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Rochester plans a riverfront renaissance
Trails and bridges and islands and more: City Hall rolls out a bold plan to revitalize the riverfront.
NYCLU report pushes for bail reform
Between 2010 and 2014, 6,673 people spent a week or more in Monroe County jail with bail of $1,000 or less, according to a new report from the New York Civil Liberties Union. More than 1,900 of them spent more than a week in jail on bail of $250 or less, it says. The NYCLU…
Rochester students will join walk-out today
Rochester-area students will be joining millions of students from across the nation Wednesday for a school walkout honoring the victims of the Parkland shooting. Wednesday is the one-month anniversary of the shooting, and most of the participating students will walk out of their schools at 10 a.m. and stay outside for 17 minutes to commemorate…
The F Word: Sixty Minute Man
Wait a minute. Think about it: 50 is only middle age if you live to be 100. And how many of us are going to be that lucky? Time is flyin’, man, and there’s none to waste. As a creative person, there are certain things I want to do and add to my legacy before…
The loss of Trevyan Rowe
In press conferences and interviews this afternoon, Rochester school district and city officials announced stunning new details about the events leading up to the death of 14-year-old Trevyan Rowe.
Parcel 5 plan proceeds; so will the criticism
The RBTL-Morgan proposal may be the best plan imaginable for Parcel 5. But the concerns about it are legitimate, and they’re important.
The Monday report
A quick preview of what’s our writers are working on this week: immigrant farmworkers, a unique Rochester-India cultural exchange, and more.
Classical review: SCMR’s ‘A Couple of Couples’
The Society for Chamber Music in Rochester is always a source of imaginative and engaging programming. Its most recent concert, which took place Sunday afternoon, brought together two musical marriages: violinist Robin Scott of the Ying Quartet and cellist Ahrim Kim (principal cello of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra); and cellist Keiko Ying of Roberts Wesleyan…
Parcel 5 theater’s next act: an economic-benefits study
If you’re tracking news about the proposed theater for Parcel 5, put July 31 as your next check-in date. That’s the deadline for a new study that Mayor Lovely Warren wants done about the impact of the theater. It’s “reasonable to assume” that the project won’t move forward until that study is completed, says Warren…
Judge orders environmental review of canal plan
A state judge has ordered the New York State Canal Corporation to go back and complete a thorough environmental review before it removes any trees from canal banks in Brighton, Pittsford, and Perinton. Acting Supreme Court Justice Daniel Barrett issued his ruling yesterday in a lawsuit brought by the three towns. The governments sued the…
ROC the Riverway’s first public meeting is today
If the City of Rochester’s new ROC the Riverway plan got your interest, you can hear city officials talk about it – and ask them questions – at the public meeting this afternoon, from 4 to 6 p.m. at MCC’s new downtown campus, 321 State Street. Mayor Lovely Warren’s chief of staff, Alex Yudelson, says…
How much is your meal?
The Urban Institute has a new report out analyzing the “low-income meal costs” in counties versus the maximum per-meal SNAP benefit. Its not-so-shocking conclusion is that in 99 percent of US counties, the per-meal benefit is less than the actual cost of a meal. The maximum per-meal SNAP benefit is $1.86, but in Monroe County,…
VIDEO: Is the Wegmans parking lot really that bad?
People have hated the East Avenue Wegmans parking lot since it was constructed. Navigating it by car can be a nightmare., and to people on foot, it can feel dangerous. Making matters worse, apparently, was that some people were using it as a short-cut between University and East Ave. So now Wegmans has installed barriers…
DOOM METAL | Conan
Although it may seem blasphemous to doom metal purists, the Liverpool-based “caveman battle doom” trio Conan has graduated beyond the Power of the Riff. What its records offer instead is a fascinating question: What if the feedback — the almost Zen-like, monolithic slabs of noise and atmosphere that carry the riff from point A to…
POP | Carole’s Kings
Carole’s Kings is the first all-male tribute to Carole King. Consisting of three talented singers and a backing band, Carole’s Kings adds a twist to King’s music by rearranging it for a live theatrical performance, with added choreography and witty exchanges between the singers and audience members. The show covers King’s hits, like “The Locomotion,”…
GARAGE ROCK | Jan the Actress
Jan the Actress may just be a trio, but its sound is fully immersive. With Eric Witkowski on guitar and vocals, Karrah Teague on vocals, Darren DeWispelaere on drums, and Frank Ashcraft on bass, the trio paints an garage rock picture that becomes somewhat meditative. Jan the Actress’ first demos were released in February 2017,…
BLUES | Miss E
Miss E hits all the hits from a setlist that includes British blues (Stones, Butterfield) down to the rock heavyweights (Cream, Ram Jam) who call the blues “dad.” A mere trio, Miss E and The Resonators is a classic bar band in every sense of the word. Miss E plays Friday, March 9, at Dinosaur…
POP | Jonathan Richman
As a Modern Lover, he penned one of my favorite tunes, “Roadrunner.” As a solo artist, he’s cracked me up half a dozen times or so. Jonathan Richman accompanies himself not so much as a songwriter than as an adroit storyteller strapped to a guitar. Throughout the course of a set, he’ll move from obscurities,…
Album review: ‘Hope for the Future’
The Plague “Hope for the Future” Recover Records theplagueofficial.com If there was one word to describe The Plague’s new CD, “Hope For The Future,” it would be “dichotomy.” It’s hard and heavy the first minute; swift and slick the next. And the vocals come in two different shades as well: growling guttural and sung sweet.…
THEATER | ‘Blasted’
