Lessons for Main
Regarding “The State of Main” (April 14): OK, let us review one
more time completed reports from 1970-something, 1980-something, and
1990-something. These reports hide somewhere on dusty shelves in City Hall (or
the county archives) and were put together by dedicated people, discharging
their civic duty, studying cities domestically and internationally, and
recording the results of experiences and experiments that could be applied to Rochester.
I am most
familiar with the report from the early 1990s, because I took part in compiling
the data after doing part of the research for the Downtown Sector 5 report on
transportation-Main Street-et al.
Interestingly
enough, some things never change. One is that people — and cities — behave
in predictable ways given the same stimuli. Another is that it doesn’t matter.
We seem determined to repeat mistakes based on poor information, or we chase
the latest fad — which is worse, because that usually costs more. Still
another is that planning for the wider good never wins over short-term
financial greed and political hubris.
I left
downtown. I have retired from political caterwauling. I have refrained from
pointing out just how stupid, shortsighted, expensive the whole idea of a Renaissance Center-Bus Garage is — based on statistical evidence
and reported in a non-biased way, of course.
Please, if
you are going to talk about Main Street,
perhaps you could do a little more investigating. It’s all very nice to discuss
changing the “urban fabric” by designing or redesigning buildings, but
the reality is that the person or corporation with the dollars will decide
where that building will be set and will determine its design. And if it is to the detriment of “the fabric of Main Street,”
too bad.
Given all
the evidence to the contrary, a bad building is better than no building, or in
the words of one city hall planner: “We can’t afford to let this
(building) go out to the suburbs. It means we lose jobs and the hit to our
prestige would be too great.”
But there
are a few relatively simple things government can do to improve downtown,
starting with taking some action on traffic and parking. Do away with all
one-way streets. Do away with all no right-left turn restrictions. The current
conditions were based on prehistoric planning and have little to do with life
as it is downtown.
Reestablish
parking on Main Street. The
health of a city street seems to move up or down proportionately with the ease
of automobile flow: the easier and faster cars travel down a street, the worse
the climate is for businesses and pedestrians on that street.
These are
tiny examples; there are dozens more. Perhaps they are ignored because of their
seeming simplicity — and there are no naming rights, no tiaras involved.
However, City Newspaper can do a
service by actually talking about solutions that have half a chance of being
put into action.
Shirley Dawson, Klink Road, Brighton
Missing Jack
It was with great regret that I read of the departure of
Jack Bradigan Spula from the City staff.
Mr. Spula’s excellent work has informed and interested me for years and has
always been one of the best aspects of City.
I have
always been struck by his steadfast intellectual integrity and careful
analysis. He has clearly researched his topics exhaustively, has consistently
demonstrated a passion and dedication to the truth, and has been a needed
champion of the average person and the less-fortunate among us. Surely City will be diminished by his loss, as
will the Rochester community if he
leaves us in search of opportunities elsewhere.
Thanks,
Jack for taking on the big bad people and the big bad organizations for all the
rest of us, who can only wonder at your courage and your scholarship. Good luck
and keep giving ’em hell!
Bob Snow, Dansville
No big Wegmans
In response to recent articles on the proposed expansion of
the East Avenue Wegmans: I have to laugh at the very
notion of a new storefront that would echo a 19th and early 20th-century
streetscape. In other words: replacing what is already there.
Have we not
learned from the senseless destruction of irreplaceable landmarks that was
rampant in the 1950s and ’60s? Bulldozing this historic section of old Brighton
would be a mistake. All for what? If you want bigger,
go down the street to Pittsford. We who live in this charming historic district
do so by choice. We do not want a bigger store or the traffic that will come
with it.
If Wegmans must expand (it’s not as if the only store left in
the city is losing money), then I would suggest expanding behind the existing
structures, building on the vacant lots facing University Avenue and leaving
the current structures in place. .But perhaps Wegmans
is afraid of the competition from small, independent business owners that may
want to anchor there.
For a
company that prides itself on the huge super stores in the wealthy suburbs, I
say enough is enough. If Wegmans wants a bigger
presence in the city, let it re-open Midtown or the Mt.Hope stores. The working classes
like convenience as well.
For my
money, I’ll stick with Tops. They never stop.
John Jerard Vogt,
RundelPark, Rochester
Paying for schools
I thought Jack Bradigan Spula’s article on school funding
(“School Improvement: The Price is Wrought,” April 7) was excellent, especially
after reading op-ed essays by the appointed commissioners of the Governor’s
Commission on Education Reform in the Democrat
and Chronicle on April 12.
In the
print medium, City Newspaper is the
best journalism in town.
It is
amusing indeed to see the less-government crowd proposing a low-ball financial
remedy that also requires more government supervision by a new Office of
Educational Accountability and, of course, a favorable mention of Charter
Schools.
Ron Johnson, Sutherland Street, Pittsford
Wease talk
Your interview with
the “Wease” (“Radio Free Worry,” Marcy 31) got me
thinking, as most of your articles do. I am one of your relatively conservative
readers who enjoy your paper every week because it creates so much food for
thought.
