Well, I guess the other ROC thread got vandelized or something. Oh well, hopefully Jman can salvage some of it and add it on to this one. To start off this new Rochester development thread, I'm going to post this story about Verizon adding jobs in the area.... and I'm going to "susiefy" it. You'll see what I mean.


Verizon to hire 75 at Henrietta center


David Tyler
Staff writer


(June 19, 2006) — Verizon Wireless said today it would hire 75 more people at its Henrietta call center.

Including the new jobs, the company has hired more than 450 people here since 2005.
The center, which handles customer inquiries from across upstate New York, now employs more than 900 people. It handled more than 1.8 million calls in 2005.

Henrietta is also home to Verizon's upstate headquarters. Verizon Wireless employs more than 1,100 people in the Rochester area, including 19 area retail stores.

Verizon said it is adding jobs to meet growing demand for its voice and data services. The company said it is also seeking bilingual employees to help Spanish-speaking customers.

Ken Dixon, Verizon Wireless' upstate president, said the skill of the area work force is a major reason the company keeps hiring here.

"Every time we've added to our local employee base, the Rochester area responds with outstanding applicants," he said. "Their performance in our center is why we're able to continue to grow here and bring new jobs to the area."

only a Rochester thread could have an "issue" like it has.

well, good to see Verizon is adding some jobs even if not HUGE numbers, anything is everything in WNY.

Susification lol.

I wonder if it's related to Sussudio (http://www.ckdhr.com/hrose/songs/sussudio.html)?

Ew...Phil Collins.

http://my-expressions.com/up_media/4051/pblog/5159/1150761876.jpg


HAHAHAHA...at least Ive been getting a daily laugh from this forum lately.

While I dont think that customer service jobs are anything to be excited over, I did find this article interesting...and I bet the bilingual ee's get paid half way decent?

Verizon Adding 75 Jobs
13 WHAM

Verizon Wireless is adding 75 full-time jobs to its Henrietta call center.

Verizon cited strong customer growth and a skilled work force in the Rochester area. The new jobs will address a growing demand for wireless voice and data products.

The call center has nearly 900 workers today. It had about 100 in 2001.
The company is looking for Spanish-speaking applicants to fill some of the new positions.

Thats a huge increase in just 5 years!

Firms Seek Ok for 2 Malls
Plain Vanilla Shell

Three years after a developer dropped efforts to build the first major mall in Forsyth County, there's new hope for residents who don't want to cross county lines to find high-end shops.

Two plans have surfaced to bring stores, office space and hotels to parcels near Exits 12 and 13 along Ga. 400.

Forsyth County Commission Chairman Jack Conway said the county welcomes both projects.

"They're both very high scale and fit in with the demographics of the community and would probably be the biggest revenue generators in the county," Conway said.

Cousins Properties has filed plans for a project called Avenue Forsyth, which would include 250,000 square feet of offices or hotel rooms in addition to 850,000 square feet of shops.

The company's Avenue projects are open-air shopping centers designed with a small-town look. Shops typically include Abercrombie & Fitch, Ann Taylor, Borders Books & Music, Panera Bread, Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma.

Cousins spokesman Matt Gove said Avenue Forsyth would be the company's largest Avenue project in the United States. The property, off Exit 13 near Ga. 141 and Ronald Reagan Parkway, is already zoned for retail, Gove said. According to plans filed with state officials, who will review the project's potential impact on the region, a completion date has been set for May 2008.

Taubman Centers hopes to build on a site near Exit 12 in the McGinnis Ferry Road area. Conway said the company is looking at a site where the Rouse Co. had hoped to develop a mall about three years ago. Rouse dropped its plans after failing to land high-end anchor stores.

Karen MacDonald, spokeswoman for Taubman, said the company is constantly looking at potential sites for new development. "We have an agreement with the landowner to pursue the possibility of land development on this site," said MacDonald, who declined to comment further.

Forsyth planners said the company has not filed any plans with the county. Based in Michigan, Taubman builds regional malls with anchors such as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale's, according to the company's Web site. Conway, who has spoken with company representatives, said he expects Taubman will also want to build a hotel, and possibly movie theaters, condos and office space.

County officials have been eager to land a large mall to serve Forsyth's growing population and to offset a tax digest that is overwhelmingly residential. Generally, homes use more county services than they pay for in taxes, and businesses pay more in taxes than they use in services.

Commissioner Brian Tam, who represents an area that includes the property where Cousins wants to build, said he doesn't know much about Taubman's plans. But he said he's confident the projects would be a good fit for the area.

Shopping centers with high-end tenants do a better job of attracting more stores and restaurants than "an assemblage of strip malls," Tam said. "I think the time is right."

Several Forsyth residents said they welcome having more places to shop without having to leave the county. But they also worried about the impact on county roads, especially Ga. 141.

"I live off 141 and the traffic is bad enough," said Rhiannon Conner, a Web designer.

"Two malls?" said Stephanie Baskam, who works at a golf club. "Do the roads first."

Chris Mortland, an information technology consultant, said he wants to see more shopping nearby because traffic on Ga. 400 makes the drive to Alpharetta or Atlanta a chore.

"I think we need it," Mortland said. "Trying to get to North Point [Mall in Alpharetta] is impossible right now with all the construction going on."

Very interesting... Chili is worried about ruining green space for a mall, and GA is worried about more traffic. (Believe me it was a nightmare.) I remember seeing in ATL $100,000 Mercedes with bashed in sides from crazy traffic accidents. And there was no point to fixing it because you would probably be in another accident next week.

Here is a very interesting report on national retail and the economic spending nationwide. Note: Upstate NY did not make the report. Page 5 is very interesting.

http://www.nationalretailgroup.com/research/viewReports.asp?NIRRID=82&rt=FR

Alleson, former hospital site OK'd for tax breaks
Rochester Business Journal

The County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency on Tuesday approved tax breaks related to a $16.1 million acquisition and demolition project at the former Genesee Hospital on Alexander Street and a $4 million expansion of Alleson of Rochester Inc.
Buckingham Properties LLC in March unveiled plans to buy the 17-acre Genesee Hospital complex and redevelop it.
Breaks of up to $100,000 on property, mortgage and sales taxes were approved by COMIDA for the first of three project phases. The first phase includes the acquisition of the property and demolition of hospital buildings.
Buckingham representatives have not detailed specific plans for the site.
COMIDA also approved up to $100,000 in tax breaks for Alleson’s 52,140-square-foot addition to its facility on Brighton-Henrietta Town Line Road in Henrietta.
The athletic apparel manufacturer employs 73. The expansion is expected to create 50 jobs.


I can't wait to see what is proposed for the former Gennesee Hospital site. I hope it is really nice and fresh. Hopefully it will be a place to live, work and play all in one. What an opportune place to live too, the corner of Monroe Ave and Alexander St.

Ineterstingly enough.... they just announced hikes today on NC property taxes!!1

Oh no, now you're going to pay $2000 on a house that's worth $200,000.

:D

Oh no, now you're going to pay $2000 on a house that's worth $200,000.

:D
But as anyone up here can attest, it's only the start.

Either that, or they can also follow the New Hampshire model - keep the rate low (so that they can always claim low-tax), but jack the valuations up more and more frequently. Something like 90% of all homeowners who contest their assessments are too high end up winning the argument - but that's maybe only 5% of the population that bothers. What does that tell you?

Either way, politicians will always use it for quick cash, and the general population doesn't care. Look how long it's taken to get a "taxpayer revolt" up here.

it all rolls around

I am predicting cuts by Spitzer, though Suozzi I like better, I welcome any cut given.

Am I wrong.... or are WNY property taxes going down? I've looked at real estate, especially in the Rochester area for a long time now over the internet. Nothnagle along with many other real estate websites tell you the annual taxes, and although they are still pretty high, I was surprised to see some relatively low compared to where they were about 2 1/2 years ago when I first started looking. A 170,000 dollar house in the average Rochester suburb had taxes of around $6000. Now as I look at real estate, I see similarly priced houses with taxes in the mid $4000 range. Still pretty high compaired to the national average, but a decent decrease form before. Is this just randomly coincidental.... or are the property taxes actually going down a little?

I think the Star program is making somewhat of a difference - Our taxes will decrease from $3800 to $3200 next year.

Area's loss of people persists


Stagnation widespread, though census finds pockets of growth


Lara Becker Liu
Staff writer


(June 21, 2006) — Like a perpetually leaky faucet, upstate New York is steadily losing population, census estimates show.

The figures released today bring into sharper focus the challenges facing much of the Northeast, including tax base erosion, graying communities and the brain drain.

Demographers and other experts say the exodus is largely attributable to a lack of jobs — high-tech jobs in particular — a problem that may be fueled by businesses' reluctance to move to a state with taxes and energy costs among the highest in the nation.

"This is a declining part of the country," said William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. "All of these cities are not doing well because (they are) more tied to the past in terms of old economy industries. It's just not as flashy somehow for a lot of young people."

But he suggested that the loss may be reversible: Immigrants, seeking opportunities and affordable living, could move into the area and repopulate it. Rochester and Buffalo, both seeking to develop as biotechnology centers, could create jobs attractive to young people.

Pockets of growth exist amid the stagnation. Ontario County ranked eighth among New York's 62 counties in population growth between 2000 and 2005. It grew by 4 percent to 104,461.

Victor, Ontario County, was the sixth-fastest growing town in the state during that 5-year period, jumping 20.7 percent to 11,951. The Ontario towns of Canandaigua, East Bloomfield and Hopewell also grew rapidly.

A handful of other towns in the region were notable gainers, including Webster, Henrietta and Geneseo. But more towns lost population than gained, with the decliners including Monroe County's biggest towns, Greece and Irondequoit.
Karl Lindemuth, 29, is among the 2,000-plus people who have moved to Victor since 2000. He came from his native Washington, D.C., to the Park Avenue area of Rochester in 2003 to be with his partner. They moved to Victor last year so that Lindemuth, a salesman for Van Bortel Subaru in Victor, could be closer to work.

"We were commuting to Victor, sometimes six times a week, and it was costing $600 a month between the two of us," Lindemuth said. "Out here, it's four-tenths of a mile to work if we go the long way. The pace is slower. There's not as much traffic or crime. There's more space and freedom. ... and the taxes out here are extremely reasonable when compared to Brighton and Pittsford."

Meanwhile, upstate cities are shrinking — Rochester at a faster pace from 2000-05 than during the 1990s. Since 2000, the city has lost 3.8 percent of its people. Buffalo declined even more, by 4.2 percent, and Syracuse by 3.1 percent.

Once a boomtown, Rochester now ranks 88th among U.S. cities, with 211,091 people. Chula Vista, Calif., outside San Diego, is among cities on pace to eclipse Rochester. Garland, Texas, and Chesapeake, Va., already have.
Many upstate counties also have shrunk. Erie County lost 2 percent of its population in the past five years, while Monroe County was essentially flat, losing 0.3 percent, and Onondaga County slipped 0.2 percent.

"It's the economy," said Sharon Ana Entress, a researcher for the University of Buffalo's Institute for Local Governance and Regional Growth. "There's many assets here — great arts and culture, low cost of living — but there's no jobs, not enough to support people."

Mark Patterson, 41, moved in 2002 from downtown Buffalo to Key West, Fla., where he works as a property manager and bartender.

"I came here on vacation to escape a broken heart, and I fell in love with this island, the people and the climate," he said by phone.

The weather and job market were among the reasons Barbara Shapiro moved from Penfield to Tucson, Ariz., in 2002.
"I couldn't deal with the winters anymore," said Shapiro, 40. "The winter depression was getting to me and I have a brother that lived out here." In Rochester, Shapiro taught computer classes to adults. In Tucson, she works in sales for the American Red Cross.

"The job market was lousy" in Rochester, she said. "It seems like with large companies doing so many layoffs, with Kodak and Xerox, it was bound to happen."
She misses water, and the green grass and trees of New York and comes back to visit at least once a year. But she's glad she moved. "It's nice waking up to sunshine every day."

"I couldn't deal with the winters anymore," said Shapiro, 40. "The winter depression was getting to me and I have a brother that lived out here."...But she's glad she moved. "It's nice waking up to sunshine every day."
Wuss.

I can't remember the last morning I wasn't awakened an hour early on account of sun. I want some clouds in the morning, dammit!

Wuss.

I can't remember the last morning I wasn't awakened an hour early on account of sun. I want some clouds in the morning, dammit!
That's probably because you do not live in the Rochester area.

OH YEAH susie.... Buffalo's climate is SO different from Rochester. They ALWAYS have sun there and Rochester NEVER does. You must be slipping, you're now posting old news. This is basically the same article that was posted a few months ago when the 2005 estimates came out. Can't you find something else to harp on?

And I gotta know.... WTF is up with your signature? You quoted Rochesteraddict when he was compairing Rochester's old Mayor Johnson to Duffy..... and then went on to try and make a point by posting some stupid irrelavant crap about "if gm goes under only one person loses their job"? How freaking nuts are you?

OH YEAH susie.... Buffalo's climate is SO different from Rochester. They ALWAYS have sun there and Rochester NEVER does.

According to the Weather page in today's Buffalo News, Buffalo has had 61 sunny days so far this year, Syracuse has had 63 and Rochester has had only thirty three (33). They print this sunshine derby every day and also include Phoenix and Orlando. They use official US Weather Service data. Last year Buffalo actually beat out Orlando for the full year. Phoenix of course always wins.

The reason that Buffalo is so much sunnier than Rochester is that good old Lake Erie effect.

We just had a similar article in the Buffalo News, about the population loss. I would say it's not good (obviously) but it's based on census estimates, and I don't think those are worth the paper they're printed on. Same thing that predicts DC to lose 25% of it's population in the next 30 years.

I'll wait until 2010 to make judgment.

Definitely. I'm not sure what they projected for Monroe County in the 90's, But I'll be NOBODY expected it to gain 22,000 people.

According to the Weather page in today's Buffalo News, Buffalo has had 61 sunny days so far this year, Syracuse has had 63 and Rochester has had only thirty three (33). They print this sunshine derby every day and also include Phoenix and Orlando. They use official US Weather Service data. Last year Buffalo actually beat out Orlando for the full year. Phoenix of course always wins.

The reason that Buffalo is so much sunnier than Rochester is that good old Lake Erie effect.

Where's that data? I could see Buffalo beating Rochester with some more sunny days (definitely not double though), but NOT Syracuse at all.

Where's that data?
The weather page of Today's Buffalo News. Any day will do as they put it in each day. They keep a running total all year long. They do a snowfall derby in the Winter and a full year sunshine derby.

I suppose since Rochester is not winning you will now say that the Weather Service is lying.

Development of former hospital is a step closer

COMIDA allows tax break for Buckingham's Genesee proposal
Democrat and Chronicle

Buckingham Properties appears one step closer to reshaping the former Genesee Hospital campus in Rochester.

The Rochester-based developer on Wednesday received approval for $581,000 in tax incentives from the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency. Buckingham plans to close at the end of July on the purchase of the 15-acre campus on Alexander Street for $6.5 million from ViaHealth health system under the name Alexander Realty.

It will spend an additional $9.6 million on demolition and renovation.

The incentives, approved at the COMIDA's monthly meeting, cover Phase One of Buckingham's three-phase project, Buckingham's Daniel Goldstein said at the meeting. Phase One deals primarily with the acquisition of the campus, demolition of the north campus buildings and rearranging the utilities.

Buckingham Chief Executive Larry Glazer said Phase Two will involve renovation and construction work that could begin in one year. Glazer has said the campus will be mixed-use, but he is still deciding what elements will be included.

COMIDA also approved more than $600,000 in incentives for seven other investment projects.

Making his final appearance as COMIDA's executive director since announcing his resignation last week, Terry Slaybaugh said he plans to take a more active role in economic development once he joins Anthony J. Costello & Son Development as vice president.

"You'll see me in front of the IDA at some point with a project," he said.

Slaybaugh, who leaves his post as the county's director of planning and development, nominated fellow economic development official Judy Seil to act as COMIDA's interim executive director.

Other projects
An additional seven local investment projects received the OK from COMIDA for tax breaks. The highlights:

Alleson Athletics, a maker of sports apparel in Henrietta, is building a 52,000-square-foot distribution and warehousing facility and call center. The company will receive $461,000 in county tax breaks and add 50 jobs.

Troyer Inc. of Rochester, which makes modified race cars, will receive $72,000 in tax breaks for a 13,000-square-foot manufacturing facility resulting in six new jobs.

D&T Rents of Henrietta plans to build and lease a $1 million facility to American Rentals, which is expanding its business in the sale of specialty construction materials. The project will get $133,000 in tax incentives and add nine jobs.

Im so excited about the former Genesee Hospital site, I cant wait till I see movement on the site next year...awaiting the plans for what it will look like/have in it!

Bridge work fills gap in bike trail
Democrat and Chronicle

Hovering about 150 feet up, the helicopter guided a bridge section to the waiting arms of construction workers, stirring up winds that spiraled the waters and flattened the tall grass.

The workers on Tuesday were beginning to install the first of 86 sections that will form a nearly 3/4-mile foot and bike bridge spanning Turning Point Basin along the Genesee River.

"It's very loud, very windy, very difficult to control," said Al Swanson, the iron workers' foreman.

"The biggest challenge is the chop from the blades. ... We've got to watch the prop wash kicking our boats up, kicking our floats up, trying to tip us over."

By noon, seven prefabricated steel sections were in place on the south side of the basin. Sections average 40-by-12-feet and weigh 7,000 pounds each. Wood planks will be used for the bridge deck.

Work eventually was suspended as west-northwesterly winds reached 10 to 20 mph.

The job continues today and possibly into Thursday, said Bill Kiselycznyk, the city construction manager.

The bridge is the most spectacular part of the 1.6-mile trail connection from just south of Turning Point Park to Petten Street, one of the remaining gaps in the Genesee Riverview Trail. Construction on the northern link could be completed by September, instead of November as originally planned, Kiselycznyk said.

Federal and state money will cover more than $4.1 million of the project's total bill of $5.4 million. The city is paying the rest. The new trail will follow and widen an existing asphalt section that leads through the park. The bridge was seen as the most viable option after the city was unable to reach an agreement with CSX to share railroad property.

The helicopter ferried the bridge sections between Stace Street, near School 42, and the basin. A few boaters dropped anchor to watch the unusual sight. The chopper sound had nearby residents gazing skyward.

"I kept looking out, waiting for them to pass," Marcia Brown said from her Calvin Road home.

"We weren't bothered by them, just anxious to see them."

Sweet...another place to run, hopefully in Sep while the weather is still nice.


Ellicottville a hot spot for Buffalo developers
Business First of Buffalo

The Mountain View townhouses are part of the building blitz in Ellicottville.
View Larger For the third time in the last year, a Buffalo-area development team is looking to Ellicottville for a new project.

EVL Mountain View LLC has completed the first phase of its Mountain View townhouse complex and has started work on its next phase. EVL Mountain View is headed by Amherst developer John Ciminelli and Chris Hawkswell, a Niagara-on-the-Lake developer.

EVL Mountain View joins developers Carl Paladino and the Casilio Cos. who have either built or are constructing projects in Ellicottville. Last fall, Paladino opened an 82-room hotel while a partnership involving the Casilio Cos., Alan Dewart and Chris Jacobs is working on an upscale townhouse project near Holiday Valley Ski Resort.

"Ellicottville is an asset - look at the markets it touches," Ciminelli said. "It touches on two countries and four major cities in three states. Put those together and you have a very strong market."

Ciminelli began work on Mountain View last summer and 14 of the 15 units sold within the past 12 months. Each unit averages 1,900 square feet and sold in the low $300,000s.

"It sold according to what our projections were," Ciminelli said.

Mountain View, located next to the Nannen Arboretum and about a half-mile from the Washington Street hub of Ellicottville, is adding 10 more townhouses this year. Those are expected to sell in the $325,000 range, Ciminelli said.

He predicts those units will be sold before Christmas.

The response doesn't surprise Ellicottville residential real estate veteran Cathleen Pritchard from Century 21 Town & Country in the village.

"We are seeing a lot of interest in Ellicottville these days and it's not just from Buffalo," Pritchard said.

Ellicottville attracts as many buyers and visitors from Pennsylvania, Ohio and Canada as it does from the Buffalo Niagara region. It also draws heavily from Rochester.

"We're finding - and we are not alone on this - that Ellicottville is a pretty steady market," Ciminelli said.

Thought that was interesting, who would have thought? Some Rochesterians must have Summer homes in Canandaigua and Winter homes in Ellicottville?


Here is one of the population loss articles spoken of for Buffalo: http://buffalo.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2006/06/19/daily19.html?jst=b_ln_hl

It disproves Susan's endless rants on Buffalo's numbers losing population and even points out the suburbs losses. I should post this on the Buffalo forum like Jerome does for Rochester, but I didnt like Buffalo when I lived there and still do not care for it. Or care about posting on the Buffalo blog. I hope Buffalo does so well though that there is trickle down $ to Rochester in the future. On the RNEWS site (www.rnews.com lower left corner, Business) there was an announcement that Binghamton wil be the national test site for hybrid buses, Plattsburgh is having a 64 million dollar investment by an airplane manufacturer, and Utica and Saratoga Springs may have a computer chip manufacturer moving in soon. Looks like politicians in Albany may be changing the business climate? They are finally sitting up and taking notice of upstate NY and change could be on the horizon, perhaps?

Frontier's parent to open call center in Florida


David Tyler
Staff writer


(June 21, 2006) — The parent company of Frontier, which provides local and long-distance telephone services in greater Rochester, said today it would open a new call center in Florida and consolidate its current 14 call centers to two or three by the end of 2007.
Citizens Communications said the new center, to be located in DeLand, near Orlando, would employ about 500 people. Frontier didn't say whether its Rochester call center would be one of the sites to be closed. (didn't say it yet, but they will)

"Our goal is to consolidate to two or three centers," Dan McCarthy, chief operating officer of Citizens said in a statement. "We are reviewing all options regarding the locations of the second and/or third call centers. This announcement will be made at a later date."

The company said it chose DeLand for the "the rich labor market, positive economic climate and opportunity to attract a strong employee base."

Frontier also said it is testing a work-at-home initiative in its call centers that could eventually expand to 20 percent of call-center employees and provide additional savings.

The weather page of Today's Buffalo News. Any day will do as they put it in each day. They keep a running total all year long. They do a snowfall derby in the Winter and a full year sunshine derby.

I suppose since Rochester is not winning you will now say that the Weather Service is lying.

Uh. no. chill out Susie, I was kidding around.

Once a boomtown, Rochester now ranks 88th among U.S. cities, with 211,091 people. Chula Vista, Calif., outside San Diego, is among cities on pace to eclipse Rochester. Garland, Texas, and Chesapeake, Va., already have.


Buffalo schmuffalo, we are not even bigger than Garland, Texas anymore. Why not compare us to our peer cities such as Richmond, Va. or Tuscon Arizona. We have gone from being in the top 40 in 1970 to being barely in the top 100 now.

Once a boomtown, Rochester now ranks 88th among U.S. cities, with 211,091 people. Chula Vista, Calif., outside San Diego, is among cities on pace to eclipse Rochester. Garland, Texas, and Chesapeake, Va., already have.


Buffalo schmuffalo, we are not even bigger than Garland, Texas anymore. Why not compare us to our peer cities such as Richmond, Va. or Tuscon Arizona? We have gone from being in the top 40 in 1970 to being barely in the top 100 now.

(didn't say it yet, but they will)

You're and idiot. How exactly do you know this? They actually implicated that Delphi would close in Rochester, and it didn't, and is likely to actually add to it's local workforce. You really aren't very intelligant susie, not the right person to make predictions.

Delphi will have fewer worker in Rochester at the end of 2007 than it did at the beginning of 2006 - guaranteed. It was reported as such on TV, it is in their bankruptcy filings. It's just the kind of knowledge you have when you actually live in the community you are commenting on

Uh. no. chill out Susie, I was kidding around.
?????

If it does it would be because of the buyouts, not layoffs. So you might be almost half right. But they are also looking to hire more people. It was in the paper today.... here let my susify an article for you.....


Delphi's fuel cell wins key approval


It's a promising sign for company's future here

Staff and wire reports


(June 21, 2006) — In a milestone for Delphi Corp. with implications for the Rochester area, the company has won the first of three rounds of approval from the Department of Energy for a fuel cell that could be available for commercial vehicles or other uses by 2011.

With the decision, the auto parts maker appeared to make progress Monday toward a smoother exit from bankruptcy, with plans to strengthen its business in the future with important fuel-cell technology.

"This is a great technological achievement for Delphi. It's confirmation that we are an industry leader in solid oxide fuel cells, and it also confirms that we have some of the best engineering talent in the world right here in western New York," said John Shea, a Delphi spokesperson in Troy, Mich.

Most of the fuel cell technology is being developed at Delphi's research facility in Henrietta. The operation employs 425 people and engineers everything from injectors to air-fuel modules for global manufacturing.

"Alternative technologies like solid oxide fuel cells are a terrific way to generate energy for the commercial energy market that would be a tremendous fuel and cost savings to a lot of people," Shea said.

In the future, Delphi wants to be a maker of high-tech, high-profit auto parts but get out of the low-tech, money-losing operations that currently make up the majority of its North American business. It filed for bankruptcy court protection Oct. 8 and until Monday faced a deadline of Aug. 5 to file its reorganization plan.

Delphi is one of Rochester's top 10 employers and has a total of 2,100 employees at its Lexington Avenue factory and the Henrietta research facility. The Rochester factory, which makes fuel systems and other components, is one of eight plants that the company is seeking to keep open under its restructuring plan, which calls for closing 21 other factories nationwide.

Delphi would not comment on how closely tied the fuel cell project is to its restructuring.

"I would be careful in tying too much of this to the restructuring," Shea said. "Solid oxide fuel cell has enormous potential — these are the kinds of technologies we want to focus on moving forward — but it's a technology that is not coming until 2011."

The project has moved into the second of three phases. But as it moves forward it could bring more good news to Rochester.

While a production site has not been picked yet, Delphi's Lexington Avenue plant could play a role in the project down the road. The company could potentially hire more people locally, said Steven Shaffer, chief engineer at Delphi's Henrietta facility.

This signifies the kind of high-tech products that are being developed inside the Henrietta site.

"It really is moving us away from the low-margin products into something we think is a very good business force," Shaffer said. "It is a technology that Delphi is investing in for the future."

Delphi's team has completed the first set of goals of an alliance to bring solid oxide fuel cell technology to market by 2011.

The Energy Department identified solid oxide fuel cell technology as one of the more promising ways to create electrical power. Delphi is working with science and technology firm Battelle on a three-phase, 10-year program that started in 2001 as an environmentally friendly way to reduce the United States' dependence on foreign oil.

Delphi isn't the only company developing fuel-cell technology in the Rochester area.

Most of General Motors Corp.'s research into fuel cells is done at GM's facility in Honeoye Falls, which employs about 300 people.

Researchers at the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology are also exploring fuel cells. And smaller companies are springing up as well.

As Delphi makes progress on buyouts and early retirements of union employees, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain agreed Monday to extend to Feb. 1, 2007, Delphi's deadline to submit its plan to emerge from bankruptcy.

That's a good sign, said Jim McTevia, a managing member of turnaround consulting firm McTevia & Associates LLC in Bingham Farms, Mich.

"As long as the judge perceives the company is progressing along the lines of rehabilitation, the judge is going to give that company as much time as he feels is necessary," McTevia said.

Since filing for bankruptcy, Delphi has been in a tussle with its labor unions and creditors on issues ranging from canceling labor contracts — which would undoubtedly ignite a costly strike — to seeking retention bonuses for its top executives.

That article was a nice coincidence huh, Rocguy?

If you have a chance take a drive out to Honeoye Falls where the GM hydrogen research plant is, it is very interesting looking and you can sometimes see the experimental vehicles driving around. My friend that lives out in Mendon sees their vehicles all the time around his neighborhood. Pretty cool, happening right here in little old Rochester.

Suzanne, Rocguy was comparing you to Jerome, like you are the same person, like you have the same views, same things to say, same positive (being facetious) demeanor. Like you compare Rocguy and Myself the same way.

Just dumbing it down. (Making it more understandable.)

LOL. I had already read the article this mornign so it worked out perfectly, I was already about to post it when I saw sudussa's stupid comment. But at least Susie didn't flat out lie. I just went to BuffaloNews.com and they didn't have any sunshine derby. Searched the archives that go all the way back to 1989. LOL. so Jerome, I'm not going to say that BuffaloNews lied because of the stats.... You did.

That article was a nice coincidence huh, Rocguy?
I am still correct as you are forgetting that the vast majority of their local employment is in the City. Those $30.00+ per hour jobs will be gone. It's in their court filings.



Just dumbing it down. (Making it more understandable.)

In other words he was writing to you!

I just went to BuffaloNews.com and they didn't have any sunshine derby. Searched the archives that go all the way back to 1989. LOL. so Jerome, I'm not going to say that BuffaloNews lied because of the stats.... You did.

Not everthing is posted online retard. Could someone else that gets the Buffalo News please verify to him that they do indeed have a sunshine derby on their weather page. I believe it was on the back of section B in todays paper.

Thank you.

I am still correct as you are forgetting that the vast majority of their local employment is in the City. Those $30.00+ per hour jobs will be gone. It's in their court filings.

LOL. So now you have access to Delphi's court filings? What a pathetic attempt to defend yourself. You're wrong, you're going to have to get over it. Sorry.

Alright, enough. Weather in the northeast is all the same, unpredictable. Done. People have an excellent point if they want to move for weather. My parents winter in Florida because they are so old that their bones hurt when it is cold, some arent fit for snow, if so then move!

Defense bill could benefit 3 companies
Rochester Business Journal

Three local firms could receive a total of $5.8 million as part of a defense spending bill for fiscal year 2007.
Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-Clarence, said Wednesday the House of Representatives has approved his request of $3 million for Harris Corp.’s RF Communications Division to produce communication devices for the U.S. military. Pictometry International Corp. may get $1 million to produce a visual imaging tool to be used by the Marine Corps, and Icuiti Corp. could receive $1.8 million to develop technology to be used in special operations by the military.
Representatives James Walsh, R-Syracuse, and John Kuhl, R-Hammondsport, supported Reynolds’ request for Pictometry. Kuhl backed the Icuiti proposal as well.
The defense bill needs to be passed by the Senate before it is signed into law by the president.

I never knew how much a country profits from a war. Do you think Bush could have started the war to stimulate the tanking economy after 2001? I still think this economy is tanking, even if media outlets are touting upticks. At least the stock market has mostly returned to profitability.

Not everthing is posted online retard. Could someone else that gets the Buffalo News please verify to him that they do indeed have a sunshine derby on their weather page. I believe it was on the back of section B in todays paper.

Thank you.
Well, worst comes to worst, you could probably have tapes of Channel 2 news broadcasts mailed to you.

City Buildings Show Age...and Value
by Cristina Domingues
photo by Bryan Beard
Published Jun 21, 2006

Some of Rochester’s most interesting architecture is also some of its oldest.

Several of the buildings along Main & State streets date back to the mid to late 1800s, built for the city's most prominent bankers and entrepreneurs.

Over the last few years some city structures have started to show their age.

Most recently, 150 University Ave. saw its roof come crumbling down. City Hall lost some metal on a windy February day and a ramp of the South Avenue garage collapsed right around rush hour.

Rochester city historian Ruth Rosenberg Naparsteck says some structures have a lifespan like the city’s parking garage ramp built to stand some 30 years. She believes the city would not occupy any building too dangerously old to live or work in.

She also says many of the city’s old structures still have a lot of life.

"These are not old buildings in that they have outlived their usefulness,” said Rosenberg Naparsteck. “These are buildings in many cases better than the houses that you would go out to take a look at Homearama today."

No one loves these old buildings more than the developers who are rehabbing them.

Drew Costanza and his family are making an old warehouse on Railroad St. a new marketplace just down the street from the Rochester Pubic Market.

They also turned the early 20th century Temple building on Franklin St. into stylish lofts.

“It's more work sometimes, more money but the end product is so nice, is so different so worth saving that it justifies all that time, work and money," said Costanza.

The city of Rochester has set aside millions of dollars in the 2006-2007 budget to fix some of Rochester's aging structures like City Hall, some city firehouses, libraries and parking garages.

Oh and as far as this whole Frontier/Global Crossing call center debacle here, of course I'm dissapointed to see one open in Deland Florida, I don't believe Rochester will be one of 11 to close/be consolidated, but even if it is, the Verizon center is hiring, so you win some, you lose some, such is life!

I doubt the frontier center will close in Rochester. And here's some irony, the city of Deland Florida was founded by the Deland Mansion Delands from Fairport.

LOL. So now you have access to Delphi's court filings? What a pathetic attempt to defend yourself. You're wrong, you're going to have to get over it. Sorry.
I don't need access to their court documents, as I said it was reported as such on the TV news, ch 10 to be precise about a month or so ago. Most of the work is to be moved offshore over the next couple of years. It is a part of their reorg plan. If you lived here and could see the news you would know these things and not look like such a jerk with your endless denials. BTW it is cloudy here today.

:blahblah: Why don't you just move then? How stupid do you have to be to stay in a place you hate and think is eterenally doomed? Dumbass.

:blahblah: Why don't you just move then? .
I suppose you are right everyone else is moving. The paper said we were in the top 25 in the entire USA for population decline since 2000.

Wrong, this morning as I was leaving Webster, I saw a United, Relocation Semi with a car behind it that said Rochester or Bust. The car had Massachusetts plates. Everyone is moving from Hamlin, and you cant blame them.

We gotta lose Bush....his economy blows...

Jobless claims up by largest amount in weeks

Data suggest slowing economy is showing up in the employment market
MSNBC.com

The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits rose by the largest amount in five weeks, suggesting the slowing economy is beginning to show up in a weaker employment market.

The Labor Department reported that 308,000 people filed for jobless benefits last week, a bigger-than-expected increase of 11,000 from the previous week.

Analysts, who closely watch jobless claims as a signal for where the labor market is headed, believe that job growth will weaken in coming months and layoffs will rise as businesses adjust their hiring plans in the face of an expected economic slowdown.

The increase in benefit applications was in part an adjustment after two weeks in which claims had unexpectedly declined. Those declines were attributed in part to problems making seasonal adjustments in the claims data in weeks surrounding a holiday.

Claims offices in many states were closed for Memorial Day, giving laid-off workers one less day to file claims.

The increase of 11,000 was the biggest rise since an increase of 19,000 applications in the week ending May 13. The 308,000 total claims was the highest level since claims hit 337,000 in the week ending May 27.

The overall economy expanded at a rapid clip of 5.3 percent in the first three months of the year, but that growth rate is expected to slow to around 3 percent in the current quarter as consumers struggle with rising interest rates, soaring gasoline prices and cooling home sales.

Signs of a slowdown have already shown up in a surprisingly weak increase of just 75,000 new payroll jobs in May — 100,000 below what economists had expected.

The jobless claims report showed that for the week ending June 10, 40 states and territories saw increases in claims applications while 13 saw a drop in applications.

The biggest decline occurred in Texas, a fall of 2,065 applications, which reflected fewer layoffs in the trade, service and manufacturing industries.

Nine states had increases in filings of 1,000 or more, led by Pennsylvania, which had a gain of 5,425 applicants, an increase that was attributed to higher layoffs in the transportation, leather goods, electrical equipment and service industries.

North Carolina had an increase of 3,761 claims, reflecting higher layoffs in the textile, furniture, chemical and lumber industries. California had an increase of 2,533 layoffs as jobs were cut in service industries.

The state data is not seasonally adjusted and it also lags behind the national claims data by one week.

The economy has been in a slow down since 2001...when was the uptick? Lately in those housing stories they have said that when the nation lags, Rochester's economy does well, so?

We are still the worst in the whole country, even Buffalo has 45% more new job listings than us

Online job ad rate increases here lags nation

By VELVET SPICER
Rochester Business Journal
June 21, 2006
Rochester’s online help-wanted advertising improved in May, the Conference Board Inc. reported.
Some 5,700 new, online job ads were posted in the area last month, up from 5,500 in April. The Rochester region includes Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans and Wayne counties. However, the number of online ads posted here continues to trail the other 51 metropolitan areas the Conference Board surveys. The number represents 1.08 jobs per 100 people in the work force, up from 1.05 per 100 workers in April.
The Buffalo area’s new online want ads remained unchanged last month at 8,300. The Syracuse area is not surveyed.
Job ads in the Middle Atlantic region, which includes Rochester and Buffalo, were up to 324,600 last month from 306,100 in April and 305,200 a year ago. The increase still falls short of the region’s record high number of online ads—some 338,600—posted in March. The number represents 1.61 ads per 100 workers.
Nationally, some 2.35 million new, online job ads were posted last month, up from 2.26 million in April and 2 million a year ago. Some 1.57 new ads were posted per 100 people in the work force last month, up from 1.51 in April, the Conference Board reported. The San Diego area continued to lead the nation with 3.66 new, online want ads per 100 workers in May.
Compared with May 2005, the number of new job ads was up in all of the regions except the East South Central region, which includes Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama. The highest gains were seen in the West South Central region, which includes Oklahoma, Louisiana and Texas.
The help-wanted online data series measures the number of first-time online job ads posted on more than 1,200 major Internet job boards as well as those serving smaller geographic areas.

That took you a while, 1 whole day, I figured you would have gotten that one up yesterday, must be you had to clean the cream out of your pants?

Buffalo and southern cities have more postings now than they did in the past, because they had less in the past. Here we go again, over and over and over and over. All the dead horses around you must be beaten into the ground. Hyundai vehicles are now rated 3rd in quality because the ratings are based on % improvement. Well, Hyundai used to have 0% quality, now they have 30% quality, wow thats a huge difference! But you still drive a piece of junk that only runs 30% of the time! This percentage is based on the same principle. Enough.

What I can't get over is that she sees it as bad news. HEY, the number of job ads INCREASED for the first time in a while. Dumbass susie doesn't seem to think that's indivative of anything other than that rochester was lower than a lot of areas. And get your facts straight, its FAR from the worst country. You need to stop being a liar just because you don't like Rochester. You are an inferior moron who can't even answer a question straight.... WHY DON'T YOU MOVE OUT OF ROCHESTER IF YOU HATE IT SO BAD! Don't give me some stupid shit about " oh well everyone is leaving" no, you answer the question.... if Rochester is so bad and you hate it so much, why don't you leave!?!?!?

That took you a while, 1 whole day, I figured you would have gotten that one up yesterday, must be you had to clean the cream out of your pants?

Buffalo and southern cities have more postingsnow than they did in the past, because they had less in the past. Here we go again, over and over and over and over. All the dead horses around you must be beaten into the ground. Hyundai vehicles are now rated 3rd in quality because the ratings are based on % improvement. Well, Hyundai used to have 0% quality, now they have 30% quality, wow thats a huge difference! But you still drive a piece of junk that only runs 30% of the time! This percentage is based on the same principle. Enough.

?

Hyundai does infact build quality cars. I don't see your comparison.

What I can't get over is that she sees it as bad news. HEY, the number of job ads INCREASED for the first time in a while. Dumbass susie doesn't seem to think that's indivative of anything other than that rochester was lower than a lot of areas.

Not lower than a lot of other areas but as the article stated it is lower than ALL OTHER AREAS surveyed.

And get your facts straight, its FAR from the worst country. You need to stop being a liar just because you don't like Rochester.

If you could read you would see that the article clearly states that Rochester has the lowest job ads per 100 persons in the labor force in the United States. I knew you had a reading comprehension problem, that is why I put it in bold for you. Rochester's per 100 ad ratio is 1.08 per 100, Buffalo's is about 1.45 ads per 100 (based upon labor force of 590,000) and the national average is 1.57.

We have the lowest number of ads per worker in the entire USA, it's not what I said, it's what the Rochester Business Journal reported.If you want to do something about it quit whining to me and take out an ad.

Buffalo and southern cities have more postingsnow than they did in the past, because they had less in the past. .
:fiddle:

umm... 'fraid not dolt. Buffalo has more ads than us now because 8,300 is a bigger number than 5,700. These are not percentages they are actual numbers. You know.. real... like when you are counting your blocks.

Blockhead, can you read your own postings...

The number represents 1.08 jobs per 100 people in the work force, up from 1.05 per 100 workers in April.

That is the math used to create %'s. You have posted over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over that Buffalo is increasing the number of people working and Rochester is decreasing the number of people in the workforce. (Which will eventually probably even out our unemployment, Buffalo's is currently a small tick higher.) That means there must be new workers in Buffalo according to your logic right? (Im using your logic, which is hard to stoop to that IQ level.) Rochester had more jobs than Buffalo in the past. Hands down. That is why when I interned at Kodak there were 17 people in my department and three of them commuted everyday from Buffalo, because they said there were no jobs in Buffalo to be had. By your theory, Buffalo has had an increase in job percentages and Rochester has had a decrease, you post articles on it all the time! You have now contradicted your own logic, "Dem Hamlin schools aint too good for ya'll." You and Larry the cable hick should hang out.

I am bored of this convo..take it away...no more.

Dallas...We have differing opinions that is fine. I read Car and Driver, Road and Track, Automobile, Motor Trend, and the Robb Report, and I really like cars. Anyone who REALLY likes cars would not be seen dead in a Hyundai/Kia, unless they have just suffered a stroke or live in a trailer. Texas is full of people who drive duely pick up trucks and wear cowboy hats, I dont like that but you obviously do, two different worlds, thats ok, makes the world go around.

Rochesteraddict, before you say any more..... DT lives in Cheektowaga.

So, it has Dallas, Texas in their name..so obviously its proud of Dallas, Texas or wherever they live. Which doesnt make any sense then, but whatever I really dont care. To each its own.

Anyone who doesnt think this is an issue throughout the old cities of the Northeast and Mid-west is a fool, I have susified the article for the slow minded, sorry I dont have pictures so you can point and grunt Susan:

Cincy's loss is Kentucky's gain

Census has people talking
Cincinnati ENQUIRER

The news that Cincinnati is losing people at a higher rate than any other major city in the United States swamped talk radio switchboards, prompted plenty of lunch-counter debate and flooded Internet message boards with advice on what it will take to stop the decline.

Mike Lecky loves Cincinnati, he just doesn't want to live there.

Lecky, who grew up in Mount Airy, moved to Northern Kentucky for college and decided to stay.

"It's really sad because my parents still live over there and I'm one of three boys and we've all moved over to Kentucky," said Lecky, 33, who moved to Fort Thomas for the town's sense of community, good schools and rising property values.

"It's a safe place to take walks every night," said the father of two.

New population estimates released this week show that many people are leaving Cincinnati. The city lost 6.8 percent of its population from 2000 to 2005, taking Detroit's place as the biggest percentage loser among cities with 100,000 residents or more.

The same numbers show that people are pouring into Northern Kentucky. Independence and Cold Spring are the fastest-growing cities in Kentucky, and Boone County is the 49th fastest-growing county in the nation.

Cincinnati lost 22,555 people from April 2000 to July 2005. During the same time, 21,117 people became residents of Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties.

"Northern Kentucky is becoming the new Ohio," said Ron Crouch, director of the Kentucky State Data Center at the University of Louisville.

Cincinnati isn't the only city in the Buckeye state people are leaving. Nine of Ohio's 10 largest cities lost residents between July 2004 and July 2005. At the same time, eight of Kentucky's 10 largest cities grew.

Census projections show that over the next 25 years, Kentucky will grow far faster than Ohio, Crouch said. Demographers expect Ohio to add 200,000 people by 2030, while Kentucky is expected to add 500,000.

A study Crouch plans to release in the coming months shows that Kentucky is benefiting, not just from people moving in, but who is moving in.

"It appears to me, that the population leaving Ohio and coming to Kentucky, the preliminary data shows, it's the best and brightest," he said.

Crouch said Ohio appears to be losing residents with college and graduate degrees.

The 2000 Census showed that more people moved to Kentucky from Ohio than from any other state, he said. Second was Illinois, and third was California.

The migration follows a pattern demographers are tracking of the U.S. population shifting to the south, he said. Crouch said the Southeast will be the county's new economic engine, taking over from the Northeast.

Julia Tillery is bucking the trend. Next month, she's getting married and moving from Latonia to Bond Hill in Cincinnati. The neighborhood is between her hometown and Springboro, her fiancé's.

