UPDATE, DEC. 3: Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley has dropped the charges against the three young men arrested while waiting for a bus last week. Doorley released the following brief statement: “After reviewing the facts associated with these arrests, I have decided to dismiss the charges in the interest of justice.” ORIGINAL BLOG: I know […]
James Sheppard
Warren appoints two to lead her transition team
Rochester Mayor-elect Lovely Warren has appointed a local lawyer and an RIT professor to lead her transition. Christopher Thomas and Dr. dt ogilvie are serving on a volunteer basis. The transition team will also hire Strategic Community Intervention LLC, founded by former Rochester Mayor Bill Johnson, to consult. Current mayor Tom Richards will be a […]
White wants a Rochester ‘for us, by us’
Alex White, the Green Party candidate for Rochester mayor, is fired up about Costco. But not in the way you think. Costco, a membership-only warehouse store, will be part of the CityGate development planned for the intersection of East Henrietta and Westfall roads. Costco received property tax abatements from the county’s industrial development agency worth […]
Council members grill police chief over Hardaway arrest video
While Deputy Chief Mike Wood briefed the press Thursday afternoon on the latest in the city’s recent spate of killings, on the other side of Main Street, Rochester Police Chief James Sheppard answered tough questions from City Council members on an arrest video that has the whole community talking. A video posted on YouTube last […]
Warren gets personal in TV debate
This is a corrected version of this blog. Locally produced TV often has an unintended comedic element, and it was a bit strange to see Rochester mayoral hopefuls Tom Richards and Lovely Warren sitting side by side at News 8’s anchor desk last night. Mostly because the pair made a credible News team! duo. The […]
Sheppard, Warren events stress dire need
Corrected version. I’ve spent some time in the West Main Street-Chili Avenue area over the last few days, first to listen to Rochester Police Chief James Sheppard talk to residents gathered at Junior’s Barber Shop & Unisex Salon on West Main, and then to observe a Lovely Warren campaign event at the Iglesia Educational Center […]
WEEK AHEAD: Cuomo’s budget, MCC site meeting, planning downtown, College Town designs, chat with the police chief
Governor Andrew Cuomo will present his 2013 to 2014 budget proposal to the State Legislature at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, January 23. The proposal will likely top $130 billion. During his State of the State address earlier this month, Cuomo rolled out a load of new initiatives: he offered school districts extra funding to extend […]
Fights return downtown
The Rochester Police Department and city and school district officials thought they found a way to stop young people from gathering to fight — or to watch a fight — in the Liberty Pole area downtown. Changes were made to the busing situation last year to reduce the number of young people downtown at peak […]
Rochester’s underground justice system
Whenever Rochester Police Chief James Sheppard is asked to explain this year’s surge in violent crime, he answers that many of the city’s altercations are the result of “ongoing disputes.” It’s a response that some people find wanting — after all, couldn’t most shootings, stabbings, and assaults be attributed to a dispute of some kind? […]