You are at your best when discussing
local politics and social issues. You’re at your worst when discussing the Middle East. Your recent articles on taxes certainly
added to what most of us on the left and right know and agree with. The whole
tax code needs to be simplified so the “working” poor are protected and the
wealthy pay a fair share without being gouged or denigrated for their success.
On the subject of free speech: Folks
like Brother Wease seem to feel they should be able
to say any vulgar thing they want on the public airwaves. If I wanted to hear
that kind of junk, I would go to an entertainment club and listen to it. At the
right venue, nearly any form of speech should be legal. The problem is, it is
constantly in your face and is difficult to avoid. And parents cannot, in the
real world, insulate their children from the coarseness of society. Radio,
television, and the internet bring it right into our homes, schools, libraries
and cars. Hollywood and the music companies are totally without
ethics or cultural morals.
In this politically correct age, we
have to be extremely careful what we say in the workplace for fear of losing
our jobs — or at the least, we will be sent to diversity and sensitivity
training. Political correctness has become the perfect tool in particular for
the left to control open discussion of almost all social issues. The political
correctness movement is the prime reason why thoughtful discussion on
conservative talk shows is labeled “hate” talk. Disagree with a liberal and you
are called all sorts of names. Wease denigrates talk
radio because it is mostly conservative, but that may be because there are so
few other outlets for “right” leaning folks to express their ideas. The problem
with left-wing talk shows is that they seem to be so full of opinion and
feelings talk and so short of facts.
Our right to free speech is a
wonderful thing, but mass media and sound bites have reduced it to an “Animal
House” food fight. Let’s try to put a little restraint on the filth talk and
remember the famous words of Senator Clinton: “It takes a village to raise a
child.” My final words are for the Wease: “Take a
lesson from the first 70 years of radio and clean your act up and just
entertain us. Take the high road, and leave your garbage in the landfill.”
DeVillo H. McCann Jr., Luddington Lane, Greece
Just a prank?
As the cannibalism of “reality radio” talk shows
continues, I finally have to express my concern with “Spezzano
in the Morning’s”sadistic “Make
Your Momma Mad!” game on radio station WPXY.
In my
opinion, host Scott Spezzano takes advantage of his
status to “prank” and humiliate people for self-serving reasons, and
should be banished from the media industry.
A recent
prank by a volunteer female participant involved making her mom think that she
was pregnant out of wedlock and was not sure who the father might be. The
daughter explained that her mom is currently going through a rough divorce has
been advising her daughter not to get pregnant.
The prank
consisted of an on-air, candid phone call to the mother. The daughter told her
fictional story on air to her mother, while listeners awaited her reaction.
Thinking she having a private conversation about a very personal issue, and
certainly not being judged by a scrutinizing public, the mother offered her
feedback, which involved the suggestion to get an abortion.
As the
prank escalated, the laughs from the radio studio staff radiated over the
airwaves. Finally, a loud party siren went off, signaling that it was time to
expose the truth. Caught totally off guard, the mother was beside herself. She
said she thought she was going to have a heart attack, and that she was
“pissed” about this.
This show
is essentially a cruel mix of “Punk’d” and
“Candid Camera” with the mentality of a 5-year-old bully. Maybe some
of Spezzano’s victims will conspire to
“punk” him one day. Personally, I think anyone who thought that
morning’s game was humorous needs a serious reality check. The prank was not
only inappropriate, but offensive and cruel.
It’s ironic
that Spezzano’s sidekick, Sandy,
is joyfully expecting. How would her husband feel being the target of a similar
prank about his wife’s pregnancy?
Make your
momma mad! What to play? Call the program at 222-9800. Or contact Infinity
Broadcasting Corporation, 212-846-3939, or the FCC Consumer Information Bureau
at 1-888-CALL-FCC.
Colleen M. Charvella,
Cobbs Hill Drive, Rochester
Green results
DM Fragale writes that New Paltz Mayor Jason West’s energy ideas are viable (The Mail,
April 7). He suggests installing solar panels to generate energy for the water
and sewage treatment plant, but does he know if that
will be an advantage? Solar power is certainly a sustainable power source, but
its flaws greatly outweigh its benefits. Remember that active solar power can
generate electricity only during the day, and only on days with direct
sunlight.
That is the
most commonly known flaw, but solar power’s true Achilles heel is in its panel
creation. It takes years for a solar panel to generate the electrical power
equivalent to the amount required in its creation. Therefore, each solar panel
puts a negative gain on the overall energy market. By the time it is producing
electricity over its original energetic cost, it has deteriorated to a point
where it is no longer useful.
Also,
during the manufacturing of photovoltaic cells, toxic chemical by-products are
produced that need to be dealt with. In fact, the cells themselves are not
recyclable.
