The West Village artist behind these subway etiquette signs, Jason Shelowitz (aka jayshells 
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NYC Subway Etiquette
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010Tags: Gothamist, Greenwich Village, Jason Shelowitz, mass transit, mass transportation, New York, New York City, NYC Subway, public transportation, subway, subway etiquette
Posted in New York City Subway | No Comments »
Upcoming Lecture: John Robert Smith
Sunday, April 18th, 2010Rochester is buzzing with talk about new downtown development, new transit stations, high speed rail, and downtown circulators. But how do these pieces fit together? Cities across America are using transportation investments like these to transform themselves in a big way. And, if we play our cards right, we too can join the list of revitalized American cities.
On May 10, 2010, John Robert Smith
This event is presented by the Rochester Regional Community Design Center. Get event details and ticket info…
Tags: John Robert Smith, lecture, Memorial Art Gallery, New York, Reconnecting America, Reshaping Rochester Lecture Series, Rochester, Rochester NY, Rochester Regional Community Design Center, RRCDC, transit, transit-oriented development, transportation
Posted in Events, Transit + Infrastructure | No Comments »
More Discussion with WHAM 13’s Evan Dawson on the Cost of High Speed Rail
Friday, April 16th, 2010
Yesterday I wrote to Evan Dawson from WHAM News 13 in an effort to find out why he chose to compare HSR to the Rochester/Toronto fast ferry in his recent article, High Speed Rail: Fast Forward, Not Fast Ferry… Right?
Tags: Amtrak, economic stimulus, Evan Dawson, Fast Ferry, federal stimulus money, Greyhound, high speed rail, New York, Ray LaHood, Rep. Louise Slaughter, Rochester, Rochester Amtrak Station, Rochester NY, Trailways, WHAM
Posted in Opinion, Rochester News, Transit + Infrastructure | 1 Comment »
WHAM 13’s Evan Dawson: High Speed Rail = Fast Ferry
Thursday, April 15th, 2010
Last Friday (April 9, 2010) Louise Slaughter held a press conference at Rochester’s Amtrak Station along with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to officially announce the arrival of High Speed Rail to Western NY. In addition to the track improvements made possible by $151 million in federal stimulus money, Slaughter said Rochester’s outdated Amtrak station will receive modest updates to the building and platform. She also announced that Amtrak, Greyhound, and Trailways (who were in attendance) were committed to building a new multimodal station as a separate project. Also in attendance was WHAM 13’s Evan Dawson [[email protected]]. Dawson asked some tough questions. For example, “Who will subsidize the project?” Good one Dawson. Hey, does WHAM have any openings? I’d like to apply.
So this past Monday Dawson posted his commentary, High Speed Rail: Fast Forward, Not Fast Ferry… Right?
While I applaud Dawson’s quest to find answers to certain outstanding questions, I take issue with his use of metaphor. And since WHAM doesn’t allow user comments on their site anymore, I had to send him this email in order to let him know how I felt…
(more…)
Tags: Amtrak, economic stimulus, Evan Dawson, Fast Ferry, federal stimulus money, Greyhound, high speed rail, New York, Ray LaHood, Rep. Louise Slaughter, Rochester, Rochester Amtrak Station, Rochester NY, Trailways, WHAM
Posted in Opinion, Rochester News, Transit + Infrastructure | 8 Comments »
RochesterSubway.com Quoted In Today’s Democrat & Chronicle
Sunday, April 4th, 2010
Today’s Easter Sunday edition of the Democrat and Chronicle featured fairly extensive coverage of the Broad Street Improvement Project and future plans for the subway tunnel. Three articles and a short video dominated the print and online versions of the Local section and gave RochesterSubway.com and ReconnectRochester.org some much appreciated press. The story below is from the D&C and includes comments from myself (Mike Governale of RochesterSubway.com) and Tom Grasso, who’s canal rewatering plan will likely wash away any chance of ever using the old subway tunnel as a rail corridor again…
(more…)
Tags: abandoned subway tunnel, Brian Sharp, Broad Street, Broad Street Tunnel Improvement Project, Democrat & Chronicle, Democrat and Chronicle, New York, Rochester, Rochester NY, Rochester Subway, subway, Tom Grasso
Posted in Rochester News, Rochester Subway | No Comments »
Graffiti: Rising Up From Rochester’s Underground
Friday, March 26th, 2010The story of the Rochester Subway is not complete without at least mentioning Rochester’s deep-rooted hip hop culture. If you’re less than familiar with Rochester, I assure you, this shizzle is fo’ real. The “Flower City” has street cred, and our abandoned subway tunnel has long been used as a canvas to show off some of our best underground talent…
Tags: abandoned subway tunnel, art, artist, Beyond Gotham, Cab Calloway, Carlos Perez, Chuck Mangione, Clifford Avenue, Day26, Dejilon Studios, Eastman School of Music, Evak FUA, Famous Urban Artists, Flower City, From Up Above, FUA, Garth Fagan, Ginuwine, Giovanni McClain, Graffiti, Graffiti Convention, hip hop, Jodeci, Juse One, Making the Band, Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott, New York, North Clinton Avenue, P-Diddy, Que Mosley, rapper, Rochester, Rochester NY, Tim "Timbaland" Mosley, Tupac Shakur
Posted in Art + Culture, Interviews, Rochester News, Rochester Subway, Video | 9 Comments »
Rochester Finally Shows Up
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
If you were at the Circulator Study Public Meeting tonight, THANK YOU! Turn out was good. It could’ve been even better… but there were plenty of people there asking questions and giving input and the room had a constant buzz. Even the media 
thought enough to make an appearance. There will be another public meeting in June/July to share the preliminary findings of the study so stay tuned and continue to share this story with friends and neighbors. We’ll need even more of you at the next meeting.
