Imagine President Bush appearing on TV to give the following address… “My fellow Americans, our nation is suffering at the hands of a particularly insidious group of domestic terrorists — and by terrorists, I mean people who make our lives miserable by creating fear. This group spends billions of dollars and enlists the help […]
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Gantt vs. ‘shenanigans’
Democratic State Assemblyman David Gantt has introduced legislation that would redefine the relationship between the city school board and its superintendent, giving the super much more power and authority than the position now has, relative to the board. His bill would also rename the superintendency: The person holding the job would heretofore be known as […]
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Victor’s last stand
You’d expect a town named Victor to be a “winner.” And the Ontario County community certainly is one, by ordinary standards. Overwhelmingly rural a generation ago, the town had 9,977 residents in 2000. It “grew by 36.4 percent between 1960 and 1970, 18.4 percent between 1970 and 1980, 43 percent between 1980 and 1990, […]
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Desperately seeking WOW
Remember the Performing Arts Center? At one time, the center was to be the next big capital project to revitalize Rochester. Committees formed. Surveys were taken. Studies were completed. While it’s impossible to determine precisely how much public money has been spent on the PAC process up to this point — mainly because […]
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Parallel curves
Part two of a two-part series. It’s the flip side of pop singer George Michael’s arrest for “lewd conduct.” And it has odd analogies with bathroom humor. But the following news item means serious political business. In mid-January, while many New Yorkers were celebrating the enactment of the state’s Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act, the American […]
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This side of the Genesee
It’s just a little way for the 19th Ward to say, “Hey, we’re not so scary.” Fourteen 19th Ward families invited University of Rochester students to cross the Genesee River Footbridge and have dinner with them in their homes. These springtime Bridge Dinners are meant to “show students that the 19th Ward is a… […]
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Secrets and oversights
At first glance, it certainly seems like there could have been something nefarious about the Rochester City School Board’s superintendent search. For one thing, candidates were interviewed in secret and their names were not released, even as the search committee narrowed the pool down to five and, later, two finalists. (The board announced its pick […]
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Lafayette, we aren’t there yet
It was a long time ago — in emotional distance more than in years. On June 7, 1825, the Marquis de Lafayette stopped in downtown Rochester aboard an Erie Canal barge. An “estimated ten thousand cheering citizens” for the “Nation’s Honored Guest” were “double the town’s population,” write historians Blake McKelvey and Ruth Rosenberg-Naparsteck. […]
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Happily divided?
There was a moment during last Tuesday’s City Council meeting when longtime Councilmember Tim Mains’ face said it all. It happened shortly before Council passed legislation that bars Mains — and anyone else employed by the Rochester City School District — from serving on Council. As two councilmembers abstained from voting on another piece […]
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Thomas P. Ryan Jr.
Thomas P. Ryan Jr. Tom Ryan was a complicated man, and a complicated mayor. Ryan, who died last Friday, served as Rochester’s mayor from 1974 to 1993, and right to the end, he was shy: hated public speaking, didn’t like going to neighborhood meetings. “He was not one who reveled in the ceremonies of […]
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Sacred architecture: The church’s one foundation, or two
Talk about retro. When you read the religious tracts about planned renovations at Sacred Heart Cathedral — the Bishop of Rochester’s home church on Flower City Park — you have to wrap your tongue around some Latin. Like domus Dei and domus ecclesia, seemingly esoteric phrases that define the debate over Sacred Heart. […]
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Organics and the law: the purity pureed
Many people don’t care what goes in one end of the hen or out the other. But some recent legislative chickenshit should make everyone pay attention. Earlier this month the US Congress passed a nearly $400 billion omnibus spending bill. The measure funded vital federal programs from A-Z, but in line with past practice, […]
