This is an interesting story that I came across the other day. I have wondered about this over the past few years myself. It seams that many of the fires in older houses in the city are less destructive than fires in new suburban homes. With some of the fires on the news in the past few years, at least in Rochester, there have been new homes completely destroyed and other older ones that only show some black around the windows from the outside.
It is possible that fire department response time could be a factor - many suburban departments are partially volunteer and take a little longer to get to the scene than the paid / full-time city fire department. But as this news story shows, there are more factors behind this trend.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
SU fires football coach - local TV gets the story from AP
SYRACUSE NY - Greg Robinson will be without a job at the end of the season. Daryl Gross, SU Athletic Director, made the announcement today through a press release. Many people on campus and in the community have been calling for his firing all season. This is by far one of the biggest local stories of the year in Central New York. Which is why it's so disturbing that one of the three local TV stations relied on the Associated Press to cover it for them.
This is a sign of just how bad local news is getting in some markets, where a station is so short-staffed that they can't cover one of the biggest stories of the year in their own market. I don't know if the same is true for this particular station's on air coverage, but the "breaking news" story on their website was attributed to the AP. Even one of the stations in ROCHESTER filed an original story on its website! Hopefully viewers will wise up to this sort of crap and voice their objections by taking their TV remotes and computer mice elsewhere.
This is a sign of just how bad local news is getting in some markets, where a station is so short-staffed that they can't cover one of the biggest stories of the year in their own market. I don't know if the same is true for this particular station's on air coverage, but the "breaking news" story on their website was attributed to the AP. Even one of the stations in ROCHESTER filed an original story on its website! Hopefully viewers will wise up to this sort of crap and voice their objections by taking their TV remotes and computer mice elsewhere.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Syracuse sells houses for $1
SYRACUSE NY - Last month city officials put 11 multifamily houses up for sale for only one dollar. The catch? They are falling apart. Some, if not most of them will have to be completely gutted. They are all vacant tax delinquent properties that the city has seized.
A classmate and I covered the story for our reporting class. It started with a meeting at 9 am where city officials answered the questions of interested developers. That was another catch - to buy one of these houses, you had to prove to the city that you had the financial means to finish the project.
At the meeting we talked to the city operations manager. He said that there are 250 tax delinquent houses in the city that are vacant. In total, there are 1,200 vacant properties in Syracuse. Qualified developers purchasing one of these 11 houses would be eligible for up to $45,000 in grants and several years of tax breaks.
After the meeting there were open houses all day for interested parties to have a look around...after signing a waiver saying the city wasn't responsible if you fell through the floor or something else bad happened. We went to 219 Grace street:
It's just a little bit of a fixer upper. The front steps are basically a few boards over cement blocks and the porch is falling off. It doesn't look much better inside.
This is the living room of the first floor apartment. You can see where parts of the drop ceiling are caving in and where the wall paper is peeling.
Here is what's left of the first floor kitchen. This was one of the worst rooms in the house. It was very dirty in here. Pieces of the linoleum flooring were coming up, and the floor in general seemed a little "soft." I love that old sink though!
Now you can really see the condition of the porch! This is the view from the second floor. We asked one of the contractors who walked through how much it would cost to fix this house. He estimated that it would be $80-90,000.
We are told this was one of the better houses. Some of my other classmates went to a house on W. Colvin Street. In that one you couldn't even go upstairs to the second floor because the stairs had rotted away. Probably a good thing...they were told that a family of raccoons lived up there.
A classmate and I covered the story for our reporting class. It started with a meeting at 9 am where city officials answered the questions of interested developers. That was another catch - to buy one of these houses, you had to prove to the city that you had the financial means to finish the project.
At the meeting we talked to the city operations manager. He said that there are 250 tax delinquent houses in the city that are vacant. In total, there are 1,200 vacant properties in Syracuse. Qualified developers purchasing one of these 11 houses would be eligible for up to $45,000 in grants and several years of tax breaks.
After the meeting there were open houses all day for interested parties to have a look around...after signing a waiver saying the city wasn't responsible if you fell through the floor or something else bad happened. We went to 219 Grace street:
It's just a little bit of a fixer upper. The front steps are basically a few boards over cement blocks and the porch is falling off. It doesn't look much better inside.
This is the living room of the first floor apartment. You can see where parts of the drop ceiling are caving in and where the wall paper is peeling.
Here is what's left of the first floor kitchen. This was one of the worst rooms in the house. It was very dirty in here. Pieces of the linoleum flooring were coming up, and the floor in general seemed a little "soft." I love that old sink though!
