You read that title right. My self-imposed boycott of hometown favorite Wegmans has met its end. Not that I've actually patronized Wegmans since I lifted the ban, but I will no longer refuse to shop there. Is this a sign of a more mature Man About Town? Certainly not. But two recent gestures of good will on the part of Wegmans has prompted me to announce that I will no longer judge you for being a Wegmans shopper.
First off, I recently learned of multiple donations to neighborhood associations in the City of Rochester by Wegmans. These donations to Swillburg and Corn Hill are just the tip of the iceberg for Wegmans as they gave more than $1.6 million for "area-wide and neighborhood contributions" as well as another $1.4 million for "community events" chain-wide in 2006. If you know of other noteworthy contributions that Wegmans has made to groups within the City of Rochester, I'm interested to learn more. The more I know of, the more likely I am to shop there once again.
Secondly, I have to thank Wegmans for not only allowing the City to bring in a competing grocery chain for their closed Dewey/Driving Park store, but for actually helping make it a reality. Wegmans donated the site to the City with no restrictions and, as a result, the City was able to find investors willing to bring Price Rite to town. Not only that, but the City swung a $425,000 profit on the deal! That profit will be used to spruce up the Dewey Ave business district, breathing new life into the neighborhood and hopefully stabilizing what should be a thriving working class commercial center.
These are great things that Wegmans has done and is doing. There is no denying that. However, I still need more from them before I return to being a full-time Wegmans shopper. Luckily for Danny & Co., I'm easy to please. My only request: bring a full-size Wegmans to the south side of the City of Rochester. The closing of the Mt. Hope Avenue store still stings for residents of the south side and we've all gotten pretty used to the Brighton Tops store by now. But I'm willing to bet that most of us are more than willing to become Wegmans customers once again, if they return to the neighborhood. And wouldn't you know it, I've got options for them to consider.
The first potential location for the Big W: the long-rumored Psych Center site on Elmwood Avenue opposite Goodman street. A developer is planning major investment in the tower there, bringing affordable apartments geared towards college students to the huge structure. I have to assume that the apartments will be much more attractive to would-be tenants if a large commercial plaza containing a Wegmans were right in their backyard. I understand that local residents are opposed to such development due to fears of traffic, noise, and light pollution. But I've taken a long look at this site and I see no reason why this project could not be designed to minimize negative community impacts while maximizing city-wide benefit.
A second option for Wegmans is the CityGate property. This project, to be developed by Costello at the site of the former Iola campus at Westfall Road & East Henrietta Road, has been shrouded in mystery. I understand that it is Costello's intention to create a walkable mixed-use neighborhood with shops, restaurants, offices, and a mix of housing styles. While it may be impossible to make a Wegmans store "walkable," there certainly is plenty of room on the former Iola campus for a Wegmans or two. I'll settle for just one, thank you.
But it is my third option that has the most potential for overall benefit to the City. I propose that Wegmans purchase the Monroe County Department of Health property at the corner of Westfall Road and Mt. Hope Avenue, demolish the ugly high-rise that houses the Health Department offices, and construct a full-sized Wegmans with at least one restaurant outparcel fronting Mt. Hope. Under my plan, most of the County Health Department would move to the vacant, County-owned Terminal Building downtown on West Broad Street. Any remaining offices would move to unutilized space at the Civic Center.
The word on the street is that Monroe County wants to knock down the Terminal Building and replace it with a surface parking lot. If you're familiar with the Broad/Plymouth area, you know the last thing needed there is more surface parking. My plan would bring significant tax benefits to the City, revitalize a historic downtown office building, and embody a commitment to the City of Rochester on the part of Wegmans. It's a win-win-win for pretty much everyone involved. And best of all, it will make me a loyal Wegmans shopper once again.
If you've ever had the pleasure of taking a leisurely stroll around the lovely Monroe County Civic Center, you've probably had the joy of seeing litter strewn about in a sadly predictable fashion on many adjacent streets. Beyond the typical Wendy's bags and discarded Watchtower literature, the most common form of trash you'll find are clear plastic bags. But these aren't just any plastic bags, look closer and you'll see that these bags contained the possessions of a recently-released inmate of the County Jail. Or rather, a recently-released dumb inmate of the County Jail.
