Rochester will be losing 2 progressive City Council members this year, Louis Giess and Bob Stevenson. City Newspaper writes:

Giess and Stevenson are longtime, active city residents. As Council members, they have dealt with everything from the city’s staggering loss of jobs to the failed ferry venture. They share a perspective of the city and its neighborhoods that spans more than 20 years.

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When Giess and Stevenson talk about Rochester and its transitions, they often frame their descriptions in terms of the neighborhoods they represented. Giess has been a strong voice for the city’s southeast neighborhoods. And Stevenson has worked hard to support residents and businesses in the northwest section of the city, particularly the Lyell Avenue area in its struggle to eliminate prostitution and drug dealing.

The city’s neighborhoods, they say, are a key ingredient in the city’s overall health and vitality.

Both Geiss and Stevenson have been around a while and have seen the progression of the city neighborhoods through out the years. Loss of jobs, zoning, poverty, crime and violence have all taken their tolls on the neighborhoods. Downsizing of some of our major employers, such as Kodak have all but destroyed local neighborhooods like the Maplewood area. Some have survived, some are just beginning to come back.

“I think we’re at a plateau,” says Stevenson. “I talk to every small business person in my district at least once a year, and what I’m hearing is we’re growing. A lot of manufacturing, it’s true, has been lost to China. But some of it is coming back.”

RT’s “Better Know a Wedge Series” tried to highlight new, small businesses in the South Wedge. Because, frankly, any little thing we can do to keep our City Neighborhoods intact, is worth doing.

But what impact will the big projects, Reni Square and the PAETEC takeover of Midtown Plaza have on our city neighborhoods?

Developers are buying downtown real estate and, “We’re actually seeing significant movement to fill what I call the ‘hole in the donut,’” says Giess. “We know the entire region depends on a healthy center city, and we have been trying for years to rejuvenate downtown. Finally, that’s happening and it is gaining momentum.”

A wonderful day for a neighbor.