Racing In The Street

My favorite blogs by Central NY’ers actually writing about C.N.Y.

Baloghblog: It started with peak oil (when reserves are more than half gone it will become cost prohibitive to extract the oil), leading to discussions on how to live a more localized and sustainable life and resulted in a sister blog Geddesblog dealing with economic development of his corner of C.N.Y. Unfortunately, Balogh seems to have thrown most of his recent efforts into a group environmental blog out of Ithaca--C’mon, think local, Balogh! Once peak oil hits Ithaca may as well be on the moon.

bethquick: Written by a newly minted Methodist minister (preacher, pastor?), this blog touches on a wide variety of topics--practical discussions on the vocation of ministry, the ethical background of political issues and her quest to read 52 books (one a week) during this year. I would recommend all who equate religion with both political and cultural conservatism to read this blog, liberals can believe too!

blogJosh: Personal blog by a multi-talented writer, musician and web person. The blog also touches on a number of subjects, veering from poetry to defense of abortion rights to a beautiful description of the camraderie of strangers all rooting for the SU basketball team in a downtown bar. The only drawback--I hate the neon font on the black background!

CNY ecoBlog: provides the links to scientific evidence that more fully explain news stories that the local media has dumbed down for its scientifically-challenged readers (such as myself.) Of particular interest was the recent debunking of a lead article in a recent Sunday Post-Standard on “Dead Zones” in Oneida Lake, something that is quite routine and known to scientists as Seasonal Lake Stratification. He also provided a link to a 1938 academic paper on midwinter crow distribution in NY State to show that the current kerfluffle over crows is largely one huge Stupid Human Trick, unlikely to change unless we blow the place up or succumb to peak oil.

Cookin' in the 'Cuse: written by the rector at Grace Episcopal about her passion for food. Not just about recipes and restaurants, the posts often deal with issues of local production and consumption, food co-ops, organics and the nascent slow food movement. However, there are great recipes and restaurant reviews. The photographs accompanying the recipes can only be described as food porn--if the Internet was only scratch, sniff and eat!

Sean Kirst: written by one of the columnists for the Post-Standard, this weblog is a great addition to his columns, giving him space to print additional material that couldn’t fit in the paper, reprint old columns that touch on a current issue or to ruminate on what it’s like to be a parent, city-dweller, sports fan etc. in C.N.Y. The clunky format used by the paper forces comments into a separate forum, but it has helped spur some fairly in-depth discussions on issues such as local economic development and urban planning (or lack thereof) in C.N.Y.
AND he’s the guy who wrote the front page P-S story on the photographer who shot Bruce’s Born to Run album cover.

LuceLu in Liverpool: a personal blog that has followed the trying times facing a family attempting to survive the crumbling upstate economy. The current era of this blog is ending as the blogger’s husband has given up trying to find unionized electrician jobs in town and the entire family is moving South. Reading the archives of this blog is like reading the untold history of our community. Good luck and godspeed, Lucelu.

NYCO’s Blog: As Balogh once commented, this is the “Mack Daddy” of CNY Blogs. NYCO covers NY State government and politics (the dysfunction beat), life in upstate communities and has especially sharp commentary on Native American history and its impact on our area. Her writing is insightful and elegant, without being overly formal. My favorite example is a post on the Cheney gun shot fiasco that summed up the liberal critique of the Bush Administration in under 100 words. If there are conversations to be had in this CNY blogosphere, they usually happen here--witness the recent flurry of comments posted on the topic of immigration and the Minutemen in the North Country. The only drawback--the demise of her Upstate Living magazine, mock front covers of a glossy magazine devoted to upstate. Every time a new cover appeared there would be several comments wishing that the magazine actually existed.

York Staters: Although its editorial team is based in Johnson City and somewhere downstate, this blog writes often and eloquently about Central N.Y. The term York Stater was an historical reference, an attempt to forge an identity that isn’t based on pointing out that we’re not from N.Y.C. The posts are long, well-researched and give current ideas and issues historical context. If you read York Staters, you know how Penn Yan got its name, the continuing cult of personality in Johnson City of the head of Endicott-Johnson Shoes and background on the Sagamore Great Camp in the Adirondacks. (You also get the skinny on upstate foods, books and famous citizens.)