Midtown closes permanently
I feel it necessary to preface my post by declaring my personal interest. I’m the son of a small business owner whose store has been in Midtown Plaza for decades. And so, today has a special meaning to me despite the fact that I wasn’t even alive when Midtown was the booming indoor mall that it has long since ceased to be.
Today is the last day Midtown Plaza will be open to the public.
From the Democrat and Chronicle:
Midtown, the once popular destination for city and suburban dwellers alike, is scheduled to close to the public today.
When it opened 46 years ago, it was a cutting-edge development, the first downtown indoor mall and shopping complex.
The city of Rochester now wants to repeat the success by turning much of the property over by the end of 2009 to PAETEC Holding Corp. for the growing telecommunications company’s new headquarters.
To me, Midtown has always been a symbol of many of the things that have gone wrong in Rochester and Monroe County as a whole. For years now, it has been neglected and marginalized by many suburbanites as a “black mall.” It has been where many of the social ills of the inner-city were on display, in plain view for everyone to see. Indeed, it wouldn’t have been unusual for me to see several different people with obvious mental illnesses while stopping by for just a few hours. One after another, stores that were locally owned and operated went out of business. And it has only gotten worse as the years went on.
There are many questions that need answering about the disparities- social and economic- that exist within Monroe County and the country as a whole. In that sense, Midtown Plaza has been and will remain one big question mark. We should all continue the great work that many people are doing to make our communities the best they can be. But I sincerely believe that we also need to look more at the big picture about where we are going as a society, because what is happening cannot continue much longer.
None of the comments that I have offered in this post are meant as criticism or passing judgment on the actions and motives of any of the parties involved with the current situation whether it be the mall owners, businessmen, employees, loyal patrons, PAETEC, or local government. I have my own opinions about each of them which I will not share here. Rather, this post is offered as merely one person’s brief retrospective look at what was and what might have been.
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I have only (!) been in Rochester since Nov 97, but have been working downtown the majority of that time. Midtown had always been a central focal point of my life during the workday, for food and for light shopping.
But do not neglect this aspect of it: Midtown was the central nexus of the Skyway passages, and the closing of the Sibley’s connection several months ago and the Chase and Xerox connections in the past few weeks render the skyway all but a relic. Whatever you think about the isolation from the street that the Skyway renders, it means the difference between going anywhere and hunkering down in place when the weather is tough.
What a thoughtful piece. I never thought about it that way, but Midtown is really a symbol of the fact that the county’s been on the wrong path for some time now. And yep, we can’t keep on doing the same stuff, the same way. Nothing about it is sustainable.
I think there is a “typo” in your comment. Surely you meant to say that Midtown is really a symbol of the fact that the …city’s… been on the wrong path for some time now.
Biology 101 John - (this might explain ALOT about how Maggie and Co. think and Repub’s in general)…
The city is the heart (hear it beating) of your county. The county is the body of the towns that surround the city and make up the parts of the song “the leg bone’s connected to the hip bone”…you know the tune Johnny.
Now…while you’re signing that song…”the head bone’s connected to the brain bone”…and therein the problem lies.
Bonehead attitudes that don’t recognize, realize, or understand that your city is your center - always. The sooner you realize the cancer your party has created is spreading, it won’t be long before we’ll be writing about the demise of everything you have grown to love about your Town of Gates. And you KNOW it’s already happening there. Keep living in ‘da Nile. Thanks for showing the masses such a valuable lesson John.
“You never cease to amaze”
Jiminy:
You guys at this site are great for high-sounding pronouncements (or in your case, weak attempts at making witty or ironic points). What you are always short on are facts.
Please explain or outline the County of Monroe (in your world = GOP) policies that led to the “demise” of the City of Rochester. I suggest that the County GOP leadership, markedly through the Morin-Ryan plan, have made it possible for the City to stay afloat despite three decades of poor Democratic mangement.
You will doubtless blame the flight of the middle class from the City to the suburbs on racism, instead of failure by the City government to make the schools productive and safe, keep business in place, keep taxes low, provide low-cost services, keep neighborhoods free from drugs and crime, etc., etc.
But when you do, I will ask you why the current wave of people leaving the City for places like Gates are not middle class whites but blacks and other minority group members who are fleeing the same failed City for the same set of reasons.
So pontificate and joke all you want. Blame Maggie Brooks, blame Steve Minarik, blame county Republicans. But where are your facts? Did Republicans buy the Ferry? Did the GOP pick the developers of the High Falls? Have Republicans been in charge of the City Schools?
Frankly, Bob Duffy is the first mayor in 30 years to have started a turnaround. He figured out that the City will not prosper unless you build some housing that will attract new residents into the City. That’s at least, a start.
So blather on all you want, but the City’s problems were caused by City government not County government.
John-
Just so you know, Jiminy doesn’t speak for me or any of the other “guys on this site.” Each of us speak for ourselves.
Or perhaps when they tried going downtown to tell your all mighty Queen Maggie that THEY wanted to participate in picking a Public Defender, or that THEY wanted to have input and keep the MCC President Selection process free of your “white” Pittsford buddies, or when THEY want lower taxes, instead of “UNFAIR” INTERCEPTS, and liars, cheats, and thieves - they see you BLOCK them from public access, tell them they have no voice, arrest and haul away their elected leaders and treat people like CRAP instead of integral parts of our society.
Don’t even get on your dumb ass white horse John and pretend that you can revert what you have done.
Your cronies have done EVERYTHING they could to make sure that if a Democrat has a better way, you’ll fight them til the death to make certain the project either never takes off or fails.
WHERE WERE YOU when contracts for the Fast Ferry were being negotiated? I’ll tell you where - you were nestled in your cave with your big-headed leader making plans on how you have to try to stop it - even if it meant to the detriment of the community.
So I will blame Maggie Brooks, Steve Minarik, County Republicans, Suburban white leaders on both the West and East side that build higher barriers to keep those “minorities” OUT and arrest them and traffic stop them in Greece and your hometown of Gates.
Your a bunch of elitist snobs and your train ride is over. And it won’t be long before those “waves” of blacks and “other” minority groups are your next door neighbors.
Did “If you can’t beat them - move next door to them” ever dawn on you?
You just keep doing what you do best. Carry the packard for your party faithful, keep your “hard-earned” Water Authority check cashed, and keep the Monroe County Rethuglican Committee out of legal hot water (if that’s possible, given the state of your State and National Committee status, and their relationship with Steve-O Minarik and Wahl Media and Maggie Brooks and Cheryl Dinolfo, and “Little Johnny” Auberger, and your newly knighted puppets Dan Quattro and of course we can’t forget “Rev’em up Reilich”.
You people make me sick.
Fair enough; point taken. I’ll try to avoid over-generalization.
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