It looks on the surface at least that some of the acrimony typical of City Hall/City Schools relations is being bled out and cooperation is setting in, according to a recent post at City News.  A renewed effort is being made to cut down on truancy by letting each side handle what it is in the best position to handle.

The city is continuing its curfew policy which restricts kids under 18 from being out past 8pm unless working.  The most recent interview with Mayor Duffy in City indicated that the jury was still out on the curfew’s effectiveness, but perhaps that’s changed in the intervening months.  The school district will be beefing up security and, while it’s not specifically stated in the article, there seems to be some effort to reconsider the school’s suspension policy (which is leaving kids out on the streets instead of in a classroom):

CITY HALL: Relationship with school district said to be improving - News & Opinion - Rochester City Newspaper

In the coming year, the city and district will pay particular attention to improving school security and reinforcing the curfew program with a renewed effort at curbing truancy. Malgieri said she is concerned about the number of students who are not in school either through poor attendance, truancy, and suspensions.

“Attendance is only 84 percent,” she said. “That’s 8.4 days out of 10. We need to get that up to at least 93 percent.”

Here’s to hoping this new spirit of cooperation and optimism can continue and do the kids of Rochester some good.  It looks as though part of this goodwill comes from an agreement to reallocate monies normally just given to the school by the city into more cost-effective programs.  I think this is probably Mayor Duffy’s cop experience coming into play, since anyone whose a cop in Rochester must see all the kids out of school and know what a problem it is on so many other levels.

Technorati Tags: Rochester, Education, Duffy, Schools, Crime

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Not that giving up on that much City revenue is such a little thing, necessarily.  But in terms of a person taking the time and trouble to come downtown and attend the special events or shop in local stores (hard as it is to believe that they might do such a thing), a five-dollar deal is one of those little things that count, absolutely:

Democrat & Chronicle: Local News

November 21, 2006 9:11 am ? With numerous holiday activities in Rochester in the coming weeks, Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy has expanded free holiday parking options. The program will begin Friday ? “Black Friday,” the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season ? and will run through Jan. 2.

Good for Mayor Duffy. I almost forgive him for the unforgivable condition of my street.  Almost, but I still want the damned leaf pulp cleaned up.

Now, the big question is: since he’s elected to go for the big giveaway of parking revenues, will he seal the deal with some City-wide advertisement to give people a reason to go downtown other than free parking?  Damned sure Midtown ain’t it anymore. 

This might be one of those occasions when a day-time version of the Sleazy Rider would be a good choice: get people downtown, and then take them all over the city to shop where they want to.  Rides to Park Ave, rides to Monroe Ave (with bullet-proof glass, of course) and to the Art district.  At least with this new version, it would be more seasonal and far less likely to leave drunken visitors stranded on Liberty Pole at 2am.

Technorati Tags: Rochester, Mayor Duffy, Christmas, Economy

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Y’all remember last year?? Mayor Duffy and Tom Golisano playing for the cameras with freakin’ rakes in their hands like they were doing shit, talking about cleaning up Rochester’s streets and showing pride in Rochester?

WTF?? Where did all that go?? There are so many leaves strewn across my street that they’re starting to create piles that are intractable to cars.? It’s all starting to turn brown and liquifying where it sits, the net result of which is the whole of my neighborhood is becoming one great big compost heap ~ of which I’m sure GroovyGreen would approve, but for the fact that its a city street with all the pollution and such. . . .

It’s true, this blog and this website tend to deal with much higher-minded concepts than picking up leaves in city streets.? And indeed, Mayor Duffy has much bigger plans and ideas than such mundane things.? But unless someone is willing to go on pothole patrol, the big issues don’t matter.

Pick up the leaves, already.? Pretty please.

OK, so I mean, things are getting weird in Rochester. . .

The closing of the Yangtze resturant in Henrietta by the Health Department reminds us all that, well, the Health Department allowed it to remain open for quite some time. How did that happen? Sarah and I made the unfortunate descision to dine at the Yangtze last fall because we couldn’t think of anywhere else to go, and once there, could think of all kinds of other places we’d rather be. Like up to our necks in pig shit. We were seated in the food area, which was hot and humid and just seemed to crawl with life we’d as soon avoid, much as I imagine places in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom might have. The place was just nasty, which is unfortunate, because the downtown Yantze when it used to be over on Plymouth. Probably one of those “the son took over,” dillios, but I don’t really know.

