Recent Comments
Re: “Housing Authority shakeup gets ugly”
"Back in May, Moses and Page wrote to Warren, complaining of rushed board meetings and that commissioners "were even counseled not to use a lot of the staff's time in meetings." The letter questioned an estimated $8 million in RHA loans to various entities shown in a 2012 audit. They also questioned RHA's commitment to hiring minority and women-owned firms or targeting economic opportunities to low- and very low-income residents, as required by federal regulations — saying the policies should be implemented "without excuses."
This is coming from D&C. So what happens if RHA board is correct and something was a miss? The knee jerk reaction and overt racism on facebook and stuff is just insane and makes this city look like its ungovernable. 65 Million Dollars is alot of money. If they find even a million in fraud and save that do we not realize how many more affordable housing units can be created with that? I hope they do find what ails our housing stock at RHA and get it back to the intended purpose to provide low cost affordable housing. McFadden and the other stuff is childs play compared to the elephant in the room. Were the fourth poorest city in the country. Whats our plan to fix it.
Re: “For Parcel 5: a theater topped by apartments”
This is a disaster. I want a performing arts center that's affordable and can be supported by a subscription base and sponsorship. I have spent a good part of my life being an artist as well as supporting the arts. The RBTL is an amazing organization and provides great resources to the community as well a youth enrichment camp. It is well managed for the level of the current theater size and the base of support that it enjoys. It generates 8 Million a year in tickets sales. Its cost to bring in the shows is roughly 6 Million. It clearly does not have sufficient endowment or capital to fund itself even with generous donors like Mr. Gollisano.
To take a public land that we spent over $150 Million to stabilize and clean up from asbestos and gift it tax free to another not for profit is insanity. Rochester currently has ten weeks total in RBTL show out of 52 weeks and these shows are not sold out with the exception of Wicked. To borrow a title from the amazing ballet dancer Gelsey Kirkland "We're dancing on our grave". We have Two Stadiums (Soccer and Baseball), Dome Arena (Privately Owned), Water Street Music Hall, Nazareth Auditorium, Lyric Theater and many more and I can tell you know if they could have 50% capacity in sales they would be delighted but they don't. Thousands and thousands of seats go empty every night in this town I love. Countless nights of darkened theaters need not now include a Temple of Theatrical Egos. It's a lie, it's a sham and it won't work!