British playwright Sarah Kane’s brutal story “Blasted” sees on-again-off-again couple Ian and Cate on holiday in a hotel in Leeds, but their interactions hint at various levels of abuse as Cate creates new opportunities for herself and Ian wallows in cigarettes and booze, misogyny, racism, and homophobia. Outside, the town is overrun with soldiers engaged…
Interview: “The Distance Between Us” author Reyna Grande
Writers & Books last year named “The Distance Between Us,” a novel by award-winning author Reyna Grande, as the selection for its 2018 Rochester Reads program. In her memoir, Grande recounts her harrowing experience as a child living in Mexico in extreme poverty and her journey to the United States as an illegal immigrant. Grande…
ART | ‘Dale Klein: Pull Through’
Printmaker Dale Klein’s work sensitively responds to Western New York’s industrial decline as a microcosm of wider phenomena happening with our planet. Provided info states that she sees entropy as inevitable — as we carry out our destruction, “the planet will carry on, just possibly without the human race.” Klein’s aquatint and etchings form realistic…
Album review: ‘Floating at the Bottom’
Haewa “Floating at the Bottom” Self-released haewamusic.net Sometimes psychedelic music can come on a little strong, where listening to it — and understanding it — winds up being a bit daunting. But Rochester-based psych supergroup Haewa opens up “Floating at the Bottom” with a splendid flourish of listener-friendly color you can practically taste and see.…
Feedback 3/7
We welcome your comments. Send them to themail@rochester-citynews.com, 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…
Hernandez case shows holes in Sanctuary City policy
The detainment of Abigail Hernandez by Immigration and Customs Enforcement has exposed holes in Rochester’s Sanctuary City policy, immigrant rights activists say. Hernandez, 21, was arrested and charged with making a terroristic threat against East High School after she allegedly posted threatening language on the school’s Facebook page on February 15. Hernandez came to the…
Urban Action 3/7
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) ROCLA focuses on Venezuela The Rochester Committee on Latin America will present “What’s the Matter with Venezuela?” on Wednesday, March 7. Alexander Main, senior associate for international policy at the Center for Economic…
Climate activists wary of new energy offering
The state gives local governments a pretty powerful tool for helping their residents and businesses buy renewable energy, and Brighton resident Sue Hughes-Smith has campaigned hard to get local elected officials to use it. But now Smith is worried that a new initiative may undercut those efforts. The state’s mechanism, called community choice aggregation (CCA),…
SPECIAL EVENT | Naughty 90’s Night Burlesque
I don’t know if people are ever going to retire the phrase “party like it’s 1999,” but since it’s been two decades, the 90’s are technically vintage. Which means nostalgic. So bust out your JNCO jeans, crop tops, wallet chains, and flannels, and join Pretty Kitties Burlesque and Bombshell Belly Dance for Naughty 90’s Night…
RECREATION | Star Party
Take just a little jaunt outside of the city and you can shirk the light pollution and see much more of the evening sky. Not sure what you’re looking at? This weekend Cumming Nature Center will host a family-friendly after-hours Star Party event, which will help novice sky-gazers identify stars, constellations, and galaxies. Participants are…
CLASSICAL | ‘A Couple of Couples’
The Society for Chamber Music in Rochester, this Sunday, will present the agreeable company of “A Couple of Couples” — who also happen to be outstanding musicians — in various permutations. The couples are violinist Robin Scott and cellist Ahrim Kim and violist Phillip Ying and cellist Keiko Ying. The performers will play duos by…
Rochester supercharges its riverfront plans
Trails, bridges, parks: The city hopes to capitalize on the presence of the Genesee River in some very creative ways.
Film preview: ‘The Party’
The idea of the dinner party that goes horribly wrong has served as the premise to any number of versatile, genre-spanning narratives over the years. Written and directed by Sally Potter, “The Party” offers little to break the mold of what’s come before, but thanks to a first-rate cast it still manages to be a…
Film review: ‘The Insult’
Directed by Lebanese filmmaker Ziad Doueiri (“The Attack”), “The Insult” is a thorny morality play about life in the Middle East, as a minor altercation between two men ends up in a court case that ignites long-simmering tensions and anger which eventually threatens to tear their country apart. Tony (Adel Karam) is a hot-headed but…
Film preview: ‘A Fantastic Woman’
Fresh off its win for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards this past weekend, “A Fantastic Woman” tells the story of a headstrong young transgender woman named Marina — the fantastic woman of the title — as she faces down a world that seems unwilling to see her that way.
That’s the song
The Demos is truly a well-oiled, melody-driven, music machine. Mixing some Merseybeat with a little nice and poppy rock ‘n’ roll, the band is a sing-a-long personified. After releasing the Mikey James-produced EP “Paramount Clouds” in 2016, The Demos took a little downtime and went through some lineup changes. “Now we’re in full throttle mode,…
Soul food and a side of perseverance at Bobo’s Chicken Shack
When I stopped by Bobo’s Chicken Shack over the weekend, owner Devon “Bobo” Crittenden listed off the details harrying him that particular day: Tax season, employee turnover, a foot of snow and an AWOL plowman, and a squirrel in the exhaust duct (safely dislodged before opening). “That had me contemplating on whether I should open…
Live blog: 2018 Oscars
Join CITY’s film critic, Adam Lubitow, for a live blog during the 2018 Academy Awards broadcast on Sunday, March 4. The red carpet pre-show starts at 7 p.m., and the ceremony begins at approximately 8:30 p.m. A bit earlier in the day, Adam will lead a pre-Oscars discussion at 3 p.m. at the Little Theatre…
