Upstate New York

President Donald Trump campaigned in Syracuse Friday night for Republican gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman, drawing about 2,500 supporters to the Oncenter while roughly 4,000 protesters gathered nearby. The rally came a day after an ICE agent shot and wounded Oscar Belgal, 28, in Manhattan's Marble Hill neighborhood while he was driving with his 5-year-old son; federal authorities alleged Belgal had gang ties.

In a speech lasting more than 80 minutes, Trump attacked Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James over immigration, energy and tax policy, repeated disputed claims about election fraud and the Interstate 81 teardown, and promised Blakeman would sharply cut electric bills and taxes. Blakeman pledged to end New York's sanctuary-state status by executive order on his first day in office if elected. Hochul's campaign has branded Blakeman "Trump's puppet" and defended her record, including the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act limiting local cooperation with ICE, which some upstate sheriffs are suing to overturn. Immigration enforcement and affordability remain central issues as the governor's race enters its final weeks.

An opinion essay by historian Teal Arcadi, adapted from his new book "Concrete Leviathan," revisits Syracuse's role as a national testing ground for infrastructure policy. In the 1940s, Fortune magazine chose Syracuse as a model mid-sized city for postwar planning, work that helped justify demolishing the historically Black 15th Ward to build Interstate 81 — part of a nationwide pattern in which highway construction displaced roughly 1 million Americans, disproportionately from poor and nonwhite neighborhoods.

Decades later, Syracuse became a model again, this time for repair: the city's decision to remove the aging I-81 viaduct and replace it with a "community grid" has inspired similar highway-removal efforts in cities including Oakland, Tulsa and Buffalo. Arcadi argues the project's success in righting past wrongs remains uncertain, warning that gentrification could overtake efforts to rebuild a mixed-income community. He proposes a federal "Community Equity Protection Bureau," modeled on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to give residents real democratic input into future infrastructure decisions.

The Port of Oswego Authority says it will not recognize President Donald Trump's executive order renaming Lake Ontario to "Lake America," part of his broader trade dispute with Canada. Executive Director Tom Drumm called the change a symbolic gesture that "doesn't move freight" and risks straining relations with Canada, the port's largest trading partner. The Port of Oswego is New York's only state-run Lake Ontario port and the first U.S. stop for ships from the St. Lawrence Seaway, handling about 120 ships and 100,000 metric tons of aluminum annually.

The port joins a growing list of local holdouts, including the Oswego County Legislature, Rochester's port and city council, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and other officials who continue using "Lake Ontario." Google Maps and Apple Maps have adopted the new name, while the Associated Press and MapQuest have refused, with MapQuest seeing a download surge. Drumm noted the port receives no direct federal funding but does rely on federal grants, acknowledging the stance could carry risks amid already strained trade conditions affecting local jobs and shipping.

President Trump escalated his trade dispute with Canada by threatening to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America." The proposal drew a cool reception in Oswego, N.Y., a Republican stronghold on the lake's shore that Trump carried by a wide margin in 2024.

Local GOP officials, including Oswego Mayor Rob Corradino, Assemblymember Will Barclay, and County Legislature Chair Jim Weatherup, said they see the idea as a negotiating tactic rather than a serious proposal, and none support changing the name. They argue the region depends on Canadian trade and tourism, noting Canadian visits to New York have dropped sharply amid the tariff fight, hurting Oswego attractions like Harborfest, Fort Ontario, and Oswego Speedway. New York exchanges tens of billions of dollars in goods and services with Canada annually. Officials warned that further escalation, including rhetoric like the renaming threat, could damage a longstanding cross-border relationship. Residents interviewed in Oswego, several of them Trump supporters, also rejected the "Lake America" idea.

The renaming proposal emerged amid a broader war of words between Trump and Ontario Premier Doug Ford after U.S.-Canada trade talks broke down, with Canadian officials describing the economic standoff as an "attack." The dispute has also drawn political mockery, including from Michigan Senator Debbie Dingell, who criticized Trump's environmental record on the Great Lakes.