110 Responses to:
REN SQUARE IS MAGGIE'S FAST FERRY

# 1. 5/23/07 12:11 AM by Auntie Spam - NY
A quarter of a BILLION dollars to rearange the deck chairs on the Titanic. Unbelievable. Where has common sense gone?

# 2. 5/23/07 12:12 AM
Is Duffy on board with this? How much say does he have as mayor? I would think he is fighting this like crazy given the fact that he was left with the ferry debacle.

# 3. 5/23/07 12:20 AM by Peter
They should just stop trying. Let Rochester die with dignity. It's not going to be saved in this generation, so just let it go.

# 4. 5/23/07 12:25 AM by james - walworth
Oooh a bus terminal?

That'll get me to drive downtown, find a place to park, pay an exorbitant fee for doing so, wonder if the structure will collapse with my car in it, while I shop downtown!

My dad and I, after the Fast Failure deal went through, sit around and try to think how we can get our fingers into this seemingly bottomless pile of public cash.

Every day I see this kind of monetary/political nonsese happen, makes me want to buy a 20x20 one room cabin somewhere in Alaska. I'll move up there and hide from the rest of this insane country.

The politicians that attempt this and the people who let them are batcrap, monkeyhumping crazy.

# 5. 5/23/07 1:37 AM by John - Pittsford, PRNY
there must be a better way to stand out in the crowd than being the dumbest. Will there be short bus service?

# 6. 5/23/07 2:00 AM
The money for the Ren was a take it or lose it proposition

# 7. 5/23/07 3:20 AM by Ann - Henrietta
Wow!! And here I thought all along that the Fast Ferry was the biggest cash guzzler in town.

Build it and they will come - NOT!!

They just don't get it, do they!! As long as the cost of parking downtown is prohibitive, and the crime there is rampant, NO ONE WANTS TO GO DOWNTOWN!!

# 8. 5/23/07 4:19 AM by Brian
...the contractors and the trade unions will pocket money like crazy on this deal.

And that money, of course, gets recycled to the politicians.

It's organized crime: theft and money laundering.

# 9. 5/23/07 4:25 AM by Dave - Scottsville, NY
Right again Bob and anyone with an ounce of sense knows this.

# 10. 5/23/07 6:06 AM by hunter - e. bethany, ny
But where will the Licensing Bureau be located?

Take a look at Cleveland's tough Southside-$ 200k Upwardly Mobile Valley View Condominiums all over the place.

An observation from a "roofer": The crooks roam the streets during the days and the police flood the streets during the nights.

# 11. 5/23/07 6:09 AM by bill - lyndonville,ny
Bob, get maggie on your show so she can explain this disaster of pork spending. Maybe after it fails they can spend millions to convert it into a casino. Oops wait that may be able to make a profit. Never mind. Better yet let's replace the inner loop with a canal so people can rent an inner tube and float around in circles. In winter we can ice skate on it. Have a great day everyone.

# 12. 5/23/07 6:14 AM by Steve - Western, New York
But Bob, we HAVE to do SOMETHING!!! ANYTHING!!! We have to "revitalize" the city! Don't you understand? I mean, look at that big beautiful stadium on Oak Street! This monument to the very vocal, but very small soccer crowd a few years back has drawn in record crowds every time they've played (the reality is that the Rhinos draw in fewer and fewer people with each succeeding home date)! And look what it's done to the neighborhood! Homes are being spruced up, flowers and trees are being planted in the neighbor's yards, and the area is so safe now you can walk the streets anytime you like. No, wait a minute....that was SUPPOSED to happen. Been down in THAT area lately?

Ren Square will be another fiscal disaster that this city, county, region, state, and country canNOT afford! But alas, the madness will never end, because if what you have written comes to pass, the Democrats will take over, and while they won't build a physical monument to stupidity, their legacy is one that is already set in stone, namely, the redistribution of wealth-tax the "rich" (anyone making over $25,000 per year) and giving it to those "who are down on their luck" or some other such spun nonsense.