Now you can really see the condition of the porch! This is the view from the second floor. We asked one of the contractors who walked through how much it would cost to fix this house. He estimated that it would be $80-90,000. We are told this was one of the better houses. Some of my other classmates went to a house on W. Colvin Street. In that one you couldn't even go upstairs to the second floor because the stairs had rotted away. Probably a good thing...they were told that a family of raccoons lived up there.
Oh the irony...Slaughter will see combined rail/bus station after all. For now.
ROCHESTER NY - Congresswomen Louise Slaughter (D-NY), of Rochester's 28th Congressional District, has always opposed Monroe County's Renaissance Square concept of a combined Monroe Community College campus / bus station / performing arts center in the middle of downtown Rochester. She has argued from the start that instead they should have a combined Amtrak and bus terminal at the current rail station on Central Ave, north of downtown.
Well, the 79 year old Congresswoman who was just elected to serve her 12th term by 78% of voters, may get her wish. Well, part of it. Temporarily. See, when the Trailways and Greyhound terminals have to move out of Midtown Plaza at the end of December (when they get ready to tear it down), they will move the buses to the rail station. They don't have much choice, because Renaissance Square is a long way from being built across the street (if it's ever built).
This isn't what Slaughter originally called for - she wanted all the city buses there at the train station too, as is called for in the Ren. Square plan - but I find it funny just the same. The county always said there isn't enough room at the train station and that traffic patterns would not support the buses. That is true if you were to include all the city buses as well, but I still get a kick out of the situation. They came down so hard on Slaughter's plan from the start...a plan that is now in part being put into place until the county can build Ren. Square, which is proving as hard to get off the ground as Slaughter has said it would be from the start.
Well, the 79 year old Congresswoman who was just elected to serve her 12th term by 78% of voters, may get her wish. Well, part of it. Temporarily. See, when the Trailways and Greyhound terminals have to move out of Midtown Plaza at the end of December (when they get ready to tear it down), they will move the buses to the rail station. They don't have much choice, because Renaissance Square is a long way from being built across the street (if it's ever built).
This isn't what Slaughter originally called for - she wanted all the city buses there at the train station too, as is called for in the Ren. Square plan - but I find it funny just the same. The county always said there isn't enough room at the train station and that traffic patterns would not support the buses. That is true if you were to include all the city buses as well, but I still get a kick out of the situation. They came down so hard on Slaughter's plan from the start...a plan that is now in part being put into place until the county can build Ren. Square, which is proving as hard to get off the ground as Slaughter has said it would be from the start.
Friday, November 14, 2008
"Block F" proposal selected
ROCHESTER NY - The city has selected a development proposal for the block across from the Eastman Theatre known as "Block F." Community leaders have long considered the block the most important location for development potential in the city. It's a unique opportunity because it is one of the few undeveloped blocks along E. Main St in downtown and its in the heart of the East End cultural district. We can only hope that the developer can get the financing. I looked at the company's website and it seems to be fairly new, with a lot of proposed and yet to be built properties. That makes me a little nervous, but I'm hoping for they can pull it off. It would be a great addition to downtown, especially across from the Eastman Theatre expansion.
The times, they are 'a change'n: no more "Kodak Park"
ROCHESTER NY - Ever since I was a little kid, I remember driving by Kodak Park on the way to my Grandma's house. This is where Kodak took off. Some of the company's first production lines were here. Film was perfected here, and the digital technology that replaced it was invented here too. Kodak founder George Eastman is even buried at the entrance to this industrial complex. Through over a century of change, one thing was the same: it was called "Kodak Park." Until this week.
After nearly two decades of Kodak's decline in Rochester, including over 50,000 layoffs, and several building demolitions and implosions, the company decided a name change was in order. The fact is that this once sprawling "city within a city" is now home to more than 25 other companies along with Kodak necessitated a name that reflected that. Now it will formally be called "Eastman Business Park." It is a way for Kodak to attract more tenants to the buildings it has vacated. This is a sad change because it is one more reminder of what Kodak once was to Rochester, and another concern for its future presence here.
After nearly two decades of Kodak's decline in Rochester, including over 50,000 layoffs, and several building demolitions and implosions, the company decided a name change was in order. The fact is that this once sprawling "city within a city" is now home to more than 25 other companies along with Kodak necessitated a name that reflected that. Now it will formally be called "Eastman Business Park." It is a way for Kodak to attract more tenants to the buildings it has vacated. This is a sad change because it is one more reminder of what Kodak once was to Rochester, and another concern for its future presence here.
