President Obama is coming to Cooperstown, NY this Thursday, May 22nd, and it’s critical that we show up in force to rally against fracking!
Lately, President Obama has been making headlines stressing the importance of addressing climate change. But his support for fracking completely undermines this message. Not only does fracking cause widespread water contamination, dangerous air pollution, and terrible health and community impacts, but it is a major contributor to global warming. Tell Obama to ban fracking now!
Fracking bans, like baseball, started in Cooperstown. The Village is located in the Township of Otsego, the first town to ban fracking in New York, and in the Town of Middlefield, one of the first towns to defend its fracking ban in court. The citizens of Cooperstown know fracking would destroy their thriving tourism industry, which has been a viable and sustainable economic force for the small towns and villages of upstate New York for well over a century.
President Obama will be speaking at the Baseball Hall of Fame to promote tourism, but if he truly wants to support tourism in upstate New York, he needs to change his view on fracking.
So join us from near and far to tell President Obama: no fracking way!
TIMING: Our best information is that the president is expected some time mid-afternoon. As such, we’re convening our rally at 12:30 PM
. We may well be there until around 4:00/4:30 PM.
LOCATION: We are still deciphering the best location based on secret service security and potential last minute location changes. We advise you to go to one of the parking lots mentioned below and we will have volunteers at the parking areas who will direct you to the rally location.
PARKING: Parking is likely to be a challenge and specifics about closures from the secret service are not yet known. We do know there will be no parking on Main Street, and parking close to Main Street will likely be off limits as well. The best bet is to park in one of the satellite parking lots. The Yellow Lot is on State Route 80, just north of the Fenimore Art Museum, 1.2 miles from Main Street. The Red Lot is at 24 Glen Avenue (also route 28/80) if you’re coming in from the west/Utica, a 1/2 mile walk. The Blue lot is located just south of the Village off route 28, on Linden Avenue, a 1.5 mile walk. There will be volunteers in each parking lot to help direct you to Main Street. If you cannot walk that distance, you can either try parking in Doubleday Field parking lot (accessible from Chestnut Street – turn right on Fowler Way just before the Chamber of Commerce and proceed toward the ballfield) or let a volunteer know if you need a shuttle. We will designate cars to shuttle folks to the rally location if needed. If you can help shuttle folks please let a volunteer know!
CARPOOLS: You should be getting a separate email if you signed up to carpool, from one of the coordinators. If you haven’t and are looking to carpool, contact the following people. For Binghamton (Isaac, 
607-296-8265), Ithaca (Sarah [email protected]
WEATHER: There is a good chance of rain. We’re going to rally outside, so we’ll have to make do. Wear appropriate clothing and bring an umbrella!
SUPPORT COOPERSTOWN/FOOD/DRINKS: We ar