What does the city of the future look like? That's a valid question, especially given the realities facing the modern worker after the coronavirus pandemic. Bill Fulton's new book “Place and Prosperity: How cities help us to connect and innovate” is a collection of essays, blogs, and columns written to help shape future thinking on cities. More accurately, though, Place and Prosperity is a collection of experiences. The Auburn native has a long, impressive resume of experiences having served as mayor of Ventura, California and later as planning director for the City of San Diego. He also spent 8 years at the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

For area colleges the last 12 months have been incredibly complicated. There were shutdowns, reopenings, contact tracing, testing, and now vaccination- all on top of running an academic institution. This week we caught up Keuka College President Amy Storey to talk about that. We also spent some time talking about the academic year that's wrapping up now.

Maureen Ballatori leads 29Design Studio in Geneva. That has been a driving force in her life, and last year- the company pivoted to a new niche in marketing. It paid off big time with a number of high profile awards collected for their work during 2020. This week we talk with her about the future of marketing, and about the honesty businesses (big and small!) MUST have with customers or prospects.

This week we sit down with one of the newest members of our podcast network: Alexandra Ackerman is a life-long fan of the Syracuse Crunch.  Beyond spending a vast majority of her life as a fan of the team- she has also professionally reported on them for over a decade. She's written for SB Nation, has been an editor for RawCharge.com, and now writes for The Sin Bin- a minor league hockey news website.  In 2019 Alexandra launched a podcast. It's called Syracuse Speaks, and is one of the best produced independent podcasts I've come across in my professional career.  Our Sunday Conversation with Alexandra Ackerman is live now. We talked about her career, balancing life- and sports, writing on the internet, launching her podcast, and all of the other exciting stuff she is doing to celebrate local, professional sports. Her podcast 'Syracuse Speaks' will now be syndicated on FingerLakes1.com as part of a new agreement to bring more incredible local content to our visitors. Click here if you want to check out some recent episodes of Syracuse Speaks.

Guy Cosentino has served as host of two crucial public affairs programs that air in the Cayuga County-area. They're produced in conjunction with Cayuga Community College. He's been hosting for around 20 years, and before that, served as mayor of the City of Auburn.  This week our Sunday Conversation features a lengthy talk with Cosentino about his time at City Hall, improving the public's understanding of important issues through one-of-a-kind interviews, and the condition of public policy in modern America.

Since graduating from Syracuse University Eric Devendorf has made the community in Central New York a priority. He's worked hard to give back each day, and when the pandemic began- he saw how desperately needed it was. Over the last several months the CNY Cares, Inc. initiative has been working to raise funds for small businesses crushed by the coronavirus pandemic. This week on the Sunday Conversation we caught up with Eric to discuss the progress they are making, and eyed expansion of the program.

This week on the show a conversation with Heather McDaniel. She leads Ithaca Area Economic Development, which was previously known in the community as TCAD. She says that a big focus after the pandemic will be bolstering waterfront development, and continuing to amplify job creation in a community that has seen a lot of success in recent years. Tompkins County is one of the few in the region that has seen population growth over the last decade.

Jeff Feigelson has been an attorney for over 30 years. He's represented tenants and landlords. Since the start of the pandemic he has been representing tenants in their cases involving eviction. Why? He says that most tenants were without representation in court. "It's an important time period for tenants," he said. "There are laws protecting them, and since the pandemic started I've ended up doing a lot more of that work in the last year." Jeff sat down with FingerLakes1.com for an exclusive conversation about the rights tenants have right now as an eviction moratorium remains in place. However, the state government isn't the only entity laying out rules for renters. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has, too. But what does that mean? What does the law mean for New Yorkers who are renting and struggling? 

This week we're featuring a long-overdue conversation with FL1 National News Editor Gabe Pietrorazio. He's working through his grad studies in the D.C. area, and beyond continuing coverage for our newsroom from the Nation's Capitol -- he also experienced Inauguration Day directly. We talk with Gabe about his time in D.C. for the Inaugural ceremonies, as well his newsletter released every Saturday Morning in this feed! It's called The Capitol Connection, and it brings you closer to the headlines that shape policy and news coverage all week long.

This week we re-launch our Sunday Conversation Podcast with a one-of-a-kind interview. Abe Brewster has been with Patch and Patch Labs for a number of years, and this week we caught up with him to talk about the Patch Labs platform, and how revolutionary it can be for the news business. Why are newspapers and small organizations closing? Well, there are a lot of reasons - as documented here, here, here, here, and here. While a lot of people focus their attention on news business models that could work in the future, Brewster says Patch Labs has focused on empowering local/community based journalists. For all of the talk we hear about the death of local news, and how often massive corporations are blamed -- the solution appears obvious: Give journalists who are invested in the community they serve, the tools to get it done. Learn more about what they're doing by visiting labs.patch.com.