Sounds of the swamp
Terry Lindsey loves all styles of
music, but he has a particular fondness for Cajun and zydeco,
the ebullient sounds of southern Louisiana.
“It’s good-time music,” he says.
“It’s rootsy. It’s music to dance to, not just sit
and stare at. You drink a beer, get out on the floor
to dance, then drink another beer.”
That devotion led Lindsey to become
an organizer in the Rochester Cajun Zydeco Network, a
group of local devotees whose goal is, in Lindsey’s words, “to bring zydeco to town.”
RCZN was launched more than four
years ago, spearheaded by Bruce Handelman, whom
Lindsey calls the group’s “guiding light” and who has since turned over much of
the leadership duties to Lindsey and others. At this point, the network
organizes eight to 10 zydeco shows a year, spread out
from September to June.
One of RCZN’s
biggest efforts was a concert by zydeco superstar CJ Chenier at New Orleans Louisiana Barbecue. Most of the
group’s concerts, however, are held at the Harmony House in Webster, a venue
Lindsey says is perfect and cozy for the audience, usually around 100 to 150
people.
In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and
Rita, RCZN has also launched efforts to raise funds for affected
residents in Louisiana in general
and Cajun musicians in particular.
“So many of us have connections to New
Orleans and Louisiana
and love this music that we decided to raise some money,” Lindsey says.
In September, RCZN hosted Louisiana
musician Leroy Thomas for the group’s first fundraiser for the Red Cross. A
month later, the network opened the doors of Harmony House for a three-band
show that raised more than $600 specifically for Louisiana
musicians through Project HEAL (Helping Employ Artists Locally). The group’s
raised about $1300 total so far.
Lindsey says RCZN continues to plan
future zydeco shows. In the meantime, he and others
will continue to bring the sounds of the Cajun swamps — in his words, “a
gumbo of Louisiana music” — to
the people.
For more information on the Rochester
Cajun Zydeco Network, call Lindsey at 271-7607 or go
to www.RochesterZydeco.com.
— Ryan Whirty
They just said ‘no’
In September, the Rochester
school district began sending letters to parents of its high-school students,
telling them they could refuse to let their child’s name and personal data be
given to military recruiters. The
letters accompanied the district’s “emergency contact” forms, which parents were
asked to complete and return.
The results have been coming in, and they don’t bode well
for recruiters. The district has received more than 1,800 letters, and only 138
permit the district to give the military the information.
“It’s possible that these students were already thinking of
entering the service,” says School Board member Willa Powell. “And that’s the
point, to give parents and students the option of hearing from the recruiters
that they want to hear from.”
The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to
give military recruiters information about students such as phone numbers,
addresses, and academic records, unless parents object. Failure to do so could
result in the loss of federal funding. The challenge for school districts has been
finding the best way to inform parents about their privacy rights while not
jeopardizing their funding.
“Our form specifically references college recruiters,
potential employers, and military
recruiters,” says Powell. “The military is not being singled out. This is
private and personal information, and we want parents to tell us who should be
getting it.”
Compared to the large number of “no’s” for military
recruiters, school-district spokesperson Barbara Jarzyniecki
says only two parents said they didn’t want information shared with college and
employment recruiters.
Powell, who helped draft the school district’s new policy,
says she understands how important students’ information is to the military.
“They really do need it in order to meet their recruitment goals, especially
today, given the situation in Iraq,”
she says.
Powell says she doesn’t believe the district’s new policy
will cause problems with the Pentagon. The Fairport school district has a
similar policy, which has been approved by the Pentagon.
Lead law ready for vote
When the current City Council meets for its last time, on
December 20, it will vote on one of the most controversial pieces of
legislation it has handled this year: a lead-abatement law.
Under the law, apartments built before 1978 that have deteriorated paint indoors or outdoors
will be cited for violations. To get a new Certificate of Occupancy — which
they must have in order to rent their apartments — landlords will have to
correct the problem and pass another inspection.
City law already requires rental units to be inspected every
five years for a new C of O; the new law adds lead-based paint to the list of
possible violations for pre-1978 units. That means that by the end of five
years, all of those units will have been inspected. In addition, the proposed
law targets inspections in the 39 inner-city census tracts where lead-poisoning
has been the highest. In those areas, city officials expect that all rental
properties will have been inspected within three years.