"I love Northern Kentucky, but getting married you have to give and take a little bit," she said. "He wouldn't cross the river."

She's excited to be moving into a new Drees neighborhood in Bond Hill, and she thinks Cincinnati can be saved. The first thing is to clean up the neighborhoods.

"If people would pick up trash and clean up storefronts it would look nice and hopefully the curb appeal would draw people into the city," Tillery said.

Lecky thinks the renovation of Fountain Square and development in downtown Cincinnati will help the center of his native city.

"I'm very excited about what's going on downtown," he said, "but what I'm really sad about is the Mount Airys, the Cheviots and the Price Hills where all those people have left."

The property values in Mount Airy have dropped over the last 10 years and a lot of houses have become rentals, he said.

He worries about his parents living close to crime that is edging closer to their home. He and his brothers are urging his parents to join them across the river.

"We love Northern Kentucky, but my heart's always in Cincinnati," he said. "I hope things progress and I hope things happen; but as far as ever moving back, I could never see that."
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060622/NEWS0103/606220390

Good Lord. When I joined the forums in 2000, I lived in Dallas - hence the name.

I too am a car buff -- to the point that I've even rebuilt a Ford 302, 460, and an Audi 2.2L 20V 5 cylinder turbo. While sketchy in the past, Hyundai and Kia make fine cars now -- especially new products such as the Sonata, Azera, and Amanti.

And for the record, I drive a Jaguar XJ8.

So buzz off, dolt. Some Western New Yorkers are *so* provincial.

Dallas...We have differing opinions that is fine. I read Car and Driver, Road and Track, Automobile, Motor Trend, and the Robb Report, and I really like cars. Anyone who REALLY likes cars would not be seen dead in a Hyundai/Kia, unless they have just suffered a stroke or live in a trailer. Texas is full of people who drive duely pick up trucks and wear cowboy hats, I dont like that but you obviously do, two different worlds, thats ok, makes the world go around.

Ok, I take great offense to this! I read every magazine you do and I REALLY like cars, and I drive a Hyundai Tiburon which may I say is a really nice car, and is a hell of a lot more reliable than my VW GTI was!! Guess what, live in the city, not a trailer, and I have not had a stroke!! I get more looks by people when I drive down the street with this car, because it was penned by Pinafarina! And may I say that DT probably drives a much nicer car than you do - he drives a Jag!!

I drive a chevy cobalt!!!! I could have gotten a new GT mustang or a Pontiac GTO, testdrove both of them and almost peed myself when my dad started encouraging me to pick the GTO originally.... but somehow I got talked down to a cobalt. I'm not kidding, not in the least. I had to get an American car in case you're wondering.

You could have gotten a Saab, Jaguar, Opel, Rover, Volvo, etc... they're all "American."

:D

Some Western New Yorkers are *so* provincial.

I like that, that was funny, it gave me a good laugh.

And you beat me to it, doh. Jag's are American, thyre just crappy Fords. Fix Or Repair Daily.

Alright back to development.

Wow, did you come up with that acronym? I've never, ever heard that one before! That was SO fresh! Amazing. I'm just bowled over.

You're a genius! Guffaw!

You could have gotten a Saab, Jaguar, Opel, Rover, Volvo, etc... they're all "American."

:D

Saabs don't impress me, and my limit at the beginning was 55k, so a Jaguar was out of the question. (in the end I ended up with a 20k car, which I shouldn't complain about because it costs 5 times as much as most of my friends cars do). The GTO and Mustang would have raped me on insurance, not to mention their shitty gas mileage. I get 29 in the city with the cobalt, 37 on the highway.

Wow, did you come up with that acronym? I've never, ever heard that one before! That was SO fresh! Amazing. I'm just bowled over.

You're a genius! Guffaw!
A few I remember:

Features OJ & Ron's DNA

Driver Returns on Foot (backwards)

Too Often Yankees Overprice This Auto

Fix It Again, Tony!

Big Ugly Indestructible Car Killer

I actually drive a Buick, it's all my father has ever driven as well. I don't like Asian cars (for various reasons) and Buick is probably the last remaining American car make I will buy (actually mine was assembled in Oshawa thereby technically being a Canadian car). I like it for the roominess, reliability (everytime I've taken it in to be looked at it's turned out to be something totally stupid that costs $3 to fix), unmatched ride quality for the buck, and brand familiarity I guess you could say. Good mileage too, I've hit 38 mpg twice on trips (back from South Carolina @ Christmas and just last weekend heading to NH). Though the EPA only rates it 23-29, I keep track and figure I get more like 26-33 typically.

Once GM heads down the toilet I'll go European. Just hope that's still a way's off.

I'm a GM fan myself. The only fords I like are Mustangs, but almost any GM car (even saturns) are great. I also get the GM family discount for life because my Grandma was an accountant (she just be a Cadillac Deville, cherry red with black interior, that would make your mouth water). If you want a quallity car that is IMO made for WNY (front wheel drive, standard keyless ignition) for a good price.... the Pontiac G6 is perfect.

The G6 isn't bad. I've had several as rentals and they are a huge improvement over the old Grand Am.

The new Impala is very nice as well.

Roc Guy...when you move back you should move to Greece where people love affordable american cars, everyone gets a Grand Am/G6 for their 16th birthday. Plus if you love Cadillacs you are probably Italian so you will definitely fit in in Greece. Ill stick with my reliable asian brands, unfortunately they are all built in America now and now Honda has had its first recalls ever and Toyota and Honda have actually had quality problems. Sucks. So it is hard to find ANY quality car anymore, luckily most Lexus' and most Acura's are still built in Japan. Every car has the same chinese parts in it though, it just matters who puts the car together and how much the accountants cut corners with the cars schematics.

I believe Susan said Syracuse was going to get the mega mall and Buffalo (Her Mecca) is so much more fun because it claims Darien Lake as its own at one point. These are both sad stories...

Syracuse Votes No to Destiny USA
R NEWS

In Syracuse, a resounding "no" to a plan to expand the Carousel Center Mall into the nation's largest shopping complex.

Syracuse's Common Council rejected the proposal for what's been called "Destiny USA." Developer Robert Congel offered to drop his lawsuit against the city and pay $60 million in lieu of taxes to build the mega mall.

Council members said the Destiny USA project was not a sure thing. The mayor of Syracuse said in a statement he would not try to re-negotiate a new deal.

Destiny USA was first scheduled to open two years ago.

There is no word from Congel on what he plans to do next regarding this plan.

Darien Lake Could be Sold or Closed
13 WHAM

Theme park owner Six Flags said it could sell or even close six of its 30 properties across North America including Six Flags Darien Lake in Genesee County.

The revelation was among several made overnight that sent shares plunging 19 percent.

The company said it may fail to meet certain bank credit agreements. Six Flags said reaching its previous financial forecast will be extremely difficult.

It is citing lower park attendance and rising costs, but says those who are coming to the parks are spending more.

President and CEO Mark Shapiro said the attendance drop was expected because the company is no longer deeply discounting season passes. It has been targeting families as consumers, rather than teenagers.

The company says it can't predict for certain whether any transactions will occur. It could sell the properties outright or dismantle the parks and sell the land for its real estate value.

Rethinking Downtown Parking
13 WHAM

In anticipation of the expected population and business boom in downtown Rochester over the next decade, city leaders are beginning to looking at the parking situation.

New housing downtown both takes away potential spaces and creates a demand for more. One idea is to allow parking on Main Street. Other options include creating spaces in front of businesses.

Experts estimate that each space is worth about $200,000 a year in retail shopping.

Heidi Zimmer-Meyer of the Rochester Downtown Development Corporation said, "That's pretty significant. When you remove parking from the street, you almost ensure the closure of retail establishments."

A study will look at more places for meters and lots and creative ways to deal with parking garages. For example, instead of putting them right up to the curb, they might be set back with shops out front.

Experts say added street parking gives drivers a sense of security as they won't have to park far away from their destinations. Also, if they know it’s readily available, they might be more willing to shop downtown.

Watch Video here: http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=1E4A949C-5F5D-43D0-9FBD-785755218728

Watch the video to see some current projects going on in the city. Nice story.

The G6 isn't bad. I've had several as rentals and they are a huge improvement over the old Grand Am.

The new Impala is very nice as well.


I rented a Malibu and I was actually impressed with it. It is still ugly as sin, but the interior was executed well. The pleather and micro fiber seats were something to be desired though. American cars have a way to go still, but someone in Detroit pushed aside their American arrogance and noticed their market share was slipping. I guess it takes a hit in the bank acct to create genius in the mid-west.

Roc Guy...when you move back you should move to Greece where people love affordable american cars, everyone gets a Grand Am/G6 for their 16th birthday. Plus if you love Cadillacs you are probably Italian so you will definitely fit in in Greece

I'm from Greece originally, so I seriously hope you weren't talking it down in that statement. Pretty much EVERYONE thinks Cadillacs are good cars, not just Italians. Is there some low down need to stereotype everyone that doesn't agree 100% with you? Come on Rochesteraddict, I know you can't be that arrogant. You seem like you can be a nice guy.

I rented a Malibu and I was actually impressed with it. It is still ugly as sin...
My "first" car was a Malibu, got it through a re-possessed auction w/ 21000 miles. Good car, but HORRIBLE brakes. Keep in mind I'm light on them, I like to downshift on hills or where I have room to glide before stopping (helps fuel mileage/wear & tear) - but I still had to replace them twice in 25000 miles of ownership (by comparison, my current car's first set lasted nearly 60k). This one was a '99, before they made them ugly, don't know how much better (or worse) the quality has gotten.

Pretty much EVERYONE thinks Cadillacs are good cars...
They're good, sure, but they don't impress me. A Buick is like 80-90% of a Cadillac at about 50-60% of the cost.

I'm from Greece originally, so I seriously hope you weren't talking it down in that statement. Pretty much EVERYONE thinks Cadillacs are good cars, not just Italians. Is there some low down need to stereotype everyone that doesn't agree 100% with you? Come on Rochesteraddict, I know you can't be that arrogant. You seem like you can be a nice guy.


No, unfortunately I am originally from North Greece as well, that is why I dont live there anymore, I loved my neighborhoods growing up, but I despised most of the population there. I do not fit ANY of the Greece stereotypes and am VERY opinionated (Im sure thats a big surprise, lol) so it wasn't a good fit. It was only convenient because my father worked at Kodak and it was in the middle between our summer and winter homes. And yes Rochester, Albany, and NYC metro Italians are some of the most cliche people I have ever met. If they dont like statements like I made, then they should not try to resemble every stereotype imaginable from movies. Unfortunately a majority percentage around here do, so they should suck it up and deal with it. I am part Italian too and I dont feel the need to parade around acting like tacky trash from Growing Up Gotti. My friend originally from Italy is also ashamed by the Cadillac/Italian stereotype and thinks they represent horrible things for her heritage.

Cadillacs are decent cars -- except for the Catera. Ugh, go away, please.

I don't judge a car by its country of origin, myself. I judge them individually. I'd own an Acura, Lexus, BMW, Buick, etc. because I like designs and features from all of them.

I buy a car based on quality and customer feedback. Looks and toys come second. I used to drive a brand new Mercedes and I had to take it to the dealership 60 times in 4 years for electrical problems. You would think a car you pay a premium for would be top notch, wrong. All German cars are prone to electrical issues and VW/Audi has electrical and severe transmission issues with its cars. My dad has driven every American car and foreign car in existence and has better luck with the Japanese, hence the admiration. Take any car to get fixed enough and QUALITY becomes number one in your book. Your time is more important than any other aspect. (Take into account we treat our cars very well and take good care of them, never owning a car more than 4 years.) Another great aspect of living in affordable upstate NY, the ability to splurge on goods and use your disposable income on a vehicle that depreciates $10,000 the second it leaves the lot! LOL.

No, unfortunately I am originally from North Greece as well, that is why I dont live there anymore, I loved my neighborhoods growing up, but I despised most of the population there. I do not fit ANY of the Greece stereotypes and am VERY opinionated (Im sure thats a big surprise, lol) so it wasn't a good fit. It was only convenient because my father worked at Kodak and it was in the middle between our summer and winter homes. And yes Rochester, Albany, and NYC metro Italians are some of the most cliche people I have ever met. If they dont like statements like I made, then they should not try to resemble every stereotype imaginable from movies. Unfortunately a majority percentage around here do, so they should suck it up and deal with it. I am part Italian too and I dont feel the need to parade around acting like tacky trash from Growing Up Gotti. My friend originally from Italy is also ashamed by the Cadillac/Italian stereotype and thinks they represent horrible things for her heritage.

Greece's population is 21% Italian.... hardly the majority. The only Greece stereotype I've ever heard is that everyone knows everyone eventhough it is the largest suburb with over 94,000 people..... and that's true. It's the most tight knit community in Monroe County. People in Penfield or Brighton WISH they could know thier neighbors and have as many lifelong friends that people in Greece do. But their too busy counting their money and making sure their BMW looks better than the Joneses. I'll agree that most of the west side (and Irondequoit) is a little more "ethnic-pride" driven and maybe a little "provincial" (which I would call blue collar)..... but it's certainly not the majority of Greece.

Rochester had more jobs than Buffalo in the past. Hands down.

In the entire history of NY State the 5 County Rochester Metro area has never I repeat NEVER had more jobs than the 2 county Buffalo metropolitan area. Not even for a single year. You are quite simply put - a dumb ass!

Jerome,

Per capita we did, I dont care enough to look up numbers, but why would so many people commute from Buffalo to work in Rochester if it were not true, I saw it and heard it from Buffalonians mouths first hand. Perhaps in 1965, before I was born it is not true, but in the 80's and 90's it was. Buffalo HAD more population than Rochester, so of course it would have more jobs, WAY in the past. But now since both of our metro populations have evened out to around 1 million perhaps the numbers have as well. My friend was bored at work recently and did a US census comparo of population including city propers and immediate suburbs (or suburbs of merit, things to do, pop dense towns) for Roc and Buf and Buf only ended up with 125,000 additional inhabitants. We did not include small towns because we would not consider them part of a city, just little towns outside of the city with non recognized names. The data is based on 2000 and 2005 pop estimates. Buffalo was named one of the densest cities in America recently with limited sprawl, Rochester embraced the 90's sprawl and still is with Ontario county growing. Hence more towns.

Rochester included:
.Brighton town
.Chili town
.East Rochester town
.Gates town
.Greece town
.Henrietta town
.Ogden town
.Irondequoit town
.Mendon town
.Penfield town
.Perinton town
.Pittsford town
.Rochester city
.Webster town
.Victor town

Total = 686,724

Buffalo included:
.Amherst town
.Buffalo city
.Cheektowaga town
.Clarence town
.Grand Island town
.Hamburg town
.Lackawanna city
.Lancaster town
.Orchard Park town
.Tonawanda city
.Tonawanda town
.West Seneca town

Total = 812, 468

Remember that many villages are found within these towns, i.e. Williamsville, Snyder, Blasdell, Fairport, Spencerport, Clarkson are all located inside these towns.

What would be the reason for my fathers department of 6,000 employees to have 368 employees from Buffalo, and my department of 17 to have 3 employees from Buffalo, I would like to hear your take/opinion? Besides your opinion that I am feebleminded, even though you live in the undesirable Niagara Falls region.

AHEM!!!!

Let me exta susify this article LOUD AND CLEAR!!!!!!



Area in line for jobs boost


Moves include Harris expansion, alternative fuel campaign


Ben Rand
and David Tyler
Staff writers


(June 24, 2006) — The struggling economy in upstate New York will get a boost from two separate announcements Monday, including one with the potential to create an immediate crop of new jobs.
Harris Corp.'s RF Communications division is expected to announce a significant expansion of its manufacturing facilities in Rochester, driven by increasing demand for next-generation radios for the military.

Meanwhile, area business leaders along with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., are planning to announce a campaign designed to position Rochester as a major player in the push to find alternatives to foreign oil.The goal is to leverage the area's intellectual, academic and industrial advantages to capitalize economically from the development of wind, solar, biofuel and other clean energy technologies. ]

Those announcements are in addition to a development scheduled for today — the official re-opening of the former Foster Wheeler Energy Corp. plant in Dansville, Livingston County.

The plant, now known as 4M, closed in 2002 but is being redeveloped into a home for four separate manufacturers. Those companies have already placed 56 employees in the plant and say they have prospects to add more than 100 more.
Monday's announcement by Harris Corp. will continue several years of impressive growth that have driven the RF division to nearly 1,700 workers and just under $1 billion in revenue.

Company officials will be joined at a news conference by Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds, R-Clarence, Erie County, to announce the expansion. Reynolds has played a key role in helping secure $30 million in federal funding to help Harris RF produce improved high-frequency radio sets for the military, increasingly in demand following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Harris officials declined to comment in advance, but the company said in a media advisory that it would be discussing moves to more than double its manufacturing facilities.

The alternative energy announcement is tied to a major conference, organized by Clinton, that has attracted major figures in the field, including the president of Shell Oil Corp.

The goal is to create the Rochester/Finger Lakes Smart Energy Initiative, targeting markets that are expected to grow to more than $170 billion by the year 2015, according to documents from Greater Rochester Enterprise prepared for the event.

"The Greater Rochester region has significant assets and attributes that make it well positioned to become a leader in the smart energy sector," the document states.

It notes the region's strengths in academic research, manufacturing expertise and materials science, all key components to the development of alternative technologies.
For example, specifically citing wind power, the document indicates there are at least 60 local companies with the capabilities to supply components for wind turbines.

GRE President and CEO Dennis Mullen declined to comment Friday.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------Some more good news, while crime rates have skyrocketed accross the country this year, Monroe County saw it's biggest drop in crime in 30 years!!!!

2005 Crime Rate Drops Immensely
by Cristina Domingues
File Photo
Published Jun 23, 2006
Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O'Flynn said the crime rate in 2005 dropped 17 percent. That is the largest single year decrease in crime he has seen in 30 years.


O' Flynn said that crimes like murder, burglary and felony assaults dropped 20 percent collectively in 2005. Sex offense, stolen property and forgery fell 15 percent.

Sheriff O' Flynn credits DWI education and awareness programs for the continued drop in alcohol-related crashes. He credits the department's high visibility in area neighborhoods with the drop in criminal mischief.

One number that is on the rise is robbery. That jumped from 47 cases in 2004 to 55 in 2005.


"We're giving attention to the drug problem. We're at about 80 -85 percent of the people coming to jail have some type chemical substance abuse problem. We're going to continue to target the vehicle and traffic and quality of life issues going on the community. DWI is not going away. We're seeing a downturn we want to make sure it continues that way," said O’ Flynn.

The sheriff said that the department continues to have one of the highest clearance rates. That is the number of cases his deputies resolve.

In 2005 the department cleared 52.3 percent of reported crimes. The national average was 24 percent.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
And some personaly good Rochester-related news; I'll be up there in a week to visit family, and tour UR's campus... because I just got their application and letter in the mail today.

Local employment in the health care sector — one of the few areas where jobs have increased in recent years — has slowed in 2006.

For the first time since June 2002, the five-county area has seen a slight year-over-year drop in such jobs for March, April and May, according to data from the state Department of Labor.
Several local experts are uncertain why the drop occurred and whether the decrease is cause for concern. It's even unclear exactly where the losses are occurring, although one data source suggests that one area might be home health care.

"You can see some interesting trends going on," said Richard Deitz, regional economist at the Buffalo branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

A convergence of factors — such as the loss of population and the overall trend of Rochester's shrinking employment — could have contributed to the dip.
Still, Deitz doubts the trend will continue, given the growing health care needs of the aging population.

The drop of jobs in the "health care and social assistance" sector has been slight, accounting for less than a percentage-point decline. The monthly average of people employed in health care dropped by about 140 people from January to May of this year, compared with the same time last year.

Although the jobs drop is slight, it is a reversal for a sector that has added almost 3,000 jobs from 2002 to 2005 in Monroe, Orleans, Livingston, Ontario and Wayne counties.

"I have no idea why that is," said Diane Ashley, executive vice president of Rochester Regional Healthcare Association, a hospital trade group. "I haven't heard anything going on that we should be concerned with.

"All hospitals have vacancies for nurses and hard-to-find folks like pharmacists, technicians and radiologists," she said. "I do know that continues."

Several hospitals in the region — including all those in Monroe County — agreed, saying employment has either grown or stayed steady in the last year.

The number of health care jobs will likely start growing again given the number of expansion projects going on locally, said Tammy Marino, a senior economist with the state Department of Labor. The University of Rochester's James P. Wilmot Cancer Center's planned expansion, for example, is expected to double jobs at the center to about 1,200 positions.

The state data do break out two categories that account for about half of the health care work force: hospitals and ambulatory services.

Employment in the ambulatory grouping — such as doctors' offices — has been declining since the beginning of 2005, although hospitals have just recently seen a slight year-over-year decline in employment, state labor statistics show.
The latest data for job categories within the ambulatory grouping show that home health care has been the area losing jobs, shedding 13 percent of such positions from 2004 to 2005, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The news did surprise Mark Maxim, president of home care agency HCR, which has not seen a drop in jobs. But officials at Visiting Nurse Service of Rochester and Monroe County said they have seen a slight decline in full-and-part-time workers.

The reason? VNS has seen a drop in revenue as more people switch from traditional Medicare to Medicare health maintenance organizations, which does not cover as many visits, said Chief Executive Victoria Hines.

In the overall economic picture, it's hard to say if a decrease in health care jobs is a bad thing, added Kent Gardner, president of the Center for Governmental Research. Job seekers would like to have more options, yet those paying higher health care premiums might prefer the opposite.

Per capita we did,

That would be the unemployment rate stupid, it does not mean we have more jobs than them. You really are dumb aren't you? That's like saying that Saratoga has more jobs than us because they have a lower unempooyment rate. Per Capita = Unemployment Rate. TOTAL = TOTAL.

You are an embarassment to our region. Did you even get your GED yet?

Bite me susie..my news outweighs yours....especially since again, yours is old news.

and you obviously missed this part.

In the overall economic picture, it's hard to say if a decrease in health care jobs is a bad thing, added Kent Gardner, president of the Center for Governmental Research. Job seekers would like to have more options, yet those paying higher health care premiums might prefer the opposite.

It's not even a bad thing necessarily.... according to Jerome, it's good that Buffalo lost 300 jobs overall last month because they weren't privat sector jobs, so maybe it's good that Rochester lost some medical jobs because it keeps the health care premiums for the masses down. And my news was DEFINITELY good news. Rochester is getting a big boost in jobs.... FAST, and the crime rate dropped, to quote "immensely".

THESE HEALTH CARE JOBS ARE CONSIDERED PRIVATE SECTOR NOT PUBLIC SECTOR JOBS, Your news is indeed good news, though i would not count on anything Hillary is involved with to actually come to fruition.

Ahh, I love WNY forumers.

Carry on ... :D

OMG!!! This thread is hilarious. Can't we all just get along?? LOL :bash:

Wow.... here' an interactive page on Rochester's real estate market in areas that are cooling and areas that are hot..... believe it or not, Susie's town Hamlin is the hottest real estate market in Monroe County with average home appreciateion of 11% from june 2005-2006...... and upscale eastern suburbs, all of them except for Penfield and Webster, are cooling. The city of Rochester is "warming" as are all of the west side suburbs except for Parma. Mendon (the Wannabe Pittsford) saw the biggest decrease with -28% depreciation.

http://democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060625/MULTIMEDIA/306250007

More good news....

Harris RF to add 200 jobs this year


David Tyler
Staff writer


(June 26, 2006) — Harris Corp.'s rapidly growing RF Communications division will add 200 jobs between now and the end of the year, bringing its local employment to more than 2,200.

The company and U.S. Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-Clarence, Erie County, made the announcement this morning at the company's University Avenue plant.

Sales of Harris' high-frequency military radios have been booming, causing the need for more manufacturing capacity, the company said. During the first three quarters of Harris' fiscal year 2006, revenue in the RF Communications Division was up 52 percent from the previous year, the company said.

The company already has more than 630,000 square feet in manufacturing capability at its University Avenue and Humboldt Street complexes.

Since October, Harris has won more than $800 million in military radio contracts.

In July, Harris said it expected to hire 150 workers, but ended up hiring more than 200, the company said.

"We have made a strong commitment to the Rochester community," said Chet Massari, president of RF Communications Division.

OMG!!! This thread is hilarious. Can't we all just get along?? LOL :bash:


Isnt it funny, I get a good daily laugh from this blog. The ups and downs, negative/positive, some people get so carried away. It can be addictive sometimes to check in often throughout the week! Rock on. Opinions are great, everyone has one, like assholes. HAHA. I checked out Buffalo's forum for the first time last week, they have a version of Susie too named Fprmer WNY, that will give a good laugh too.


The Harris thing is great news Rocguy, and the jobs Im sure will be mostly in engineering which is a highly paid trade. My friend works at Harris RF, (Dont confuse it with Harris Interactive, HQ in Brighton, #1 online survey company in the world.) (I used to work there.) in HR and says the average salary in the company is $70,000, VERY nice, wanna work there!

Harris' RF division to add 200 jobs this year

David Tyler
Staff writer

(June 26, 2006) — Harris Corp.'s rapidly growing RF Communications division will add 200 jobs between now and the end of the year, bringing its local employment to more than 2,200.

The company and U.S. Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-Clarence, Erie County, made the announcement this morning at the company's University Avenue plant.

The company will add more than 167,000 square feet of space on Culver Road and the warehouse on Humboldt Street where the Hickey-Freeman sale used to be held.

"Rochester's talented work force and education institutions are key reasons why the company continues to expand here," said Chet Massari, president of the division. "The Rochester area offers a lot for us."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Interesting location for the new wharehouse, kind of like neighbors helping neighbors, Hickey Freeman no longer uses the space so now Harris RF will use the space...all in all great news for the city.

'Alternative Energy NY: Expo 2006'
Upstate to Lead Smart Energy Tech
by Leah George
photo by: Helen Moore
Published Jun 26, 2006

Educators, policy makers and leaders in the alternative energy industry gathered in Rochester Monday to begin branding the region as the ‘energy capital of the east coast.’

Senator Hillary Clinton was among the panelists at Alternative Energy Expo 2006.

She said the region has the assets necessary to bring thousands of jobs associated with industry growth here.

She pointed to top notch universities and research facilities, an intellectual workforce and forward thinking local government.

Clinton said the expo was an opportunity to bring key industry players together and develop a plan of action.

"This is not some nice idea that we're all gathered here to talk about,” Clinton said, “All of us feel we have to do this and I can't think of a better place to lead the way than the Greater Rochester Area."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another promise of 1000's of jobs for the Rochester/Upstate region, hm....I remember some kind of campaign promise that said the same, by um...OH yea Hillary, this political hack never follows through with anything that doesn't effect her march towards bigger things...

Speaking of which have any of you ever seen this website???

http://www.newjobsforny.org/

Seems pretty "bush" to me (and I mean bush league)

Speaking of which have any of you ever seen this website???

http://www.newjobsforny.org/

Seems pretty "bush" to me (and I mean bush league)

"New York Our World-Class State

Whether your business is a start-up or international corporation, high-technology company or manufacturing plant, New York State offers a premier business climate:

:: New York was ranked second in the nation in business climate by Site Selection Magazine. New York State’s ranking has climbed to second in the nation in attracting new and expanded corporate facilities."

:hilarious: :lol: :clown: :uh: :hilarious: :rofl: :laugh: :lol:

Sorry. Clinton, how about actually doing what you said you were gonna do/say you're doing. And when you do, don't announce it in Erie. Pennsylvania.

I say they give Hilary a test.... if she can't name more than 5 towns in New York state west of the Hudson River, she can't promise jobs to the region and loses her seat in the senate. She promised Rochester at least 5000 jobs by 2010 from the Photonics cluster in Henrietta.... more than half way throught he decade and so far it's created about 900. Give me a break. If it was anyone else besides her.... even Pataki, it would have been better news. I hope it really happens, beacuse this time is says "immediate crop of new jobs", and therefore they can't blame other things for messing up a 10 year goal. Who knows.

Speaking of which have any of you ever seen this website???

http://www.newjobsforny.org/

Seems pretty "bush" to me (and I mean bush league)

I'm shocked.... they have Rochester's skyline on there representing the state of new york. I didn't think that Albany and NYC knew abour Rochester, much less being able to identify it's skyline!

Isnt it funny, I get a good daily laugh from this blog. The ups and downs, negative/positive, some people get so carried away. It can be addictive sometimes to check in often throughout the week! Rock on. Opinions are great, everyone has one, like assholes. HAHA. I checked out Buffalo's forum for the first time last week, they have a version of Susie too named Fprmer WNY, that will give a good laugh too.


The Harris thing is great news Rocguy, and the jobs Im sure will be mostly in engineering which is a highly paid trade. My friend works at Harris RF, (Dont confuse it with Harris Interactive, HQ in Brighton, #1 online survey company in the world.) (I used to work there.) in HR and says the average salary in the company is $70,000, VERY nice, wanna work there!

Well its nice to see Rochester Forumers. Over on SSP there seem to be none anymore. I can't consider myself an official one cuz tho I grew up there and my parents still live there I now live in NYC. My dad works at Valeo and with that plant winding down to closure a lot of the people are moving over to Harris RF.

I used to work for Harris Interactive also, a real long time ago (Can't even remember where they were located but I want to say on Panorama Trail). That job was pretty cool, we did a lot of the little polls for the USA Today.

This is a cool thread, even tho one of the forumers seems very very depressed, its good to get the good news along with the bad. BTW, its okay to move outta Rochester if you don't enjoy living there. I, for one, did enjoy living there but wanted to live in a bigger place and NYC seemed the right size for me. However, I love it up there and maybe someday will move back. As for now I wish Rochester the best and while i'm down here will try to get Donald Trump to invest some money up there :)

Well its nice to see Rochester Forumers. Over on SSP there seem to be none anymore. I can't consider myself an official one cuz tho I grew up there and my parents still live there I now live in NYC. My dad works at Valeo and with that plant winding down to closure a lot of the people are moving over to Harris RF.

I used to work for Harris Interactive also, a real long time ago (Can't even remember where they were located but I want to say on Panorama Trail). That job was pretty cool, we did a lot of the little polls for the USA Today.

This is a cool thread, even tho one of the forumers seems very very depressed, its good to get the good news along with the bad. BTW, its okay to move outta Rochester if you don't enjoy living there. I, for one, did enjoy living there but wanted to live in a bigger place and NYC seemed the right size for me. However, I love it up there and maybe someday will move back. As for now I wish Rochester the best and while i'm down here will try to get Donald Trump to invest some money up there :)

You can be counted as a Rochester forumer. At least you still live in the same state..... I'm all the way down in NC! I'm going to Rochester next week to visit family and tour UR, hopefully I'll end up getting accepted there and then stay in Rochester after graduation. All it takes to qualify as a Rochester forumer is an appreciation of the area..... of which the person you were refering to obviously has none; you can have her spot.

^ Cool, i'll take it :) Good luck getting into U of R, tough school, Some would say its up there with Ivy League status. I went to U of R sports camp -- thats all I would ever have been accepted to @ that school and barely at that.

They just sent me an application without me really requesting it, all I did was click to have my SAT scores sent to them. Low and behold now I get an application and booklet, and letter encouraging me to apply. I was a little woried that my GPA wouldn't be high enough (it's a 3.6), but apparently it's not too bad.

Yeah, RocGuy, thats an excellent GPA and as long as the SAT score matches you will probably be accepted. Good Luck though, a degree from there will get you places.

I actually think Hillary and Schumer have done a good job, Upstate NY has gotten a lot of federal money since they have been in office for all kinds of things.

Alternative energy called key to area's economic growth

Leaders imagine region as hotbed for biofuels, wind, etc.
Democrat and Chronicle

The Finger Lakes and greater Rochester would become a recognized leader in alternative energy research, manufacturing, education and even tourism under an alluring new vision being floated by area economic developers.

Greater Rochester Enterprise on Monday called for a concerted, collaborative effort between public officials, private industry and academic institutions aimed at establishing the region as the "Silicon Valley" of the fast-growing market for biofuels, wind power, solar equipment, fuel cells and more.

The effort could involve a range of projects, such as a Hydrogen Village in High Falls, a green technology demonstration center as part of Renaissance Square, a smart energy business incubator, a collaborative research center — or other projects not yet envisioned, according to GRE. All of the projects would aim toward the ultimate goal of branding Rochester as a hotbed in the field, GRE said.

"We think this has the best chance to give us the most immediate bang for our buck" in revitalizing the upstate economy, said Dennis Mullen, chief executive officer of GRE, a privately led economic development group.

Mullen presented his vision to elected, business and academic leaders at a conference on alternative energy co-sponsored by GRE; New Jobs New York, a nonprofit organization focused on statewide economic development; and Renew-NY, a virtual incubator for start-up alternative energy companies. More than 400 people attended the networking event at the Hyatt Regency downtown. The centerpiece was a panel discussion moderated by U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York.

Clinton and U.S. Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-Clarence, Erie County, spoke at a news conference in support of the vision and said they would do what they could to get federal support.

With the right organization and focus, "we think we can create thousands of jobs," Clinton said.

The key, public and private officials said, will be for the region to work together.

"Our success in capitalizing on this emerging industry will require collaboration among government, business and academia. The benefits would be numerous — new jobs, a more vibrant economy, and a healthier environment," County Executive Maggie Brooks said in a statement.

Greater Rochester is right to be talking about alternative energy, but whether it succeeds in making itself a hotbed for the technology depends on execution, a local booster of alternative energy says.

"It's good to talk about it. But now it's time to go grab it. The mantle's out there," said Larry Simpson, director of Renew-NY, the alternative energy incubator.

The meeting at the Hyatt was designed to highlight some of the companies that give the area its potential, such as Northern Biodiesel, a small company that will manufacture biodiesel fuel in Ontario, Wayne County.

The plant expects to be operating by mid-October, initially focusing on providing fuel to local school districts for school buses or other large vehicle fleets, said Jason Masters, Northern Biodiesel's founder.

The company expects to employ about six people once in operation

interesting...

Efforts under way
Renewable/alternative energy start-ups are focusing on upstate New York in part because of the region's agricultural heritage. But experts say greater Rochester has other advantages, including expertise in manufacturing, materials science and more.

A few of the examples:

General Motors, in Honeoye Falls, and Delphi Corp., in Henrietta, are each doing cutting-edge fuel cell research in the region.

Western New York Energy: Building an $87 million ethanol plant in Shelby, Orleans County.

Empire Biofuels, a cooperative of farmers: Proposing a 50-million-gallon ethanol plant in Seneca Falls.

Lorax Systems: A marketer of wind turbines based in Webster.

Northeast Biofuels: Opening a 100-million-gallon ethanol plant in Fulton, Onondaga County.

Northeast Renewable Energy Resources in Honeoye: A marketer and dealer of wind turbines and solar installations for homes, industry and government agencies.

Harris RF growing on military work

High demand for radios means 200 more jobs at local division
Democrat and Chronicle

The war on terror and a restructured military are increasing profits and creating jobs at Harris Corp.'s RF Communications division.

The Rochester-based division, which makes radios and other communications devices for the military, said Monday that it will add 200 jobs by the end of the year. That will bring its local employment to more than 2,200 — twice what it was four years ago.

With the U.S. military fighting a global war on terror, demand for radios has been high, said Chet Massari, president of the division. In addition, many military branches are reorganizing into smaller, more mobile units, and that requires better communication, he said.

The division, founded here more than 40 years ago as RF Communications, continues to regard Rochester as a great place to do business, Massari said.

"Rochester's talented work force and education institutions are key reasons why the company continues to expand here," Massari said. "The Rochester area offers a lot for us."

U.S. Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-Clarence, Erie County, who has helped secure more than $30million in federal funds for Harris over the years, praised the decision. Harris is providing "a boost not only to our military but to Rochester," he said.

The company has not asked for county or state incentives for the expansion, Massari said.

Sandy Parker, president and chief executive of the Rochester Business Alliance, said Harris' jobs should pay well, from manufacturing to the skilled engineering and technical jobs. It's the type of employment the community needs, she said.

"They've kind of been a hidden jewel in this community. They've been consistently adding jobs over time," she said.

The company said jobs will range from engineering positions to manufacturing and testing jobs, but it declined to offer salary ranges.

The area needs any boost in manufacturing it can get, officials said. Mainly because of downsizing by Eastman Kodak Co., the area has lost more than 5,000 manufacturing positions in the last year and a half, employment data shows.

The Harris RF announcement is the second this year to secure manufacturing employment on University Avenue in the city. In April, officials announced that the state would provide incentives for Gleason Corp. to reconfigure its manufacturing space. In return, Gleason pledged to stay in Rochester.

Sales of Harris' high-frequency military radios have been booming, causing the need for more manufacturing capacity, the company said. During the first three quarters of Harris' fiscal year 2006, revenue in the RF Communications Division was up 52 percent from the previous year, the company said.

The company will add more than 167,000 square feet of space on Culver Road and at the warehouse on Carlson Road where the Hickey-Freeman sale used to be held. Construction is already under way and is expected to be completed within a year, said Al Simon, Harris' vice president of operations. The company would not disclose the cost of the expansion, saying only that it will be a multimillion-dollar project.

The company already occupies more than 630,000 square feet at its University Avenue and Humboldt Street complexes, but only about 200,000 is manufacturing space.

Since October, Harris has won more than $800 million in military radio contracts.

Job boost
The Harris RF announcement is the latest in a string of major economic development announcements over the past year. Some highlights:

June — Delphi Corp.'s union in Rochester says the plant could hire more than 500 people by the end of the year to replace workers taking buyouts.

April — Gleason Corp., one of Rochester's oldest companies, says it will retain 775 total positions, including 625 manufacturing jobs, at its University Avenue facility.

March — Barilla America Inc. announces plans to build a plant and create 120 jobs over the next five years.

October 2005—Harris RF announces at least 150 new positions after winning another round of contracts.

July 2005 — Paychex Inc. is approved for tax incentives for a Brighton facility that will result in 480 new jobs.

June 2005 — CooperVision Inc., Bausch & Lomb Inc. and Unisys Corp. each announce plans for major expansions in the Rochester area that are expected to retain a total of 250 jobs and create 488.

http://cmsimg.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=A2&Date=20060627&Category=BUSINESS&ArtNo=606270337&Ref=V1&Profile=1001&MaxW=550&MaxH=430
Harris Corp.'s RF Communications division. which makes radios and other communications devices for the military, will employ more than 2,200 — twice its work force four years ago — after the expansion it announced Monday.

Defense contracts benefit local businesses

Analyst sees little risk that work will dry up soon
Democrat and Chronicle

Harris Corp. isn't the only local company to benefit from having the U.S. military as a major customer.

Along with Harris' RF Communications division, a slew of the region's businesses have found a niche in developing high-tech products for the military as soldiers increasingly depend on technology to wage war.

"There's a real realization that the face of warfare has changed and what it takes to equip a soldier to fight the kinds of battles that are being fought today," said John Kavazanjian, chief executive of Ultralife Batteries Inc. in Newark, Wayne County.

The maker of heavy-duty batteries has the military as a major customer.

While government contracts have inherent risks — funding is susceptible to delays or suspensions — one analyst said it isn't likely that military contracts will slow in the near term.

"We're looking at a generational increase in battery technology, fuel cell technology and communications technology, and that's not going to stop," said Walter Nasdeo, an analyst with Ardour Capital Investments in New York. "It's vital that the military has at least the most advanced applications available to them."

Among the other military technologies developed in the region is equipment for thermal imaging, remote sensing, energy and communications.

Efforts to connect local companies with government contracts have also gained steam, said Bill Graff, director of economic development and trade at the Rochester Business Alliance.

According to Graff, client companies of the RBA's Procurement Technical Assistance Center had $6 million in government sales in 2004. He is projecting sales of $18 million to $20 million for this year.

"It's been significant growth, and it tells me there's a tremendous opportunity for companies to get into government sales," Graff said.

For example, Harris RF, Pictometry International Inc. of Henrietta and Icuiti Corp. of Brighton are in line for $5.8 million in Defense Department funding if the department's appropriations bill passes the Senate in its current form.


And Susan and someone had a bickering match over this, I got bored so I dont remember who, but maybe this will shed some light...

Almost all eligible workers retiring early, Delphi says
Democrat and Chronicle

Delphi Corp. said 12,600 of 13,000 eligible U.S. union workers will retire under a plan to trim costs and exit court protection by mid-2007.

The employees represented by the United Auto Workers were offered $35,000 to retire early, the company said Monday in releasing "preliminary" results.

Delphi didn't say how many workers would return to former parent General Motors Corp. About 5,000 were given that option.

The parts company isn't releasing figures for its separate buyout program because workers still have time to decide on those offers, Delphi spokesman Lindsey Williams said.

Delphi has about 2,100 workers at a plant at 1000 Lexington Ave. and a research facility in Henrietta. UAW Local 1097 represents most of the 1,435 hourly workers at Delphi's Rochester-area facilities. The number of local workers taking buyouts was not available Monday

At GM, about 35,000 hourly workers have taken buyout or early retirement offers, surpassing the company's expectations as it tries to cut costs by paring its hourly work force, GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner said Monday.

The job cuts will help GM's long-term turnaround plan as it cuts production capacity to match its current sales and market share.

GM previously announced plans to cut its 113,000-person U.S. hourly work force by 30,000, closing 12 plants by 2008. GM said it now expects to reach its job reduction target by Jan. 1, 2007, two years ahead of schedule.

Yeah, RocGuy, thats an excellent GPA and as long as the SAT score matches you will probably be accepted. Good Luck though, a degree from there will get you places.

Thanks, I just scheduled my campus tour about 10 minutes ago over the phone. I'll be there on campus to check it out on Friday the 7th. I wish I could be a little happier about this, but we may be going up earlier because my grandpa is in the hospital (has been for several weeks) and he's not doing too well.

Public invited to submit photos
ROMA Pictures Photos Downtown
by Rocco Vertuccio
photo by Tim Keegan
Published Jun 28, 2006

Picture it! Photos of Rochester creating a huge attraction downtown. After years of planning, the Rochester Outdoor Museum of Art is coming to life.

ROMA will display huge wallscapes on buildings in downtown Rochester. The first work of art will come from the public. ROMA directors are asking the public to submit photos that capture life in Rochester. It's being called Big Picture Rochester.

Each of those photos will be used as tiles to create one large mosaic of Rochester. The wallscape will go up on the SUNY Brockport MetroCenter building downtown on St. Paul Street in September.

The idea of ROMA came from Ken Sato, a former MCC student from Japan. "Every people I told to in Japan is so excited. Every people say oh I want to see this. They don't know Rochester but if you have a huge attraction people want to come see here," says Sato.

ROMA is the world's first and largest outdoor art museum. Directors are looking for 10,000 photos for this first project. The public can submit photos and ideas for the large mosaic through August 7th at the web links below.

http://www.bigpicturerochester.com/

Check out that site for details, looks pretty neat, I'll be submitting a small photo I think!

If they'll take black and white pictures I am so totally sending in a picture of my Grandma's whole family standing on the street in front of their home/store (now demolished) on Central Park..... when there was a trolly line going down the street (I know it was taken before 1940, because that is when my grandma was born and she actually wasn't born yet when the picture was taken). It's very Rochester..... a big close italian family, standing infront of the home they are proud to own (Rochester was one of the very few cities back then where the majority of people owned their own homes) and with a good 6 inches of snow on the ground. lol. And if the burbs are included, there's a great pic of me and some of my cousins (from the othe side of the family) at the erie canal on Schoen Place in Pittsford, eating frozen custard (but it's not Abbots so I don't know if they'll accept it. lol)

Rocguy, I'm part of ROMA and they will accept black and white photos, any photo.
http://outdoormuseum.com/

I wish I had more time to dedicate to the project, but I dont have time for all of their meetings. This was all thought of by a MCC student from Japan, who barely speaks English, but loves living in Rochester. He sees so much potential!

Mosaic of 10,000 images will 'capture' Rochester
Democrat and Chronicle

Time to go through the memory card, looking for photos of the kids splashing at Hamlin Beach or Mom getting down at Rochester MusicFest.

ROMA, a new local arts organization, is beginning a push to create a series of outdoor displays on downtown Rochester facades. The effort is to start in September with a billboard-sized photo mosaic on one building.

ROMA, an acronym for Rochester Outdoor Museum of Art, plans to use 10,000 images sent in by area residents for the mosaic. The site is the north wall of the downtown MetroCenter campus of the State University College at Brockport, 55 St. Paul St.

