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We welcome your comments. Send them to [email protected]m, or post them on our website, rochestercitynewspaper.com, our Facebook page, or our Twitter feed, @roccitynews. Comments of fewer than 350 words have a greater chance of being published, and we do edit selections for publication in print. We don't publish comments sent to other media.

St. Paul mural:

lewd or cuddly?

The mural project has brought some highly regarded muralists to Rochester to put up murals on walls around the city. Some of the murals reflect social commentary and some subjects that may be hard to stomach. Seen driving by or walking by, these subjects raise questions and may cause one to question what the artist had in mind.

One such mural is on the south wall of a building on St. Paul Street overlooking the Worldwide News parking lot and Pleasant Street. In that location, it will not be seen by a lot of people, since St. Paul is one way south at that point and a southbound driver would need to look over his/her shoulder to see it. It will be seen by customers of Worldwide News as they transit the parking lot.

It will also be seen morning, noon, and night by a small group of people making their homes in downtown Rochester in The Warner Lofts at 80 St. Paul Street on the north side of the building.

To put it in simple terms, the mural is lewd. It depicts two bear-like creatures with rat-like faces in what might be described as a sexual position that is lurid.

We are just moving into an apartment on the north side of Warner Lofts and chose that side because RGRTA insists that the best place in the world for their new bus terminal abuts the south side of the Warner building. Thanks, all, for making Rochester a welcoming place for residents.

The owner of the building with the painted wall is satisfied with the artwork. He has his right to express himself or permit others to express themselves on his property. He will not ever see the wall unless he walks out of his apartment to take a look or looks over his shoulder as he drives away from his home. We will see it at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and so will any guests we have in our apartment.

Those guests will include our grandchildren, ages 9 to 13. We really don't need well-done lewd art just outside our window.

For context, we are art collectors, and my wife is a fine-art photographer. We are generally not put off by strong art that makes a statement. We have chosen many pieces that others might not display in a house where children are being raised. That is art of our choice. That is not imposed on us by a neighbor.

PAUL S. GOLDBERG, ROCHESTER

Wall/Therapy founder and curator Ian J. Wilson – a radiologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center - responds: While none of us is the final arbiter of aesthetics, the labeling of the mural on St. Paul as lewd leaves no room for meaningful dialogue. It seems rather disturbing that sleeping bears would be sexualized in the manner being described by some. If one considers the spatial arrangement of the creatures on the wall, it becomes readily apparent that the head of one bear rests on the knees of the other. Had the artist painted the westward facing bear's head closer to the pelvis of the other, then the assessment of the mural as "lurid" becomes more valid. The artist described the mural as "two bears sleeping," nothing more. In fact, a cursory survey of ROA's body of work would reveal murals that are far more graphic than the St. Paul piece. These bears are quite tame by comparison.

Arguably one of the most important living contemporary artists working in the public space, ROA fell in love with this city. His work can be seen from London to Australia and now Rochester. Whether pro or con, the net effect of this mural art project is a heightened consciousness about public art. People are being empowered to express their views. However small, this project, and its resultant debate, can be viewed as steps that move us toward actualizing our full potential as a world-class city.

The art depicted on walls throughout this city do not reflect the ideology, politics, or philosophical inclinations of any of the property owners who have graciously supported this project by granting permission for their property to be painted. In addition, this mural was privately funded by myself and others who are bullish on Rochester and believe in its future. As the father of a 2-year-old girl, I look forward to sharing the world with her, starting here. As a "kid from Brooklyn" who serves this community on a daily basis in my professional life, I can honestly say, "Trust me. I'm a doctor."

Malgieri and

the school district

On Schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas's appointment of former Deputy Mayor Patty Malgieri as chief of staff: What's most amazing about this debacle is that the board does not seem to be concerned about the critically important question of whether Ms. Malgieri, who is not an educator, has no formal training in the field, and has been hired at a dizzying salary of $155,000 dollars (plus benefits) — $21,186 dollars more than the mayor of Rochester makes — is even qualified for this super-high-priced position. A-damn-mazing!

WALK THE WALK

Posted on rochestercitynewspaper.com

I love how people are trying to judge the administrative qualifications of someone who basically ran our city for six years. Before that, she ran one of the most important public-policy think tanks in the state and most recently ran the Hillside program, which takes the most at-risk children in our city and gets them to college. And they think she doesn't support education?

Mrs. Malgieri can hardly be chastised for her past critiques of the district. We have a staggeringly low graduation rate, horrible teachers cannot be fired, and there are so many layers of administration in central office that nobody knows who does what. I can't think of any better person to clean up the mess than her.

MARK

Posted on rochestercitynewspaper.com

County should

say no to

fracking waste

Why invite another environmental disaster when New York already has a rich history of it? ("Dems Push on Fracking Waste," News) Remember Love Canal? Look at Onondaga Lake, which is entering into a final $1-billiion clean-up phase. What we don't pollute today, we won't have to spend billions to clean up in 20 years, when it becomes evident that accepting fracking waste was a big mistake.

Fracking's residual waste is no different than nuclear waste in that no one knows what can safely be done with it. Until there is something safe and definitive, why would the county dive head first into this retention pond of toxic sludge?

Anything to support fracking – whether giving up our precious water, selling our land for drilling, or accepting frack waste – is just wrong. Hydrofracked gas is not the clean bridge fuel to the future. It is a fracking mess of a bridge back to the past of burning fossil fuel that caused global warming.

The county should make this deal with the fracking industry: They keep their toxic waste out of Monroe County and we'll keep our precious water resources right here.

STEVEN NICHOLS

Posted on rochestercitynewspaper.com

Red-state dreams

The Republican right seems bent on taking us back in time, but exactly where do these intrepid time-travelers intend for us to land? In what era, what century?

They oppose the separation of church and state. They want to accelerate the concentration of America's wealth in the hands of the few. Through the elimination of the estate tax, they must aim to establish in America a permanent aristocracy of inherited wealth and privilege. They oppose the separation of powers, behaving as if the Supreme Court were an arm of the Republican administration the Court helped to install in 2000. And they want the electoral process in this country to become a sham, determined not by openly debated ideas but by mountains of cash.

They want to return us to a time before John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington. They aim to turn back the clock to a time before our Revolution in order to honor our original "founding father," King George III. I think I know why we use the term "red states": Could these be areas of clandestine support for the redcoats?

JONATHAN BALDO, ROCHESTER