Local News for Friday, January 27th 2023

City Sorting City Manager Responsibilities

The Ithaca City Government is sorting out the responsibilities for the new City Manager position. According to the Ithaca Voice, the City Manager position was approved in a referendum last November. The City Manager will take a large chunk of responsibilities from the Mayor, and will act as a sort of “CEO of the City.” City Chief-of-Staff Deb Mohlenhoff told the City Administration Committee this week that the City Attorney’s office has been combing through the city code determining which tasks should be taken by the City Manager, and which should not. Mohlenhoff herself is rumored  as a potential City Manager candidate.

Cinemapolis Looks to Expand Accessibility

Beginning next week, Cinemapolis in Ithaca is introducing “Masked Tuesdays.” The new policy will require mask wearing for all movie-goers and employees. The theater is also instituting “Captioned Wednesdays,” showing all films with captions, if they are available. The new initiatives are meant to expand accessibility to the movie-going experience. 

Most NY Incarcerated People Come from Outside NYC

A report from the Prison Policy Initiative has found that upstate New York sends more people to the state’s prisons per capita, then New York City. According to the Democrat and Chronicle, many incarcerated people come from upstate cities like Albany, Rochester, and Monticello and are more likely to come from the underserved and historically Black communities. The share of imprisoned New Yorkers coming from NYC has been steadily declining since 2000 when 66 percent of incarcerated New Yorkers came from the five boroughs.