Public Biography
Nancy Ostrander is an opinion columnist for The New York Time5, where she writes “From Here,” a weekly column that examines national and international events through the lens of local community life. She has written the column since 2020.
Ms. Ostrander holds a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from SUNY Geneseo and a Master of Public Administration from Syracuse University. She spent fifteen years in municipal government in Canandaigua, New York, serving variously as a town planning board member, deputy village clerk, and chair of the Canandaigua Lake Watershed Council. She credits this experience with giving her “a perspective on governance that people in Washington will never have, because they have never had to explain a sewer assessment to a retired postal worker at a public hearing.”
Her columns frequently reference Canandaigua, the Finger Lakes region, and the rhythms of small-city life as a corrective to what she views as the overrepresentation of coastal metropolitan perspectives in national discourse.
Ms. Ostrander lives in Canandaigua with her husband, Jim, and a golden retriever named Franklin, who has appeared in her column more than any elected official.
Selected Columns
- “You Wouldn’t See This at a Canandaigua Town Board Meeting” (May 2025)
- “What the United Nations Could Learn from My Block’s Snow Removal Schedule” (February 2026)
- “My Neighbor Peg Has Solved the Border Crisis, and Nobody Is Listening” (September 2025)