Rochester Community Schools does not provide any type of insurance for injuries incurred by your child while at school. However, as a service to students and their families, the school district does make available a student accident insurance plan for your child at a very nominal cost through First Agency of Kalamazoo. Please click here for further information regarding this insurance.
The long-awaited transformation of the city's 19th Ward could be right around the corner. But Adam McFadden has heard that before.
"There are a lot of us pissed off about this; the fact that the state keeps throwing obstacles in our way," he says. "There seems to be somebody playing political games, to be honest with you."
McFadden, who represents the South District on City Council, is castigating the state Office of Historic Preservation. The agency has been reviewing the Brooks Landing development project for about a year.
The $17 million project is concentrated in the area of Brooks Avenue and Genesee Street in the 19th Ward. Plans include development of an extended-stay hotel and restaurant complex, office building, retail space, and coffee shop.
In one form or another, the project has been on the drawing board for 20 years. Dana Miller, chairman of the Sector 4 Community Development Corporation, has been involved the entire time. Nobody, he says, will be happier than him to see the project finally take off.
"There might be somebody, but I don't know who it would be," he says. "I'd certainly be more than happy to be finished with this project."
Since a portion of the project will be on what is technically --- if not practically --- park land, the city needs to get approval from the National Park Service. The park service delegates the responsibility of vetting the project to the state Office of Historic Preservation. The office will eventually make a recommendation to the feds.
"I know sometimes it could be frustrating, but our concern is to make sure that whatever historic resources are there are protected," says Cathy Jimenez, spokeswoman for the state office.
But McFadden and others say the state is constantly moving the bar. As soon as one set of criteria is met, he says, the office comes back with new concerns.
"Recently we just got back a whole list of other stuff they want us to do. And from what I hear, the mayor was livid about that because we have basically changed our development a great deal to accommodate whatever their concerns were," McFadden says. "At this point we've accommodated all of the idiotic things and thought we were in the clear. This is just somebody getting their jollies sticking us."
Vacant buildings line Genesee Street --- a reminder of the area's past and promised glory. Advocates say the Brooks Landing project will put a "face" on the neighborhood. The intersection of Brooks and Genesee, they say, doesn't reflect the area's true nature.
"We desperately need something like this to show to the rest of the Rochester and Monroe County community who we really are," says John Borek, director of Sector 4 Community Development Corporation. "The area, as it exists now, just doesn't show the quality of the neighborhood behind it --- the housing stock and our general middle-class nature."
"I can quote statistics all day long to justify that," he says. "It has an extraordinarily high income level. It has 1,500 UR [University of Rochester] staff and students living there. It has the highest per capita number of African-Americans with PhDs and advanced degrees in New York State. The list goes on and on. And yet, that intersection looks like it does."
Brooks Landing will come to life in three phases. The first is the hotel and restaurant complex. The 80-room, five-story hotel will be on what is now Plymouth Avenue behind the NET [Neighborhood Empowerment Team] office at 998 Genesee Street. (The NET building will be demolished and relocated.) That piece of Plymouth Avenue will be eliminated.
"The remainder of Plymouth Avenue, all the way back to Elmwood, will remain open," Miller says. "It will continue from Elmwood Avenue down to where the project starts. There'll be kind of a loop built that will allow people to drive in off of Elmwood and utilize all of the park amenities."
So motorists can drive in, use the park, and take the loop back to Elmwood. Or, there will also be a connection to the hotel's parking lot so drivers could continue on Plymouth Avenue or head out on Genesee Street.
"We had a lot of concern that having the ability to drive along the waterfront was a valuable thing," Miller says. "So one of our concerns was, we'd like the road to stay there, but we'd like it to be more a park road and less a part of a highway system."
Making drivers cut through the parking lot will slow traffic down, Miller says, while not preventing motorists from continuing down Plymouth.
Roger Brown, associate partner with Barkstrom & LaCroix Architects, approves of keeping Plymouth Avenue open, but not of making people drive through a parking lot.
The second phase of Brooks Landing is a two-story building with retail space and offices for the University of Rochester. The third is the creation of Brooks Urban Village, which is the development of adjacent areas of Genesee Street, including a coffee shop at 953 Genesee.
Everything is projected to be completed by fall 2005, Borek says. That may still be a "useable" timeframe, he says, even with the latest demands from the state.
There will also be a new boardwalk with boat docking facilities. Commemorative bricks are already being sold for the walkway.
The state Office of Historic Preservation sent the city a letter this month, laying out everything that needs to be done to get the project moving. The main sticking point is the preservation of open space.
