COLUMN Can Only Small Business Save ‘Common’ For All? One of the landmarks of the early environmental movement was the essay, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” published in 1968 by the ecologist Garrett Hardin in Science. It can be to an individual’s private advantage, he points out, to exploit common resources at the expense of others. In the absence of other constraints, he argued, most people will take more than their share, out of greed or fear, eventually depleting the…
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Columns - Page 153
COLUMN THE VIEW FROM WEST DAVENPORT Power Grid Mixes Good, Bad And Ugly Electrons A few weeks ago, an article appeared about installing a geo-thermal system to heat and cool the family home. The subject was very transparent about the fact geo-thermal systems require considerable electricity to run the pumps that circulate the fluid and to provide the energy necessary to make up the differential between the temperature of the water sourced from beneath the ground (normally 55 degrees) and…
COLUMN If Johnson City, Then Why Not Cooperstown? Editor’s Note: Oneonta’s City Hall is actively helping private developers revive its downtown, but downstate developers are starting to recognize a demand for housing Upstate and seeking to fill the need. Per this report on BBJN.com, might someone consider Cooperstown’s vacant downtown CVS as an opportunity? JOHNSON CITY – A New York City developer has plans to build a three-story, multi-family apartment building in Johnson City. Praveen Kamath, founder and managing member of AOM…
COLUMN ‘Love Conquers All’ At Colgate Graduation, Delgado Says He Resisted Fighting Hate With Hate Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado’s commencement address Sunday, May 19, at Colgate University, his alma mater. Click here to read related editorial. I want to start with a story about my mother, who has often told me that she loves me with every fiber of her being, and there is absolutely nothing that I can do about it. She…
COLUMN Blame Businesspeople For Downtown Woes In response to last week’s editorial regarding Cooperstown purchasing the old CVS building … What rot! I can only believe that this is either sarcasm or your newspaper trying to roil the waters for the sake of selling more newspapers. It is not the position of a very small municipality that struggles to put together a balanced budget every year while maintaining an adequate reserve, to be buying up public property for the sake…
COLUMN Prosperity, Offerings About Cooperstown Editor’s Note: Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch delivered these welcoming remarks when NYCOM, the New York Conference of Mayors, convened Sunday, May 6, at The Otesaga, for its three-day annual conference. I have had the opportunity over the past year to welcome several groups to Cooperstown – but I have to say this is one of the more intimidating as I am facing a room of peers – elected officials who have all had to provide…
COLUMN Is 2-Party System Serving Nation? The other day I had occasion to visit the websites of both our local Otsego County Democratic and Republican Committees. Both were disappointing. The Republican Committee’s website still listed John Faso as our congressman. The most recent posting I could find was from 2014. The Democratic website, by contrast, was up to date, listing local officials and candidates for this year’s races. Both parties have active Facebook pages (the Republicans had 611 likes, the…
COLUMN Pathfinder Success Due To Place, People, Purpose Editor’s Note: Here are remarks President/CEO Paul Landers delivered at the Otsego County Chamber of Commerce annual Gala & Celebration of Business Thursday, May 2, in Foothills’ Atrium. Pathfinder was named the chamber’s NBT Bank Distinguished Business of 2019. By PAUL LANDERS, Pathfinder Village President/CEO About 43 years ago, 30 families were told they needed to find a new school for their children because the State of New York was going to…
COLUMN Hidden Consequences Of Saying ‘No’ To Gas By MIKE ZAGATA When we live in a community for a lengthy period, we tend to become “comfortable” with those with whom we attend church, purchase services from, hire to do household repairs and who sell us the various products we need. Indeed, over time we simply assume they will always be there. Is that true in Oneonta or, for that matter, in Upstate New York? This past week I had a…
COLUMN VIEW FROM THE GAME It’s All We Need To Know: Home Plate 17 Inches Wide Editor’s Note: Tim Mead, incoming Baseball Hall of Fame president, cited John Scolinos, baseball coach at his alma mater, Cal Poly Pomona, as a lifelong inspiration, particularly Scolinos’ famous speech “17 Inches.” Chris Sperry, who published sperrybaseballlife.com, heard Scolinos deliver a version in 1996 at the American Baseball Coaches Association in Nashville, and wrote this reminiscence in 1996 in his “Baseball Thoughts” column. By…
