No, George Bush came to town yesterday for one reason: to save Randy Kuhl. Randy's seat in the 29th district, which gerrymanders into Southeast Monroe County, is no longer the safe seat that it's been for the last two decades.
Though local commentators have already tagged Randy as troubled, I'll go one step further: in 2006, as Kuhl goes, so goes the House.
Over the years, I've heard a lot of talk about fighting The Man. Most of this talk happened after a few drinks, and it rarely survived the hangover.
Last summer, a group of Rochester activists went far beyond drunken table-pounding. They took on the biggest Man in town: Wegmans. Some of them ended up in court and out of work.
Since I freely admit that I don't have the guts to take on The Man, I wondered whether they thought it was worth the effort. So I caught up with one of them and asked.
Lawrence Lessig, the Rock Star of Copyright Law, spoke at RIT today. Lessig, who is the founder of Creative Commons and the author of a number of books on copyright in the Internet age, gives riveting presentations (example) . There was way too much going on in this morning's to do it justice here, but there's one theme that struck me: lawbreaking as a part of life, and it's effect on democracy.
There's something surreal about listening to Lawrence Lessig and buying a new cell phone in the same week. It's like looking at pictures taken from the pages of Bon Appetit and Gourmet, followed by a meal of roadkill and moldy bread washed down with a jug of T-Bird.
I like what I'm not hearing about Renaissance Square.
The silence about public/private partnership is refreshing. It looks like taxpayers are going to pay, straight up, for Ren Square -- no CATS-like Ren Square company will run the project. Since there's no public/private talk, the resulting quiet about "profit" is also a balm to my ears. Nobody is pretending that a subsidized public service should become a moneymaker.
And everyone seems to have stopped talking about a massive private fund drive, which means that the project is going to be adjusted to the available funding.
Finally, I haven't heard much about big loans for stores and restaurants. Maybe that idea is still floating around, but I hope I don't hear about it again.
In fact, the silence is so widespread that I have a feeling that this thing just might work. So I'll shut up now, because I don't want to jinx it.
For those of you that don't know, I live over near the Ant Hill Cooperative in the Plymouth Exchange area, on the border of the 19th ward. I live within sight of 2 abandoned houses (1 is sill owned, but unused), and there are another 4 I can see just by walking around my block. Because of where I live, I also see a lot of kids & young adults out on the streets at all hours.
So, when I hear Duffy's plans to demolish backlogged buildings I was happy. Followed by his announcement to work towards a under-16 curfew (which I think is a bad stopgap, but a useful stopgap) I was kind of surprised. And getting a 311 system working ( like the recent addition of craigslist) might be enough to bring Rochester back into the category of 'city' in a lot of peoples minds.
My question ( as a relatively new Rochesterian) is how likely is this stuff to happen? And can a mayor's grand schemes actually shift the direction of the city?
This year's county budget Kabuki is in full swing. Maggie Brooks has issued this pantsload [pdf] of a slideshow that contains her "community solution" to the perennial budget shortfall. Her justification includes the usual list of terrible things that would happen if taxes weren't raised [page 3]. As always, "Close the Seneca Park Zoo" is there. (Of course, "No more press releases" or "Maggie and her staff move to cubicles" are mysteriously absent.)
My message to Maggie: Just Do It. Close the zoo, immediately. We'd all be better for it.
In yesterday's D&C, the mother of a young crystal meth chemist tells how she expressed her love for her son by calling the cops. He's now spending some time jail, and the D&C is worried that crank is coming to Rochester.
In other news, a few weeks ago Mayor Duffy raised a stink about a plan to locate a new facility to treat violent sex offenders at the Rochester Psychiatric Center on Elmood Avenue. That location is right across the street from the Al Sigl center, which serves 2,000 developmentally disabled children and adults daily.
These two issues might seem unrelated, but leave it to California to find a way to address them both in one fell swoop.
If giving the maximum sentence to a first-time offender at the behest of a powerful corporation is judicial activism, I guess I'm against it.
Also, it's interesting to compare that story to the D&C's seven little paragraphs buried deep in Section B. Both the Finger Lake Times and the New York Times have out-reported them on this one. Who's next -- The Penny Saver?