And check out what they got busted for:

1. Setting off a bug bomb in the dining room is what caused the fire dept to respond and get the ball rolling
2. They found rat crap in the ceiling and a rat under one of the stoves
3. They found chemicals stored right next to the food
4. They saw food left out in the middle of the summer
5. R-News reported that they also found *sewage* and *waste material* in the same location as the food

It does beg the question: how could they tell what was waste materials and what was raw materials. Still the Health Inspector closed the place down and it will need to be professionally cleaned before it can reopen.

Meanwhile, folks in the Rochester City Hall decided not to piss in the wind anymore, and just accept that people are going to swim at Durand one way or the other. Well, I suppose that perhaps like my opinion of legalized prostitution, this seems to be the only rational choice: give drug tests to hookers and put a lifeguard or two at Durand. You aren’t going to stop people from swimming there, the cops have stopped trying, and you might as well try to make it as safe as possible. I wonder what kind of caveats they’re going to issue in the opening of the park, or what they’re going to do to improve the conditions there apart from lifegaurds. This may well be the first decision Mayor Duffy has made of which I approve.

I’m loving the Rochester Blogosphere, trite a name as that may be.  I personally can thank RochesterTurning.com for introducing me to much of this, because strangely even though the RochesterWriters site is made up of RocWiki folks, I never saw thier blog in the blog section.  Our ever-increasing corner of the web is getting more and more angry about the whole canal restoration thing:

rochesterturning.com: turning the tide upstate

In ?A man, A plan, A canal, Panama?, FarMcKon piles on with DragonFlyEye and others irritated about the latest city megaproject/boondoggle. Jason O rightfully laments the lack of sensible media coverage in the comments ?What about non-financial things that make sense?? My point exactly. If it costs $10-13 million, for what appears at first glance to be window-dressing and landscaping, it probably ain?t sustainable.

I for one am admittedly of a mind that says that I smell the distinct odor of a rodent in all of this.  Lament the lack of non-money related articles if you prefer, but I’m lamenting the lack of money-trail articles.  Perhaps we might take a closer look at Duffy’s election campaign finance, that we might better understand the Ferry Port deal and the Canal thing.  Where the hell did they come from, anyway?

Don’t get me wrong: I like Duffy, and hate to think that there’s something untoward going on here.  But at the same time, you have to wonder at the seemingly random expenditure of money.

Technorati Tags: Rochester, Mayor Duffy, DuffyWatch

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OK, read below and tell me if it passes the smell test for you:

13WHAM-TV || Rochester - Ferry Deal Not Finished

?When the ferry board dissolves, that agreement under normal circumstances would not exist. But we are taking a very different tact,? said Duffy. The city now has a guaranteed harbor in Toronto. Duffy says he wants to maintain a relationship with the port authorities that could someday allow for another ferry service.

Let me share my ruminations on this issue with you:

1. If we could not make the Fast Ferry work, what exactly makes him think someone else could have?  I thought they carefully weighed the evidence and found there to be no workable, profitable solution. .
2. If we could have made it work, why the hell are we selling the boat?
3. Would not a plan for a private interest to take over the operation of ferry service be greatly enhanced by having the goddamned boat? 
4. Would not the absence of a boat greatly impede such an effort?
5. Of what use would a dock, specially built for one type of ferry, be in any future ferry service?
6. Most importantly: who gets paid that $600.00 a day, and how well does he know Mayor Duffy?

Hate to be the guy to bring up the big “corruption” word, but I mean, really!  This is just crazy or something.  Of course it is possible that Mayor Duffy just doesn’t want to piss off Toronto, and who could blame him if that is the case?  But if that is indeed his motivation, I would think he would find a way to say that publicly rather than look like a bafoon or a grifter.

Technorati Tags: Rochester, Fast Ferry, Mayor Duffy

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Those who have been reading my site know that I have been active in advocating for the Clean Money, Clean Elections system of public campaign financing for a long time. The reason is simple: much though we like to believe we live in a democracy, when candidates without enough money get eliminated before we get to vote on them, the sad truth is that we live in a plutocracy.

Naturally I believe that a publicly funded campaign is the preferrable method of democracy. However, regardless of whether or not that does indeed come to pass, there can be no question that lowering the cost of elections is also a major goal for those who value democracy. One area where innovative new solutions may provide cost savings for grassroots candidates is in what is being called People-Powered Polling.