"They keep looking for ways that you might rearrange the pieces of the puzzle such that less land is utilized for development and more land is retained as park land," Miller says. "Their concern is how can we maintain as much of the character of the current environment as possible, so they're poking at things like building locations and how big does the parking lot really have to be...."
Jimenez acknowledges that open space is the state office's primary concern, but there are other questions, too, about whether the project requires an environmental impact statement or an archeological review.
"It has been an ongoing discussion," she says. "We're hoping to meet with them [the city] to bring this to a resolution so that they can move forward with their project."
Since federally funded park lands are involved in this project, there are very strict federal guidelines to meet before the land can be used, Jimenez says.
Miller agrees with McFadden. The city, Miller says, has done "a tremendous job of trying to handle these continuing requests for information" from the state.
"Our sense at this point is that we've probably answered all of the questions at least once, some of the questions many times, and it would be nice if we could get this thing moved forward," he says. "The community welcomes the project with open arms."
Enjoy part 2 of Justine and Toms’ elegant W-day lovelies whilst I figure out an excuse to get me one of THOSE.
Amy Murrell was recommended to us by Henry, the groom’s brother. She was utterly fantastic from start to finish. I’m not great at having my photo taken and am pretty awkward, but she was brilliantly discreet and most of the time I was completely unaware that she was even taking pictures! She was great company during the getting ready process beforehand and worked as some kind of zen team with Alexis the hair and make-up artist! It was a real pleasure to have her there on the day – she felt more like a guest with an expensive camera than the official photographer which was exactly what we wanted.
We are thrilled with our pictures, which really capture the atmosphere of the day – and this from the one of those people who usually can’t bear to look at pictures of themselves!
For decor we had lots of vintage glass jugs instead of vases and vintage glass candlesticks which I spent the previous 6 months buying up on e-bay. If anyone is getting married and wants a job lot of glassware – give me a call!
At the reception we had The Emperors, booked though Alive Network. We wanted a band that would really get people up dancing so opted for a soul band with a brass section and they fulfilled the brief to a tee.
We had fruit and madeira cake 4 tiered with ivory icing – cribbed from a picture on the internet and made by a very clever lady called Shirley in Tom’s mum’s village!
For the first dance we chose “This Guy’s in Love with You” by Burt Bacarach, the Noel Gallagher version. Just a lovely, lovely song and reflecting the groom’s juvenile obsession with Oasis!
I would advise any future bride to just try to relax and enjoy it – probably not very helpful advice I realise, but I seem to remember dashing around trying to see and thank everyone for coming, worrying that I would seem ungrateful if I didn’t, when really I should’ve done what I wanted to do and just sat down with my girlfriends and had a very large glass of wine!
A very large glass of wine indeed – make sure you do take that time out to relax on W-day you gorgeous lot, take a look around and soak up what you have achieved with all the hard work you both put in.
I don’t know about you gorgeous lot but when I think of a December wedding I immediately envisage a traditional Christmas colour scheme, rich reds, greens, golds…… a flash of silver perhaps?
Justine and Tom incorporated a pinch of festive cheer into their North Yorkshire Big Day but in general kept to a crisp white and ivory palette that was sophisticated, chic and timeless. And Justine is one stylish bride, with an ability to accessorize her stunning Rosa Clara gown to absolute perfection.
So a little thought for a Monday, don’t feel the need to go full on with “seasonal” shades just because the day your W-day is on falls into a particular month, just chose whatever colours/decor/pretty you darn well please.
My Headband was from Louis Mariette, I didn’t want a veil and as the dress had quite a 1920’s feel to it I thought a headband would be more in-keeping and I found this art-deco style one on-line.
It’s a cliché but I did know immediately when I tried my dress on that it was the one for me. I’d tried lots of more traditional dresses that just looked awful and that I didn’t recognise myself in. The Rosa Clara dress I loved the second I saw it – it was more like an evening/cocktail gown than a wedding dress and I just felt relaxed and comfortable in it – not the most obvious reasons for choosing a dress I suppose but important when I knew I would be feeling very self conscious anyway and the last thing I needed was to worry about the dress.
Alexis Daly was recommended by our photographer Amy and was brilliant. I didn’t want to look too “done”, more like the best possible version of myself, which Alexis did brilliantly. She was also a great person to have around on the morning – calm, supportive and encouraging. And great with the mums!
All Groomsmen stuff was hired from Moss Bros – the only brief was that it had to be warm so we went for frockcoats (which sound awful and very Dickensian, but were actually really smart and suited everyone!)
Tom also wore a frock coat suit from Moss Bros, he didn’t want the traditional patterned waistcoat so the only nod to wedding attire was an ivory tie and pocket square. Usually a particularly scruffy individual, it was very nice to see him looking smart with polished shoes for a change!