The Debrief Podcast

Cities have been Bill Fulton's life. The Auburn native now serves as the Director of the Kinder Institute at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He's also served as the Mayor of Ventura, California; and Director of Planning for the City of San Diego. From a young age, growing up in Auburn with civically engaged parents - it was pretty evident to others that Bill would find a way to incorporate that into his life's work.

The urban planner and former politician recently wrote a piece on Medium featured in Curious titled "How My Hometown’s Failed Urban Renewal Strategy Shaped Me As An Urbanist."

Today on The Daily Debrief a conversation with Fuller about his piece on Medium, Auburn's 'failed' urban renewal strategy, and what could be next for communities like it across the U.S.

Over the weekend the Wayne County Health Department announced a free drive-thru COVID-19 testing clinic to be held at the Lyons Bus Garage on Clyde Road.

It took around 24 hours for it to fill up, according to Ryan Mulhern, who serves as public health educator and public information officer for Wayne County Public Health.

The clinic took much longer to put together. "You have to find a site, capable of handling the volume - you're going to create impacts on traffic patterns - especially now-a-days as we do more and more of our clinics as drive-thru opportunities," Mulhern said. While public health practices clinic execution on a regular basis -- funding them can be a challenge. There's also the challenge of finding enough tests to perform a clinic like the one slated for this week.

But why haven't there been more free COVID testing clinics? It was one of the pieces of feedback the county received after announcing that this week's clinic filled up. 

We spoke with Wayne County Public Health to find out what it would take to get more testing clinics rolling in rural, Upstate communities.

There has been a lot of bad news about the Coronavirus Pandemic in recent weeks. It's the holiday season, and ordinarily, this is when businesses - big and small - are ramping things up. On Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo expressed optimism about data that shows COVID transmission is happening less in public places - like stores, gyms, and restaurants. He says that's because safeguards are in place. 

That's why the Seneca County Chamber of Commerce is launching a pair of new programs aimed at raising awareness around spending money with local businesses, and educating the consumers and businesses about the things they can do to keep themselves and the public safe.

Today on The Daily Debrief Chamber CEO Jeff Shipley discusses the programs with us, and the impact they could have as businesses face a make-or-break winter.

One day after we talked with Auburn Enlarged City School District Superintendent Jeff Pirozzolo about the return to class after the Thanksgiving break, he informed families that the junior high would be fully-remote through Tuesday, December 8th.

The cause? Contact tracing on two staff members that tested positive for COVID-19 resulted in dozens of students and a few teachers to be placed into mandatory quarantine.

While other schools in the district won't be impacted by this particular batch of positives or mandatory quarantines, Pirozzolo says these kinds of spot-cases of COVID-19 have been one of his biggest concerns from the start.

Today on The Daily Debrief - a conversation with Superintendent Jeff Pirozzolo about what's next for his district after Thanksgiving break, and an update on some of his biggest concerns - including the finances of a district in serious need.

This week it's all about COVID-19 and how that's impacting people's Thanksgiving celebrations. Josh Durso and Ted Baker discuss the biggest headlines of the last week in a special evening edition of The Weekend Debrief.

This week Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that parts of Rochester and Syracuse would enter Orange Zone designation. It’s part of New York State’s Coronavirus micro-cluster mitigation strategy. It means focusing economic restrictions -- like pausing non-essential business activity -- to specific zip codes. For example, reducing the number of people who can be seated at a restaurant table in a yellow zone, or pausing dine-in service altogether in orange zones. There are specific parameters for Yellow, Orange, and Red micro-cluster zones, which is effectively a balance between the economic consequences of shutting down non-essential businesses, and trying to preserve public health -- all in the midst of a global pandemic. But here’s a question: Has it worked?

Bill Hammond, Senior Fellow For Health Policy at the Empire Center, recently took a dive into the data. What he uncovered didn’t surprise him, but for casual observers of the state’s ongoing response to the Coronavirus Pandemic -- the recent surge of cases suggests the micro-cluster mitigation strategy isn’t working as intended. The positivity rate inside the zones across New York State has declined, but the overall numbers in New York State are spiking. Hammond wrote, “In the six weeks since the cluster strategy was launched, New York’s rate of new infections has increased by 244 percent, to almost 5,000 per day. The number of people hospitalized has nearly doubled, to more than 2,000. And the seven-day average death rate has increased by 125 percent, to 30 per day.”

Today on The Daily Debrief a conversation with Hammond about his reporting, and what the numbers tell us as more communities across New York State are painted shades of yellow, orange, and red.

As Thanksgiving approaches all eyes are on the regional situation, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to play out at full-speed. Governor Andrew Cuomo got into a verbal spat with reporters on Wednesday -- prompting criticism in some circles. He hammered on law enforcement around the state who say they will not enforce private gathering restrictions imposed by New York State.

This week Josh Durso and Ted Baker tackle the latest COVID-19 related headlines, as well as the non-COVID headlines. Stories up for discussion include:

Are ads following you around on the internet? The short answer is 'yes', but it's a little more complex than that. Every day we search, post, purchase, and tweet our way around the internet -- data is being collected. Here at FingerLakes1.com, since we're a free service -- ads served by Google are a primary source of revenue to keep our operation moving forward. But how do all of those ads work across all the different platforms you encounter in one 'digital day'? What's the role now of the big three in digital advertising: Amazon, Facebook, and Google? And most-interestingly, what happens if 'cookies' or the nuggets that allow those platforms to track users interests, searches, and activity online disappear? 

Today on the Debrief a conversation with Malorie Benjamin and Dave Crist. Both work for Dixon Schwabl, and ads are their life. Malorie is the VP of Media Services while Dave serves as Senior Marketing & Strategy Analyst.

Get outdoors even if it's cold. Montezuma Audubon Center Director Chris Lajewski says the months of November and December are offer prime viewing at the Wetlands Complex in Wayne County. Smaller crowds, less people hiking paths, and even more to see. "The leaves are off the trees, so it's a great time to see things that otherwise wouldn't be visible during the spring, summer, and fall," he said during his monthly appearance on The Debrief Podcast. 

Among the highlights of this episode is a discussion about 150 Sandhill Cranes that have recently been out at the complex, as well as the deep dive into the Snowy Owl. This species of owl is a favorite among local photographers, who regularly send their sightings to the newsroom. 

There's also a cool program called FeederWatch, which can be done at home and involve the whole family.

This week Peter Mantius - founder and editor of The Water Front Online - brought us a story focused on the status of Greenidge Generation, and it's impact on the local environment. Specifically, how has Greenidge's expansion into bitcoin mining impacted the health of Seneca Lake? For months activists have been raising the caution flag, urging local officials and the DEC to do their due diligence. Then recently, a longtime fisherman on Seneca Lake brought an even more concerning message to local officials: "The fishing's gone to hell."

Today on The Debrief Podcast we dive into Peter's reporting, and what officials at the local and state level are considering -- as Greenidge pulls unfiltered water from Seneca Lake, and dumps it back in significantly warmer.