Corning, NY

I held three days of hearings this last week at the Corning “temporary remote” hearing site serving the south western part of Central New York along the PA border. The only other towns of any size in this area are Elmira, NY and Wellsboro, PA. Nearby are towns with the evocative names of Bath, Painted Post, Horseheads, Penn Yan and Hammondsport. It's a beautiful area. The geography is varied. In the north are three major long deep lakes, Seneca, Cayuga and Keuka, flanked by high hills covered with vineyards and dairy farms. In the south are the wooded hills and deep river valleys of the Allegheny Plateau. This area developed commercially in the early part of the 19^th century due to the transportation corridors of the Susquehanna River valley.

Corning is a small city of about 10,000 on the banks of the Chemung River, one of the tributaries of the Susquehanna. The major employer is Corning, Inc., now primarily a high tech glass manufacturer. You might think of “Corningware,” “Corell,” or “Pyrex,” but today Corning is mostly focused on optical fiber and liquid crystal display technology. Corning is also home to two world class museums, the Corning Museum of Glass http://www.cmog.org/ and the Robert & Hertha Rockwell Museum of Western Art http://www.rockwellmuseum.org/.

Merry, Joli and I drove south Tuesday morning in a light snow. We pulled into the downtown Corning Radisson about 2 ½ hours later. Social Security pledged years ago to phase out “temporary remote” hearing sites, but on the edges of the known world they still exist. Syracuse ODAR has three such sites; the other two are in Watertown and Canton. In each place, makeshift courtrooms are set up in hotel conference rooms. The necessary computer equipment has to be transported and set up daily. There is no electronic link to the SSA mainframe, so files are not always up to date and communication with the office is limited to old fashioned telephones. From my perspective the biggest problem was summed up by the following actual exchange I had with an unrepresented client and her husband:

“I sent you a letter in which I explained your right to counsel in this hearing. Have you decided whether you want to hire a representative?”

“Well, your honor, when we got the letter we weren't sure whether it was a joke, or what. We really didn't think the hearings would be held at a hotel.”

Judges have complained for decades having to use temporary remote sites. On my second day at the Syracuse office I was assured by the Hearing Office Director that concrete plans were underway to replace all three of our temporary remote sites with regular courtrooms. Apparently that will happen as soon as the necessary funds are available. Meanwhile I do the best I can to create a formal courtroom atmosphere in a hotel conference room. I have to admit I did like the short commute to work.

On this visit my exploration was limited to walks to restaurants and early morning walks with Joli. One interesting feature of Corning is its mostly intact historic downtown. It owes this fact to a healthy tourist trade and the flood of 1972. The flood completely inundated downtown, paving the way for redevelopment. The five blocks of restored brick buildings on Market St. have been dubbed “The Gaffer District” (Gaffer being a nickname for a glassblower) to attract tourists. The eastern end of the street has been replaced by three blocks of concrete and glass buildings all of the same architectural style that include the Radisson, City Hall, the police station, a nice outdoor skating rink, an auditorium, the library and some other government services including the Social Security field office. The local hospital is across the street. This combination brings a good mix of locals and tourists downtown, so it continues to thrive.

For such a small town there are a host of good restaurants. We had a gourmet dinner at Three Birds, and very good Indian food at Thali, but the prize for this trip goes to Bento Ya Masako. Open only at lunch four days a week, this hidden gem is worth seeking out. It's up a long flight of stairs over a jewelry store. There is no permanent sign. You know it's open when a signboard with some deflated balloons appears on the sidewalk. Inside a single medium sized room has a few tables, some metal folding chairs and a full kitchen. Masako Takemasa is the chef/owner. She has an assistant at the eight burner stove and a server. The menu on the wall offers about 10 items, each a full lunch. Bento shops are everywhere in Japan. They serve mostly take-away, but sometimes have a place you can sit to eat. Bento meals can be elaborate artistic creations served in compartmentalized lacquered boxes, or, as the case here, just a one plate lunch. I had good-sized piece of soy glazed salmon, carrots tempura, miso soup and steamed spinach with seaweed salad, all for $9. Merry had yakisoba noodles with appropriate sides. The place was packed. Take-out was non-stop. The walls are decorated with photographs of the amazing glass engraving art of Takeo Takemasa, Masako's husband, who works at the Steuben art glass division of Corning www.kuripa.co.jp/glass-art/cgi-bin/ag_personal.cgi?lang=en&id=215#  A visit to this authentic bento shop is a very inexpensive trip to Japan.

It looks like I'll be holding hearings in Corning about every five weeks. No doubt there will be more dispatches from the southern frontier soon.