When Kenneth Howard’s girlfriend told him she was pregnant and that he was the baby’s father, he didn’t believe it. He was only 15 at the time. “It was so difficult,” he says. “Me and her, all we did was fight. We fought a lot, and I just had a hard time with it at […]
Tim Louis Macaluso
I was born and raised in the Rochester area, but I lived in California and Florida before returning home about 12 years ago. I'm a vegetarian and live with my husband and our three pugs. I cover education, health care, and local politics for City.
Posted inNews & Opinion
The US wants your kid
As recruitment falls short of its goals, the US military has stepped up its efforts to enlist young people. And recruiters have more access to high-school students than some parents may realize. The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires school districts to give recruiters personal information about students — including their address, telephone number, […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Rivera’s big vision
Rochester’s northeast quadrant is known for many things. Children living here see more homicides and violence than children in any other Rochester neighborhood. The area is home to about 4,300 students, and more than 97 percent of them are eligible for free or reduced-cost lunches. Most of them will move to a new home at […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Say what?
Invasion of privacy has become rampant. Surveillance cameras are inching us closer to a Big Brother society that we once rigorously opposed. Some states have discussed having license plates identify drivers who have DUI histories. The insurance industry wants “black boxes” in cars to record drivers’ weight and personal conversations leading up to a […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Public displays of affection
It’s 7 p.m. on a hot Tuesday night in June, and a couple of men have been in their cars cruising Highland Park since 5:30. One of them, driving a dark blue, late-model Saab, parks at the top of the hill near the Goodman Street entrance. The other, a middle-aged man driving a red pick-up, […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Looking for solutions at East and Main
Is downtown Rochester ready to pull out of its 30-year slump? A panel of real-estate and development experts is in town this week, trying to come up with a strategy for revitalizing MidtownPlaza, the Sibley’s Building, and the undeveloped land just north of the Renaissance Square and Sibley sites. They’ll be touring the sites and […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Costs, effects, and a medical impasse
Denise Speicher, a fair-skinned, middle-aged woman with a big smile, seems sturdy and healthy. But three times a week, she makes a 20-minute trip to HighlandHospital, where she receives 3 1/2 hours of hemodialysis. The process cleans the toxins from her blood. Without it, Speicher would die within a couple of weeks. Speicher was born […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Taking downtown’s pulse
Too young to remember anything about the old downtown, most of Rochester’s 20-somethings grew up listening to their parents whimper about Sibley’s and Midtown Plaza. Now they’re more than ready to see Rochester resemble some of the country’s other wireless, espresso-sipping urban centers. Rochester’s young professionals — that cherished demographic local economists, business people, and […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Pursuing a peaceful path in conflicts
It was a senseless, brutal attack: a teenager storming up to a New York City teacher, swinging a baseball bat, clubbing him in the head until he lost consciousness, and leaving him to die. The teacher lived, and for the next several years, he grappled not only with the trauma of the violence but with […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Conquering a hodgepodge: remaking Irondequoit
If you question the value of design in urban planning, take a spin through Irondequoit. That northeastern MonroeCounty suburb offers some of the area’s best examples of what happens in the absence of a master plan. The result, say urban planners, is mass development without cohesion. It’s the absence of that synergy that best characterizes […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Fighting poverty’s effects — with music
You’ve heard them a thousand times, the little taglines that have followed conversations about Rochester for years. Rochester “has a lot of old money.” Rochester “is a white-collar town.” Rochester “is an arts and culture city.” Here are a couple of more recent ones: Rochester’s children are the 11th poorest in the country and the […]