A coalition of property owners has been fighting the
legislation, saying it will be too costly for many landlords to pay for
remediation. The city’s Environmental Impact Statement said that the rental
market can absorb the costs, but City Council staff have
disagreed, saying that some landlords may find remediation too expensive and
may abandon their property.
The legislation also asks the County Health Department and
the Coalition to Prevent Lead Poisoning to create — and fund — a
public-information campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of lead
poisoning. And it calls for a voluntary program for owner-occupied housing.
Some proponents wanted the law to apply to all pre-1978 housing, but the EIS
projected that that would cause extensive abandonment of owner-occupied housing
in nine neighborhoods.
The December 20 Council meeting begins at 8 p.m., with a “speak to Council” period starting at 7.
Bricks and mortar will not stay
It was a call to arms for the
preservation of the region’s historic architecture: this past summer, one side
of the parapet on the 100-year-old Bevier
Building (42 South Washington Street)
came crashing down. The building, designed by architect Claude Bragdon, is
noticeable for its colorful tilework above the windows, a hallmark of Bragdon’s
style.
Peter Siegrist, director of
preservation services at the Landmark Society, says that while the BevierBuilding is always on the Society’s
list of buildings that need attention, the parapet was a decorative element
that most likely came down from years of snow and rain pitching onto it.
“The parapet is what we called
‘eccentric’ to the walls,” says Siegrist. Highly detailed, he says, it will be
challenging to replace.
“It took off an attractive, large
element,” Siegrist says.
But Siegrist says he and the Landmark
Society feel that the building is in good hands with Buckingham Properties,
which has owned the building for the past year.
Buckingham CEO Larry Glazer says the
company is looking at different options for repairing the parapet. Structurally,
the building — which sits “completely idle” now, he says — is sound, but it
will need cosmetic work, whether it’s used for commercial or residential space.
Fest praise
City Council documents rarely rise to the level of art. Until now.
With less than a month remaining in office, Mayor Bill
Johnson has his baby to save: next summer’s Rochester MusicFest, the 12th annual.
Johnson created the festival during his second year in office, and it’s been a
trademark of his administration ever since. It’s not nicknamed the “Mayor’s
Music Fest” for nothing.
If City Council approves his request, Johnson will have his
festival for at least one more year. He’s asking Council to hire Lead Dog
Marketing to run the event again, and he wants Council to allocate $590,000 out
of this fiscal year’s budget and another $60,000 from the 2006-07 budget. He also wants Council to approve $180,000 in funding
from the MusicFest trust fund.
The 2006 MusicFest may be a
shoo-in, but it’s anybody’s guess what Mayor-elect Bob Duffy will do about
future festivals. In defense of the event, Johnson fashioned his funding
request as a veritable song of praise, citing its contribution to the region’s
quality of life, its contribution to the local economy, and coverage by such
national media as BET.
In his transmittal letter to City Council, Johnson says the
festival is “an anchor of Rochester’s summer festival season,” “one of the
largest urban festivals in the northeast,” “one of the only events of its kind
in this part of the country that attracts a primarily (90 percent) African
American audience,” “a ‘must attend’ staple for thousands of African American
residents and visitors.”
Council will vote on the request at its last meeting of the
year, on December 20.
Shelter me
Who says art can’t put a roof over
your head?
The outdoor art museum ARTWalk will soon do more than connect
the cultural institutions along University; it will (attempt to) make it fun to
wait for the bus. The call for work is now open for three artist-designed bus
shelters, at 1000 University, in front of Gleason Works; at 822 University, at
the corner of Elton Street;
and at 500 University, in front of the MemorialArtGallery.
The $186,000 budget for the shelters
was cobbled together from a number of sources: the City of Rochester,
RGRTA, State Senator Jim Alesi, the MemorialArtGallery,
Arts and Cultural Council for Greater Rochester, Citibank, and Gleason Works.
Each chosen artist will get up to $44,000 in commission. Some runners-up will
receive honorariums.
The three winning shelters will go up
in 2007, when the approximately 250 people who now wait for the bus each day
along University can wait in style.
More information is available at
www.rochesterARTWalk.org, 234-6670.
This article appears in Dec 14-20, 2005.