True, most criminals are dumb, especially those that get caught. But these are the type of criminals who, upon getting released from prison, immediately litter our city's sidewalks. These are the most braindead of the dumb criminals. It stands to reason then that these are the types of criminals that are the most likely to be repeat visitors to our area's most exclusive resort. Litterbugs piss me off, but these assholes take the cake. The funny thing is, with minimal effort, we can put these geniuses right back in the slammer. You see, these bags have the inmate's name on them in big bold letters. If these shit-for-brains can't figure out that they shouldn't leave trash displaying their personal information on the streets immediately outside the jail, then we should throw them back in jail before they commit a much worse crime.
My suggestion is a simple one: any time one of these bags is found, the police should be immediately notified and dispatched to the former inmate's home to arrest him or her for the offense. These offenders should be put back in jail for a minimum of three months for showing depraved indifference for our community. If we are serious about "zero tolerance" then we should at least show no tolerance for this form of littering. This is a simple and easy way to get some of the most ignorant scum in our community off the streets before they have the opportunity to really harm an innocent person. And if that doesn't help, there's always the death penalty...
It's Day Four of the City's asset freeze caused by our lily-livered mayor's decision to kowtow to his police buddies (who are getting quite the handsome raise). Does anyone actually believe that the current police state imposed on this city will do anything long-term to curtail crime? Give me a friggin break! I know I'm not the only city resident pissed off by this decision. More police do nothing to prevent crime. You know what actually prevents crime? Jobs, hope, economic opportunity. These are the things that we need to be investing in. How about our popular Mayor go and sit down with the assholes on the COMIDA board to talk to them about how their decisions are decimating our city? How about he go and address the Ontario County Board of Supervisors and give them a piece of our collective mind? Oh wait, there's a travel freeze on city employees.
You see, the "growth" that we're experiencing locally is almost exclusively coming at the expense of those who need it most. Why do we continue to allow jobs to move out to the periphery of our urbanized area? Why do we get excited about new manufacturing facilities popping up in Avon, Canandaigua, and Ontario? You tell me how these facilities will ameliorate the situation for the chronically-impoverished in our city? Would someone please give me a realistic long-range plan for addressing our city's poverty crisis!??!!??! Sending every uniformed officer into the streets to arrest every non-conforming individual they encounter will not help. Sure, there may be a two-week lull in violent crime (although there hasn't been much of a lull at all so far), but what happens next month? What happens when these degenerates are allowed back onto our streets and back into the gangs, drugs, and guns that they were involved with before incarceration?
I can remember the late-1990s, when crime in Rochester was at decades-long lows. Why was crime so low? Because the economy was thriving. People had jobs, people had hope, people had opportunity. Where are the jobs, where is the hope, where is the opportunity? Wherever it is, it's nowhere near the homes of those who need it most. There is no other way; we must reverse these trends. As much as I hate the guy, I can admit that Giuliani did clean up New York City. The overall crime rate in Rochester is roughly equivalent to those in New York's worst 'hoods nowadays. How did he do it? Through gentrification; through leveraging his city's wealth to create opportunities in inner city neighborhoods. By reaching out to the corporate elite and encouraging them to invest in "America's City." Can we not even try to do the same here? While our current City administration is busy wasting tens of thousands of our tax dollars on police overtime, there are dozens of small businesspeople wishing they could get tax breaks. For every "criminal" arrested tonight, there is a company willing to invest in our city if we'd only engage them. Throwing money at the RPD is nothing more than spinning our collective wheels; we need real economic change, the type of change that cannot be created by the City alone. Maggie and Minarik, please look into your souls and do the right thing. Leadership isn't about getting re-elected; leadership is about doing the right thing and letting the people decide if they agree. The suburbs have a key role to play; sadly, their elected officials are too selfish to give a damn.
