…regarding the level of poor students attending Damon. While I don’t have specific facts…mostly conjecture. But I do know that the Damon Center has been a economic disaster for the Sibley’s building and downtown Rochester. This facility has NOT generated any new commerce/economic activity since its been at Sibleys…. actually, it chased away several national retail tenants (that were recruited for the new Damon Center about 10 years ago)…and just about every other service or fast food businesses nearby or in the Sibely’s food court. Even a number of commercial office tenants have vacated Sibely’s since the inception of the Damon Center.

There is much positive buzz about a new MCC downtown campus…but it is based on bad information and bad analysis. There is no economic benefit for a junior college campus in downtown Rochester. It will NOT benefit the students, the community or nearby commercial activity. As I had stated before…Ren Square is an economic “disaster”…not a economic “development” project!

I’m guessing this is how they’re going to force the issue. A six acre demolition. Then they’re going to say “look, we HAVE to build it now! There’s six acres of vacant land in the middle of downtown!”

Watch for threats that Monroe County is going to back out and dump the vacant site on the City, too, that wouldn’t surprise me either.

For the sake of devil’s advocacy, though, I would submit that SOMEONE should be using downtown, and right now, they’re not. The only other plan ever put on the table was a freakin’ casino, which I’d fight to my last freakin’ breath.

I don’t have any numbers in front of me, but I somehow doubt your assertion that the majority of people at Daemon City are economically challenged. For one, there’s a ton of night classes there that you can’t do at Brighton campus. But then, what constitutes economic disadvantage is itself subject to interpretation.

Also, the reason for expanding the Daemon City campus is not to increase the number of poor people, but rather to broaden the profile of the city campus. It’s advantageous to MCC to have the expansion, but of course, all this is moot if the program overall does not benefit the city, and clearly there are reasons to suspect it will not.

$230 million reasons, to be exact.

Regarding a urban downtown junior college campus…the primary issue again is the level of poor people…people of low disposable income…who utilize the downtown campus. These poor people are not bad people. They are people of good character who are improving themselves…creating valuable skills…so that in the near future they will no longer be poor. BUT….while they utilize MCC…they are poor and have very limited disposable income. Then why build a very expensive palace and concentrate them in the middle of downtown Rochester where development costs are extremely high and the costs for parking and housing are extremely high? It makes no economic or logistical sense!

Again….to spend $230 million to further concentrate high levels of people of very limited disposable income into the core of downtown Rochester is economic insanity. Another major step in killing the prospects of maintaining downtown as the regional center of commerce and entertainment. Poverty will continue to increase in our region if our community continues to make extremely poor and expensive mistakes.

But as for the “poor people,” who don’t own cars, it’s not like those folks aren’t already down there. There are hundreds of people waiting for busses downtown, freezing their butts off in the winter. Some of those “poor people” might simply choose to use public transportation, which is a staple of the Stainton platform to which you apparently subscribe.

If anything, building a bus garage downtown is a remarkably charitable idea for Rochester, a city which otherwise does not show much respect for anyone who doesn’t drive, at least in the city planning.

As for the “urban junior college,” not everyone who goes to MCC is “ghetto” as your comment implies, nor are they even from the city. I attended MCC back in the day, and I graduated from Sodus. Not exactly a suburb, even. Lots of people go to MCC because they’re saving their dough for the last two years of college and don’t want to end up heaped in debt for two years of requirements that have nothing to do with their majors. Musicians go to MCC because it’s cheap and possesses an excellent music department.

My primary concern for this whole enterprise is cost. Having a bus garage is the least our city can do to encourage ridership and help the environment by getting a few cars off the street.

I think its time now for the democrats and the community to support Andrew Stainton…in his efforts to unseat Maggie Brooks. Our region cannot afford another four years of Maggie Brooks. …I am still OUTRAGED that the Democrats didn’t obtain a candidate to run against Ms. Brooks. And OUTRAGED that the media and prominent community leaders have allowed for this boondoggle to progress this far.

However, most of what I’ve read on the subject, most of what City has been told, is that MCC wouldn’t really be interested without at least some small theatres. That’s part of the point for them: get the performing arts kids out of the Brighton campus and put them downtown.

So, do they mean *no* theatres, or do they mean that there won’t be the bigger theatres?

“Aye? Wink’s as good as a nod to a blind bat.”