The City of Rochester is soliciting ideas to convert Genesee Crossroads-Charles Carroll Plaza on Andrews Street along the river from a little-used, little-noticed park into a reinvigorated year-round destination. Early ideas include swinging seats, a perennial garden, outdoor exercise equipment, lighting features, and performance space.
The plans mostly likely do not, however, include a skatepark. The plaza was the second site eyed for a city skatepark; the first was under the Douglass-Anthony Bridge. And the park’s chief advocate is frustrated nearly to the point of exasperation.
James Maddison, president of Friends of the Roc City Skatepark, tells of what he says is a nine-year tangle with City Hall filled with confusion, equivocation, passing the buck, and failure to give the group a straight answer.
“I’m just trying to make the community a better place,” he says. “Why do I got to get treated like this?”
But the city says that the group was never promised a skatepark and that the key component is whether the surrounding businesses and organizations would be OK with it. Maddison says that his group was told by an official that key people in City Hall and businesses in the area do not support a skatepark at the Crossroads site.
Officials say that the skatepark group and the city are meeting to consider a handful of new locations. But Maddison says that his group wants to stick with Crossroads and will make its case to Mayor Lovely Warren in a private meeting this week.
Charles Carroll Plaza is located on top of the Genesee Crossroads parking garage on the west bank of the river. The garage roof leaks extensively, city officials say, which is the impetus for the reconstruction project.
The 3.4-acre park has its own issues. The pavers are rocking and tipping, the park is hard to see and to get to, and it’s difficult if not impossible for members of the disabled community to use the park.
The city is gathering public input on future uses of the park with a survey you can take via text message. More info: http://www.cityofrochester.gov/article.aspx?id=8589967586. More public meetings are planned, too.
Another part of the project that could potentially cause controversy is the removal of the public-art installation by Richard Fleischner. The six-part enameled steel structure was erected in 1986 as part of the Rochester Sesquicentennial. It will be removed while work is going on, officials say, and may or may not be back, depending on public feedback.
Project design will take place this year and into 2017, officials say, while construction is scheduled to occur in 2017-2018.
This article appears in Mar 2-8, 2016.
A huge chunk of Rochester’s vitality – for attracting people – was destroyed when the old, popular Front Street was demolished and replaced with the Charles Carroll Plaza. Front Street was a bustling corridor of dense buildings that provided many establishments for Rochesterians.
Right now, the city is seemingly marginalizing and trivializing what is a valid recommendation for bringing vitality back to the area. The City also seems to perceive itself as a large office complex, where a skate park “does not belong.” Unfortunately, all this does is keep the City deadened and un-peopled.
Cities are for everybody, and not for limited demographics. This is especially important to keep in mind if Rochester wants to keep Millennials around (many of whom grew up skateboarding, and still do). Giving them even less reason to live/be in Rochester is a bad long-term plan.
Key people in city hall. Business owners… How about the people who live and pay taxes in the city? We want parks we can actually use!! A skatepark gives our kids a place to play. Why on earth is that a bad thing?
The skatepark needs to happen. Purchase an empty parking lot and build it. There are TONS of empty parking lots around St Josephs Church Park. Build something over there. I wont even use the park, but I know it needs to happen. As far as the ideas for swings, exercise equipment etc in a reconfigured Crossroads park, do it! Its as simple as a trip to Austin, TX, Portland, OR, or Providence, RI to see what a small city can do to bring the public to the city with an outstanding park. http://www.austintexas.gov/page/park-direc…
Our only request of the City of Rochester and the design firm that was awarded the bid (TY Lin) was an opportunity to be involved with the process.
If at the end of the design process a skatepark was not viable, we would move on knowing that a collective process was facilitated and a decision was made in the best interest of the community.
We did not get this opportunity, so decisions are being made on behalf of the community without all of the material information.
And, by “be involved with the process” I mean an invitation to a meeting and a chance to present our case for 10 minutes. I am having difficulty understanding why this is too much to ask.