First off, I apologize for being gone for so long. I've heard from many of you that I need to get back on my soapbox for the sake of this city. So, at least this one time, I'm back. Secondly, to those of you whom I offended with my last post, I too apologize. But you need to understand, this is my blog, I choose to say whatever the hell I want to say, your feelings be damned. If you don't like it, that's fine, don't read my blog. Go check out the Christian TV network or Nickelodeon - ain't no bad words there and lots of hugs and bunny rabbits too. But, if you're willing to strap on a pair and deal with the realities of life in modern America, than read my opinions whenever I find the time to post them. I guarantee I will elicit some type of feeling in your mind and body. But guys, please no more nudie pictures, I don't swing that way.
So apparently WHAM ran a Voice of the Voter poll recently on the topic of Metro Governance. You know, that very same topic that supposedly scared suburban voters from choosing Bill Johnson four years ago. Well, now 70% of voters support some form of consolidation. Guess I was right in assuming that suburbanites didn't vote for Bill because they didn't want a black man as County Exec. But enough of the race card, I've played that enough. Let's get to the heart of the matter. You suburbanites are twisted sons of bitches. How the hell do you go from getting deathly scared of PacMan eating up your local communities to agreeing with Bill Johnson? All in less than four years?!!?!?!? Worse yet, I guarantee if there were a black man running for County Exec under the exact same platform, he too would get destroyed at the polls. Crap, there I go again with the race card. Sorry about that.
Hmmm....so looking at the WHAM-TV story, we find that while voters support government consolidation, they don't want to see their local Mayor or Town Supervisor lose their jobs. They went to East Rochester, the poster child for everything that's wrong with home rule laws, and they found that folks there just don't want to see their local Village officials and police officers (insert Italian name here) lose their jobs. And yet, they're so damn tired of all these taxes! It costs $1.1 million for the Village of East Rochester to have its own superfluous police department. Given that there are roughly 2,774 households in the Village, that means that each homeowner must pay $462 per year for police service alone. But wait, of those 2,774 households, a high percentage of those are renters. There are only 1,764 owner-occupied housing units in East Rochester. This means that every homeowner in ER pays close to $620 a year for their police department. That's just nutty. There's a Monroe County Sheriffs Department substation practically in the Village. Why do they need their own department?
Matter of fact, why does anyone need their own department? As a City of Rochester homeowner, I would be more than happy to give up having a City Police Department to make way for a Metro Rochester-Monroe Police Department. This would save County taxpayers hundreds of dollars a year without losing any amount of security. But I guess that just makes too much damn sense. It goes far beyond police of course. Why the hell is there an East Rochester School District? More people live with a 1/2 mile radius of my house than live within the entire Village of East Rochester. Do they really need their own schools? What is so wrong about Metro schools? If they're good enough for the low-tax southern states, aren't they good enough for us? How about splitting the county into four districts by quadrant? That way, the rich folks in Brighton, Pittsford, Perinton, and Mendon would pretty much keep their high standards and their kids won't have to share classrooms with smelly Gates kids. But no, we love our kids. 58% percent of voters think we should not do anything to our schools. But of course, those same folks constantly demand a cut in their school taxes!
The fact is, you can't have cake and eat it too. You can't go around talking shit about Rochester, Monroe County, and New York State and how high the damn taxes are without being willing to accept some changes in your community. Metro government can and will cut taxes. It can and will improve our economic standing. It can and will bring us closer together as a community. You're a complete and utter moron if you say "I can't stand the high taxes here in Gates, I can get the same relative quality of life in Georgia for a fraction of what I pay here" out of one side of your mouth and out of the other side say "don't you dare merge our governments or take away our police!". You have to be willing to bite the bullet. You can't make an omelette without cracking a few eggs. Get over your parochial attitudes for the sake of our community as a whole! The folks in the Louisville-Jefferson County, Kentucky area bit the bullet a few years back and merged their City and County governments. The result: lower taxes, lower crime, economic growth, and a growing population. That can happen here too, if we are willing to do what it takes to make it happen.