No, we can't win unless someone says, enough is enough and stops this fiscally disastrous merry-go-round. (BTW, as a formerly proud Republican town committee member, I didn't vote for Maggie when she ran four years ago. Why? Because I knew she was a phony when she flip-flopped on your firing.) Time to take a stand for ALL the people Maggie and put this CRAZY idea to rest once and for all.

Editor's Note: the soccer stadium was doomed by david gantt's insistence that it not be in greece or gates, where soccer fans actually live and would have easy access to a stadium.

# 13. 5/23/07 6:16 AM by Rick - Rochester, NY
Please run for public office, Bob. I need to live in Utopia at least once in my life. I need to live in a place where things are always puppies and rainbows. A place where jobs are plentiful and folks play the harmonica on their front porch all day long, while Lonsberry pies cool on the window sill.

I know such a place can only exist if you, Bob Lonsberry, rules the roost, because you will never be wrong in anyone's eyes. All would be perfect and agreeable in Lonsberrytown. The words, "here's the deal" will be on the gold coins that drop out of your butt in Lonsberrytown, and all will be holy and sound.

# 14. 5/23/07 6:18 AM by TK - Mount Morris, N.Y.
Good morning Bob,

No one goes into the city now for the simple reason they would like to live. Dramatic sounding...but true. I understand the need to get something positive in the city but thugs as a rule don't generally attend the theater.

Editor's Note: not to be rude, but tacking a bus station onto the deal is like pissing in the punch bowl, it kind of chases away the customers.

# 15. 5/23/07 6:33 AM by Ben C. - Nation of Brighton
Darn, Bob, we out here in the community really are sadistically awaiting the opening of the Ren Center.

First, we can't wait to see a touring matinee re-run of Annie while the Jr. College kids are taking classes and the H.S. kids transferring at the slightly below-grade bus corral. I'm sure Moshe has thought about this and will segregate all the entrances. Well, at least we hope he has.

Then, we all look forward to the left hand turns in and out of the place by the buses onto North Clinton from the reduced lane East Main and vice-versa. Maybe it won't be a problem with the reduced traffic downtown.

Can't wait to see the window washing bill. People who emote in glass houses shouldn't throw stones?

It'll make a great downtown arboretum as a re-use plan.

And the faceless Borders Books facade is going to look so nice crammed in between the old Sibley's and the historic Granite Building. Such an inviting grand theater entrance I haven't seen since the attractive neo-warehouse one at the Convention Center across the street.

Your right, it'll be bringing in a lot of rubber chicken dinner tickets for both political parties for a long time to come. Maybe they'll start serving turkey at the dinners.

Gobble, gobble.

PS: I still haven't heard if the Park-And-Ride bus station at Mid-Town is due to be switched over to the new Ren Bus Corral.

# 16. 5/23/07 6:37 AM
The complex isn't really complete without windmills and an ethanol plant.

# 17. 5/23/07 6:42 AM by Dick Weed - Hornell, NY
It's Zig Ziglar, dumbarse.

# 18. 5/23/07 6:43 AM by Mario - Brockport
Whatever happened to Maggie's promise to defund city libraries over web access to porn? Did she flip flop on that too?

We need a new party. We need a conservative party with conservative values both social and financial.

Sometimes it is very hard to tell donkeys from elephants. One thing we know is that it is not fun being screwed by either.

# 19. 5/23/07 7:16 AM
High Falls is a ghost town. That was another stupid idea. Haven't local leaders learned that development occurs naturally where it will (see the East End), but cannot be forced?

# 20. 5/23/07 7:18 AM
Can you imagine Danny Wegman adding a homeless shelter to the Pittsford Wegmans?

That's what combining a theater and bus station is like.

# 21. 5/23/07 7:20 AM
I don't understand why everybody in this community can hear an idea like the fast ferry or Ren Square and say instantly, "That's stupid," but politicians require many months and billions of lost dollars to come to the same conclusion.

