CITY Magazine's July issue: "The Finger Lakes"

By Evan Dawson,

Published July 7, 2025 at 5:19 PM EDT

Five smiling people sit at a table in a radio talk studio: a woman front left has long red hair and is wearing headphones, a grey t-shirt with a large yellow smiley face and jeans; a man front right has curly dark hair and is wearing headphones, a blue bandana tied around his hair, a black t-shirt and green shorts; a man back left has short brown hair and is wearing headphones, glasses and a striped shirt; a man back right has a dark beard and is wearing headphones, a blue baseball cap, glasses and a white t-shirt; a man at center has short dark hair and is wearing a black button-down shirt, jeans and sneakers; three of the men are holding copies of a magazine.

1 of 11 — (foreground) Leah Stacy and Jacob Walsh, (background) Patrick Hosken and Roberto Lagares with host Evan Dawson on "Connections"

(foreground) Leah Stacy and Jacob Walsh, (background) Patrick Hosken and Roberto Lagares with host Evan Dawson on "Connections with Evan Dawson" on Monday, July 7, 2025

Mari Tuschiya / WXXI News

A woman with long blonde hair is standing in a living room wearing a black short-sleeved top and a necklace made of large links.

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Rachel Snyder

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A smiling man wearing a baseball cap is in front of a lake.

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Matt Cassavaugh

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A young woman wearing a black dress with feathers and long sparkly earrings poses with her hands on her face.

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Jazmine Saunders

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A smiling woman with short brown hair leans on a counter in a large kitchen.

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Lora Downie

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A large brick building is surrounded by cars and trees.

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A building on the Wells College campus

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An aerial view of a campus with brick buildings and trees next to a lake.

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An aerial view of the Wells College campus

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A man wearing a baseball caps sits in front of several canoes while holding an oar.

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Matt Cassavaugh poses with some of the canoes made by Hemlock Canoe

Roberto Lagares

A man wearing a grey t-shirt and glasses works on a canoe,

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Making a Hemlock Canoe

Roberto Lagares

Two people in canoes row on a lake surrounded by trees.

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People canoeing on a lake

Roberto Lagares

Two young people are stirring pots on top of a stove in a large kitchen.

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Young students cooking at New York Kitchen

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A smiling man with short dark hair wearing a blue button-down shirt and a grey blazer. He is holding a pair of eyeglasses. The word "Connections" appears on the left side of the photo in vertical letters.

"What if we didn't have to leave home to have a world class experience?"

Those are the words of CITY Magazine editor Leah Stacy, writing about the Finger Lakes. The July issue of the magazine is all about the vacation destination right in our own backyard.

This hour, we explore some of those world class experiences with the CITY team and with the people creating them.

Our guests:

Leah Stacy, editor of CITY Magazine
Jacob Walsh, art director for CITY Magazine
Roberto Lagares, multimedia reporter for CITY Magazine
Patrick Hosken, arts reporter for CITY Magazine
Rachel Snyder, president of the Wells Legacy Society and Wells College alumna (Class of 2011)
Matt Cassavaugh, owner of Hemlock Canoe
Jazmine Saunders, soprano performing with Finger Lakes Opera, Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist, alumna of the Eastman School of Music (Class of 2022) and the Julliard School (Class of 2024), and William Warfield Scholarship recipient
Lora Downie, director of food and beverage education programs at New York Kitchen

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