By William A. Johnson

For much of this year, there has been an intense, often angry debate about the worthiness of Renaissance Square. In many respects, the discord mirrored the nastiness that has been a part of so many other complex issues. What are striking about these contentious discussions are the strident, take-no-prisoners tone and the lack of civil, middle-ground positions that promote genuine consensus and compromise.

Renaissance Square has been offered as the centerpiece for downtown revitalization for nearly six years, the signature project of County Executive Brooks after her 2003 election. Brooks campaigned as being different in tactics and substance from her predecessor, and once elected, she set out to prove the point. She actively and sincerely sought the support and trust of her election opponent - myself - and together we pursued funding in Albany and Washington, from both Republicans and Democrats. In short time, more than $150 million was earmarked for a new MCC-Damon City Center campus and bus terminal. Opponents continued to raise pointed questions about the need for the terminal, however, and funding for the theaters failed to materialize.

Despite the strong financial support, the project has suffered from lack of a clear definition of how it would transform downtown from its present doldrums. Divisions have hardened, rather than being resolved. The 2004 Center City Master Plan, created in partnership with City Hall and key downtown stakeholders, was completely ignored. In all of the discussions, perhaps the greatest community benefit was downplayed: the need to replace downtown's most blighted and under-utilized real estate with something far more suitable.

Downtown Rochester has changed radically over the past 60 years. More than two dozen major redevelopments have been completed, resulting in the massive removal of older buildings and businesses and their replacement with millions of square feet of new commercial, office, retail, and open spaces on both sides of the Genesee River. The 26-acre Civic Center, I-490, and Inner Loop projects of the 1950's; the Crossroads and Midtown Plaza projects of the 1960's; and the more recent Convention Center, Hyatt, Cultural District, GEVA, Strong Museum, South Clinton Avenue corridor, Frontier Field, High Falls, East End, Rundel Library expansion, War Memorial expansion, soccer stadium, and Corn Hill Landing projects: Every one of these was designed to re-ignite interest in a declining downtown. Most of them generated much controversy before they were completed. But they were all completed. There is nothing to show for the more than $20 million expended on Renaissance Square.

The amount of money already spent to make downtown economically viable has been astounding, yet in retrospect much of it was in response to constantly changing conditions. An example of how good planning succumbed to unintended consequences is Midtown Plaza. Its principal architect, Victor Gruen, responded to a 1956 invitation by the owners of McCurdy's and B. Forman's to analyze strategies that would help stabilize fortunes of their downtown stores.

Gruen was able to satisfy the concerns of his clients, prominent business leaders who were willing to invest their resources to improve downtown. They subsequently entered into a partnership with City Hall to build one of the most massive downtown renewal projects in the nation. In his book "The Heart of Our Cities," Gruen said he believed that if either side had wavered in their commitment, the project would have been doomed.

Yet less than 20 years later, the much-heralded plaza had become obsolete, not as a result of poor planning and design, but because suburbanization completely overwhelmed most cities. Midtown simply could not compete with the glitzy new suburban palaces.

The demographics underscore this point. In 1950, Rochester achieved its peak population (332,000), and it was the home of more than 68 percent of the county's residents. Its downtown was the retail hot spot. Today only about 25 percent of the county's population is city residents.

Downtown's footprint is completely out of sync with current needs. Not only are there too many buildings, but they were built to accommodate other purposes. Many cannot be adapted to suit present market needs. Some are just plain eyesores, long vacant with no imminent prospects of re-occupancy.

Even so, downtown has strengths that can be effectively marketed as a regional government, cultural, and entertainment center with the abundance of institutional assets that are currently in place. The housing options which have evolved over the past 10 years can be expanded for an emerging market of urban dwellers. The streets will not bustle as they did in the 1950's, but they can be livelier than in recent years.

Some would like to blame Maggie Brooks for the implosion of Renaissance Square. While I can strenuously disagree with her approach to other issues, she is not the cause of this disaster. From the day she took office, she has remained steadfastly committed to making this project work. Even at the end, when she had every reason to walk away, she showed a un-Republican-like willingness to compromise, a position for which she has gotten little credit.

More important, she has consistently practiced what many leaders of this community demand: good city-county relations. I know from two years of experience that Maggie appreciated the substance, as well as the appearance, of collaboration, and Renaissance Square was the tangible manifestation of that goal.

The popular statement, "Let's not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good" perfectly describes the ironies of this situation. There was no "perfect solution," but a "good solution" was within reach; $150 million in federal and state funds were raised to bring about much-needed improvements in downtown. There was general consensus and support for two-thirds of the development plan. The intense opposition to the transit center never diminished, but was this a reason to just kiss millions of hard-to-get dollars goodbye?

Mayor Duffy's action in this debacle cannot be ignored. He has not clearly explained how it benefits the city to repudiate planning and money for a downtown block that has proven difficult to redevelop for over three decades. Why start over from square one to raise scarce private money where flush public money already existed? And he needs to clearly explain why these actions will not undermine critical support for his Midtown project.

We are becoming known as a community that would rather fight than switch, and one that makes emotional decisions without thinking through the ultimate consequences, that later have to be cleaned up. It seems highly implausible that neither Duffy nor Brooks reached beyond their traditional partisan supporters to find a panel of respected - and objective - community leaders who could have found a solution out of this mess. There was no aspect of Renaissance Square that could not have been mediated and resolved.

While Renaissance Square has been scuttled, this is not the end of the story. As Mayor Duffy's re-election is assured, there will be at least two more years where he and the County Executive will be forced to collaborate on numerous issues. Where will the next shoe drop? They will have to find ways to avoid payback, and avoid the "Bork" rule, which says that if you defeat my guy, yours will be next. That is the kind of partisan and parochial paralysis that is engulfing the nation. Rochester has always prided itself on being better than the rest, and our two elected leaders will have to recall that legacy and rise above the fray and fractiousness to get us back on track.

We should not expect them to do it by themselves. They will need to invoke the examples of Morin and Ryan, of McCurdy and Forman, to bring into the equation that group of distinguished elders who have served this community well and who are invested in its future survival. I am not advocating a "Rump Group" of elites, but a coalition of broadly diverse citizens, from every walk of life, who can keep us focused and marshal community support for projects that a majority of the community wants. That kind of civic engagement has served us well in the past, and it can restore our competitiveness in the future. We don't have much time to get this right.

William A. Johnson is former mayor of the City of Rochester. Mary Anna Towler's Urban Journal is on break this week.