# 22. 5/23/07 7:23 AM by terry - albion
With each passing year I am coming closer to switching to the libertarian party. The republican party of today is the democrat party of 30 years ago, & the democrat party of today is just plain marxist.

Lets be honest. The republican party only pays lip service to our values. In reality the party in NY is just way toooooo liberal socially & fiscally.

# 23. 5/23/07 7:23 AM
Oh my aching head...when will it ever end? Just about every project that they dream about is for catering to a very small percentage of the population. I just do not see the average citizen of Rochester (within city limits) attending these "cultural" venues. I'm all for the "arts" but come on - let's start being realistic for a change.

# 24. 5/23/07 7:25 AM by Matt - Rochester, NY
If you would just use your opinionated, self-righteousness for good rather than evil, Bob, maybe you could solve some of the many errors you uncover......

# 25. 5/23/07 7:31 AM by GVI
NO MORE BOONDOGGLES!!! MAGGIE HAS TO GO!!! (Maybe she can be a professor at RIT.) Have we received all the funds due so far from the ferry sale?

# 26. 5/23/07 7:31 AM
I smell a Diversity Initiative.

# 27. 5/23/07 7:32 AM by Pete
Bob,

In reality comparing Johnson's folly, I mean Ferry and the sucker, I mean soccer stadium to the Ren square is not equal.

We do not spend a great deal of time downtown because of working 15 hours a day and family life but we do go to the War Mem. for truck, car, concerts, the Auditorium for shows and if my buddy gets me tickets the Red Wings.

Ren. square having a bus garage that is a bit much unless, it has transportation to and from the place for us suburbanites to go there.

If Ren square has some decent and changing stuff to see and do, it could work! I would think there are more people that would go here then the limited amount that even like sucker, I mean soccer.

PS, I live in Webster and I will be emailing and calling the School Stupid-tendent and I mean it exactly how I spelled it, for re-instating this queer sex book for our kids summer reading.

If my 13 year old comes home with this book out of his ignorance, (which I doubt because he knows that homosexuals are misfits) or it is shoved upon him, I will burn it and suffer the consequences.

# 28. 5/23/07 7:38 AM by Liberty Tom - Rochester, NY
I see a very efficient government program in the works. Theatre goers have $$$$; the riff-raff sure to inhabit the bus terminal need $$$$. There are funds transferred from those who have it to those who need it. Except for a few billion dollars for construction, very little additional funding would be needed. Result ? A very efficient welfare state.

This is a joke, right?

# 29. 5/23/07 7:43 AM by FGF - Rochester
I enjoy going to concerts at the Eastman and also attend some plays at Geva Theater. Both of these venues appear safe to me and I have never had any problems. The combining of the theater with the bus station will discourage many people from attending events there. At the first report of a robbery or cars being broken into, attendance at events will drop. This is sounding like a very expensive Irondequoit Mall.

# 30. 5/23/07 7:45 AM by RayD - Rochester
Why do they not get it , you only have the same people that go to these things, plays that is , base ball ,or other sporting stuff, the out of towners are so small it does not matter .New houseing in bad places still the same people live there .Just Follow the money.They do get it we just don't .

# 31. 5/23/07 7:47 AM
Rochester needs one thing. Are you wondering what that might be? They need a Toyota factory thats the size of ten football fields. You folks in government better do something, because I'm in the foreclosure business and all I see on a daily basis is mortgage delinquencies. This is good for the county because of court costs, etc. However, when the older folks start dying off, God help us. The city is a mess, and with the current Mayor, I have seen zero change. Those young adults living in poverty stricken neighborhoods will trickle down their poverty to its offspring. Generational poverty will continue without a job. A blue-collar factory job with a decent hourly wage and benefits. Without a job, I don't care if you build 1000 theaters. It is a waste of time. The city needs to bring in long-term jobs. Small-business will take you so far. Lastly, the Salvatore's Pizzeria ribbon cutting ceremony is a freekin joke. They hire 60 plus in the area. You're not going far on making pizza. The County will subsidize any business in Rochester, because they have no choice. That just goes to show you how serious a situation this real is. My message to the Mayor. When it comes to New York State and obtaining revenue, population size will always win. NYC baby is a money machine and it has great sucking capacity.

