When “Phil” responded to a temporary employment agency’s newspaper ad for special-education paraprofessionals in the Rochester City School District, he didn’t know what he was getting himself into. But Phil — who requested anonymity for fear he’d lose his temp job should he criticize the district — says he had a genuine desire to […]
Chris Busby
Posted inNews & Opinion
Big debt downtown
Economic development can be a gamble between public officials and private real-estate developers. When the gamble pays off, everybody wins. The developer attracts tenants to a property, such as businesses that create jobs, pay taxes, and improve the general economic climate in the area. The developer makes a profit. And the public entity that […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Great moments in Rochester’s future: 2003-2013
A City Newspaper special project about public stuff you should care about Folks, in times like these, it’s easy to get down about the state of our fair area. The economic picture looks bleak at present, and if you peer far enough into the future, it begins to resemble Picasso’s “Guernica.” But despair not! […]
Posted inCulture
I snub you
I purposely avoided MacGregor’s city location (the one on Gregory Street in the South Wedge) for about a month this spring, suspecting the staff there’d been stricken with SARS: Server Apathetic Response Syndrome. This strain of SARS was first identified in China, in a Beijing bar called MacMao’s, where a group of American businessmen […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Consolidating logic
The next exec: The second in an occasional series of articles addressing issues related to the 2003 Monroe County Executive race. Call it political Fear Factor. A year ago, County Executive Jack Doyle convened three public forums to discuss the concept of consolidating local governments and school districts. The forums were inspired by remarks […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The psychological warfare against America
Imagine President Bush appearing on TV to give the following address… “My fellow Americans, our nation is suffering at the hands of a particularly insidious group of domestic terrorists — and by terrorists, I mean people who make our lives miserable by creating fear. This group spends billions of dollars and enlists the help […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Gantt vs. ‘shenanigans’
Democratic State Assemblyman David Gantt has introduced legislation that would redefine the relationship between the city school board and its superintendent, giving the super much more power and authority than the position now has, relative to the board. His bill would also rename the superintendency: The person holding the job would heretofore be known as […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Two men in a room
It’s been tough enough for state lawmakers to agree on their budgets through closed-door negotiations between three men in a room. Now imagine two men arguing in a room and a third sitting in his executive chamber, moistening his veto stamp in anticipation of nixing whatever compromise the two finally come up with. That […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Down the drain
If Monroe County’s finances were your home’s water system, you’d have called a plumber, too. By last summer, it was clear the county’s finances were in the crapper. It was estimated that its 2002 budget would fall between $15 and $23 million in the hole, and the deficit for 2003 was predicted to be […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Secrets and oversights
At first glance, it certainly seems like there could have been something nefarious about the Rochester City School Board’s superintendent search. For one thing, candidates were interviewed in secret and their names were not released, even as the search committee narrowed the pool down to five and, later, two finalists. (The board announced its pick […]
Posted inCulture
Fins
Imagine being an American serviceman on leave in, say, Kuwait. You wander into a local watering hole (bar, that is), that you assume is friendly toward Americans (it’s openly serving alcohol, after all). The locals are respectful, if largely indifferent, to your presence, and you soon settle in, standing at the bar, drinking weak Kuwaiti […]
