Yeah Right - St John Fisher Law school and RenSquare nonsense
RenSquare isn’t the problem - and they know it.
So lets review - St John Fisher sends out a letter blaming RenSquare among other things as a factor for proceeding slowly with the development of a law school. County Executive Brooks weighs in and said I told you so. The Mayor weighs in and says Fisher is doing the right thing proceeding with caution and no it isn’t related to RenSquare. Fisher attempts to clarify their comments about RenSquare.
I think this has nothing (ok, very little) to do with RenSquare and much more to do with whether or not the economy will support such a venture. The feasibility study isn’t yet complete and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are other issues as well. However, there will be those who want to hang slowing down the law school on to RenSquare and conveniently ignore the larger picture.
Here is the email quote from mail from St John Fisher President Donald Bain relooking the whole law school thing.
“With the recent collapse of the Renaissance Square downtown project, however, there is increased uncertainty about expansion in that area Along with the continuing instability in the global economy, these developments will need to be factored into our discussion and evaluation of the proposed law school.”
Cue little wagging finger….as County Exec Brooks says “I told you so. ”
“it reminds me why we started the conversation and the development of Renaissance Square. We always assumed and hoped that Renaissance Square would be a catalyst for other development in our center city and I think you’re seeing that now. I think you’re hearing people talk about, well we wanted to be downtown when we knew Renaissance Square was going to be developed and come to reality. Now we’re not so sure. It reinforces what I always thought about Renaissance Square, that it was the beginning of something.”
Trouble is for Maggie and RenSquare proponents - I’m not sure there was ever a public mention of the linkage between the Law School and RenSquare. I could be wrong but I think a memorable comment would have made the news. Especially from County Exec Brooks who was grasping for straws towards the end of the RenSquare debate. You will see below only one local TV channel caught this.
How did our local news coverage report it? The video reports are all different. WHEC discussed the lack of a previous RenSquare/law school link. WROC blames RenSquare. See for yourself.
WHEC questions the sudden linkage between the law school and RenSquare. WHAM13 makes the assertion that there is millions in downtown development and a law school will likely be built downtown. WROC - says it is RenSquare is to blame. You can see YNN and WXXI. I’ll add D&C and City News links when they are available (surprising not available late last night)
Related posts:
The MCC Campus, the RBTL, Paetec, and now St. John Fisher.
Maybe they didn’t need another reason not to move downtown, but when Duffy killed off Ren Square he gave groups that saw their participation in downtown development as a community minded decision a convenient out.
He can say that the demise of Ren Square is not the reason that these groups are pulling out of the city, but he has not given them any reason to move into downtown. Why would any of these groups even consider committing to developing downtown when even the city’s mayor is opposed to it?
Mayor Bob Duffy had no business getting the City of Rochester and New York State “taxpayers” involved with Midtown Plaza.
He moved about 43 businesses out of the complex. Many have closed and others relocated out of downtown.
If Duffy demolishes the actual mall portion of Midtown, then say goodbye to downtown Rochester. The mall was the last sentimental attachment that most residents had to downtown.
If I was Mayor, I would fire half of the city’s Economic Development Department. They have a bunch of “incompetent” people working in the department. The employees may have impressive college degrees, but they never owned a small business, bought, sold or managed commercial or industrial property.
Same thing goes for the Director of the city NET Offices. Her resume indicates complete incompetence for the position. Yes, it is true, it is not what you know, it is who you know.
I hope that the next person to be hired in the city’s Economic Development Dept., will have owned a small business in the City of Rochester.
Not sure what private entity was going to shell out $30 million for asbestos abatement prior to renovations at midtown, but maybe…
I don’t know where you are getting this stuff, but the former Net Director was probably the most competent person at City Hall.
Now there is neither a Economic Development Department nor a Net office in the City of Rochester.
Half the people were fired and those departments were merged, perhaps to further the mayor’s apparent opposing development initiatives in Rochester.
ren square was a way for maggie and her republican friends to get a free theatre from the taxpayers. nothing else. if other groups blame their lack of commitment to downtown on it, then they are either incompetent or dishonest. duffy was right to put the brakes on this to see if it was a viable project and protect city taxpayers from a boondoggle. the house of cards collapsed and its his fault? not likely.
Not just a free theater, but a way of goodies to all of the Republican contributors who own construction companies.