Comment Archives: Last 30 Days
Re: “Richards' campaign off to a slow start”
Richards has been doing an exceptional job by most accounts and is viewed quite favorably. He is the incumbent and has the party leadership's backing. He's extremely qualified and in my thinking he could easily be the mayor of any city in the country. I just don't see Warren as being a real factor in the upcoming election. Rochester has plenty experience with bad mayors to avoid moving from a known-good mayor to be working towards a questionable alternative.
Re: “War, policy, and Obama”
Oh, so that's how you end the war on terrorism: declare victory and go home.
Re: “Confirmed: Spider-Man crew member beaten, robbed while in Rochester”
Breaking: City of Rochester and downtown merchants beaten, robbed by Spiderman movie
Re: “Rock-n-Roll Social Club”
LOVE Rock-n-Roll Social Club!!!!! Xoxo
Re: “"Game of Thrones" Season 3, Episode 8: An Imp-ulsive wedding”
Fabulous review.. Spot on Sir/ess/, I have come to Game of Thrones in a very circuitess (?) way. Don't have Sky, wanted to watch it but couldn't. Picked up the book 2nd hand, enthralled/ Had deep conversation with someone who had watched the tv production, then found out about how to watch online. Can see inconsistencies even though I have not read the other books, dramatic license & all that.. But what a hoot! Tyrion seems to be the only american actor & he puts us all to shame.. I absolutely adore his portrayal. Yummy. Is this as big as I think it is in the States? So many fantastic (& shit) british actORS.. In fact, seems totally UK staffed.. It is a bit buttocky, in the same way the Tudors was, but commendable. Tasteful buttocks, greedy dragons. I like the fact that it can make me laugh even when I'm grimacing. So many programmes are entirely up their own backsides without even knowing it. This production is nigh on pornographic in its shameless self love. It's such a shame that the north/south divide has to be won. As if..
Re: “Sheppard, Warren events stress dire need”
You hit the nail on the head, Louse!
Re: “What if we're investing in the wrong education?”
The "we" has to include black families themselves. What many liberals are unwilling to confront is that there are lots of people having children who aren't raising them - mothers and fathers. Poverty is part of the equation, but it's not necessarily the explanation for it.
"We" seem willing to assign blame to teachers, racism, capitalism, etc., but the bottom line is that "we" can only help people who help themselves. That means people who are struggling need to exercise self-control - not having children you can't or aren't willing to support. It means taking responsibility for parenting the children you bear, including taking an active role your kids' education and their well-being.
It's important to help people who are struggling. But "we" need to provide a safety net - not a safety hammock. When "we" assume responsibility for providing everyone with food, housing, education, health care, and child care, we'll get the same result every time. "We" may have good intentions, but ultimately we're enabling shiftlessness and accepting blame for outcomes that are not our responsibility.
Re: “Richards' campaign off to a slow start”
Lovely Warren is exactly what the City of Rochester needs!
Re: “Sheppard, Warren events stress dire need”
I live in the area this article talks about. The parents of the children mentioned here are all out working two to three sup-par paying Mcjobs. Blaming the parents for "not taking responsibility" is an invalid argument. We are in an economic race to the bottom. Employment figures go up and so do the number of people on food stamps. That tells you that old jobs are being replaced by even worse jobs. So don't count on things getting better anytime soon.
Here's what the kids want. This is what they told the GRCC and Baptist ministers several years ago. The kids want safe spaces for respite open 24/7 so they don't have to be involved in chaotic situations outside of school and home. Disorganization at home often means absent parents out working all those sub-par jobs to keep the family going--a pressure imposed by society. Jobs pay less and what is left of the social safety net is under attack. Things will not get better and the young people will keep becoming vulnerable to gang activity. Don't blame the kids and their families. Look further.
These people, my neighbors, are under tremendous social and economic pressure. It's a powder keg. I found Shepard and Warren's responses shallow. But the reporting of the conversations may have ignored anything substantive either of these officials said.
Re: “Sheppard, Warren events stress dire need”
Unfortunately we're all responsible to one degree or another for the sorry state of Rochester. The suburbs provide too much of a buffer for whites to get it and the wealthy and well-educated in Brighton, Pittsford, Mendon, Rush, Webster and the East side of the city who are largely the power brokers in this community are too insular and self-interested to really care. Without the crippling concentration of crime, poverty, illiteracy in their communities, etc. to motivate people in Greece or Chili or Pittsford to action, the problem is largely going to stay the same. Likewise the citizens of Rochester are often too passive and/or submissive to the status quo, or thwarted by previously-mentioned elites who wish to maintain a certain community appearance. Rochester was called the Image Centre in the '50s and '60s. Unfortunately it is still the Image Center, for the Smugtown crowd.
