City Council President Lovely Warren and advocates of school choice will hold a rally at 8:45 a.m. on Monday, January 28, in recognition of National School Choice Week. Warren will talk about the achievements and importance of Rochester’s charter schools. The rally will be held at True North Rochester Prep Elementary School, 899 Jay Street.
Rochester City Council
Week ahead: Truancy funding vote, Pittsford development discussion, Brooksโ budget plan, Vargas โconversationsโ
Rochester City Council will decide on Tuesday night whether itโs willing to chip in $15,000 for a new, cooperative truancy effort with the Rochester school district and the United Way. The measure faced a rough ride through Councilโs Public Safety Committee last week โ the last stop before a vote of the full Council. The […]
Mayor has to win over Council on truancy effort
There were a few oddly intimate moments during yesterday’s City Council committee meetings. Council has to decide whether it’s willing to chip in $15,000 for a new, cooperative truancy effort with the Rochester school district and the United Way. Mayor Tom Richards supports the program, but had a tough time convincing two of the three […]
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 […]
Changes for Party in the Park?
The City of Rochester is shopping around for an outfit to produce and manage its Party in the Park summer concert series, even though the current contractor, The Springut Group, is “doing an excellent job,” says city spokesperson Gary Walker. The city wants to create more excitement around Party in the Park and to boost […]
City moves on land banks
City of Rochester officials are taking steps toward setting up a land bank, a nonprofit entity intended to serve as a tool to address vacant properties. Last year, New York passed legislation authorizing 10 land banks across the state. Earlier this year it signed off on five, including one in Erie County. And earlier this […]
College Town kickoff
Demolition of three older office buildings on Mount Hope and Elmwood avenues will mark the beginning of the College Town project next month. The 16-acre mixed-used development targets the west side of Mount Hope between Elmwood Avenue and Crittenden Boulevard. The project was initiated by the University of Rochester to help integrate the institution and […]
Council approves Sibley deal
Rochester City Council members have approved a $5-million deal to sell the Sibley building to the Sibley Redevelopment Limited Partnership, an entity to be formed by Boston-based Winn Development. Winn plans to invest up to $150 million over 10 years to renovate the building for retail, offices, and housing. Council members were initially skeptical of […]
Elected officials voice opposition to fracking
Over 400 elected officials, including several in Monroe County, have signed on to a letter urging Governor Andrew Cuomo to maintain the de facto moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing. The letter, led by a group known as Elected Officials to Protect New York, says that the current analyses of fracking are inadequate. The state Department […]
Week ahead: water-level teleconference, Sibley building vote
On Tuesday, a joint US-Canada board tasked with managing St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario water levels will hold a teleconference on that topic. The teleconference, which starts at 7 p.m., is being held by the International St. Lawrence River Board of Control, a sub-board of the International Joint Commission. The presentation will address current […]
The week ahead: meetings on teacher evals, East truancy, Sibley building; key primaries
The Rochester school board will hold a special session Tuesday night, September 11, to discuss the latest version of the district’s teacher evaluation plan. The plan was recently submitted to the State Education Department for approval. All teachers and principals must be evaluated using the new plan this school year. The evaluation plan has been […]
NEWS BLOG: Does it matter if a minority recruit comes from the city?
While most everyone has been celebrating the indisputably good news that minority participation in the Rochester Police Department is up, I remembered a fact I learned not long ago: that many, if not most, of the RPD’s minority recruits traditionally come from the suburbs, not the city. That’s true of the current recruit class. Sixteen […]