Editor's Note: amen

# 32. 5/23/07 7:51 AM by Doug
What a waste of money once again !! The reason people don't go downtown is the city is not SAFE period... Make the city SAFE and private money will come and it will be a profit to the city and not a $300,000,000.00 total loss. If the tax payer has to be stolden from to make something it shouldn't be made at all!!!!

# 33. 5/23/07 7:53 AM by ron - kenmore, ny
Stimpy Square in Buffalo will incorporate a Bass Pro Shop, a Frank Lloyd Wright designed gas station, Freddy Law Olmsted parks, historic preservation, grain elevators-turned ethanol plants, an Indian Casino/cigarette store/gas station, and absolutely no parking.

Something called Renaissance Faire in Niagara Falls was a failure 25 yrs. ago...

C'mon Rochester, if you're gonna compete, you gotta step up the stupid. The downtown canal almost got us nervous.

# 34. 5/23/07 7:57 AM
Maggie, you need to travel more. Because if you think Rochester is living, you got another thing coming. I want your job or the Mayors. Fat salaries, unbelievable benefits, pension, and quite honestly do you really break a sweat. How about if we build a monorail around the inner-loop and assign terminals for the different attractions.

# 35. 5/23/07 8:04 AM by rjs - Rochester, NY
You are absolutly right!!! Another stupid idea that our elected officals have come up with. And these same idiots will have plenty of retail and office space to include in this palace. Never mind that there is 40% vacancy rate downtown. The reason these people get elected is that nobody with half a brain wants the job. What this city, county, and state needs is jobs! But who in there right mind wants to move here with the taxes we pay. Keep it up Bob.

# 36. 5/23/07 8:05 AM
I elect # 31 for Mayor. He hit the nail on the head. The political forces here are bull!*&!@. They need what grandma had, a set of balls and a calary of verbal warfare.

# 37. 5/23/07 8:13 AM by PHIL - SOUTH WEDGE NY
AMEN BOB! RIGHT ON BUDDY! THIS PROJECT IS THE EQUIVALENT OF YOUR DANCING ON ROCHESTER RADIO STARS...A TOTAL & COMPLETE FAILURE! 121

Editor's Note: hold it, i came in fourth. that's the middle of the suck pack, not the bottom.

# 38. 5/23/07 8:20 AM
How can stupidity like this prevail? Answer,read the comment from #6 ("The money for the Ren was a take it or lose it proposition")

# 39. 5/23/07 8:24 AM by Joe
Monorail !! Monorail !!

# 40. 5/23/07 8:25 AM by George - Gananoque Ont. CANADA
LIGHTEN UP PEOPLE!

This is an opportunity for growth. this is an opportunity for small business to establish itself and gain a foot hold in the re-birth of downtown Rochester ( was that a mixed metaphor?)

I intend to come down to Rochester and open a new Tim Hortons next to the theatre. I'll sell up-scale coffee and collector edition doughnuts with scenes of various famous Rochester shootings and stabbings created in icing on each one. My special will be the "Fast Ferry Bignet" at $17.50 ( You don't get to eat it, just look at it)

I will also rent those new ceramic bullet proof vests and the hand gun of your choice. I'll call it the "Iced - Cap" special ( "Iced" as in dead and "Cap" as in shoot someone . . . I know it was a stretch, but work with me here)

My application for a three million dollar grant . . er, I mean loan is on it's way to Maggie.