Will economy force change in Midtown plans?
ROCHESTER NY - PAETEC's third-quarter results were announced Thursday, showing the company lost $355M in the quarter. Only a small part of that (less that $20M) was an operational loss, the rest resulting from its summer merger with McLeod USA. It is normal for companies to show losses after a major acquisition or merger, but many people in Rochester are worried about the timing with the ecomony.
There is a lot at stake. The company has plans to build a $100M headquarters at current site of Midtown Plaza in downtown Rochester. The plans were already scaled back from a 30+ story structure to a 10 story one, but now the question is will they be able to build anything? PAETEC CEO Arunas Chesonis says the comapany is strong and will survive.
The city owns the Midtown properties and the state has committed money to tear the current buildings down. The city released the draft environmental plan for the site, that shows the creation of news streets and 7 new blocks to break up the current single "mega-block." One of those blocks is supposed to be for PAETEC. The rest call for a hotel and a mix of residential/retail/and office space. No other developers have made commitments yet, probably waiting for PAETEC to make the first move.
There is also talk of keeping Midtown Tower and turning it into residential units. The building would still have to be gutted and would likely get a new facade. WHEC-TV is reporting today that several developers from in and out of state are have approached the city this week with an interest in redeveloping the tower. It makes sense to try to keep it - it would save the city the expense of tearing it down (especially since it couldn't be imploded due to the parking garage that is being saved beneath it).
The city pretty much admitted Monday that there wasn't a real backup plan if PAETEC backs out. It seems that Midtown Plaza, with the likely exception of the tower, will be torn down regardless. Many agree that while the state has committed at least $55M of the $65M needed to remove asbestos and tear it down the city should take advantage of it. As long as Midtown is standing, its preventing future development potential downtown. That said, it would be a shame to have an empty hole in the middle of the city waiting for a developer to build there.
SU cutting $8M from '09 operating budget
The Syracuse Post-Standard is reporting today that Syracuse University is cutting $8M from next year's operating budget in response to the poor economy. The paper reported that SU's endowment lost $170M in value at the close of the 2008 fiscal year, which ended in June. The paper reported that the endowment stood at $775M at the end of October. The budget for next year is currently at $956M, but I'm not sure if that includes the $8M in cuts or not.
I've been wondering when I'd see this story. Across the country, many other colleges have been talking about hard times and temporarily scaling back plans. In Rochester, Nazareth College had to modify improvements to its performing arts center because of the cost of construction materials (although that was over the summer before the economy took a nose dive. In Ithaca, Cornell just put a 90-day moratorium on construction at, from what I understand, multiple building projects.
You think SU would do that? HELL NO. Construction is continuing on a new residence hall in the ballpark of $50M, the Center of Excellence for around $20M, and of all things, the new basketball practice facility that is also around $20M - like we really needed that. I understand the residence hall. The university accidentally overbooked new students by about 600 this year, therefore having to transform several dorm lounges into makeshift rooms. The Center of Excellence is receiving help from the state and was planned for years ago, so that makes sense too. But heaven forbid the university consider scaling back another building for the athletic department. It would be different if multiple teams could use it, but $20M for a building that only ONE team will use? With the economy like this? That's frustrating.
I've been wondering when I'd see this story. Across the country, many other colleges have been talking about hard times and temporarily scaling back plans. In Rochester, Nazareth College had to modify improvements to its performing arts center because of the cost of construction materials (although that was over the summer before the economy took a nose dive. In Ithaca, Cornell just put a 90-day moratorium on construction at, from what I understand, multiple building projects.
You think SU would do that? HELL NO. Construction is continuing on a new residence hall in the ballpark of $50M, the Center of Excellence for around $20M, and of all things, the new basketball practice facility that is also around $20M - like we really needed that. I understand the residence hall. The university accidentally overbooked new students by about 600 this year, therefore having to transform several dorm lounges into makeshift rooms. The Center of Excellence is receiving help from the state and was planned for years ago, so that makes sense too. But heaven forbid the university consider scaling back another building for the athletic department. It would be different if multiple teams could use it, but $20M for a building that only ONE team will use? With the economy like this? That's frustrating.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Democrats in Rochester React
Democrats celebrate Obama's victory at the party's election night headquarters at the Hyatt. This well done video is from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle's multimedia unit. For more videos and photos, go to the newspaper's website.
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