A Celebration of our 1001st Visitor!

On May 17th the 1,001st new visitor logged on to our blog. That means 1,001 unique computers have checked out our site at least once (creating what is now close to 4000 hits!). Overall, visitor activity is trending toward approximately 900 regular visitors to the site. Thank you all for logging on!

Because readership seems to increase on the day of (or day after) a big Finger Lakes Times story about city government, it appears that people are using our site as a resource for in depth analysis and follow up on public policy issues. That was exactly our intent and we are thankful that you are finding value in it!

The interest in our blog seems to be an important statement about Geneva’s evolving political life and the need to supplement what local media is able to provide its readers and listeners. In Geneva, the Finger Lakes Times plays a vital role. Most of what most people know about City government comes from “the paper.” But the Times’ readership covers a large area. Stories must be relevant not only to people in Geneva or Ontario County, but also Yates, Seneca, and Wayne counties as well. Those limitations on space and interest often prevent the Times from giving full, or even extended, coverage of what’s going on in the City, and what to think about it.

The Finger Lakes Times, in our opinion, often relies on the ‘official word’ of the City, rather than independent, investigative journalism and editorials that analyze the facts directly. We provide information here that can be of use to journalists covering the story, if they choose to include it. For instance, the Times wrote a story about the Attorney General’s findings involving a deal between a former Councilor and the IDA, and mentioned that there was a letter from the AG’s office detailing these findings. The story focused on reactions to the letter (those of the City Attorney, the Mayor, and Councilor Augustine) but we bet readers would have liked to hear more about what the letter said directly. Recognizing that the Times can’t print the letter in its entirety, we posted it here. And many of you accessed it to judge for yourself.

More recently, the Finger Lakes Times reported on the inquiries into the Ontario County Revolving Loan Fund, with reference made to documents that we posted here. All three stories gave the impression that there is tension between the Geneva IDA and the County Economic Development Department and/or tension between the City and the County IDA. But that is not the case, and not the source of the problems being addressed. As documents (publicly available and posted here) reveal, the real problem lies in the very close connections between the City IDA, the County Economic Development Department, the County IDA, and the City of Geneva. And what some might call a “high degree of cooperation”, others call “too close for [the taxpayer’s] comfort.” That’s why the County Board of Supervisors had to step in to fix the situation.

The Geneva IDA Executive Director (who is also the City’s Director of Planning and Economic Development) shared our concern over Finger Lakes Times coverage. Valerie Bassett submitted a letter to the editor to say that her views were misrepresented. (Click here to read her letter.) A subsequent correction to the letter of correction makes the situation all the more confusing.

We hope that our blog, providing direct access to the documents being discussed, can help to cut through the haze. The issues that the Times covers, are often complex and in need of more intense and thorough coverage. We’ll continue to try and provide that, and we hope you’ll continue to follow it!