News Blog

The Jamestown school board has appointed Tim Mains - a longtime educator, politician, LGBT activist - as superintendent of that city’s public schools. Jamestown’s gain is a loss for Rochester. He’ll oversee a much smaller school district than Rochester’s, and one that isn’t facing nearly the same level of difficulties.

But the move could be good for Mains, who has made no secret about his interest in being a superintendent. Extremely bright, ambitious, and hard-working, Mains has been an admirable public servant. And I’m betting he’ll be missed.

Mains was a longtime teacher in the Greece and Rochester school systems, and a former principal at School 50. His most recent position was in administration in the district’s central office working for Superintendent Bolgen Vargas.

Mains could be counted on for a lively and informative interview. He was a staunch advocate for the district’s students and parents, and he could sometimes be a sharp critic of the district. In past interviews with City, Mains said some of the district’s biggest challenges had to do with a lack of long-term strategic planning and effective management. He had little tolerance for blaming the teachers union when ineffective teachers were allowed to keep their jobs, saying it was up to the principals supervising them to either help them improve or terminate them.

Kodak's proposal to sell the Eastman Business Park's utilities system could soon move forward.

• FILE PHOTO
• The power plant at Eastman Business Park

An order drafted by Public Service Commission staff green-lights the sale of the utilities to a subsidiary of Recycled Energy Development (RED). But the commission has to approve RED's request to operate gas, electric, and steam utilities before that can occur. That matter is on the agenda for the commission's Thursday meeting, which starts at 10 a.m. in Albany.

Under the deal with Kodak, RED would pay $10 million for the utilities, which include an electricity and steam plant as well as untreated and potable water systems. RED plans to invest another $40 million to $80 million to replace the power plant's coal-fired boilers with natural gas-fueled ones.

Last month, the Rochester school board approved a $728 million school-district budget for the 2013-2014 school year. Now it’s City Council’s turn to scrutinize the plan. Council will begin that process with a public hearing on Wednesday, June 12, and will vote on it on Tuesday, June 18.

The city gives the school district about $119 million annually, and Councilmembers typically ask school officials about how that money will be spent and raise other questions they may have about the district’s spending plan.

The public hearing on the budget begins at 3 p.m. The public can make comments starting at 5:30 p.m., and there is no requirement to sign up to speak in advance. The hearing will be held at City Hall, City Council Chambers, at 30 Church Street. The hearing is also streamed live at www.cityofrochester.gov, and telecast on Channel 12 through Time Warner Cable. — Tim Louis Macaluso

When the County Legislature meets on Tuesday, it’ll take up two controversial measures. One would cut funding for the Democratic minority’s office; the other would turn part of Northampton Park into fairgrounds.

The Legislature will meet at 6 p.m. in the County Office Building, 39 West Main Street.

Republican Majority Leader Steve Tucciarello introduced the funding proposal. In this year’s budget, funding for the Republican and Democratic legislative offices is based on the results of the 2011 elections. Tucciarello’s legislation calls for the funding to be adjusted every January, though it would impose a mid-year cut on the Dems’ budget this year. Because they lost a seat in a November special election, the Dems stand to lose about $16,000 from their $170,000 budget.

During a committee meeting last month, Republican Legislator Jeff McCann said the change was important because of off-year elections this year and potential off-year elections next year. But Democrats say the move is political retribution, pure and simple.

Odds are that the Republicans will push through the Northampton Park proposal, though Democrats say they’ll move to table it for further review. [UPDATE: The county has released an environmental statement for the proposal and it's available here.]

Under the legislation, the county would enter into a contract with the Monroe County Fair and Recreation Association to produce an “agricultural festival” at Northampton Park. As part of the contract, the association would construct several lodges, a riding horse arena, a tractor pull area, and sewer system improvements. The association would donate the infrastructure — which has a $500,000 estimated value — to the county, according to the legislation.

The fair association and its supporters say they want to return the agricultural focus to the fair. Rather than the carnival atmosphere of recent fairs, they say, they want a place for youths to show their animals and educate their peers about agriculture.

Park neighbors, however, are furious about the proposal. They voiced their opposition during a public meeting last week, organized by Legislature Democrats. Several speakers said that they had just learned about the proposal, which they called a backroom deal. They also said that while this year’s plans may call for a small agricultural fair they fear it’ll grow to resemble recent county fairs.

One neighbor said he’d already retained a lawyer to fight the plan. — Jeremy Moule

Blacks in Monroe County are 6.5 times more likely than whites to be arrested for possessing pot, says an analysis released today by the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The organization looked at marijuana arrests in counties across New York from 2001 to 2010. It found that, statewide, blacks are 4.5 times as likely as whites to be arrested for marijuana possession, often in small amounts. That's above the national average.

"These gaping racial disparities in marijuana arrests exist even though government surveys show that whites use marijuana at higher rates than blacks do," says an NYCLU press release.

The analysis says that, overall, marijuana arrests in New York increased between 2001 and 2010.

"While arrest rates of whites increased slightly, black people shouldered a greater portion of the increases in marijuana arrests, with the black arrest rate increasing 26 percent over that time span," the analysis says.

Cuts to All City High’s teaching and non-teaching staff amount to a self-inflicted wound for the Rochester school district, says Adam Urbanski, president of the Rochester Teachers Association. All City High’s instructional staff of about 120 teachers will be cut next school year to about 64, according to current plans, Urbanski says. That doesn’t include reductions in guidance counselors and non-teaching staff, he says.

Urbanski says that the cuts follow Superintendent Bolgen Vargas touting the school as a model for his expanded learning program, and that students and teachers are just beginning to see favorable results.

"You can't judge how well a school is doing in a year," Urbanski says.

