Buried Treasures
Pass the leberkäse
Eating at the Swan Market (231 Parsells Avenue) is always
like walking into another world, but this past Saturday was something else.
Founder Gunther Schwahn and owner Barry Fischer threw a 100th birthday party
for Joseph Gosert, who came to Rochester in 1927 from Idar-Oberstein, Germany.
A diamond-cutter, Gosert had a job the day after he arrived as a lens grinder
with Bausch and Lomb. He didn’t miss a day of work in 36 years.
Gosert
played soccer for years with the German-American Sportsman’s Club. Last year,
the Rhinos honored him as Rochester’s oldest living soccer player. At this
party, he was serenaded with the club’s theme song. The loud voices were the
perfect accompaniment to a lunch of sausage, rouladen, pork stuffing, roast
pork, red cabbage, sauerkraut, and kartoffelsalat.
Karl-Heinz
Reich kept up the mood with an accordion throughout the afternoon, and one
highlight came when Werner Berns, who sang with the Meisterchor Sanscouci in
Krefeld, Germany, sang the Ballad of the Rhine. The singer tells us that
although it isn’t sunny, he’s not unhappy; there is a barrel of wine in the
cellar, not a French wine, but a wine from the Rhine valley; and he once had a
girl in his arms, and he can’t remember the name of the wine, or of the girl;
but when it’s his time to go, bury him with that barrel as a headstone. Or
something like that.
There
were many toasts, and food kept appearing: cookies, stöllen, and more. And of
course, the beer — Warsteiner in particular — flowed freely. Everybody had
some connection to Joseph; a mother with a 10-day-old baby explained that one
of the child’s great-grandparents had played soccer with Gosert. The world felt
small, warm, delicious, and wonderful, and it all revolved around one very emotional
centenarian.
— Adam Wilcox
Pick out your poison
Zoom, zoom, zoom. There’s a new Internet site
you can use to zero in visually on your town and neighborhood to see what toxic threats lurk near you.
The site
— www.ecoTHREATNY.org — offers a map of the whole state, with counties
delineated. You merely draw on the map as directed, and a symbol-coded display
shows you the Superfund sites, solid waste facilities, whatever, within the
area you’ve zoomed onto.
The website is an informational
project of the Albany-based Citizens
Environmental Coalition, a gadfly and watchdog group that’s keeping even
Eastman Kodak on its toes. You can contact the CEC regional office in Buffalo,
716-885-6848, for more information.
Toxics under
microscope
The clean-up of a
significant toxic site in Greece will enter the New Year with some new studies
— and opportunities for public input.
Popularly known by an obsolete name,
the Odenbach Shipyard, the “Air Force
Plant 51 facility” off Dewey Avenue may contain contaminated groundwater
that could drain into nearby Round Pond Creek and associated wetlands. The
toxic compounds could include chemicals used for shipbuilding decades ago, as
well as during more recent aircraft construction and commercial operations.
The state Department of
Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), along with the county and state health
departments, is conducting a “long-term environmental assessment,” a necessary
prelude to any clean-up that might be needed. (Investigators have already found
problems in some parts of the site, including PCBs that were removed this
year.)
Residents of the area, and others
interested in preserving the Lake Ontario environment, can examine the relevant
NYSDEC documents and file their own comments. The documents are available at
the Barnard Crossing Branch Library, 2780 Dewey Avenue. Contact the NYSDEC
Region 8 office in Avon for more information: Lisa LoMaestro Silvestri,
226-5326.
Charity and peace
The day before Christmas
Eve, some Rochesterians will make a special holiday offering.
Pastor Joy Powell’s Outreach Ministry, based at 369 Child
Street, will join the local Green Party and Metro Justice in putting
together holiday gift baskets for Rochesterians struggling with poverty. On
Monday, December 23, 10:30 a.m., the groups will cap a food and toy drive for
local poor children with a “peace march” and rally at the Monroe County DSS
Employment Services building, 691 St. Paul Street. Powell, who’s become a
leading voice in Rochester against violence and its root causes, has emphasized
that the poor will suffer greatly from budget-driven county cutbacks.
