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I happened upon this satirical website someone created about Rochester New York's fast ferry, The Breeze. It is hysterical. It's probably been floating around unnoticed in cyber space for years.
Anyone who remembers Mayor Johnson's foolish decision to build this boat can refresh their memories. He spent multi-millions of Monroe county resident's tax money on a fast ferry that failed on its maiden voyage, and never sailed again.
Remember when it got stuck in the Locks?
Remember when it slammed into the dock and sustained massive damage?
Remember when it abandoned it passengers in Canada and left them stranded there?
I don't know why the site is called The Genny Fitzjohnson, but it's all here. Enjoy.
I happened upon this satirical website someone created about Rochester New York's fast ferry, The Breeze. It is hysterical. It's probably been floating around unnoticed in cyber space for years.
Anyone who remembers Mayor Johnson's foolish decision to build this boat can refresh their memories. He spent multi-millions of Monroe county resident's tax money on a fast ferry that failed on its maiden voyage, and never sailed again.
Remember when it got stuck in the Locks?
Remember when it slammed into the dock and sustained massive damage?
Remember when it abandoned it passengers in Canada and left them stranded there?
I don't know why the site is called The Genny Fitzjohnson, but it's all here. Enjoy.
Going to guess it's a play off of 'Edmund Fitzgerald', but with Genny (for the Genesee River/Genny beer) in place of 'Edmund' and previously-unknown-to-me mayor Johnson's name in place of '-gerald'. Hopefully you can handle the remaining syllable on your own
I think there's an obvious bias, as well as misinformation, posted at the link. YES, no doubt, there were a lot of "screw-ups" connected with that venture, but the story at the link makes it sound like the boat made only one trip back and forth to Canada. That, by itself, was a totally false statement. Yes, the engines had issues, but if I recall correctly, it was because they were spec'd out for fresh water service, which Lake Ontario is, but they forgot that the boat was being sailed to Rochester, from Australia, where it was built, in the ocean's salt water.
Yes, the City of Rochester invested a LOT of money in docking facilities, but Canada never really bought into the project, so their docking facility was minimal. This boat was conceived as a "two function" ship. The upper decks would be used as a luxury, floating casino, and the lower decks would be used to carry passenger cars and commercial trucks to Canada. Again, the port in Rochester was designed to load the boat in that fashion, the dock in Toronto wasn't.
And NO, the City of Rochester does not still own the boat, as the article implies....it was sold YEARS ago, and the last I read about it, it's enjoying life on the Mediterranean.
I happened upon this satirical website someone created about Rochester New York's fast ferry, The Breeze. It is hysterical. It's probably been floating around unnoticed in cyber space for years.
Anyone who remembers Mayor Johnson's foolish decision to build this boat can refresh their memories. He spent multi-millions of Monroe county resident's tax money on a fast ferry that failed on its maiden voyage, and never sailed again.
Remember when it got stuck in the Locks?
Remember when it slammed into the dock and sustained massive damage?
Remember when it abandoned it passengers in Canada and left them stranded there?
I don't know why the site is called The Genny Fitzjohnson, but it's all here. Enjoy.
I think there's an obvious bias, as well as misinformation, posted at the link. YES, no doubt, there were a lot of "screw-ups" connected with that venture, but the story at the link makes it sound like the boat made only one trip back and forth to Canada. That, by itself, was a totally false statement. Yes, the engines had issues, but if I recall correctly, it was because they were spec'd out for fresh water service, which Lake Ontario is, but they forgot that the boat was being sailed to Rochester, from Australia, where it was built, in the ocean's salt water.
Yes, the City of Rochester invested a LOT of money in docking facilities, but Canada never really bought into the project, so their docking facility was minimal. This boat was conceived as a "two function" ship. The upper decks would be used as a luxury, floating casino, and the lower decks would be used to carry passenger cars and commercial trucks to Canada. Again, the port in Rochester was designed to load the boat in that fashion, the dock in Toronto wasn't.