Tags: bike lanes, bike racks, Center City Circulator Study, City of Rochester, commuter survey, Erik Frisch, Inner Loop, public input, public meeting, Rochester, Rochester NY, RTS, shuttle bus, streetcar, transit, transportation
Posted in Events, Rochester News, Transit + Infrastructure | 5 Comments »
Monday 3/22 4-6pm… Let’s Show Up Rochester!
Friday, March 19th, 2010
The City has partnered with C&S Companies to analyze and make recommendations to enhance commuting, circulation, and parking in Downtown Rochester. Among the potential enhancements under consideration is a circulator transit service—a.k.a shuttle buses or streetcars. Listen carefully Rochester…
Tags: Center City Circulator Study, Center for Transportation Excellence, City of Rochester, EZ Rider, public meeting, Rochester, Rochester NY, shuttle bus, streetcar, transit, transportation
Posted in Events, Rochester News, Transit + Infrastructure | 2 Comments »
City of Rochester Squashes Subway Tunnel Excursion
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
A few months ago two of my readers (I’ll call them Tim and Jeff) contacted me to find out if RochesterSubway.com gave tours of the abandoned subway tunnel. I explained that while I wasn’t in the business of giving tours, I would be happy to go down there with them when the weather warmed up. Tim and Jeff were both on board and I soon posted an “event” on the RochesterSubway.com Facebook page
Soon enough that little Facebook event had attracted 43 Yes’s and 55 “Maybe’s”. Oh shit!
Tags: abandoned subway tunnel, Christine, Facebook, New York, Rochester, Rochester NY, Rochester Police Department, Rochester Subway, Rochester Subway tunnel, RPD
Posted in Events, Rochester News, Rochester Subway, Urban Exploration | 16 Comments »
$510 Million No One Seems To Care About
Sunday, March 14th, 2010
Last Tuesday I attended a public presentation by the Genesee Transportation Council (GTC) to review their Draft 2011-2014 Transportation Improvement Program Project List
Tags: Genesee Transportation Council
Posted in Rochester News, Transit + Infrastructure | 3 Comments »
Your Chance to Voice Your Support for a Streetcar Loop
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
Do you work downtown? The City of Rochester wants downtown workers to take their “commuting” survey
Although the survey only mentions RTS Buses and Shuttle Buses as options for mass transit commuters, there is a comment box on the very last page. This is your opportunity to voice support for a downtown streetcar circulator. We want the City to give strong consideration to the impact that a streetcar line could have on economic development in Rochester. A shuttle bus is a nice idea but will have the same effect. So be sure to leave a comment in that final box!
Read Rochester’s Case for a Streetcar Line, then PLEASE take the survey
Tags: Center City Circulator Study, City of Rochester, commuter survey, New York, Rochester, Rochester NY, Rochester Streetcar, shuttle bus, survey
Posted in Events, Transit + Infrastructure | No Comments »
Roll Up Your Sleeves. Let’s Reconnect Rochester.
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
Hopefully by now you’ve read Rochester’s Case for a Streetcar Line. If you haven’t, go read it. Go on, I’ll wait.
…Okay great, now here’s an update. Since that article, traffic to RochesterSubway.com has doubled, our Facebook fan club
Tags: Carlos Carballada, Carlos Mercado, Christopher Burns, DeWain Feller, Facebook, Howard Decker, Legend's Bar & Grille, Lou Gramm, New York, Reconnect Rochester, Rochester, Rochester NY, Rochester Streetcar, Rochester Trolley & Rail Corporation, RRTC, streetcars
Posted in Rochester News, Transit + Infrastructure | 1 Comment »
High-Speed Rail is a Necessity
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
A letter to the editor in this week’s City Newspaper caught my eye tonight. It echoes many thoughts that have been rattling around my own head since the feds announced $151 million in high-speed rail money for New York—but stated much more eloquently than I could ever wish to. The gist of the commentary is clear from the title, “High-Speed Rail is a Necessity”. But the real golden nugget… and the point I’d like to scream from the top of Xerox tower… was this: News of high-speed rail funds should have been hailed as a positive breakthrough for our region. Instead it drew an avalanche of skepticism and negativity—two ugly characteristics that have become hallmarks of this town and will ultimately hurt us all.