The thousands of individual photos also will make up one larger image.

Both the smaller "tile" photos and the larger, dominant image should in some way reflect or capture Rochester, said ROMA Director Kenichiro "Ken" Sato. Five local artists will choose a photo from submissions to ROMA's Big Picture Photo Contest for the dominant image.

The resulting mosaic will be roughly 2,400-square-feet in size.

"Think about cities you've been to that you've really liked, and I'd hazard a guess many of them had an aspect of significant beauty," said Heidi Zimmer-Meyer, president of the Rochester Downtown Development Corp. "The value of public art to create sensations at the street level is significant. This kind of amenity adds value to attracting real estate investments (and) new residents."

ROMA, which Sato helped found, has set a goal of having giant photos on dozens of downtown buildings. The group's efforts could work well with other downtown arts plans, such as the new performing arts center planned for Renaissance Square, said Sarah Lentini, president and chief executive of the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester.

The council, as well as Citibank and City Hall, together awarded a grant of more than $15,000 for the photo mosaic project.

E. Main project stays on course

Renaissance Square to start in '07
Democrat and Chronicle

Renaissance Square remains on budget and on schedule — but it still will be a while before shovels are in the ground.

Planners of the largest downtown development project in Rochester history held their annual meeting Wednesday. They said the $230 million project should fall within budget and stay on course for a construction start in late 2007.

"I'm confident we're right where we need to be," said Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks, who has made Renaissance Square the centerpiece project of her administration.

The project calls for building a bus terminal, performing arts center and Monroe Community College campus in the heart of downtown, on East Main Street between North Clinton Avenue and St. Paul Street.

Each piece has been talked about independently for decades, but Brooks in 2004 pulled the components together under one management organization, called Main & Clinton Local Development Corp.

The group, all present at the meeting, is made up of the project's players: Brooks; Mayor Robert Duffy; Thomas Flynn, president of Monroe Community College; Mark Aesch, chief executive of the Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority; and Sarah Lentini, president of the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester.

The project, managed by the county, has attracted bipartisan support and an unprecedented level of government funding. About $194 million has already been secured through federal, state and local governments. The rest is expected to come through a fundraising campaign, which may start later this year.

Project planners are currently going through the federal environmental review process. Later this year, the public should get an opportunity to comment on a draft of the review.

Final designs would come after that process, and planners hope that the demolition of the roughly two dozen properties on the site can begin in mid-2007. Actual construction would begin in late 2007 and be completed in late 2009 or 2010.

The county has yet to detail who will run the facility, how much it will cost to operate and who will pay those costs.

One other outstanding issue remains: the scope of the performing arts center.

Arts groups continue to debate whether the performing arts center — which is likely to include a large, 2,800-seat theater for traveling Broadway shows and a 250-seat theater for community arts groups — will also be expanded to include a midsize theater down the street, near Eastman Theatre.

The problem is that a midsize theater would require millions of dollars more in public and private funding. Brooks said Wednesday that she continues to support a larger arts vision in Rochester; yet she warned that the vision shouldn't jeopardize the schedule of Renaissance Square.

Duffy might step in. He said he met Wednesday morning with project planners to discuss a midsize theater and suggested that maybe the city could take the lead on it as the county focuses on Renaissance Square.

"That is an aspect of this development that I see the city taking a natural lead on," he said.

Brooks seemed open to the idea, but she and Duffy have yet to discuss it.

"I welcome his support on the vision for Main and Clinton and supporting a broader vision for downtown," Brooks said. "I think all of us need to respond to community desire to have a big-picture strategy for our center city."

Nice Story...

New East End store playing the oldies

Vintage instrument shop anchors Sagamore retail space
Democrat and Chronicle

John Bernunzio and Julie Schnepf took a calculated risk when they moved much of their vintage musical instrument business from their home to a new storefront in the East End.

No longer can they simply walk downstairs to get to work. True, they have to travel only a mile to get there now. And with its leather couch and antique display cases, the place feels a lot like home anyway — their home, that is, a restored Richardsonian Romanesque mansion across the street from the George Eastman House.

Still, setting up their renamed shop — Bernunzio Uptown Music — in the Sagamore on East building, no matter how comfortable the space, seemed a step in a strange direction.

"A lot of our friends said we had the perfect life," said Bernunzio, a former teacher who became an avid collector and then a successful vintage instrument dealer. "But there was a component that was missing, and that was being part of the community. Nobody knew who we were."

They do now. The store draws passersby like a candy store attracts children. On a recent Monday, grown men pressed against the glass and pulled on the locked doors in hopes of getting in although the store was closed.

Indeed, the only issue Bernunzio has about the move is "having to wash all the nose prints from the windows."

The couple, who opted to buy rather than rent their 1,100-square-foot space, are banking on the continued growth of the East End, where bars, eateries and the Sagamore, with its 23 luxury condominiums and office and retail space, have sprouted.

"We could have taken this shop to New York City and done very well," said Bernunzio, "but we really believe in the downtown of Rochester."

Bernunzio and his wife are the Sagamore's first retail occupants, and are "exactly what we're looking for," said Patrick Tobin, vice president of Christa Development Corp., which built the Sagamore. "We're looking more for upscale (tenants) — especially something that's more culturally oriented."

Bernunzio and Schnepf have long dealt in vintage musical instruments; they just haven't had a place to show them off beyond their Web site. The instruments, and Bernunzio and Schnepf, mostly stayed in the basement of their home, in a climate-controlled room. Both were widely known in the niche market their business occupies, but in Rochester "we kept a low profile," Schnepf said.

The couple took a major step toward shedding their anonymity by opening during the recent Rochester International Jazz Festival.

After shows let out, "this place would fill up," said Schnepf, a former executive secretary who handles the shipping and receiving end of the business, photographs the inventory and has what her husband calls "a good eye" for old instruments. "It was kind of scary."

"Scary" because most of what is sold at Bernunzio Uptown Music is rare, antique and expensive. Among the items recently available were a 1939 electric mandola and a banjo used by Mistinguett, a French entertainer from the 1800s and "the Madonna of her time," according to Bernunzio.

But the patrons "were very respectful," Schnepf said. While the store is designed as "more of a gallery, and a place for serious musicians," said Bernunzio, customers are allowed — even encouraged — to take instruments home to try them.

The couple's mail order and repair and storage operations still run out of their house at 875 East Ave.

As children, they had gaped at mansions along East Avenue. To own one is a dream come true. Bernunzio now speaks of the store in similar terms.

"To own five windows on East Avenue in the best location — and I've lived in the city long enough to know — it was the right thing to do."

SCHOOL WORK'S ON HOLD
City Newspaper

On the fourth floor of the JoshLoftonBuilding on West Main Street is a large room. One wall is covered with 5-by-12 cards containing the names of city schools, a description of proposed construction at the school, and projected costs (which range from $30,000 to $16 million).

On the other walls are architectural drawings of redesigned schools, showing everything from new athletic facilities to health clinics.

It's all part of the planning for the Rochester school district's 15-year, $500 million "facilities modernization" project.

But, for now, the project is on hold. The district didn't get approval of state funding before the legislative session ended for the year. The reason, apparently: differences between the Senate and Assembly versions of bills providing the funding.

Half of Rochester's schools are more than 70 years old, and while the district spends $25 million a year to maintain them, some of them need major upgrading, such as new heating systems. Other buildings need expansions. And the district hopes to buy adjacent property for some land-locked schools to provide space for athletic fields or playgrounds.

State Assemblymember David Gantt, who pulled the funding bill from the legislature at the school district's request, said late last week that he's optimistic that Rochester will get its money. But, he says, there's no plan to reintroduce the bill in a special session this summer.

"We will use the time between now and January to rewrite the bill to get it passed," said Gantt. "No one is to blame here. It's better to have a good bill than the wrong one. We're going to go back and we're going to get it through. That's a promise."

Pretty cool, you learn something new everyday...

SERIAL CITY
City Newspaper

From Jack the Ripper to the Son of Sam, Hollywood has lifted details from true-life events to make movies that fall into the lucrative serial-killer genre. The feelings of fear and loss brought about by those tragedies are usually abstract to those of us in Western New York, but they might not be come September, when production is scheduled to begin on The Alphabet Killer.

Directed by Rob Schmidt (2003's Wrong Turn), The Alphabet Killer is based on Rochester's double-initial murders of the 1970s, in which three girls with the same first and last initials were killed, each of their bodies found in a suburb whose name began with the same letter as the girl's. The story has been relatively fictionalized for the film. (The parts have not yet been cast; updates can be found at www.alphabetkiller.com.)

Whether the film reopens one of this region's wounds or it brings needed attention to an unsolved crime, there could be one clear benefit: for the local economy. When the cameras roll on The Alphabet Killer this fall, it will be right here in Rochester.

This has been in planning for a long time, looks like work may actually start...

North Clinton rising

A stalled ethnic market gains momentum
City Newspaper

Albert Algarin is talking about a marriage. We are walking along North Clinton Avenue, as we do almost every Friday. Algarin, who's due for knee surgery the next week, uses a crutch to support his weight. The pale sun hangs overhead. Somewhere nearby, a radio plays a Latin pop song. A woman dances on her stoop --- a sexy, soulful dance.

North Clinton Avenue, says Algarin, is like a bride, "a bride waiting for her groom." The groom, he says, is La Marqueta. It's a colloquial word: marqueta. Spanish street talk, says Algarin, for marketplace. It's more than that, though. It's a hybrid word, a reflection, perhaps, of the immigrant experience. Or maybe that's a stretch.

But so, then, is Marqueta: a proposed Hispanic marketplace in the heart of Rochester's inner city. The land for the project is a barren field. A plastic bag bobs in the wind and catches in the weeds. Nearby, along one of North Clinton's many side streets, glass shards and drug needles lie in the grass. Someone's ripped the siding off a house, now boarded up and marked for demolition.

But for Algarin, president of the North Clinton Avenue Business Association and former Northeast Rochester resident, there's gold beneath this dirt. It glistens. See, he says. He's pointing to a clothing store painted orange, yellow, and purple. Across the street, an Asian woman cranks an old lever to open the gate to her restaurant. Toddlers from North Clinton's BethesdaChildDevelopmentCenter walk hand-in-hand toward Borinquen Bakery.

This, says Algarin, is what North Clinton is all about: color, festivity, passion.

What it is not about is implied. It is not about the decay. It is not about the crime, the arson, the gunshots in the night. Wipe North Clinton clean, says Algarin, and you have not just a Latino hub, but an international one. Look at the Yemenese clothing-store owner, the Eastern European butcher on the corner, the new soul-food restaurant chef serving up plates of chitlins and collard greens. Look at these merchants, he says, and you begin to see what the area can be.

Remove the roof at Marketplace Mall in Henrietta, add a few street vendors, novelty shops, grass, flowers, benches, an open-air café, and maybe a church, and you can envision something close to a placita. These Latino marketplaces often serve not just as shopping areas but also as town centers. They are places where people congregate to eat, shop, or just pass the time.

Rethinking retail, however, is a difficult task --- especially in a climate as frigid and fickle as Rochester's. But if recreating the placita in its entirety would be difficult in the northeastern United States, creating a hybrid of sorts may be possible. At least that's what city officials hope.

The city addressed ways to clean up North Clinton Avenue between Upper Falls Boulevard and Avenue D --- often referred to as La Avenida --- in its 2000 revitalization plan. Among the ideas was La Marqueta, a retail complex on a vacant city-owned parcel in the 800 block of North Clinton Avenue.

Using DeWolff Partnership Architects as their project consultant, city officials envisioned a glass-encased building fronted by an outdoor plaza with tiled walkways, gardens, and a fountain. Five years later, those renderings have been scrapped, but plans for La Marqueta are moving forward.

Larry Glazer of Buckingham Properties has agreed to buy and develop the land. His was the only firm willing to take the risk. Among the biggest developers in the city, Glazer's projects include successful mixed-use buildings on University Avenue and a conversion of the Artcraft Optical building downtown. He also recently bought the former GeneseeHospital on Alexander Street.

Glazer describes Marqueta as a strip mall with a Hispanic touch. It will be colorful, he says, and certain façade elements will reflect Latino architecture. If his description sounds vague, it is. "I don't want to promise something that I can't deliver," says Glazer, who submitted preliminary design plans to the city earlier this month. What he does say, though, is that he would like to build a two-story complex, with 20,000 square feet of retail on the first floor and 10,000 square feet of office space on the second.

Plans for the second floor, though, are tentative. Glazer says there's a need for basic services in the area, such as doctor's offices and counseling centers, but he's not sure he can attract tenants. "We can't build it and hope they will come," he says.

A controversial part of Glazer plan is a parking lot in front of the site, which eliminates the outdoor plaza. "It has been proven over and over and over again that when you have retail, you must have parking in the front, because you can't have two entrances in the store," says Glazer. "They can't guard two storefronts. This is the reality of what the market will accept."

The city's deputy commissioner of economic development, Phil Banks, says he was disappointed to see the plans putting a parking lot in front of the building. But he says it's also important not to create a building that limits retail potential, especially in such a high-risk area. "Even though I didn't like it, I had to understand where he was coming from," says Banks. "He's the developer, and there are other designs aspects that I found very attractive."

Banks says Glazer will have to justify his proposal to a project-review committee composed of city officials and private architects. That committee will also determine what elements of the plan run counter to zoning requirements and what variances Glazer would need.

Banks stresses that the city remains committed to creating a noticeably ethnic marketplace. "It's got to be something different for it to work," he says.

Stalling progress currently, though, are not Glazer's design plans for Marqueta, but neighboringbuildings that he believes will discourage people from shopping there. Of particular concern, he says, is a needle exchange site.

"How am I possibly going to bring good tenants in when I have a needle exchange there?" Glazer asks. The needle exchange will move to another location in the area, and the city, says Banks, is working through the condemnation process needed to demolish the building. But that takes time.

Glazer also wants to demolish a neighboring building housing a Chinese restaurant and a couple of houses behind Marqueta. It's impossible, he says, to break ground on the project until those demolitions are completed. Glazer says he doubts work will begin until at least the spring of next year. He hopes, he says, to hold public forums for people to view and discuss his design plans sometime this fall.

Glazer's hesitation underscores perhaps the project's biggest challenge: its surroundings. The risks associated with Marqueta, Glazer and other proponents acknowledge, are impossible to ignore. "Impediments to North Clinton Avenue's commercial success include high vacancies, deteriorated buildings, sporadic retail blocks, and serious criminal activity, including drugs," city analysts wrote in their 2000 study.

Those problems are particularly prevalent in the neighborhoods bordering North Clinton Avenue. Many houses here are boarded up and covered in graffiti. Looters have broken windows and stolen vinyl siding. Police Captain Mark Case, who often joins Algarin's Friday walks, advises people to wear thick-soled shoes to avoid getting stuck by heroin needles. A huge challenge, says Algarin, will be to convince people to shop in an area showing such decay.

For all the neighborhood's difficulties, though, city analysts found that several factors make Marqueta economically feasible. Rochester, like many areas around the country, has seen a surge in its Latino population. According to the 2000 Census, Rochester was 13 percent Latino, and many of them are concentrated in the city's northeast quadrant. More than 40 percent of the people living around the Marqueta site are Latino, according to the city's 2000 economic analysis of North Clinton.

The same analysis also determined that approximately half of the occupied storefronts in the area had recognizable Latino names or carried many Latino-specific products. But North Clinton Avenue has more than just a Latino draw, researchers found. With between 12,000 and almost 20,000 cars driving through the area every day, North Clinton remains one of Rochester's most heavily traveled arteries.

"Only major roads such as Ridge Road, Lake Avenue, and the expressways have higher traffic counts," researchers wrote. Moreover, only about half of the residents in the area own a car, compared to more than 75 percent citywide. "Local residents will walk up to half a mile for weekly shopping needs," researchers wrote.

Finally, the researchers quoted a 1999 study by Hunter Interests, Inc., which determined that northeast Rochester can support up to 80,000 square feet of additional retail space.

Look at those numbers! exclaims Gladys Santiago, vice president of City Council and Council's only Hispanic member. We're sitting in a diner on Culver Road.

There's a bite to Santiago's voice. Marqueta is the primary reason she ran for office 12 years ago, she says. Northeast Rochester is also the area Santiago calls home. "Latinos, a lot of them ended up on Clinton Avenue," she says. "We were one of those families. So my dad put a store up, a grocery store, sold all those products that he used to get from New York."

Various groups, says Santiago, have been trying to revitalize North Clinton Avenue for a quarter century. Originally, Latino leaders hoped simply to clean up the street --- which has been accomplished to some extent through small-business improvement grants. Many stores have received coats of fresh paint, and Algarin's business association recently secured enough funds to place more than 25 planters along North Clinton.

But Marqueta has stalled. North Clinton's residents, says Santiago, not only deserve Marqueta, they need it. Just look at the Tops at the Upper Falls Boulevard-North Clinton intersection, she says: "It's packed. It's packed, for God's sake. If it was bigger, you know the business it would be making!"

Many, like Santiago and Algarin, point to an East Coast Hispanic marketplace as indicative of Marqueta's commercial potential. Hartford, Connecticut, first opened El Mercado 17 years ago. Since then, says Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez, one of the project's earliest proponents and New England's first Latino mayor, the strip has become the city's ethnic hub.

Like North Clinton Avenue, says Perez, Mercado's commercial strip was riddled with crime. It had drugs. It had gangs. It had murders. Now, he says, crime in the area has declined. And Latinos from across the region visit Mercado to shop and eat both inside and outside the complex. Mercado and its surroundings, says Perez, do better business than Hartford's center city.

Much of the area's success, he says, can be attributed to Hartford's Spanish American Merchants Association. Similar to Algarin and his efforts with the North Clinton Avenue Business Association, SAMA leaders worked tirelessly to clean up their commercial district. They too walked the street, got rid of loiterers, and gained the trust of area business owners. Now, says Algarin, businesses pay up to $30,000 to put the SAMA logo on their advertisements --- money that goes into growing Mercado.

Hartford city officials are looking to build a high-end retail and housing complex next to Mercado, says Perez. The area surrounding Mercado is still poor, he says, and his hope is that a mixed-income project of this nature will elevate the area economically as well as draw non-Latinos into Hartford's inner city.

Mercado, however,has one distinct advantage over Marqueta: the Mercado area is more than 90 percent Latino. The North Clinton area is less than half that.

But that alone, say Marqueta's proponents, doesn't erase the similarities. Moreover, says Daisy Rivera Algarin, a bilingual marketing specialist for the city and Albert Algarin's wife, businesses on North Clinton have a history of evolving to suit their clientele --- which includes Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Asians, and Eastern Europeans. "It's interesting to watch the menus," she says, noting for example: "If you go to Wang's Chinese, you can get Chinese food and Puerto Rican tostones."

Instead of referring to Marqueta as a Latino marketplace, says Albert Algarin, it might be better to think of it as an international market with a Latino feel. Non-Latino merchants in the area say they appreciate that Marqueta might have room for them, as well. "We need a store for us," says Fahd Abdulsalam, a Yemenese immigrant and manager at His & Hers Apparel on North Clinton. Given the opportunity, Abdulsalam would like to open a boutique inside the Marqueta complex.

And Glazer says he would like to see a mix of small mom-and-pop stores and larger franchises. "Just because it's a Latino or black neighborhood doesn't mean that they don't need basic services that everybody uses everywhere," he says.

The city's economic development officials originally thought that "people would come from Pittsford and all over to shop there," says Glazer. "I said, 'I don't think so.'" Marqueta may eventually have a regional draw, he says, but the immediate goal should be to create a self-sustaining marketplace.

Most hope, however, that Marqueta will eventuallyattract a wider audience. Marqueta, says City Councilmember Ben Douglas, cannot exist in isolation. Not only should it reduce blight and crime in the immediate area, but it should spread growth outward, south toward downtown and north toward Irondequoit. Whereas Algarin sees Avenida as the bride and Marqueta as the groom, Douglas says: "If La Avenida is the bride, the groom is the entire community that surrounds that area. Because the bride cannot make that marriage all by herself."

Marqueta can replicate Mercado's success, Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez says, if the city and the North Clinton Avenue Business Association remain committed to the project. "It has to be an investment that continues to get leveraged," he says. "You can't just do one move and hope that that will finish it."

Time, says Angelo Caraballo, the North Clinton Avenue Business Association's community liaison, is one thing he and Algarin understand. Caraballo calls his commitment to the North Clinton area his "15-year plan."

Changes are already happening, says Algarin. When he began walking North Clinton Avenue's business strip once a week in 2002, the situation there was "rough," he says. "I saw a lot of debris. I saw boarded-up houses in the business strip. I saw a lot of hangouts," he says.

Now, says Algarin, there appears to be a small resurgence in commercial activity, and storefront loiterers have become less visible. Caraballo points to the third story of a building. That, he says, is where merchants asked police to hide out and watch for drug exchanges. The targeted business has since closed shop.

Algarin recognizes, though, that there are a lot of different voices and visions surrounding La Marqueta. But he says deep down just about everybody involved in the project wants the same basic things. They want, he says, to build a marketplace for those already living in the North Clinton area, and they want to create a marketplace that people --- both inside and outside the city --- look to as the ethnic center of Rochester.

"We're here because we're seriously committed to building this neighborhood," he says.

He's cleaning up North Clinton Avenue, Algarin says, for tomorrow's generation: "Those kids are living in the neighborhood that I lived in. If I can leave a better neighborhood for them, then they'll leave a better neighborhood for the next generation and the next generation."

Rocguy, I'm Part of ROMA and they will accept Black and White photos, any photo.


Sweet. My grandma has the original hanging in her living room and I doubt she would let it go, but I'll try to get a copy. That serial killer thing is creepy, I'm surprised I've never heard of it. That's great that they are filming it in Rochester too..... are they by any chance filming any of the J-mac movie in Rochester?

I havent really explored this site enough, but I was today, and I found this.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?referrerid=39159&t=274299

Anyone else find anything on here I could check out? Buffcity where are your photo albums of pics? There are 179 pages of photo forums on SSC and I dont have that much time to search them all. Anyone else find anything?

http://www.rochesterinsider.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Davis expands East End empire
Insider

Ronnie Davis has his own entertainment district in the works.

The owner of Daisy Dukes, SoHo East, Coyote Joe's and the Pig-N-Whistle, is taking his monopoly of Rochester's Upper East End district to the next level.

Though he's closing The Alexander Street Pub, 291 Alexander St. (its last night of business will be Saturday, July 1), he's opening APub Live, a 5,000-square-foot live music venue at 336 East Ave., under the SoHo deck on Friday, July 7.

The move is helping Davis establish what he calls "Entertainment Alley," officially Lawrence Street, off East Avenue, where most of his bars are located.

While Davis says "APub is very popular" at its current location, he thinks it will be beneficial to move the club to "the area that has the most energy."

Plus, the new location is 2,000 square feet bigger.

Davis says APub Live will have "a huge outdoor patio," two stages and only eight to 10 bands gracing those stages.

"I'm not a guinea pig for new bands," he says. "This is only for bands that are going to pack the place." Among them, he says: Perfect World, The Taint, Uncle Plum and the Skycoasters.

Feud with High Falls

It's no secret that Davis harbors ill-will toward the management of Saddle Ridge Rock-N-Country Saloon, one of the bars in the High Falls Entertainment Resort, which opened in April. He even bought a two-page ad in the Democrat and Chronicle's Weekend magazine to scold Saloon workers who he says came into Daisy Dukes to distribute promotional fliers and round up new customers.

For his part, Eric Shielder, director of marketing for the High Falls Entertainment Resort, told the Democrat and Chronicle that "we had some of our employees out and about" but denied that Saddle Ridge had made a direct effort to win over Davis' patrons.

That feud aside, Davis says: "They have a complex where you have to go inside. Here, I have a street, a street that really is mine because I own all the properties."

He'll use that street to host Upper East End Music Festivals, featuring bands, food and booze, on Friday, July 21, Aug. 18 and Sept. 8.

Future Pub plans

Meanwhile, he says the Alexander Street Pub site probably will be turned into an 18-and-older dance club called Quench, but he didn't say when it would open.

Where's Roc City Hots?

Also, you may have noticed that what once was Roc City Hots now is Daisy Dukes' patio.

Says Davis: "I can make more money with it being a patio than I can selling hot dogs. I have to go where the money is."


I personally hate all of Ronnie Davis' bars, but I am in the minority. Many people (mostly 18-25) love them. I hope Quench doesnt happen. The yet-named bar next to the former Alexander St Pub is nearing completion, they have spent mucho dolares on the building, it looks really nice. The rumor is that it will be a micro brew bar. If so Im excited. I used to love our nightlife, now all the most popular bars are too cheesy, either that or Im just getting too old. HAHA.

just 24 hours (well, 25 hours), and I'm there. And the forecast has it as sunny and in the low to mid 80's for the entire time we are there!

Not really development news, but will have serious ramifications. Susified for your reading pleasure.

I hate the SEIU even more. Next guy I see with a purple SEIU t-shirt gets punched out.

I guess it's time to get Higgins going on a secession movement. It's painfully evident we're not going anywhere as part of NYS.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In election year, public-service workers win passage of costly negotiation, job and retirement gains

By TOM PRECIOUS
News Albany Bureau
7/2/2006

ALBANY - Organized labor in New York will remember June 2006 as the month they ruled the State Capitol.

Unions long have enjoyed great friends in the State Legislature. But nothing can compare to the victories they won during the final weeks of this year's session, according to government officials, lobbyists and representatives of school boards and local governments.

The election-bound state legislators unleashed more than $1 billion worth of benefits to unions, which provide the most reliable source of cash and field-operation assistance during political campaigns.

In addition, the unions were handed broad, new powers to use in contract talks with local governments and school districts across the state. These advantages will end up costing local taxpayers for years to come, the school and government experts say.

"It really is a breathtaking list of union giveaways, with zero action to reduce taxpayer costs," Robert Ward of the Business Council of New York said of the more than 100 union-backed bills that passed both the Senate and Assembly.

The bills may be perfect timing for Gov. George E. Pataki. After cozy relations with labor, Pataki now has a chance to look tough on unions - as he burnishes his conservative credentials for a national audience - by vetoing some bills. Aides said he was still studying the newly passed legislation.

Most of this legislation benefits public service unions, and several measures were seen as weapons for negotiations and union organizing.

One bill forces into effect the last wage offer a union makes - presumably more generous to workers - if a government employer negotiates in bad faith. Critics say that legislation will only encourage protracted contract talks.

Another measure gives every worker in a union a 1 percent raise if, during contract talks, the government employer refuses to talk in good faith. No such penalty exists for the unions. The immediate costs to taxpayers total $300 million, according to fiscal notes, memos and interviews with lawmakers, staff members and lobbyists. Much of that is just the first-year costs. And that number does not include dozens of bills for which lawmakers assigned no costs or the added union protections to the state's Taylor Law that carry potentially huge costs for governments down the road.

The numbers grow. Add in what even state officials say is the true, long-term cost of one bill - boosting pay for certain workers at not-for-profit agencies - and the price tag leaps to $1.1 billion.


Action follows aid hikes

Add in three other bills covering contract and binding-arbitration deals, and the total for the union-backed measures approved in June comes in at more than $1.7 billion.

All this occurs in a year when the state gave record aid increases to try to help lower local property taxes.

"However, all that was done in the last two weeks having to do with labor and union benefits is going to offset the increase in state aid," said Peter Baynes, executive director of the New York Conference of Mayors.

Unions did well on defense, too, blocking measures that would have reduced workers' compensation costs and relaxed the Wicks Law, which mandates union participation on public works projects.

Many of the bills were first introduced in the Senate, where Republicans are working hard to hold onto their majority this fall. Sen. George Maziarz, R-Newfane, chairman of the Senate Labor Committee, did not return calls for comment last week.

In the Assembly, Republicans say Democrats also had in mind trying to be helpful to the gubernatorial election effort of Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, a strong labor ally.

But helping Spitzer was not a consideration for his votes, said Assembly Majority Leader Paul Tokasz, D-Cheektowaga. He said most of the bills passed the Senate first and were forwarded to the Assembly, where they received bipartisan support.

"Now the governor has his opportunity, constitutionally, to weigh in on these issues," Tokasz said.

Spitzer, endorsed by the AFL-CIO last week, declined to say whether he would veto any of the more than 100 measures if he were governor. Pressed on the issue, the only bill he criticized was one to permit more than 50,000 day care workers at private agencies to join state worker unions.

Union officials say measures protecting union jobs, wages and retirement incomes were years in the making and often address work-force inequities. But Denis Hughes, president of the AFL-CIO, acknowledged one other reason they all passed this year.

"A lot of it is the result of an election year, and in both houses people want support," he said.

Yet Hughes was hesitant to declare victory. "Let's see what the governor signs," Hughes said.


Wide range of benefits

Unions have long enjoyed alliances in the New York Legislature. Half of the 10 most generous political action committees are unions, according to the New York Public Interest Research Group. On top of money, they run phone banks and literature drops, and employ thousands of foot soldiers at election time to help favored candidates.

The measures passed in June ran the gamut. One bill, costing $25 million, allows some union members to get health coverage through Healthy NY, a program for low-income families.

Pension sweeteners were given to the State Police and fire retirement system, while another union's members would get refunds for money they paid into their pensions.

Another new measure provides workers with retirement credits while out on child-care leave or, in the case of some carpenters, when they were laid off 15 years ago. Binding arbitration was expanded for some workers in the parole and court systems, and some teachers were given new retirement deals.

Local governments will be banned from contracting with private firms to provide fire protection. Another lets investigators in Spitzer's office retire after 25 years at half pay. Others give new pension benefits for 911 operators, state university workers and tax department peace officers.

One of the last bills approved was the Quality Care Act, which provides $25 million to help not-for-profit agencies that care for disabled people raise worker salaries to reduce high turnover. Critics say it is a union-organizing tool for the Civil Service Employees Association.


Cost likely to balloon

The bill pushes for a salary hike for the not-for-profit workers - now at about $20,000 a year - to the level of direct care workers employed by the state, which is about $30,000 annually. That will require as much as $800 million, state officials said, far beyond the $25 million provided in the legislation.

Why would the CSEA care about an industry whose workers are not part of the union?

The union cares about patient care, responded Danny Donohue, president of the CSEA. "And we believe those workers deserve a voice in their operations," he added. "We believe those workers deserve better, and as a union, no question, we're going out there to organize them as well."


e-mail: tprecious@buffnews.com

Screw secession.... this calls for even more drastic measures........... SACK ALBANY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://my-expressions.com/up_media/4051/pblog/5159/1151890372.jpg

Loft-style living coming to city's Public Market area
Democrat and Chronicle

The developers who turned the downtown Temple Building into a showplace for loft living are hoping for a similar feat with a new project near the Rochester Public Market.

Family-run Costanza Enterprises Inc. is in the middle of renovating an old warehouse at 55 Railroad St. Costanza will turn the 65,000-square-foot building into a mixed-use space, with retail shops, 17 loft apartments and possibly a restaurant, said Jim Costanza, who runs CEI with his brother Drew.

The Costanzas expect to spend $1.5 million to $2 million on the project, which they call Station 55, Jim Costanza said. They're expecting to complete it by the end of the year.

"It's a beautiful building and we think one of the hidden gems of Rochester," Jim Costanza said.

CEI hopes the centerpiece of the project will be the flea market-style stalls on the first floor. There will be as many as 100 stalls for food and clothing vendors and arts and craft dealers, Jim Costanza said. The second floor will have lofts that will rent for at least $650 a month.

The project is being helped by a $200,000 state grant that will help build a wireless Internet network, part of a state effort to modernize older buildings. The city also is providing a $30,000 grant.

"The open floor plan lends itself to our vision of the property," said Tim Schmid, CEI vice president of operations.

Jim Costanza said he thinks the project will draw on traffic from the market and its neighborhood.

"In many ways this continues what has happened at Village Gate, and we're making that jump across the (Main) street," he said.

"It's going to really anchor that side of the street over there and act as a gateway," said Steve Golding, manager of downtown development for the city.

Owner Works to Update Station 55
RNEWS

It may be an empty building now, but “Station 55” will soon become a new place to eat, shop and live.

The owners said the building will house 100 indoor market stalls where vendors can lease space. They are also trying to bring in a small restaurant.

The second floor is slated to become artist-type lofts. The Public Market is just down the street.

"It's a risky venture in that there's no proven marketplace yet for this kind of use. However, we do think that with the close proximity to the Public Market, [that it] lends itself to being redeveloped," said Drew Costanza, owner.

Costanza said other cities have taken on similar projects with success. He said the former warehouse is in good condition and he expects to spend $1.5 to $2 million to renovate it.

It is slated to open this fall.

http://costanzaenterprises.com/


I can answer my own questions with the help of Google...

This was really interesting, posted by Buffcity:
http://skyscrapercity.com/archive/index.php/t-204656.html

You can see Roc and Buf from space if you copy and paste the URL's in a new a browser window, by Steel:
http://skyscrapercity.com/archive/index.php/t-219730.html

Really like this Pic:
http://www.geocities.com/seamonkey0135/Rochester_areal.jpg
http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=145571

those are nice pics.. Did anyone go to the Brighton Fireworks tonight? They SUCKED, we just got back after being trapped in the parking lot for half an hour after the show was over. We could barely see the ones in DT Rochester from where we were sitting but they looked way better.

The downtown fireworks were amazing tonight! I was at Frontier Field for the Wings game, saw them win, watched the city fireworks and then frontier field fireworks, what a night downtown. Traffic was unbelievable when we got out, so we stuck around High falls for quite a while, as did many others!

:dance:

Happy 4th!

http://my-expressions.com/up_media/4051/pblog/5159/1152074071.jpg

Wow! The ROC city fireworks last night were some of the best Ive ever seen. Some really impressive ones that Ive never seen before.

http://my-expressions.com/up_media/4051/pblog/5159/1152028933.jpg
Here's a shot of the new Rochester Public Safety building downtown.

Finally the Monroe County Fairgrounds are getting a makeover...about time!

Fairgrounds job sails along

Work ramps up in Henrietta
Democrat and Chronicle

Big changes are afoot at the Monroe County Fairgrounds. Oops, make that the Fair & Expo Center.

The name change last year was the first step in a $12 million master plan of construction and improvements for the property at Calkins and East Henrietta roads.

This morning, the county Fair & Recreation Association will formally break ground on those improvements.

Earthmoving actually started in early May. But with the groundbreaking — and some approval of plans that came in June — the work will accelerate, said Fran Tepper, executive director of the county Fair & Recreation Association.

The first phase includes building an attachment to Minett Hall and a new entryway that will link the Dome Arena and Minett Hall on the south side and serve as a main entrance to the two structures. The south parking lot will be redone, including paving it, and overhead utility lines will be buried.

The first phase should be done by November, Tepper said Tuesday.

The overall plans for the property include a 40,000-square-foot exhibition building, an indoor arena for horse shows and small vehicle racing, and a new grandstand.

The Fair & Recreation Association hopes to have that work done by 2015, if not sooner.

Last year the nonprofit association sold 30 acres of its 80-acre site, the part fronting Calkins Road, to Wegmans Food Markets Inc. to help finance the fairgrounds improvements.

The fairgrounds have needed restoration work for years, said Henrietta Town Supervisor James Breese.

And the only drawback to the construction work now starting, he said, is that "I wish it could have been done a lot sooner. It cries out for improvement. But they're on the right track now."

http://cmsimg.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=A2&Date=20060706&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=607060327&Ref=V2&Profile=1002&MaxW=550&MaxH=430

http://cmsimg.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=A2&Date=20060706&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=607060327&Ref=AR&Profile=1002&MaxW=550&MaxH=430

Site of next week's fair starts building up for the future
Democrat and Chronicle

Monroe County Fair organizers said Wednesday that ongoing improvements to the fairgrounds will have little impact on the annual event when it starts next week.

As the Monroe County Fair and Recreation Association officially broke ground on $2.6 million in renovations to the Henrietta property, officials said the goal is to have the work completed later this year. But for the short term, leaders want to ensure little disturbance when the fair runs from July 12-16. The main issue will be relocating some parking, officials said.

The renovations are part of a $12 million master plan to rehabilitate the 50-acre site off East Henrietta and Calkins roads, called the Fair & Expo Center.

The facility — which includes the 2,100-seat Dome Center and the smaller Minett Hall — last year hosted more than 100 events, such as trade shows and conventions.

The long-term plan calls for a 40,000-square-foot exhibition building and an indoor arena for horse shows and small-vehicle racing. But that's a 10-year plan and will require a variety of public and private funding.

For now, fair officials are focusing largely on infrastructure work. The $2.6 million renovation includes a new main entrance that will link the Dome Arena and Minett Hall on the south side.

The south parking lot will be redone and paved, utility lines will be put underground and picnic areas will be added.

Money for the work came from the roughly $3 million sale of 30 adjacent acres to Wegmans Food Markets in 2004.

The fair association is a nonprofit organization that began in 1823 as the Monroe Agricultural Society. It runs on a $1 million budget and is funded largely through fees for use of the facilities. The Dome Arena and Minett Hall facility were built in 1972.

"Our vision is to make this complex a meeting place for all types of events, events that will impact the economy of the region, as well as create opportunities for us to better serve our mission of supporting youth, agriculture and technology," said Fran Tepper, the association's executive director.

At the groundbreaking ceremony, Tepper was joined by board President Barbara Pierce, County Executive Maggie Brooks and Assemblyman Joseph Errigo, R-Conesus, Livingston County.

Food center is expanding
Democrat and Chronicle

The Genesee Valley Regional Market Authority, a Henrietta-based food distribution center and industrial park, finished its fiscal year with $2.8 million in revenue and is in the midst of an expansion. The market, located off Jefferson Road, is finishing a 25,000-square-foot building for the Stroehmann Co. and is planning a 13,000 square foot retail store for the Palmer Co.

I thought this story was interesting. I have a friend who just purchased a home in the Swillburg neighborhood and it is really up and coming. People are gutting many of the homes and fixing things up.
http://www.rochester-citynews.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A4550
http://www.swillburg.com/about.htm

Some Rochester news; one of it's finest citizens passed away at 11:35 on July 4 2006 at Highland Hospital. His name was Carl Ross Tremaine, and he was my Grandpa.

http://classifieds.democratandchronicle.com/osform/MVCCService?osform_template=/standard/resultDetail.oft&publication=rochestr&netgravityPublication=&category=MiscellaneousSkiRegistryLodging&queryString=PlMdjoPrjuPFzqPeYsI18Ld12KF42LF4H7OV2m.._8QBIPQMczokUjgPUylnkYQeTfsei6AfeRs1CWIP72KmV2MkFOiGDPlMdzAPF6q5LjheVfQebyC1UY9m089mVsMkFOcFV27B9PF2k2Ln.&queryValues=SQBIPQMczokUjgPUylNSjhMu6q10WIP72KmV2MkFOo3cfQBifFPrfQW05ipltcGV276pjoPrjuPFzqPeql5byqZrjhecyln0yA0i6qV.&selectedCount=&resultCount=50&displayCount=50&sortOrder=ascending&sortAttribute=adDescription&queryStartElement=0&startElement=31&adIDs=23564&singleAd=true&queryResultCount=36&hideDirectory=


Tremaine, Carl R.
Tuesday, July 4, 2006 at age 79. Predeceased by his parents, Sibley & Lillian Tremaine; daughters, Anne Marie Stiles and Mary Lou Zink; sisters, Marion (Fred) Lang and Janice Reynolds. He is survived by his loving wife of 56 years, Anna Mae Tremaine; daughters, Karen (Jim) Jones, Carol Jean (Scott) Keller, Maureen (Anthony) Meshell of NC; sons, Gregory (Deborah) Tremaine, Lawrence and Steve Tremaine; 19 grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; many nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. Carl was a retiree of Marine Midland Bank.
No prior calling hours. Family and friends are invited to celebrate his Memorial Mass, Saturday afternoon at 2:00 P.M. at St. John the Evangelist Church, 2400 Ridge Road West. Private, interment. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the American Heart Association in his memory. Reference
New Comer Family Funeral Home

First ran on: 07/06/2006

ROCGuy sorry to hear about that boss, condolences to you...


Also the Swillsburg neighborhood is where a friend of mine grew up, some of the density in that neighborhood is unbelievable. It is an impressive neighborhood with a good amount of diversity included in it. A fun place to walk through with a few nice urban parks tucked in there.

Haven't been on in a while, although the rise in violence has been somewhat alarming, I for one would like for it to stop. At some point here I gotta get out and get some pictures of the city.

Thanks. I'm pretty sure Swillburg is the area I was taking pictures of on Monday. South Avenue area? I'm very upset because not 6 hours before my grandpa passed away, my camera that I had just bought an $80 memory card for dissapeared. The most bizzare thing happened and these random people just showed up to our family's 4th of July picnic at my uncle's in Pittsford, saying they were looking for another BBQ but must have come to the wrong one, and then apparently they left very quickly. I'm serriously starting to think that we got robbed because my camera AND my cousins camera were in the foyer right by the front door where they came in and then left; and her's is missing as well. THIS IS PTTSFORD FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD!!! Not Clifford Ave!

very sorry to hear the bad news RocGuy...Like I always say, they are just getting on the flight sooner, but we all go to the same place.

btw...anyone know how the fireworks were in Rochester this 4th of July?

Thank you, I can't say it was unexpected so it has been somewhat easier to deal with. He had been in the hospital since May 25 and we're all glad his suffering is over. As for the fireworks, I went to the ones in Brighton tuesday night (we didn't get the bad news until almost midnight, after we got back) and they left much to be desired. We could see the ones downtown from a distance and they were much better. Today's D&C was full of letters to the editor from people saying that they were excellent! The picture of the day on picturerochester.com shows them.

Was downtown when the fireworks were happening, but I was at the ol' ballgame, still a great view of the display from my seat at Frontier. Was also a great display at Frontier after the game ended.

Rocguy...condolences...

http://rnews.com/images_story/parkinggarageads.jpg

Ads Unveiled in City Garages
RNEWS

Advertising is all around us. It's on buses and cars, and now in city parking garages.

The city unveiled a new advertising campaign which includes 16 signs in each of the seven city-owned garages. Ten months worth of advertising has already been sold. The city expects to keep more than half of the profits, approximately $70,000 of what's already been sold. That revenue will be put toward garage maintenance and keeping the cost of parking low.

Advertising executives say the campaign taps into a new market for this area.

"We're not necessarily reinventing the wheel with this program, it is being done in other areas. What's great about it is it's getting more and more difficult to reach your target market. Everyone is so busy with their children, their lives, if you have a demographic who parks inside a venue and you have rough estimate of how many people park there, and you can also find out where they work, it becomes an attractive medium for people who want to get the message out," said Ryan Morgan, president of Marquis Media.

The signage will be up in all of the city garages on Monday except for the South Avenue garage, which is still under construction after the collapse earlier this year. City officials hope to reopen that garage in late summer.

Garage ads would boost city coffers
Rochester Business Journal

City of Rochester officials on Thursday unveiled a commercial advertising program for seven of its parking garages to generate revenue for the city parking fund.
Full-color, styrene signs will be installed in the Sister Cities, Court Street, Genesee Crossroads, High Falls, Midtown, Washington Square and—when it re-opens after repairs—South Avenue garages, officials said.
The city wants to post 16 signs in each of the city’s municipal parking facilities. Rochester’s Marquis Media LLC is installing the signs, and has sold 10 months of advertising space, officials said.
Finger Lakes Gaming and Racetrack in Farmington and the University of Rochester Medical Center and Strong Health are the program’s first advertisers.
Advertisers can purchase space in one-month blocks, officials said. The city will receive 50 percent of the net revenue and will have final approval of advertising content. The city projects revenue of $70,000 to $90,000 in the first year.
The three-year contract with Marquis Media includes an option of two one-year extensions.


Ill tell you the Duffy Admin impresses me more everyday. This should have been done a long time ago and I think a lot more places could have advertising generating revenue for the city. I met Ryan Morgan and he's a charismatic young guy, his business is really taking off! He is the one behind the driving billboards you see around Rochester, but ever since gas prices went through the roof, it has been harder for him. Good idea, but now looks like he is finding other ways to make a buck.

Not that this has a whole lot to do with Rochester, but its interesting to note recent developments in other communities that many in this forum compare us too. It seems no community is invinceable to job downsizing and corporate stupidity.

