This year’s presidential election will be one of the most important in the nation’s history. Voters will decide whether to re-elect a man whose policies are destroying much of what the nation stands for, are alienating other nations of the world, and are fueling terrorism. Many Americans — perhaps most — continue to support […]
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.
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Why the secrecy?
CountyExecutive Maggie Brooks: Can she fulfill her campaign promises? File photo You can feel it in the air: Even people who supported Bill Johnson for county executive are embracing Maggie Brooks. They like her warmth. They like her promise of cooperation. I like them, too. And I’m fighting my cynicism. I’d like to believe […]
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The good budget
In a remarkable display of sobriety and honesty, the Republicans in the County Legislature have passed a budget — the first rational one in years. “Rational” may be too generous a word: It’s absurd to cut funding for school nurses but continue to provide police services for wealthy towns that could well afford to […]
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Lessons from the Johnson loss
A few weeks before the election, I was talking to a prominent Democrat about the county-executive race. The Democrat was supporting Johnson but didn’t think he was his party’s strongest candidate. Johnson’s biggest handicap, said this Democrat, was the city. The Republicans, he said, would hang the city’s problems — crime, schools — around […]
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Are you mad yet?
It’s hard to analyze Jack Doyle’s 2004 budget proposal thoroughly. But having spent a good bit of last week reading it, I’ve reached some conclusions, having nothing to do with whether we ought to up the sales tax to pull ourselves out of the hole we’re in. One conclusion is that at the end […]
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Bill Johnson
William A. Johnson Jr. was elected 64th mayor of the City of Rochester in November 1993. He was re-elected without opposition in November 1997 and won a third term in November 2001. Under Johnson’s leadership, the City of Rochester has initiated a variety of innovative programs, including the Neighbors Building Neighborhoods Program (considered a […]
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Maggie Brooks
Maggie Brooks was appointed county clerk by Governor George Pataki in April 1997. She won a full four-year term later that year and was reelected in 2001. As county clerk, Brooks oversees a $54 million a year operation that includes the county’s downtown lands records office, which handles legal recordings and filings, along with […]
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The great race: Maggie Brooks vs. Bill Johnson
Read more about “The great race” in the News Articles section here This year’s campaign for county executive is a crucial one. Monroe County is faced with major budget problems, a weak economy, loss of manufacturing jobs, small population growth, and a decline in the population of young adults. Because current County Executive Jack […]
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Outrage at the outrageous in our little town
Our president continued to thumb his nose at the world, his attorney general continued to flex his muscles, and Kodak unleashed another round of bad news. But the really big story in Rochester this past week was Bob Lonsberry. Being outrageous is nothing new for Lonsberry. He and WHAM, which has been airing his […]
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Going bust
Monroe County is in deep trouble — Marianus Trench deep. Staggering deficits, crushing taxes, youth flight, jobs vacuum, partisan bickering, and a stagnant economy spell a bleak future unless we start turning things around, and quick. How bad is bad? Business leader Tom Richards goes so far as to say that the city of […]
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Facing the crisis
Picture Monroe County with its public parks abandoned, trails and shelters in disrepair, Highland’s lilacs and conservatory a shambles, Ontario Beach permanently closed. Some arts organizations and museums shuttered and others dramatically reducing their offerings. The zoo shut down, the airport in disrepair, roads full of potholes. Residents and businesses fleeing a city that […]
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Is nothing sacred?
Friday’s Wall Street Journal reported a new low in corporate advertising, and in the desperation of cash-strapped institutions: A 140-foot-long billboard now dominates the front of Grace Church on Broadway in New York City. The church sold advertising rights on the billboard to Citibank (and, before it, to Infinity) to help pay for some […]