Vargas proposed All City High primarily to support students in schools being phased out and closed under former Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard. Many of the students in those schools were at risk of dropping out. All City High offered students a more flexible schedule with an infusion of extra academic and emotional support.

The cuts are attributed to low enrollment, according to a written statement from district spokesperson Chip Partner.

"All City High needs a smaller staff because of declining enrollment — from more than 1,300 students at the beginning of the school year to 870 today to a projected 500 students next year," Partner wrote.

But Urbanski calls that baffling.

“That’s not the whole story," he says. "Mid year, the district stopped accepting enrollment." No reasons were given for that decision, Urbanski says.

County Executive Maggie Brooks's office sent out a press release today saying that the state Department of Health has found Monroe Community Hospital in compliance with state and federal standards.

The Department of Health revisited the hospital on June 3, according to a letter sent by the department to county officials. It found that the county has corrected problems discovered during a March visit and survey. In the press release, Brooks said that the letter gives the hospital "a clean bill of health."

State officials identified several issues at the hospital, as a result of the survey. But the allegations that former hospital director Todd Spring mistreated a patient received the most attention. Brooks eventually fired Spring, based on the reports and on a county-commissioned review of hospital policies and procedures.

The county had to implement a corrective plan, which included reactivation of the hospital's advisory board. The County Legislature appointed a new board, which met for the first time on May 29.

The Department of Health's letter to the county is posted below.

The Monroe County Fair and Recreation Association wants the annual county fair to get back to its agricultural roots. The association, along with county officials, have their sights set on 25 acres of Northampton Park in Ogden to build new grounds for the event.

Association officials say the revamped event will not be like the county fairs of years past, which were held at the Dome Arena in Henrietta. They say they don't want the carnival atmosphere, the midway, or the demolition derby. What they want, they say, is a place for local youth to show their animals and to educate their peers about agriculture.

"What you saw in Henrietta is not what I want," said Bob Colby, a Republican county legislator and member of the Fair Association's board. Colby is also a well-known farmer in the Town of Ogden.

But many of the park's neighbors aren't buying it. They packed the park's ski lodge last night for a meeting set up by Legislature Dems to listen to comments on the fair's relocation plan. Speakers tore into the process, calling it a backroom deal. They said they're angry that they've just learned about the proposal and said that it already appears to be a done deal.

The people behind some of the City of Rochester’s highest-profile building projects updated the audience on their plans and their progress at a luncheon put on Tuesday by the Downtown Development Corporation.

• FILE PHOTO
• The Sibley building.

You should expect to see some action around the Sibley building this summer, said Gilbert Winn, managing principal for building owner WinnDevelopment. The building will get a new facade and streetscape, Winn said, “to change the feel of the building, that hasn’t had a lot of love in recent years.” Plans include new windows, signs, awnings, and landscaping.

MCC is still included in Winn’s plan, although the college seems to be set on moving out to State Street. Looking at the design boards Winn displayed at the luncheon, it seems that rejiggering the layout without MCC would require a pretty substantial effort.

Winn plans to redevelop the historic building for retail, office, and housing. The building’s different users, including office workers and tenants, would have their own entrances.

One of the more unique projects is the RIT Center for Urban Entrepreneurship, which includes space for public meetings and classrooms, as well as incubator and hacker space in the old Rochester Savings Bank downtown.

The center’s programs will focus on the disadvantaged in Rochester, helping them create their own businesses.

Providing housing and job training haven’t been enough to create wealth in the inner city, said dt ogilvie, from RIT’s Saunders College of Business.

“You create wealth by putting people in their own business who will hire people at living wages and they buy their own homes,” she said.

Developer Anthony Costello met with residents of the Upper Mt. Hope Neighborhood last night to discuss his company's CityGate project. He pitched the project as a walkable, mixed-use development that will draw on the canal front and incorporate some of the history of the Iola campus.

Costello and his son, Brett, announced new plans for the project last month, revealing that they are in talks to bring a Costco store to the CityGate project. The development, which would be located on the former Iola Campus at the intersection of East Henrietta and Westfall Roads, would include the 150,000 square foot warehouse store, apartments, retail, a satellite transit center for RGRTA, and a 150-room hotel.

The new CityGate plans need approvals from the city and the state Canal Corporation since they differ substantially from what was approved two years ago. During last night's meeting, city officials said the Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the plans at 6:30 p.m. on June 17.

About a dozen speakers questioned or commented on aspects of the proposal last night. One speaker said he's concerned the project will add significant traffic to East Henrietta-Westfall intersection, which is already congested. Others asked if the developers would request tax breaks, whether the housing would be mixed-income, what the developers would do to make the project pedestrian and bike friendly, and whether they'd consider putting recycling receptacles in the public parts of the project.

When I was a kid, one of the boys in my fifth-grade class wore a green shirt with pink stripes. For weeks he was teased and called a queer for wearing pink and green or "fairy" colors. Who knows how the pink and green label got started, but there are hundreds of gay stereotypes. And while there’s a lot to be said for embracing our stereotypes, there’s also something to be said for interjecting some of of these images with reality.

One stereotype that seemed to take off during the 1990’s painted gays as generally more affluent and better educated — neighborhood gentries who improve property values. Some of these stereotypes are perpetuated by media personalities, films, and television programs. But an article on Salon.com discusses a new report from the Williams Institute basically says that the gay affluence narrative is far from the truth.

LGBT Americans are more likely than straight Americans to live in poverty, according to the report. The poverty rate for women in same-sex couples is 7.6 percent compared to 5.7 percent for women in opposite-sex relationships. And the situation for gay men of color as well as children of same-sex couples is especially troubling.

What’s most significant about the report is the correlation between discrimination and poverty. Same-sex marriage does not provide LGBT families with the multitude of economic benefits offered to married opposite-sex families. And many members of the LGBT community face job discrimination and salary disparities.