STILL PLANNING THE ‘ZONE’
It’s been almost a year since Rochester’s school
superintendent, Manuel Rivera, unveiled his ambitious surround-care plan for
the northeast quadrant of the city. Rivera’s concept, which he modeled after
the Harlem Children’s Zone, targets the environmental conditions that produce
generations of children who enter school unprepared to learn.
The northeast area continues to experience high rates of
homicide, unemployment, drug use, and school dropouts — the types of problems
the Rochester Children’s Zone was envisioned to address. So where is it now?
The short answer: it’s still in the design and planning
phase, though Rivera insists it’s not stuck.
“I would like to see the process move faster,” he said last
week, “but in the long term, we must make sure that we are including the
community in the plan. I would rather that we take a little longer to get that
commitment than to try to go forward without it.”
Here’s what’s happened so far:
• To help build community consensus, the district hired the
Massachusetts-based Interactive Institute for Social Change, which specializes
in getting business, government, and non-profit organizations to work together.
Rivera says the company is working with community
representatives such as Darryl Porter (assistant to Mayor Bob Duffy), Hilda
Escher (IBERO American Action League), and Roderick Jones (Community Place of
Greater Rochester) to identify the first set of problems the Children’s Zone
will try to address.
• The Rochester Children’s Zone has been set up as a
non-profit organization, which does two things. It avoids having the district
be the sole overseer of the Children’s Zone. And it deflects concerns about
giving money directly money to the school district, something some community
leaders have been reluctant to do. As a separate entity, the Children’s Zone
will handle its own fundraising, which Rivera says will kick off in June.
But money remains a problem for the Children’s Zone, and
Rivera concedes he’s still a long way from the $1 million he believes is needed
for getting it operational. The district has sent letters out asking for grant
money, but hasn’t received much response. And the money the district gets from
Albany for its annual budget can’t be used for the Children’s Zone.
Money is one of the reasons it’s taken this long to get the
Children’s Zone off the ground, says Jana Carlisle, chief planning officer for
the district. For the Children’s Zone to be successful, local community
organizations will need to commit to it. And that means they’ll need to direct
some of their own financial resources to it. Those are big hurdles, because the
Children’s Zone is not without its critics.
“The school district doesn’t have the prerogative of
dictating to other agencies what they should do with their financial resources,
but we can’t continue to work in separate silos,” says Carlisle. “Many of our
agencies are going to have to change. We’re going to have to look at all of our
resources to see how we can all be more effective working together.”
United Way’s executive vice president, Bill McCullough,
agrees. He is on the Children Zone’s design and planning team, and United Way gave
the district the money to hire the Interactive Institute.
“We’ve all heard the same messages from Maggie Brooks at the
county level, Mayor Duffy at the city level, and Dr. Rivera at the school
district,” says McCullough. “Budgets are extremely tight all the way around. So
we have to make the Children’s Zone work with the resources that we already
have.”
— Tim Louis Macaluso
HERE’S THE (PARTIAL) LINEUP
Break out your Adidases, Kangols, and gold chains: we’re going
back to the early days of hip hop for this year’s Music Fest (July 7-9 at High
Falls and Frontier Field).
Sampling innovator DJ Marley Marl and members of the Juice
Crew open for early rap supergroup Whodini Friday, July 7, at High Falls.
Expect the freaks to most certainly come out that night. Saturday, July 8, the
event moves to Frontier Field and things get a little more current with a
performance by American Idol 2004
winner Fantasia, who recently played Rochester as part of the WDKX 32nd
anniversary bash, plus R&B artists Avant, Cassie, Cherish, LaToya, Ray J
and Mila J. Sunday, July 9 (also at Frontier Field), wraps up with Cameo,
R&B icon Charlie Wilson, Heather Headley, “Best of My Love” chanteuses The
Emotions, and brothers K-Ci & JoJo, auteurs of the screechy “All My Life.”
However, that’s not the full line-up. Festival operators
WDKX, who took over this year after the city decided to go with a local
promoter for the event, said that several headliners had yet to be locked down
by the May 9 press conference. Rumors abound that heavyweight hip hop
throwbacks Doug E. Fresh and Biz Markie (“Just a Friend”) will also join the
party, as well as Idol 2003 winner
Ruben Studdard and Big Daddy Kane. For more information check out
rochestermusicfest.com or call 262-2050, ext. 116.
— Frank DeBlase
and Eric Rezsnyak
DEADLINE’S NEAR FOR CORN HILL ART
Time is running out for artists to sign up for the Corn Hill
Landing public art competition. Local sculptors looking to make a mark on the
mixed-use waterfront project have just one informational meeting left, at 2
p.m. Saturday, May 13, at 290 Exchange Boulevard. Entries must be received on
Friday, June 9, between 2 and 6 p.m. at 270 Exchange Boulevard. A panel of
judges will pick a winner, who will receive $70,000 to create the artwork and
transport it to the site. Info: www.cityofrochester.gov; click on “Other,” then
“What’s New,” and finally “Call for Entries.”
AFTER THE SPIRIT
It’s a one-way trip for Rochester’s ferry.
The Spirit of Ontario will set sail soon for Europe and its
new master: Euroferries Limited, which plans to use the ship on the English
Channel. In exchange, the city will receive $29.8 million — in cash. “We
didn’t want any continuing entanglements here,” said the city’s attorney, Tom
Richards, at a meeting last week. Once the deal closes — hopefully sometime
this week — the city will also no longer be responsible for the ship’s
$200,000 monthly costs. “With this good news, we can now redevelop Charlotte,”
said City Council President Lois Giess at a press conference last week.
That redevelopment will include finding new uses for the
ferry terminal building. But remember Maplestar? That’s the company that took
over partial operation of the Terminal Building, back when the Canadian
American Transportation System was still running the ferry. Then CATS had major
problems, the city bought the ferry, and Bay Ferries took over the ship’s
operations. But Maplestar, a CATS affiliate, stayed.
During negotiations with CATS, the city signed the
now-controversial “non-disturbance agreement.” This little document states that
even if the major tenant — in this case, CATS — left, the subtenants —
such as Abbott’s and California Rollin’ and Maplestar — could stay. The
non-disturbance agreement locked the city into a deal with Maplestar until
2044. For that right, the company pays the city $1 a year.
There are arguments for and against the bargain, but how
will the city develop the terminal building with somebody else in charge of it?
“There’s not as much conflict there as might appear to be the case,” reassures
Richards. While Maplestar does have the legal right to do as it pleases with
the Terminal Building’s allotted commercial spaces, the city still controls the
parts of the building that were used for ferry services, such as customs, the
waiting area, and office space. And Richards says there is enough room for both
Maplestar’s tenants and other proposed projects, such as the Great Lakes
Research Center.
Richards also says that there isn’t much dispute over the
Terminal Building’s parking lot. Aside from a small portion, he says, the city
controls most of that space. And for now, those spaces will remain free to the
public.
What would happen if the city decided it needed to regain
control over Maplestar’s space? Richards demurs. “We’ll deal with the ferry
issue first,” he says. “Then we’ll deal with the Maplestar lease.”
— Sujata Gupta
This article appears in May 10-16, 2006.
