Feedback 8/16

[
      {
        "name": "500x250 Ad",
        "insertPoint": "5",
        "component": "15667920",
        "parentWrapperClass": "",
        "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
      }
    ]

We welcome your comments. Send them to [email protected], or post them on our website, rochestercitynewspaper.com, our Facebook page, or our Twitter feed, @roccitynews. For our print edition, we select comments from all three sources; those 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.

Developing Parcel 5

There is a finite number of people who attend arts functions in Rochester. Syracuse, Buffalo, Hamilton, and Toronto offer all the same shows as RBTL, so tourism dollars are not likely to go up by much, if at all.

A new venue will cannibalize ticket sales at other local venues at first, out of curiosity. Then RBTL will be back to the numbers it already draws. At that point, subsidies will have to kick in to keep the project – built on a prime piece of downtown real estate – in business.

KATHRYN QUINN THOMAS

A 3,000 seat theater/ 150-unit residential tower/ retail space/ parking garage is a great fit if you're a developer or a construction worker.

This sounds like some kind of fast ferry disaster-in-the-making. Mayor Warren needs to back-burner this project and focus more on helping people in poverty.

MIKE BRUTON

Developing Elmwood Avenue

On the proposal for a large residential and commercial complex on the site of the former Rochester Psychiatric Center on Elmwood Avenue: I don't know that this area needs yet another mixed-used business-residential space. The whole area is being developed to an inch of its life. I would love to see this become some kind of green space or community garden or something the whole community can enjoy.

AMY BOWN

Concerned about traffic? Start focusing on other ways of getting around (bicycles, etc). Set up bike-share stations there. Much better use of space as opposed to focusing on single-occupancy automobiles.

BRIAN MILBURN

The new candidates in this year's election

Rereading your Urban Journal entry, "Finding Hope, Locally," and the proposition that we need to look for and support young candidates, I felt compelled to write about some recent experiences with some of our local millennials.

Being a certain age, I have heard the laments that "kids today" are clueless, unmotivated, or want things handed to them. Some people even blame millennials for the election of President Trump. Then I got involved with the campaign of a City Council candidate, a young woman who was deeply involved in the last presidential election.

I am surrounded by young people. They are smart, involved, and passionate about this city and its relation to the world. Involvement in her campaign has also put me in contact with other young candidates and their teams.

The idea that millennials are disconnected with reality could not be further from the truth. They care deeply about the major issues of the day. They see things in a big-picture way and are innovative in ways that I think we may not understand.

If they are labeled idealistic, so be it. Since when did having ideals become a bad thing? If I'm not mistaken, Eugene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy were labeled "idealistic."

When I see the passion of these young adults, it makes me feel optimistic about our future, and indeed I find hope locally. Just maybe, it's we who should catch up to them.

GARY PUDUP