Here is the letter from Roger Brown, president of the Rochester Regional Community Design Center…
Tags: County Executive Maggie Brooks, Democrat and Chronicle, high speed rail, New York, Rochester, Rochester City Newspaper, Rochester NY, Rochester Regional Community Design Center, Roger Brown, RRCDC
Posted in Opinion, Rochester News, Transit + Infrastructure | 1 Comment »
Road Rage
Thursday, February 25th, 2010In Oregon, a battle raged for nearly twenty years over the construction of a highway project, proposed by the once acclaimed city planner Robert Moses. If approved, the Freeway would have removed more than 1% of all housing stock in Portland. In the mid 1970s, after the proposal’s defeat, the city opted to build a mass transit infrastructure instead. The result can be seen today in the form of a more pedestrian-friendly and livable city.
Tags: BQE, Brooklyn, Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, Clinton Ave, Elmwood Avenue, Goodman Street, highway, I-390, I-490, Mt. Hood Freeway, New York City, Oregon, Portland, Robert Moses, Rochester, Rochester NY, urban planning
Posted in Transit + Infrastructure, Urban Development, Video | 16 Comments »
See Seattle’s Super Sweet Streetcar
Saturday, February 20th, 2010About a year ago I had the awesome pleasure of riding Seattle’s new South Lake Union Streetcar—a 1.3 mile line that opened in December 2007. Peep this video from Streetfilms.org. Seattle’s state-of-the-art streetcar line features real time arrival message boards, solar-powered ticket vending machines, and human-activated doors to save energy while the train is in layover mode. And check this out, you can find out the next arrival time
But what has this hi-tech investment done for the South Lake Union neighborhood? For one thing, a Whole Foods Market moved in—downtown Seattle’s first full service supermarket in decades. Plus, new condos, mixed-use development, and Amazon.com’s brand new world headquarters. That’s impressive.
Oh and while I was there I made sure to ride the monorail
See also Rochester’s Case for a Streetcar Line.
Tags: Amazon.com, light-rail, mass transit, mass transportation, mixed-use, Rochester Streetcar, Seattle, Seattle Monorail, South Lake Streetcar, streetcars, transit, urban planning, urban renewal, video, Whole Foods Market
Posted in Transit + Infrastructure, Urban Development, Video | 1 Comment »
Rochester’s Case for a Streetcar Line
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
America seems to have taken a renewed interest in mobility. Maybe due to President Obama’s recent commitment to high speed rail—or perhaps the positive results seen in towns like Portland and Denver have caught our collective attention. Whatever the reason, from the top down, people are rethinking our automobile-oriented culture—and getting excited about the possibilities.
There’s also good reason to focus on transportation as a way of jump-starting economic development. Industry requires access to people. And people need to have easy access to centers of employment. Continually improving access makes further development possible. Interrupting access will have the opposite effect. Likewise, doing nothing or simply maintaining existing infrastructure for an extended period of time will also hinder development.
For 30+ years Rochester has relied on the infrastructure choices it made in the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s. At that time we made development choices that encouraged our population to emigrate from the downtown core. We scrapped our extensive streetcar system, choked off downtown with the construction of the inner-loop, and paved super highways to take us from the city to the NY State Thruway and beyond. Since then that’s exactly where our money, our workforce, and our future have gone—down I-490 and out of state.