The groups are looking for donated
items: clothing (all sizes) and toys for infants through teens. To make
donations or get involved, contact Powell, 719-8842 or 802-8941; or the Green
Party, e-mail greenpmc@aol.com.
Farewell,
Heritage
When
Cleveland Cooper and his wife Kimberly opened the Heritage House and Pythodd Jazz Lounge on Spring Street last fall,
their goal was to provide local African Americans with a reliable option for
upscale nightlife, something in the spirit of Washington, DC’s Fox Trappe. So
Cleveland, a former Xerox exec, sunk a good portion of his retirement money
into buying and renovating the historical Brewster-Burke House on Spring
Street, just off 490 West at Plymouth.
Heritage/Pythodd combined high-end
southern cooking with live jazz performances in a gorgeous and refined setting.
And, sadly, it all came to an end just over one week ago.
Cost overruns on the stunning
renovation job caused the Coopers to exhaust all of their working capital by
the time they opened for business. “That really put us behind the eight ball,”
says Cleveland. “We were struggling almost from the beginning.”
Cleveland says the restaurant also
had trouble “trying to gage the flow” of customers. “Our staffing level would
tend to be too high during the quiet times and too low during the busy times.
Our clientele wasn’t very forgiving when the service level was too low. And
that, I think, created a sort of negative word of mouth in the community.”
Kimberley Cooper is still working at
Xerox, and Cleveland is considering an opportunity to work for the Rochester
City School District. “I’ve tried one dream, but this has always been another,”
he says. “I’ve been in the schools several times over the years. I think there’s
a big need there, particularly for African-American males, for African-American
role models.”
So, in a sense, Cleveland’s mission
continues, even with the closure of the Heritage House. As for the restaurant
business: “I’m still convinced the community needs Heritage House or something
like it,” he says. “Who knows? I’m hoping it’ll be reborn under different
management.”
While
you were out
The
good news this week: A man many Rochesterians call “The Boss” is coming to town, and he’s not making the trip to fire
anybody. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will rock the Blue Cross Arena
at the Community War Memorial on March 11. Unfortunately, fans suffering
through the region’s recession will have to shell out $75 to relive the “Glory
Days.”
The
bad news this week: Speaking for the bosses at Xerox, a spokeswoman announced on December 12 that the struggling
copier company will cut 165 jobs by dissolving Xerox Engineering Systems, a
subsidiary that makes printers. Local layoffs this year at the area’s
third-largest employer, pegged at 880 earlier this month, now threaten to
surpass 1,000.
Bullied
by fellow members of the city school
board who seem intent on ousting her a year before her term is up, board
president Joanne Giuffrida tattled to state Education Commissioner Richard
Mills in an appeal filed December 11. Giuffrida is asking Mills to bar the
implementation of bylaw changes four of the seven members of the board passed
earlier this month. The changes, which shorten the president’s term from two
years to one, could prompt a board election in January that Giuffrida would
likely lose. In response to Giuffrida’s move, the other six members of the
board agreed to hire a law firm — which will work pro bono — to respond to
whatever action Mills takes on Giuffrida’s appeal. Giuffrida was unable to
attend that meeting, which gives her something in common with one of her
adversaries on the board: the Rev. Dwight Cook. Board member James Bowers
analyzed board attendance records and found that the Rev. has missed nearly
three out of every 10 meetings during his three years in the post, more than
any other member. In 2001, Cook showed up for only half the board’s monthly
meetings, and this year he’s skipped three quarters of the meetings of the
finance committee Bowers chairs. Cook blamed the absences on duties associated
with his work as a pastor and Air Force chaplain. In other words, his god ate
his homework.
Lawyers
for Monroe County and the City of Rochester finally met in court on December 16
to dispute the county’s plans to expand Seneca
Park Zoo. At issue is whether the county, which leases the parkland from
the city, has to get approval from the city before, in this case, turning a
portion of the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed park into a parking lot. The
judge has not yet indicated how, or when, he’ll make a ruling.
—
Compiled by Chris Busby from news reports, interviews, and liner notes from Darkness on the Edge of Town.
This article appears in Dec 18-24, 2002.
