Backstory: an Ithaca Voice podcast

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music , YouTube or wherever you get podcasts. New York has set lofty environmental goals for itself … and it's behind schedule. In 2020, the state set up a complex judicial process to standardize the permitting process for renewable energy projects. But that process also takes much of the decision-making power away...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music , YouTube or wherever you get podcasts. It’s the second school year since Governor Kathy Hochul issued a statewide ban on student cell phone use during the school day. The Ithaca City School District, like many others across the state, is still working out the kinks on how to best to implement the reforms. For...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music , YouTube or wherever you get podcasts. Every fall, Tompkins County leaders begin the arduous process of hammering out a spending plan for the upcoming year. What will it take to keep government services — like Medicaid payments, the county sheriff's office or the health department — going? And how much in tax...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music , YouTube or wherever you get podcasts. Tompkins County's cost of living is higher than anywhere else in the region. And for several years, county leaders have been mulling the idea of setting their own, higher minimum wage, which some argue could better reflects the economic reality of life here. Last summer,...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music , YouTube or wherever you get podcasts. In 2022, paramedics at Bangs Ambulance voted to unionize. Progressive activists and elected officials at the time cheered the effort. But the vote was close. And as far as union negotiations go, the four years since haven’t always been smooth sailing. It was only this su...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music , YouTube or wherever you get podcasts. Earlier this year, Ithaca's Common Council passed a law that could start to reshape the city's built environment in the interest of addressing the housing crisis. Now, it's being tested for the first time. Zoning law isn't a new concept: governments have long set guideli...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music , YouTube or wherever you get podcasts. If an affordable housing development gets a tax break, does it come at a cost to the rest of the community? It’s a debate that’s been playing out with the massive new mixed-use development known as SouthWorks. Some have described the project as on the scale of a whole ne...

Correction 8/17/26: This article characterizes Town of Lansing Deputy Supervisor Joe Wetmore as an “outspoken critic” of the proposed TeraWulf data center in Lansing. After a careful review of past reporting and previous statements, The Ithaca Voice found that Wetmore has not taken an explicit public position against the data center proposed in Lansing by TeraWulf. Wetmore had previously supported...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music , YouTube or wherever you get podcasts. This week, a round up of some of the biggest stories we’ve been covering lately. A bank robbery started this week out with a jolt at a local credit union. And New York state officials seem poised to finally move on several major projects that have been delayed for years:...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music , YouTube or wherever you get podcasts. If you don’t have kids, you may not think about the school board — or its internal politics — very often. But the school board’s impact goes way beyond the classroom. In Ithaca, the school board has more influence on a property tax bill — and by extension, housing costs...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music , YouTube or wherever you get podcasts. When Ira McKinley went to Wegmans to drop off cans to recycle on June 13, he noticed a commotion outside. A dog was attacking an older woman, its teeth tearing into her stomach. Bystanders seemed frozen as they filmed the incident on their phones. The grocery store secur...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music , YouTube or wherever you get podcasts. Trumansburg’s one and only GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance returns this week for the 34th year. We’re going back to the roots with one of the festival’s co-founders, local musician Jeb Puryear. Plus, a round-up of news from town halls across the county. Access a t...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music , YouTube or wherever you get podcasts. From the start, Asteri Ithaca was supposed to represent a bold response to Ithaca’s most pressing housing and economic problems. One hundred eighty one new affordable apartment units. A brand new conference center. A plan to provide housing to forty formerly unhoused fam...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music , YouTube or wherever you get podcasts. In an old cemetery just behind East Hill Plaza, there’s a little known secret buried just a few feet underground. As we speak, they’re sleeping underground by the millions … not zombies, not vampires, but native ground dwelling bees. Cornell researchers believe it’s the...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music or wherever you get podcasts. Today is Election Day in statewide primary races. While there's not as much on the ballot this primary, some of the offices up for grabs come November do come with a lot of power. Plus, some of the other headlines we've been following. We're trying a more "bite-sized" format this...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music or wherever you get podcasts. Energy costs are going up. From gas prices to electric bills, it’s hard not to notice. But very soon, the electric and gas bill for the average Ithaca home could see an even larger increase. And yes, there’s lots of international issues that impact costs. But one of the biggest re...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music or wherever you get podcasts. When Kathy Bernson moved to Ithaca, she was just looking for a quiet, artsy little town to settle down in. But like many, she soon learned that the housing market in Ithaca comes with a fair share of roadblocks. And when you’re 75 and on a fixed income, those roadblocks are even h...

This episode contains graphic descriptions of violence and makes reference to racist and sexist slurs. Sensitive listeners may want to skip this one. Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music or wherever you get podcasts. When does an act of violence become an act of self defense? Does the use of racist, sexist slurs make a verbal threat more credible...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music or wherever you get podcasts. The Commons is the heart of downtown Ithaca. But some say that its heartbeat is a bit irregular. It’s a common complaint from some business owners and visitors, though not everyone agrees. The Downtown Ithaca Alliance, the organization representing businesses downtown, came out wi...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music or wherever you get podcasts. Earlier this month, a man in rural Cayuga County was arrested by what are likely federal immigration officers. The incident was at least the third such arrest in the tiny hamlet of King Ferry in the past two months. Agriculture is one of the biggest economic driver for that area....

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music or wherever you get podcasts. Two years ago, voters in the Ithaca City School District rejected a proposal for a sweeping school district renovation project ... and by staggering margins. Meanwhile, the issues have only continued to pile up: Leaky roofs. Overheated classrooms. Science labs that are no longer f...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music or wherever you get podcasts. We're back! For this inaugural episode of the second season, we’re returning to an issue that we’ve covered several times on Backstory: Flock cameras. Last spring, dozens of the artificial intelligence (AI) powered cameras began to pop up at intersections around the county. These...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music or wherever you get podcasts. Editor’s Note: This bonus episode of Backstory was originally scheduled for Dec. 19, but a technical issue prevented it from being released until today. Former Ithaca Voice editor Matt Butler has been living and reporting in Ithaca for nearly a decade. This week, he's behind the m...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music or wherever you get podcasts. Nurses at Ithaca’s only hospital are looking to unionize. They say they haven’t had a cost of living adjustment in two years, pension plans are being phased out and the hospital is often short staffed. And with the big changes since Cayuga Medical Center became part of a larger re...

Listen and subscribe to Backstory on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Overcast , Amazon Music or wherever you get podcasts. Ithaca's top government official was asked to resign this week. The move comes, most recently, after a high profile budget snafu. But relations have long been chilly between City Manager Deb Mohlenhoff and the elected officials who appointed her. Almost two years ago, Mohlenhoff w...