The tug of war over health care drags on and on in Washington, and some days it’s high comedy. Nobody knew health care could be so complicated. But in truth, a lot about health care is complicated. We’re living longer. Hooray for that, but longevity on a mass scale carries costs: for everything from joint […]
Mary Anna Towler
Mary Anna Towler is a transplant from the Southern Appalachians and is editor, co-publisher, and co-founder of City. She is happy to have converted a shy but opinionated childhood into an adult job. She credits a grandfather for instilling in her a love of politics. And she makes no apology for her liberal views.
Posted inNews & Opinion
Campaign focus will include Parcel 5
When retailing was at its peak in downtown Rochester, much of Midtown Plaza occupied what is known as Parcel 5. Right now, though, Parcel 5 – arguably downtown’s most important development site – is a vast vacant lot, hosting occasional outdoor events and waiting for the future. And that future has become the focus of […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
It’s time to build support for a regional school
This time every year, many of us get a big emotional lift from the Jazz Festival. And for me, it’s not just the music. It’s all those people. Downtown. The Jazz Festival, Fringe, and other big attractions aren’t the only signs of a stronger downtown. Enough people are moving into the new developments that we’re […]
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Trump plan hurts cities’ health, too
News from Washington this week is dominated by the Republicans’ health-care bill and the impact it would have, particularly on poor and low-income Americans. That’s not the only threat, however. Still to come: the federal budget. Many of the cuts proposed by President Donald Trump are aimed straight at the least affluent Americans and their […]
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Police and community: The path to real reform
Police-community relations in Rochester have been under stress for decades. And that stress probably increased a notch this past weekend, when a Rochester police officer was shot while he was responding to an unrelated 911 call. The shooting is a tragedy, and it underscores the depth of the violence plaguing some neighborhoods in this city. […]
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Police-review leaders want change
Leaders of the Center for Dispute Settlement, which operates Rochester’s current police oversight process, say they would support having a neutral, trained, outside investigator or agency handle investigations of civilian complaints against police involving shootings or personal injuries.
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Schools can’t do it all – no matter what we think
“What we know,” Pedro Noguera told an audience of teachers, parents, and community members at East High School recently, “is that when poverty is concentrated, schools almost always fail.” Almost always fail. Almost every one of Rochester’s public schools has a high-poverty student population. And most of the students in most of those schools are […]
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The UR’s bold commitment to a city high school
So much depressing news is coming out of Washington that it was a relief to attend an event last week and leave with a bit of optimism about a local problem. The source of the optimism was a talk by UCLA Professor Pedro Noguera at East High School. Noguera’s topic – America’s failure to invest […]
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Sheppard outlines his platform
At a press conference this morning promoting his campaign for Rochester mayor, County Legislator Jim Sheppard released an extensive platform that focuses on a broad range of challenges facing the city. Sheppard will face incumbent Lovely Warren and former television reporter Rachel Barnhart in a September primary. Among Sheppard’s proposed initiatives: In economic development: Sheppard […]
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Warren pushes traffic-violations agency for city
Mayor Lovely Warren wants the city to have its own traffic-violations agency and she is asking City Council to support state legislation authorizing the agency. Council will discuss her request at a special public meeting at 12:30 p.m. tomorrow in City Council Chambers at City Hall. Currently, if motorists are charged with a traffic violation […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The ‘unbelievable’ saga of President Trump
This feels worse than Nixon. The Watergate scandal was riveting, sure. And if we’d known then what we know now about Nixon’s emotional instability, we’d have been more troubled than we were. Watergate did involve a president who lied – about a burglary – and tried to obstruct justice, but that was nothing like this. […]
