Breaking News

Opinion

A proposal for downtown parking

Local Commentaries

I read with interest the recent coverage of the parking meter complaints being raised before City Council, particularly Councilman Bonfiglio's reference to a "yelling match in front of Pace's." Before anything else, I want to thank Councilman Bonfiglio for continuing to raise this issue and for the support he has shown Pace's throughout this entire situation. His willingness to bring this before the Council, more than once now, has not gone unnoticed, and we are grateful to have him championing this on our behalf. I also want to say, outside of this particular parking issue, that the ...

Oh Canada, we are sorry

Local Commentaries

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, as American forces stormed Omaha Beach at a cost of 2,800 lives, our Canadian neighbors and friends stormed Juno Beach at a cost of 381 lives. (Our population in 1944 was 130,000,000, more than 10 times Canada’s 12,000,000). Canadians served alongside our armed forces in Korea, Vietnam, Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in Iraq, and in Afghanistan after the 9-11 attack on our Country. Until Donald Trump became President and treated Canada with no respect, as a non-nation that should be our 51st State, as something to be punished with punitive tariffs, ...

On shopping carts, we agree on the what, disagree on the how

In Our Opinion

It’s hard to disagree with the city’s proposal to crack down on shopping carts that are littering many city neighborhoods. In many cases, the carts are making it easier for people to steal metal - like the innards from a freezer at the St. Susan Center, markers from Lakeview Cemetery or other items throughout the city - and transport them to scrapyards. So not only are the carts becoming a growing eyesore in some neighborhoods, they are also actively being used in thefts and criminal mischief. A memorandum associated with the ordinance noted that on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, code ...

The bridge is in a race with winter

Local Commentaries

It looks to me like construction activity has been increasing on the Chautauqua Lake Bridge as winter begins to close in. Will the DOT be able to beat winter and finish the two lanes on the southside before the construction season ends? I would say that the chances are “fifty-fifty,” yet, let’s hope that it can be done. The pouring of new concrete decking has been accelerating. There are now two concrete leveling machines in view on the bridge so that two sections of new deck can be laid at the same time. Instead of being continuous, some of the new deck sections are being ...

Humor can help transcend press hostility

Local Commentaries

CHAUTAUQUA—Do you know which national-news source is—according to polls—most trusted? Western New York native and Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley posed that question to the morning-lecture audience in the Chautauqua Institution amphitheater on July 1. Think about that ...

City commission is a tree that fell in a forest. No one noticed.

In Our Opinion

The City Council is poised to remove the Strategic Planning and Partnerships Commission from the City Charter after a lengthy period of inactivity. Most city residents didn’t realize that the commission was still in the charter. After being reinvigorated around 20 years ago during former Mayor Sam Teresi’s administration, and largely driven by Dr. Lillian Ney during her time on the City Council, the commission has fallen back into dormancy. The commission was largely a group that made non-binding recommendations to the mayor and City Council and worked on special projects that ...