ally Berry joins Josh Durso to discuss the growing demand for credible environmental science communication and why water quality has become one of the defining public issues of the decade ... more
IN FOCUS: Here’s why Wolcott didn’t just lose a grocery store
Small communities talk a lot about what they want. They talk less about what they can actually support. That’s the hard part of the story about a longtime, hometown grocery store in the village of ... more
IN FOCUS: Why did Wolcott’s grocery store shut down? (podcast)
In this episode of In Focus, Josh Durso sits down with Grace Rice, the 19-year-old former manager of the Wolcott grocery store that recently closed after serving the community for decades. She talks about starting ... more
IN FOCUS: Can a community stay exactly the same and survive?
Can a community stay the same and still thrive? That is the question sitting underneath almost every local debate in Upstate New York right now. People want full downtowns. They want coffee shops, restaurants, parks, ... more
IN FOCUS: Why communities need to resist staying the same (podcast)
Can a community stay exactly the same and still thrive? In this episode of In Focus, Josh Durso sits down with two leading voices in community planning and development to explore one of the biggest ... more
IN FOCUS: Housing, power, and economic development (podcast)
For years, housing has dominated conversations about growth across the Finger Lakes. But what happens when communities are finally ready to build and discover they don't have enough power to support it? For Episode 2 ... more
IN FOCUS: A conversation with Margaret Morse (podcast)
In the debut episode of In Focus, FingerLakes1.com Vice President and columnist Josh Durso sits down with Seneca County Community Services Director Margaret Morse for a wide-ranging conversation about mental health and its connection to ... more
An open letter to Seneca Falls
Seneca Falls deserves better. Before I go any further, I have to start here: The town I grew up in has a lot going for it. There are a lot good people. People doing real, ... more
COLUMN: Finger Lakes schools keep shrinking and that’s a huge problem
Enrollment across the Finger Lakes isn’t just declining — it’s accelerating, and that shift is starting to reshape what school districts can realistically sustain. Dozens of districts are already operating at enrollment levels where programs, ... more
IN FOCUS: Making Upstate communities stronger will require tradeoffs (podcast)
I sat down with urban planner and former mayor Bill Fulton for a wide-ranging conversation on In Focus, and one thing came through clearly: A lot of communities are behind the curve on what’s happening ... more