Re: “Richards' campaign off to a slow start”
how about MOmentum?
Re: “Concert Review: Nikki Hill at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que”
Don't forget Little Ann!
Re: “Sheppard, Warren events stress dire need”
I'm sorry, but this article is too, too cute for words.
Sheppard trots out the fact that, several years after the rest of the country, the RPD has finally gotten around to monitoring social media to combat violence, and it’s hailed as an example of how he came “prepared” to this event with immediate responses to public concerns.
And likewise Ms. Warren’s concern for education seems more tardy than “immediate” given that she’s had over three years as city council president to focus her attention on the city school situation (and to convince her colleagues on the council that this area should be their first priority). But for some reason the subject never seems to have come up (nowhere in her biography and personal "mission statement” on the city council’s web site does she give the condition of Rochester’s schools even a passing mention) until she decided to run for mayor. Then it became the centerpiece of her campaign.
Isn’t it about time for City Newspaper to get back to reporting the news and stop acting as shills and press agents for their political pals?
Re: “Sheppard, Warren events stress dire need”
This story is heartbreaking because it is so real and the situation is truly dire. I am grateful to both Chief Sheppard and Lovely Warren for confronting these issues head on. And there is much for us all to do. Yes, parents need to be involved. Yes, everyone in the community needs to be involved, as well the police, the City schools, and community leaders. But I am concerned that no one is ever asking Maggie Brooks what her responsibility is for these children. These kids are the children of Monroe County, not just the city. In fact Brooks basically blames these kids and their families for Monroe County's high taxes. That is not at all constructive. Until we hold Brooks accountable for her pure neglect of these kids, we will never have a community-wide appreciation for the need for us to act collectively. We are all, especially the media, letting her off the hook for no good reason.
Re: “CHOW HOUND: The ol' College Town try”
Whenever I hear or read "Bunga" anywhere, I can't help but think of Italian politician/AC Milan president Silvio Berlusconi's infamous "Bunga Bunga" parties. No need to even click on the link below, just read the end part.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/17/berlusconi-bunga-bunga-nun-stripper_n_3292359.html
Re: “Richards' campaign off to a slow start”
Who cares about either Lovely Warren or Tom Richards? Like I said a couple months ago, Democrats have had 40 years of control in this city. Has it improved? I'm looking elsewhere, and as of now, that's Alex White.
Re: “Equal=Grounds”
Great place to meet, greet, make friends, relax an chill out, and drink a great variety of coffee, latte's, and espresso. Salads are fresh and delicious, as are the wraps. Oh yes, cake and ice cream for your sweet tooth. John, the Owner, is the happiest and friendliest guy in the South Wedge. Tell him "dad sent me".
Re: “What if we're investing in the wrong education?”
And yet somehow, the beleaguered RCSD faculty is supposed to overcome this gap or we lose our jobs.
Lots and lots of hard-working educators spend hours and hours preparing, teaching and assessing. Yet we're told we're just not good enough.
I know this article isn't meant to tell us to stop or that our efforts are pointless. The point (which many have been arguing for a long time) is that the current reform efforts are aimed in the wrong direction. Over 95% of the people who teach in the district are fine, and are doing the best with the hand we've been dealt. Reforms must be targeted at the people who need the help - children and parents.
If we spent 1/3 of what we spend on Special Ed in early childhood care and educating parents, we would need less than the 2/3 remaining in the budget. (Not a study result, just some darn fine logical thinking.)
Why does the district spend so much? To try to play catch-up. If I were a race car driver and I started a 500 mile race when my competitors already had 150 miles done, I'd need to be spending way more on my car to even consider being competitive. If I could somehow start at the same time as all the others, I would not need to spend quite so much on my car. It's a clunky analogy, but it works.
Re: “Confirmed: Spider-Man crew member beaten, robbed while in Rochester”
So much for the pipe dream of Hollywood-on-the-Genesee.
Re: “War, policy, and Obama”
@Reggie: We are neither going home nor declaring victory, although at least this President has decimated al Qaeda. He's also made us more hated in Pakistan than India, an ominous situation with a country that is producing nuclear weapons by the dozens. It is time, though, to wind this war - whatever you want to call it - down. It's also time to wind down the war on drugs, now, after how many hundreds of billions of dollars? And with what results? but is now in 115 countries. 115 countries! That's the definition of insane.
This "war on terrorism" lexicon is nuts, too: Are we really at war with, for example, Shining Path? The military wing of the Irish Republican Army? Does anyone recall Franklin D. Roosevelt declaring war on carrier-based airplanes on December 8, 1941?