City Newspaper Archives - 12/2006
LETTERS: Racism? Or crime?
Published on Dec 06, 2006
In "Bridging the Racial Divide," City Councilman Dana Miller speculates that the reason businesses are reluctant to set up shop in the 19th Ward is racism.
Could be. Or --- who knows? --- maybe it's the random crackle of gunfire in the streets; deadly drive-bys; street-corner muggings, sometimes in broad daylight; potential merchants scared stiff; potential customers scared stiff; storefront stickups; drug deals going down; the occasional murder. Stuff like that.
That same paragraph alludes, in an impressively bland phrase, to the "rugged urbanism" of parts of the Ward and notes that "violent crime and drug activity have blighted the neighborhood's main commercial arteries." Perhaps Councilman Miller would agree that this "rugged urbanism" is hardly a welcoming prospect to the Mom-and-Pops and Macys and Penneys of our land.
But not to worry. Rochester has done what Rochester always does when this or that evil begins to threaten records: we've launched a Task Force! So God's in his heaven and all's right in Rochester.
Seriously, though. There's no quick solution to the current problem, which is certainly not just a 19th Ward problem and even more certainly not primarily a law-enforcement problem.
But here's a whisper in the councilman's ear: There is a long-term solution. It's parents, sir. Good, strong, caring, available parents.
Peter Dzwonkoski, Westmoreland Drive, Rochester
