It’s less than 48 hours after the Democratic primary for mayor — the party’s most contentious primary in over a decade — but you wouldn’t know that from a glance around the party’s headquarters. The furnishings are still Spartan at the spacious new digs off University Avenue, but a rack of campaign literature has already […]
Elections
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For City Council: Conklin, Maneiro, Miller, Pritchard
Of City Council’s nine seats, five are up for election this fall. These are at-large seats, which means that in the September 13 Democratic primary, voters can choose five of the nine candidates on the ballot. The nine have remarkably similar opinions on several issues. Most support continuing subsidies for the fast ferry, at least […]
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For School Board: Porter, Henley, Brennan
In the September 13 Democratic primary, four Democrats are seeking the three Rochester School Board seats: Tom Brennan, Cynthia Elliott, Jeff Henley, and Darryl Porter. Only Porter is an incumbent; board members Rob Brown and Jim Bowers are retiring. In deciding who of the four would best serve the needs of the district and the […]
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County Legislature, Brighton: Travis Heider
Of the five primaries for County Legislature seats — two Democratic, one Republican, two Independence Party — we selected the two we found most interesting and most highly contested, one city, one suburban, both Democratic. In both, the current legislators are retiring due to term limits. In the 14th district, which covers most of Brighton […]
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Candidates’ rap sheet
There’s been no shortage of words from the Democratic candidates for mayor. Former Police Chief Bob Duffy and City Council members Tim Mains and Wade Norwood are bright, experienced, and innovative. And since last winter, they’ve been spelling out what they’ll do if Rochesterians elect them. But who’s really best qualified to be mayor? What’s […]
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Tim Mains: schools, money, and City Hall
The mayor and the schools City: Given the city’s fiscal challenges, would you favor more city funding for the CitySchool District? Mains: My goal is to make sure the schools work. It is clear to me that the schools need more money than they receive today to function at the level they need to be. […]
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Bob Duffy: schools, money, and City Hall
The mayor and the schools Given the city’s fiscal challenges, would you favor more city funding for the CitySchool District? While we clearly have fiscal challenges, the first thing I want to do is get in and establish a series of systems that’ll focus on not only performance but efficiencies, trying to save money wherever […]
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Campaign Q&A: What’s a mayor to do?
There’s less than a month left in the Democratic primary campaign for mayor. If you’ve been following the race, it may seem like every conceivable issue’s been bludgeoned to death. But actually things are just about to heat up, with a blitz of candidate TV ads. And yes, we have another installment in our own […]
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Fighting City Hall:
A big issue in the Rochester mayoral campaign: economic development. An often-overlooked aspect of E-D: small business. It’s a crucial segment of the economy, but in some circles, City Hall has a reputation of being obstructionist. Fair? We asked a few retailers. “I’m optimistic, but I won’t make the same mistake as my father did […]
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Wade Norwood: schools, money, and City Hall
The mayor and the schools City: Given the city’s fiscal challenges, would you favor giving more money to the CitySchool District? Norwood: No. I think the real question is: How do we get more state investment into local government and local education? Rochester’s next mayor’s going to have to be very aggressive in laying out […]
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Campaign Q&A:
Kodak’s down. Valeo’s out. Sure, every month or so we get word of a company moving here or expanding local operations. And COMIDA’s doing a bang-up job of creating employment opportunities one or two at a time. But a few dozen jobs here and there don’t really even begin to offset the much larger numbers […]
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Tim Mains: On the economy, stupid Q&A
City: What would you do differently from the Johnson administration when it comes to economic development? Mains: I have an aggressive plan to use tax reform and a specific tax proposal to leverage economic development to create an incentive. Rochester has a two-tier homestead rate. There’s single-family residential of one to three units, and the […]
