RochesterSubway.com : RocLinks 6/25/16

RocLinks 6/25/16

June 25th, 2016

From local development to just plain news of the weird, here are your RocLinks for this past week…

Filling-In Asked Questions

Blogger Rochester Guy (who I swear is not me under a pseudonym), has a post about the Inner Loop Filling In Project. It hits the high points, so check it out.

Traffic

Did you know that Whole Foods is coming to Brighton? Did you also know that thanks to years of transportation mismanagement, the store is predicted to cause a traffic nightmare for the corridor? If only Monroe Ave were 14 lanes wide, amirite? Or, you know, there could be, at the very least, frequent circulator service so much of the traffic of linked trips driving from one shop to the next went away. Thought for food.

Words, Renovations

Renovations at the Public Library kicked off this week. The big news is that the renovations will allow for evening hours starting in 2017. That alone makes it worth it.

Cobb Shill

So yeah, there was an apartment building proposed for Norris Drive in or around Cobbs Hill Park (depending on your borders). We haven’t talked about it much here, because, well, it’s bland and inoffensive other than daring to exist, which is, of course, entirely too much for its neighbors. This, like so many projects is a way to bring more people with more money into the city to be more diverse and create more demand for more jobs internally. More more more. But the people living on Park Ave and East Ave and Upper Monroe already got theirs, so too late. More money in the city to take care of the rest of it is clearly a road too far. Do I look forward to a ‘better’ design for this project? Sure. It’s actually in a good location, and the developer should be able to get premium rents for a well designed project. Will a more attractive building sway the neighbors? I have $1000 donation to the Upper Monroe Neighborhood Association that says it doesn’t.

For the Movies

And finally, outdoor movie buffs rejoice, Movies with a Downtown View are back this summer. Get out and see one on a Friday starting July 22nd and running through August 19th.

• • •

As always, use the comments below as open discussion for anything in these links – or let us know if there’s a topic you’d like to see us hit more aggressively in future RocLinks. Have a great weekend!

Tags: #MWADV, Cobbs Hill, Matt Denker, Matthew Denker, Monroe Avenue, Rochester Public Library, RochesterGuy, RocLinks, Rundell Library, Whole Foods

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 25th, 2016 at 1:46 pm and is filed under Architecture, Art + Culture, Transit + Infrastructure, Urban Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

2 Responses to “RocLinks 6/25/16”

James Simons says:

June 27, 2016 at 1:26 pm

I rented an apartment on Culver across from Cobbs Hill Park for a year. Though I’m sure a study can be done, I highly doubt this development would have a negative affect on the habitat and certainly wouldn’t affect the neighborhood in any negative way. The NIMBYs are kidding themselves.

That being said, I do agree the design was ugly.
Malcolm Kelley says:

June 29, 2016 at 4:12 pm

“4-Story Apartment Building Proposed In the Middle of Cobbs Hill Park”
by Hugh Mitchell

Sierra Club newsletter, June 2016

Rochester Management, Inc., who
manage the old senior citizen
residence called Cobbs Hill Village,
have filed an application with
the City to tear down six of the
1958 housing units and build a
4-story apartment on Norris Drive
across from the Lake Riley lodge.
For some unknown reason this
proposal has been put on ‘fast
track’ within City government.

We have many details on this
proposal, but few of the political
facts and forces involved. Our
Sierra Club position is that a
4-story apartment building (to be
followed by a 3-story apartment)
has no business being constructed
on the 9.5 acre property which is
surrounded by Cobbs Hill Park.

Historically, this area was
‘temporarily’ carved out of Cobbs
Hill Park in response to the need
for emergency housing for Italian and German POWs during the Second World War. In 1957, again in response to social needs, the city
deeded the property with a 40 year
lease to construct 6 barrack-type,
single story residences for “rental
purposes only to aged persons
residing in the City of Rochester”.

Currently, these old buildings are still
occupied by elderly citizens living
on fixed incomes. However, if the
Rochester Management proposal
passes City review, some of these
seniors will not be able to afford the
cost of the new apartments, which
are designed for Middle Income –
market rates.

If the old buildings are too
dilapidated to safely house seniors
and the proposal for new apartments
fails to pass review, we believe the
land should be returned to Cobbs
Hill Park.

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