Comment Archives: stories: News & Opinion: News
Re: “[UPDATED] RPO challengers lose legal battle”
So the Children's Crusade is finally over. Too bad that the RPO board had to waste time and money defending itself from a glorified temper tantrum.
Re: “ART: Geva cancels summer show "The Lifeguard"”
HI MJN,
I work for Geva and want to let you know that there is no more to the story than what we provided to the press. Forster never met with the playwright until Geva secured the rights to the show. He did express an interest in doing the show publicly but needed a producer like Geva to take it to the next step, Unfortunately, their schedules did not allow for a meeting until the days after we made our announcement. It was a meeting between the playwright and Mr Forster and then later a follow-up conversation with artistic director Mark Cuddy that lead to the writer rescinding the rights from Geva. There are currently no productions of THE LIFEGUARD currently planned any where . Geva does regret not being able to bring this new work and Mr Forster to our stage this summer.
Re: “Pittsford Y proposal comes down to cars”
To John Peckham:
Thanks for your comment. I just checked in with YMCA of Greater Rochester officials for clarification. They tell me that the Southeast YMCA is the smallest suburban facility; the Monroe Avenue and Maplewood facilities are smaller. I'll be correcting the story so that this is clear.
Re: “Port work should begin this fall”
This is the same "If we build it they will come" mentality that led Bill Johnson to put taxpayers in the dumper to the tune of tens of millions of dollars to pay (twice) for his absurd Fast Ferry day dream. Apparently our current mayoral administration is content to follow in Bill's footsteps. Sadly, the result will be identical. More wasted millions with the only result being a new collection of underutilized facilities to go along with the ferry terminal.
I don’t suppose the city bothered putting together a business case for the port project which Mr. Gregor would care to share with the public?
Re: “Pittsford Y proposal comes down to cars”
Smaller than the Monroe Y? I think not. I find the statement by "Y officials" to be disingenuous. I love the Southeast Y and in it's current location I think it's the most outdoor-runner-friendly Y in the area. It's adjacent to the Canal Path @ Mitchell Road and puts you onto decent neighborhood roadways that runners of many levels of expertise can enjoy, from flat to some serious hills. While I sympathize with the Y on this, the proposed location won't offer outdoor-running Y-members nearly as many SAFE opportunities. They've already built an east-side Taj Mahal facility on Rt. 250. Is a second ginormous east-side facility really necessary?
Re: “Port work should begin this fall”
There is more to the Pier 45 story than location. The operator was unqualified and the place was poorly managed, the service was awful and the food was substandard. Very few people I know would return even when the weather was beautiful. In the restaurant business reputation and quality create the return customers essential to success. They had the best view of the harbor and did not pay rent during much of the year and the facilities were already built and provided by the city. It was incompetence, not just location.
Re: “College Town's problem with windows”
Given the state of many downtown buildings it strikes me that blacked out windows should be the least of Ms. Barry's concerns.
Re: “Cuomo compromises on IDA reform”
When did we agree it is okay for non elected officials to raise our taxes. that is what IDA's are doing. By giving tax exemptions to a few they are actually costing everyone else more. To continue to allow this to happen for some residential and retail projects is a travesty. The majority of the tax benefits given are landlords and they are not even creating permanent jobs! This actually is depressing investment, as rents are kept low and other small investors can not justify the investment.. But do not take my word for this there was a study by Metro Justice of COMIDA and this is what they found
• 63% (124 out of 196) of COMIDA projects hadn't delivered the jobs that the businesses promised.
• Of the 196 projects with sufficient reporting data, 27% lost jobs (54 out of 196), reporting fewer current jobs than the employment level before IDA status was granted. An additional 5 projects had no change in employment. (It should be noted that COMIDA is not required to report how many projects had not "ripened," meaning that there still could be time left to create the jobs. Once again, this points to the need for better reporting requirements).
• Only 52% of the projects that added jobs (72 out of 137) met or exceeded their job creation targets.
