Kelly Tiberio has fond memories of the childhood years she spent living in Rochester with her grandmother. The 27-year-old freelance writer and editor currently lives in Fairport, where she graduated from high school, but from 1982 to 1988, she lived off Lake Avenue, not far from downtown, in what she describes as a “beautiful, old, […]
Chris Busby
Posted inCulture
The analog kid
It was a simple mechanical failure that made me late for Digital Rochester’s monthly meet, mingle, and monopolize event at Tonic on East Avenue. I’d gone there to research this week’s cover story, “Twenty-somethings to the rescue” (see page 6). Both the Rochester-Area 20-Somethings (R.A.T.S.) and Rochester Young Professionals, a splinter group, were encouraging their […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The great divide: behind the School Board anger
The Rochester School Board entered the new year with one of the deepest — and angriest — divisions in recent history. And while to outsiders the rancor may seem rooted in personality differences and power struggles, the division is more significant than that. All seven School Board members are Democrats, but some of them […]
Posted inCulture
My name is…
Shortly after Thanksgiving, a new bar opened on St. Paul Street, a few doors north of Tapas 177. A week before Christmas, it still had no name. It’s about time we stepped in. The owner, John Rebis, clearly needs help, and not just because his other bar is Paradise Alley. Rebis is trying […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
If we build it, we will pay
For professional sports teams, making a bad deal can lead to a disappointing season or two (witness the Bills’ decision to trade a first-round draft pick next year for the abysmal Drew Bledsoe). But when a municipality makes a bad deal on a sports stadium, the disappointing results can play out for years. That’s […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Breaking up the party
As far as state election officials are concerned, the Green Party no longer exists in New York. Of course, the 30,000-odd New Yorkers enrolled in the party may beg to differ, but state election law is clear: If an officially recognized party’s gubernatorial candidate fails to get at least 50,000 votes, that party loses its […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Thou shalt not kill
Shortly after the September 11 attacks, a few figures in Rochester’s Christian community recognized a void in the local response to the tragedy. As the country cocked its collective fist and prepared to exact bloody revenge on a global scale, several secular organizations in the area had quickly released statements urging restraint. “Some of […]
Posted inCulture
Here comes a regular
“You say tomato, I say f*** you.” [Asterisks added.] Welcome to the Park Bench. I read that little (micro, really) witticism on a bumper sticker stuck beneath one of the TVs above the bar of “The Bench,” as the regulars refer to it. I reprint it here, concerned reader/advertiser/Wegman, because it’s an enlightening example […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
To discriminate or not to discriminate
On December 17, the New York State Senate will reconvene and vote on the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA). If the act passes — which is still far from certain — it will cap a legislative effort to protect gay rights that’s been three-decades in the making. Under the state’s Human Rights Law, it […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Rejoicing in visibility
Artists affected by mental illness mount a high-profile exhibit
Posted inCulture
Houses in motion
Eight years ago, at the age of 18, Richie Salvaggio, a.k.a. DJ Richie Salvaggio, brought a brand new sound to Rochester: funky house. It happened in a building on Main Street his friends intended to turn into a record store (they never did). Salvaggio says it was his friend BK of the Brain Fruit […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Justice for rape victims: it’s just a kit away
They’re called “rape kits,” samples of biological evidence collected in hospitals from victims of sexual assault. After collection, the kits are turned over to law enforcement agencies for DNA analysis, in hopes of identifying the perpetrator. But in recent years, a lack of funds to process the kits has created a massive backlog nationwide. […]
