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It's hard to believe that anyone would print this, but the newspaper of record here just did. Will a failed, multi-million dollar bundle of hubris and corruption rise from disrepair and become the savior of Venezuela? Read on...
My spouse and I were fortunate to ride that ferry once for a weekend in Toronto. Quite nonchalantly a couple sat near us and asked if they could borrow our newspaper (which wasn't even ours to give).
Conversation led to the four of us hanging out together all weekend and we remain friends to this day.
We call each other "ferry friends". LOL.
Problems and bad juju may abound with that vessel, but we have great memories from it.
It was doomed from the beginning, and I called it a "Cadillac ferry for a Caprice Classic town", before it was delivered.
High Falls. The ferry. The soccer stadium.
Three large, failed projects done under one William Johnson, who now teaches at RIT and Fisher. Three boondoggles which scarfed up huge sums of taxpayer dollars, which will take decades to pay off.
One of the last things I remember seeing before leaving Rochester was the ferry parked down on the river. A failure of epic proportions for a dead, declining, small Rust Belt metro.
They said Canadians would come over and spend $$$ in Monroe Vty and the Finger Lakes. Instead, monied Canadians took the ferry, got on 390, and made a beeline for the Northeast Corridor.
The parallels between what's going on in Venezuela, and the sacred cows the D&C staff self-righteously promote, are striking, but I wouldn't expect the staff there or a lot of their dumb readers to "get it".
The FF was potentially the best project ever brought to Rochester. Most people haven't put any thought into it, so they love to mock it. It just needed some tweaking and government support. Remember Louise Slaughter failed in getting the shipping approvals. The late Bill Nojay, who was in charge of the bus company at the time, tried to hijack the project. Remember, this was originally financed by a private citizen, Brian Prince. I applaud the mayor for undertaking the project, but it should have been state sponsored. Buffalo got $750 million for a struggling solar project in Buffalo. We could have bought 30 Fast Ferries for that much money. Let's get a new ferry for Rochester-Toronto.
Honestly I didn't see the point of it, you can drive there in 3 hours or take the ferry and be there in 2 hours and 15 minutes, It never really cut off a significant amount of time to justify the cost of taking it.
Honestly I didn't see the point of it, you can drive there in 3 hours or take the ferry and be there in 2 hours and 15 minutes, It never really cut off a significant amount of time to justify the cost of taking it.
You're not alone. Most people didn't understand it either, although it could have been whatever you wanted it to be for yourself.
Here's how I saw it
*Although you could drive, you go through 100 towns. This was a DIRECT connection, and you didn't have to be concerned about boarder delays and all the stress of driving. You could just enjoy yourself for the whole trip. If you were a business person, you could hold a meeting on board.
*Rochester , with a lower COL would be an ideal place for a Canadian company to build a plant and even a US headquarters.
* Think about all the collaborations between Toronto's colleges, universities and businesses and ours, especially in areas like optics.
* The "Coolness Factor"--The ship and the concept were really quite impressive, and Milwaukee is the only other place with one, other than coastal. I can imagine college students staying here after graduation, with the ferry contributing heavily in that decision
I can go on and on and so can you unless your glass is half empty.
People complain about the $25 million. If you're paying attention, that's basically the cost of an expressway bridge. Not much in todays dollar.
Bring back The Fast Ferry
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