Continental Tire to layoff 420 employees 8:15 AM

08:15 AM EDT on Friday, July 7, 2006

By TONY BURBECK / 6NEWS
E-mail Tony: TBurbeck@WCNC.com

Also online

Hundreds to lose jobs with Continental Tire 05/01/06

Continental warns N.C. tire factory workers of possible layoffs 03/10/06

More than 400 Continental Tire workers will be laid off at the end of today. The cuts are part of the company's restructuring plan after failing to reach an agreement with union workers.

Today is Harry Craft’s last shift at Continental Tire after decades of making tires. By Friday night he'll be one of 420 employees losing their jobs.

"Now I have to do a whole switch, a whole career change. I just don't know what I am going to do," Craft said.

"We're just restructuring to become more competitive," said Rick Holcomb with Continental Tire.

Continental said it needed $32 million in cuts from the Charlotte plant, its most expensive.

6NEWS

Continental Tire says the Charlotte plant was the company's most expensive to run.

Union leaders said they offered $16 million. It was a no deal and has already cost about 500 people their jobs.

Now, the plant doesn't even make tires. It mixes and warehouses rubber.

"We will employ about 200 employees going forward," Holcomb said.

Continental paid to sponsor a bowl game, currently sponsors the World Cup and makes millions.

In Charlotte, employees said that $32 million was all or nothing.

"They want us to make up for their mistakes," Craft said.

One thing union leaders said they never got from Continental Tire was proof the Charlotte plant was the company's most expensive to run. They said they needed that information to help them bargain. Now those allegations of unfair labor practices will go before a judge in August

Also, just as an aside some other news from that community of low taxes and what not...

N.C. bill seeks to add toll roads
I-485, Monroe Bypass could be candidates
RICHARD RUBIN
rrubin@charlotteobserver.com

Some of the Charlotte region's freeways might not be free forever.

State legislators may soon allow tolls on certain existing roads, significantly expanding the pay-as-you-drive concept in North Carolina.

The state Senate passed a bill last week that would let the N.C. Turnpike Authority charge drivers on highways "contiguous" with toll roads, if that would make the toll road financially feasible.

Since 2002, the turnpike authority has explored toll roads, an increasingly popular option for states trying to keep up with population growth. Until now, the authority's work has been limited to planning new highways and bridges, because state law prohibits tolls on existing free roads.

But the bill, sponsored by Sen. Clark Jenkins, D-Edgecombe, would loosen that restriction. "We as a state, counties, municipalities, the whole works, are short a lot of cash," he said.

No decisions have been made on individual projects, but the bill seems to allow tolls on roads such as Interstate 485 and the planned Monroe Bypass in eastern Union County.

The proceeds could help build the region's two proposed toll projects: the Monroe Connector in western Union County and the Garden Parkway in southern Gaston and western Mecklenburg.

Jenkins' bill, which passed 47-1, moves to the House. It's still unclear whether the House will consider the bill before adjourning.

Other states have been using toll roads for decades, and 35 have some form of toll road, according to the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association. But so far, North Carolina has none.

The turnpike authority is studying seven projects statewide, and both in the Charlotte region are still years away from construction. A consultant is trying to project the potential revenue from tolls and the cost of construction.

Many toll projects cannot pay for themselves, leaving a gap between the amount of money collected from drivers and the cost of building, operating and maintaining the road. That's where Jenkins' bill comes in, providing a faster way to get toll roads built.

On Thursday, Charlotte transportation director Jim Humphrey told a group of local planners that the law, if it passes, could help build the Monroe Connector.

Here's how: The state Department of Transportation has money set aside to build the first two sections of the Monroe Bypass, a long-awaited road that would relieve traffic on Union County's congested U.S. 74.

Those first two sections in eastern Union -- which would run from Marshville to U.S. 601 north of Monroe -- are scheduled to start construction in 2007.

But without the connector -- or a final bypass section that doesn't have state money yet -- the new highway would dump traffic onto U.S. 601 for decades. That is causing delays, because the federal government will hold up the project unless the bypass has a logical endpoint.

Tolls on the eastern sections of the bypass could create more money for the connector and help it get built faster.

But Larry Helms, an N.C. Board of Transportation member from Union County, wants the bypass built as a free road.

"For 22 years, we've tried to get a bypass around Monroe, and you've got to put your stake in the ground somewhere," he said. "Our stake in the ground is (the bypass) in the conventional method."

Helms isn't opposed to tolls. In fact, he recently suggested tolls to help complete Interstate 485 in northeastern Mecklenburg. On I-485, he said, new lanes could have tolls, allowing drivers who want to move faster to pay while giving all drivers an option.

Jenkins said the state is not trying to force tolls on residents, and that local officials would help decide whether tolls are necessary.

UR has only N.Y. hospitals outside N.Y.C. in top list
Democrat and Chronicle

The University of Rochester Medical Center has once again landed on U.S. News and World Report's "America's Best Hospitals" list.

The UR Medical Center was the only hospital system to rank on the list in New York state outside New York City's five boroughs.

The magazine ranks top 14 hospitals overall, and then provides a list of the top 50 hospitals in 16 different specialties that include cancer, pediatrics and heart surgery. The list, which was posted today on the magazine's website, shows the medical center ranking 43rd in gynecological care and 45th in ear, nose and throat care in the nation.

The UR Medical Center includes Strong Memorial and Highland hospitals.

U.S. News and World Report determines rankings based on mortality rates, reputation among U.S. doctors and nurse-to-patient ratios.

There are certain guidelines to even qualify for the list. For example, a hospital must be affiliated with a medical school and must have certain advanced medical technologies. Only 176 out of 5,189 hospitals qualified to compete for the list.

UR reached a high ranking of 15th in geriatric care last year. However, the magazine eliminated that category this year. UR has shown up on the list many times since the list's inception in 1990. In 2004, UR was 41st for geriatric care. In 2003, it made it on the list for excellence in pediatric, hormone disorder and geriatric care.

Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore; the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.; the Cleveland Clinic; Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston; and UCLA Medical Center – in that order – topped the overall list of best hospitals nationwide.

A nice honor...and with the new Cancer Center they are building they say that UR will only continue to improve.


And blang unfortunately Buffalo took a hit in jobs today as well...I have never even heard of freezer queen meals, I thought they made refrigerators?

Freezer Queen to close
Business First of Buffalo

The Freezer Queen frozen-food plant on Buffalo's waterfront is closing, according to WKBW-TV.

The decision was reached by Freezer Queen's parent company, Home Market Foods of Norwood, Mass. Channel 7 quoted a company spokesman as saying, "We have made a very difficult business decision to close the manufacturing facility in Buffalo and to centralize operations at our Massachusetts plant."

Nearly 200 local employees at the Fuhrmann Boulevard plant are affected. The facility makes "multicompartment" frozen meals.

It is expected that Freezer Queen employees will receive formal notification by mail on Friday. The company did not release any information about severance packages, benefits or pensions.

Freezer Queen was founded in 1958 by Buffalo businessman Paul Snyder Sr. The company was subsequently owned by Nabisco, United Foods and James Crean PLC before being acquired by Home Market Foods in 2004.

Tops parent to sell stores
Business First of Buffalo

The parent company of Tops Friendly Markets says it will sell 46 Tops supermarkets in northeast Ohio.

Royal Ahold NV has announced that it will focus on strengthening its operations in New York and Pennsylvania. Stores in those two states will not be sold.

An Ahold spokesman says that the company hopes to sell its Ohio stores by the end of the year. They employ 3,800 people in the Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown and Norwalk areas.

Tops is the largest supermarket chain in Western New York, with 8,000 full-time employees in the eight-county region.

A Business First-Goldhaber Research Associates Poll in April found that Tops was the favorite supermarket of 51 percent of the adults surveyed in Erie and Niagara counties. Wegmans was second at 29 percent.

The roles are reversed in the Rochester area, where Wegmans is No. 1 and Tops is second. Duh.

These are interesting as well about Tops:
http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2005/07/11/story2.html
http://www.globest.com/retail/news/1_472/gsrglobal/20452-1.html

I dont know whats happening with Tops, I know they moved HQ to Erie, PA/Pittsburgh and merged it with Giant Eagle, but what is going on with the stores. Royal Ahold is having major financial issues with their accounting scandal and the quality of their stores and food. The Tops stores here get worse by the day, they are dirty and need a remodel badly. But in contrast I really like their new Martin's stores, the one in Perinton is great and I save a lot more money there than at Wegmans. But Wegman's wide selection is still superior, though I do find some different stuff at Martins.

[B]I dont know whats happening with Tops, I know they moved HQ to Erie, PA/Pittsburgh and merged it with Giant Eagle

Actually, Tops' headquarters is in Amherst, NY. They also did not merge with Giant Eagle, Giant Eagle is an Ahold owned subsidiary, as well as Tops. Ahold purchased Tops. Tops sucks anyways, I greatly prefer Wegmans.

Tops is good, at least the ones here. I think you get better value at Tops, unless you hit Wegmans by the circular/sales, in which case you'll do better. Plus Tops has better rewards points programs (which I don't think Wegmans has any). For instance, a few weeks ago I filled up my tank for $15.60, $1.049/gallon. Beat that lol.

Beach Moves To City Control Monday
by Virginia Butler
file photo
Published Jul 08, 2006

Starting Monday, Durand-Eastman beach will be the responsibility of the city of Rochester. According to an agreement that's now finalized by Mayor Bob Duffy and County Executive Maggie Brooks, the city will permanently assume responsibility for the operation and maintenance of that beach.

The agreement also gives the city title to the Ontario Beach boat launch and the parking area, upon state and local approval.

In an effort to make the area safe for swimmers, Mayor Duffy pledged when he first took office to re-open Durand-Eastman beach with lifeguards. Durand-Eastman has not operated as a public bathing beach in forty years.

The city will officially open the beach after the Monroe County Health Department declares it safe and issues a permit.

I just saw that story on Rnews.... they said it will be the first time the beach is officially open for swimming in over 40 years.

I always thought swimming in lake Ontario was better than Erie...ehhhh, Erie just has too much old BIG industry on its' shores...Ontario has Hamilton CAN and some stuff around Toronto, not like having Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Erie and Buffalo.

Hamlin Beach is my favorite by far.

Canandaigua Space Gets New Owner
by Cristina Domingues
photo by Matt Mann
Published Jul 08, 2006
The former Chase Pitkin store in Canandaigua has a new owner.


COR Development Commpany out of Syracuse plans to bring big box retail, specialty stores and dining to the 100,000 sq. ft. space.


Chase Pitkin closed in Canandaigua early this year. It only took a few months to find a company that wanted to buy the property.


Local leaders credit the city's recent development and the area's low taxes as incentive for new business.


"Our tax rate in the city of Canandaigua is one of the lowest of all the small cities of New York State,” said Canandaigua mayor Ellen Polimeni, “The whole tax structure of our area is appealing for people who are looking to relocate."


"We have businesses that do want to relocate to downtown but either because of size limitations or other restrictions, we're looking to make space for these businesses wanting to come in," said Sal Pietropaolo, Canandaigua Business and Economic Development Director.


COR also developed the Webster Towne Center. Shoppers there got a new Kohl's, Bed, Bath and Beyond and Barnes and Noble.

I know many of you said you dont care for Hillary, but I agree with her immensely on this blurb stolen from the RBJ:

Region must take risks and pursue new ideas, Clinton says
In part two of her interview with the Rochester Business Journal, Sen. Hillary Clinton says Rochester and other Upstate New York communities must embrace new ideas and be willing to take prudent risks to counteract the outmigration of young people and lagging economic growth.

On the same page was this:

Proponents see canal proposals as a key for city
Rochester real estate agent Douglas Burkhardt wants to transform the Inner Loop on the city’s East End into a waterway connecting the Erie Canal to Lake Ontario, a project that likely would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. But it is one he thinks would generate $34 million in annual revenue for the city and $13.5 million annually in property taxes from new development.

I dont know if the money is best spent on a canal, but at least its an idea and its different? It could be for boats in the summer and ice skating in the winter.

As our economy grows ever weaker more people turn to drugs and violence out of despair.


3 die, another wounded in overnight violence


Fernando Diaz and Victoria Freile
Staff writer


(July 11, 2006) — Two people died early today and a third person was wounded on Rochester's northeast side about an hour after a teenage bicyclist was shot to death.

Gunfire erupted in the intersection of Hixson and Maria streets at 12:26 a.m.

A woman died on the scene and a man was later pronounced dead, Deputy Police Chief James Sheppard said. The third victim, a woman, was undergoing surgery this morning at Strong Memorial Hospital, Rochester Police Capt. Lloyd said.

Police confirmed the man and the wounded woman were shot and believe the woman who died also was shot. Cuyler said this morning that they had been unable to find an entrance wound or blood, but said that can occur in a shooting.

The victims were in or near a black SUV that was parked at the intersection. At the scene, thirteen small yellow cones traced a line between the driver's door and a spot about 10 feet behind the vehicle. The rear window was gone.

Sheppard said the injuries of the surviving victim did not appear to be life-threatening.

The identities of the victims had not been released this morning. Cuyler said the two women lived in the neighborhood.

The shootings occurred less than two hours after another fatal shooting nearby.

A 15-year-old bicyclist was gunned down about 11 p.m. last night on the Driving Park Bridge and later died at Rochester General Hospital.

Cuyler said the front wheel of the boy's bicycle was pointing east, but police knew little more about the shooting.

Witnesses told police they saw the boy fall off his bike and that they tried to help him before calling 911.

Cuyler did not identify the victim because police had not yet notified next of kin. Sheppard said the boy was 15.

The recent wave of violent crime has now claimed the lives of seven people in the period of eight days, since July 3. The overnight deaths brought the city's criminal homicide rate to 27, if the death of the woman at Hixon and Maria is confirmed to be a slaying.

That is equal to the number this time last year, when Rochester had the highest homicide rate in New York state. In 2005, there were 54 homicides altogether.

Meanwhile, a teenager found slain early Sunday morning was identified yesterday by the Monroe County Medical Examiner's Office.

Timothy Hollins, 19, was found just after midnight lying in a driveway at 556 N. Goodman St., dead of multiple gunshot wounds.

Rochester police Sgt. Tony DeBellis said police believe an altercation with another male led to the teen's death and officers are looking for the shooter.

Two assaults early yesterday morning included a shooting and a fight in which another teen was stabbed.

Forty-year-old Chris Crawford, of Rochester, was shot once in the chest while walking north on Jefferson Avenue near Champlain Street around 3:45 a.m.

After the shooting, Crawford apparently walked several blocks south to Bartlett Street and found a friend who called 911, according to Police Sgt. Juan Rodriguez.

Crawford was transported to Strong Memorial Hospital and was in guarded condition.

About 12:20 a.m. Monday, officers were called to the 400 block of Conkey Avenue, where apparently six or seven people were fighting in the street, said Capt. Lloyd Cuyler.

When officers arrived, they learned that Kenneth K. Jones, 17, of Rochester had been stabbed twice in the chest during the melee, Cuyler said. Someone had taken Jones to Rochester General Hospital

Jones was still in intensive care Monday night.

Tammie Johnson, 26, simply shook her head Sunday when she talked about the Hollins death, which occurred near her home on North Goodman Street.

"It's just crazy around here. It's getting really bad," she said.

Brian Brendon, 32, who lives a few doors down from the shooting, said he was concerned for the safety of his five small children.

"It's about time for everybody to get together and do something," he said.

FDIAZ@DemocratandChronicle.com
VFREILE@DemocratandChronicle.com

Includes reporting by staff writers Greg Livadas and Joseph Spector.

:weirdo: ^^ Its the Apocalypse! I thought we were free of the Susinator, but, She'll be back!

Update on the Troup-Howell bridge:

Troup Howell Bridge Enters Next Phase
13 WHAM

There have been a number of traffic adjustments relating to the Troup Howell Bridge reconstruction.

The following ramp opening and closures will remain in effect until the project is completed next spring:

• Plymouth Avenue entrance ramp opened
• Ford Street entrance ramp closed
• South Avenue elevated entrance ramp closed, with I-490 eastbound accessible in right lane on South Ave.
• Inner Loop entrance ramp closed, with all Inner Loop traffic accessing I-490 eastbound via Byron Street entrance ramp.

In addition, traffic will be shifted to the newly completed section of the bridge on July 15 and 16. The I-490 eastbound exit ramp # 15 to the Inner Loop, South Avenue and Mt. Hope Avenue will be opened. The Inner Loop entrance ramp to I-490 westbound will remain closed.

Link:

http://www.trouphowellbridge.com/

RIT names business school after donor
Business First of Buffalo

Rochester Institute of Technology announced Tuesday it was forming the E. Philip Saunders College of Business.

The announcement was made with word that Saunders, a lifelong resident of Livingston County, was committing $13 million to the university's academic business programs. The funding is intended for a variety of initiatives including scholarships, recruitment, faculty support and the improvement of facilities

Saunders is founder of TravelCenters of America Inc., based in Ohio. He has designated that a portion of the $13 million benefit students from Livingston County, particularly graduates from Livonia, where Saunders attended high school, and Dansville, where he currently resides.

Highland Hospital receives another $1 million donation

Woman makes gift in memory of husband Dr. Frank Lovejoy
Democrat and Chronicle

When it rains, it pours, as the saying goes.

Highland Hospital has received a $1 million donation, the second announced in as many months, bringing Highland's fundraising to $8.51 million out of the $10 million goal set for the hospital's five-year capital campaign.

The donation comes from Lynne Lovejoy in memory of late husband Dr. Frank W. Lovejoy, who was a family medicine physician and former associate director of medical education at Highland Hospital.

In turn, Highland will rename the Highland Family Medicine Center at 777 S. Clinton Ave. the Frank W. and Lynne V. Lovejoy Family Medicine Center at a dedication ceremony this afternoon.

Gifts of this magnitude don't come around often.

But in mid-May, Highland received a $1 million gift from the Louis S. and Molly B. Wolk Foundation. At the time, the Wolk Foundation gift was just the third $1 million commitment received by Highland in its history.

This also is not Lynne Lovejoy's first donation to Highland.

She previously gave money to found the Frank Lovejoy M.D. Preceptorship in Family/Internal Medicine at Highland.

As for this latest donation, Lynne Lovejoy said she respects Highland and heard of the hospital's plans to build a new emergency department.

"Their campaign was in my mail and I discussed (donating) with the proper people," she said.

"Why wait until I die? It seemed (better) to me to do something now," Lovejoy said. "It's a hospital that I respect, and hospitals always need funds."

Tom D'Agostino, executive director of the Highland Foundation, said half of the gift is earmarked for the Family Medicine Center and the remaining $500,000 is to be disbursed at the discretion of Highland.

The funds intended for the Family Medicine Center will go toward education of medical residents in family medicine and increase the number of family practice physicians serving financially disadvantaged or uninsured patients, said Dr. Thomas Campbell, Highland's chairman of family medicine.

"Mrs. Lovejoy ... knew by giving this donation that it would help us meet our mission better," Campbell said.

D'Agostino said the latest $1 million gift should build momentum for the capital campaign, which will fund a project that includes the construction of an expanded emergency department.

"When anyone gives money to the campaign, it becomes more visible and it increases donations," he said.

Most donation pledges have come in the range of $10,000 to $25,000, D'Agostino said.

Frank Lovejoy died in 1997 at age 83. He graduated from Princeton University in 1936 and the University of Rochester Medical School in 1940.

The son of a former Eastman Kodak Co. chairman, Lovejoy was also commissioned as a lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve Medical Corps during World War II.

He started Highland Hospital's cardiopulmonary laboratory in 1963.

He and his wife also donated the Lovejoy family's Liberty Hill Farm and 24 surrounding acres on Lehigh Station Road to Rochester Institute of Technology in 1978.

More evidence of our downward spiral.

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As our economy grows ever weaker more people turn to drugs and violence out of despair

Hmmm. well lets see, the worst year for crime in Rocheter's history was 1993, which had over 60 murders, but that was when the economy was pretty good. Susie, you've made it clear that you're depression obviously stems from living in the Rochester area and that Buffalo is doing so much better, but you are WAY out it Hamlin, right on the border of Orleans County. Why don't you move about 35 miles west of where you are now, so you will be in the Buffalo metro, and then your life will automaticaly be better and you won't be depressed anymore?

Why don't you move about 35 miles west of where you are now, so you will be in the Buffalo metro, and then your life will automaticaly be better and you won't be depressed anymore?
:eek2:

What has poor Lockport done to you to make you so bitter?!?!?!

You are right, that isn't fair, nowhere in WNY deserves to have to deal with Susie.... she should instead head Northeast to Toronto!

So now the only question is if Jerome/Susie is actually "Jerome" with the second account of "Susie" or vice versa. Is it a nerdy 30 year old virgin who looks down on Rochester from Buffalo so he made a second account to be someone here who hates it?............ Or is it a middle aged woman who is so miserable and depressed that she blaimes Rochester, and must know some happier people in Buffalo, so she made a guy who is perfectly happy in Buffalo and sees Rochester as an inadequate place?

My condolences ROCguy on the loss of your grandpa.

I was up in Rochester this past week and didnt get shot so it aint all that bad :) I was on Lyell Ave however and drove by the bar shooting right after it happened, That guy sure picked the wrong bar to try and rob. Crime is a problem in Rochester and it is definitely a problem that needs addressing. But Rochester has always had problems with crime, nothing new there. I wasn't around yet but they had riots in Rochester back in the '60's. so obviously things were never perfect. Drugs are a problem too, again - nothing new. Inner city Rochester needs help and hopefully that help will come. I think that Hillary is trying harder than any senator i can recall to help Upstate. D'Amato certainly didn't care. Hopefully she will be able to come through and help in the long run, she definitely doesn't have a magic wand but i believe she is trying. Hopefully Duffy can work some magic as well.

And sorry to hear about your camera ROCguy, U would think Pittsfords safe, but my Mom was mugged in the Pittsford Wegmans parking lot this past February, and my parents Pittsford house has been broken into as well as many houses in their neighborhood so crime happens everywhere. And my Mom worries about me living here in NYC :gunz:

Well enough of my incoherent post as i type and watch the All-Star game @ the same time.

You are right, that isn't fair, nowhere in WNY deserves to have to deal with Susie.... she should instead head Northeast to Toronto!

maybe thats why the ferry didn't work.

maybe thats why the ferry didn't work.

OMG! Susie must have been the captain!

northeast to Toronto? from?

You didn't catch that little episode? It was a couple months ago; Sarge was talking about Toronto and how it's pollution blows into Buffalo or how Buffalo's pollution blows into Toronto or something like that.... anyways, he had mentioned how Toronto was NW of Buffalo, and then Susie decides to try and look smart and says "Toronto isn't NW of Buffalo, it's directly west of Buffalo. Look at a map before you make stupid comments". (sarge actually had that quote in his signature for a while) Then just about everyone with half the IQ of a grain of sand cracked up and began posting maps. What was her excuse as to her stupidity and arrogance....."oh, well I must have been looking at Canadian maps" LOL!

Brighton may decide tonight to limit demolition
Democrat and Chronicle

Brighton Town Board members may vote tonight to establish a law which would prohibit certain demolitions in the town.

But first, the town board will hold a public hearing — at 7:30 p.m. — to give residents a chance to voice their opinions on the proposed changes.

Town officials instituted a six-month moratorium in February to develop legislation to further regulate proposed and future demolitions as many of Brighton's houses age and demand for newer, larger houses increases.

The moratorium is slated to end on Aug. 15.

If a current proposal becomes law, town officials would require that demolition requests be reviewed by the town's Planning Board, Architectural Review Board, Conservation Board and, in some cases, Brighton's Historic Preservation Commission before a permit was issued to demolish a structure in the town.

If the changes are approved, the code will better outline what information must be submitted as part of an application for demolition. The town also plans to require restoration of demolition sites where new construction does not take place on the site right away.

Town officials also plan to impose penalties for anyone who fails to comply with the proposed code.

The proposed changes were drafted by town officials in recent months because some town residents were worried that newer, larger homes being built in place of aging homes in the town would ruin Brighton's charm.

Thomas Low, Brighton's commissioner of public works, said the current regulations address small additions to existing homes, not people or developers who want to build "a starter castle."


I dont understand why Brighton would worry so much about this, its just old people afraid of change, as usual in Rochester. That is one of the problems with the brain drain, old geezers dont want anything new or change and so the young have to move other places to get what they want. Brighton should worry about modernizing and fixing up Monroe Ave. There are so many beautiful homes and wealthy people people living in the town, yet the shops on Monroe Ave do not reflect that at all and many need major refurbishment. That should be Brightons concern now, not some moratorium limiting positive development.

Mendon extends subdivision moratorium
Democrat and Chronicle

Town residents who want to subdivide their property for new housing will have to wait a little while longer.

The Mendon Town Board this week extended its six-month moratorium on residential subdivisions for six more months.

Board members did that to give a committee that is reviewing and revising the town's zoning code more time to complete its work.

The original moratorium expires July 27.

Property owners will still be able to apply to the Town Board for exemptions to the moratorium because of hardship.

The seven-member zoning committee is working not only on the code itself, which is Chapter 200 of town law, but on the definitions contained in Chapter 86, Douglas Jones, the committee chairman, told the Town Board at its recent meeting.

"The vast majority of work (by the committee) is making things match," Jones said Monday.

For example, of the 372 terms defined in Chapter 86, 130 of them, including a puzzling reference to sand dunes and coastal shores, are not in the town zoning code, he said.

The committee first met in March and has been meeting nearly every week since then.

"These folks are working very hard," Supervisor Morris "Moe" Bickweat said Tuesday. He has been sitting in on the group's meetings.

On another matter, Bickweat is still concerned about the Town Board's refusal Monday night to put proposed longer terms for two town positions on the ballot in November. The proposal would have called for increasing the two-year terms of the town clerk and highway superintendent to four years.

Both are elected positions.

"I was very surprised," he said. "I was totally taken aback."

Bickweat and Town Board member Roy Cluff were on the losing side when the board voted 3-2 against presenting the longer terms to voters.

"Basically, these two gentlemen (Clerk James Merzke and Highway Superintendent William Smith) are career civil servants," Bickweat said Tuesday.

"They've done a wonderful job. They are very popular."

He called having to seek election every other year a "disruption" to their lives and those of their families.

Town Board members Patricia Freeman, Marvin Vahue and John Rooney made no comment in voting "no.''

But contacted Tuesday, Freeman said she felt both positions "at this time need to be two-year positions. I think it's one of those situations, if it's not broke don't fix it. "


Mendon is now facing a town that is growing but didnt have any laws about growth. These laws are actually needed to create smart growth. I agree with what they have done, drive down Cheese Factory Road and you can see the growth at hand. Mendon has a LONG way to go though. Mendon is now the wealthiest town around Rochester, but is still one of the most rural. I dont feel it has reached "suburb" status yet in my book. The town needs restaurants, services, and more infill first. That much open land scares me and with no easy access to highways, Mendon to me, is not convenient. There are some really amazing homes out there though.

WEDGE WI-FI
City Newspaper

You don't need to buy a coffee to get wireless anymore --- at least at the corner of South and Alexander. The pocket park known as Nathaniel Square now has free wi-fi access. There are also several electrical outlets and a security camera (so no one is tempted to walk away with your laptop).

Free wi-fi, says South Wedge Planning Committee Executive Director Dan Buyer, almost completes the park. Its last element: a statue of Nathaniel Rochester designed by local artist Pepsy Kettavong. Kettavong also created many of the park's other features, including the metal pergolas. The total cost of the park is around $300,000.


I think a downtown wide WiFI is a great idea for the city to invest in. I would love to be able to use my laptop anywhere downtown, and it would encourage me to spend more time in downtown for meetings. Also residents living downtown would have a great "perk" to living within the inner loop.


RocGuy, please dont start with the be-rating of others, it will just escalate, and it was so nice for a while without the bullshit on here.

I gotta agree, lets quit it with the re-hashing of bullshit that brought this forum down earlier

Constellation eyes layoffs at Vincor

By JANICE BULLARD PIETERSE
Rochester Business Journal
July 12, 2006

Constellation Brands Inc. plans to cut roughly 10 percent of the work force at recently acquired Vincor International Inc.
The Perinton firm late Tuesday said the roughly 230 layoffs would be marketing, administrative and production jobs that duplicate existing positions in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, where Constellation’s operations are much larger than Vincor’s. The firm last month completed its $1.4 billion acquisition of Vincor.
“While we are moving quickly to consolidate activities wherever it makes sense, we’re maintaining an appropriate level of staffing and retaining the expertise and experience to maintain and grow the production, marketing and sales of Vincor brands around the world,” said Robert Sands, president and chief operating officer at Constellation.
Constellation said it expects to incur restructuring and related charges of approximately $39 million before taxes.

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I guess the silver lining here is Vincor is based in BC (Canada) and none of the layoffs will take place here. Good news for the region I guess.

Real Salt Fake, not Lake?
A story out of Utah this morning suggests Real Salt Lake is considering moving its MLS team and according to Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson investors in Rochester and St. Louis are actively making bids for it.

I'm in the process of trying to find out more, but my guess is this is deja vu all over again for the Rhinos, if they indeed are the Rochester "investors" who have spoken with Salt Lake officials.

About two years ago, Lamar Hunt's Kansas City Wizards did the same thing when they were trying to build a stadium for their MLS team. Rochester was used as leverage and K.C.'s bid failed. That team, by the way, is still in Kansas City and still for sale.

"I'm not going to have any comment on it and no one in our organization will," Rhinos president Frank DuRoss said when asked if he or his team is interested in buying Real Salt Lake or trying to get the team to relocate here to play at PAETEC Park, Rochester's new soccer stadium.

Why no comment, DuRoss was asked? "I don't think it'd be appropriate," he said.

This is just part of the political game, which we know all too well here in Rochester. It's likely merely a threat by Real Salt Lake in an attempt to turn Tuesday's 5-4 vote by the Salt Lake City Council the OTHER way. If passed, a hotel-room tax would generate $30 million for the stadium project.

Hotel-tax dollars? Wow. All too familiar. Remember, that's what former Monroe County Executive Jack Doyle first promised to the tune of $7 million, then pulled off the table, for the Rhinos in helping to fund what is now PAETEC Park.

Sit tight, soccer fans, but don't get your hopes up.

Even with a second upper deck added to PAETEC before the start of next season, which is potentially part of the stadium's "Phase 2" plan, the seating capacity would be only about 17,500. That's 2,500 short of the minimum MLS wants for its teams. Would MLS reject a team in a proven soccer market based on just 2,500 seats?

You betcha.

It has made more questionable decisions than that over its first 11 years.

Relocating Salt Lake might be a way for the Rhinos to dodge paying a $30 million fee that is the going rate for an MLS expansion team. But the Rhinos still would have to foot the bill for year-end losses by the league, just as all owners in the single-entity structure of MLS, and DuRoss & Co. can't afford to shell out about a million dollars, or more, to help other MLS teams that can't cover their own costs.

And let's not forget this important nugget: If it's St. Louis or Rochester for Salt Lake, St. Louis would appear to have a huge advantage because Salt Lake owner Dave Checketts, the former New York Knicks executive, just two weeks ago closed a deal to buy the St. Louis Blues hockey team and its arena, the Savvis Center. Checketts heads an investment team called Sports Capital Partners that is the new owner of the NHL franchise.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Though not likely to happen, it is interesting how quickly all of this information has come into the limelight (i.e. today). I don't forsee the Rhinos making it to MLS anytime soon, I just see them as a ploy!

North Clinton Avenue|Rochester development|

North Clinton rising

A stalled ethnic market gains momentum

Albert Algarin is talking about a marriage. We are walking along North Clinton Avenue, as we do almost every Friday. Algarin, who's due for knee surgery the next week, uses a crutch to support his weight. The pale sun hangs overhead. Somewhere nearby, a radio plays a Latin pop song. A woman dances on her stoop --- a sexy, soulful dance.

North Clinton Avenue, says Algarin, is like a bride, "a bride waiting for her groom." The groom, he says, is La Marqueta. It's a colloquial word: marqueta. Spanish street talk, says Algarin, for marketplace. It's more than that, though. It's a hybrid word, a reflection, perhaps, of the immigrant experience. Or maybe that's a stretch.

But so, then, is Marqueta: a proposed Hispanic marketplace in the heart of Rochester's inner city. The land for the project is a barren field. A plastic bag bobs in the wind and catches in the weeds. Nearby, along one of North Clinton's many side streets, glass shards and drug needles lie in the grass. Someone's ripped the siding off a house, now boarded up and marked for demolition.

But for Algarin, president of the North Clinton Avenue Business Association and former Northeast Rochester resident, there's gold beneath this dirt. It glistens. See, he says. He's pointing to a clothing store painted orange, yellow, and purple. Across the street, an Asian woman cranks an old lever to open the gate to her restaurant. Toddlers from North Clinton's BethesdaChildDevelopmentCenter walk hand-in-hand toward Borinquen Bakery.

This, says Algarin, is what North Clinton is all about: color, festivity, passion.

What it is not about is implied. It is not about the decay. It is not about the crime, the arson, the gunshots in the night. Wipe North Clinton clean, says Algarin, and you have not just a Latino hub, but an international one. Look at the Yemenese clothing-store owner, the Eastern European butcher on the corner, the new soul-food restaurant chef serving up plates of chitlins and collard greens. Look at these merchants, he says, and you begin to see what the area can be.

Remove the roof at Marketplace Mallin Henrietta,add a few street vendors, novelty shops, grass, flowers, benches, an open-air café, and maybe a church, and you can envision something close to a placita. These Latino marketplaces often serve not just as shopping areas but also as town centers. They are places where people congregate to eat, shop, or just pass the time.

Rethinking retail, however, is a difficult task --- especially in a climate as frigid and fickle as Rochester's. But if recreating the placita in its entirety would be difficult in the northeastern United States, creating a hybrid of sorts may be possible. At least that's what city officials hope.

The city addressed ways to clean up North Clinton Avenue between Upper Falls Boulevard and Avenue D --- often referred to as La Avenida --- in its 2000 revitalization plan. Among the ideas was La Marqueta, a retail complex on a vacant city-owned parcel in the 800 block of North Clinton Avenue.

Using DeWolff Partnership Architects as their project consultant, city officials envisioned a glass-encased building fronted by an outdoor plaza with tiled walkways, gardens, and a fountain. Five years later, those renderings have been scrapped, but plans for La Marqueta are moving forward.

Larry Glazer of Buckingham Properties has agreed to buy and develop the land. His was the only firm willing to take the risk. Among the biggest developers in the city, Glazer's projects include successful mixed-use buildings on University Avenue and a conversion of the Artcraft Optical building downtown. He also recently bought the former GeneseeHospital on Alexander Street.

Glazer describes Marqueta as a strip mall with a Hispanic touch. It will be colorful, he says, and certain façade elements will reflect Latino architecture. If his description sounds vague, it is. "I don't want to promise something that I can't deliver," says Glazer, who submitted preliminary design plans to the city earlier this month. What he does say, though, is that he would like to build a two-story complex, with 20,000 square feet of retail on the first floor and 10,000 square feet of office space on the second.

Plans for the second floor, though, are tentative. Glazer says there's a need for basic services in the area, such as doctor's offices and counseling centers, but he's not sure he can attract tenants. "We can't build it and hope they will come," he says.

A controversial part of Glazer plan is a parking lot in front of the site, which eliminates the outdoor plaza. "It has been proven over and over and over again that when you have retail, you must have parking in the front, because you can't have two entrances in the store," says Glazer. "They can't guard two storefronts. This is the reality of what the market will accept."

The city's deputy commissioner of economic development, Phil Banks, says he was disappointed to see the plans putting a parking lot in front of the building. But he says it's also important not to create a building that limits retail potential, especially in such a high-risk area. "Even though I didn't like it, I had to understand where he was coming from," says Banks. "He's the developer, and there are other designs aspects that I found very attractive."

Banks says Glazer will have to justify his proposal to a project-review committee composed of city officials and private architects. That committee will also determine what elements of the plan run counter to zoning requirements and what variances Glazer would need.

Banks stresses that the city remains committed to creating a noticeably ethnic marketplace. "It's got to be something different for it to work," he says.

Stalling progress currently, though, are not Glazer's design plans for Marqueta, but neighboringbuildings that he believes will discourage people from shopping there. Of particular concern, he says, is a needle exchange site.

"How am I possibly going to bring good tenants in when I have a needle exchange there?" Glazer asks. The needle exchange will move to another location in the area, and the city, says Banks, is working through the condemnation process needed to demolish the building. But that takes time.

Glazer also wants to demolish a neighboring building housing a Chinese restaurant and a couple of houses behind Marqueta. It's impossible, he says, to break ground on the project until those demolitions are completed. Glazer says he doubts work will begin until at least the spring of next year. He hopes, he says, to hold public forums for people to view and discuss his design plans sometime this fall.

Glazer's hesitation underscores perhaps the project's biggest challenge: its surroundings. The risks associated with Marqueta, Glazer and other proponents acknowledge, are impossible to ignore. "Impediments to North Clinton Avenue's commercial success include high vacancies, deteriorated buildings, sporadic retail blocks, and serious criminal activity, including drugs," city analysts wrote in their 2000 study.

Those problems are particularly prevalent in the neighborhoods bordering North Clinton Avenue. Many houses here are boarded up and covered in graffiti. Looters have broken windows and stolen vinyl siding. Police Captain Mark Case, who often joins Algarin's Friday walks, advises people to wear thick-soled shoes to avoid getting stuck by heroin needles. A huge challenge, says Algarin, will be to convince people to shop in an area showing such decay.

For all the neighborhood's difficulties, though, city analysts found that several factors make Marqueta economically feasible. Rochester, like many areas around the country, has seen a surge in its Latino population. According to the 2000 Census, Rochester was 13 percent Latino, and many of them are concentrated in the city's northeast quadrant. More than 40 percent of the people living around the Marqueta site are Latino, according to the city's 2000 economic analysis of North Clinton.

The same analysis also determined that approximately half of the occupied storefronts in the area had recognizable Latino names or carried many Latino-specific products. But North Clinton Avenue has more than just a Latino draw, researchers found. With between 12,000 and almost 20,000 cars driving through the area every day, North Clinton remains one of Rochester's most heavily traveled arteries.

"Only major roads such as Ridge Road, Lake Avenue, and the expressways have higher traffic counts," researchers wrote. Moreover, only about half of the residents in the area own a car, compared to more than 75 percent citywide. "Local residents will walk up to half a mile for weekly shopping needs," researchers wrote.

Finally, the researchers quoted a 1999 study by Hunter Interests, Inc., which determined that northeast Rochester can support up to 80,000 square feet of additional retail space.

Look at those numbers! exclaims Gladys Santiago, vice president of City Council and Council's only Hispanic member. We're sitting in a diner on Culver Road.

There's a bite to Santiago's voice. Marqueta is the primary reason she ran for office 12 years ago, she says. Northeast Rochester is also the area Santiago calls home. "Latinos, a lot of them ended up on Clinton Avenue," she says. "We were one of those families. So my dad put a store up, a grocery store, sold all those products that he used to get from New York."

Various groups, says Santiago, have been trying to revitalize North Clinton Avenue for a quarter century. Originally, Latino leaders hoped simply to clean up the street --- which has been accomplished to some extent through small-business improvement grants. Many stores have received coats of fresh paint, and Algarin's business association recently secured enough funds to place more than 25 planters along North Clinton.

But Marqueta has stalled. North Clinton's residents, says Santiago, not only deserve Marqueta, they need it. Just look at the Tops at the Upper Falls Boulevard-North Clinton intersection, she says: "It's packed. It's packed, for God's sake. If it was bigger, you know the business it would be making!"

Many, like Santiago and Algarin, point to an East Coast Hispanic marketplace as indicative of Marqueta's commercial potential. Hartford, Connecticut, first opened El Mercado 17 years ago. Since then, says Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez, one of the project's earliest proponents and New England's first Latino mayor, the strip has become the city's ethnic hub.

Like North Clinton Avenue, says Perez, Mercado's commercial strip was riddled with crime. It had drugs. It had gangs. It had murders. Now, he says, crime in the area has declined. And Latinos from across the region visit Mercado to shop and eat both inside and outside the complex. Mercado and its surroundings, says Perez, do better business than Hartford's center city.

Much of the area's success, he says, can be attributed to Hartford's Spanish American Merchants Association. Similar to Algarin and his efforts with the North Clinton Avenue Business Association, SAMA leaders worked tirelessly to clean up their commercial district. They too walked the street, got rid of loiterers, and gained the trust of area business owners. Now, says Algarin, businesses pay up to $30,000 to put the SAMA logo on their advertisements --- money that goes into growing Mercado.

Hartford city officials are looking to build a high-end retail and housing complex next to Mercado, says Perez. The area surrounding Mercado is still poor, he says, and his hope is that a mixed-income project of this nature will elevate the area economically as well as draw non-Latinos into Hartford's inner city.

Mercado, however,has one distinct advantage over Marqueta: the Mercado area is more than 90 percent Latino. The North Clinton area is less than half that.

But that alone, say Marqueta's proponents, doesn't erase the similarities. Moreover, says Daisy Rivera Algarin, a bilingual marketing specialist for the city and Albert Algarin's wife, businesses on North Clinton have a history of evolving to suit their clientele --- which includes Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Asians, and Eastern Europeans. "It's interesting to watch the menus," she says, noting for example: "If you go to Wang's Chinese, you can get Chinese food and Puerto Rican tostones."

Instead of referring to Marqueta as a Latino marketplace, says Albert Algarin, it might be better to think of it as an international market with a Latino feel. Non-Latino merchants in the area say they appreciate that Marqueta might have room for them, as well. "We need a store for us," says Fahd Abdulsalam, a Yemenese immigrant and manager at His & Hers Apparel on North Clinton. Given the opportunity, Abdulsalam would like to open a boutique inside the Marqueta complex.

And Glazer says he would like to see a mix of small mom-and-pop stores and larger franchises. "Just because it's a Latino or black neighborhood doesn't mean that they don't need basic services that everybody uses everywhere," he says.

The city's economic development officials originally thought that "people would come from Pittsford and all over to shop there," says Glazer. "I said, 'I don't think so.'" Marqueta may eventually have a regional draw, he says, but the immediate goal should be to create a self-sustaining marketplace.

Most hope, however, that Marqueta will eventuallyattract a wider audience. Marqueta, says City Councilmember Ben Douglas, cannot exist in isolation. Not only should it reduce blight and crime in the immediate area, but it should spread growth outward, south toward downtown and north toward Irondequoit. Whereas Algarin sees Avenida as the bride and Marqueta as the groom, Douglas says: "If La Avenida is the bride, the groom is the entire community that surrounds that area. Because the bride cannot make that marriage all by herself."

Marqueta can replicate Mercado's success, Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez says, if the city and the North Clinton Avenue Business Association remain committed to the project. "It has to be an investment that continues to get leveraged," he says. "You can't just do one move and hope that that will finish it."

Time, says Angelo Caraballo, the North Clinton Avenue Business Association's community liaison, is one thing he and Algarin understand. Caraballo calls his commitment to the North Clinton area his "15-year plan."

Changes are already happening, says Algarin. When he began walking North Clinton Avenue's business strip once a week in 2002, the situation there was "rough," he says. "I saw a lot of debris. I saw boarded-up houses in the business strip. I saw a lot of hangouts," he says.

Now, says Algarin, there appears to be a small resurgence in commercial activity, and storefront loiterers have become less visible. Caraballo points to the third story of a building. That, he says, is where merchants asked police to hide out and watch for drug exchanges. The targeted business has since closed shop.

Algarin recognizes, though, that there are a lot of different voices and visions surrounding La Marqueta. But he says deep down just about everybody involved in the project wants the same basic things. They want, he says, to build a marketplace for those already living in the North Clinton area, and they want to create a marketplace that people --- both inside and outside the city --- look to as the ethnic center of Rochester.

"We're here because we're seriously committed to building this neighborhood," he says.

He's cleaning up North Clinton Avenue, Algarin says, for tomorrow's generation: "Those kids are living in the neighborhood that I lived in. If I can leave a better neighborhood for them, then they'll leave a better neighborhood for the next generation and the next generation."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Interesting tidbit about North Clinton and that neighborhood. Boy oh boy the City needs to wake up out of its slump right now.

