Rochester City Council announced Wednesday night during its meeting that it would create a working group to study the proposed Erie Harbor Promenade and surrounding public property. The promenade, along with plans for an apartment complex at Court Street and South Avenue, have caused public concern because it would seal off the east entrance to the abandoned subway, a space historically noteworthy and important for local and visiting artists.
The council also voted unanimously to move forward with allocating $250,000 to Bergmann Associates for additional design services related to the promenade and the Johnson Seymour Race Mill. Councilmember Matt Haag recommended before the vote that though the council would move forward with the funding for designs, they would put all plans on the table until the working group could gather more information.
“There have been many studies done over the years regarding the canal, the subway bed, and our riverfront, and that information needs to be taken into account,” Haag says. “I do believe it will be beneficial to have a focused conversation about how we can best achieve moving our community forward while honoring our past and promoting our uniqueness.”
This article appears in Feb 24 – Mar 1, 2016.
Once again—Where is the master plan for our community???? This should have been decided loooong ago. Some of the western part was filled in a few years ago. Much more has been built over. Let’s get a major plan for our region that we can all get excited about and get on board. This community should be growing by leaps and bounds. Cheryl Dinaufo, you are the areas most prominent leader now and in a position to do this. Please don’t drop the ball.
I thank God for our business community for keeping this region at least somewhat stable, but government has failed us
Don’t point the finger at our Washington DC failure as something unique. We can’t even decide locally what to do about an abandoned subway. More over, we allow that disagreement to halt a project that would be very beneficial to the reinvigoration of the down town area.
$250,000.00 for a study. Lets see if we can get beyond a study and actually build something.
Just how many are concerned? More important are the “concerned” offering any options? Usually not. Obstruction is not a suggestion, it just makes those willing to invest in the down town area weary and eventually turn them off and away. Then the complaint is that nobody shows any interest in the city.
Get behind something, build something.
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I would like to see a study what the benefits of Graffiti Art has brought a community? Specifically where Graffiti art has awakened the economy or improved the surrounding communities in any way. Examples I could find. None that even merit discussion. Other then a exercise of selfishness it doesn’t create jobs, promotes vandalism, and a belief that the area is blighted and run down instead of vibrant and livable.
Dutch,
The $250,000 allocated is going to the design firm creating plans for the promenade — not for a study. The working group that is being formed — consisting of councilmembers, arts community members, and other invested parties — will be looking at new possibilities for the proposed Erie Harbor Park, which is separate from a Morgan developed apartment complex (although the two are closely intertwined, and the complex will affect the subway as well).
More than 2,300 people signed a petition before Thursday night’s council meeting to call for them to postpone moving forward with the promenade so that something like a working group could come up with a plan that wouldn’t do harm to access the subway. From people who spoke at the council meeting, there are many proposals for the abandoned subway including a green space/”indoor” park and an open-air art museum.
http://www.libraryweb.org/~rochhist/v36_19… http://www.libraryweb.org/~rochhist/v37_19…
The above are links to Rochester History volumes with aqueduct/subway information. The “subway” is basically a hole in the ground that was covered by a street and has been a drain on the city’s finances since it was built.. Access can’t be blocked because the city needs entry for maintenance. The Aqueduct portion should be saved but the rest is an enigma.
Regarding planning: Remember Goals for Greater Rochester, Renaissance 2010 and all the “charrets” that were held. Why did these seem to fail? Do we need another charret to discuss this or would we be throwing good money after bad?
AJ, that’s a great link. Thank You. Within that article actually spells out what I’m saying about goals. In building the subway back then there was a goal to build Rochester to a population of 2,000,000. I know what you are saying about the past endeavors, but what I’m talking about is one or more of our leaders speaking out about Rochester’s potential for greatness. And doing it on a regular basis.
I look at Rochester, with Buffalo west, Syracuse East and the southern tier south smack in the middle of more than 3.5-4 million people. We should clearly be THE city of upstate NY. Why was it a few years back that Buffalo got a brand new state office building (we don’t even have one), brand new Federal office building and brand new Federal court house? Wouldn’t these all be better centrally located in Rochester? In fact, we are paying for everything happening in Buffalo now and they are playing the PR game pretty well, despite the fact that Rochester beats Buffalo on almost every statistic.
Why isn’t the Rochester airport the premier upstate airport? In fact, we could be a small hub, eliminating the need to always fly through NYC or other airports. The Buffalo Bills want a brand new BILLION dollar stadium that EVERYONE will have to pay for, but not centrally located but located at the extreme western part of the state.
All of this would certainly lead to more hotels, restaurants, theatres and mostly jobs.
We can’t even decide what to do with the bay outlet bridge. So embarrassing.
We could have so much, but we need someone with a vision to inspire us to what we can be. As we operate right now, we wait for individual projects to spring up and then fight their completion. A plan will show that the community has already approved individual ideas because they fit our long term plan, and that would make it much easier to finance also.
How bout it? Cheryl Dinolfo? Bob Duffy? Bueller…… Bueller?