Comment Archives: stories: Last 7 Days
Re: “Historical Society hits a rough patch”
I would love to check out the collection, but the museum is only open 1950's banking hours geared toward the elderly or retired, I am neither.
Re: “Rochester's grad rate dips”
Why is the cohort graduation rate so low? In part because kids enter 9th grade incapable of doing work even
at a 6th grade level. Social promotion is a MAJOR reason for these numbers.
In the school I'm working at this year; NOT A SINGLE 7th OR 8th GRADER WAS HELD BACK. This includes
one student of mine who earned a 0% for one marking period and less than 5% for at least 2 others. (He
wasn't the only one.) The high schools who are receiving the 8th graders from my school are receiving a
cohort where 7% of them were reading at grade level last year. Far more than half of those students simply
cannot graduate in 4 years due to the Regents requirements. My school is not the only one committing this
travesty.
(I almost used the word "fraud' but realized that's a legal term I could get in trouble for)
High schools can only do so much against the rushing tide of failed students headed their way every year.
There's only so much students can advance over and above the one year's worth they are expected to advance
(especially when they start out 6 or 7 years behind their suburban cohort).
These numbers skew the blame game away from the designers of this failed policy (administration) and the
failed family/social systems endemic in the impoverished regions of the city and onto the backs of the high
school teachers who are trying their damnedest to create silk purses out of sows' ears.
Until students are promoted based on achievement and not birthday the graduation rate will not improve.
Period.
Re: “Medley Centre's long odds”
Yes, thank you Jeremy. Important distinction, however I would think they work very closely together.
Re: “[UPDATED] Comptroller's Office says Monroe County is fiscally stressed”
New York State telling Monroe County that its financial condition is "fiscally stressed" is the pot calling the kettle black. And yet the state is the cause of 83% of the county's financial stress in the form of MANDATED spending. New York State is a business-unfriendly tax hell and it wants to make sure the counties follow its example.
Re: “Medley Centre's long odds”
J,
I just want to clarify that it's Scott Congel, not Robert Congel, who owns and is developing Medley Centre. Robert Congel is developing Destiny USA in Syracuse. Scott Congel is Robert's son.
A quick search of the state Board of Elections' campaign finance database shows no contributions from Scott Congel to Cuomo in 2012. It shows Robert Congel made a single $25,000 contribution to Cuomo's 2014 re-election committee.
Re: “Medley Centre's long odds”
I'm guessing it's just a matter of time before Congel sells to the Senecas and cashes in BIG. Get ready Rochester and Irondequoit - your "mixed-use lifestyle center" (in the form of a casino) is on the way...
http://blogs.democratandchronicle.com/vote…
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/201…
http://auburnpub.com/blogs/eye_on_ny/a-clo…
If you add the donation amounts from the two articles, it seems Robert Congel gave Cuomo $60,000 in 2012.
Re: “Concert Review: The Clockmen and Fox Force 5 at the Bug Jar”
Was it Tuurd? or perhaps Craap?
Re: “Big Brother at work”
A good joke told by Jay Leno: ‘We wanted a president that listens to all Americans - now we have one’
A joke told by Barack Obama: "This is the most transparent administration in history"
Re: “Costello lays out CityGate plans for Mt. Hope neighbors”
Thea,
I just checked with a Costello representative and he tells me that the number on the website was wrong. Hope that's helpful.
Re: “Costello lays out CityGate plans for Mt. Hope neighbors”
"Costello said the company will invest upward of $1.5 million...to improve the Erie Canal path"....It looks like this has been reduced to $500,000, according to an update on their website.
Re: “Legislature passes fair legislation”
FamiliarTD,
The Monroe County Fair and Recreation Association owned the old fairgrounds and Dome Arena but it reached an agreement to sell them last year. Media reports from the time of the sale say the Association had been operating the facilities at a financial loss.
Re: “Running out of time”
Mrs. Remis,
SBPT has limited power to create autonomy in schools. They can determine academic programs which are contingent on CO approval, and other requirements of the state and board. They are also tough to manage when much of the funding and support for school programs can rapidly change in light of new board or superintendent policies. To say that SBPT is the same things as autonomy is disingenuous and demonstrates your lack of understanding of the process, and also points out your selective evidence and logic which not so surprisingly seems always directed toward three conclusions: 1) Teachers unions are corrupt 2) Teachers are wholly responsible for the low performance of students in the city schools 3) Charter school are the answer.
Sadly what you don't report on or advocate to change is the devastating impact of concentrated poverty on the individual lives of students and the culture which develops around it. The reason this exists is because of the political structure we have for funding and enrolling our schools. Our system allows for class segregation which often correlates with racial segregation that lets a district like W.Irondequoit (as one example) have a student poverty rate around 10% border the RCSD carrying close to 90%. The impact of poverty on learning has been well documented. It is true that we can all find examples poor students who succeed and wealthy students who fail, but if you look at overall trends in the performance of large numbers of students there is a direct correlation between wealth and performance.
