A City Council committee took Mayor Lovely Warren’s proposal to study a new downtown performing arts center to the woodshed yesterday. Legislation proposed by the mayor is given preliminary consideration by a corresponding Council committee before moving on to the full Council for a vote. Warren’s proposal was considered yesterday during a meeting of the Neighborhood and Business Development committee.
Committee members didn’t like the way that the proposal came to Council, or the substance of the proposal itself. In the end, they decided to hold the legislation until their concerns are addressed.
Warren announced earlier this week that she wants the city to hire two firms — Lincoln Center Global and Westlake Reed Leskosky for a combined total of $211,165 — to study the feasibility of a new downtown performing arts center. Warren rolled out the legislation and held a press conference — which, in retrospect, seems like a premature victory lap — trumpeting the proposal.
But this happened before the Council committee met and, going by what committee members were saying at yesterday’s meeting, they were given little notice of the legislation and little time to vet it. Given the politics inherent in any discussion of a performing arts center here and the bad vibes left over from the Renaissance Square crash and burn, the administration’s actions seem rash. It’s clear that the committee members felt the same way.
“We cannot have stuff given to us in this manner,” said Council member Adam McFadden, who attended the meeting but is not on the Neighborhood and Business Development committee. McFadden said that he was shocked to see the PAC study on the committee’s agenda given that Council had not had a substantive discussion with the administration on the matter.
To the substance of the legislation, committee members and other Council members in attendance wanted to know why the city needs to hire an outside firm to do the study; why the city has to pay for a study; who will cover any operating shortfalls the facility incurs; what happens to the Auditorium Theatre if RBTL becomes the new facility’s main user; can Rochester support another performance space; would a new downtown PAC put other arts organizations in jeopardy; and other questions.
Council member Carolee Conklin, who is on the NBD committee, said that the proposal was “very poorly thought out.”
The full Council meets this coming Tuesday. Theoretically, if the concerns are addressed in time, the legislation could make it on to that agenda.
This article appears in Jul 8-14, 2015.
Lets back up…first, Adam McFadden was a leading proponent of scuttling Ren Sq because he believed that a developer (Neil Bauman) was going to build a mixed use complex on the site he owned at Main and Clinton (he stiill owns it and has never done anything but open a restaurant called Eats that he closed).
Carolee Conklin appears to be against all kinds of initiatives if they have any relationship to the old Ren Sq location including stopping a contract to Mark Aesch’s company because she dislikes him.
How about this idea for council….work with the Mayor to do something rather than be obstructionists!
Also, to all of you, Administration, Council, and media…why are you allowing an out of town and out of state company to get work that can easily be done by firms here that have the information and background to do the work?
If we want “The Lincoln Center Experience” …we can get it in NYC…in Rochester we are able to create a new and better Rochester Experience! And, we need one!
There is a group dedicated to poverty and the city is thinking about wasting more money beating a dead horse–the performing arts center topic??
That answers the question of why we have poverty.
A downtown theater would be a costly mistake. Just look at Sahlen’s Stadium. It’s too big, wrongly located, and needs taxpayers assistance to operate. Rochester, with all it’s poor neighborhoods, shouldn’t be subsidizing entertainment for mostly visitors.
Mike and Tom, don’t we want out if town people coming here to spend their money?
Now I see that Arnie Rothschild claims the opposition to a downtown performing arts center is rooted in racism. On the Brother Wease show today, he contended that there wouldn’t be this kind of opposition if we had a white mayor!
He must be forgetting that there was little enthusiasm for a performing arts center under white mayors, either …
“Mike and Tom, don’t we want out if town people coming here to spend their money? ” WOW, that comment got me 4 negatives and no positives.
I’m surprised that no one wants someone to come from out of town to enjoy our wonderful city. Go to the show, have dinner, stay in a hotel, have breakfast, fuel your vehicle, maybe do some shopping or even spend another night in a local hotel. I see about $500- $1000 being spent by each guest, taxes being paid and jobs being created . And hopefully Rochester could get a reputation as a great weekend stay and tell their friends.
Almost forgot–bring in others to help PAY FOR THE BUILDING and add more creativity and creative people to Rochester.
I don’t know where I get these crazy ideas.
Can we guarantee people currently living in poverty will benefit from any jobs created?
There are no guarantees in life. NONE.
Opportunity , hopefully will be guaranteed.
What more can be asked but that?
I listened to Arnie Rothschild yesterday on Wease and what he said was not incorrect. Bob D uffy supported the Ren Sq theater then changed his mind. But, he was adamant that RBTL stay downtown (at Midtown) when they began to look at the suburbs. Duffy wanted the same site as does the Mayor now. The difference is he was supported and she is criticized. Rothschild simply said that if she was a white Mayor people would treat her differently.
Tom Richards did not want the theater at Midtown because he talked about needed subisidies that it appears are not needed. This will all sort out with the study…but give Lovely a break for once! And, be realistic, people are tougher on her because of her color!
Rochester doesn’t need a new performing arts center. What it needs right now are some new businesses, located in the city, that pay a decent wage. Not burger-flipping minimum wage jobs but light manufacturing businesses that actually make value-added products.
We spent millions on a failed fast ferry, the county spends more to house animals at the zoo they they spend to help house the homeless and we let a local theater group help fund a study to see if we need a new performing arts center. Something really stinks in all his.
Remington, I don’t remember there being an outpouring of support for a performing arts center when the Duffy administration was pushing for it either.
And no, I don’t agree that people in general are tougher on Mayor Warren because of her race. Sure, some people might be … but it’s also true that some people give her more of a pass on her administration’s many early gaffs because of her race.