Friday's Talk of the Nation included a discussion of the new "green" mega-mall in Syracuse. When the discussion turned to other city improvements, tearing down the elevated portion of I-81 was mentioned as a way to make the city move livable and raise the tax base. One of the guests referenced a study showing that the value of real estate two blocks on either side of elevated highways was significantly less valuable than other nearby property.
If this is true for elevated highways, it is probably also true for sunken ones like the Inner Loop. Raising our tax base is just one more reason to tear it up.
Maggie Brooks says that she won't cap the county portion of the gas tax. That's a good start. Now, if she starts talking about doubling -- or even quadrupling -- the gas tax, she'd be talking even more sense.
I hate paying $35 to fill the tank of my economy car, and I sympathize with the working poor who have to fund their commute. Nevertheless, I think we all need to realize that gas in the US is dangerously cheap. With the finite supply of petroleum under the control of the most unstable regimes on earth, and with developing countries like China and India increasing their consumption by record amounts, we need to get this monkey off our back.
$3/gallon gas has our friends and neighbors thinking about ditching the Escalade. $5/gallon gas may actually get us to buy more hybrids, and perhaps those hybrids will be pluggable so we can charge them overnight using off-peak electricity generated using nuclear or coal.
Funny that Maggie is one of the few politicians actually making sense on this issue. The rest of them are trying to pretend that a few pennies off a gallon will make some kind of difference in the long run.
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.
Great Banana made a number of interesting comments about my Learning from Chattanooga post last month. One of them concerned fairness: it doesn't seem fair that a inner city school system that's been languishing for years receives more attention (and funding), while the suburban systems that have been doing well are penalized.
While on vacation last week, I found some interesting examples that challenged my intutions about fairness.
Rochester Turning's author and commentators are a-twitter with the sounds of WTF? after reviewing Randy Kuhl's latest campaign finance report. Why would the Sugar Cane and Sugar Beet Political Action Committees (PACs) be giving Randy some, er, sugar?
One theory is that the sugar lobby mixed up Rochester, NY and Rochester, MN, which is in the heart of sugar beet country. Close, but no cigar.
Eric Massa was on the Bob Lonsberry show this morning, and it was all love. I thought that Eric and Bob would end the show with hugs and chaste-but-heartfelt kisses, but apparently they ran out of time. Based on Lonsberry's reception, I'd say that Massa has a good chance for some crossover votes this Fall.
Along with the usual issues -- the war in Iraq, flag burning, NAFTA and gun control -- Massa raised an interesting one: federal tax inequity. Massa wants New York to get back more of what it pays in federal tax.
I live just off South Plymouth Ave, between Corn Hill and Brooks Landing. For those of you that don't know, it's a run down stretch, with a bunch of boarded up houses. This year at the Corn Hill end a new development of suburban-style houses have been built as a 'redevelopment' project. Twice in the last month while driving by these new spangly houses, I've watched as one particular family, in a new house, throw beer bottles at the boarded up house behind it.
It drives me crazy. I pick up garbage around my block. I try to make the place livable, despite the boarded up houses, trouble makers, and general garbage. I consider living here, and trying to make it a little nicer my patriotism, my small work towards a better America. It makes me crazy to watch a family in one of these (relatively) nice new units throwing garbage around. Are they Stupid? Are they unthinking? Are they just jerks? It's one family, but it still drives me crazy.
No matter what, it's clear that "build new houses and the neighborhood gets better" looks good in powerpoint, but it's not that simple in real life. To fix a place you need to change attitudes, and habits, and tie people into the neighborhood. And that isn't nearly as easy or simple, as just tearing down a few blocks, and building something new.
While sweating and standing around at a Bug Jar concert last night, I had ample time from some bitter reflection over the recent payola announcement. The first payments from the Sony settlement have gone out, and you'd think that Sony's classical and jazz divisions had been stuffing Benjamins into the pockets of Simon Pontin and Mordecai Lipshutz .
Unfortunately for Simon and Mordecai, Sony wasn't handing out trips and cash to get the newest recording of Beethoven's Late Quartets played on public radio. Instead, they were paying to get new Franz Ferdinand, Killer Mike, Train and Celine Dion songs on Clear Channel and Infinity (this giant pdf has all the details). And it wasn't WXXI listeners who were harmed: it was indy artists who compete with the big names, and fans who buy records in popular genres. Payola subjects artists to unfair, subsidized competition, and fans pay more for all CDs to finance this form of bribery.