My new-found compatriot site, RochesterTurning.com, has the scoop from Daily Kos:

Developing open-source, Amish barn-raising polling is a huge part of that as well. It lowers barriers to local candidates, gets more people involved in the process, and ultimately helps everyone.

I?ve signed up for the project, and will post updates on how it?s going and how it?s worked for our local candidates who?ve tried it. If you have any interest in helping, you can sign up with them too.

» Continue Reading…

I’ve been late hitting this story, but ready or not, here I come. Anyone ready to buy back the Fast Ferry? I sure am:

Debate about what to do with the tunnel ? fill it with dirt, fill it with water, put in a light rail train ? continues. But city officials, mindful of the South Avenue garage ramp collapse, now want to move aggressively to fix structural weaknesses in the northern portion of the tunnel.

They also want to ensure that millions in federal funding earmarked for filling in the tunnel ? a project put on hold last year ? gets used before it’s reallocated.

And what could possibly go wrong with a plan to destroy part of Broad Street and then fill it with water? You know, the Fast Ferry was pinned from the get-go as Mayor Johnson’s get-rich-quick land development deal, but this takes the cake: they won’t even have to develop the land.

Think about it: they want to spend $300,000.00 of our money to do “research” on what to do with the former canal which has sat unused for the last fifty years. Hell! I can think deeply for half that much money, why didn’t they just ask? They also want to spend an additional 3 million to fix up the Democrat and Chronical building, and 9.8 million to create a tree-lined boulevard in the northern section of the canal.

But here’s the best part: thier proposition aims to fill a tube of land, currently filled with over 100 years of pollution, chemicals, human and animal waste, diapers and hypodermic needles, and fill it with water. . . which will flow where, exactly? You don’t have to be any great city planner to know that this zeppelin ain’t flyin’ in New York State. Never the slightest chance in hell that it would happen, but someone’s going to walk away with $300,000 in taxpayer dollars for having told the city what I just told you and they already knew. Meanwhile, the D&C gets a $3 million facelift, and someone else gets $1000.00 a month rental properties in a neighborhood that used to fetch less than $300.00.

And oh, by the way: don’t we use Broad St for something? Oh, that’s right. We drive on it. In fact, it goes right through the heart of downtown, which has slunk from the gap-toothed smile that is Main St further south to Broad and Exchange. We’ll probably be needing that road back sometime soon.

What a freakin’ scam.

Tagged With: Economy, Journalism, Mayoral, Rochester May 7, 2006, 8:48 am I Agree With George Bush. . .

I at least do not disagree, in that I cannot think of a single event in the term of this presidency that I would categorize as the “best moment.”  At 33% approval, I am thinking many in the public are inclined to agree:

Bush’s best moment in office? Reeling in big perch | Top News | Reuters.co.uk

“You know, I’ve experienced many great moments and it’s hard to name the best,” Bush told weekly Bild am Sonntag when asked about his high point since becoming president in January 2001.

“I would say the best moment of all was when I caught a 7.5 pound (3.402 kilos) perch in my lake,” he told the newspaper in an interview published on Sunday.

Technorati Tags: bush, perch, fishing, stupid

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Tagged With: Congress, Mayoral, President, Sarcasm May 4, 2006, 8:26 am The Fast Ferry Era Finally at a Close

Well, whatever you think of the Fast Ferry, its potential or its failings, we can all be glad that at least the controversy is over.  The Fast Ferry is going to Britan, and that’s the end of it.  Sort of.  There is still the matter of the lingering debt to the tune of 20 million dollars.  That will be around for a while:

Democrat & Chronicle: Local News

Thomas Richards, the city’s corporation counsel who negotiated the sale, said the remaining debt of slightly less than $20 million will become a taxpayer obligation. “This is a fixed number now,” he said. “It may be painful, but we can plan for it and manage it.”

I must admit that I am still a bit depressed and angry about the whole affair. Mismanagement, lack of vision and pessimism ruled the process, culminating in the ultimate termination of the whole project and a $20 million debt for absolutely nothing whatsoever. Well, nothing except a bunch of pissed-off Canucks stuck with a brand new terminal for a ferry which does not exist.

The next time I go to Toronto, I’m telling them I’m from Fargo.

Tagged With: Culture, Economy, Mayoral, Rochester Next Page »