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Opinion

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 ...

Democrat’s outside income argument falls flat in rural NY

In Our Opinion

It’s pretty funny that it’s a Democrat who is now taking aim at repealing the state’s outside income limits for state lawmakers. Assemblyman Clyde Vanel makes many of the same arguments that Republicans made in opposition to the $35,000 outside income cap before the state Legislature approved them in 2022. Vanel, D-Queens City, argued in the legislative justification for A.11733 that the outside income cap wouldn’t have prevented any of the laundry list malfeasance involving the New York’s legislators in the 2000s. He also argues that the very costs that the state has ...

New laws alone won’t end e-bike frustration

In Our Opinion

We’re not sure if it’s a majority or a minority, but it’s clear there is a vocal segment of Jamestown residents who don’t like the proliferation of e-bikes and other personal mobility devices in the city. The issue came up again during last week’s City Council committee meetings and work session. Residents’ complaints aren’t without merit. We would have thought the state Legislature would have taken steps to clear up some of this mess over the past couple of years, but despite dozens of pieces of legislation being introduced over the past couple of years little has ...