RocGuy, please dont start with the be-rating of others, it will just escalate, and it was so nice for a while without the bullshit on here.

I agree.... but it's pretty much all Susie/Jerome. It keeps on trying to get a rise out of us, and especially you and I..... and both of us fall for it!

By the way, did anyone see that Ark with all the animals floating up 390? Damn i've never seen it rain like that here. It's a good thing we didn't fly out today like we were originally supposed to.

Wait. Rochester has an airport?

You're a funny guy!

no, they shut the Rochester Airport down when the last Kodak worker flew to NC after being laid off. Rochester moved its' airport to Albion and has daily flights to Utica and Elmira for 12.99 + FAA tax.

Wait. Rochester has an airport?
Yes we have an airport - last year it had almost 1.3 million emplanements too! And it is the fifth busiest in the whole State and third busiest upstate, unless Syracuse passed us, it was really close in 2004.

Of course, no decision...

Brighton discusses home demolition guidelines

Town considers rules on razing houses to build bigger ones
Democrat and Chronicle

Town Board members Wednesday listened to comments — some for, some against — about proposed new guidelines concerning demolition of buildings in the town.

A six-month moratorium for demolitions began Feb. 15 after residents expressed concerns that houses were being torn down and in some cases, replaced with larger houses that may alter the character of their neighborhood.

The board may vote on the new guidelines at its next meeting on July 26.

New zoning regulations for single-family structures built in Brighton also are to be discussed July 26 during a public hearing.

Tom Low, Brighton's commissioner of public works, said if the guidelines are approved, those wishing to take down a substantial portion of a house would have their application reviewed by the Planning Board, Architectural Review Board, Conservation Board and Historic Preservation Board "to make sure we're not removing something with historical significance."

Each project would be subjected to a public hearing.

About 12 to 15 houses annually have been rebuilt or replaced in recent years, Low said.

"Change is inevitable," said Robert Metzger, of Warren Avenue, who said the town wouldn't be the town they know today if people weren't able to rebuild.

His wife, Marcia, said she's glad two houses on her street were recently built. One replaced an unofficial dumping ground.

But she hoped the new regulations wouldn't cost the town money by defending lawsuits.

"If you make this too tight, too difficult for people to build or demolish and build a new home, you're going to ask for a lawsuit," she said.

Michael Millner, a Pittsford resident who has demolished six houses in Brighton in nine years, wants to demolish a $175,000 vacant house he bought at 11 Babcock Drive.

His replacement houses are roughly 4,000 square feet and cost $500,000 to $1 million. The median home price in Brighton is $140,000, excluding condos.

"I have grave concerns about the new process," Millner told the board. He said existing guidelines are already in place for building approvals.

"We try to scale the homes to fit the neighborhood," he said.

Tom Solomon, a lawyer representing Millner's company, said an individual homeowner has the right to do anything to the house as long as it's not a landmark and environmental issues are addressed.

"We should have the right to take it down and do whatever we want with it," he said.

He said reviews by additional volunteer boards would mean delays of three or four months.

And the only recourse to appeal a board's finding would be in state Supreme Court.

"You're taking the present, melding it with the past and disrupting the future," Solomon said.

Town Board Member James Vogel said it's important to balance the rights of a homeowner or builder with the common good of a neighborhood.

"All we're trying to do is put a test to reasonableness," he said.

City soon may start to raze vacant Delco site
Democrat and Chronicle

Three years after a spectacular fire destroyed the old Delco factory complex off Lyell Avenue, the city is preparing to raze the remaining buildings on the site and clean it up for possible redevelopment.

City Council has a vote scheduled for Tuesday to authorize borrowing $850,000 to remove asbestos and begin demolition in October of what is being called the Orchard Whitney site.

For Marion Walker, president of the Jay Orchard Street Area Neighborhood Association, the plan is welcome news.

"The community has been waiting too long," Walker said. "My concern is that it sits there as an eyesore at a time when we are trying to clean up the community and make it a meaningful place for people to live and work."

Every available firefighter in the city was summoned to a late-night blaze on June 20, 2003, at the vacant complex. Multiple explosions sent fireballs 50 to 60 feet into the air.

Anthony Tirado, then 19, and a 15-year-old boy were charged with setting the fire. Tirado is serving a six-year prison term. The boy was tried in Family Court.

Online records show that the properties at 354 Whitney St. and 415 Orchard St. are still registered to private companies. However, the city was unable to locate those responsible for the properties after the fire. Companies no longer existed or had no assets.

The combined tax bill outstanding on the properties is $1.86 million. The city has begun foreclosure proceedings on the Whitney Street property and is likely to take possession in early August. Officials said the city doesn't have the money yet to proceed on the Orchard Street land.

Paul Holahan, commissioner for environmental services, said the city must complete an investigation of hazards at the site, already authorized by City Council using a $170,000 state grant that will pay up to 90 percent of the bill.

"It's a great project to get going, and the sooner the better for the neighborhood," Holahan said. "We also want to make sure we follow all the protocol to get additional state funding."


Blang, here is what channel 13 had to say...

Major League Soccer Coming to Rochester?
13 WHAM

PAETEC Park could be home to a Major League Soccer team, according to reports out of Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Salt Lake City team, called Real Salt Lake, is weighing its options after the Salt Lake County council rejected the team’s proposal for a new stadium, which included public financing.

RSL is reportedly looking to move to Rochester, St. Louis, or another city in Utah. The Salt Lake City mayor said Rochester investors offered the owner of RSL three times what he paid for the franchise, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

The owners of the Rochester Rhinos have long wanted to bring an MLS franchise to town.

The Rhinos belong to the United Soccer League First Division. One of the selling points for building the $40 million PAETEC Park was that Rochester would be better able to attract a Major League Soccer franchise. PAETEC Park opened last month.

Rhinos owner Frank DuRoss would not say if he’s had any talks with RLS.

“If it would make economic sense for us as owners, for our fans, for our sponsors, we’d do it,” said DuRoss. "The reality is, we've got a pretty good league."

DuRoss says getting an MLS team would be a great thing for the city, because it would be the only major league team in town.

“You’d have the best players coming,” he said.

DuRoss said MLS requires four things from teams: a soccer-specific stadium, committed ownership, strong fan base, and media coverage.

“We have that,” he said.

Rochester has one of the most successful minor league soccer franchises in the country. The 12-team MLS, however, has passed over Rochester during recent expansions. Toronto, which is building a stadium, will be added to the league in 2007.

Critics have said the city's flat growth and smaller size have been obstacles to securing an MLS franchise. It's also not clear if the Rhinos have the money to enter MLS, given the fact the team needed public help to finance most of PAETEC Park.

DuRoss says MLS is interested in Rochester, but the lack of a stadium has stood the way in the past. The only way for Rochester to secure an MLS franchise is to buy an expansion team or wait for a team’s relocation.

Late Wednesday, Rhinos officials said the team had not put in a formal bid for RLS.

Links:
Article in Deseret Morning News:
http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,640194139,00.html

Article in Salt Lake Tribune:
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_4039611

Home-Schooling
Rochester native learns more about local history
Insider Magazine

I like to think I'm cognizant of my surroundings.

I notice when a storefront changes and when fresh flowers are planted in highway dividers. I'm typically one of the first to question a newly erected building and have filled my belly at many of Rochester's restaurants and bars.

That said, Vessy Jivkova, 56, of Rochester takes cognizance to new levels. Co-founder of Studio Art Corp. — a nonprofit organization that conducts daily tours to educate people about Rochester — she pointed out the nuances of her adopted city on a beautiful July morning.

We met at Washington Square Park, 25 Woodbury Blvd. After listening to a brief history of the city, Vessy and I, along with insider photographer Matt Wittmeyer, set off down Court Street and stopped at the library. We walked through historic Corn Hill, down South Plymouth to Broad and West Main streets, landing in Susan B. Anthony Square. And that was just the first 35 minutes.

"It's important to know all the history of the places where I live or pass through so I can connect things," said Vessy, who was born in Bulgaria and moved to Rochester 15 years ago because her daughter was applying to the Eastman School of Music. "In my mind everything in this world is interconnected. ... I like to learn the history."

I'm embarrassed to admit my ignorance of the city where I was born and raised. While I knew women's rights leader Susan B. Anthony and abolitionist Frederick Douglass were prominent figures, I'd never been to Anthony's former home or Douglass' former workplace.

I knew Nathaniel Rochester bought 100 acres in the early 1800s when he formed what we now know as Rochester, but I'd never been to the park — Washington Square Park — which is part of that original land.

As we walked through some of the city's most rundown areas I noticed intricate details of yesteryear on buildings, despite the fact that they practically had been reduced to shambles. That got me thinking: I wish I had been around to see Rochester in its glory days. While that's not an option, Vessy sure knows how to make you more informed. And, as she said, "by being more informed ... you are more resourceful to yourself and the rest of the world."

Guided walking tours
What: Studio Art Corp. offers a tour of Rochester. It starts with a 10-minute historical overview of Rochester and includes visits to Corn Hill, the Genesee River Harbor, the Times Square Building, the publishing office of Frederick Douglass' North Star newspaper and other publications, the Susan B. Anthony House, the Eastman School of Music and the George Eastman House, to name a few.
When: The three-hour tour begins at 11 a.m. daily.
Where: The tour starts at Washington Square Park, 25 Woodbury Blvd.
Cost: $10 per hour. Tour routes can be altered, depending on a group's interests.
Also know: A tour can be interpreted in Chinese, Korean, Russian, German and French. A refreshment and bathroom break is taken halfway through.
Bad weather: No worries. Indoor stops are planned.
Details: Call 442-4091, or e-mail: studioartscorp@hotmail.com


My friends think I should start my own business giving tours, I wouldnt walk though, Id make the people wanting the tour to drive me around. It would be fun, but I dont think Id make enough money. I have a great job already, but maybe when I retire, Ill consider it?

I once spoke of Duo Restaurant, the D and C finally got around to reviewing it. Its a really nice restaurant.
http://cmsimg.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=A2&Date=20060713&Category=ENT0301&ArtNo=607130308&Ref=AR&Profile=1060&MaxW=550&MaxH=430

http://democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060713/ENT0301/607130308/1060/ENT03

I was reading in todays print version of the Democrat and Chronicle an article regarding the number of people retiring in the area workforce would be 20% in the next 8 years or so. That to my calculations is like 90,000 workers. It then went on to say that it could prove pivitol (along with cleaning up New York states issues, i.e. taxes, services etc...ad nauseum) in returning the swing of exodus in our favor. Of course we wouldn't see growth that they are seeing elsewhere in the Southeast, but it's interesting to see just how this may play out in the next 8 years.

Sabres won't skate in Rochester


Revenue main reason home games stay in Buffalo


Kevin Oklobzija
Staff writer


(July 13, 2006) — Rochester's moment in the NHL sun has come and gone.

Citing the need to maximize revenues under requirements of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA), the Buffalo Sabres have pulled the plug on bringing a regular-season game to Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial.

The Sabres will play all 41 regular-season home games at HSBC Arena, starting with an Oct. 6 meeting with the Montreal Canadiens.

"We have a partnership with the players (through a profit-sharing clause in the CBA) and we need to maximize revenue," Sabres spokesman Mike Gilbert said. "There's a disparity in revenue between what we generate in Buffalo and what we generate in Rochester."

Gilbert wouldn't speculate on the dollar difference but it's very likely in the neighborhood of $500,000 when revenue from ticket sales, corporate sponsorships and luxury suites are totaled.

It's quite clear that the Sabres' magical run to the Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Eastern Conference finals did more for regional marketing than moving one game to Rochester.

"We sold a lot of (season) tickets toward the end of the regular season and during the playoffs," Gilbert said. "Fans of Rochester and Buffalo and southern Ontario responded."

As a result, the Sabres apparently don't believe it is fiscally feasible to take a game that most likely will draw between 16,000 and the HSBC Arena capacity of 18,595 and move it to a rink that holds around 11,200.

"Coming off the great season they had, I can understand why they'd want to play all games in Buffalo," said Jeff Calkins, who manages Blue Cross Arena.

The Sabres boldly tore away from traditional marketing strategies in the summer of 2003 when they announced they'd bring a regular-season game to the War Memorial.

They believed marketing the Sabres as a regional franchise would enhance long-term success. The NFL's Buffalo Bills have aggressively cultivated the Rochester market since moving training camp to St. John Fisher College in 2000.

The initial Sabres' game drew a sellout crowd of 11,185 to watch the then-defending Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils and hometown hero Brian Gionta on Nov. 12, 2003.

But Sabres officials expressed extreme disappointment last fall when only 8,552 showed up to watch the Washington Capitals on Oct. 26.

Where are the Rhinos fans at PAETEC?
Only 8,300 fans at brand new PAETEC Park for Saturday's 2-1 loss to Charleston? Why, Rhinos fans? Why isn't this stadium, in its infancy, drawing more than 10,000 per match?

The team averaged 9,500 last season at Frontier Field. PAETEC was supposed to boost attendance, especially in its first season.

You tell me ... why?

Are fans worried about parking?
Are fans worried about the neighborhood?
Do smaller crowds just mean the Rhinos gave away too many "free" tickets in years past?
Do fans not care about these new players and just were enamored with the guys who haven't produced a title the past four years?
Is it boring soccer to you?
Are you ticked off about pricey and a lack of concession variety?



And even that attendance is inflated due to deals like this one

Special ticket deal
Just found out the Rhinos are running a ticket deal for Saturday's match vs. Charleston. Buy-one, get-one-free tickets at all Wendy's locations in the Rochester area. That includes the high-end, $25 seats that are available.

If you're reading this, you're probably a soccer fan who already has tickets. But, if you've ever wanted to expose some friends to soccer and do it on the cheap, Saturday's match is the one to do it

Its the apocalypse! Rochester caused some dumb hick not to wear his seatbelt and he died in an accident! I read it in the newspaper today. Its been confirmed it was because he was driving from Rochester. No one else in the country died today except him, because he was coming from Rochester! Uh huh, its true, honest!

HAHAHAHAHAHA

The Sabres management even said last year that they didnt advertise the 2nd game enough and that was why attendance fell short. Plus the Amerks may be severing ties with the Sabres, they recently have had much closer ties with the Florida Panthers, trading more players with them. It may be more profitable for the Amerks to partner with the Panthers and they are "testing the waters." All these articles are speculations and nothing is confirmed. And you cant blame Golisano, the cheapest man on the planet, why would he want to lose half a million dollars on a game. Smart business man.

Rhinos games, I think 8300 is good? Hasnt it rained for almost every home game so far? They should have spent more money and built a dome. Arent we known throughout the retail world as a VERY cheap city who loves coupons. It doesnt mean anything except that we are smart and enjoy saving money. Long Island is also known as being coupon hungry in the retail world.

Like all addictions, yours has blinded you to reality. Perhaps you should change your name to the Rochester Apologist

Check out this website if you think that any problems Rochester is having is the fault of Rochesterians...

...a frightening look at New Yorks downward spiral...


http://www.ppinys.org/reports/JustTheFacts.html

Barilla site in Avon, Livingston County
Barilla Breaks Ground in Avon
by Dan Smith
Photo by Jim Goodnow
Published Jul 13, 2006

What now looks like an old farmer's field in Avon is the future home of Barilla America's second pasta manufacturing and distribution center in the U.S.

Barilla recently broke ground on the site just north of Routes 5&20 in the village.

When it begins operations in June of next year, the plant is expected to employ about 120 people.

"Jobs like technicians that'll be on the lines. We'll have quality people. Packaging people that'll work on the lines. We'll have accounting staff here that'll do the work, and warehousing people that will handle the product that will get shipped to our trade customers," said Barilla America President Kirk Trofholz.

Regarding wages for new workers, Trofholz added, "You'll have a very fair compensation package if you go to work for Barilla. We're going to pay competitively. We have a wonderful benefits program. Anyone would be very pleased with the total compensation package they'll get from us."

A combination of tax and other economic incentives persuaded Barilla to choose Avon over Altoona, Pennsylvania for the new pasta manufacturing plant.

Avon Mayor Tom Vonglis said, "About two million dollars is what local, Avon, Livingston County is investing in this facility. And personally, I want people to know that because I don't think it's that significant. Two million dollars is a lot of money, but nonetheless, from an investment standpoint, for a lifetime, the rest of our generations that come to live in Avon, I think it's a small investment."

Barilla management plans to start servicing its Northeast market through the Avon facility next summer. It expects the plant to reach full capacity of 100,000 tons of pasta a year in 2009.

Like all addictions, yours has blinded you to reality. Perhaps you should change your name to the Rochester Apologist

Susie: I try to avoid people like you when I'm entertaining business associates from out of town. I've heard this a few times from my business associates "Hey - beautiful city - I had a great time at the East End last night - but I ran into some depressive local yokel who warned me not to wander around downtown because its dangerous."

People like you, with that fatalist blue-collar entitlement attuitude, are usually harmless because all they do is bitch and complain. When they finally get the intestinal fortitude to relocate, they end up in a trailer park in Florida, where they compain about the heat, and compain about how they miss living in Rochester. Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, Binghamton, Utica, Buffalo - pretty much all of the Upstate cities - have a minority of citizens with an ingrained inferiority complex about their repective home towns. Their attitude is usually rooted in shallow thinking and misinformation, and lack of travel outside the region.

Addict: you let Susie pull you down to the low road again. I hope the relatives of the guy who died in the car accident this morning never see your post. I recommend that you edit out your comment about the victim. I usually agree with most of your comments - but whenever you engage Susie, you often make stupid generalizations about the West Side and you sometimes convey a callous attitude that is not representative of the compassionate people of the Rochester metro.

[QUOTE=Susie] The economy is simply too weak for Major Leagues here


John Kenneth Galbraith - step aside. I nominate "Susie" from Hamlin,NY for the Nobel Prize in Economics!

Most people today associate the Mormon religion with Salt Lake City,UT. The religion is actually based on the alleged appearance of a prophet - the Angel Moroni - to Joseph Smith, near Palmyra, in the 1800's.

Rochester, a conservative Protestant city at the time, was the first of many cities to expel followers of the new religion. The Mormons started a westward trek to find freedom from religious persecution, and finally settled next to a lake in the western desert - to found Salt Lake City.

The roots of the Mormon Religion are commenorated here annally at the Hill Cumorah Pageant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Latter_Day_Saint_movement#Smith.27s_first_vision

The following story is from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: www.democratandchronicle.com

-----------------------------------
Hill Cumorah thrills more than audience
Mormon pageant deepens ties, faith of hundreds who take part

James Goodman
Staff writer

(July 13, 2006) — MANCHESTER — Jessica Black, a 20-year-old college student, flew here from Phoenix to have the Hill Cumorah experience.

Corbett Carrel, 18, drove from Doylestown, Pa. to rural Ontario County, where the Book of Mormon was said to be discovered.

Earl Hilton, 40, drove 13 hours with his family from Greensboro, N.C., to see the pageant that he helped with as a teenager.

The Hill Cumorah Pageant, which starts Friday, is a draw not only for the tens of thousands who watch this outdoor performance telling how the Mormon religion began but also for the more than 600 Mormons who volunteer for the cast.

The pageant is now in its 71st year and attracts people from almost every state. By the time of the last curtain call on July 22, 50,000 to 80,000 people are expected to have attended. Last year, 128 tour buses came from states such as Florida, Utah and California.

Many want to be at the site where more than 175 years ago Joseph Smith Jr. is said to have found and translated the Book of Mormon. Others — of different faiths — want to experience the free outdoor pageant, with its dazzling special effects and soundtrack.

The pageant, located a couple of miles north of Thruway Exit 43 and four miles south of Palmyra, consists of seven evening performances, each running about 75 minutes. The first is at 9 p.m. Friday. A dress rehearsal, open to the public, is scheduled for tonight.

"It's like having a family reunion — and everyone is getting along," said Dan Cross, 41, who first attended as an 11-year-old from Delaware and is now back to perform with his family from Lucas, Texas.

Tourism officials from Ontario and Wayne counties say that the pageant is a big boost to the local economy, although there are no hard figures showing how much Hill Cumorah brings in tourist dollars.

"It's really a large impact for the region," said Christine Worth, director of tourism for Wayne County

Economic benefits

Hotel and motel rooms in the area are hard to come by, and visitors — eager to learn about the Mormon history of western New York — take side trips. Some store owners along Main Street in Palmyra tell how sales rise during festival week. Les Thomas, owner of the Candy Corner Fudge Square, said that sales, normally about $700 a week, rise to about $1,100 a week.

"It brings in a lot more traffic," added Bethany Haswell, owner of Kavanagh Books. The store has a bookcase of Mormon titles and finds a big demand for books about the Erie Canal.

Palmyra Mayor Vicky Daly noted that the canal is extremely important to Mormons because that was how the press that printed the Book of Mormon got to Palmyra and because Smith's father and brother each worked on the canal.

Jay M. Linford, a Mormon from Arizona, recently moved to Main Street with his family to open a print store, Experience Press. The store is on the same block as the Grandin Building, where the Book of Mormon was first printed.

Linford, too, hopes to benefit from the influx of tourists. His store's shelves are stocked with bound copies of the Book of Mormon.

Between the village and Hill Cumorah on Route 21, the Palmyra Inn opened last August. Tricia Cox, manager of the motel, said that the 60 rooms are expected to be filled for the pageant.

Five Rotary and Lions' clubs from the area, Daly noted, sell food at the pageant and make about $50,000 a year for community programs.

Practicing for the pageant

Zion's Camp, located near the foot of Hill Cumorah, has become the temporary home for as many as 300 of the participants, including Cross, his wife, Aimee, 40, and their three children. Outside the tent, a greeting sign bears the family name.

Aimee Cross made the drive from Texas with her children in 23 hours. Dan Cross, a vice president for a high-tech firm, Microtune Inc., joined them at the camp site last Friday.

Both parents had previously been at the pageant — she came as a participant 21 years ago.

This time around, the entire Cross family must participate. The rules of the pageant require that if the parents participate as actors, so must their children.

At the casting Saturday, Dan Cross was selected to play the Angel Moroni, who leads Joseph Smith to the sacred writings. Aimee Cross will play a follower of Prophet Lehi who arrived in the New World — somewhere in the Americas — from Jerusalem. Two of their children will play adversaries of the prophets, while the third child will play a supporter.

"This helps us to personalize what we read about in the Book of Mormon," Dan Cross said.

At the casting, six directors, who work with theater companies around the country, are assisted by two choreographers and a battle master, who helps direct the two battles.

But unlike A Chorus Line, every one of the 623 Mormons selected for the pageant gets a part.

What the audience hears is a soundtrack with the voices of professional actors. The music is sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and a youth choir, noted Toi Clawson, a spokeswoman for the pageant. The actors are trained to lip-sync and have been rehearsing daily since Sunday.

Next to the Clawson tent at Zion's Camp is the Hilton family's tent. Earl and Kari Hilton made the 13-hour drive with six of their seven children in a minivan. Their oldest son, Baydon, 17, was already here assembling the stages, just like his father did when he was a teenager.

Earl Hilton, who is an assistant vice chancellor at North Carolina A&T State University, was selected to play the role of Mormon, one of the prophets, while Kari Hilton will play two roles — a worker carrying a basket celebrating the harvest in the New World and a warrior-dancer.

Even their 15-month-old daughter, Annika, will be on stage for the descension of Christ.

"We still have to keep an eye on her while we're practicing," Kari Hilton said.

Baydon is working the wires that hold the actor playing Christ.

Kari Hilton speaks of the experience in spiritual terms, but added, "It's a great family vacation."

Black, who received an associate's degree from Dixie State College in St. George, Utah, and will be continuing her studies at Brigham Young University-Idaho, will carry a banner in the play.

"I just want to have this experience," she said.

Carrel, who just graduated from high school, felt much the same. Once he turns 19 in December, he plans to spend a couple of years as a Mormon missionary.

"I just want to share the church with people," Carrel said.

JGOODMAN@DemocratandChronicle.com

Susie: I try to avoid people like you when I'm entertaining business associates from out of town. I've heard this a few times from my business associates "Hey - beautiful city - I had a great time at the East End last night - but I ran into some depressive local yokel who warned me not to wander around downtown because its dangerous."

People like you, with that fatalist blue-collar entitlement attuitude, are usually harmless because all they do is bitch and complain. When they finally get the intestinal fortitude to relocate, they end up in a trailer park in Florida, where they compain about the heat, and compain about how they miss living in Rochester. Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, Binghamton, Utica, Buffalo - pretty much all of the Upstate cities - have a minority of citizens with an ingrained inferiority complex about their repective home towns. Their attitude is usually rooted in shallow thinking and misinformation, and lack of travel outside the region.

Addict: you let Susie pull you down to the low road again. I hope the relatives of the guy who died in the car accident this morning never see your post. I recommend that you edit out your comment about the victim. I usually agree with most of your comments - but whenever you engage Susie, you often make stupid generalizations about the West Side and you sometimes convey a callous attitude that is not representative of the compassionate people of the Rochester metro.

North Coast, you need to post more because this thread and forum needs more people like you. You got everything to the T! I like addict's spirit and enthusiasm about this area because I share that same sentiment. I almost must admit to usually giving a little "go rochesteraddict go rochesteraddict, its yo birfday its yo birfday" when he mocks susie because she really is a psycho mornic loon. But I get a little pissed when he bashes the west side. I'm from Greece (ironically enough so is he) and I like the town a lot. Yeah, the east side is more affluent, white collar, and more scenic (west of the river it's mostly flat, but on the east side there is a lot of rolling hills)... but there's still much to be appreciated about the western half of the Rochester metro..... even if susie does live there (although that is a major con). Anyways, did you guys see the forcast? It's supposed to be in the 90's for the next 5 frickin days. It is NOT supposed to be this hot in Rochester, not when I'm here at least!

North Coast, you need to post more because this thread and forum needs more people like you. You got everything to the T! I like addict's spirit and enthusiasm about this area because I share that same sentiment. I almost must admit to usually giving a little "go rochesteraddict go rochesteraddict, its yo birfday its yo birfday" when he mocks susie because she really is a psycho mornic loon. But I get a little pissed when he bashes the west side. I'm from Greece (ironically enough so is he) and I like the town a lot. Yeah, the east side is more affluent, white collar, and more scenic (west of the river it's mostly flat, but on the east side there is a lot of rolling hills)... but there's still much to be appreciated about the western half of the Rochester metro..... even if susie does live there (although that is a major con). Anyways, did you guys see the forcast? It's supposed to be in the 90's for the next 5 frickin days. It is NOT supposed to be this hot in Rochester, not when I'm here at least!

Likewise - your spirit for the area is commendable. Don't let anyone drag you down after you move here.

I live by the Shore on the west side. It's hilly around the North Greece/Hilton area until you get to the coastline. The lakefront on the west side has better water quality because its upstream from the sediment that empties into the Lake from the Genesee. I like it here. It's like being on vacation all year.

We enjoy a "micro-climate" here. It's cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter than the rest of metro, due to the heat reservoir effect of Lake Ontario, and the higher elevations to the south. That's why there are so many apple orchards along the shore between Hamlin in the west and Sodus/Pultneyville in the east. Like today - it's over 90F in the city, but in the mid 80's down here with a nice breeze blowing off the lake.

The east side shoreline has the Gina Nuclear power plant uncomfortably close, but really nice lakefront homes hidden in the woods and hills along Lakeshore Blvd and Lake Road.

The East Side suburbs are a real asset to this community. It's hard to find anything like it elsewhere in Upstate NY. I'd live in Fairport, Pittsford or Canandaigua if it wasn't for the Lake.

Businesses Bank on Downtown
by Diana Palotas
photo by Pat Campbell
Published Jul 15, 2006

Crime has not been a concern as tenants move into one of the newest developments in Downtown Rochester. Corn Hill Landing is nearly sold out. Now a number of businesses are taking a chance on city living and setting up shop there.

"There is no place we would sooner take a risk than right here. We wanted to come into the city."

Corn Hill Wine and Spirits is just three months old. Wayne and Beverly Roberts own it. "Everyone wants nice wines, nice vodkas and nice tequilas."

The liquor store was the first business to open at Corn Hill Landing. Just a few townhouse rentals remain at the development along the Genesee River. Wayne says, "The neighborhood has embraced us. It's a very nice community. It reminds me of a little town."

Wayne wanted to shift gears after retiring from Kodak. He and his wife opened the store and are tasting success.

"Just dropped off drycleaning."

United Cleaners is now here for Kim Brewer. She and her husband moved to Corn Hill from Buffalo and says, “it's convenient because I work very close to here and my husband works at Strong."

Specs in the City eyeglasses recently came into view at Corn Hill Landing. Rich Port Pastry should open soon, along with a new Thai place and upscale restaurant. These businesses are banking on city living. Glad to be part of a new kind of urban village.

"They love the ice cream. It's all homemade"

At Corn Hill Creamery, you can eat your ice cream while enjoying the river view. And many people have... since the creamery opened last month. Joan Zollweg is the manager. "Everyone is so wonderful. The Corn Hill community is wonderful."

The new establishments are also pulling in customers from Downtown Rochester. Wayne says even visitors to the local hotels are coming in to buy wine. And he couldn't be happier.

"Everything a little business person could hope for."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good little piece from Rnews, some interesting videography on the piece.

That's great news about business downtown. I never made it to downtown this trip eventhough it would have made our daily trips from Pittsford to Greece shorter. It's our last day here and I'm sad. I really don't want to go back to NC (especially since it's supposed to be 98 there tomorrow! YUCK!, eventhough there's supposed to be a heat wave here too, at least you can go to the lake). The possible good news is that we might be coming back before summer is over if my stepdad gets the ob he's working on now done, to help my grandma REALLY clean out her house and move. I love her to death but my grandma is a PACKRAT, and all of the crap in her 1000 sq ft house could EASILY fill 2 or 3 dumpsters. I'm also pissed that I never found my camera. I took some pretty nice shots of Rochester from the sky, and of the Swillburg/South Wedge areas of the city. I lost it the first day we were here and since then have had meany great photops, especially during my tour of UR (I bought a crappy disposable camera just to have some pictures, but I HATE not knowing what they are going to look like until I develop the film). I also had a GREAT photo-op last week to take some pics of the mansions on Beach Avenue (the only waterfront street in the city of Rochester), and the Charlotte area in general. We ate at a great italian place called Mr. Dominics, that was right in the heart of the Charlotte area. The area that I'm guessing is what used to be the downtown of the village before it was annexed by the city. I also lost my cellphone, and again, my grandpa. So, eventhough this has been one of the worst visits back to Rochester, I still wish we didn't have to leave tomorrow.

Shoulda had some kinda meet up RocGuy, oh well you'll be back. Anyways check out my Rochester photo thread I put together in the Northeast Photo section, it's worth a look. My first time back to the Strong National Museum of Play, a jewel in the city for sure.

Oh, I'll have to go find that thread. Yeah, I'm back in NC....about the only thing I'm happy to be back here for is my car. Eventhough I'm probably going to have to sell it to pay for tuition! (my dad makes over $300,000 a year but he's an asshole and won't pay for me to go to school in Rochester.....only a third of it). I'm also dreading the next few days here, it's supposed to be 100 here on tuesday, and a perfect 81 and sunny in Rochester! It was actually hotter there than here today though, not too often that that happens! Oh well, hopefully I'll be back next month.

Port Planners Take Final Ideas
by Rich Turner
File photo
Published Jul 16, 2006

You have one last chance to give your input on plans for the Port of Rochester.

The fourth and final meeting for the community to ask questions and provide input is Monday night.

Sasaki and Associates design for the port master plan is being based on public input.

The 30-acre site in the port area will be used for retail and housing in a waterfront village setting.

The meeting is Monday at the Robach Center at Ontario Beach Park in Charlotte from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As an aside RocGuy what company does your dad own, as far as custom homes in Raleigh.

He doesn't own it, but he's the VP (maybe the president, I don't know the how the "food chain" works in home building companies, he's one step below the owner, that's all I know).... it's called Stephen Dilger Homes INC. Steve Dilger is more of his friend/business partner than his boss though.

http://my-expressions.com/up_media/4051/pblog/5159/1152846502.jpg

Rochester's demolition project ahead of schedule
WROC 8

Six months ago, Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy promised to rid the City of urban blight by tearing down hundreds of abandoned buildings. Since January, the City has identified over 400 vacant homes for demolition. Not only are crews keeping up with the city's goals, they're working a little ahead of schedule.

The goal was to chip away at the City's backlog of abandoned homes, 2500 of them to be exact.

"I really don't like it. Before the house was just junkie, now the City just needs to tear it down," said Sammie Curry, a neighbor.

In January, Mayor Bob Duffy secured $5.4 million to rid the City of what many neighbors call eyesores.

"Yeah there's rats in that house, big rats, the size of cats and stuff," said Curry.

Out of 700 City-owned vacant properties, 400 of them are slated for demolition. In the last 6 months, crews have torn down 113 homes with 129 more to come down in the Fall. The remaining homes will be demolished by next summer.

"We're actually ahead," said Julio Vazquez, Commissioner of Community Development.

"The idea is to demolish these houses, structures as soon as possible because they create a lot of problems for the neighborhoods," said Vazquez.

"It's overdue. They should have done it, I've been here four or five years they draw drugs, they draw people with no jobs, it's overdue," said Wayne Jenderson, a neighbor.

Not only is the City tearing down boarded up buildings, it's constructing new homes and apartments in their place.

"The market is there for market-rate housing and mixed-income housing projects in the city," said Vazquez.

Each building demolition is costing the City up to $17,000. So far, it's staying within its $5 million dollar budget. The new homes constructed are being sold for as little as $75,000 to $300,000.

The video lets you see the new construction:
http://wroctv.com/news/story.asp?id=23769&r=l


Final port plan due today

Massachusetts consultant has removed three buildings by park, enlarged marina
Democrat and Chronicle

A final draft of a master plan for the Port of Rochester removes housing that would have risen beside Ontario Beach Park and doubles the size of a marina, the planning consultant says.

"I think this plan is a good plan," said Varoujan Hagopian of Massachusetts-based Sasaki Associates Inc. Sasaki will be in town today to present the final draft to the public.

The latest vision calls for residential and retail development on 30 acres that now includes the port's terminal building and mostly surrounding parking lots.

A $7 million Great Lakes marine research center, operated by the State University College at Brockport, could fill part of the terminal while maintaining the departure hall for passenger ships' use.

Hagopian and his associates had presented options in April, showing more than a dozen structures rising up to three stories in height. At that time, three structures sandwiched between the park and a proposed marina were described as the most desirable real estate of the entire project. However, the three buildings raised concern about blocking views from the marina and a proposed public park farther south.

With the buildings removed, Hagopian said, the marina was enlarged to accommodate about 100 boats, an increase from the 50 or 60 initially proposed.

Hagopian said his office was still finalizing details and he was not yet ready to release an estimated project cost, population density, housing mix and how development should proceed.

Mayor Robert Duffy said he expects to have "developers knocking at the door."

Duffy added that it's important to strike a balance between development and congestion.

Greece resident Clare Stortini, whose family has owned a home at Estes and Corrigan streets since the 1930s, is troubled by the development.

Stortini wonders how more retail and restaurants will be sustained during desolate winters.

But mostly, Stortini objects to a less-mentioned piece of the development: a four-level, 360-stall parking garage that could sit a block from the family home, blocking the view of Ontario Beach Park.

"My issue is probably selfish," she said. "I don't want to see a parking garage. I planned on owning that home and probably living there until the day I die."

Officials said the garage is needed, close to the beach, because the current parking will be displaced.

Im excited about this, I met with Carlos Carballada last week, City Commissioner of Economic Development. He said he has developers beating down the door and look for major investment announcements soon. Charlotte wont be a problem to find investors/builders they said either.


5,000 visit play museum on weekend
Democrat and Chronicle

Deborah Reaves' three grandchildren are experts in play.

"They're all excited to be here," said Reaves as she and the youngsters — Aamarice Jones, 3, Auri Palmer, 2, and Ayaina Jones, 5 months — frolicked through the Strong — National Museum of Play's exhibit on Sesame Street, Reading Adventureland's fairy tale landscapes and the Field of Play.

The Rochester residents were among more than 5,000 visitors who flocked to the expanded museum Saturday and Sunday for its grand opening weekend. The museum nearly doubled in size after a $37 million makeover, becoming the second-largest children's museum in the nation.

"Guest response has been extraordinary," said Laura Sadowski, a museum spokeswoman. She said the museum had attracted more than 22,000 visitors since its unofficial opening on July 10. The museum has about 9,500 member households. "We hope the word about us travels far and wide."

Matt Cohen of Missouri was awed by the Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden.

The butterflies in there "don't look anything like those gray things I always see around lights at night."


Thats great for Strong, I was in Chicago over the weekend and saw the childrens museum on the Navy Pier, that was teeming with people.
Watch the videos in the lower right for an up close look:
http://democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060717/NEWS01/607170329


Troup Howell Bridge to open

But its final appearance still up in the air
Democrat and Chronicle

Interstate 490 motorists will begin driving on the new Troup Howell Bridge on Saturday, but final designs for the signature downtown project remain uncertain.

The uncertainty surrounds four decorative, lighted pylons that would bookend the two outside arches of the $37 million Genesee River span.

State officials reinstated the pylons last summer at the city's urging, having initially scratched the $800,000 additions because of expense. While not pulled from the project this time, the pylons are on hold after further design work recently showed actual costs could reach $1.7 million, said Kevin Bush, regional design engineer for the state Department of Transportation.

Bridge construction will proceed as engineers step back to consider alternate pylon designs or seek additional funding. Demolition of the old bridge's remaining north spans begins next week.

"We're still on track," project engineer James Budd said, targeting a June 2007 completion.

Along with carrying traffic this weekend, the new Troup Howell section also will begin lighting up as crews energize lamps embedded in the archway, shining down on the pavement starting Sunday night. The bridge won't fully come alive until next spring or summer, however, when the cables stretching from the roadway to the arches are lit as well.

The pylons would be internally lit, providing "a vertical strip of light at each of the four corners of the arch," state records show. Bush said the unusual nature of the pylons, increasing material costs and other factors contributed to the escalating estimates. The state had planned to bid the pylons separately in the spring.

"Right now, from my perspective, the (pylons are) still on the program, and we're hoping to deliver," Bush said.

I hope the pylons happen, they will really add to the bridge. I drove over the bridge last night and it is already a dramatic improvement, cant wait till it is finished.


Barilla starts construction

Company hopes to begin job interviews in fall
Democrat and Chronicle

The site was a muddy mess after Wednesday's rains, but Barilla America President Kirk Trofholz still trekked out to the Avon construction project — Barilla's largest investment anywhere in the world right now.

The project is still in its earliest stages: The company broke ground on the Livingston County plant just this month and plans its first formal job interviews in October and November. However, Trofholz says the company likes what it has seen so far.

For example, Barilla representatives have attended several area job fairs as the company prepares to hire for its plant, he said.

"What we think we'll find here is ... real hard-working people, with a strong work ethic," Trofholz said during an interview.

Barilla America, based in Bannockburn, Ill., and partner Jacobson Warehouse Co. Inc. are spending $96.2 million to build a pasta plant and warehouse just west of Avon's downtown. After Barilla studied 54 locations, Avon beat Altoona, Pa., for the plant.

The plant should create about 120 jobs, with the first employees coming on board in January, Trofholz said. The 100,000-square-foot pasta factory and 200,000-square-foot warehouse on the 49-acre site should be ready for use by June 2007.

The plant will open with two lines operating on two 12-hour shifts. Two additional lines will be added by 2009, Trofholz said.

Barilla also is looking to involve itself in the community.

Trofholz dined at the recently opened New York Wine & Culinary Center in Canandaigua on Thursday. With Avon so close to the Finger Lakes wine region, Trofholz said his company would seek ways to leverage the traditional Italian love of food and wine.

He said Rochesterians can also expect to see Barilla involved with food banks and other charitable activities.

It's Barilla's growth that's driving its expansion here. The Italian company has only been selling in the United States for nine years, but now controls 23 percent of the U.S. pasta market, Trofholz said. And with 40 percent of its sales in the Northeast, the company needed a production facility in the region.

After a dip in pasta sales caused by the Atkins diet craze, pasta purchases are on the upswing, Trofholz said. Instead of joining the low-carb contingent, Barilla decided to work on a category it calls "better for you pastas," which led to the introduction of Barilla Plus, a higher-fiber, high-protein pasta with Omega-3 fatty acids.

That product will eventually be made in Avon as well, he said.

The plant will be closely modeled after Barilla's plant in Ames, Iowa, the company's first in the U.S., Trofholz said.

After a visit to the plant during the site selection process, Avon Mayor Tom Vonglis came away impressed. Vonglis said he was on the lookout for things that his constituents might object to if the plant were built in Avon, and couldn't find any.

"It's an amazing facility," he said. "The thing I noticed was there was no noise from the outside."

There has been one change in plans, Trofholz said. Barilla has decided it will own the warehouse and let Jacobson operate it. Originally, the plan was to have Jacobson own the property.

Barilla's American headquarters in the Chicago suburbs are 300 miles from Ames and more than 500 from Avon, but the company has no plans to move closer to either site, Trofholz said. One key reason: easy access to direct flights to Italy, where Barilla is based.

However, both the Avon and Ames sites have room for expansion, Trofholz said.

"We're going to be a much bigger company in a few years," he said.


Syracuse firm targets region for two malls
Rochester Business Journal

COR Development Co. LLC, based in the Syracuse suburb of Fayetteville, plans to build malls—known as lifestyle centers—in Batavia and Canandaigua. Lifestyle centers are different from traditional malls in that they consist of several freestanding stores and outdoor walkways.

Canandaigua just keeps growing.


Not really development, but thought it was a nice story, and I know Lucky...

He tailors to your needs

Custom-suit pro, 77, relocates to expanded space
Democrat and Chronicle

Demand for custom-made suits is growing again in Rochester, says Quintino Nahum.

The 77-year-old last week expanded his high-end business to an 1,800-square-foot spot in Pittsford Plaza near Black & Blue Restaurant and renamed it Quintino's Tuxedo & Tailor.

Nahum believes the new location will give his 37-year-old business more pedestrian traffic and has plans to add eight employees to his five-person work force.

"I feel good," he said. "I'm happy because I have very good customers."

Nahum is one of the last custom tailors in Rochester. In the 1960s, there were several. Another survivor, Adrian Jules Ltd. in Irondequoit, also has expanded, starting its own brand of suits to add to private-label lines it makes for high-end shops across the country.

Nahum grew up in Libya in an Italian-Jewish family. Libya was an Italian colony then, and he worked with his brother, Fortunato, in the tailoring business. He immigrated to the United States in 1967 as a political refugee when conflict arose between Israel and Arab countries. Nahum picked up where he left off in Libya and went to work as a tailor at the former Bond's factory.

In 1969, he opened Nahum Design Ltd. on Culver Road in Rochester, which moved to Brighton in 1971. At his peak, Nahum employed 23 tailors.

He decided to take his business in a different direction and partnered with his son, Lucky, on a menswear shop, which they sold in 2002. He then opened a smaller formalwear and tailoring shop — Quint and Angela's — in an 1,100-square-foot shop on Monroe Avenue in Brighton and focused on high-end and custom suits as well as tailoring.

A master tailor, Nahum is able to custom-make his own suits. But one of his most popular lines is Oxxford, with suits retailing in the $3,600 to $7,000 range.

Nahum is the exclusive dealer of the Oxxford line in Rochester. Customers visiting his new site can choose from an array of fabrics custom fitted to order. Nahum also carries a full line of formal wear such as satin evening dresses and tuxedoes.

Rochester resident George Haizlip has been shopping with Nahum for 30 years, recently ordering an Oxxford suit in navy. Though he is retired from his human resources job, "when we go to church, we like to be dressed."

"He's a master craftsman," Haizlip said. "He knows every minute detail in regard to fitting you."

Nahum doesn't have a particular succession plan in mind. He says he and his wife, Angela, are not the retiring type. However, he said they will sell the store if they decide it is time.

"I try to work as long as I can," he said.

Used cars are all anyone in Rochester can afford these days due to all the layoffs around town.

