A new site, Banxodus, has been launched to help folks figure out where to move their money. I believe this is one of those “Crowdsourced” sites, meaning that they may be able to use some help filling in some of the info about Rochester area banks. Take a look and see.
Have any RT readers “moved their money”? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments.
Over the past decade, the poverty rate in this Arnett Boulevard neighborhood has doubled. Forty-four percent of Morehouse’s neighbors now live below the poverty line, census figures show, and 59 percent of them are children. And total population has increased.
Poverty is becoming more concentrated and enveloping more of Rochester and other U.S. cities. The number of people living in neighborhoods in which 40 percent or more of residents are below the poverty line increased by one-third nationally in the past decade, according to a Brookings Institution report released last week.
No surprise - as the 1% sucks the money out of the economy, it affects everyone, the poorest first. Rochester is being affected similarly to almost everywhere in the country. The question is, what can we do about it at the city/regional level?
So, I’d heard that the GOP did some wacky redistricting this year. I had no idea how crazy it actually is.
Here’s a thumbnail - click on it if you want it full-size.
mc-2011-redist-map
A couple things had me scratching my head:
Look at district 20 (the yellow one) - it goes all the way from the western edge of the county to the city - how does that make sense?
Note how they chopped up the Villages of Brockport and East Rochester. Why?
How about district 5 (the green one)? It’s a crazy curl going from south Pittsford, through Mendon and Rush, finally taking a bite out of Henrietta. Why?
How does that make sense except to neutralize the opposition (aka Democratic) voters there?
That said, it’s a great way to help make sure the ruling party stays in power, and can avoid accountability. The more comfortable they feel about being re-elected no matter what, the more they’ll try to get away with.
They only won 11 of 29 seats on the County Leg. I believe the GOP did a partisan redistricting this year - that would explain a lot of this loss.
Sandra Doorley won for DA. 58/41. Nice.
Sandy Frankel lost to Maggie Brooks. 57/43. Not a bad showing, but it still begs the question - what will it take to wake up that additional 8% of Monroe County?
Anyone familiar with the philosophy behind RochesterTurning will understand why I love, support, and otherwise totally dig the Occupy movement. It’s like the world is finally waking up to the fact that what we’ve been doing isn’t working, that funnelling money from everyone to the top 1% is great for the wealthy and the politicians and media they’ve bought, but is ultimately a hugely destabilizing force in our country, and the world.
It’s not sustainable. And no matter how many suit-wearing know-it-alls appear on talk shows to talk in a very reasonable way about how we should just keep going in the same direction (as the train goes over the cliff), enough people are starting to be affected by it that it’s impossible for the PR hacks to spin it effectively anymore.
The conversation’s turning - I’m finally seeing it in day-to-day conversations I’m having and (finally!) in the media. That alone is a victory for the Occupy’s movement’s intent to raise awareness.
I was in NYC in October and had the privilege to meet a few of the OWS folks. I told them they’re “doing the Lord’s work”, and they laughed. I guess they didn’t expect to hear that, even from a lefty Christian like myself. But I have to believe if Jesus were here today, he would be more at home in the Occupy camps than in the boardroom.
I hope to write more about Rochester’s own Occupy movement soon. They too, are “doing the Lord’s work”, right here in our very own backyard.
In the meantime - I think I found a great theme song for the Occupy movement. It’s a great song to begin with, musically, but add the lyrics, and then the video? Powerful stuff:
You may have already noticed, but in case you didn’t, there’s an election today. So vote! Take your kids! It builds strong bodies 12 ways!
I’ve been a bit out of the loop, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that there’s a Monroe Exposed website, which does a good job of rounding up all the shady stuff that’s been going on with the Monroe County administration. Here’s the link:
I didn’t realize there’s been so much in the news about the corruption in just the last few months - Monroe Exposed does a good job of rounding up the many articles and editorials.
Putting aside commentary by the Monroe Dems, it’s sobering to see how many naughty choices are being made. But then, as we’ve documented here at RT, the Monroe County GOP has built an impressive machine that is self-perpetuating. And since money is the fuel for that machine, of course you need corruption to ensure a steady fuel supply.
That’s why you have Robutrad, sweetheart deals with vendors, etc. It’s not rocket science. Where’s the accountability? If Maggie Brooks breaks the law, some underling gets thrown under the bus and the PR machine goes into overdrive for a while.
It’s always had me scratching my head why more folks in Monroe County don’t give enough of a crap about the corruption and waste of tax dollars that they vote the current administration out of office and let some sunlight in to the county apparatus.
That is a fundamental question that needs to be answered if folks want to move forward in this community.
