Johnson on Renaissance: city was excluded

Typically,
when a multi-million dollar development project in the heart of a city is
announced, the mayor of that city knows all about the project before the news
hits the papers.

            But that wasn’t the case last week
when Governor George Pataki pledged his support for a Renaissance Center —
combining an arts center, transit center, and college technical center — in
downtown Rochester.

            Rochester Mayor Bill Johnson says
the city played no role in the discussions that led to Pataki’s announcement.
That has clearly aggravated him. Bill Nojay, departing chairman of the
Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority and, until recently, the
public face of the transit center, says nobody should have been surprised about
the Renaissance Center news. During her campaign, Nojay noted, County Executive
Maggie Brooks talked about wanting to combine the transit, arts, and college
projects.

            But Johnson says Brooks had not
indicated that a full-blown plan was in the works, without extensive city
participation.

            Johnson was also aggravated by an
article in the January 9 Democrat and Chronicle,
which outlined the “birth” of the Renaissance project. Nojay was the principal
source for the article. While Johnson has endorsed the transit center, he has
expressed concern about the process that created it — which Nojay
spearheaded.

            In an interview last weekend,
Johnson discussed his concerns about the Renaissance Center and the process
that led to Pataki’s announcement.

City:For several years, the city has been
focusing on ways to inject life into Main Street, particularly the stretch near
Clinton Avenue. How does this new project — the Renaissance Center — mesh
with the work the city has already started along Main Street?

            Johnson:
Let me start by saying there’s been no participation by the city on this
project. I’ve had some preliminary meetings with [County Executive] Maggie
[Brooks] on the idea of doing a Performing Arts Center downtown. And I told her
to get together with the people who had worked on this through the years, like
[Deputy County Executive] Dick Mackey and [Deputy Mayor] Jeff Carlson and
members of the RUMP Group to review our studies from the past several years.

            Then, on my way to Albany on
Wednesday [January 7], I got a call from [State Senator] Joe Robach. He told me
the governor will mention this Renaissance Center project in his state of the
state, and that they’re holding a press conference afterward.

            I ran into Maggie in Albany. She did
not mention the press conference. It was clear then that this was not an open
process. [State Assemblymembers] David Gantt and Joe Morelle were agitated that
they were just hearing about the project that day.

            Local media contacted me after the
speech. I said it was great the governor mentioned the project. But it was only
one sentence, one promise in a long list of promises. How much is really going
to happen? Over the years, I’ve learned to take everything I hear in Albany
with a grain of salt.

            I ran into Maggie after the press
conference. She apologized for not telling me about it. I told her it was OK,
that the press got my comments.

            Then I saw that they had pictures at
the press conference. They had numbers. There’s no way [architect] Bud DeWolff
drew those pictures that day.

            Maggie has told me repeatedly that
she does not want to operate the way Doyle did, that she wants to lay aside the
political stuff.

            I met with Maggie after all this and
told her that this has the smell of the transit center. The plans were drawn in
secret. And they put me at an adversarial position.

            All land-use decisions are reserved
for the local authority. A city lobbyist had been told that they [the
Renaissance proponents] have been working on the plan for 60 days. Now, that
preceded the election. After the election they had plenty of time to pick up
the phone.

            I’m not trying to fight old battles.
This project will have a beneficial effect. I agree with it in principle. It’s
my role to be a guardian in trying to advance downtown. I’m not offended by the
Renaissance Center concept. But I’m not dancing in the streets. It’s too
expensive, and the funding has not been secured.

            Then there’s this Nojay article.
He’s in the D&C acting like he
started this project. Nojay knows what he’s doing. He’s crafty. But the
Republicans have to clean up their act. They cannot have their county executive
going around doing all the right symbolic things while the rest are running
around with this “gotcha” mentality, because they can’t deliver the money by
themselves.

            This project depends on federal
money, on a new earmark in the federal transportation bill. It requires support
from both senators. And [Congressperson] Louise [Slaughter] hasn’t changed her
objections. Average citizens have every right to be upset about the way the
transit center process has been handled. And this seems to be headed down the
very same path.

            They’ve got to change the way
they’re doing business. This is Maggie’s first real test. And I think it’s come
a lot sooner than she expected. But she’s raised the bar really high for
herself, in terms of changing the way her office acts in these situations. She
has to lay down the law here. There has to be a commitment not to be as closed
and as opposed to seeking full public input. The county executive has to spend
time reviewing the process to make sure it will be much more open.

            People want peace. But I won’t be
used. There are real processes that have to be followed. There are homerule
laws in New York State that say the mayor and city council have the final say
over projects happening within the city.

            There’s no way the county would just
go into some suburban town and embark on a major project without first talking
to the town supervisor. But they believe they can do that to us. And that
attitude has to be challenged.

            Right now, I’m willing to give
Maggie the benefit of the doubt. But at some point this is going to become very
difficult to accept.

City:What did you think of Nojay’s
statement in the D&C that they chose the “Renaissance” name to help win
over your support?

            Johnson:Nojay’s done a lot of dumb things in his life, but that has
got to be the dumbest. Before this announcement, everyone has been focused on
the transit center project. And I’ve got no real details about that yet. And
now this shifts the emphasis from the transit-center piece. It allows Nojay to
bury the transit center cost in the overall project cost. And the public
shouldn’t fall for that. The public is always concerned that its tax money is
being wasted. And this is tax money! Is this the best way to use the public’s
money? Can we raise enough private funds to match?

            In past experience, several major
facilities — the Convention Center, the War Memorial — were erected because
it was believed that they would generate enough economic activity to be
self-sustaining. But none of them are. Will this new complex require huge
amounts of public subsidy?

            People want to see change in
downtown. But is this based on sound planning? If the Renaissance Center is in
the heart of downtown, the city has to make a decision to increase the police
patrols there. There will be parking issues. These questions ought to be asked
now. We shouldn’t be seduced by a flashy picture. We have to temper our
enthusiasm, get everyone together, and answer all the necessary questions.

This article appears in Jan 14-20, 2004.