Automobile sales sputter

By VELVET SPICER
Rochester Business Journal
July 14, 2006
Sales of new and used cars locally are down nearly 11 percent this year compared with the first half of 2005, the Rochester Automobile Dealers’ Association Inc. reported.
Area dealers sold 28,912 vehicles from January to June, compared with 32,358 in the same period last year. In 2005, Monroe County dealers sold fewer vehicles than in any year since 1992.
For new vehicles, Rochester-area dealers sold some 3,970 new cars last month, up nearly 14 percent from 3,489 in May, but down more than 22 percent from 5,106 a year ago. Last year, new-vehicle sales were boosted by employee-pricing incentive plans that began in June.
In the used-car category, some 1,894 cars were sold here last month, nearly 7 percent more than the 1,772 used vehicles sold in May. However, sales were down more than 9 percent from 2,088 in June 2005.
Total vehicle sales were 5,864 last month, up more than 11 percent from 5,261 in May but off more than 18 percent from 7,194 a year ago.
In the first six months last year, dealers sold 21,653 new cars, while this year dealers have sold 18,740, a drop of more than 13 percent. Area dealers have sold 10,172 used cars this year, compared with 10,705 in the first half of last year, a drop of nearly 5 percent.

(c) 2006 Rochester Business Journal. Obtain permission to
reprint this article.

And just so you don't think sales of new cars are off 13% nationwide for the first half of the year here is the National Summary:

"It looks like the industry is down about two percent during the first half of 2006 compared with the same period last year," said Jesse Toprak, Executive Director of Industry Analysis for Edmunds.com.

That's right 2% nationwide 13% in Rochester.

source: http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2006/06/28/013106.html

Yes, everyone is so broke because they ALL lost their jobs.... absolutely nobody in Rochester has a job at all, no one, no one can buy a car or even a pack of gum! Even in Pittsford, all anyone can buy is a blown out 1980 Pinto!!! But they are the lucky ones.... they have to ride in horses and buggys in Irondequoit!!!!! OH THE MISERY!!!!!!!

Aparently the reason that nobody is buying new cars is because they are too busy buying new houses... houses that are going UP in value. (this artilce is Susified for your entertainment)


Av. price of existing home up to $134,475


Joy Davia
Staff writer


(July 17, 2006) — The average sale price of existing single-family homes in the Rochester area jumped by 5.2 percent to $134,475 in the first half of 2006, compared to the same period last year, according to statistics released today by the Greater Rochester Association of Realtors, Inc.

Year-to-date home sales, meanwhile, were up slightly -- by 0.7 percent in the first six months of the year, compared to the same time last year.
In June, the number of homes listed for sale had a year-over-year increase of 1.5 percent. The number of home closings in June rose by 0.4 percent compared to the same time last year.

Listings for all properties in the region were up by 12.4 percent year to date, according to the association



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But I guess using susies (jerome's) logic, the only thing worth noting in that article is that listings are up.... because that means that every single house on the market is for sale so that it's owners can move away because they lost their job and know that Rochester is the worst place on earth!

I love how one article sets both of you off. So what if car sales were off, I'm not concerned or shocked, who wants to buy a new car in this economy, not me. I'd love to see how SUV sales fared in the Monroe County area, I'm sure they were down something like 50% over the last year, wouldn't shock me at all. As always though continue to banter about cars and such because it makes you feel good! :)

Aparently the reason that nobody is buying new cars is because they are too busy buying new houses... houses that are going UP in value!
Do you really think auto sales are down by almost 4,000 units due to the fact that there were 6 more houses sold this June than last (1,348 vs 1,342)?
It's also really great that the selling price is up 5% so far this year, that is almost half of the average national increase.

But you are correct when you say that the increase in listings reflects that there is an increase in the ratio of people wanting to sell their houses as compared to those that want to buy a house in this market. Rochester is a buyers market that is why listings are up and why our average price is below the national average with a much slower appreciation level than the national average.

Do you really think auto sales are down by almost 4,000 units due to the fact that there were 6 more houses sold this June than last

That was definitely a joke.... jeese jerome you don't have much of a sense of humor. Considering that the average home price is DOWN in many areas such as Florida, NYC area and California (still very high prices in these areas, the markets are cooling and prices are falling). And if you really do live in Hamlin, you should be excited..... your town is the hottest market in Monroe County, with values up 11%.

http://democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060625/MULTIMEDIA/306250007

Hmm, I'd go visit Rochester to buy a car and help you guys out, but I just sunk $500 into my current car, all but clearing me on major regular maintenance for the next 50,000 miles. I don't buy a new car every week, sorry.

Something else I was glad to discover while in Rochester the last two weeks.....I found my other "ancestoral city house" while there....now I know both of them. I always knew that my mom's mom grew up in Dansville, so there is no "city street" which I derive from there.... and I also know that my Dad's dad and his family were all originally from Webster (when it was still a rural area). But my dad's mom and my mom's dad (yeah, I know I'm sounding redundant, but try and keep up... it's my grandma on my dad's side, and my late grandpa on my mom's side) were both born and raised in the city. My paternal grandma is from Central Park (yes, of course, she is Italian) her father owned a big house on that street with a grocery store at street level. But I knew that last year, and that house has been demolished for a long time. BUT this past week, when going through my grandpa's bedroom and some of this old things, I found a photo album from the early 1900's with TONS of pictures of the Tremaine ancestoral home on Glenwood Avenue. The house is actually still standing and is still a single family home too. I found it on Zillow.com which says that it was built in 1910, but I know that's wrong because it was in pictures dated 1902. I believe that it was bought by my great great grandparents, and passed down to my great grand parents, where they raised my grandpa. I'm sure this all sounds terribly boring but it was very exciting for me.

..... your town is the hottest market in Monroe County, with values up 11%.


Thanks for the oxymoron. Why do you insist I am someone other than who I am. I am Susie and I live in Hamlin as a matter of fact I live about a half mile from the Parkway and love my town. I can walk to the lake anytime I choose. I am not Jerome or Buffcity or Rochesteraddict or FpmrWNYer' or anyone else, I am just me. If I did not live here I would not be able to subscribe to the D&C and quote things from it that you are unable to see online. I would not be able to watch 13WHAM news or listen to Bob Lonsberry or Beth and Chet on the radio. I am Rochester true and true, much more so than are you.

http://cmsimg.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=A2&Date=20060718&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=607180336&Ref=AR&Profile=1003&MaxW=550&MaxH=430

Port of Rochester may cost $110M

Neighbors not happy with parking plan
Democrat and Chronicle

The price tag for redeveloping the Port of Rochester stands at $110 million if the city starts work now, planning consultants said Monday, but balloons to nearly $140 million if there is delay.

Sasaki Associates Inc.'s final draft of the port master plan is scaled down from earlier drafts. Private developers would pay three-fourths the expense, leaving city or other public sources to cover the rest. A new marina alone comes with a $7 million price tag, officials said.

"We have listened to the community. We have made significant changes," Sasaki's Varoujan Hagopian told the crowd of more than 110 that packed the Roger Robach Center at Ontario Beach Park.

Resistance among residents continues. He cautioned people not to view the master plan as a blueprint, however.

Planning for the Port of Rochester has been ongoing for 20 years. Sasaki joined the process last fall. The 30-acre development area wraps around the terminal building that served the high-speed ferry to Toronto. The target area is bordered roughly by Lake Avenue, Ontario Beach Park, the CSX rail line and the Genesee River. A parking garage is envisioned at Beach Avenue and Estes Street.

Back in February, Hagopian estimated the development at $175 million or more.

The final draft reduces a once-proposed 545 residential units to 374, broken down to 157 townhouses selling for an estimated $300,000 each, and the remaining villa-style apartments fetching $1,400 in rent. Available retail space, mostly for eating and drinking establishments, is boosted from 30,000 square feet to 54,600. Office space would be available in the terminal.

The terminal would maintain a departure hall for passenger ship use, with a proposed Great Lakes marine research center as the major tenant.

Sasaki proposed creating a special Tax Increment Financing district to lessen the city's cost of redevelopment. The method captures property taxes paid on improvements in a designated district and reinvests the money in the district.

Julio Vazquez, the city's commissioner of community development, said the marina — with space for 100 boats — likely would be built first. Development could begin within two years, he said, and the entire site could be completed in five.

"We're all enthusiastic about it," he said of City Hall.

The same cannot be said for those living in the area. People described the plan as "institutional." Residents particularly disliked the parking garage. While on-street parking would be available, the garage signals a likely change to paid parking.

Monday night, people either wanted a block set aside for surface parking, or the garage to be relocated — or hidden.

"I'll help dig the hole," said Ray Schwarz, who lives on Upton Place off Lake Avenue.

Paul Foti of Mark IV Construction, which built Corn Hill Landing downtown, echoed residents' concern about the project appearing boxy, saying it needs a "more organic feel" that blends in with the neighborhood. Developers meet with Sasaki today.


I hope and pray this happens, look how cool this could all look! What a waterfront to be proud of! The new beach park and lake ave look great, now the area around them just need this to happen. I watched a story on channel 10 and the grossest looking people were the only ones that showed up against this. I hope they are ignored, since they are not the people whom would EVER live there or spend their money there.


Grass-roots effort develops plan for Victor
Democrat and Chronicle

Carol Commisso, a retired postmaster who now works as a teacher's aide, is hoping that a plan emerges so that development in the town she grew up isn't so rampant.

Kathleen Houser, a former educator who now owns a business, says her chief concern is that Victor remains a community that she feels a vital part of.

Commisso and Houser were among 36 local residents who have enlisted to come up with a road map for the town's future.

The group, called Core Team, is expected to grow to as many as 65 people by the end of the month and is almost entirely made up of Victor residents who are volunteering to work on the town's strategic plan.

By September, the group, which will be assisted by 10 citizen task forces focusing on a range of issues, is expected to make recommendations about the future of the town. The recommendations will then be reviewed by the Town Board and put into a comprehensive plan.

"This will lay out who we are as a community," said Town Supervisor Leslie Bamann, who took office in January and considers the strategic plan a priority.

Victor was the sixth-fastest-growing town in the state during the first five years of this decade, with the town's population jumping 20.7 percent to 11,951.

How to deal with growth is a pressing concern for a number of those who have volunteered to serve on the strategic planning committee.

Maura Steed, 61, a microbiologist who is now an artist, moved to Victor from Pittsford six years ago with her husband. She hopes that being on the committee will give her a chance to voice concerns. She speaks of the need to preserve farmland and open space in the town — perhaps by having fewer housing developments and smaller houses.

Greg Wolfe, 42, and his wife, Maureen, who grew up in Victor, have now settled in the town and plan to raise their family here.

Wolfe, who grew up in Brighton, is a businessman who speaks about moving ahead cautiously with development. "You don't want to turn away from growth, but you want better planning," Wolfe said.

Jason Shelton, 24, who has returned to the town after earning a bachelor's degree from the State University College at Geneseo, said residents must have a bigger say on development issues.

"I'd like to see a better process, more citizen involvement," said Shelton, who plans to live in Victor while student teaching in Rochester and Webster next school year.

The fast pace of development looms as a major issue, and some of the accompanying concerns were reflected in a survey done for the town by Harris Interactive in the spring of 2005.

While almost two-thirds of the 540 residents interviewed said Victor was a great place to live, nearly all respondents — 96 percent — said preserving open space was important, and almost half — 45 percent — said development should be controlled or limited to improve the quality of life in the town.

Sixty-three percent of the respondents also said traffic was a major problem.

Penny Ciaburri, who is CEO of PLC Associates, a local consulting firm helping coordinate the meetings, said the brainstorming sessions will continue through August.

With the help of the task forces, the Core Team will make recommendations for the Town Board to review before the budget for 2007 is finalized in the fall.


Not development, but thought it was a cool story...

Feature Film Focuses on Rochester
13 WHAM

A movie deal is in the works about a Rochester anchorman.

Variety reports that Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx has signed on to produce "The Power of Duff.” It's about a fictional TV news anchor in Rochester, who prays on the air, and gets his prayers answered.

Actors Russell Crowe and Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard had previously signed onto the project, but recently pulled out.

Foxx hasn't said whether he will also appear in the film.

Susan...who is Beth and Chet?

edit

Susan...who is Beth and Chet?
Adams and Walker, the highest rated and best morning show on radio in the entire United States everyday on 1180am from 5-9. I especially liked Chet's funny story this morning of how he went temporaily blind when he was a student at Geneseo and what the doctor told him to do for it - "eat a salad" and it worked, never happened again. Seems, that too much drinking and a bad diet had left his vitamins depleted. Apparently, the school doc had seen it happen before. Who says Geneseo is a party school!

Thanks for the oxymoron. Why do you insist I am someone other than who I am. I am Susie and I live in Hamlin as a matter of fact I live about a half mile from the Parkway and love my town. I can walk to the lake anytime I choose. I am not Jerome or Buffcity or Rochesteraddict or FpmrWNYer' or anyone else, I am just me. If I did not live here I would not be able to subscribe to the D&C and quote things from it that you are unable to see online. I would not be able to watch 13WHAM news or listen to Bob Lonsberry or Beth and Chet on the radio. I am Rochester true and true, much more so than are you.

If I remember correctly.... you said many times that Rochesteraddict and I were the same person. You even straight up lied and said that we had the same IP address (which you wouldn't even have access too so that alone showd it was a lie). Jerome and Susie have used the same retarded insults and have the same general theme in all of your posts. Not to mention that Jmancuso already stated that your IP addresses are very close.

Adams and Walker, the highest rated and best morning show on radio in the entire United States everyday on 1180am from 5-9. I especially liked Chet's funny story this morning of how he went temporaily blind when he was a student at Geneseo and what the doctor told him to do for it - "eat a salad" and it worked, never happened again. Seems, that too much drinking and a bad diet had left his vitamins depleted. Apparently, the school doc had seen it happen before. Who says Geneseo is a party school!
Give them a listen they also have a great entertainment person that replaced the Kline. Mike D. gives accurate movie reviews and it is a good place to find out about upcoming concerts in Toronto, Buffalo, and Syracuse. He is on around 20 minutes before the hour.

Give them a listen they also have a great entertainment person that replaced the Kline. Mike D. gives accurate movie reviews and it is a good place to find out about upcoming concerts in Toronto, Buffalo, and Syracuse. He is on around 20 minutes before the hour.


Thanks, I tend to only listen to CD's, I think Rochester radio sucks, but I could try it out one day. Thanks.

You mean you don't "wake up with the weas"!?!?!? (I can't stand that dude's voice, it makes me cringe)

You mean you don't "wake up with the weas"!?!?!? (I can't stand that dude's voice, it makes me cringe)


No, thats what you sound like if you are dumb enough to smoke. John Ditullio (the sportscaster on channel 8/Fox) and him are always a good reminder of how nasty smoking is. If smoke stacks could speak, that is what they would sound like. Radio in almost every city except the NYC metro blows. Its much easier to just pop in a disc or turn on Sirius. I will spring for satellite radio after I finish saving for a downpayment on a house. (Buy Sirius, it helps the VP Joseph Clayton, who lives in Pittsford.) He is a former Global Crossing VP who got out in 2000 before the whole scandal. He ran the Rochester office. He has been quoted that if Sirius starts to make some real money, he will open an operations office in Rochester. (HQ is in NYC)

Yeah, smoking is pretty much the stupidest habbit a person can have. Very glad that NY banned it in public, NOTHING irritates me more than having to breathe in second hand smoke, it smells, it makes your throat hurt and your eyes burn.

County approves $5.7M in tax incentives

Nishad Majmudar
Staff writer

(July 18, 2006) — Renovations at one of Rochester's oldest companies and a new BJ's Wholesale Club in Greece were among 10 local economic development projects approved today to receive Monroe County tax incentives.

Gleason Corp., which announced an incentive package in April that will keep the 141-year-old company headquartered in Rochester, will receive $326,000 in tax breaks from the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency. The breaks are part of an $18.7 million Gleason investment aimed at acquiring new equipment and making other renovations at its University Avenue plant. Gleason cited the incentives as one of the main factors in deciding to reinvest in its hometown.

Including the Gleason investment, the projects approved by COMIDA this afternoon will result in $78.8 million in capital investments and are expected to create or retain a total of 780 jobs.

In exchange, COMIDA has extended about $5.7 million in tax breaks for those investments.

In Greece, 390 Canal Ponds LLC is expected to construct a 119,600-square-foot building to be turned into a BJ's Wholesale Club at Canal Ponds Business Park.

Though industrial development agencies can no longer approve tax incentives for retailers, county economic development Director Judy Seil said BJ's Wholesale qualified because it was grandfathered into an original agreement from the early 1990s. In that agreement, Monroe County approved tax breaks for the Canal Ponds park, including a 450,000-square-foot parcel intended for retail use.

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Not much exciting or shocking news there, although a BJ's at Canal Ponds is pretty wierd/unusual, I know of no other real retail in that general area, though it will be the closest BJ's to the City of Rochester now.

Interesting RochesterAddict your wisper about Clayton opening a sattelite ops center here in the ROC. It would be nice, but obviously Sirius is still in its growth stages and won't be done with those for quite a while.

A couple of things I caught on the news this evening, and they posted on their website that are pretty interesting.

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Penfield Hotel, Greece BJ's, Senior Complex Get County Help
Last Update: 7/18/2006 5:50:51 PM

(Rochester, N.Y.) – The County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency approved incentives for several multi-million dollar projects.

• A Nashville company plans to build a $24 million hotel on Panorama Trail in Penfield.

The 87,000 square foot Hilton Garden Inn will have 150 guest rooms, a restaurant, meeting rooms, exercise room and indoor pool. The hotel is expected to employ 35 full-time workers.

• Legacy at Erie Station plans to build an $18.25 million for-profit independent senior residential community on 20 acres of land in Henrietta.

There will be 96 senior apartments and 38 townhouse villas targeting middle-income seniors.

• Gleason Works plans an $18.7 million upgrade at its University Avenue plant in Rochester. The investment will help retain 625 jobs.

The project is getting a $2.5 million capital grant from Empire State Development, $1 million in state funding, $1 million from RG&E, and a $500,000 loan from the city.

COMIDA approved breaks on sales and mortgage taxes.

• BJ’s Wholesale Club plans to build a 119,600 square foot store at Canal Ponds Business Park in Greece.

The project qualifies for a payment in lieu of taxes agreement that already exists at the site.

The $15 million project is expected to create 60 full-time jobs.

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http://www.centralmediaserver.com/wokr/0718port.jpg


Investors Needed to Bring Port Plan Alive
Last Update: 7/18/2006 5:50:47 PM

(Rochester, N.Y.) -- The master plan to redevelop 30 acres of city-owned land at Port of Rochester was unveiled Monday night. Redeveloping the area would require $110 to $140 million, most of it in private investment.

The marina, a focal point in the master plan, doubled in size in the final sketches. Living space in the form of 377 town houses and apartments would be built around the marina. Another 57,000 square feet is earmarked for retail space and 6,000 feet for office space.

Some Charlotte residents said they were under the impression the master plan was going to more geared toward a better open space. They complain the plan would make the area too congested and would block views of the lake.

Clare Stortini said, "I'm the third-generation homeowner. There’s a lot of tradition here in Charlotte and I want to maintain that."

Some complained the plan does not do much to improve the parking situation, a longtime problem in the area. A parking garage could be built behind Abbott's Frozen Custard.

Boston-based design firm Sasaki Associates drew up the plan. Varoujan Hagopian of Sasaki said it still has wiggle room.

"The master plan is a tool. It’s a tool that gives people and the community lots of flexibility,” he said.

Based on the concerns, the city said it will proceed cautiously.

A Great Lakes Research Center is still proposed for part of the ferry terminal.

Will the Plan Attract Investors?

Jaime Izzo doesn’t blink at paying $1,000 a month for an apartment at Corn Hill Landing.

“You do get a lot. Everything is brand new,” she said.

She would have to pay $1,400 for the same style of apartment at the port, according to the master plan unveiled Monday.

"I wouldn't pay it. Not at all. I don't like that area,” she said.

For some renters, it’s not just the price tag. It takes longer to get to the port from justa bout anywhere.

Designers of plan say they have market studies to back up their assertions.

“There is a real demand, particularly for units that have a water view,” said city economic development director Carl Carballada.

He said the city is willing to invest $25 million or more to make the project happen.

Private developers met with the design team Tuesday morning. The group of potential investors was Mark IV, the company that built Corn Hill Landing.

“We take a risk every time we build a project, and we're very good at planning at the front end, but also marketing it. And we think the waterfront is an attraction all itself,” said Don Riley.


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There was a side story after the Port Development piece that talked about how the other luxury apartments were selling in the city.

Sagamore on East only has 2 out of 25 apartments remaining.

Corn Hill Landing has 6 out of 125 available.

Yes, luxury housing in the city is in strong demand... the design for the Port of Rochester area sounds great.... especially since most of it will come from private investmant. I read the article that Rochesteraddict posted this morning and it said it said something like 150 new luxury townhomes priced over 300,000..... that's amazing. I was just in that area last week, when we ate at Mr. Dominics and drove down Beach Avenue to look at the mansions. There is so much land there that could be put to some great use. (Ontario beach park was nasty though, it was very sad)

Good luck guys with the Port plan, it looks good from the pic in the article. It looks A LOT better than the crap that Uniland is supposed to build on the NFTA land on the Outer Harbor in Buffalo. We're getting suburban style garbage, while you guys are getting a nice urban design...

<slight bit of jealousy> :)

Well hey, you guys have a lot more room for waterfront developemnt. While many of Rochester's suburbs have huge lakefronts.... the city itself only has a tiny 1 mile strip of land at the end of the Charlotte "arm". There ain't no room!

This is a nice article about seabreeze. I love that place and this is the first year in a while I haven't been there.... RIGHT AFTER THEY BUILD AN AWSOME WATER SLIDE. The Jackrabbit, seabreezes signature rollercoaster, is one of the oldest in the country. Glad to see that it's going strong (eventhough it's signature caracel burnt down in 1994, when it was THE oldest in the country)

Seabreeze, other family-owned theme parks ride boisterous market


Staff and wire reports


(July 19, 2006) — PITTSBURGH — There was a time when Andy Quinn went skiing every year with a close-knit group of families that collectively owned 15 amusement parks. They hit the slopes by day and talked business at night.

But these days, Quinn, a 53-year-old community relations director at Kennywood — one of several parks his family jointly owns with another family — has fewer companions during the weeklong outings.

"We still do it, but there's only about four parks that are represented now," he said. "Of the 15, almost all those have either gone out of business or been eaten by Six Flags."

Six Flags Inc., the nation's second-largest theme park operator after The Walt Disney Co. in terms of attendance, built an empire by snapping up facilities across the country in a buying spree that started in the 1990s.

Now the New York-based company, which owns 30 amusement and water parks nationwide, is struggling with debt, sagging attendance numbers and the growing perception that its parks are hangouts for rowdy teenagers. It may even sell some parks, including Six Flags Darien Lake, located in Genesee County.

Meanwhile, some small parks that remain in family hands — such as Seabreeze Park in Irondequoit — are surviving and even prospering, largely because their owners are closely attuned to the interests of their customers, industry insiders and park owners say.

Rob Norris, chairman of Seabreeze, said small park owners who operate their businesses "can make decisions quickly and are very in tune with customers."

"The family-owned parks I know of are doing very well financially, sometimes better than the big parks," said Norris, whose family has owned Seabreeze for 102 years.

He said some had expanded over the past decade by adding water parks and entertainment centers with miniature golf courses and go-cart tracks.

For Seabreeze, the most recent additions came earlier this year, with some modest help from local taxpayers. The park spent $220,000 to install a new water slide, known as the Helix, as well as a new water purification system. The project qualified and was approved for sales tax exemptions from the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency.

Seabreeze employs about 25 people year-round and 700 seasonally. It does not disclose attendance figures.



Norris said the U.S. market is virtually saturated with large amusement parks, but there is still room for smaller parks, particularly in second-tier cities such as Rochester.

Seabreeze has differentiated itself with group outings and ticket sales, Norris said. And the company has carefully managed its debt and expenses and paid attention to customers. "We just do things on a scale that's appropriate for our audience and demographics," Norris said.

Seabreeze also talks with its peers about trends and ideas, Norris said. And he is currently serving as chairman of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, and recently returned from its conference in Singapore.

Small parks also tend to have shorter lines, more reasonable ticket prices and friendly, long-term relationships with local people who visit repeatedly — unlike tourists who make one-off trips to major theme parks, they say.

"The family-owned parks were always the backbone of our industry," said Gary Slade, editor of the Arlington, Texas-based trade publication Amusement Today. "Do we have less numbers? Yes, but are they going away? No, they have been here and they will continue to be here."

Nearly 75 percent of the 320 amusement and theme parks in the United States draw less than half a million people annually — a category that includes family-owned facilities, according to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, a trade group.

While there are no figures for the family-owned segment of the amusement and theme park business, the overall industry has grown substantially in recent years.

A total of 335 million people visited amusement and theme parks in the United States last year, up from 317 million in 2000 and 253 million in 1990. Total revenue jumped to $11.2 billion last year from $9.6 billion in 2000 and $5.7 billion in 1990, according to IAAPA figures.

Venture creates nation's biggest beer importer
Democrat and Chronicle

Constellation Brands Inc. of Perinton, already the world's largest winemaker and fourth-largest spirits company in the United States, is about to pass an important new milestone in the market for beer.

The company's newly formed joint venture with Grupo Modelo of Mexico, announced late Monday, will become the largest beer importer in the United States and Guam once it begins operating early next year.

The deal grants Constellation, which employs 600 people in greater Rochester, an expanded role in bringing popular beer brands such as Corona and Negra Modelo, and potentially St. Pauli Girl and Tsingtao, to retail stores across the country. Aside from the additional prestige, there likely won't be any significant local impact from the move.

It does mark yet another significant financial transaction for Constellation. The company over the last 18 months has acquired famed Napa Valley winemaker Robert Mondavi Corp. as well as Vincor International, Canada's largest wine producer.

Grupo Modelo is Mexico's leading brewer. Constellation, through its Barton Beers subsidiary, already had been working with the company to distribute its beers on the West Coast, growing from 150,000 cases in 1978 to more than 70 million last year. Analysts said the alliance would allow both companies to become more aggressive in marketing and selling Modelo's beers.

Richard Sands, Constellation's chairman and CEO, said that the deal would "strengthen our ability to compete with both domestic and imported beers, especially in national accounts." Corona Extra is the nation's sixth best-selling beer.

Financial terms of the venture were not disclosed, but the company and analysts said the deal could boost Constellation's profits through lower costs and expanded market share. Imported beer is becoming a larger part of Constellation's business.

Beverage analysts said the venture should be positive for both companies. "I think this is a transaction designed for winning and what I mean by that is that Modelo has been winning in the U.S., together with its import partners, for more than 10 years," said Mark Swartzberg, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus in New York City.

"And we think that this transaction puts Constellation in the position to be even more important to that performance in the future."

The deal could lead to new strategies for advertising, marketing and maybe even pricing, said Fausto Angotti, customer service manager of Beers of the World in Henrietta.

"The new importer will try new ad campaigns or new techniques to further the brand," Angotti said. "It might result in decreased or increased prices. ... Obviously the goal of the brewer is to make the brand more widespread."

Swartzberg said that he wouldn't rule out that the new joint venture may start importing other brands.

A local money manager said that while Modelo may be aiming at gaining a bigger share of profits from a more streamlined distribution model, the company got a good partner.

"It's fair to say that Modelo could not have done it on their own. There is value to what Constellation can bring to the table as a distributor," said Matthew Kaufler, money manager for Clover Capital Management Inc. of Pittsford, which owns Constellation shares.

Constellation's stock closed at $24.70, down 9 cents or one third of a percent.


The Sands family are really making this company into something special.


Gleason gets financial incentives

$5.7M in state, local aid to help upgrade its local plant
Democrat and Chronicle

To see how competitive today's business world has become, consider the case of Gleason Corp., one of Rochester's oldest companies.

Founded here 141 years ago, the maker of gears for the automotive and aerospace industries recently found itself examining whether its local operations would remain part of its future.

Gleason collects 75 percent of its sales abroad, had grown beyond its borders and "needed a change in our manufacturing strategy and to eliminate inefficiencies in how we operate," Gary Figler, Gleason's vice president of Rochester operations, said Tuesday to the board of the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency.

The company's exploration triggered negotiations with state and local economic development officials that eventually led to $5.7 million in financial incentives for Gleason, a portion of which was approved Tuesday by COMIDA.

The package includes $3.5 million in state money, a $1 million capital grant from Rochester Gas and Electric Corp., a $500,000 loan from the city of Rochester and $200,000 in Monroe County funds. COMIDA approved the company for $326,000 in county-level tax breaks.

The package was crucial to keeping the company and 625 manufacturing jobs in Gleason's University Avenue factory. "With the incentives, the decision to reinvest in the plant was very easy for us," Figler said.

The company will spend $13 million of its own money to upgrade equipment and reconfigure manufacturing in its local plant.

But while tax incentives played a key role in Gleason's decision, some observers believe there is more at play than tax incentives. (Several Gleason executives could not be reached for comment Tuesday.)

Dennis Mullen, chief executive of Greater Rochester Enterprise, said Gleason had concerns about its proximity to suppliers and customers, adding that "no company wants to relocate if it doesn't have to."

"The dynamics of their industry are such that 75 percent of their market is overseas," Mullen said. "They were faced with a fork in the road of 'Do we move our production to where our market is, or do we redevelop or redesign our location here?'" The incentives helped ease Gleason's concerns, Mullen said.

On paper, the assistance to Gleason looks like a smart use of tax incentives, said Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, a Washington-based organization that promotes accountability in economic development. Generally speaking, the best subsidies are those that help retain jobs at manufacturing companies, which tend to have a ripple effect through the rest of the economy, he said.

By focusing on existing jobs, "you are avoiding costs incurred if the company were to close," said LeRoy, author of The Great American Jobs Scam: Corporate Tax Dodging and the Myth of Job Creation. He said the value of the Gleason package is small compared with subsidies paid to other companies. For example, the New York Legislature recently approved a $1.2 billion package to help persuade Advanced Micro Devices to build a chip fabrication plant in Saratoga County.

That said, LeRoy said he is skeptical of any company's comments that tax incentives represent the deciding consideration in a capital investment decision, noting that the average corporate bill represents only about 1.2 percent of costs.

Far more important are factors such as the strength of and relationship with the local work force, proximity to customers and suppliers, and existing infrastructure. "Those are the real business basics that matter to a company," LeRoy said.


If you ever meet a Gleason in Rochester, just know they will definitely be able to pay the bill.


OPEN FOR BUSINESS
City Newspaper

In less than 10 years, the South Wedge area's commercial vacancy rate has dropped from 27 percent to 9 percent. There is, however, a lot more work to be done, says South Wedge Planning Committee Executive Director Dan Buyer.

That's one reason behind a new SWPC contest. It's open to anyone who can come up with a business plan designed specifically for the South Wedge. Among the businesses the area could use, says Buyer, are an ice cream shop, a movie theater, and a formal restaurant. Visit www.swpc.org to view a market study and for a contest application. Submissions are due by November 15, with winners announced December 1. There'll be a $1500 main prize and a $500 prize for a high school or college student.

In conjunction with the contest, the SUNYGeneseoSmallBusinessDevelopmentCenter, which aids many shopkeepers in the South Wedge, will hold a business-planning seminar. It'll be offered on two different dates: 6 to 9 p.m. September 13 and 9 a.m. to noon September 30; admission is $25. Register by visiting the same website.


The South Wedge has a lot going for it and is really up and coming. They have some nice fast casual restaurants and some ok bars.

I really love Open Face Sandwich Eatery. www.openfacesandwicheatery.com
and Cheesy Eddies cheesecakes...mmmmmm.

Check it out: www.savorourflavor.com/

What a freakin bitch slap this has to be, oh heres all this taxpayer money to help you out, and then BAM we're gonna lay off 40 people, fuckin a

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gleason lays off 40, day after tax breaks OK'd

Nishad Majmudar
Staff writer

(July 19, 2006) — Gleason Corp. has confirmed that it laid off 40 workers today, one day after gaining approval from Monroe County for $326,000 in tax breaks.

Gleason said the move, which is part of its new manufacturing strategy, keeps the company in compliance with a state and local tax incentive package designed to keep the 141-year-old maker of automotive and aerospace gears from leaving its hometown.

Gleason will receive $5.7 million in state, county and local incentives toward a $19 million renovation project at its historic University Avenue facility. Monroe County's Industrial Development Agency approved the county portion of the package yesterday afternoon.

"Basically, workforce reduction is part of the manufacturing strategy that we've developed," Gary Figler, vice president of Gleason's Rochester operations, said in an interview. "It's appropriate to say that workforce reduction is something that allows us to focus on our core competencies…building machines that produce gears. That's where we want to be."

The displaced employees have been offered a chance to interview for employment at Gleason's suppliers, Figler said.

In April, Gleason announced it would spend $13 million of its own money to renovate its University Avenue plant and retain 625 manufacturing jobs. Figler said total layoffs through the next four months would total between 50 and 60, keeping the company "well above" the 625-employee commitment made in conjunction with the tax breaks.

Gleason, which derives 75 percent of sales from outside the United States, considered shifting resources from Rochester to locations to a location closer to its main customers.

The company said the grants and incentives ultimately persuaded it to reinvest in Rochester.

fucking bulshit that's what that is. They are celebrated and get the fucking grant for being one of the oldest companies in Rochester and for deciding to stay in the area and then they pull this shit.

http://my-expressions.com/up_media/4051/pblog/5159/1153362421.jpg

Pic of the ongoing work on the Troup Howell bridge. The bridge is very similar to the bridge in Albany on the I-87 as you cross into Saratoga county, except ours looks a little better. Ours is white, instead of rust color, has lighting, and hopefully fancy pilons greeting you to the bridge.


http://cmsimg.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=A2&Date=20060720&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=607200360&Ref=AR&Profile=1003&MaxW=550&MaxH=430

Retail could replace historic church

Fairport congregation to vote on whether to proceed with talks
Democrat and Chronicle

The pointed steeple of the First Baptist Church of Fairport is the first landmark many residents look for when they return from out of town.

But there is a possibility the church and its tall steeple will disappear from the village skyline, replaced by the bright lights of a retail store.

Church leaders have been approached by an agent to sell the 135-year-old house of worship at the corner of South Main and West Church streets to an undisclosed retailer.

The carrot was $2 million. It was not a formal offer, but even the suggestion has stirred the emotions of church members and village residents.

"I don't know how it could happen and I would really hate to see it happen because it would knock the heart right out of the village," said Mary Buttarazzi, who lives on West Church Street near the church.

The congregation is expected to vote Sunday on whether to proceed or nix the deal even before talks begin. The decision will be a difficult one for the Baptist congregation of about 300. The old church needs repairs that could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The issue is further complicated because the village does not have a pharmacy or a grocery store, retail operations that would be welcomed by many residents if put in the right place.

"I'm just kind of trusting the process and that people are going to make a good choice," said Pastor George Huffsmith.

"At this point the vote is not whether or not we are going to sell the place, it's more if we are even going to consider this inquiry. We are not even in an offer stage."

Who's the client?

Neither the client nor the type of business has been disclosed.

David Taber, a trustee of the church, said Huffsmith had been approached by a local real estate broker, Ron Rothfuss, who inquired whether church leaders would consider selling its three parcels to a retailer with at least $2 million to spend on land acquisition.

Rothfuss said he is a licensed real estate broker who specializes in identifying possible development sites in the area for clients.

On Wednesday, he did not name the company interested in a Fairport site and said he did not tell church leaders either.

He would only say it was a retailer.

"It's a tight little village and not a lot of property (is) available," he said. "You usually try to go to Main (street), and Main and (the church) is it. The size of the lot is interesting, but I do not have an answer one way or another, not even from my client."

Walgreens, the pharmacy chain with the largest volume of sales in the nation, has set its sights on the Rochester area. Two stores have opened in the past year in Gates and Irondequoit.

A third is under construction in Penfield and six more are slated for areas across the county.

"At this time, Walgreens has no plans for a store in Fairport," said Carol Hively, a Walgreens spokeswoman.

The land is zoned for commercial use and could accommodate a retail operation. Main Street is the central business district of the village and is lined with shops, restaurants, professional practices and other small businesses.

The church owns three pieces of land, including the sanctuary, an adjoining building and a house.

"They would not have to buy any more pieces of land, that's why they are interested in our piece of property," Taber said.

Other factors

The decision whether to move forward with the possibility of a sale will not be an easy one for church members. Some members have attended services there for decades or for their entire lives.

Bernice Eckert, 85, of Perinton, has been a member of the church for nearly 30 years. Just the thought of the building succumbing to a wrecking ball brings her to tears.

"I just want that church to stay there and I will do everything in my power to keep it there," she said. "If they start bulldozing it down, I would be the first one there to let them bulldoze me first. We just can't do it. We've got to find a solution."

But several other factors are playing into the decision, including the condition of the building. The church's slate roof and heating system need to be replaced, the parking lot needs to be resurfaced and even the brick on the building is deteriorating, church officials said.

Wayne Loomis, church treasurer, said no formal estimates have been done on the building. But the cost of repairs — most likely in the hundreds of thousands of dollars — have been on the minds of trustees for years, he said.

"That's all part of the equation," Loomis said. "I think this is an opportunity to look at what we want to do and how do we want to proceed."

Rothfuss said one of the reasons he approached Huffsmith was because of problems he saw in the aging church. He said he could see from the street it needed a roof and other repairs.

"The maintenance on the building looked like it was long overdue," Rothfuss said.

Church leaders are scheduled to meet with village officials next week to find out whether there are any grants available to help the church with the cost. The church was recently added to the New York State Register of Historic Places, and an application has been forwarded to the national registry, Huffsmith said.

But Taber, for one, said he is going to vote to pursue the church's options, including sale. He said he does not want financial help from the government to save the building, even one he loves.

Pharmacy needed

Taber said the other issue on his mind is the village's need for a pharmacy.

"And we don't have a grocery store," said Taber, 71, a lifelong member of the church. "I have friends and neighbors who depend on being able to walk uptown to do their shopping. Some are frustrated by this whole thing."

The debate within the church is not comforting to neighbors.

Ronald Buttarazzi said there is vacant retail space in Village Landing. The shopping center off Main Street at one time housed a grocery store and later a pharmacy.

"There is a huge space available right up the block," he said. "It would be really a plus for the village if something could go in there."

Rothfuss said he had looked at that property, but it does not have the frontage on Main Street the client is seeking.

Barb Stewart, who lives on Church Street, was blunt about her feelings.

"My only comment is that it takes greed to kill a village," she said. "It would be very sad for the village and the community."

Wayne Loomis had a suggestion for residents who want to help save the landmark.

"They can pull out their checkbooks," the church treasurer said with a chuckle in his voice.


Thought this story was interesting, Im sure its probably Walgreens. They bought the Syms store on East Henrietta Rd for 3 million, knocked it down, and already are building a store there too. I wont miss Syms, but at least it was a different store. Not a common store found everywhere else. I dont think a modern store would fit with the feel of Fairport, but if they made the store look very New England it may fit in with the rest of the Fairport Village. I will say that since that church was painted red it is an eyesore to the village, but would a Walgreens look any better? The village does need a grocery store/pharmacy though. And Walgreens is THE best pharmacy out there.


Parker: Jobs needed for new grads
Rochester Business Journal

Quality of life is an important factor for young people starting their careers, but the overriding issue is jobs, Rochester Business Alliance Inc. CEO Sandra Parker told students at a job fair at Bryant & Stratton College today.
“The existence of solid employment opportunities will clearly counterbalance any concerns that might be raised about our weather or the vibrancy of local nightlife,” Parker said.
She offered sobering news on the local economy. Burdened by consistent layoffs, Rochester is not growing to keep pace with other communities. Since May 2005, the area has lost 1.4 percent of its jobs, about 7,400 positions, and the labor force is getting smaller, Parker said.
“It means a large number of people have just given up on finding work here,” she said, and added that too many young people are leaving the area.
In a recent radio survey, 68 percent of 2,000 high school seniors said they planned to leave the area, she said.
But Parker also pointed to bright spots. She highlighted expansion at several companies, including Century Mold Co. Inc., Microwave Data Systems Inc., Sutherland Global Services Inc., Verizon Wireless Inc, Ultralife Batteries Inc. and Harris RF Communications Division. Barilla Group of Italy broke ground last week on a $96.2 million facility in Avon that will create roughly 120 jobs.
A recent RBA survey shows high employer confidence, with half of employers expecting to add jobs this year. RBA and other business groups are lobbying for changes to decrease residents’ and businesses’ tax burden; a bill introduced this year would cut costs of workers’ compensation insurance while improving benefits to workers, Parker said. More than 40 Rochester area businesses participated in the career fair.


How true...the story in the D and C today highlighted that right now companies here need more highly paid experienced workers in educated industries like engineering, medicine, and research. Hopefully this will bring in a new flux of more white collar workers, but how will young people ever want to stay if all that companies are hiring for are experienced workers? You cant get experience if no one will hire you? I think that has always been Roc's problem, that there are jobs, but no one wants to spend the time or money to train you for them.

UofR is definitely trying to fix that problem. They have tons of internship programs aimed at setting up students with jobs locally. They are very focused on being a part of the Rochester community and contributing to it. Not only are they creating a lot of high tech jobs for the experienced workers AND entry level positions, but they are setting up their future graduates with possissions that will help them stay in Rochester. So far the turn out rate is low... only about 10% of students who come from out of state end up staying in the Rochester area after graduation, but that number is increasing as they work harder at their goal.

Note that only Binghamton, Glens Falls and Rochester showed declines this month and Binghamton decline was only 100 jobs. Rochester's decrease seems to be accelerating.

Albany-Schenectady-Troy: Since June 2005, the number of jobs has increased by 4,300, or 1.0 percent, and the number of private sector jobs has increased by 3,700, or 1.1 percent. The area's unemployment rate was 3.8 percent in June 2006, compared with 3.7 in May and 3.9 in June 2005.

Binghamton: Since June 2005, the number of jobs has decreased by 100, or 0.1 percent, and the number of private sector jobs increased by 200, or 0.2 percent. The area's unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in June 2006, compared with 4.4 in May and 4.7 in June 2005.

Buffalo-Niagara Falls: Since June 2005, the number of jobs has increased by 600, or 0.1 percent, and the number of private sector jobs was unchanged. The area's unemployment rate was 4.9 percent in June 2006, compared with 4.9 in May and 5.3 in June 2005.

Elmira: Since June 2005, the number of jobs was unchanged, and the number of private sector jobs has increased by 100, or 0.3 percent. The area's unemployment rate was 4.9 percent in June 2006, compared with 5.0 in May and 5.3 in June 2005.

Glens Falls: Since June 2005, the number of jobs has decreased by 400, or 0.7 percent, and the number of private sector jobs has decreased by 800, or 1.7 percent. The area's unemployment rate was 3.8 percent in June 2006, compared with 4.1 in May and 4.0 in June 2005.

Ithaca: Since June 2005, the number of jobs increased by 200, or 0.3 percent, and the number of private sector jobs has increased by 200, or 0.4 percent. The area's unemployment rate was 3.3 percent in June 2006, compared with 3.0 in May and 3.4 in June 2005.

Kingston: Since June 2005, the number of jobs has increased by 1,000, or 1.5 percent, and the number of private sector jobs has increased by 900, or 1.8 percent. The area's unemployment rate was 4.1 percent in June 2006, compared with 4.0 in May and 4.2 in June 2005.

Nassau-Suffolk: Since June 2005, the number of jobs has increased by 8,700, or 0.7 percent, and the number of private sector jobs has increased by 7,500, or 0.7 percent. The area's unemployment rate was 3.9 percent in June 2006, compared with 3.8 in May and 4.1 in June 2005.

New York City (five boroughs): Since June 2005, the number of jobs has increased by 58,200, or 1.6 percent, and the number of private sector jobs has increased by 60,100, or 2.0 percent. The area's unemployment rate was 4.9 percent in June 2006, compared with 4.6 in May and 5.4 in June 2005.

Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown: Since June 2005, the number of jobs increased by 2,700, or 1.1 percent, and the number of private sector jobs increased by 1,800, or 0.9 percent. The area's unemployment rate was 4.0 percent in June 2006, compared with 3.9 in May and 3.9 in June 2005.

Putnam-Rockland-Westchester: Since June 2005, the number of jobs has increased by 5,500, or 1.0 percent, and the number of private sector jobs has increased by 4,800, or 1.0 percent. The area's unemployment rate was 3.8 percent in June 2006, compared with 3.8 in May and 4.0 in June 2005.

