Central Current

4 days ago | centralcurrent.org | Sean Kirst

The symmetry was all too fitting. I made a stop not long ago at the SUNY Buffalo State office of Stephen Vermette, who teaches meteorology and climatology. For the past three winters, he’s also handled an informal role of particular meaning in Upstate New York. Vermette, in a way not quite like anyone before him, has served as the caretaker of the Golden Snowball.

6 days ago | centralcurrent.org | Eddie Velazquez |Patrick McCarthy |Patrick Mccarthy

Section 8 is the latest federal program to find itself in the Trump administration’s crosshairs. The president will soon submit his budget proposal to Congress. The New York Times has reported that his budget is likely to include substantial proposed cuts to the country’s housing voucher program, widely known as Section 8. National advocates, local advocates and elected leaders believe any cuts to the Section 8 program could be disastrous for Syracuse.

1 week ago | centralcurrent.org | Eddie Velazquez

The City of Syracuse has filed a lawsuit against the owners of Nob Hill Apartments because the complex has been cited dozens of times in the past year for providing unsafe living conditions for tenants. Mayor Ben Walsh said at a Thursday press conference the city wants the ownership group, a Texas-based LLC named Nob Hill Apartment Group LLC, to address a slew of code violations at the four-building complex on Lafayette Road.

2 weeks ago | centralcurrent.org | Ryan Kost

This story is a collaboration between New York Focus and Columbia Journalism Investigations, an investigative reporting unit at the Columbia Journalism School. You can find the first story in this series here and the second story here. Sign up for their newsletter here. Sometimes, innocent people go to jail because of junk science or an unreliable witness. More often than not, though, official misconduct is what leads to wrongful convictions, both across the country and in New York.

3 weeks ago | centralcurrent.org | Eddie Velazquez

Around one in five tenants in Syracuse have faced attempted evictions in the past year — the highest number across all major upstate cities in New York, according to a new report on displacement across the state. The city is also home to the fewest tenants with owed rent in the state, according to the report compiled by the Community Service Society of New York. Only about 6% of renters reported being behind on their rent, CSSNY found.