Here are some highlights from the CATS audit. Overall, it's a 40-page chronicle of the hubris of Mayor Johnson and his staff, and the chicanery of a couple of investors who rooked him. It should be required reading for every supporter of government/private "partnerships".
Don't click the following link on a full stomach:
If Bill Johnson's blithering, incoherent attack on the ferry audit wasn't enough to convince you of his incompetence, perhaps this buried gem from the City's response to the audit might:
...the City is currently at a disadvantage when responding to this Report. Almost all of the officials of the administration of Mayor William Johnson in office during the time period covered by the report and who were principally involved in the fast ferry operation are no longer with the City...
Res Ipsa Loquitur
So, those that know me know I'm a bit
of a Cooperative enterprise nut. I was amazed the other day to find
that other cooperative nuts were trying to start a Cooperative
Bookstore in town. Like Abundance
Market, anyone could shop there, but owners would get a
discount, owner that work hours get more of a discount, etc.
One
of the lead organizers ( lets call her Purple) has experience doing
this in other cities. From her work in Philly, she expected a small
storefront for 600-800, no problem. She was surprised when last month
she visited several places,(including Midtown
Plaza) to find out about storefront rates. Every place she
visited downtown wanted:
Here we have someone dedicated to less sprawl, and in-city development, with cooperative bookstore running experience, trying to (god forbid!) open a new business downtown, and getting doors closed in her face. Is there any wonder that downtown isn't developing? And does anyone know of places downtown that desire new businesses, rather than chase them away?
The more I see Bob Duffy in action, the more I think he's got some characteristics we don't see too often in politicians.
First, he can deal with unpleasant situations in a forthright manner. He axed the ferry without drama. That could have been his last ferry-related act. He could have tut-tutted over the audit, pointed out that everything occured on Johnson's watch and went on with life. Instead, he's calling for criminal prosecution of the CATS founders. That's probably futile, but his hardball stand is probably setting the stage to have the 40-year $1 lease on the port broken.
Second, though he's by no means camera-shy, he's no publicity hog. The D&C isn't swimming with "Duffy says" press releases. Whenever there's a murder or a fire, he's not running around trying to get his face or name in the paper -- he lets his department heads do the talking.
Finally, his administration hasn't advanced any grandiose plans and schemes. So far, he's sticking to the hard job of making the city government work.
This might seem like faint praise, but things could be a helluva lot worse. In the 8th month of his administration, I have to say that Duffy's looking pretty good compared to the other alternatives.
Webster Schools have decided to pull Rainbow Boys, a book about gay teen life, from a reading list after parents complained. Apparently, a few moms and dads got the vapors when they saw that the book was part of the summer reading program.
Never mind that little Johnny only has to pick two books from the hundreds of choices, or that he can choose another book by filling out a "permission to read off-list" form. The unadulterated homosexuality of Rainbow Boys polluted that list by its very presence. It was getting gay all over the place, and it had to be stopped!
I guess life is worth living in Webster -- if you're straight. If you're gay, well, not so much.
Rochesterian Maj Gen (Ret) John Batiste was interviewed this morning on CNN and discussed the Geneva Convention:
I don't know what they put in the water cooler at Klein Steel, but perhaps it should be added to the city-wide supply. In addition to employing retired General John Batiste, one of the most vocal critics of the execution of the Iraq war, the CEO, Joseph Klein, isn't afraid to say what he thinks and damn the consequences.
Yesterday, Klein got the "Business Person of the Year" award from the Rochester Business Alliance (i.e., the Chamber of Commerce). Instead of the usual "I want to thank the Academy" speech, he apparently gave a barn-burner, criticizing politicians at the head table and speaking inconvenient truths.
I say "apparently" because the D&C coverage is so focused on the reaction to the speech that it wasn't clear what was so offensive. Here's a bit of what he said:
He noted challenges, including workers' compensation, laws unfavorable to business and the state's lack of job growth[...]"Our young people won't come back because they can't find jobs[.]"
Isn't that just the plain old truth? Are the so-called "leaders" of this burg so goddam calcified and unapproachable that their panties wad up when someone speaks it? And is the "newspaper of record" so far in the Chamber of Commerce's pocket that they would rather cover hurt feelings than the truth itself?
If so, we're in much bigger trouble that even Mr Klein might believe.