Much more
can be written about the inherent flaws of solar power, but you can’t write
about those without discussing its benefits. We use passive solar energy every
day in the form of windows. Solar energy lights our houses and provides us with
heat in both a cost-effective and sustainable form. That is its only true
advantage.
As for wind
power: Wind farms have huge land requirements and obviously need windy
climates. Generally these windy places are not inhabited by humans, but rather
by wild animals. Did you know that windmills are incredibly detrimental to
avian populations? Just look at the environmental records from Northern
California’s AltamontPass.
There, windmills kill thousands of migratory birds every year, and in return
generate a little electrical energy.
You need to
research all the costs and benefits of a sustainable energy source before you
can jump on its bandwagon. “Green” power plants have their rewards; all I ask
is that people have well-informed opinions before they add their support.
Eric Grzelak, Genesee Street, Rochester
Don’t blame me — I voted for Nader!
With the approach of the 2004 presidential election,
columnists and letter writers are reviving the unjust accusation that Ralph Nader caused Al Gore to lose the election of 2000. This
myth is not supported by the electoral data, although it does seem to be
durable.
One reason
the accusation is groundless is the mathematical axiom that you get the same
total regardless of the order in which you add the numbers. Florida
is blamed for Gore’s loss of the presidency because it was so late in reporting
and because Gore yielded the state to Bush by a very narrow margin. But there
are 49 other states, and if Gore had carried one or two of them, he would have
accumulated so many electoral votes that Florida
would not have mattered. That is to say, Florida
did not determine the election of Mr. Bush: All 50 states did.
Here is an
analysis of the official data from the Federal Elections Commission
(www.fec.gov).
There are
538 electoral votes. Not counting Florida’s
25, Gore had 266 electoral votes and Bush had 246 out of the 270 needed to
elect. Gore lost his home state of Tennessee,
whose 11 electoral votes would have put him over the magic number. You can say
that Tennessee cost Gore the
election. Never mind the debacle in Florida.
Gore lost Tennessee by 80,000
votes. If he had had Nader’s 20,000, he still would
have lost the state.
Gore lost Clinton’s
home state of Arkansas, which has
three electoral votes. Had they gone to Gore, they would not have put him over,
but they would have put Bush under. You can say that Arkansas
gave the election to Bush. Nader got 13,000 votes in Arkansas
while Gore lost by 50,000. Had Gore carried Arkansas,
he would have had 269 electoral votes and Bush would have had 268. Both would
have fallen short of 270, and the election would have been decided in the House
of Representatives. (One elector abstained.)
But what about Florida? Didn’t Nader get 97,000 votes
while Bush won by 537 votes? Yes, but Florida
is still only one state out of 50. If Florida
had reported first, no one would think of blaming Nader
voters. Attention would have been focused on whatever state happened to put one
of the candidates over the hurdle. It would probably have been a western state,
since they report later than eastern states.
Here is the
official tally of the Florida
vote.
Harry
Browne, 16,415
Patrick
Buchanan, 17,484
George
Bush, 2,912,790
Al Gore,
2,912,253
John Hagelin, 2,281
David
McReynolds, 622
Monica Moorehead, 1,804
Ralph Nader, 97,488
Howard
Phillips, 1,371
Other, 602
Total,
5,963,110
All
theories about how voters would have voted if Nader
had not been on the ballot are unsupported speculation. Some Nader voters probably would have voted for Gore, but
certainly not all. There were lots of other candidates to choose from. We can
also speculate that if Mr. McReynolds, the candidate of the Socialist Party,
had not been running, his 622 votes would have gone to Gore and given him the
state. Or let’s blame Monica Moorehead. Who knows how
her voters would have voted? Did these unknown, minor party candidates throw
the election to Bush? It is all unsupported conjecture.
Here is my
speculation: Many more than 537 Florida Democrats voted for Mr. Bush because
they were disgusted with the sex scandals of the Clinton
administration. Perhaps we should blame Monica Lewinsky. In 2000, there were
205.8 million people of voting age, of whom 105.4 million, or 51.2 percent
voted. Of these votes, Bush got 50.5 million, or 47.91 percent; he is a
“minority” president. Gore got 51.0 million, or 48.39 percent. He bested Bush
in the popular vote, even with Nader on the ballot,
but he, too, would have been a “minority” president.
The data
contradict the theory that Ralph Nader cost Al Gore
the election.
It is time
to put the myth to rest.
Paul Van Ness, Rugby Avenue, Rochester
Writing to City
We welcome and encourage readers’ letters for publication.
Send them to: themail@rochester-citynews.com or The Mail, City Newspaper, 250
North Goodman Street, Rochester14607.
Our guidelines:
We don’t publish anonymous letters — and we ask that you include your street
name and city/town/village. We don’t publish letters that have been sent to
other media. While we don’t restrict length, letters of under
350 words have a greater chance of being published. We do edit letters for
clarity and brevity. And in general we don’t publish letters (or longer “op-ed”
pieces) from the same writer more often than once every three months.
This article appears in Apr 28 – May 4, 2004.