Rochester: Since June 2005, the number of jobs has decreased by 6,000, or 1.2 percent, and the number of private sector jobs has decreased by 6,100, or 1.4 percent. The area's unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in June 2006, compared with 4.5 in May and 4.6 in June 2005.

Syracuse: Since June 2005, the number of jobs has increased by 3,900, or 1.2 percent, and the number of private sector jobs has increased by 2,700, or 1.0 percent. The area's unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in June 2006, compared with 4.5 in May and 4.9 in June 2005.

Utica-Rome: Since June 2005, the number of jobs has increased by 200, or 0.1 percent, and the number of private sector jobs was unchanged. The area's unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in June 2006, compared with 4.3 in May and 4.7 in June 2005.

Rochester's decrease seems to be accelerating.

BULL. The decrease has actaully been DECELERATING. Go back to the records..... the decline peaked (that sounds like on oxymoron but think about it and it makes sense) in April... with a loss of over 8000 jobs, then it when down to around 7000 in May, and now down to 6000 for June. If that patern continues the area wil be gaining jobs by the end of this year or the beginning of next year. I'm tired of your lame ass only coming on this thread to talk about how much Rochester's job market sucks and then leaving it at that. You say crap like "I'm just reporting the facts, your city is what it is and nothing more or less"... and again, that's RIGHT. And Rochester IS more than just employment figures. So either come on here and talk about issues other than trying to bash it's employment numbers, or don't post at all. Also... I see you are using the figures that NYSDL gives; but gee, I thought that they aren't credible because they reported that Rochester gained jobs throughout most of 2005 (which it did, eventhough you love to through out the unproven, but rather disvproved stat that Rochester is the only metro area in the country to not have gained jobs since 9-11), but they really didn't. It was just a consipracy for the non-election year! But this year, which is an election year.... they have mysteriously decided to post the truth!

:hilarious: :hilarious:


So tell me Donbuy... is the next time we will be seeing you on this thread be on August 17? That is when NYSDL gives it's next press release.... the other one being today. I checked it when they first came out today at 2 pm. So, next month when it says that Rochester lost around 5000 jobs between July 05 and July 06....are you going to post it on here too? And then say that the job lossess are accelerating eventhough they are actually decelerating? I just need to know so I can pencil it in. I'm sure I would enjoy another good laugh at your predictability on that date.

Wow Donboy what are you a reporter for CBS news, just going on your hunch, or getting in a low blow when you can. Check the stats sir.


TOTAL NON-FARM:

May 2006: 512,700
June 2006: 513,300


TOTAL PRIVATE:

May 2006: 428,900
June 2006: 430,000

So that would be an increase in jobs from May to June, that is at least the last three months in a row of job growth. While you are right the area has lost 6000+ since June of last year that is down from (as the kid said) 7000 in may and 8000 in april, so things are slowly turning around it seems. Though Kodak still has time to lay some more people off ( :bash: )

Do I still have to be known as "the kid"? Especially when I make a good point? I'm almost 18 years old for damns sake.... it's not like I'm trading pokemon cards and riding my bike to the candy store every weekend with my alowance! lol. The jobs gained over the past few months aren't indiviative.... which I hate to admit, of real improvement. That's seasonal growth that always occurs. BUT! It is true that the number of jobs lost is SLOWING every month, (showing a turnaround that continuing at the same rate would have Rochester poised to be gaining jobs again by December or January at the LATEST) now and not "really accelerating" as he would love to believe. I don't know what his deal is..... must have gotten the runs from a garbage plate or something and never forgotten. Perhaps because of that he shat his pants in public and people pointed and laughed. BUT HE'LL SHOW THEM! He'll come on an internet forum and post negative (and even sometimes incorrect) stats about Rochester's employment figures. Doesn't it feel good to get the last laugh? But seriously, watch.... I GAURANTEE that he will post on here again on August 17th when NYSDL posts the data from July. Mark your calanders. Silly little Donbuy.... he's so predictable!

Hey I call you the kid because I like ya, and hell I wish I was 18 all over again. It's not meant as a negative, just as a nick-name I guess. Enjoy it, because its better than being known for "Susifying" your replies I guess! lol


...anyways it's better than being known as a Caniac or whatever asshole name they have for those bastards at the RBC Center which is in the middle of a parking lot at some crappy office park or whatever...

lol ok then, thanks. "The Kid" is cool with me. Expecially since a lot of the time I actually wish I were YOUNGER than I am right now! lol

ha, I wish I was older.

hate to piss in your swimming pool, but Kodak is about to lay off more workers.

on a very serious note...Rochester better kill its crime issue, people I talk to dont even want to visit in the city now, Rochester is becoming a very evil place as far as crime goes. Argue if you want, but I know how people look at this and if they get a bad image in their mind...they won't go.

so kiss the new Paetec park, High Falls and all the big attractions goodbye unless you can make the city safe to be in.

I actually had a lady (african american and roughly 35 yrs old) tell me in Buffalo a few days ago that she knows of many many people leaving Rochester to live in Buffalo because its safer and there is more to do. She said people are getting to witts end about the crime and issues that they are just packing up and moving west 60 miles.

that was from a real city living urban person who lives the issues we seem to discuss as "bad" "ghetto" and "grit".

that was from a real city living urban person

aww, how cute and provincial :D

Buffcity, the mayor is working on it. I do not feel Rochester has a stigma yet, but it could get that way if things dont change.

The issue is the uneducated people from "the crescent." The suburbs and even center city are safe and clean. Only when the undesirables leave the crescent is there ever an issue. This woman you spoke with probably lived in "the crescent" and moved to a greener pasture. Good for her, it shows she actually wants to change her life and recognized a bad thing. Anyways it is all based on drug dealers, everything you read and watch on the news, even when that 15 yr old got shot on his bike, it was because he owed a drug dealer money. So what?

I do agree, a few bad people ruin it for the rest of us and Rochester could get a "label" if it does not change. I was just in Chicago and I was told by the locals not to go by US Cellular field because I would get shot. I was in Indianapolis last weekend and I was told not to go by the Speedway because I would get shot, I was in Milwaukee a week ago and I was told not to go North or South of the center city because I would get shot, it happens everywhere. Gross people exist in every city and as long as you have half a brain and do not bring bad things upon yourself then you will be safe. I am in downtown Rochester EVERY Fri and Sat night and NOTHING ever happens to me. People need to stop being sheltered, I have 6 friends that all live in the city and they feel safe, but they dont live in the ghetto, they do not go where they dont belong. Crime is picking up everywhere, as the nation gets less and less intelligent. Either that or the info superhighway just makes the info more readily available than it was in the past.

Read this article from Sundays paper:
Rochester isn't alone: Violent crime sweeps nation

From Memphis to Hartford, the search is on for affordable, effective ways to stop the bloodshed
http://democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060716/NEWS01/607160325/-1/archive5

Check out the multimedia section to the right, once that is open click on national map in the lower left, its quite interesting.

Hate to see you piss in my pool buffcity, but I do believe that I stated its only a matter of time before there are more layoffs at Kodak. It would be no shocker to anyone on this forum, hell even the people that work there live day after day fearing that pink slip, or that announcment that leads to the pink slip.

Maybe if the company wasn't so f%#@in ass backwards, by paying the CEO and former CEO more than the rest of the employees combined, things would work out better. Since Perez has taken over what has happened at kodak? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? No not much of anything, oh yeah i forgot, they changed logos, big freakin deal, what would George Eastman think if he saw the shape his company was in now, he would probably shoot himself (oops already happened!!)

Anyways off that soapbox, seriously nobody here I'm sure wants to see a Buffalo vs. Rochester thread develop, I for one love Buffalo for many many reasons. How sweet it is to be able to drive to a NHL or NFL (well sorta) game and be able to come home soon after. Or the beautiful falls, or visit the birthplace of chicken wings, quit hatin on Rochester it gets old, we aren't that bad, no worse than anywhere else when you stop and think.

Wow Donboy what are you a reporter for CBS news, just going on your hunch, or getting in a low blow when you can. Check the stats sir.


TOTAL NON-FARM:

May 2006: 512,700
June 2006: 513,300


TOTAL PRIVATE:

May 2006: 428,900
June 2006: 430,000

So that would be an increase in jobs from May to June, that is at least the last three months in a row of job growth. While you are right the area has lost 6000+ since June of last year that is down from (as the kid said) 7000 in may and 8000 in april, so things are slowly turning around it seems. Though Kodak still has time to lay some more people off ( :bash: )

Employment varies by season, that is why all economist use year over year comparisons. If you are so brave why don't you post December 2005 and January 2006? Actually i'll save you the trouble

DEC 2005: 512,600
JAN 2006: 497,100

Why didn't I post that at the time? Because like your post it is meaningless to compare adjacent months.

It is what it is, your area is losing jobs consistently and has been doing so since 911. Some 20-25,000 fewer total jobs now than pre 911. You can try your hardest to say it ain't so but the reports we give to our paying customers spell out the job declines in detail. And believe it or not they listen to us and not to you.

Hey donboy, toughguy, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think at any point any of us denied that fact, we all are very well aware (much thanks to Susie and yourself for pointing this out over and over again.)

Instead of stating something that everyone already knows, why don't you offer suggestions, god knows the politicians don't know their ass from a hole in the wall.

What the hell is everyones problem? do you get off on putting down other communities? were you not hugged enough as a child? do you have some kind of inferiority complex?

You bring nothing to the table if all you do is report what has already been reported by another agency, be it the news outlets, or state agencies, why don't you offer some kind of analysis? You are no better than fprmer or anyone else if all you do is get off on pissing in other people cherrios.

Employment varies by season, that is why all economist use year over year comparisons. If you are so brave why don't you post December 2005 and January 2006? Actually i'll save you the trouble

DEC 2005: 512,600
JAN 2006: 497,100

Why didn't I post that at the time? Because like your post it is meaningless to compare adjacent months.

It is what it is, your area is losing jobs consistently and has been doing so since 911. Some 20-25,000 fewer total jobs now than pre 911. You can try your hardest to say it ain't so but the reports we give to our paying customers spell out the job declines in detail. And believe it or not they listen to us and not to you.




You really area pathetic person. DO NOT POST ON MY THREAD (yes, my thread, I started it) If you are ONLY going to talke about Rochester's . employment figures. You are a little pussy. So, what's your BS response to my acutal point. ROCHESTER HASN'T BEEN LOSING JOBS SINCE 911 IT'S IN THE FUCKING DL REPORTS... until you can post some data, some actual NUMBERS to back up that shit, don't post it because it is WRONG. The area was gaining jobs throughout most of 2005.... I don't know why you can't just give it up and admit that you made a mistake in saying that it hasn't months ago. But it has.... all your stupid arrogant ass can say is " the federal report still says Rochester is the only remaining metro area that hasn't gained jobs since 911. THEN PROVE IT YOU DIPSHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!! You probably aren't even a market analyst. For fucks sake you can't even post figures to back up for claims. Oh well.... SEE YOU ON AUGUST 17!

I need some popcorn in here too.

Another disc-golf course opens
Democrat and Chronicle

There’s more work involved than meets the eye when it comes to creating a disc-golf course.

Dave Thomas of Brockport, Ron Raleigh of Greece and others have spent months clearing dead trees, stumps and brush and designing an 18-hole course in Sweden Town Park.

Their labors have come to fruition. The new course, the eighth disc golf course in Monroe County, opens Saturday.

“I tried to do regular golf, but it was too frustrating,” said Raleigh, 66, a Kodak retiree. “This, you can play year-round, even in the winter. It’s a lot easier than golf.”

That doesn’t mean it’s easy, though. Players get a pretty good workout heaving their flying discs — don’t call them Frisbees — through wooded areas and around water hazards and other obstacles.

Thomas, a retired teacher, got hooked while he was a physical education teacher with the Greece Central School District a dozen years ago.

“I went to Ellison Park and shot a 96,” said Thomas, whose scores have improved since then. “My arm hurt like hell. But I knew the kids would love it.”

Another nine-hole course opened a few weeks ago in Sawyer Park in Greece.


This sport is really catching on in Rochester. I have yet to try it, but I really want to. We are so golf obsessed here, now we need lots of disc golf courses too. I believe there are already 12 or something like that? See you tomorrow, Im off to the links myself!


Donbuy, I do not know what company you work for, but I doubt we need your companies influence anyway. Too bad, the companies you represent are missing out on opportunities. With the Cincinnatti company wanting to build a mall in Chili, Benderson building in Victor, Greece, and Henrietta. DDR marketing their properties heavily, Cor Companies building a new lifestyle center in Canandaigua and Macerich improving the Marketplace mall, we are holding our own retail market wise for now. Carabba's, Bonefish Grill, Christmas Tree Shops, Walgreens, and others are all entering the market right now.

While Rochester is often not on the retail map for several companies, we do have "standouts" and "firsts" for upstate New York. We had the first Macaroni Grill, only Chammps, only Biaggi's, only PF Changs (for now), first Red Robin, only Famous Dave's BBQ, First Bugaboo Creek, only Cheeburger Cheeburger...

First Coach Store, first Lowe's store, first Best Buy store, only Sharper Image, only Jessica McClintock, only Kuhlman, first Coldwater Creek, only Land's End store, only Janie and Jack, only Arhaus Furniture, the list goes on and on but this is EXTREMELY boring.

Donbuy, while I would not say that our retail here is amazing, for a small unheard of city, the demographics bring in a good amount of decent chains that your company probably represents. We do not have the advantage of being near a larger city to get a new branch of a restaurant and have no name recognition from major league sports or college sports. We are holding our own without your representation. I would much rather give my money to a local establishment, than some chain headquartered in the mid-west or Florida anyway. I am friends with a girl whom works for a REIT and she says that a BIG national chain not yet upstate has been scouting the area for a location and there should be an announcement soon, where they will locate. She cant even tell me who it is. In my meeting with the city economic commissioner last week he let me know that many large retail companies are knocking down the door to try to get into the city downtown, including the ghetto. He said that retailers are amazed at how cheap the land is here and the city is just waiting to find the perfect place to locate the stores before signing anything.

Silly Rochesteraddict.... none of that stuff matters. The only thing that matters is that Rochester is losing jobs.... that's why Donbuy posts it every month and then gives half pitty comments in a rude demeanour. There's nothing more to Rochester than employment figures. That and the false stat that the area hasn't seen one month of year over year job growth since 9/11 (which I guess is technically true; because it hasn't seen one.... it's had nine... Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr. May, Jun, Jul, and Aug of 2005)

Hey addict, any time you wanna go hit up 9 holes of the disc, or 18 of the little roundball I'm game. I'd love to try some new courses, and try for the first time disc golf as well.

As for developers knocking down the door, I wouldn't be surprised, but I like to take the wait and see approach, more than anything.

Hit The Beach! Durand Open Saturday
by R News staff
file
Published Jul 21, 2006

Rochester's mayor announced legal public swimming at Durand Eastman Beach will return Saturday morning.

Rochester's mayor announced the city had qualified for a temporary permit to operate legal swimming at the area's most popular beach after providing for lifeguards and portable restrooms. Durand's water also passed health department quality tests after two months of monitoring.

The beach's hours will be from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. Rochester will maintain those hours until Labor Day weekend.

Since stating his intention to opening the area's most popular beach to legal swimming in the early days of his administration, Duffy and his administration have worked steadily toward that goal.

The city took over operation of the beach from Monroe County. It spent the last two months waiting for county water testing and working toward meeting the expectations of health authorities. The Duffy administration hired lifeguards a few weeks ago with the intention of opening Durand to swimming by the July 4th holiday.

Durand is way nicer than Charlotte as far as the actual beach goes. Charlotte's in a better part of the city so there is more to do outside of actually swimming in the beach... but it's tiny, crowded, and polluted.

OFFICE
Greece - Kodak will be purchasing a 57,000 square foot building from Corning, Inc. in the Canal Ponds Business Park. The vacant building will be turned into office and laboratory space for research and development in digital imaging. The facility all ready includes a 13,000 square foot clean room and laboratories. Kodak will be moving about 100 workers to the new office from other Rochester locations. (3/12)

Henrietta - Paychex has submitted plans to the Planning Board for a possible expansion of its John Street facility. The 2-story, 123,000 square foot office space would cost $15 million. The new building would connect to the existing Paychex building and have room for 1,000 more employees. (3/9)

Henrietta - Corporate office space will soon be available at the former Celltech's Jefferson Road business park. The state-of-the-art headquarters are unique as they offer corporate standards such as conference rooms, a training center and cafeteria. Celltech was bought by UCB Pharma last year and uses part of the Jefferson Road space for manufacturing and technical operations. (3/10)

Perinton - Christa Development Corp. has sold its office portfolio for $62.9 million. Eight out of the nine properties were bought by a Massachusetts company, HRPT Properties Trust. The sale included 483,711 square feet of property, including Corporate Crossing Office Campus in Perinton. (2/11)

Rochester - Two large tenants will be moving out of Chase Towers to new locations. Manning & Napier will move to Perinton after 15 years at Chase. The Manning office currently occupies 4 floors in the tower. The move to the new Woodcliff office will permit growth, give their employees clients easier access and free parking. Underberg & Kessler will be moving out of Chase Towers but remain downtown. Their new offices will be located at Bausch & Lomb Place. (12/31)

Rochester - The NCS Community Development Corp. will be buying the HSBC Bank building on Driving Park Avenue for their main headquarters. The NCS is a nonprofit organization that specializes in housing and home ownership. HSBC has closed the Driving Park branch in December and previously closed five offices in the Rochester area. HSBC is building a new branch on Dewey Avenue in Greece. (1/4)

Rochester - The Art Craft Optical Co., Inc. building at 85-89 Allen Street has been sold to a local developer for $400,000. Built in 1902, the building has housed numerous manufacturers. The 7-story building has been vacant since 2001. Plans for development may include office space on the lower floors with housing above. (1/7)

Rochester - A new tenant will moving into the Granite Building's eighth floor with plans to acquire more space as the company adds 100 to 120 workers this year. CGI Communications Inc. plans to hire every quarter this year to keep up with demand for their growing business. CGI provides municipalities with promotional materials across the country such as street banners and Web-based videos. The Granite Building is located at 130 East Main Street at the corner of St. Paul Street. The building's roof was recently replaced, along with upgrades to the electrical, fire and telecommunications systems. (2/25)

Victor - A Rochester developer has proposed a controversial office park along the Route 96 corridor. The Town Board held a workshop specifically to discuss this project that includes research, office and retail space and 79 townhomes. The 548,000 square-foot development would be situate on 105 acres which is currently zoned residential. Area residents have voiced their concern over traffic and over-development. The property would need to be rezoned to planned development in order to proceed. (2/14)

Victor - SPG Direct will be opening a subordinate company, Wave Technology, this spring in the Omnitech Office Park. SPG is a marketing consulting firm working with company sales and marketing. Wave Technology will offer software to companies designed to help market their own product. SPG moved from Henrietta to Victor in 2003 and has added 30 employees. Clients include Sony, Microsoft, Unisys and Corning. (1/4)

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RETAIL
Albion - Wal-Mart has proposed to build a 155,700-square-foot store on a 19-acre parcel located at the corner of Route 31 and Gaines Basin Road. The proposed store will include a grocery store and car repair shop. Orleans County has not had a major chain store since Ames closed 2 stores in Albion and Medina in 2002. The land is currently zoned for residential or agricultural use, and would need to be zoned commercial by the Town. (12/23)

Brighton - An existing office building at the corner of Elmwood and South Clinton Avenues would need to be razed for a proposed Walgreen's drug store. The proposal in front of the Town Board calls for a 14,800-square-foot store on 2.7 acres. Developers are proposing to build new sidewalks and add green-space with more landscaping and fewer parking spaces than the current building. Area residents have voiced their concerns about traffic and aesthetics. (2/2)

Irondequoit - A Syracuse business man has contracted to buy the ailing Irondequoit Mall for $5 million. The mall was originally built in 1990 for $80 million. Currently, the mall is less than 20% occupied. The last anchor store to close was JC Penney in 2003. The buyer is seeking tax abatements from real estate taxes for 20 years in order to proceed with the purchase. Negotiations between the buyer and the town have not been finalized. (3/1)

Macedon - A proposed Wal-Mart site plan went before the Planning Board detailing the 205,000 square-foot supercenter, a separate gas station and 1,026-space parking lot. Plans also show landscaping, lighting and details of the finished store front. Wal-Mart wants to build on a 25-acre parcel at the corner of Route 31 and Wayneport Road. The Planning Board will review the site plans and wait for variances and special use permits before giving approval. (2/13)

Perinton - The owners of 3 successful Italian restaurants in the Rochester area have opened a steak house at the Brookwood Inn in Bushnell's Basin. The Brookwood Inn recently invested $2 million in renovations and wanted an upscale restaurant to complement the inn. The new 4,000 square foot eatery also offers banquet rooms for private parties and corporate functions. (1/13)

Pittsford - A 7,000 square foot restaurant with an outdoor patio will open in Pittsford Plaza in the former KB Toys store. The new restaurant will serve steak and seafood in the $15 to $30 price range and open in June. A name for the new restaurant has not yet been selected. (12/16)

Pittsford - Great Northern Pizza plans to add 50 locations over the next five years. The plans were announced at the same time the company merged with Flour City Bagels. The new restaurants will be built in New York and could employ up to 2,000 workers. Great Northern Pizza was founded in 1999 and currently has 5 locations. (1/21)

Rochester - A 90 year-old family business is closing its doors because of the owner's failing health. Berman's Fur Fashions on Joseph Avenue began in 1915 by Harold Bermans' father, a Russian immigrant. The closing will leave Held Projansky Furs in Pittsford Plaza as the only independent furrier in the Rochester area. (1/27)

Rochester - A country music bar and diner will be opening in Rochester's East End. Daisy Duke will be a 5,000 square foot bar and include a mechanical bull. Roc City Hots will be a 1,500 square foot eatery with hot dogs, hamburgers and garbage-style plates. (2/3)

Rochester - The $20 million Corn Hill Landing project is nearing completion after 6-years in the making. Located on 9 acres overlooking the Genesee River, the development will have 127 apartments, office and retail space. $2 million has all ready been spent on the Corn Hill Landing promenade which features a double wall along the river, benches, antique-style lighting and landscaping. Near Corn Hill Landing, the Troup Howell Bridge is being transformed into a 433-foot long gateway into the city. Completion of the $37 million bridge will be in 2007. (2/25)

Rochester - The city will be selling a 1.5 acre parcel to a developer for $1 that will build a themed shopping center on North Clinton Avenue. "La Marketa" will be a Hispanic market and cost $2 million or more to build. The new market will be the centerpiece of the city's La Avenida revitalization project. (3/6)

Victor - Wilmorite Properties Inc. has sold three area Malls to in a merger with Macerich Partnership of Santa Monica, California. The Eastview Mall in Victor, The Mall at Greece Ridge Center and the Marketplace Mall in Henrietta, among other properties, were sold for $2.33 billion. The transfer of ownership should take place in March. Macherich is the 9th largest shopping center owner in North America. (12/24)

Webster - Marina Dodge Inc. on Ridge Road has doubled its facility with a new 21,000 square-foot addition. The expansion includes a new showroom designed under the guidelines from Chrysler Corp. with a mezzanine and glass elevator. A larger service area and parts department were also installed with a full body shop and paint booth. The $1.5 million project was started last summer and should be completed by early spring. (2/11)

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INDUSTRIAL
Clifton Springs - The Village Board rezoned the former school on South Street from residential to industrial as requested by G.W. Lisk Co. The 25-acre parcel needs a setback variance before Lisk can begin operations. The company will use the building for storage and packaging. G.W. Lisk also manufactures machine parts for automotive and military industries. (2/22)

Greece - The Planning Board okayed the subdivision of Kodak property located at 800 Lee Road for sale to its current tenant. Building No. 601 will be bought by ITT Industries, a remote sensing manufacturer that makes satellites and global positioning equipment. ITT currently employs 2,600 workers worldwide. (3/10)

Holley - A fruit and vegetable processing company will be adding a 41,500 square-foot addition to their facility for $2 million. The controlled atmosphere facility is expected to add 100 new jobs over the next three years. MAGC Inc. is located in the Holley Business Park in Orleans County. (2/17)

Macedon - The Pliant Corp. is spending $7 million on an expansion of its food packaging plant. A new $3.5 million printing press will be added and another press will be sent to another plant in Mexico. Pliant produces plastic bread bags including Wonder Bread and Pepperidge Farms. At peak, the plant can make 8 million bags from scratch each day. (2/24)

Rochester - A maker of lenses and precision optic parts is leaving downtown for a larger facility in Pittsford. JML Optical Industries has bought 820 Linden Avenue for $2.3 million. Currently, JML employs 85 workers and expects 10% annual growth for several years. The old facility at 690 Portland Avenue could be donated to the city for use as a business incubator. (2/25)

Rochester - Eastman Kodak is purchasing a 57,000 square foot facility in Canal Ponds Office Park for digital research and development . The former Corning Rochester Photonics Corp. building in Greece has a 13,000 square foot clean-room and 10,000 square feet of lab space. A total of 100 workers are expected to work in the facility. (3/11)

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RESIDENTIAL
Canandaigua - The city ordinance committee and two area developers are still at odds over the new zoning laws that requires new homes to have a setback garage of at least 12 feet. Both builders argue that there is no market for such homes and it is not what buyers want. City planners would rather see homes with porches in front, making neighborhoods more attractive and would invite more social interaction. Both builders have subdivisions to build that must conform to the new setback regulations, unless the council decides to change the zoning. (1/14)

Chili - The Planning Board finally approved phase 6 of the Park Place subdivision off of Union Street. Quorum couldn't be reached at prior board meetings, but the vote gave the go-ahead for an additional 29-lots to be built. Park Place is a 10-phase project which began in 2001. Construction of phase 6 could begin in June or July of this year. (3/9)

Greece - A proposal came before the Town Board to rezone 10 acres on Kirk Road from industrial to planned residential. Developers hope to build a 26 duplexes for senior living. The homes would range from 1,000 to 1,200 square feet. Kirk Road Villas rent would be between $900 and $1,100 per month. (12/23)

Greece - A proposal to build 50 senior townhomes off of Stoney Path Lane will need rezoning if the project is to be approved. Units would range between 1,200 and 1,500 square feet and sell for $140,000. The housing development is to be situate on 7.81 acres. If single family homes were built, only about 17 would fit. Residents have attended a public hearing concerned about density of the project and drainage. (1/20)

Palmyra - The Planning Board approved site plans for a 64-unit apartment complex to be built on the property formerly owned by the Palmyra Airport. Phase I will cost $4,400,000 and include five buildings and 40 apartments. Phase II will construct 3 buildings with 24 apartments. The developer will buy 9.55 acres for "Willow Landing" and the remaining 26 acres of the airport's property will be subdivided for building lots. (2/23)

Palmyra - Neighbors of a proposed senior housing complex have asked the Village Board not to rezone a 5.8 acre parcel to allow construction. The land is currently zoned for single-family homes and would need a variance to allow multi-family homes. A 2-story, 36-unit upscale apartment complex for people 55 and older has been proposed. Other concerns were traffic, water flow, noise and lighting. (3/9)

South Bristol - Plans for a new development were submitted to the Town Board for 41 single-family homes on Seneca Point Road. The homes of would be situate on 37 acres bought by the developer and have lake rights. Lots would range from 1/3 to one acre with 2,500 square foot of living space. The Planning Board must approve plans before building can begin. The developer hopes to get all its approval by late spring. (1/13)

Victor - A subsidized 65-unit senior apartment complex is being proposed for property off of High Street and Lane Road. Victor Senior Apartments, LLC will be situate on a 28-acre parcel and have 1 and 2 bedroom apartments. Plans call for a single building to be built on a 7.5 acres with entrances on both roads. (3/1)

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OTHER
Churchville - Village officials have two business plans to contemplate that include a used car lot on Main Street, and a senior housing apartment complex . The car dealership needs a variance to work out of a trailer, instead of a required permanent structure. The 33-unit apartment building will be a two-story, L-shaped structure on 2 ½ acres. The apartments will all be one-bedroom units. A public hearing will be held for each plan. (1/30)

Farmington - Town officials are considering a moratorium on mini-storage facilities until 2006. The moratorium would block any building applications brought before the Town Board. Currently, Farmington has 3 self-storage locations with a total of 324 storage units. The Planning Board granted approval recently to another self-storage facility with 188 units. Each unit of a storage facility is required to be inspected by the code enforcement office. More facilities in town would require additional staff and be an additional cost to taxpayers. (3/20)

Farmington - A local developer has proposed to build a 60-room hotel on Route 96 near the race track & racino and the Infotonics Technology Center. The builder is also hoping to attract travelers from the NYS Thruway. Infotonics is planning two national conferences and has 7 startup companies moving into the site in the next few years. Construction could have the building ready by the spring of 2006. (3/4)

Fishers - Construction is expected to begin on a 105-room Holiday Inn Express in the hamlet of Fishers. The two story building will be located on a 5-acre parcel just off of NYS Route 96, next to Chili's Grill & Bar. Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers is also planning to build at the corner of Main Street Fishers and Route 96 with additional retail space. (1/7)

Gates - Buckeye Pipe Line Co. signed a stipulation agreement with the DEC for a long term clean-up plan for the gas spill back in mid-December. It is estimated that nearly 30,000 gallons of fuel spilled from a broken underground delivery pipe 200 feet from the Erie Canal. About 20,000 gallons of fuel has been recovered. Cleanup will resume in the spring. (12/23)

Gates - The owner of Rochester Technology Park donated 24 acres near Elmgrove and Buffalo roads to the Town for park land. The donated parcel will be used for trails and park shelters and includes a stocked pond. Although no money changed hands, the donated value of the property was $2 million. Rochester Technology Park has gone through an extensive update of its 5 million square-foot complex. Over 30,000 trees and shrubs were planted, every building was painted and 22 miles of roadways were paved. Two new, blue and yellow, 50-foot lighted clocks will be added toward the end of March. Currently, the park has 23 tenants. (2/10)

Geneva - Construction has begun on the first building inside the Cornell Agriculture & Food Tech Park. The 20,000 square foot flex building will be available for start-up companies that could benefit from research being done at the NYS Agricultural Experiment Station next door. The flex-space will provide space for a number of businesses and is expected to create 80 jobs. When fully complete, the tech park could lead to 1000 new jobs and 375,000 square feet of research development. (12/31)

Geneva - Finger Lakes Health is building a $6.1 million Ambulatory Surgery Center which will open next fall. The 16,400 square foot facility will include three operating rooms, two endoscopy rooms and a procedure room. Doctors will be able to perform elective-surgeries on an out-patient basis with minimal interference. Hospital's are often affected by emergency surgeries requiring an operating room. (12/24)

Henrietta - A deal has been signed between Wegman's Food Markets and Monroe County Fair and Recreation Assoc. to buy the Dome Center property on Calkins Road. The land has long been sought after by Wegmans to build a superstore/plaza on its 30 acres. As of yet, the property is not zoned commercial, but Wegman's hopes to change that. The proposal includes a 130,000 square-foot supermarket with room for other developments. No purchase price has been made public. ( 12/22)

Henrietta - Heritage Christian Services has secured $3 million to build a Life Center on 16 acres at 1600 East Henrietta Road. The 8,000 square-foot building will house a fitness room with adaptive equipment, physical, occupational, speech and therapy rooms, gymnasium, a therapy pool, walking track and chapel. Construction could begin this fall. (2/4)

Henrietta - A few weeks after of announcing their grand opening, Belfry International Golf Course told its investors that they were deep in debt and need additional financing to open. Originally scheduled to open in 2002, the golf course problems include: Belfry's founder died unexpectantly, a poor economy and record rains delaying construction. Investors were asked for an additional $600,000 to finish necessary projects to get the golf course to open by this spring. (3/9)

Lyons - One of the country's oldest movie theaters will open this spring after receiving a $500,000 renovation. The Ohmann Theater was built in 1915 by the owner's grandfather, but had been sitting empty for the last 12 years. The 700 seat theater will serve as a performing arts center and events could include motion pictures and plays. (1/7)

Rochester - Seneca Park Zoo will finally have its expansion as Monroe County officials announced a $4 million plan to increase the elephant exhibit six-fold. The elephant exhibit will be located on 8 acres and include a larger viewing area, a 10,000 square foot shed and an open-air yard 4 times larger than its current facility. Zoo resident, Genny C, one of the two elephants female, is expecting to delivery the zoo's first baby elephant in March, 2006. The new expansion will allow the zoo to keep the elephants at the zoo. (12/23)

Rochester - Highland Hospital wants to spend $2.2 million to open a new outpatient Bariatric Center, for the weight-loss surgery which includes gastric bypass. Being Rochester's smallest hospital, Highland performed 600 gastric bypasses in 2004, more than any area hospital. The new Center will double in size and include more examination rooms, larger beds and larger waiting room. Staff would increase from 8 to 14 and could better handle the 7,000 to 8,000 patients in its program. (2/10)

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GENERAL
Bloomfield - The abandoned Agway in the heart of Bloomfield is to be torn down this spring. After years of delays, village officials are now making plans to develop the property into a town, village and fire department complex. The 3 acre parcel would include a new fire hall, and new town and village offices. A neighboring convenient store may also be interested in a part of the property for expansion. (1/28)

Canandaigua - City planners are quickly moving on rezoning the lakefront to make the lakefront more attractive to developers and tourists. The hope is to build an access road behind Parkway Plaza and allow taller buildings on Lakeshore Drive. The current code limits buildings to 3 stories, or 40 feet. One developer had hoped to build an 8-story condominium complex on 5.6 acres, and was later denied. The developer has since abandoned the project. (1/28)

Canandaigua - Real estate tax rolls in the town have been re-evaluated and property owners will see an increase in their assessments. More than 4,000 properties were inspected in seven months. The last re- evaluation was in 2002 and the equalization rate has dropped from 100% to 87%. Property owners will have an opportunity to attend a grievance day to object to their new assessments. (3/1)

Gates - Clean up of the extensive underground fuel spill near the Erie Canal is nearing an end. Buckeye Pipeline Co. owns the pipeline that ruptured on three occasions in mid-December, 2004. About 29,700 gallons of petroleum based products was spilled. Fish or wildlife were not effected by the spill and groundwater does not show to be contaminated. The spill spread down 20 miles of the Erie Canal from Buffalo Road in Gates, to Sandy Creek in Holley, Orleans County. (12/22)

Greece - The Planning Board gave its go-ahead for a new development on the corner of Latta and Long Pond Roads. The site will include a two banks, a Dunkin Donuts and a full-service opthalmologist office. Construction should begin this spring (12/16)

Naples - The Nature Conservancy has acquired 220 acres for $145,000 which will be added to the Hi-Tor wildlife management areas. The property, called the Smith Tract, was formerly a farm located at the southern most portion of Canandaigua Lake consisting of flat meadowlands. The land will be reverted to its natural state of floodplains and wetlands. The Nature Conservancy has protected about 4,000 acres in the Finger Lakes area to help buffer and protect water quality. (12/28)

Penfield - Work will begin on the first phase of developing 70 acres of parkland on Five Mile Line Road. The Town plans to spend over $4 million building Rothfuss Park. The money will pay for new hiking trails, sport fields, a skate park, concession area, restrooms and picnic areas. Phase one will include removing two metal buildings and beginning work on an access road and parking lot. (2/24)

Rochester - The County Legislature approved the purchase of a 1,150-space parking lot located adjacent the airport on Brooks Avenue for $3.8 million. The 9.4 acre parcel was bought last year for $2.8 million and leased to the county. The property generated more than $1 million in parking revenue from air travelers traffic in 2004. (3/9)

Seneca County - Legislation was proposed by Gov. Pataki that would settle the land claim by Seneca-Cayuga Indian nations over thousands of acres across New York state. Seneca County has rejected the proposal, which would allow five casinos to be opened in the Catskills in exchange for dropping the land claim suit. Seneca County officials are concerned about the Cayuga's receiving sovereignty and selling untaxed goods. The proposal needs to pass through the state legislature and Congress in its next steps. (2/4)

Victor - Area residents and Town officials have called for a moratorium on development along a 2-mile stretch of Route 96. Benderson Development Corp. of Buffalo has proposed to build Victor Commerce Plaza on Route 96 near the on-ramp of 490. The plaza would include a Wal-Mart Super Center, retail shops and restaurants. A temporary building ban would give Town officials time to complete their work studying land-use and planning reviews. (1/17)

Victor - A $1 million state grant has been awarded towards the building of an $8 million recreation center being proposed for the town and school. The complex would be built on the school campus and include a fitness center, athletic fields, gymnasium and more, Construction would start in the spring of 2006 if voters approve the plans. (3/8)

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Interesting list I found on a commercial property listing site, thats a lot of different things that I haven't heard of at anytime. Those were all from last year though.

That's a lot of stuff goin on... nice to see. Here's another. It's an expanding back that is building a new office in the city, and creating 15 jobs. Nothing overly special. but it is development.


ESL Builds New City Branch
by Dan Smith
Published Jul 21, 2006
ESL Federal Credit Union started construction on its 18th branch office.

The new branch, near the corner of Merchants and Winton Roads in Rochester, is scheduled to open in December.

The 5,600 square foot facility is expected to employ 15 people and feature two drive-up teller windows, two ATMs and safe deposit boxes.

ESL Federal Credit Union currently has $2.7 billion in assets.

I didn't really think these were worthy of a new thread (they would have been if I had the ones that I took on my digital camera that I freaking LOST). They're just some pictures I took while there..... moslty of houses. lol (I wasn't used to the this type of camera anymore, so my finger is in a lot of these pics)


A little bit of the University of Rochester (I had a kick ass picture of the library tower/dome... but they didn't develop it because my finger was in the way).

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/nixter369/001_25A.jpg

Upperclassmen dorms
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/nixter369/003_23A.jpg

One of the main halls... can't remember the name of it but again, my finger is blocking half of the damn building
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/nixter369/002_24A.jpg

The famous "interfaith Chapel" which I was suprised to learn is technically not part of the campus
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/nixter369/004_22A.jpg

My aunt and uncle's brand new house in Henrietta. (but I guess it has to be fake... seeing as everyone in Rochester is too poor to afford a house like this according to several of the "experts" on this forum)
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/nixter369/007_19A.jpg

This is just a picture of my little brother watering one my other uncles' flowers... but look in the background.... you see that really nice house.. What town do you think it's in? If you are thinking of any town that starts with a "P"... EGH! Wrong... that bitch is on the WEST SIDE.. GREECE!.... and as far as I know the dude doesn't have connections with the italian mafia Rochesteraddict! lol)
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/nixter369/012_12A.jpg

Ah, our old house in Greece. The house I lived in the longest believe it or not. "sniff" REALLY wish we still lived there... I also REALLY wish that dude in the pickup truck didn't almost back into us and think we were nuts for driving by and taking a picture of his house (which I still say is ours; because my dad built it)
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/nixter369/010_15A.jpg

But this, this was the saddest picture I had to take. It's my grandparent's little house in Greece that they've lived for 52 years and raised 8 kids in (all of which, by the way, are still in Rochester with the exception of my mom). Now that grandpa is gone, they have to clean 52 years worth of stuff out and sell it so my grandma can go live in an "assisted living facility". So unless we do go back up in August to help... this was the very last time we ever saw that house.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/nixter369/014_9A.jpg

On a lighter note, these next two pics I actually took of Ontario Beach Park when we were there last August... the second one is really cool, it makes it look like the peir goes on for ever.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/nixter369/000_0671.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/nixter369/000_0669.jpg

And finally, some final pictures of the beautiful rolling hills of the Southern Tier as we were headed back to NC on Sunday. The fog was rolling in at Dawn and it was even more beautiful than these pictures can show.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/nixter369/016_1A.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/nixter369/017_0A.jpg

I remember taking a bunch of good pictures of my thumb with a disposable camera down in NYC both in the city and at a few Yankees games. Including a beautiful shot of the Empire State Building from the hotel with my thumb cutting right across the middle lol.

yeah.... it sucked. I actually took 27 pictures with the disposable camera.... but only 18 of them got developled!

Hey...here's some good news for Rochester. The empire state games are expected to contribute millions into the areas economy.

Empire State Games golden in area impact


Visitors expected to spend millions here


Kevin Oklobzija
Staff writer


(July 23, 2006) — The Games are coming to town.

The middle of summer is traditionally a strong sales month for area hotels.

Now add the Empire State Games.

This week the Games are expected to add to the summer boon throughout the Rochester area, especially in suburban locales such as Henrietta.

This is big business, creating a mini mid-summer windfall for the guest services industry.

About 6,000 athletes — with family and friends in tow — will be here for the Games, pumping between $8 million and $10 million into the local economy during their five-day run, organizers say.

"Any time you have an event like this, you expect business to go up," said Nick Kubarycz, manager of Don Pablo's Mexican Kitchen on Jefferson Road in Henrietta.

Opening ceremonies are Wednesday night and the competition runs Thursday through Sunday.

Kubarycz expects to add five or six extra staff members to the schedule in anticipation of a wave of enchilada lovers.

"A lot of times the people are looking for something they don't have in their hometown," he said. "When we had the (Wegmans) LPGA here (in late June), we got a big hit from that."

Don Pablo's won't be alone. Many hotels will be full and restaurants — particularly those those near the athletic venues at Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Rochester and Monroe Community College — can expect to enjoy a spike in business.

So while athletes compete for gold in the boxing ring, on the track, in the pool and on the hockey rink, eateries and hotels will grab the green.

"For a good four days, you're going to have a hard time finding a hotel room in Rochester," said Tim Elie, general manager of the 249-room DoubleTree Hotel in Henrietta and president of the Rochester Hotel Association.

"July and August are very high occupancy months, they're heavy leisure travel months, but we picked up that assured Wednesday and Thursday night sellout because of the Games."

Bringing tourism dollars to Rochester was the whole reason behind Monroe County's bid to host the 30th annual Olympic-style competition.



The Monroe County Sports Commission joined forces with the Greater Rochester Visitors Association to bring the Games to Rochester.

"We're here for economic development," said Jim LeBeau, a member of the sports commission. "No matter what the economy is, people still travel with their kids to sporting events. We're showing everyone what sports can do for this community."

The Games, founded in 1977, divide the state into six regions for the competition.

Rochester-area athletes compete on the Western team. The other five teams are Adirondack, Long Island, Hudson Valley, Central and New York City.

The Games are the largest event of its kind in the United States.

But there's no specific rotation for the Empire State Games. Rather, it's like a traveling circus, setting up shop in communities where they're wanted most.

The Poughkeepsie area hosted the Games for the first time last summer. Binghamton won a bid to bring them to the Southern Tier for the first time in 2000 and brought them back in 2004.

Local business groups are hoping Rochester can be a regular stop on the Games tour. The city hasn't hosted the event since 1998. They were here one other time, in 1993.

"The Empire State Games put us on the map statewide and throughout the country, and the fact $10 million is coming into our community is certainly significant," County Executive Maggie Brooks said. "Clearly, sporting events contribute to the community."

What's nice, the businesses say, is the Games are a share-the-wealth endeavor. Whereas only the city may benefit when a group books downtown at the Riverside Convention Center or Blue Cross Arena at the Community War Memorial, the Games will use 23 venues for the 28 athletic competitions.

"When we have a convention or meeting come to Rochester, much of the impact is felt downtown because that's where they're staying," said Gretchen Fisher, director of membership for the East Rochester-based New York State Restaurant Association. "There are lots and lots of dollars being spent. This gives the suburban restaurants a chance to share in tourism and convention dollars."

The athletes will be housed in college dormitories, with 2,600 at RIT alone, and eating in the campus dining halls.

"But family and friends will be staying in hotels, eating in restaurants, and that's a great thing," said Patti Donoghue, director of communications and business development for the visitors association.

For the most part, the visitors are not necessarily looking for upscale or fancy, either. They just want a good meal. And if they're shopping, they may be thinking practicality, not luxury.

"The people coming to town for this event are not on a corporate expense account," LeBeau said.

"They'll be eating at regular restaurants and shopping at regular boutiques."

Said Fisher: "These are family events that bring parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles to town. They go out together and eat together."

The visitors association believes there will be a residual benefit, as well. From Wednesday night, when the Opening Ceremonies take place at PAETEC Park, to Sunday, when the final gold medal is awarded, the area is on display to athletes and their followers.

