Have you ever wanted to turn back the clock? Take one more stab at something that was hard and somehow got messed up? If you live in Rochester, the answer is easy. Yes! You might want to return to the mid-1980s when downtown was nearing the end of a major Main Street facelift and the deputy mayor’s favorite project, the rehabilitation of Brown’s Race, was getting underway.
Many of us sat through countless hours of “consensus building” and information sessions. We reviewed drawings and listened to both imported and homegrown planners explain how this historic district would attract tourists and city and suburban families. “Build it and they will come!” And there wasn’t much doubt that “they” were everybody!
We quieted those little niggling naysayers who kept whispering “wait, this sounds like a bushel of money to spend on a Disneyland dream. What about the railroad ugliness that forms a wall between Brown’s Race and the rest of civilization- as- we- know- it? What’s to bring people down more than once? How will they spend time and money? Is this a big dollar hole that we, the taxpayers, will forever be pouring resources down?”
At the finish of phase one of the project, we all gathered for a whoop and holler party at the exquisitely retrofitted Water Company. The architectural team of Durfee/Bridges with offices right across the alley did a first class job of capturing the essence of the historic building while infusing the interior with a swat of industrial chic. Outside, charming cobblestone streets and pedestrian friendly streetscape enhanced the living history of the place and of course, views of the gorge and falls were nature’s main attractions. Who could resist?
As it turned out, nearly everybody!
From the get-go, the goofy “history museum” portion of the restored main building was a travesty, a penny-anti attempt at what exactly? Then began the rush to turn the place into an “entertainment district,” parceling out fat checks to one barista start-up after another followed close at the heels with fees to entertainment management companies.
Today, nearly twenty years after the new and improved Brown’s Race opened, the City of Rochester has invested how many millions? $40? $60? $80? I haven’t added it up but I suspect that the investment makes the failed fast ferry investment seem like peanuts and the thing about Mill Street is: it isn’t over! The place is deserted. The pathetic city-supported gift shop and art gallery aside, very few private investors have come forward.
Was it predestined to fail? Actually, I confess that I was part of a group who urged a different course of action from the start. Way back in 1990 and before, we were pushing for assorted housing. Any time you get people to live in a neighborhood, they invest – financially and emotionally. Immediately the streets seem safer with the coming and going of daily life and pain in the butt though it is, they complain! About noise…about trash…about poor lighting. The result? A place where other people want to spend time without worrying too much about crime and grand theft auto.
On an even more personal level, I made an appointment with Deputy Mayor Chris Lindley and marched in naively one day with nothing but a good suit and a smile and offered to run a museum/art gallery based loosely on the 30-year-old Gallery of Contemporary Crafts in Pittsburg. That non-for-profit space opened in the middle of a warehouse district, has expanded several times and manages to stay a leading attraction to art patrons worldwide.
I actually had some experience and a fairly sound basis for my offer: I had run a similar private gallery on East Avenue for ten years, had a bushel of respect and national press but it was time for me to move on and this seemed like a reasonable, challenging option.
If Mr. Lindley had one of those trap doors in his office, he would have pushed the button and sent me sailing out to the sidewalk. The response I got was as though I had just farted in his face. Actually, his exact words to me were “I’m sure there are buildings for sale in Brown’s Race and any number of agents will be happy to show them to you.” In other words, the City was happy to subsidize a bar and grill but I was whistling quite the wrong tune.
Since that day fifteen years or more ago, nothing much has changed. Another Rochester rogue business owner offered to join the current mayor’s team and run Brown’s Race. Mayor Duffy I hear politely listened but never responded at all to the overture. The message seems to be: city administration does not trust for a minute independent
“little guys” but is happy to sign away tax dollars to out-of-town experts.
Or perhaps, it’s just artsy people that can’t be trusted with public money. At any rate, I hear somebody’s finally talking about condos down there and that’s a start.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
After retiring from the Little I very much wanted to be involved in the Duffy administration. I had known Bob for many year, made a modest contribution to his campaign and felt he respected my efforts to create a more exciting downtown.
Shortly after Bob's cornation I received an email from his office. "We have nothing for you in the Duffy administration. We suggest you watch the civil service oenings.
I too felt High Falls needed a new vision and that is the project I wanted to to become involved with.
I got the messge and decided it best to leave town and do my own thing. I now live on Seneca Lake far from Rochester and am in the process of trying to buy a building for an art center.
Post a Comment