Upstater

Hey everyone, this is @colinreports.bsky.social, New York Focus’s climate and environment reporter.

I’m taking over our account for a minute to talk about something on a lot of people’s minds: energy bills. 🧵

The Sewards of New York: A New Biography - New York Almanack The Sewards of New York: A Biography of a Leading American Political Family shines a light on an important political family of the 19th century.

The Sewards of New York: A Biography of a Leading American Political Family shines a light on an important New York family of the 19th century.

Syracuse Common Council should adopt Vision Zero traffic safety plan (Your Letters) Letter writer disputes the council's view that the plan to reduce, or even eliminate traffic fatalities isn't concrete enough.

Read about why the Common Council should pass the city's Vision Zero Action Plan. www.syracuse.com/opinion/2025...

!!!! Thank you! These are so fascinating

This is cool! Would love to see some of these from Syracuse

Fine... Let’s Talk Term Limits and 4-Year Terms — Elect Maurice Brown When the other side first reached out to talk about changing the structure of county government, I was skeptical.

Let’s talk democracy reform. Because if I’m being honest, I’m questioning the job we’re doing too. The public deserves better from all of us, and maybe putting this question to voters is the accountability moment we need.

Read More -

ICE agents in the Park Ave neighborhood spark large-scale protest The group shouted “shame” and "Gestapo,” and applauded as agents in the ICE-led action drove a Border Patrol SUV away on four flat tires, which had been slashed.

Federal immigration agents were seemingly forced to retreat from a roofing job site in Rochester, NY, after being confronted by more than 100 protesters

The workers stayed on the roof and agents drove away in a Border Patrol SUV on four flat tires, which had been slashed

Central New York really needs to get in touch with its roots; during the period before the Civil War our region led the way in obstructing those enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act- hiding and ferrying to safety many who had escaped bondage.

How can we do the same for neighbors being targeted now?

Not that it matters, but these are not even the supposed undocumented ‘criminals’ many on the right claim are their only target. Clearly in this administrations minds being an immigrant, period, is a ‘crime’, especially if you’re not white (and even sometimes then!).

This is so deeply disgusting and awful that we’re having neighbors ripped from their family and communities in the name of racism and arbitrary ‘quotas’ so that some of the worst people in our society can feel they’ve accomplished something in their pitiful lives.

WTH has gotten into the City Council? Between this and that recent budget fight w Walsh….they really seem to have lost it.

This is absolutely disgusting and we shouldn’t stand for the arbitrary arrest of our neighbors by masked cosplaying thugs.

"If a man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar.

If a man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool.

There is no America without labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other."
--Abraham Lincoln

Happy Labor Day!

The Common Council's vote on Vision Zero is scheduled for tomorrow's agenda! What can you do to support? Write & send a letter by the end of today! You can also attend the council meeting in support.

Visit the link below for more info
syracuseurbanism.org/urgent-commo...

Changing the Subject Is Not an Answer — Elect Maurice Brown Mayor Stacy Finney asked a clear question. Commissioner Ryan dodged it. This post explains why changing the subject is not an answer and why it matters for Liverpool and beyond.

On August 18, the mayor of Liverpool, Stacy Finney, wrote a letter to the editor. On August 20, Onondaga County’s Republican Elections Commissioner Kevin Ryan wrote a response.

Great piece and callout of this extremely tedious tactic

Exclusive | Silicon Valley Launches Pro-AI PACs to Defend Industry in Midterm Elections Venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI President Greg Brockman are among those helping launch and fund Leading the Future.

Shamefully thin rationale “There is a vast force out there that’s looking to slow down AI deployment..." A more honest statement would be:
"We don't want to stop stealing content; we don't want to pay for content; we don't want to be responsible for the harm we do"

www.wsj.com/politics/sil... "

NY State Fair photography thread below

Going to update this as I have time to post stuff over the course of this years Fair!

#spcc #saltpoint #photography #NYstatefair

Meanwhile the same administration is gutting climate science and turning the EPA away from mentioning climate change and fighting pollution- but sure, this is all on Canada to fix.

Want to see this 27D, 0 R map by ‘26
(VRA clearly doesn’t matter anymore per scotus, so let’s just do this)

IKEA is coming to Destiny USA in Syracuse This will be IKEA's third store in New York.

LET'S GOOOO IKEA IN CUSE www.syracuse.com/business/202...

This is what’s going on over on x, the everything app- they’ve trained the AI reply bot to be a right wing anti-Semite! But by all means let’s keep having all our state and local agencies and officials keep posting there!

1852: Frederick Douglass and the July 5th Movement - New York Almanack “The Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” These were Frederick Douglass’ unyielding words from his “Fifth of July Speech”* to

“The Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” - Frederick Douglass’ “Fifth of July Speech” to the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester’s Corinthian Hall in 1852.

THE NEW COLOSSUS Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land, Here at our sea-washed, sunset- gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome, her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin-cities frame. "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she, With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore; Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!™

Open Immigration is and always has been Americas superpower- and is a net positive to the economy, to communities, to our culture and arts, and is the morally correct thing to do.

We need to return to the historical norm, and live up to Emma Lazarus’ words on the base of the Statue of Liberty

THE NEW COLOSSUS Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land, Here at our sea-washed, sunset- gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome, her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin-cities frame. "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she, With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore; Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!™

Open Immigration is and always has been Americas superpower- and is a net positive to the economy, to communities, to our culture and arts, and is the morally correct thing to do.

We need to return to the historical norm, and live up to Emma Lazarus’ words on the base of the Statue of Liberty

People like this also need to understand that when they think back to their own ancestors who ‘did it right’, that process was typically- getting on a boat, landing in a port of entry, and if they weren’t visibly sick, a hearty ‘welcome to America’. That’s it. We do not need a solid border!

We need to have a conversation in this country for people to understand how unnecessarily difficult ‘legal’ immigration is to the US, and why the solution isnt kidnapping people from their families and communities, but broad amnesty and reform of the immig. system.

Except this IS what they voted for. ‘Mass Deportation’ was a key tagline of the campaign- and the figure (~20 million) Trump touted would mean they’d be deporting millions of immigrants who may technically be undocumented, but are upstanding, unassuming members of their communities

Complaints of Tyranny: Excerpts from the Declaration of Independence - New York Almanack What follows are the complaints of tyranny found in the Declaration of Independence.

Complaints in the Declaration of Independence sound eerily familiar in our own time.

NY State Senate Bill 2025-S3492A Enacts the "sustainable affordable housing and sprawl prevention act"; exempts or limits environmental review under SEQR for the construction of certain new residential units to avoid creating unneces...

www.nysenate.gov/legislation/...