POLITICS | BY TIM LOUIS MACALUSO
Warren lays out education plan Rochester mayoral candidate Lovely Warren has staked out education as the centerpiece of her campaign. At a press conference last week, Warren said Rochester is facing many challenges, but “none of them is more important than the failure of our schools.” The city will not survive Lovely Warren. if the crisis in education is not addressed, she said. PHOTO BY MARK CHAMBERLIN Warren, who is president of Rochester City Council, introduced a sevenpoint plan that includes expanding pre K, recruiting teachers trained to work with urban children, creating a scholarship bank to help students with college costs, and realigning city programs around education needs. But the thrust of Warren’s approach is to offer parents more choice, largely by recruiting successful charter school management organizations to open and manage charters in Rochester. Parents in Rochester should not have to wait another 20 years for the city’s schools to improve, Warren said. Warren went so far as to say that she supported a close friend’s decision to sell her house and move to the suburbs rather than put her children’s education at risk in city schools. Warren said she doesn’t dismiss city schools, but she defended without apology the right of city parents to choose the best education option for their children. The city could support charter schools, she said, by assisting charters with one of their biggest expenses: making city-owned building space available. Warren also said that she will not pursue mayoral control of the city school district, a contentious issue that divided the city under Lieutenant Governor Bob Duffy’s tenure as mayor. And she said she would not lobby to change the city’s annual contribution of $119.1 million to the district.
4 CITY
APRIL 24-30, 2013
News
The Department of Environmental Conservation is developing a management plan for the Hemlock-Canadice State Forest. FILE PHOTO
ENVIRONMENT | BY JEREMY MOULE
Forest plan not clear enough The State Department of Environmental Conservation received more than 400 comments on its draft plan to manage the Hemlock-Canadice State Forest. The next step is for officials to respond to those comments. The part of the response that will undoubtedly get the bulk of the public’s attention is what officials say about natural gas and oil drilling on the forest land. The predominant criticism of the draft plan is that it doesn’t clearly prohibit gas and oil drilling within the forest; it suggests that it won’t. Most of the comments received by the DEC address the plan’s language
on oil and gas drilling, says Linda Vera, the department’s regional spokesperson. “The final [plan] will clarify that the state has no intention of allowing any sort of drilling in the HemlockCanadice State Forest,” Vera says. DEC representatives made similar statements during the comment period. But skeptical environmentalists, lake users, and water consumers haven’t found the remarks reassuring. “I don’t think everyone’s concerns will be allayed, at least not mine, until we see it in writing,” says Nedra
Harvey, a co-founder of the antifracking group R-CAUSE. Hemlock and Canadice are the only two Finger Lakes with undeveloped shorelines; the City of Rochester uses them for its drinking water supply. The city bought up land along the shores beginning in 1896, and sold it to the state in 2010 for permanent preservation. Rochester officials have also submitted comments to the DEC. They urge officials to change the management plan so it contains strong, direct language prohibiting drilling on the properties.