# 41. 5/23/07 8:31 AM
#35....."Who would want to come here with the taxes we pay". Well, first and foremost you are another individual who does not understand the State in which we live. On Long Island a 1400 square foot home would cost you $500,000. A $150,00 home in Greece would run you a $1,000,000. Why can they afford homes like this? Jobs, they have jobs. This is probably one of the most affordable places to live within the state. The County is a business and that business needs to grow. They need firepower, unfortunately they lack it. What are people talking about? The new walk and bike path in Durand Eastman Beach. Are you kidding me..... Apparently, they care only about sentimental things, like raising a family, things to offer, bike paths, scenery, etc etc. Which is all fine and dandy. However, I'm thinking another way. Cash, moola, green baby. Show me the money. That's what Salvatore's Pizzeria is thinking, I guarantee you that. Show me the money!!!!

Editor's Note: i didn't understand a single thing you said

# 42. 5/23/07 8:31 AM by Clapaftis - Rochester
Hi Bob,

Agree with you to-day; but you come off

as a sage wearing a coat of many colors.

# 43. 5/23/07 8:37 AM by lea - radford, va
#15... I'm looking forward to the hiss and squeal of air breaks during theater performances. Magical!

# 44. 5/23/07 8:37 AM by Mark - ER
Bob, you give us drunken sailors a bad name when you compare the crooked politicians in Albany to us.

USS Nimitz 75-79

# 45. 5/23/07 8:38 AM by Renaissance Rainbows - Near Avon
I happened to be reading todays column when you cut loose on the Rainbow Boys being on a summer reading list. I couldn't help but make a connection between all of this and Adolph Hitler as well as the Kennedy assassination cover ups. I was a young man working at a malt shop when the news came on on about the assassinations and it happened to be a beautiful day. I remember making a mistake while making a "soda slusher" for a very angry man who then started screaming at me calling me "Hitlers Stepchild" and "Rainbow Boy". The name of the shop where I did my jerking was Renaissance Square Malt Shop! When he left in a huff I started going through his briefcase (I had to cut the lock) and found numerous documents tying him to the CIA and something called "The Vacuum War commission". My boss fired me and I ended up on the street for a few years before finally landing another job. So I can see why that Rainbow Square and Renaissance Boy Shop is a bad idea for any town.

# 46. 5/23/07 8:41 AM
I think #41 is saying that its bad here, but its worse in other areas when it comes to cost of living. So don't bitch about your taxes, because in other areas they are paying double. I'm speaking of property taxes Bob. Don't ya get it, or are you still dreaming about Salvatore's?

Editor's Note: almost nowhere in the country pays property taxes anywhere near those of upstate new york. niagara county has the highest in the nation and monroe county has the second highest. nobody pays heavier taxes than upstate new yorkers.

# 47. 5/23/07 8:44 AM by steve
Number 31 gets it, why can't our so called leaders get it?

Its all business baby, take the money and give tax breaks or loans to start real businesses not non profits or services.

In reality everyone knows the city sucks and its out of control with crime and death. What person who lives in reality wants to go downtown unless they work there?

# 48. 5/23/07 8:46 AM by Ted - ER
Whatever became of the concept of Less Government??

I'm tired of the politicians bragging about how it is "State" money or "Federal" money. Because it is coming out of my other pocket, it seems to justify wasteful spending.

Look no further than school budgets and their justification.

# 49. 5/23/07 8:50 AM by Me - Livonia
Despite your "Brought to you by the smart people in charge" that is unfortunately seldom really true. The "smart people in charge" are usually just the ones with the overdrive to succeed. They aren't stupid but being smart is like everything else relative.

# 50. 5/23/07 8:55 AM
I thought the usual procedure for revitalization was for artist type people to go in to a run down area and clean it up and make it look good and livable with an air of it being the cool place to be and then the rich people come in and kick the poor artists out like the suckers they always, always are. They even have a word for it called gentrification. That pretends that the rich folk did something useful when all they did is steal the creativity and hard work of others.

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