Located between the GeneseeRiver and the Erie Canal, the 19th Ward is the most diverse neighborhood in Rochester. Residents say that’s a choice, not an accident. The mission of the neighborhood, according to the 19th Ward Community Association’s website, is “to create a conscious multi-racial community where individual and cultural differences are not only tolerated, […]
Sujata Gupta
Posted inNews & Opinion
Home grown
JoEllen Martino, the GenevaCentralSchool District’s food-service director, isn’t picky about the size of her broccoli — or apples, pears, or tomatoes, for that matter. “I just got what was left over, which was fine by me because we didn’t care what size it was,” says Martino, referring to a school lunch order she made earlier […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Hiking: Happy trails
Three local hikes with the promise of fabulous
fall foliage
Posted inNews & Opinion
River views
The temperature inside the meeting hall has risen by several degrees. At least that’s what it feels like at the public hearing when the question-and-answer period — which becomes more interrogation than questioning — begins. “I just wish you would back off on some of the building development,” says one Charlotte resident. “You negate or […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Partying (and developing) in the Wedge
“We funk-tified it,” says Lyjha Wilton. He’s referring to Boulder Coffee Co. on the South Clinton-Alexander Street intersection. Granted Wilton’s a little biased. He is, after all, the coffee shop’s owner. But the interior is undeniably funky. The walls meet at odd angles; the décor is a mix of antique mirrors, orange-beaded lamps, and overstuffed […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
North Clinton rising
North Clinton Avenue,
says Algarin, is like a bride, “a bride waiting for her groom.” The groom, he
says, is La Marqueta.
Posted inNews & Opinion
Firefighter shortfall: diversity versus civil service
There are 515 firefighters in Rochester. Thirty are black, 31 are Latino, and 7 are women. That means 447 of Rochester’s firefighters— about 90 percent — are white men. And that, says Ernest Flagler, needs to change. “Most of the time when we come off that truck, we see people that look like us,” says […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Gearing up for lead law
Like it or not, the city’s lead law will take effect July 1. The legislation, which passed six months ago, requires all city rental housing built before 1978 to be tested for lead hazards, such as deteriorated paint and airborne lead particles. “Childhood lead poisoning is one of the most common and preventable pediatric health […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Emptied out
Eleven percent of Rochester’s houses are vacant. The reason: the city’s housing
stock was built for 300,000 people; Rochester’s population is now less than 220,000.
Posted inNews & Opinion
Emptied out
There are almost 100,000 housing units in Rochester. Nearly 11 percent of them are vacant. It’s simple economics, says Julio Vazquez, the city’s commissioner of community development. Rochester was built to house more than 300,000 people. It now has fewer than 220,000. The Rochester area’s population has swelled outward — and the inside has shrunk. […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
On North Clinton: an innocent’s masterpiece
Like a Russian doll, Anthony J. Bovenza’s replica of St. Michael’s Church sits within that church on North Clinton Avenue. It is a meticulous model, including everything from stained glass windows constructed out of cellophane to tiny bells inside the church steeple. Seated in a coffee shop in Chili, Bovenza’s niece, Kathleen Acton, wipes tears […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
A curfew? What kind?
Could a curfew reduce Rochester’s homicide rate, especially among youth? It depends on how it’s implemented, says Rochester Institute of Technology criminal justice professor John Klofas. It probably won’t work, he says, if violators are cuffed and jailed. But, he says, if the city can create a comprehensive social-service-oriented program, a curfew can become a […]
