RochesterSubway.com : RocLinks 10/29/16

RocLinks 10/29/16

October 29th, 2016

50 Shades of Eh?

Somewhat unexpectedly, a fifth proposal for Midtown Parcel 5 was submitted. Spoiler alert, it’s, how to be polite about this, different. Ok, fine, it’s terrible. It’s bad. It’s terribad. It might even be a false flag operation to make the submitted proposals look better. I don’t know, but inexplicably it’s being taken seriously by parts of the city which is creating unrest with other parts of the city. I’d be calling for the popcorn if this weren’t the future of the middle of our town on the line.

Read on for more of this week’s RocLinks…

Department of Not-Crazy Buildings

Turning the corner to a much more accessible building, it looks like Charlotte Square is now pre-leasing. Disclaimer: I share an architect with the project. I still think that if I weren’t building a house, this is the place to live in town.

I’m a Business, Man

Here’s a list of new and newly moved businesses in Rochester. I know I’ll be trying Vesper in a little more than a week. Everything else looks interesting too, so get out there (even if it did just snow).

Maybe the Best?

And finally, it’s that time when City publishes its bests. Dearest Rochesterians, Wegmans should not be the only thing in town you take your guests to see, and Mark’s is terrible. PLEASE consider some things that are better. A best of food list that includes neither Antonetta’s nor Swan (named one of the best bars in America, and it’s not even a bar) means one of two things. Either Rochester has no taste (I really want not to believe this) or only Joe Errigo votes for Rochester’s bests. We’re doing better next year. I swear.

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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!

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Tags: Charlotte Square, Matt Denker, Matthew Denker, Midtown Parcel 5, New Businesses, RocLinks, The Bests

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 29th, 2016 at 12:49 pm and is filed under Architecture, Art + Culture, Rochester News, 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.

10 Responses to “RocLinks 10/29/16”

Powers says:

October 29, 2016 at 6:53 pm

Why does it surprise you that one of the largest local pizza chains is also the most popular?
Matthew Denker says:

October 29, 2016 at 8:43 pm

I’m not surprised, just disappointed.
Doug says:

October 30, 2016 at 8:00 am

Downtown makes the top four in “Best Local Eyesore”. Yikes.
Ben says:

October 30, 2016 at 10:33 pm

Okay- don’t get me wrong- the tower isn’t the greatest fit and is of…interesting design but I think what DeWollf wanted to do was show that this space should be used for something grand and impressive to showcase our downtown. They are pretty much just saying “hey! The current proposals are too vanilla!” And trying to influence the winner to take some more risk with the design.
That being said, I absolutely love the condo/retail proposal and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be built. I thought the tower was pretty but not overly unique. The groups still have time to make changes to their proposals and I really think that’s what DeWollf was trying to influence more than anything.
Dan says:

October 31, 2016 at 11:24 am

Bill Grey’s won best burger and California Rollin’ won best sushi, too. I’m leaning towards the belief that not a lot of Rochesterains are venturing outside their comfort zones.

The new proposal is awful, too.
Frank says:

October 31, 2016 at 9:14 pm

When I get visitors to Rochester, we go to Stevers, Pizza Stop, Cheesy Eddie’s, Highland Diner, Mr. Dominics, Two Vine, and the Genesee Brew House. No chains in that list. Wegmans is great and I’m grateful that they’re here, but there’s more to this city than our great grocery store company. As far as that tower proposal, it couldn’t be more gaudy. I’d love a performing arts center but we gotta do better than that thing. and finally, I never get tired of reading about developments like Charlotte Square. I’m just happy people are willing to pay that kind of rent to live in Rochester. I hope the new tenants are rewarded with a safe neighborhood and lots of things to do within walking distance, both of which downtown had many years ago.
Damian Kumor says:

November 1, 2016 at 9:38 pm

Hopefully you’re not a disappointed for losing to RocWiki? The reddit folks summed it up best by saying it’s a popularity contest. This is the nature of polls by major newspapers. If you followed the RBJ polls you’d think Rochester was voting for Trump.
Ben says:

November 2, 2016 at 11:18 am

Except Rocwiki is a pretty useful website and is a completely deserving winner. Obviously no offense meant to the people running this site,
John says:

December 7, 2016 at 12:04 pm

That 5th proposal…

(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
John says:

December 7, 2016 at 12:06 pm

I should follow my table flipping up with something of substance. Firstly, what is that…yikes. Secondly, our downtown has a beautiful skyline. I would love to see a park in the middle instead of some monstrosity. We have real estate downtown, we need to fix some of the already existing buildings and fill them with tenants, while thinking long-term, not just quick fix band-aids…these are exciting times.

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