"These families will see our area and they might consider coming back for a vacation," Donoghue said. "Someone who is looking to relocate may say, 'This is a great community; I want to be here.' You just never know who's coming to town."

Among the businesses prepping for the Games is Salvatore's Old Fashioned Pizzeria on Scottsville Road, about a two-minute drive from the dorms at RIT.

Owner Clay Pearl says he'll be ready when lacrosse players and divers call for a large pepperoni and mushroom pizza. Dorm staff often direct folks to Salvatore's, Pearl said.

"If you have that many kids in town, we should get some business out of it," Pearl said.

He said he won't add workers "but me, my son (Nick) and my wife (Chris) will be on call if they get backed up."

KEVINO@DemocratandChronicle.com

Area shopping meccas play... 'This is your lifestyle'

Eastview Mall, others use clustered stores, more dining and entertainment options to entice patrons

Mary Chao
Staff writer

(July 23, 2006) — Lynda Steve enjoys visiting Eastview Mall in Victor while staying at her summer home in Canandaigua. The stores and restaurants in the mall's 3-year-old, $26 million wing are similar to the upscale lifestyle shopping areas in her hometown of Knoxville, Tenn.

"It's beautiful, said Steve, 65, who was shopping with her friend Rita Helming, 73, of Grand Island, Fla., who also owns a summer home in Canandaigua. "It compares to what we have in Knoxville."

Savvy shoppers such as Steve and Helming are demanding more from their shopping experiences. They want the right mix of retailers, and they want ambience and entertainment to complement their excursions to the mall.

Area retail developers are rushing to accommodate this demand for such lifestyle centers. Part retail and part entertainment, a lifestyle center offers shoppers the convenience of clustered upscale stores with plush relaxation areas and restaurant dining. A typical lifestyle center provides easy access to fashionable boutiques, a large bookstore, coffee shops and a blend of casual and white-tablecloth restaurants.

Lifestyle centers began emerging about a decade ago in the West and South as outdoor shopping areas that offered those amenities. Now, developers in the Rochester area are catching up.

"The expansion at Eastview in 2003 was ... proactive development toward any future lifestyle opportunity," said Dennis Wilmot, vice president of leasing at Wilmorite Management Group in Rochester, which manages the mall.

The climate and lack of population growth prevent Rochester-area developers from building true lifestyle centers that are prevalent in places such as North Carolina or Florida, Wilmot said. Developers tend to gravitate toward growing markets for retail projects.

Having ignored the development of the upscale outdoor centers for about eight years, Wilmorite saw the change in consumer needs and is now trying to fill that void at Eastview and, on a smaller scale, at Pittsford Plaza, Wilmot said.

At Eastview, the move to clustered stores that appeal to similar demographics began about three years ago. Upscale retailers that appeal to women are prominently featured in and around the new wing. Shops such as Pottery Barn, which offers home furnishings and accessories, and Williams-Sonoma, with its extensive array of cooking and entertaining supplies, are matched with better clothing retailers such as Banana Republic, Christopher & Banks and Ann Taylor, which relocated recently.

And this month, KB Toys is relocating to the Bon Ton wing to make way for White House Black Market, a high-end women's boutique featuring apparel in black, white and other neutral colors.

Shops near the food court, such as Guess and H&M, which offer clothing for the younger set, are designed to appeal to teens while children's stores such as Build-a-Bear and Stride Rite shoes also are grouped together at Eastview.

For relaxation, shoppers can lounge at the Starbucks kiosk or dine at Biaggi's, Champp's or P.F. Chang's. Bonefish Grill is scheduled to open next month.

"People have less time for shopping," Wilmot said. "We want to make sure they spend less time walking and more time shopping."

Songs for tips

At Wilmorite's Pittsford Plaza, the move toward a mini-lifestyle center began almost two years ago when the developer installed outdoor dining areas and brought in restaurants such as the popular Black & Blue Steak and Seafood and Coldstone Creamery, where ice cream servers sing for customers who tip. With the closing of Chase-Pitkin at the plaza, Wilmorite is eyeing other upscale retailers. Big-box stores such as Lowe's, Home Depot and Target have deemed it too small for them, Wilmot said. Other area shopping centers are changing to meet consumer demands as well, though they are not classified as lifestyle centers. The Marketplace mall in Henrietta is undergoing a $200,000 renovation that will add a Starbucks to a center court area similar to Eastview's. The Mall at Greece Ridge Center combined big-box stores such as Burlington Coat Factory with traditional mall retailers to attract more shoppers.

Though Wilmorite has created lifestyle areas at Eastview and Pittsford Plaza to protect its share of the market, its moves haven't stopped COR Development in Syracuse from building the 720,000-square-foot Webster Towne Center for more than $40 million. Kohl's christened the center in October 2004, with most stores opening last July.

The outdoor center combines large retailers such as Target with Barnes & Noble, which attracts crowds for its story times and book signings. There is a Panera Bread with an outdoor patio and WiFi access, as well as an Uno Chicago Grill and the area's first Red Robin restaurant.

"We developed a significant upscale center," said Steve Aiello, partner at COR. "We found that a lot of residents in outlying suburbs don't like driving to regular malls."

COR is developing a new wing at Webster Towne Center that will include smaller stores and offices.

Aiello acknowledged there is stiff competition among retail developers in the Rochester market, but, "from my perspective, competition is good."

More big boxes

Adding to that competition is Buffalo-based Benderson Development's plaza on Jefferson Road in Henrietta that will feature a Bed Bath & Beyond. Benderson also proposes to build a Target in Chili. Georgia-based North American Properties spoke to the Chili Town Board in April about building a 53-acre shopping complex on Paul Road.

In Irondequoit, Bersin Properties, which purchased the ailing Irondequoit Mall last year and renamed it Medley Centre, has built a Target adjacent to the mall and brought in the area's first Steve & Barry's store. A MedleyKids play area was built to attract more families and shoppers, and Adam Bersin said he is pursuing new tenants.

"Given where the property has been in the past, you have to be patient," he said.

Like most metropolitan areas, Rochester is saturated with retail, which drives competition.

"What you have is a battle of the giants, both at the development and at the retail level," said Eugene Fram, a marketing professor at Rochester Institute of Technology.

While Fram doesn't think there is a true lifestyle center in the area — or lots of boutiques in an outdoor setting — Rochester's retail has definitely changed with the times, he said.

"Retailing tends to be a follow-the-leader type of industry," he said.

Victor resident Beth Lane, 36, likes what she sees at Eastview Mall. She enjoys shopping at stores such as Pottery Barn and taking breaks at the Starbucks kiosk.

"I moved from Greece and this is a much nicer atmosphere," she said.

Aiello, the Webster Towne Center developer, said shoppers like Lane can expect to see more lifestyle touches.

"This is a new concept coming into the area," he said. "Over time, you're going to see more of this."

Oh wow, Rochester is now on the level of Knoxville!

Depending on your perspective, you will either love or hate Birmingham for the creation of the lifestyle center.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summit_Birmingham

Canal idea intrigues city property owners

But plan to resurrect waterway on Broad St. must be 'bona fide'
Democrat and Chronicle

Yes, it would be expensive. And complicated. And it could still lose out to other ideas for the old Erie Canal.

But a number of property owners along Broad and Main streets say they are intrigued by the notion of tearing up Broad Street and filling the canal bed beneath it with water.

Their support would be essential to such a project, city officials say, because a re-watered Erie Canal would have to generate revenue to be successful — and that's more likely to happen if neighboring landowners develop their properties for tourists, residents and businesses.

"Landowners, developers ... anybody who has any interest — there's a real necessity for involvement (and) ... commitment to a project of this magnitude," said Carlos Carballada, the city's economic development commissioner.

The re-creation of the canal is one of a dozen ideas under discussion by city officials and by local visionaries who have fought to keep the Broad Street tunnel, which contains the canal bed and is deteriorating in places, from being filled with dirt. The city expects to spend $300,000 in federal money to study those ideas beginning this fall.

The canal concept calls for peeling back Broad Street from the central library (the Rundel Memorial Building) west and north, possibly as far as the area near PAETEC Park; installing a liner in the exposed bed and filling it with water.

Property owners along that path are particularly optimistic about the canal option because of its potential to revitalize downtown and even the region.

"The canal, to me, becomes a destination," said Larry Glazer, chief executive of Buckingham Properties, which owns multiple properties along Broad Street. "It's a thing you can build around. You can have recreational activities, tourists. You have something to grasp in terms of development opportunity for the region."

Richard Calabrese Jr., who owns the Times Square building at Broad and Exchange Boulevard, said, "It would be the best thing that ever happened to Rochester, New York."

Calabrese owns no additional property along the canal's path but said he could be induced to acquire more if the canal became a reality and "if any opportunity came."

"Can you imagine boats coming down here?" he said. "I think all one has to do is go to Pittsford or Fairport and see what happened to those two little towns. This is the reason Rochester is Rochester — because of the river and because of the canal, and if we ever got back to that, it would be a great, great boon."

No commitments

The properties in question, which include a smattering of office buildings and a proliferation of parking lots, could benefit simply by being reclassified as waterfront property, which is generally more valuable and almost certain to be more attractive than the asphalt surrounding the area now. A newly established waterway in Oklahoma City has caused property values there — in the area known as Bricktown — to soar, according to an analysis cited in a recent Business Facilities newsletter. The analysis, by Larkin Warner, a retired Oklahoma State University economics professor, "found that the aggregate market value of properties in the Bricktown area grew 231 percent, from $12.2 million in 1999 to $40.2 million in 2004," the newsletter states.

"It should work the same way for Rochester," said Anthony DiMarzo, president of Mark IV Construction Co. Inc. and owner of Irving Place, a building at 20 Fitzhugh St. along the potential canal route. As for any development he would undertake along the canal, he said: "We're developers of the Corn Hill Landing, and we've shown we could do those sort of creative things. I don't see any reason why commercial ventures couldn't be promoted and developed and worked out."

But the property owners stopped short of committing to specific improvements.

Peter Formicola, who owns at least two parking lots and some vacant land along the route, said he was reluctant to comment "until I see a bona fide proposal." But he added, "It sounds like something that would be a good idea. ... I'm all in favor of everything that's going to help Monroe County and downtown Rochester."

Gary Kircher, who owns a parking lot at 21 N. Washington St., mused that "it may be of some value to put something on this," but "you'd have to be a long way down the road before I could tell you what to do with it."

And Glazer, despite his overall regard for the proposal, cited his involvement in several other major projects — including reconstructing the Genesee Hospital campus — and said, "I don't need to clutter my brain yet."

Some concerns

The property owners noted that certain logistical hurdles would have to be cleared. Aside from the rerouting of traffic on Broad Street, buildings would have to be made accessible during and after construction and assurances made that the canal wouldn't leak.

Some of those questions were addressed in a Rochester Institute of Technology study completed on behalf of retired geology professor Thomas X. Grasso, who is president of the Canal Society of New York State and Inland Waterways International, and intern architect Rory Zimmer. They are the principals behind the Grasso-Zimmer proposal on which the re-watered canal idea is based. Still, the finer details would have to be worked out as the plan progresses.

Grasso and Zimmer and their publicist, Michael Hess — who have formed Advocates for the Development of Rochester's Canal — met recently with city officials to encourage them to move quickly in assessing their options for the canal corridor. The group also has hired Bergmann Associates, a local architectural firm, to consult.

Hess frequently points to the apparent success of Bricktown, the milelong waterway in Oklahoma City. The canal, completed in 1999, has become an entertainment hot spot said to bring millions of visitors a year. It also has drawn employers, including Dell Computer Corp., to the area.

"One of the things in our favor is there's so much precedent for this," Hess said.

But critics have questioned whether a canal is right for Rochester, where a dearth of jobs, poor-performing schools and violence are of utmost concern, and whose citizens may be gun-shy about shelling out more money for public projects in the wake of the high-speed ferry.

The canal, according to early estimates, could cost as much as $200 million — although the bulk of that would have to be shouldered by the state and federal governments. Critics point to other projects that have similarly been billed as a magic bullet for Rochester, for which taxpayers are now bearing the cost. And they wonder whether a spot on the waterfront would be enough to convince businesses considering relocating to overlook the state's high taxes.

Canal enthusiasts, in turn, are imploring naysayers not to allow past failed ventures to prevent risk-taking; and to examine why other cities with refurbished or newly created waterways appear to be flourishing.

At the very least, said Glazer, "we need to be open-minded and look at different opportunities. There's a million reasons to think of why we can't do things. If nothing else, this is generating interest and thought and conversation. All that's good."

http://www.rochestercanal.com/

like the idea. There could be some real nice development along the canal.

My problem with "lifestyle centers" is that people just tend to (in my experience) drive from store to store, thus leaving it no better than a bunch of big box stores on an overdeveloped retail strip. Used to be where the only exercise most people would get would be going to the mall and walking around, and now they don't even get that.

Sandhills, in Columbia SC is the one I'm most familiar with. I don't think I've heard more screeching tires and seen so many near hits in one time before in my life. Not to mention the whole place reeks of car exhaust.

Apart from that, however, I guess it's not too bad. Except that it tries so hard to be a "clean, suburban-style faux downtown" it's ridiculous. I'd rather have the real thing, but I doubt that'll ever come back.

Valley suffers soccer fatigue
Checketts, officials seek relief from Real
By Derek P. Jensen
The Salt Lake Tribune



Winks and nods. Chowderheads. Bush league. Stadium saboteurs. Media bias. Radio rants. Stifling silence.
Such is the language that now labels Real Salt Lake's terribly twisted saga to score a Major League Soccer stadium somewhere in the Salt Lake Valley.
Tired of the whole charade?
Executives of the team and the politicians who hold the public purse strings certainly are.
Call it Real exhaustion. Like the searing summer sun, it continues to cloak the Wasatch Front.
"I don't know at what point everyone has soccer fatigue and says, 'This is it,' " says Salt Lake County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson.
Wilson, county Mayor Peter Corroon and others have bolted town for the holiday weekend and are enjoying some R&R (reprieve from Real).
Neither RSL owner Dave Checketts nor CEO Dean Howes has engaged either, saying they need a "breather."
But the timing of the burnout seems curious, considering RSL has imposed an Aug. 12 deadline to resolve the stadium quandary before unloading the team.
Perhaps Utah County, Rochester, N.Y., or St. Louis really are in the cards.

Interesting article about people in the Utah Salt Valley getting tired of the back and forth of all this sports shananagans. Of course we all lived through it with the soccer stadium issues, and we all know that it is not done yet!

So anyways, I for the first time since it was opened went to the new Soccer Stadium (PTP) for the first time. This was on Friday night, the same night American Idol live, and the Red Wings were playing, so needless to say the traffic was a nightmare (although by our standards that doesn't mean it was anything horrific, I guess). So we parked in a lady with a couple teeth missing driveway and were almost directly across from the stadium. Walking into the stadium it was impressive, the seating bowl had wonderful sightlines, and the ASTROplay surface looked magnificent. I guess it still felt minor league to me because the endzone closest to downtown was a tent (though I'm told this will change in the coming offseason), and other than the fact that soccer is incredibly boring I walked away pretty impressed.

I would highly recommend going to the stadium, for whatever reason, it was a fantastic venue, although I still love Frontier Field a lot more than PTP, but that is mostly b/c of Baseballl, and the skyline views.

I've enjoyed several games at Frontier Field... the best being Independance Day 2000 when they set off some AWSOME fireworks, RIGHT THERE. Best fireworks sho I've ever seen by far. I like the small size of Frontier field.... PTP looks too big, and it's shaped really weird. lol. Frontier field has the better location too IMO.

Here's yet another awsome skyline shot from picturerochester.com

http://my-expressions.com/up_media/4051/pblog/5159/1153794721

Thats a sweet pic Rocguy...I'd like that in my living room.

PAETEC-city venture encourages city living

New grant-matching incentive promotes buying in 19th Ward
Democrat and Chronicle

A new partnership between the city and PAETEC Communications announced Monday will offer an extra incentive to PAETEC employees interested in buying a home in southwest Rochester.

PAETEC Chief Executive Officer Arunas A. Chesonis announced that the company will offer $3,000 to employees who want to purchase a house in southwest Rochester as part of the city's Employer Assisted Housing Initiative.

The city will match PAETEC's benefit to allow employees to receive up to $6,000 toward down payment and closing costs.

The initiative began in 2003, with participating employers required to provide a minimum $1,000 benefit. Now, participating employers provide $1,000 to $3,000 to encourage employees to purchase city houses, according to city officials.

The homebuyer assistance program is designed to help stabilize city neighborhoods and the local workforce by increasing opportunities for home-ownership.

To qualify, a PAETEC employee must buy a house — their first in the city — in the 19th Ward. They also must be able to obtain a mortgage, live in the house as their primary residence for five years and invest $1,500 toward the purchase, city officials said.

PAETEC officials said the southwest part of Rochester was specifically chosen. "That's an area that we see (that) has a potential for great growth," said PAETEC spokesman David Mihalyov. Initial program participants included Eastman Kodak Co., High Falls Brewing Co., Unity Health System, Visiting Nurse Service and Xerox Corp.


Arunas Chesonis is a dynamic guy who really loves Rochester. He wants to see it thrive and grow. He is originally from Boston, but began Paetec in Rochester. Paetec stands for his family (Pam, Arunis, Eric, Thomas, and Emily Chesonis.) If you ever meet him he will really amaze you about how much he loves Rochester, his business has to benefit greatly just on his personality alone.


Runner's World did a story on Rochester...

Rochester, New York
Discover the dozens of parks and trails that populate this beautiful city in upstate New York
Runner's World

It's fitting that the great African-American abolitionist Frederick Douglass is buried in Rochester, for this city near the Lake Ontario shore was a major terminus of the pre-Civil War Underground Railroad -- a northern station for funneling runaway slaves across the border to Canada and freedom.

Today, though, Rochester is better known for its shrines to local photography god George Eastman (founder of Kodak) and Bausch & Lomb; the world's largest public collection of lilacs; and its dozens of parks and green spaces that pinwheel out from the city center. Nearby are the Finger Lakes region's world-class wineries and the spectacular waterfalls and river gorge of Letchworth State Park, the "Grand Canyon of the East."

One of the National Civic League's 10 All-American cities for 1998, this upstate New York metro area of a million-plus was also named America's most helpful and friendly city by American Demographics.

A great place to visit. Just not in January.

The article is 3 pages long, read more of it here:
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,5033,s6-188-193-0-1330,00.html

lol.... I like that last sentance. I love visiting in December though. Eventhough for the past 3 years there hasn't been a white christmas!

OFFICE
Greece - Kodak will be purchasing a 57,000 square foot building from Corning, Inc. in the Canal Ponds Business Park. The vacant building will be turned into office and laboratory space for research and development in digital imaging. The facility all ready includes a 13,000 square foot clean room and laboratories. Kodak will be moving about 100 workers to the new office from other Rochester locations. (3/12)

Henrietta - Paychex has submitted plans to the Planning Board for a possible expansion of its John Street facility. The 2-story, 123,000 square foot office space would cost $15 million. The new building would connect to the existing Paychex building and have room for 1,000 more employees. (3/9)

Henrietta - Corporate office space will soon be available at the former Celltech's Jefferson Road business park. The state-of-the-art headquarters are unique as they offer corporate standards such as conference rooms, a training center and cafeteria. Celltech was bought by UCB Pharma last year and uses part of the Jefferson Road space for manufacturing and technical operations. (3/10)

Perinton - Christa Development Corp. has sold its office portfolio for $62.9 million. Eight out of the nine properties were bought by a Massachusetts company, HRPT Properties Trust. The sale included 483,711 square feet of property, including Corporate Crossing Office Campus in Perinton. (2/11)

Rochester - Two large tenants will be moving out of Chase Towers to new locations. Manning & Napier will move to Perinton after 15 years at Chase. The Manning office currently occupies 4 floors in the tower. The move to the new Woodcliff office will permit growth, give their employees clients easier access and free parking. Underberg & Kessler will be moving out of Chase Towers but remain downtown. Their new offices will be located at Bausch & Lomb Place. (12/31)

Rochester - The NCS Community Development Corp. will be buying the HSBC Bank building on Driving Park Avenue for their main headquarters. The NCS is a nonprofit organization that specializes in housing and home ownership. HSBC has closed the Driving Park branch in December and previously closed five offices in the Rochester area. HSBC is building a new branch on Dewey Avenue in Greece. (1/4)

Rochester - The Art Craft Optical Co., Inc. building at 85-89 Allen Street has been sold to a local developer for $400,000. Built in 1902, the building has housed numerous manufacturers. The 7-story building has been vacant since 2001. Plans for development may include office space on the lower floors with housing above. (1/7)

Rochester - A new tenant will moving into the Granite Building's eighth floor with plans to acquire more space as the company adds 100 to 120 workers this year. CGI Communications Inc. plans to hire every quarter this year to keep up with demand for their growing business. CGI provides municipalities with promotional materials across the country such as street banners and Web-based videos. The Granite Building is located at 130 East Main Street at the corner of St. Paul Street. The building's roof was recently replaced, along with upgrades to the electrical, fire and telecommunications systems. (2/25)

Victor - A Rochester developer has proposed a controversial office park along the Route 96 corridor. The Town Board held a workshop specifically to discuss this project that includes research, office and retail space and 79 townhomes. The 548,000 square-foot development would be situate on 105 acres which is currently zoned residential. Area residents have voiced their concern over traffic and over-development. The property would need to be rezoned to planned development in order to proceed. (2/14)

Victor - SPG Direct will be opening a subordinate company, Wave Technology, this spring in the Omnitech Office Park. SPG is a marketing consulting firm working with company sales and marketing. Wave Technology will offer software to companies designed to help market their own product. SPG moved from Henrietta to Victor in 2003 and has added 30 employees. Clients include Sony, Microsoft, Unisys and Corning. (1/4)

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RETAIL
Albion - Wal-Mart has proposed to build a 155,700-square-foot store on a 19-acre parcel located at the corner of Route 31 and Gaines Basin Road. The proposed store will include a grocery store and car repair shop. Orleans County has not had a major chain store since Ames closed 2 stores in Albion and Medina in 2002. The land is currently zoned for residential or agricultural use, and would need to be zoned commercial by the Town. (12/23)

Brighton - An existing office building at the corner of Elmwood and South Clinton Avenues would need to be razed for a proposed Walgreen's drug store. The proposal in front of the Town Board calls for a 14,800-square-foot store on 2.7 acres. Developers are proposing to build new sidewalks and add green-space with more landscaping and fewer parking spaces than the current building. Area residents have voiced their concerns about traffic and aesthetics. (2/2)

Irondequoit - A Syracuse business man has contracted to buy the ailing Irondequoit Mall for $5 million. The mall was originally built in 1990 for $80 million. Currently, the mall is less than 20% occupied. The last anchor store to close was JC Penney in 2003. The buyer is seeking tax abatements from real estate taxes for 20 years in order to proceed with the purchase. Negotiations between the buyer and the town have not been finalized. (3/1)

Macedon - A proposed Wal-Mart site plan went before the Planning Board detailing the 205,000 square-foot supercenter, a separate gas station and 1,026-space parking lot. Plans also show landscaping, lighting and details of the finished store front. Wal-Mart wants to build on a 25-acre parcel at the corner of Route 31 and Wayneport Road. The Planning Board will review the site plans and wait for variances and special use permits before giving approval. (2/13)

Perinton - The owners of 3 successful Italian restaurants in the Rochester area have opened a steak house at the Brookwood Inn in Bushnell's Basin. The Brookwood Inn recently invested $2 million in renovations and wanted an upscale restaurant to complement the inn. The new 4,000 square foot eatery also offers banquet rooms for private parties and corporate functions. (1/13)

Pittsford - A 7,000 square foot restaurant with an outdoor patio will open in Pittsford Plaza in the former KB Toys store. The new restaurant will serve steak and seafood in the $15 to $30 price range and open in June. A name for the new restaurant has not yet been selected. (12/16)

Pittsford - Great Northern Pizza plans to add 50 locations over the next five years. The plans were announced at the same time the company merged with Flour City Bagels. The new restaurants will be built in New York and could employ up to 2,000 workers. Great Northern Pizza was founded in 1999 and currently has 5 locations. (1/21)

Rochester - A 90 year-old family business is closing its doors because of the owner's failing health. Berman's Fur Fashions on Joseph Avenue began in 1915 by Harold Bermans' father, a Russian immigrant. The closing will leave Held Projansky Furs in Pittsford Plaza as the only independent furrier in the Rochester area. (1/27)

Rochester - A country music bar and diner will be opening in Rochester's East End. Daisy Duke will be a 5,000 square foot bar and include a mechanical bull. Roc City Hots will be a 1,500 square foot eatery with hot dogs, hamburgers and garbage-style plates. (2/3)

Rochester - The $20 million Corn Hill Landing project is nearing completion after 6-years in the making. Located on 9 acres overlooking the Genesee River, the development will have 127 apartments, office and retail space. $2 million has all ready been spent on the Corn Hill Landing promenade which features a double wall along the river, benches, antique-style lighting and landscaping. Near Corn Hill Landing, the Troup Howell Bridge is being transformed into a 433-foot long gateway into the city. Completion of the $37 million bridge will be in 2007. (2/25)

Rochester - The city will be selling a 1.5 acre parcel to a developer for $1 that will build a themed shopping center on North Clinton Avenue. "La Marketa" will be a Hispanic market and cost $2 million or more to build. The new market will be the centerpiece of the city's La Avenida revitalization project. (3/6)

Victor - Wilmorite Properties Inc. has sold three area Malls to in a merger with Macerich Partnership of Santa Monica, California. The Eastview Mall in Victor, The Mall at Greece Ridge Center and the Marketplace Mall in Henrietta, among other properties, were sold for $2.33 billion. The transfer of ownership should take place in March. Macherich is the 9th largest shopping center owner in North America. (12/24)

Webster - Marina Dodge Inc. on Ridge Road has doubled its facility with a new 21,000 square-foot addition. The expansion includes a new showroom designed under the guidelines from Chrysler Corp. with a mezzanine and glass elevator. A larger service area and parts department were also installed with a full body shop and paint booth. The $1.5 million project was started last summer and should be completed by early spring. (2/11)

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INDUSTRIAL
Clifton Springs - The Village Board rezoned the former school on South Street from residential to industrial as requested by G.W. Lisk Co. The 25-acre parcel needs a setback variance before Lisk can begin operations. The company will use the building for storage and packaging. G.W. Lisk also manufactures machine parts for automotive and military industries. (2/22)

Greece - The Planning Board okayed the subdivision of Kodak property located at 800 Lee Road for sale to its current tenant. Building No. 601 will be bought by ITT Industries, a remote sensing manufacturer that makes satellites and global positioning equipment. ITT currently employs 2,600 workers worldwide. (3/10)

Holley - A fruit and vegetable processing company will be adding a 41,500 square-foot addition to their facility for $2 million. The controlled atmosphere facility is expected to add 100 new jobs over the next three years. MAGC Inc. is located in the Holley Business Park in Orleans County. (2/17)

Macedon - The Pliant Corp. is spending $7 million on an expansion of its food packaging plant. A new $3.5 million printing press will be added and another press will be sent to another plant in Mexico. Pliant produces plastic bread bags including Wonder Bread and Pepperidge Farms. At peak, the plant can make 8 million bags from scratch each day. (2/24)

Rochester - A maker of lenses and precision optic parts is leaving downtown for a larger facility in Pittsford. JML Optical Industries has bought 820 Linden Avenue for $2.3 million. Currently, JML employs 85 workers and expects 10% annual growth for several years. The old facility at 690 Portland Avenue could be donated to the city for use as a business incubator. (2/25)

Rochester - Eastman Kodak is purchasing a 57,000 square foot facility in Canal Ponds Office Park for digital research and development . The former Corning Rochester Photonics Corp. building in Greece has a 13,000 square foot clean-room and 10,000 square feet of lab space. A total of 100 workers are expected to work in the facility. (3/11)

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RESIDENTIAL
Canandaigua - The city ordinance committee and two area developers are still at odds over the new zoning laws that requires new homes to have a setback garage of at least 12 feet. Both builders argue that there is no market for such homes and it is not what buyers want. City planners would rather see homes with porches in front, making neighborhoods more attractive and would invite more social interaction. Both builders have subdivisions to build that must conform to the new setback regulations, unless the council decides to change the zoning. (1/14)

Chili - The Planning Board finally approved phase 6 of the Park Place subdivision off of Union Street. Quorum couldn't be reached at prior board meetings, but the vote gave the go-ahead for an additional 29-lots to be built. Park Place is a 10-phase project which began in 2001. Construction of phase 6 could begin in June or July of this year. (3/9)

Greece - A proposal came before the Town Board to rezone 10 acres on Kirk Road from industrial to planned residential. Developers hope to build a 26 duplexes for senior living. The homes would range from 1,000 to 1,200 square feet. Kirk Road Villas rent would be between $900 and $1,100 per month. (12/23)

Greece - A proposal to build 50 senior townhomes off of Stoney Path Lane will need rezoning if the project is to be approved. Units would range between 1,200 and 1,500 square feet and sell for $140,000. The housing development is to be situate on 7.81 acres. If single family homes were built, only about 17 would fit. Residents have attended a public hearing concerned about density of the project and drainage. (1/20)

Palmyra - The Planning Board approved site plans for a 64-unit apartment complex to be built on the property formerly owned by the Palmyra Airport. Phase I will cost $4,400,000 and include five buildings and 40 apartments. Phase II will construct 3 buildings with 24 apartments. The developer will buy 9.55 acres for "Willow Landing" and the remaining 26 acres of the airport's property will be subdivided for building lots. (2/23)

Palmyra - Neighbors of a proposed senior housing complex have asked the Village Board not to rezone a 5.8 acre parcel to allow construction. The land is currently zoned for single-family homes and would need a variance to allow multi-family homes. A 2-story, 36-unit upscale apartment complex for people 55 and older has been proposed. Other concerns were traffic, water flow, noise and lighting. (3/9)

South Bristol - Plans for a new development were submitted to the Town Board for 41 single-family homes on Seneca Point Road. The homes of would be situate on 37 acres bought by the developer and have lake rights. Lots would range from 1/3 to one acre with 2,500 square foot of living space. The Planning Board must approve plans before building can begin. The developer hopes to get all its approval by late spring. (1/13)

Victor - A subsidized 65-unit senior apartment complex is being proposed for property off of High Street and Lane Road. Victor Senior Apartments, LLC will be situate on a 28-acre parcel and have 1 and 2 bedroom apartments. Plans call for a single building to be built on a 7.5 acres with entrances on both roads. (3/1)

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OTHER
Churchville - Village officials have two business plans to contemplate that include a used car lot on Main Street, and a senior housing apartment complex . The car dealership needs a variance to work out of a trailer, instead of a required permanent structure. The 33-unit apartment building will be a two-story, L-shaped structure on 2 ½ acres. The apartments will all be one-bedroom units. A public hearing will be held for each plan. (1/30)

Farmington - Town officials are considering a moratorium on mini-storage facilities until 2006. The moratorium would block any building applications brought before the Town Board. Currently, Farmington has 3 self-storage locations with a total of 324 storage units. The Planning Board granted approval recently to another self-storage facility with 188 units. Each unit of a storage facility is required to be inspected by the code enforcement office. More facilities in town would require additional staff and be an additional cost to taxpayers. (3/20)

Farmington - A local developer has proposed to build a 60-room hotel on Route 96 near the race track & racino and the Infotonics Technology Center. The builder is also hoping to attract travelers from the NYS Thruway. Infotonics is planning two national conferences and has 7 startup companies moving into the site in the next few years. Construction could have the building ready by the spring of 2006. (3/4)

Fishers - Construction is expected to begin on a 105-room Holiday Inn Express in the hamlet of Fishers. The two story building will be located on a 5-acre parcel just off of NYS Route 96, next to Chili's Grill & Bar. Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers is also planning to build at the corner of Main Street Fishers and Route 96 with additional retail space. (1/7)

Gates - Buckeye Pipe Line Co. signed a stipulation agreement with the DEC for a long term clean-up plan for the gas spill back in mid-December. It is estimated that nearly 30,000 gallons of fuel spilled from a broken underground delivery pipe 200 feet from the Erie Canal. About 20,000 gallons of fuel has been recovered. Cleanup will resume in the spring. (12/23)

Gates - The owner of Rochester Technology Park donated 24 acres near Elmgrove and Buffalo roads to the Town for park land. The donated parcel will be used for trails and park shelters and includes a stocked pond. Although no money changed hands, the donated value of the property was $2 million. Rochester Technology Park has gone through an extensive update of its 5 million square-foot complex. Over 30,000 trees and shrubs were planted, every building was painted and 22 miles of roadways were paved. Two new, blue and yellow, 50-foot lighted clocks will be added toward the end of March. Currently, the park has 23 tenants. (2/10)

Geneva - Construction has begun on the first building inside the Cornell Agriculture & Food Tech Park. The 20,000 square foot flex building will be available for start-up companies that could benefit from research being done at the NYS Agricultural Experiment Station next door. The flex-space will provide space for a number of businesses and is expected to create 80 jobs. When fully complete, the tech park could lead to 1000 new jobs and 375,000 square feet of research development. (12/31)

Geneva - Finger Lakes Health is building a $6.1 million Ambulatory Surgery Center which will open next fall. The 16,400 square foot facility will include three operating rooms, two endoscopy rooms and a procedure room. Doctors will be able to perform elective-surgeries on an out-patient basis with minimal interference. Hospital's are often affected by emergency surgeries requiring an operating room. (12/24)

Henrietta - A deal has been signed between Wegman's Food Markets and Monroe County Fair and Recreation Assoc. to buy the Dome Center property on Calkins Road. The land has long been sought after by Wegmans to build a superstore/plaza on its 30 acres. As of yet, the property is not zoned commercial, but Wegman's hopes to change that. The proposal includes a 130,000 square-foot supermarket with room for other developments. No purchase price has been made public. ( 12/22)

Henrietta - Heritage Christian Services has secured $3 million to build a Life Center on 16 acres at 1600 East Henrietta Road. The 8,000 square-foot building will house a fitness room with adaptive equipment, physical, occupational, speech and therapy rooms, gymnasium, a therapy pool, walking track and chapel. Construction could begin this fall. (2/4)

Henrietta - A few weeks after of announcing their grand opening, Belfry International Golf Course told its investors that they were deep in debt and need additional financing to open. Originally scheduled to open in 2002, the golf course problems include: Belfry's founder died unexpectantly, a poor economy and record rains delaying construction. Investors were asked for an additional $600,000 to finish necessary projects to get the golf course to open by this spring. (3/9)

Lyons - One of the country's oldest movie theaters will open this spring after receiving a $500,000 renovation. The Ohmann Theater was built in 1915 by the owner's grandfather, but had been sitting empty for the last 12 years. The 700 seat theater will serve as a performing arts center and events could include motion pictures and plays. (1/7)

Rochester - Seneca Park Zoo will finally have its expansion as Monroe County officials announced a $4 million plan to increase the elephant exhibit six-fold. The elephant exhibit will be located on 8 acres and include a larger viewing area, a 10,000 square foot shed and an open-air yard 4 times larger than its current facility. Zoo resident, Genny C, one of the two elephants female, is expecting to delivery the zoo's first baby elephant in March, 2006. The new expansion will allow the zoo to keep the elephants at the zoo. (12/23)

Rochester - Highland Hospital wants to spend $2.2 million to open a new outpatient Bariatric Center, for the weight-loss surgery which includes gastric bypass. Being Rochester's smallest hospital, Highland performed 600 gastric bypasses in 2004, more than any area hospital. The new Center will double in size and include more examination rooms, larger beds and larger waiting room. Staff would increase from 8 to 14 and could better handle the 7,000 to 8,000 patients in its program. (2/10)

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GENERAL
Bloomfield - The abandoned Agway in the heart of Bloomfield is to be torn down this spring. After years of delays, village officials are now making plans to develop the property into a town, village and fire department complex. The 3 acre parcel would include a new fire hall, and new town and village offices. A neighboring convenient store may also be interested in a part of the property for expansion. (1/28)

Canandaigua - City planners are quickly moving on rezoning the lakefront to make the lakefront more attractive to developers and tourists. The hope is to build an access road behind Parkway Plaza and allow taller buildings on Lakeshore Drive. The current code limits buildings to 3 stories, or 40 feet. One developer had hoped to build an 8-story condominium complex on 5.6 acres, and was later denied. The developer has since abandoned the project. (1/28)

Canandaigua - Real estate tax rolls in the town have been re-evaluated and property owners will see an increase in their assessments. More than 4,000 properties were inspected in seven months. The last re- evaluation was in 2002 and the equalization rate has dropped from 100% to 87%. Property owners will have an opportunity to attend a grievance day to object to their new assessments. (3/1)

Gates - Clean up of the extensive underground fuel spill near the Erie Canal is nearing an end. Buckeye Pipeline Co. owns the pipeline that ruptured on three occasions in mid-December, 2004. About 29,700 gallons of petroleum based products was spilled. Fish or wildlife were not effected by the spill and groundwater does not show to be contaminated. The spill spread down 20 miles of the Erie Canal from Buffalo Road in Gates, to Sandy Creek in Holley, Orleans County. (12/22)

Greece - The Planning Board gave its go-ahead for a new development on the corner of Latta and Long Pond Roads. The site will include a two banks, a Dunkin Donuts and a full-service opthalmologist office. Construction should begin this spring (12/16)

Naples - The Nature Conservancy has acquired 220 acres for $145,000 which will be added to the Hi-Tor wildlife management areas. The property, called the Smith Tract, was formerly a farm located at the southern most portion of Canandaigua Lake consisting of flat meadowlands. The land will be reverted to its natural state of floodplains and wetlands. The Nature Conservancy has protected about 4,000 acres in the Finger Lakes area to help buffer and protect water quality. (12/28)

Penfield - Work will begin on the first phase of developing 70 acres of parkland on Five Mile Line Road. The Town plans to spend over $4 million building Rothfuss Park. The money will pay for new hiking trails, sport fields, a skate park, concession area, restrooms and picnic areas. Phase one will include removing two metal buildings and beginning work on an access road and parking lot. (2/24)

Rochester - The County Legislature approved the purchase of a 1,150-space parking lot located adjacent the airport on Brooks Avenue for $3.8 million. The 9.4 acre parcel was bought last year for $2.8 million and leased to the county. The property generated more than $1 million in parking revenue from air travelers traffic in 2004. (3/9)

Seneca County - Legislation was proposed by Gov. Pataki that would settle the land claim by Seneca-Cayuga Indian nations over thousands of acres across New York state. Seneca County has rejected the proposal, which would allow five casinos to be opened in the Catskills in exchange for dropping the land claim suit. Seneca County officials are concerned about the Cayuga's receiving sovereignty and selling untaxed goods. The proposal needs to pass through the state legislature and Congress in its next steps. (2/4)

Victor - Area residents and Town officials have called for a moratorium on development along a 2-mile stretch of Route 96. Benderson Development Corp. of Buffalo has proposed to build Victor Commerce Plaza on Route 96 near the on-ramp of 490. The plaza would include a Wal-Mart Super Center, retail shops and restaurants. A temporary building ban would give Town officials time to complete their work studying land-use and planning reviews. (1/17)

Victor - A $1 million state grant has been awarded towards the building of an $8 million recreation center being proposed for the town and school. The complex would be built on the school campus and include a fitness center, athletic fields, gymnasium and more, Construction would start in the spring of 2006 if voters approve the plans. (3/8)

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Interesting list I found on a commercial property listing site, thats a lot of different things that I haven't heard of at anytime. Those were all from last year though.


you know, looks great when you see that there are developments even at some smaller scales in the metro. Rochester will be fine if it can only learn what Buffalo did wrong for so many years.

:)

Birds Eye to sell or close 3 area facilities


(July 25, 2006) — Penfield-based Birds Eye Foods Inc. announced this afternoon that it will sell or close five production facilities, including three in the Rochester area, as it stops making non-branded frozen products for other companies.

Birds Eye will be exiting its non-branded frozen business over the next 12 to 18 months. The area facilities it plans to sell are in Brockport, and in Bergen and Oakfield in Genesee County. The other facilities are in Wisconsin and Georgia.

There are 293 full-time employees at the Brockport facility, 40 in Bergen and about 60 in Oakfield.

The company said it plans to sell the majority of its non-branded businesses to concentrate on its branded businesses and increase its focus on new products and marketing.

Birds Eye Foods will continue to deliver nonbranded frozen products to current customers during the phase-out period.

"An innovative product like Birds Eye Steamfresh is an example of our future," said Neil Harrison, Birds Eye Foods chairman, president and CEO, in a printed statement released today.

"It is a new product that provides value and convenience to consumers, takes advantage of our brand strength, and drives category growth and sales for our retailers."

Harrison described the non-branded business as having lower profit margins. He said getting out of that business will improve Birds Eye's position against competitors.

Birds Eye is the largest company in the branded frozen vegetable category, but is the only remaining branded manufacturing company having a significant non-branded presence.

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Of course this makes no mention as to whether or not they will need to lay off the workers, but call me crazy this has yet to effect the area employment, though it may down the road. I'm surprised to see this, in fact why don't they re-brand the current plants, so they are making branded frozen foods. Just doesn't make sense to me, though I hear there is good chance of these plants locally being purchased...

Indoor Waterworld, 86-acre resort proposed

Joy Davia

(July 25, 2006) — An 86-acre destination resort that would include an indoor water park is being proposed for Farmington, Ontario County.

Glacier Lakes Resort and Aquazonia Indoor Waterworld would also include two hotels, a conference center, restaurant, fitness center, spa, arcade and gift shop.

Construction on the first phase of the project would begin in the first quarter of 2007 with the opening for that part of the project slated for the fall of 2008.

Aquatic Resorts & Entertainment, LLC, along with DiFelice Associates, lead the development team for Glacier Lakes.

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Not to excited about this I guess. I would much rather see it in Henrietta, but if the land necessary isn't there than I guess it's just part of life. There is a lot of land for sale along Rochester-Canandaigua Highway (don't remember the highway number right now) that is just itching to be sold off by CBRE. I wouldn't be suprised to see more develop around this bohemith of development. Though I can honestly say that it isn't too far from my house, I just don't see as much of a draw as far away from the West side of Rochester during the winter months...just a thought...


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Water Resort Proposed in Ontario Co
by Dan Smith
Published Jul 25, 2006

The developers who once proposed a hotel resort and indoor water park in Henrietta now have their eyes on Ontario County.

Developers said limitations on available land in Henrietta forced them to move their proposed resort to Farmington, about three miles south of the Canandaigua Thruway exit.

Aquatic Resorts and Entertainment Management said Glacier Lakes Resort would include the indoor water park, two hotels, conference center, restaurant, fitness center, spa, arcade, and gift shop on an 86 acre parcel of land.

That land is near many Finger Lakes attractions, including Finger Lakes Gaming and Racetrack, the Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center, and the New York Wine and Culinary Center.

Developers Aquatic Resorts and Entertainment and DiFelice Associates plan to make a presentation at Tuesday night's meeting of the Farmington Town Board.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the Farmington Town Hall.

Who wants to go to Ontario County?

Theres alot of land in Penfield and Webster that could be used for a project like that.

I just don't like the idea of this new development coming in to farmington. How will this negatively effect Roseland Waterpark in the summer. We have Seabreeze in the North, and Roseland to the Southeast, Henrietta would have been a perfect spot. As they say though, progress! I'm excited though, it is a huge undertaking. It will benifit the people of Ontario County, but can you imagine if it weren't to work out. That is a strange empty space to try to get rid of!

I'm behind the project don't get me wrong!

Ontario county doesn't need any boosting, It was just ranked the #1 rural county in America, not to mention.... they are like, the only county seeing any significant population growth west of Albany.... they should have built it in Henrietta, there is PLENTY of room. Even Rush maybe; at least SOMEWHERE in Monroe Co.

Birds-Eye to close local plants
Rochester Business Journal

Birds Eye Foods Inc. said Tuesday it plans to sell most of its non-branded frozen foods business and production facilities in Brockport, Oakfield and Bergen.
The Brockport facility employs 293, company spokeswoman Bea Slizewski said. The facility in Oakfield employs 54, and the Bergen plant employs 40. Both are in Genesee County.
In addition, 75 administrative positions at Birds Eye headquarters in Rochester will be cut, Slizewski said. Some 35 such job