HeyJaredIn Focus
A continuation of the column that started my career in broadcast and digital media more than a decade ago.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 13
- Latest publication
- Sep 29, 2026
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- Jul 24, 2026
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When work no longer covers the basics (opens the original)
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In last week’s column, I wrote about the people showing up at the Harmony Food Pantry in Waterloo. Five years ago, the pantry served 19 families during the entire month of August. Now, volunteers routinely see 20 to 30 families in a week. Some walk or bike there. Believe it or not, some even need food they can eat without a working stove or microwave.The question that stayed with me was how a household gets from managing to that point. It’s easy to say foo
Saving local schools has to mean more than just keeping the doors open (opens the original)
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School leaders should have a more visible role in the housing conversation happening in their communities.Not because superintendents should become developers or school boards should take over zoning. But because declining enrollment is one of the biggest challenges facing Upstate New York’s districts. And the lack of places for families to live can’t be someone else’s problem forever.We all have a role in this thing.When I wrote last month about avoiding school closures, housing was at the cent
Need is hiding in plain sight (opens the original)
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What did you expect?That’s the question I kept asking myself last week after a conversation with two volunteers from Harmony Food Pantry in Waterloo. They were a delight, and I’ll say this: The work they do — like the work being done at food pantries everywhere — is incredibly important.I knew food prices had climbed and housing costs had spun out of control. Even utility costs, a staple of news coverage for the better part of two years, were front of mind heading into the conversation.And yet,
The housing fix doesn’t have to be revolutionary (opens the original)
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Housing doesn’t have to be revolutionary to matter.That was the point I kept coming back to after a recent conversation with David West, housing and community development director for Tompkins County and the former planning director in Geneva. We talked about ADU’s, cottage courts, permitting, architecture, environmental review, and practically every other piece of the housing puzzle.The answer wasn’t one sweeping state program or a massive apartment complex in every community. It was so much si
Lessons learned about government from a tornado (opens the original)
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This is not my typical column. In fact, I had a column about schools that was ready to go this weekend, but then, a tornado ripped through my hometown throwing that plan into chaos.I know. That doesn’t happen every day. For the non-locals reading this on Substack: I grew up in Seneca Falls, New York. It’s a small town in Upstate New York that has a lot of unique — and, not so unique — small town problems.For my Finger Lakes contingency reading today’s column — you know that town has provided me
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