Central Station, Rochester’s $58-million bus station, is
“poised to surge ahead,” says the Democrat
and Chronicle.
This
Thursday (June 19), the Genesee Transportation Council is expected to approve
$30 million for the project, which has been proposed by the Rochester-Genesee
Regional Transportation Authority. Congress has already agreed to provide $12
million, and Authority leaders are seeking $16 million more.
Even
if they don’t get that last $16 mil, it’s clear that Central Station is coming
to Downtown Rochester. The only question is whether it’ll be below grade level
(less intrusive on the neighborhood) or at grade (cheaper).
RGRTA
board chair Bill Nojay insists he’s not declaring victory; he wants those last
federal dollars. But he’s firm: If his board approves his request on Thursday,
Central Station will be built, in one form or another.
(The
$16 million in federal money would come from two transportation funds. Nojay
says that votes on the funding could come as early as this fall — or as late
as next spring. RGRTA will wait till those votes are taken before moving ahead,
so you won’t see ground broken this summer.)
Nearly
everybody has jumped on the Central Station bandwagon. But I’m still skeptical.
Nothing I’ve seen since Nojay first started touting this thing has changed my
mind: not the architect’s glitzy sketch, not Nojay’s glitzy TV ads, not the
polls showing public support. Not even Nojay’s pitch to me earlier this week:
that Central Station is a terrific anti-sprawl project.
Anyone
concerned about downtown Rochester is worried about the north side of Main
Street, between Clinton and St. Paul. For Central Station, RGRTA would acquire and
clear six acres of that block, including the crucial Main-Clinton corner. It
would clean it up and build the transit center — either below ground, or, in
the cheaper version, above ground back along Mortimer Street.
The
remaining property — and the “air space” above the transit center, if it’s
built below grade — could be developed for offices, retail, or housing.
People who hate sprawl, says Nojay, should love Central Station. New downtown
development is expensive, he says, because of the cost of assembling and
clearing the land. Private development at Central Station will be as attractive
as, say, out in the country in a cornfield.
Nojay believes that Central
Station will not only improve that block of Main Street, but will also attract
development nearby. Maybe he’s right. Maybe Central Station is the key to
downtown Rochester’s future. But I’m nervous.
First,
there’s the troublesome little business of operating costs. Building Central
Station is only the beginning. RGRTA will have to pay to run the station and to
keep it clean, warm, and safe.
When
he first got interested in the transit center, Nojay said that rent from
ancillary facilities in Central Station — a bank, maybe, a day-care center
— would cover that. Now, he simply says operating costs aren’t an issue.
“I’m
not aware of any public building that makes money,” he says. And, he asks, why
all this concern about operating costs for Central Station? People don’t get
concerned about operating costs for a new fire hall, say, or a new
public-safety building.
But
the Transportation Authority can’t spend the same dollar twice. If operating
costs are high, what’ll take the hit? New buses? Bus fares? Service?
Hanging
over the Transportation Council when it votes Thursday will be a big question
about future budgets. And nobody will know the answer until we’ve spent the
money to build Central Station.
I
also have a few other worries:
•
Central Station will pull people off Main Street, people who now wait for their
buses up and down Main. I said this years ago, when City Hall was infatuated
with skyways, and I say it again: You don’t create a healthy downtown by
getting rid of pedestrians.
•
Central Station could further ghettoize bus riders. I know, I know: Central
Station is being built for bus
riders. It will improve things for them: give them a nice, warm, dry place to
wait for buses.
But
it will also segregate them from the rest of downtown. And keeping Central
Station attractive — and safe — will require consistent investment in
operating costs (see above). Otherwise, it could become a seedy, smelly place,
and an attraction for loiterers.
And I
still think there’s a better use for the money. I still think there are better
ways to get more people interested in mass transit: better bus service to
suburban employment, education, and shopping centers, for instance.
But
maybe I’m wrong, and Bill Nojay’s right. I hope so. You and I are going to be
spending a whale of a lot of money to build and operate Central Station.
The Dems’ dilemma
For politics junkies, there’s a nice little drama building
behind the scenes with Central Station.
Democratic
Representative Louise Slaughter has been the major roadblock to RGRTA’s getting
all the federal money it wants for the project. Republican Representatives Amo
Houghton, Jim Walsh, and Thomas Reynolds are in favor of the funding, but
Democratic Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton have deferred to
Slaughter.
But
now Nojay and RGRTA may have the Democrats in a vise. The Democrats in City
Hall haven’t been overly enthusiastic about Central Station, but they haven’t
opposed it either, and recently they’ve seemed to warm up to the project. Like
everybody else, they want something to happen at Main and Clinton.
They
also want Central Station built below grade. Nojay, who says he doesn’t care
whether it’s below grade or at grade level, says the below-grade option will
cost about $16 million extra. That happens to be the amount of additional
federal funding he wants.
If
that money doesn’t come through, it won’t stop the project. We’ll just get the
version City Hall doesn’t want. So if City Hall wants the station tucked below
grade, apparently it’ll have to convince Schumer and Clinton to help get the
extra money.
This article appears in Jun 18-24, 2003.
