City revitalization needs to start with neighborhoods

As mayors from upstate NY cities work hard to reverse the decline of their rust-belt cities, neighborhoods need to be high priorities. Former Rochester Mayor William Johnson realized this and established the Neighbors Building Neighborhoods program. The nationally recognized, award winning initiative gave city residents the skills and resources necessary to draft their own neighborhood improvement plans. Within a few years, the city made 70% of the recommended improvements - enhancing the quality of life and instilling confidence in local government. This was always a focus of former mayor Johnson - to put an emphasis on neighborhoods. It was his thinking that revitalizing downtown, while important, was not the only solution. The days of national or regional department stores and other major retailers having a presence on Main Street downtown, in his opinion, were long gone. The half empty Midtown Plaza made that perfectly clear. Knowing that Midtown would never serve as the major urban shopping center that it once was, Johnson focused on neighborhood improvement and development and working to help the local businesses there. I was pleased to see the other day that Rochester leaders have not forgotten this important commitment. Earlier in the week, WHAM-TV reported city council will soon vote on a resolution to train 18 to 28 year olds to mow and clear trash and debris from 300 vacant lots in city's southwest neighborhoods. They would be paid $15 per lot, and the city would spend up to $38,000 on this effort. This comes after the city paid to demolish hundreds of vacant homes to rid streets of eyesores and havens for illegal activity. A private contractor had originally been hired to mow the lots, but failed to make good on the $200,000 contract last year. Now the city wants to make sure these lots are properly trimmed, and would like to offer residents in need of work the opportunity. This is a great way to maximize the benefit to the community in a single project: the clean lots add value to the quality of life, and by hiring members of that same neighborhood, you ensure that money is staying in the community. I hope there can be more projects that employ these concepts.