{"id":6235,"date":"2013-06-13T07:58:19","date_gmt":"2013-06-13T11:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/?p=6235"},"modified":"2013-06-13T07:58:19","modified_gmt":"2013-06-13T11:58:19","slug":"sense-of-place-lessons-from-elsewhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/2013\/06\/sense-of-place-lessons-from-elsewhere\/","title":{"rendered":"Sense of Place: Lessons from Elsewhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Monroe<\/a>
\nThe following is a guest post submitted by Joel Helfrich<\/a>.
\nSubmit your story today<\/a>.<\/i><\/small><\/p>\n

It is through the process of defining what we want as a town that we are becoming a real community. It is through the act of participation that we change.<\/i><\/div>\n
This is not simply a story of not-in-my-backyard. It is the unfolding tale of how a small community … is rising to its own defense, saying, we believe we have a stake in the future of our own community, which we choose to define beyond our own boundaries of time and space and species…<\/i><\/div>\n

\"Hojack<\/a><\/p>\n

A crisis woke us up. A shared love of place opened a dialogue with neighbors. We asked for help. We found partners. We used our collective intelligence to formulate a plan. And then we had to search within ourselves to find what each of us had to give.<\/i><\/div>\n

\"Cataract<\/a><\/p>\n

In my private moments of despair, I am aware of the limits of my own imagination. I am learning . . . that imaginations shared invite collaboration and collaboration creates community. A life in association, not a life independent, is the democratic ideal. We participate in the vitality of the struggle.<\/i><\/div>\n
…We trust\u2014and trust is imperative\u2014that we can create an economically viable and ecologically sustainable plan for the town, the land, and its creatures…<\/i><\/div>\n

\"Our<\/a><\/p>\n

In our increasingly fundamentalist country, we have to remember what is fundamental: gravity\u2014what draws us to a place and keeps us there, like love, like kinship. When we commit to a particular place, a certain element of choice is removed. We begin to see the world whole instead of fractured. Long-term strategies replace short-term gains. We inform one another and become an educated public that responds.<\/i><\/div>\n
\u2014 Terry Tempest Williams, author and environmental activist, in The Open Space of Democracy<\/i><\/div>\n

Please share your thoughts regarding sense of place and environmental consciousness. What does the quotation above mean to you? Are these words, originally detailing efforts to think critically and preserve wild lands in Southern Utah, applicable to Rochester? Do they relate to loss of the Hojack Swing Bridge<\/a>, the Cataract Brewery<\/a> buildings, St. Ann\u2019s tower<\/a>, Our Lady of Mercy rectory \"external<\/a> in Greece, and the proposed demolition of the Iola Tuberculosis Sanitarium campus buildings for CityGate<\/a>? Is there a community of people out there that cares about development in general in Rochester or in particular in the city, the rate and, more significantly, types of \u201cgrowth\u201d that we are witnessing, the loss of more of Rochester\u2019s historic fabric, and the limited number of projects with any \u201cgreen\u201d features and elements? What are your thoughts?<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u2022\u00a0\u2022<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

About Joel Helfrich:<\/h3>\n
Joel Helfrich is a father, educator, historian, and activist who works on animal rights, environmental, historic and sacred sites preservation, and social justice issues.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is a guest post submitted by Joel Helfrich. Submit your story today. It is through the process of defining what we want as a town that we are becoming a real community. It is through the act of participation that we change. This is not simply a story of not-in-my-backyard. It is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1293,79],"tags":[1084,1968,1197,2026,1970,1619,1964,1971,1073,2025,53,151,1262,2027,2028],"class_list":["post-6235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-reader-submitted-stories","category-urban_development","tag-cataract-brewery","tag-citygate","tag-demolition","tag-greece","tag-historic-preservation","tag-hojack-swing-bridge","tag-iola-campus","tag-iola-tuberculosis-sanatorium","tag-joel-helfrich","tag-our-lady-of-mercy","tag-rochester","tag-rochester-ny","tag-st-anns-community","tag-terry-tempest-williams","tag-the-open-space-of-democracy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6235"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6251,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6235\/revisions\/6251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}