While the Governors suggestions were good they actually did not go far enough an the whole system need to be revamped so that actual creation of jobs through business start ups is the goal. Until then we continue to make us poorer so a few can legally defraud State and local governments of tax revenue.
Re: “Ren Square buildings likely headed to auction”
Carl Rupert Binger - Good News ! The doors of City Hall are always open should you want to express your views to your elected representatives. And in just seven months the public will be able to have all the say they want by electing a mayor and city council.
Re: “Cuomo compromises on IDA reform”
I like the idea of state guidelines, but I like the idea of more community oversight and veto over these tax-break packages. The list of COMIDA board members is mostly business executives of varying fields, with a union member and a few lawyers. I'm not saying these people aren't qualified or are evil or malicious, but it means that these tax breaks are being given out by a very narrow slice of the Rochester community. I would advocate for more community members, perhaps a rotating member from a neighborhood council, maybe a college professor, community advocates on issues like housing or poverty. We need to stop letting these tax breaks be given out by the business community, and deal with them holistically with the whole Rochester community in mind.
http://www.growmonroe.org/comida/about/boa…
Re: “Warren supports DOMA repeal”
Lovely was right the first time, but what the dickens does this have to do with running a municipal gummint?
Re: “Warren supports DOMA repeal”
Better late than never. Wonder what her position is on giving women the vote?
Re: “ART: Geva cancels summer show "The Lifeguard"”
A lot seems to be missing from this story. The casting of Foster to play Reagan in Rambo’s play was announced over two years ago. A planned premiere and tour for 2012 then fell through. And only now, just 10 weeks before the GEVA curtain was supposed to go up do we discover that the, “actor and playwright each had a vision for the production that was not compatible with the other”?
Re: “Paging Officer Friendly”
It'd be easy to have more officers on the street while spending LESS money. We need to get rid of all the officers that are patrolling nothing but a desk. RPD has so many "police officers" working office jobs, its amazing anyone is left to even answer calls.
Re: “Ren Square buildings likely headed to auction”
I agree. The city leaders needs to let the citizens have more say in these big time decisions.
Re: “Ren Square buildings likely headed to auction”
Let's just hope that City Hall doesn't have anything to do with this. They were the ones who threw the stick in the spokes the last time we almost cleaned up this corner.
Re: “Warren sets tone for her campaign”
We have many serious problems, both in Rochester and nationally. Statistics suggest we’re becoming a third-world nation.
This didn’t happen by accident. It happened because public policy is now controlled by big-money special interests, corporations treated as people. It’s absurd and would be funny if the resulting pain and suffering weren’t so sad.
This is class warfare, instigated and promoted by a small subset of the rich against society at large, using elected officials, both Democrats and Republicans, as tools. Ordinary people are sold out and preyed upon.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We, as a people, can make a different choice. And make no mistake, it is a choice. We can choose to reclaim control of our public policy. We can choose to have public policy serve our needs, the needs of ordinary people, rather than the needs of big-money special interests at our expense.
Will voting for establishment candidates, Democrats and Republicans, change this? No. They are constitutionally unable to forge public policy to benefit people at the expense of big-money special interests.
If you agree, then we must stop wasting our votes on Democrats or Republicans that come pre-bought and paid for by big-money special interests. Our past voting behavior has brought us here. By voting for candidates from other parties, like Alex White, the green party mayoral candidate, we can reclaim public policy for ordinary people.
Our posterity will thank us.
Re: “West Main Street church keeps 'historic' label”
It is imperative that we as a community seek to preserve and rehabilitate what part of our history we still have left. These places can be anchors for neighborhoods, offering new life, as should be protected at all costs
Re: “White's revolution”
A decade ago I called for a return to nonpartisan board elections, a far better governance reform than mayoral control. A return to neighborhood schools has also long been warranted. Having spent several years (to no avail) howling at the moon in support of these ideas, it is nice to see them taken up again. Thanks to Van for raising them, and to City newspaper for drawing attention to them.
Tom Brennan
Northwest Rochester
Re: “Improving neighborhoods”
Note to editor: Please run a find/replace on this article for the word investment. Replace it with sacrifice.