Rochester Writers

WBER just hit the 90's on their fundraiser.  They started playing music from '85 and are advancing one year per $1000 raised.   It's a creative approach for a good cause.  If you're interested, you can donate online.

With Summer warm weather almost here, it's time to start hearing about e coli counts at Charlotte Beach.   Kids, grab your swimsuits, let's get out and jump into some shit!

My new neighbor and I are having a nice conversation. She's animated and smiling as she tells me how much she likes her neighbors in our suburban neighborhood.  Then, there's an uncomfortable pause in the conversation. 

Did my dog pee on her leg?  Has someone passed gas? 

So, after watching 'Rochester, A City of Poverty I started looking into property problems across New York, especally upstate.  It turns out there is a lot about Property Flipping, and I found this great video about property flipping in Buffalo, at Fix Buffalo weblog. 

As with any semi-legit busiess, a poor-man's barometer of the problem is as close as E-Bay Realestate Auctions.

Chattanooga is about the size of Rochester, and their schools used to stink.  In the late '90s, they were home to 9 of the 20 worst schools in Tennessee, with 22% of third graders reading at or above grade level.

Though Rochester's schools aren't as bad as Chattanooga's, we can still learn from what they're doing to improve their worst inner-city schools. If we do, we're going to be awash in the blood of sacred cows.

A new "progressive" blog, Rochester Turning, had an interesting post concerning Chicago's new effort to turn itself into a "green city".   It involves the city buying solar panels, mandating efficient vehicles, encouraging rooftop gardens, and planting trees.   Mayor Richard Daley, a Democrat but by no means a flaming liberal, has championed this project for years.  The quality of life for residents, rich and poor, is better for it.

OK,
So this is going to get flaming sishkabobs thrown at me (like that guy in Temple of Doom) but for the love of Nathaniel Rochester, are we Rochestarians such suckers that we fall for another 'this will fix all everything, I promise' giant money-hole project.

It seems that we are such suckers.

El Mayor says we should at least 'put it on the table'. Ok. It's Table time.  The Grasso-Zimmer plan will cost 10-13 million dollars and it will create more waterfront along the downtown section of the Genesee river (that no one actually uses as waterfront).  There is, of course, no guarantee it would bring any business to downtown, at all. But you know, tinkerbell says if you believe, it will happen! Just like High falls did! Did I mention it will cost 10-13 million!  Please, can I take it off the table now? It's starting to stain reality.

Now, we tried High Falls. We tried the Fast Ferry. We're still toying with Ren. square. Can we actually stop for once and  think about  the success rate of our last 3 giant money-sucking projects on Rochester, before throwing another 10-13 million dollars Consultant & Developers party?

Hey!  I know! What we really need is a monorail.. You know,  to connect together all of these fantasticlly successful city-saving projects that have turned our economic around! We can build it out of silver bullets!

Slashdot  of all places, posted a good Rochester-relevant question today.  Why don't we bury all of our power lines?   This query is repeated frequently when we're living like cave dwellers after an ice storm, but we soon forget all about it as soon as our beer is ice-cold rather than piss-warm.