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Developing Charlotte On city officials’ selection of a development proposal for Charlotte:
The key problem here is that many people in this area have been involved with this process, and this is not what they were working on. Again and again [at the city’s informational meetings], they asked why the unique nature of the area was not considered by this project, and Mark Gregor [the city’s project manager for the Charlotte development] never had an answer. When the zoning was proposed the question of height was raised, and council members and city officials promised they would not allow towers in the port district. Apparently things have changed. Mark Gregor said they did not want rental in this project but could not explain how the townhouses in the plan are not listed as for-sale units. The city was clear that there will be no subsidized or low-income housing, though there will be some market rate – even though the builder claims they will apply for lowincome-housing tax credits. As for questions about emergency services, the city admitted they may need to examine this. Many wanted to know what studies were done to show a demand for this sort of building, and Mark Gregor could only claim that he was sure the developer had done this. Asked about the city’s financial contribution to this project, they claimed that is open to negotiations but would not rule out tens of millions of dollars of city funds in the form of grants and loans. With all this evasion and misinformation, it should not be surprising that the public is angry. Despite years of working with residents, the city did not 2 CITY
MAY 14-20, 2014
mention the idea of towers until recently. They failed to get input and seem to have raced into this without considering how city services will be stretched in Charlotte by such a project. The city’s financial obligations and tax returns were not mentioned, and so as usual the public was unable to weigh the benefits verse the costs. So the public was asked to trust the city to make this right, but unfortunately too many of the residents had been disappointed or deceived too often in this area, and they are unwilling to continue to just believe. ALEX WHITE
I think the city’s reasoning for building a high-density development project is valid and well thought out. If people are upset about the high rises, they should consider moving to the town of Hamlin, which likely won’t be the site of highdensity development in the foreseeable future. JOHN SMITH
This just sounds so disastrous for Charlotte. Nobody ever asks the question: Once this project is completed, who has the responsibility for the marketing and sales of the project till it reaches full occupancy? What will the annual marketing and sales budget be, and who will be responsible for that appropriation? Where will the money come from in the five years it will take to establish this project once it is completed? Get somebody to ask that question publicly and watch everybody back up: the developer, the city and the Port commission. Just another development without any long-term planning or infrastructure established up front. More empty structures is my prediction. KC KATHY BAUMERT SCHULIK
We need to walk before we run. I do believe there’s a market for new housing and even a hotel, but not the quantity proposed. Rather than offering three acres, the city should just offer one. Once that shows success, then open some more property for development. I think that that’s what most of the residents are afraid of: vacancies.
On the other hand, there already are two high rises in Charlotte. We are such small thinkers. There are 1.1 million people in Rochester, and we have the most pitiful waterfront. JOHNNY
Highland and its neighbors
On Highland Hospital’s expansion proposal: As per the Defend
Urban Neighborhoods website, Highland owned the exact same property on Bellevue several years ago, and essentially used it as leverage to get an easement to build their new parking garage on South Avenue (which, BTW, did nothing to stop their employees parking on neighborhood streets). Then there's the continued interest in purchasing 428 Mt. Vernon, a large brick residence on a two-acre wooded lot directly abutting Highland Park. Add in continued problems with over-salting of sidewalks and continued refusal to acknowledge the ramifications of their smokefree policy (employees smoking near front yards of neighboring houses), and Highland Hospital has a bad reputation as a corporate neighbor. The overall problem is URMC: they paint a picture of being a good neighbor and involved in the city, but then they do stupid things like build their own exit ramp off I-390, which simply facilitates employees driving in from the suburbs. They then complain they need more parking spaces, instead of investing in bus services or other incentives to live close by. If they really gave a damn about the city, they’d ramp up parking costs and add value to city neighborhoods. Expanding Highland Hospital does the opposite. It really is the epitome of corporate doublespeak. In the interests of full disclosure, I live in the neighborhood and work at Strong. HIGHLAND HOTTIE
I live in the neighborhood, and find Highland a far better and more considerate neighbor than the Rochester City School District, including School 12. KATIE LASHWAY
News. Music. Life. Greater Rochester’s Alternative Newsweekly May 14-20, 2014 Vol 43 No 36 250 North Goodman Street Rochester, New York 14607-1199 themail@rochester-citynews.com phone (585) 244-3329 fax (585) 244-1126 rochestercitynewspaper.com facebook.com/CityNewspaper twitter.com/roccitynews On the cover: Photo by Mark Chamberlin Publishers: William and Mary Anna Towler Editor: Mary Anna Towler Asst. to the publishers: Matt Walsh Editorial department themail@rochester-citynews.com Arts & entertainment editor: Jake Clapp News editor: Christine Carrie Fien Staff writers: Tim Louis Macaluso, Jeremy Moule Arts & entertainment staff writer: Rebecca Rafferty Music writer: Frank De Blase Calendar editor: Antoinette Ena Johnson Contributing writers: Paloma Capanna, Casey Carlsen, Roman Divezur, George Grella, Laura Rebecca Kenyon, Andy Klingenberger, Dave LaBarge, Kathy Laluk, Adam Lubitow, Nicole Milano, Ron Netsky, Suzan Pero, David Raymond, David Yockel Jr. Editorial intern: Taylor White Art department artdept@rochester-citynews.com Art director/production manager: Matt DeTurck Designers: Aubrey Berardini, Mark Chamberlin Photographers: Mark Chamberlin, Frank De Blase Advertising department ads@rochester-citynews.com Sales operations: Matt Walsh New sales development: Betsy Matthews Account executives: Nancy Burkhardt, Tom Decker, Christine Kubarycz, William Towler Classified sales representatives: Christine Kubarycz, Tracey Mykins Operations/Circulation kstathis@rochester-citynews.com Circulation manager: Katherine Stathis Distribution: Andy DiCiaccio, David Riccioni, Northstar Delivery, Wolfe News City Newspaper is available free of charge. Additional copies of the current issue may be purchased for $1 each at the City Newspaper office. City Newspaper may be distributed only by authorized distributors. No person may, without prior written permission of City Newspaper, take more than one copy of each weekly issue. City (ISSN 1551-3262) is published weekly by WMT Publications, Inc. Periodical postage paid at Rochester, NY (USPS 022-138). Address changes: City, 250 North Goodman Street, Rochester, NY 14607. Member of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and the New York Press Association. Annual subscriptions: $35 ($30 senior citizens); add $10 for out-of-state subscriptions. Refunds for fewer than ten months cannot be issued. Copyright by WMT Publications Inc., 2014 - all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, photocopying, recording or by any information storage retrieval system without permission of the copyright owner.