Tags: 19th Ward neighborhood, Amtrak, B&L, bus, bus routes, Cornhill neighborhood, Denver, downtown Rochester, Eastman Theater, Fast Ferry, Federal Transit Administration (FTA), Greater Rochester International Airport, GRI Airport, hub-and-spoke system, infrastructure, Kenosha, Kodak Theater, light rail transit, light-rail, Main Street, Main Street Four Corners, Mark Aesch, mass transit, Midtown Plaza, Monroe County Civic Center, New York, Paetec, Park Ave neighborhood, Portland, public transportation, rail transit, Regional Transit Service (RTS), Riverside Convention Center, Rochester, Rochester Amtrak Station, Rochester Art Gallery, Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority (RGRTA), Rochester Museums, Rochester NY, Rochester Regional Community Design Center, RRCDC, RTS, SAFETEA-LU, Seattle, Small Starts program, streetcar, streetcars, Tampa, transportation, trolley, U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), University of Rochester, urban planning, urban renewal, urban revitalization, War Memorial Arena, Xerox
Posted in Opinion, Rochester News, Transit + Infrastructure, Video | 38 Comments »
Rochester Subway Super Bowl Ad Featuring 50 Cent
Sunday, February 7th, 2010It’s been widely reported that RochesterSubway.com is spending millions on a new Super Bowl TV spot this year featuring rapper and hip hop megastar 50 Cent. We’re not going to rain on the parade—maybe the ad will air during the Super Bowl, maybe it won’t. You’ll have to watch the game to find out. But you won’t have to wait to see it. Watch the spot… then read the rest of this post to find out how we got 50 to star in our Rochester Subway production…
Tags: 50 Cent, ad, Facebook, hip hop, rapper, Rochester, Rochester NY, Rochester Subway, rochestersubway.com, Super Bowl, superbowl, urban
Posted in Art + Culture, Rochester Subway, Video | 4 Comments »
Powers Building & Four Corners, 1904
Sunday, January 31st, 2010
We found this old photo of the Powers Building and Rochester’s four corners recently on a vintage photos website called Shorpy.com
Hey, here’s a bit of fun for you… we hid the RochesterSubway.com logo somewhere in the photo. Let’s see which one of you can find it first. And while you’re searching for our hidden logo, here are a few other things you should take notice of…
Tags: architecture, Ashley & Loewenguth, City of Rochester, downtown Rochester, Fidelity Trust, Four Corners, Grand-Union, intersection, Main Street, New York, NY, old photos, old photos of Rochester, Phoenix Mutual Life, Powers Building, Powers Hotel, Rochester, Rochester and Eastern Rapid Railroad, Rochester and Sodus Bay Railway, Rochester history, Rochester NY, Rochester Trust & Safe Deposit Company, Shorpy.com, State Street, trolley, vintage views
Posted in Rochester History, Rochester Images, Transit + Infrastructure | 9 Comments »
Harry Davis asks Rochester City Council to Give Up Their Cars
Saturday, January 23rd, 2010
Some of you may remember our story on Harry Davis last September. At that time Harry was running a long-shot campaign for Rochester City Council. He didn’t win any of the 5 open council seats. But that didn’t discourage him. He turned right around and announced he’d be write-in candidate for Mayor in November. Mayor Duffy squashed that dream pretty easily on election day. But Harry kept at it. He promptly asked to be hired by Mayor Duffy to lead a “green” urban renewal plan for the city. The Mayor turned him down.
So now Mr. Davis is coming at things from a different angle. Last month he formed his own Political Action Committee (PAC). According to Mr. Davis this new group stands for “green, sustainable development and transportation.” Davis affirms, “The importance of sustainable and efficient transportation for Rochester cannot be overstated. This would include light rail, high-speed rail, bike paths and additional pedestrian options – all of which should complement a rational and minimalist approach to automotive traffic.”
Tags: Bonnie Cannan, Broad Street, Center for Disability Rights, Equal Grounds Coffee House, green development, Harry Davis, Jackie Ortiz, Matt Haag, Mayor Duffy, New York, public action committee, Rochester, Rochester City Council, Rochester City Hall, Rochester NY, South Avenue, sustainability, transportation, urban planning
Posted in Rochester News, Transit + Infrastructure, Urban Development | 3 Comments »
Christine No Like Rochester Subway! ARR!
Thursday, January 21st, 2010Let me just preface this. Those of you who follow RochesterSubway.com know I am not trying to bring back the Subway—although if Mayor Duffy announced its re-opening tomorrow I’d promptly nominate him to be crowned King of Rochester. My mission is plainly stated at the bottom of every page on this site. I support any initiative that will improve the quality of life for all Rochesterians. A bike lane here or there. Perhaps a few good grocery stores downtown, etc. etc. My goal is to get Rochester thinking about the possibilities and to spark public dialogue.
Most of the feedback I get from my readers is very positive and I’ve had a lot of great ideas thrown my way. But for every 20 people I hear from, there’s usually one person who’s… well… a real visionary. This month’s award goes to Christine B. from Rochester. In fact, I may have to name the award after her. Christine makes the assumption that I am out to garnish her paycheck and use it to bring back the Rochester Subway. And oh boy is she P.O.’d!
A word of caution before you read her monologue… if you’re a Kodak employee, a “liberal”, unemployed, gay, or if you are homeless, some of Christine’s ideas may offend you. But if you read between the lines, I’m sure you’ll see where she’s going with this line of thought. Oh, and PLEASE share your opinions in the comments. I know Christine will appreciate your feedback…
Tags: Aids Rochester, Christine, fill, homeless, Kodak, Rochester, Rochester NY, Rochester Subway
Posted in Opinion, Rochester Subway | 17 Comments »
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