And NO, the City of Rochester does not still own the boat, as the article implies....it was sold YEARS ago, and the last I read about it, it's enjoying life on the Mediterranean.
Yeah, but all that should have been taken into account before the Breeze was built. That boat had many, many problems.
Yeah, but all that should have been taken into account before the Breeze was built. That boat had many, many problems.
The original ferry project was commissioned and paid for by a PRIVATE CITIZEN, Brian Prince. The original business plan was pretty solid. Unfortunately politics got involved. Right at the beginning, the late Bill Nojay, who was in charge of RTS at the time, wanted to control the ferry too, and interfered with the start-up. Another problem was because the ship wasn't built in America, they had to pay $5000 every time it entered US (2x a day). It was also set up to carry trucks. That never got approved. Those last 2 issues could have been corrected by Louise Slaughter, but she didn't help.
By now, the original operator had enough and wanted to sell the ship. I'm glad Bill Johnson had the vision for the city to buy it. I truly believe the state should have owned and operated it. It was finally sold when Bob Duffy got into office because he didn't want to have to answer questions throughout his term.
Still, in my mind the best potential project we ever had, but if anyone seriously proposed a new service the very tiny people would immediately start the ridicule and nay saying.
The whole problem with the ferry concept was that it took about the same amount of time to DRIVE to Toronto for much less money (gas) that it cost to sail on the ferry. A losing proposition from the start. There was this fantasy that "tourists" from Toronto would just love to come to NY for the festivals, Finger Lakes, low tax shopping etc. etc. etc. In the tourism equation, what is the likelihood that western NY (Rochester or Finger Lakes) would be enough to draw folks from Toronto (a world-class city) to "little old" Rochester. Not to bash Rochester (I'm a fourth generation Rochesterian) but come on, let's be realistic. What exactly is there in Rochester that would have drawn Torontonians to take a ferry here?
The whole problem with the ferry concept was that it took about the same amount of time to DRIVE to Toronto for much less money (gas) that it cost to sail on the ferry. A losing proposition from the start. There was this fantasy that "tourists" from Toronto would just love to come to NY for the festivals, Finger Lakes, low tax shopping etc. etc. etc. In the tourism equation, what is the likelihood that western NY (Rochester or Finger Lakes) would be enough to draw folks from Toronto (a world-class city) to "little old" Rochester. Not to bash Rochester (I'm a fourth generation Rochesterian) but come on, let's be realistic. What exactly is there in Rochester that would have drawn Torontonians to take a ferry here?
The whole problem with the ferry concept was that it took about the same amount of time to DRIVE to Toronto for much less money (gas) that it cost to sail on the ferry. A losing proposition from the start. There was this fantasy that "tourists" from Toronto would just love to come to NY for the festivals, Finger Lakes, low tax shopping etc. etc. etc. In the tourism equation, what is the likelihood that western NY (Rochester or Finger Lakes) would be enough to draw folks from Toronto (a world-class city) to "little old" Rochester. Not to bash Rochester (I'm a fourth generation Rochesterian) but come on, let's be realistic. What exactly is there in Rochester that would have drawn Torontonians to take a ferry here?
The original plan was 33% of passengers to Rochester, 33% elsewhere in NYS, 33% beyond NYS.
Why would people want to come to little ole Rochester? Who says bigger is better for starters? Do you have an inferiority complex because you lived here? Maybe, I see you've moved. Being lower cost would make Rochester a perfect place for a Toronto company to build a plant. We have lots of optics here, as well as college courses in optics. Think there's Toronto companies that would benefit? There's a lot of cross boarder collaboration with education and industry. Who wants to drive, when you could watch a movie, have dinner, nap, have a business meeting without the stress. What about the coolness factor?
In short, when people react with the "why Rochester" skepticism, this is the very reason Rochester hasn't grown. A hundred years ago, Toronto and Rochester were about the same population. Why?
.........In short, when people react with the "why Rochester" skepticism, this is the very reason Rochester hasn't grown. A hundred years ago, Toronto and Rochester were about the same population. Why?
High taxes in NY?
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