Solely blaming teachers, unions, and supporting charters schools as the solution is like a doctor focusing on a cut on the arm of a patient who has cancer. Until we focus our efforts on bringing down this unjust system of racial and class segregation which exists across the country in urban area, we will not significantly change student performance. Again I will ask my question Mrs. Remis: How is your child's unionized, non-charter, low-poverty school performing?
Re: “Analysis finds racial disparity in pot arrests”
Lincoln,
Your arguments have a certain amount of logic to them. The problem is that regardless of your anecdotal evidence, the numbers don't lie. They don't lie here in Monroe County, and they don't lie anyplace else in the nation.
The fact remains that if 2 16-year old males are arrested for the same drug possession charge, if they are of different races, the outcomes in the supposedly impartial courts of law will be different far more often than not. The problem is in the entire system - the war on drugs that makes victimless activity a crime (and thus fosters the violence you see as the cause of the disparity), selective prosecution and differences in the quality of lawyers available due to disparity in incomes. Overworked public defenders barely have time to meet their clients, much less indulge in an active defense. Privately paid lawyers have more stake (and time) to engage the court in the adversarial relationship that should properly define the process.
The system obviously breaks down along class lines. Historic events and trends have conspired to leave one race in a specific (under)class. Until the system is fixed, and the laws are made to be actively less partial the disparity will continue and the racism built in to the system will continue. No one person drives the system any more, no more than any one person gets up in the morning determined to incarcerate more blacks than makes any kind of logical or demographic sense.
Until we as a society get our collective heads out of our collective rectums, the problem will persist and the underclass will continue to be far over-represented by African-Americans.
Re: “PHOTO: From East Broad Street at night”
Cool!!!
MJN - Unfortunately this shot cannot be taken from Main St... because the hulking, double-deck Broad Street Bridge blocks the view! I like the idea of re-watering it, but I'd just as soon support removing the top section and bringing traffic down to the first level.
Re: “"Before Midnight"”
I really like the idea of Adam and Dayna reviewing this movie together. They didn't agree on everything but, that is a good thing. You get a chance to see different interpretations in the movie and different views of the movie itself. I love the idea of them walking together and connecting it to scenes in the movie. Good job!
Re: “Big Brother at work”
MJN - Good points. Seems that a majority of people are satisfied by the deluge of articles penned by PR firms to justify the spying & to clarify that, anyway, PRISM isn't even what we thought it was. Congress "briefings" given by the intelligence directors consist of sanitized talking points & what laws we do have get broadened widely in top secret court opinions. Meanwhile the news cycle moves on. The only wildcard I see remaining is this Snowden/Greenwald duo and whatever they might have left up their sleeves. Supposedly there are multiple leaked documents and Greenwald is working on a second round of articles.
Re: “Legislature passes fair legislation”
This is a big shame. I haven't followed the story of how and why the County opted out of the traditional County Fairgrounds out at E. Henrietta and Calkins. However, that spot is right in the middle of Monroe County, and thus, more fair for all residents who wish to go to it.
Getting rid of the big carnival rides, etc. That is fine, but why do you have to move it? Calkins Rd is accessible by bus. If there's a problem with people parking on roads around the former Fairgrounds, get a posse of deputies together and put up signs saying "You'll get a ticket if you park here" and then hand out the tickets - MC Sheriff and Henrietta Police and volunteers. It takes imagination.
Moving it to Ogden seems to make it remote and separate. What about the pie contests, jam contest etc? Get young people involved in those things -- what about a contest between all high schools to make homemade jams, pies, other things. Because even in the City we grow food or can go to the Public Market and get locally grown cherries, etc. What can we do to bridge the differences between City and non City life in Monroe County?
Re: “Big Brother at work”
Better send for Peter Graves (sorry Tom Cruise) because finding a balance between security and privacy in the 21st. Century is truly a Mission Impossible. The range of opinions is simply too great.
From anti-government, tin foil-hatted paranoiacs on the Far Right, to Libertarians with unrealistic ideas of how to run a society, to Tea Partiers who’re OK with spying on Americans as long as it’s limited to Muslims and other people they don’t like, to middle-of-the-raiders who claim to see both sides of the question but can’t decide which way to lean, to those who don’t give a damn one way or the other, to those who figure that the government is too incompetent to be able to misuse the information they gather, to those who distrust the government (or at least Obama) but feel that the risk of terrorist attacks is greater than the risk to privacy, to those who trust the government to do the right thing.
Now somebody tell me what balance or system of checks and balances can possibly be put in place that can satisfy more than a small percentage of the above groups?
Re: “Orwell and '1984'”
TIM LOUIS MACALUSO - So you believe that a great wrier like Orwell could only have written a novel such as "1984" because of his medical condition? Does that mean that Ray Bradbury was probably suffering from heartburn when he wrote “Fahrenheit 451” (or when Vonnegut wrote “Slaughterhouse- Five”)?
Re: “"RuPaul's Drag Race" Season 5 Reunion: The winner revealed!”
I think Roxxxy was the best by far. Just take a look at the candy competition. Jinkx is just weird and deff didn't deserve to win. Everything 70's all day! Gosh 👎👎👎👎👎