September 2, 2010 at 3:38pm
RGRTA is apparently hitting all its marks on its way to getting final approval from the city for a Mortimer Street transit center.
"I'm very impressed and pleased with their level of responsiveness," says City Council member Carla Palumbo.
Palumbo heads up a task force charged with overseeing the project.
Earlier this year, City Council approved a partial abandonment of Mortimer so RGRTA could build a bus station. But the approval hinged on several conditions, most having to do with public outreach. Others were resolutions of outstanding parking and security issues.
The conditions have to be met before the city engineer signs off on the project - the last step as far as the city's involvement is concerned.
Palumbo says RGRTA and her task force are working to set up a number of public design workshops from mid September through December. RGRTA will also be meeting with cyclists, downtown development representatives, people from the disabled community, project neighbors, and others.
"This is not ‘Should we move it?'" Palumbo says. "This is, ‘It's here. How do we want it to look?'"
Security - how much, what kind, and who pays - has perhaps been the biggest unresolved issue with the bus station. City Council created a security task force to oversee that element of the project.
Palumbo says she believes RGRTA has agreed to provide security inside the bus station and around the perimeter. It is unclear what form that security would take, but a member of the task force says that both cameras and a private security force would be used.
"I think the discussion is still ongoing between the cops and the security task force," Palumbo says.
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Comments for "Transit center is closer to reality " (2)
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Carlos Mercado said on Sep. 03, 2010 at 8:59am
An RGRTA senior management concept, never asked for by bus passengers which will not get any buses off Main St. Instead they will clog turning lanes as they move onto Clinton & St. Paul and back to Main. Passengers will have to walk an extra block or two to board their vehicles. There is no guarantee that the shelter will not become a hangout for hoodlums and panhandlers. We've no idea how to pay for the annual operating costs - inclduing Rochester Police services. The problem is the hub-and-spoke system with a lack of crosstown routes and scheduling all the buses at Main & Clinton at once. The Mortimer St. facility does not address this problem. This is a tragic waste of taxpayer money on a classic Pork Barrel project.
Harry Davis said on Sep. 03, 2010 at 11:09am
We Must Oppose Rochester's Arrogance!
Rochester City Council Member Carla Palumbo says:
"Palumbo says RGRTA and her task force are working to set up a number of public design workshops from mid September through December. RGRTA will also be meeting with cyclists, downtown development representatives, people from the disabled community, project neighbors, and others."
For ANY of city organizations/developers/bicyclists/disabled or neighbors (read: Warner Building residents who still remain) to participate in this "public design workshop" is falling into the un-democratic trap that the city of Rochester has used so often! Participation by any of these groups, or ANYBODY, just goes to validate the closed minded arrogance of our city government and only validates the city council & RGRTA's attempt to shut down any hopes of inter-modal transportation in Rochester, thereby dooming residential, commercial and retail development of downtown Rochester.
Are we going to let Mark Aesch dictate our future? Carla Palumbo is now asking key players to come back to her to validate this disaster.
Our participation in any of their meetings would imply that we allow the city council to give the public the impression that they are doing something to better the bus barn itself.
Earlier this year, over 200 people spoke out forcefully against this boondoggle. Indeed, we have made it clear that this bus barn is not what we want. We want inter-modal transportation at the Amtrak station with high-speed rail!
If they are willing to talk about that change then we could have a public meeting to discuss this. Otherwise, participation with these people only bows to the powers that be.
We should talk about the misuse of the process and turn it into a public effort, a press conference rather than allowing Carla Palumbo, Lovely Warren and others to hoodwink the public once again!
In order to make this happen, we need key players and others to come together and take advantage of this opportunity.
By saying nothing, a lack of action would likely be seen as approval.
In addition, we must organize to defeat three members of our city council who are up for re-election in 2011. Their names are: Carla Palumbo, Adam McFadden, and Elaine Spaull. All three voted to approve this bus barn.
The worst thing that could happen would be for those mentioned above to do their bidding and stamp approval on this Fast Ferry 2 nightmare!
"Stop Mortimer Street Bus Barn/Create Amtrak Inter-Modal"
http://bit.ly/bgUGuy
~Harry Davis
Rochester, New York
September 3, 2010
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