We helped stop ren square. Now let's develop Rochester into a world-class city.
Harry Davis stands for creating real jobs by building a sustainable Rochester with decent housing and education for all in a secure and safe city.
High speed rail is the biggest economic development for upstate New York in 150 years, since the Erie Canal.
Harry Davis is endorsed by the Green Party of Monroe County & The Working Familes Party
"What's Happening?" Wednesday, August 19, 2009 "A Renaissance is Happening in Rochester but it isn’t Square"
"What's Happening?"
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
"A Renaissance is Happening in Rochester but it isn’t Square"
On Tuesday, I attended the Public Interactive Design Workshop at the Visual Studies Workshop on Prince Street. http://harry2009.com/node/200 for the University Avenue Improvements (Union Street- N. Goodman Street) and ARTWALK II Enhancement Project. www.rochesterARTWalk.org I was greeted by architect Richard Rosen who was departing and told me what a huge success the evening had been.
ARTWalk, "conceived by local Rochester residents is a permanent urban art trail connecting the arts centers and public spaces within the Neighborhood Of The Arts (NOTA). ARTWalk is an interactive outdoor museum, located on University Avenue between the Memorial Art Galey and the George Eastman House. Along ARTWalk you can find various pieces of art, be it visual works, or practical things such as park benches or bus stops which are artfully designed. Art is even imprinted into the sidewalk."
I walked into the meeting a little late as earlier I was at the Upper Monroe Neighborhood Association (UMNA) http://www.uppermonroeavenue.org/ walk with Mayor Duffy. The walk meandered from Monroe Avenue and focused on the large plot of land at the end of Laburnum Crescent that butts up to the 490 expressway. The UMNA has been working to build a large community garden on this plot of land. I was present as Bret Garwood, Director of Development Services for the City of Rochester, informed Bill Schwappacher, President of UMNA, that funds would be made available from the City to build this garden.
In a one-on-one discussion I had with Mr. Garwood as we walked away from Laburnum, we both spoke of our desire to see Rochester develop as a vibrant city, a process that seems to be suddenly happening, rising from the ashes of the now defunct, ren square. Has Mayor Duffy & the neighborhood organizations finally taken back our city from the 10 year ren square grip of Monroe County and its “Executives”? Mr. Garwood & I agreed that cities all over America are becoming homes once again to empty nesters, fueling some 30-40 new developments in Rochester alone, Mr. Garwood told me.
However, when it came to agreeing upon a “vision” for Rochester, as you might expect from someone (me) who was a candidate himself for Mayor of Rochester a mere month ago, (http://harry2009.com/node/155) we disagreed. Mr. Garwood was more about finding the “way” to make things happen, i.e. fund projects already "shovel ready." I said I think we still need to find our vision first, and then try to make that vision a reality.
I mentioned to Mr. Garwood the essay published on August 15 in the Democrat & Chronicle by Roger Brown & Joni Monroe about a vision for Rochester. (Craft new plan for downtown http://harry2009.com/node/213). Mr. Garwood told me he thought the charrette completed last year by the RRDCD (actually it was in 2007) was sufficient for the City to go forward with. He suggested that we need to focus more on getting things built, if I understood his words correctly, more than taking the 2007 vision and building upon that in light of the two new huge developments this year, i.e. the demise of ren square and the advent of a possible new development center focused around a large amount of money supplied from President Obama’s High Speed Rail stimulus money near the Amtrak station.
I told him I thought we must consider what the "Brown/Monroe doctrine” in Saturday’s D&C said:
“Certainly there is cause for optimism when discussing the revitalization of Center City; yet a major ingredient missing for its future growth as a vibrant, sustainable urban core is a vision plan to help coordinate and guide development.”
Well, Tuesday marked another rise from the ashes for me. Recently I had posted in regards to Mayor Duffy’s Monday developers meeting that:
Mayor Duffy's meeting today is "CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC & MEDIA" !
http://harry2009.com/node/215
I asked: “Where is Evan Lowenstein, Bill Reed, Roger Brown, Joni Monroe???”
I said, “why is Roger Brown not invited into this important meeting about the future of which he is such an expert?"
Why is there a new atmosphere? Because on Tuesday evening, at the ARTWalk presentation, I spoke with Roger Brown, one of the presenters. Mr. Brown told me “We will get an audience soon with the Mayor for this vision.” Why is Roger Brown so optimistic? Because, amazingly, he DID manage to get into Mayor Duffy's Monday meeting with the developers! And Mr. Brown also said that in that meeting, he saw "signs of vision" being presented! I do not know exactly what these presentations were but if they were good enough for Roger Brown to be optimistic about downtown development, then that is good enough for me.
Maybe the robo calls in April to Mayor Duffy and my brief stint as Mayor Duffy’s only opponent for the September Primary accomplished the goals we intended?
