Is Rochester Gloomy and Boring? (Buffalo, Niagara Falls: fit in, high school, live)
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Boring? NO way there's always things to do. Rochester has great places to eat, tons of shopping, and plenty of culture, and, it's all relatively close. Downtown is probably the weakest of all the areas, but they want to improve it, trying to bring businesses down there to fuel growth.
Agreed. I took my kids down to High Falls in Downtown Rochester this weekend. We go about twice a year, in addition to catching at least 2 baseball games (so probably 4 trips a year). They have a great little visitor's center and the falls are awesome. The old buildings are very interesting.... I'd love to see more restaurants, etc. It's a really cool spot.
The lack of decent, consistent, and successful development at High Falls speaks volumes about the city itself. I've said it before, soooo many other cities in not only the country but the entire world would give anything to have what we have in High Falls. Yet our city leadership squanders it and does nothing to improve the situation. It's really quite sad. It could easily be like Denvers 16th Street Mall area or Bostons Back Bay/Quincy Market, but it's just, well, blah. Quite tragic :-/
The lack of decent, consistent, and successful development at High Falls speaks volumes about the city itself. I've said it before, soooo many other cities in not only the country but the entire world would give anything to have what we have in High Falls. Yet our city leadership squanders it and does nothing to improve the situation. It's really quite sad. It could easily be like Denvers 16th Street Mall area or Bostons Back Bay/Quincy Market, but it's just, well, blah. Quite tragic :-/
Problem was that there were already well established entertainment districts. The city can only handle so much. The East End and the Monroe strip are within walking distance to thousands of people. High falls was not in walking distance to anybody. Why drive somewhere and risk a DWI when you could just walk somewhere.
I think an emphasis on restaurants would have worked better than the bar/club thing.
Well that's the biggest thing, is nobody ever thought to make it a family oriented area, they just tried a bunch of $hitty clubs that brought in zero value to the entire place. Leave that crap to Monroe and East. It needs to be more than an "entertainment" district pe; think more along the lines of historical/educational/family fun driven district. There's tons of history down there, why not use it? Build a museum showcasing not only the High Falls, but the entire city. Build a restaurant and fill it with pieces of history and make it a historically themed establishment. And most importantly, USE THE DAMN FALLS!!! How? I don't know, it's not my job to come up with these ideas. But there's gotta be something else you can do with them other than a laser light show. Which, again, failed because of the city. Go figure.
Well that's the biggest thing, is nobody ever thought to make it a family oriented area, they just tried a bunch of $hitty clubs that brought in zero value to the entire place. Leave that crap to Monroe and East. It needs to be more than an "entertainment" district pe; think more along the lines of historical/educational/family fun driven district. There's tons of history down there, why not use it? Build a museum showcasing not only the High Falls, but the entire city. Build a restaurant and fill it with pieces of history and make it a historically themed establishment. And most importantly, USE THE DAMN FALLS!!! How? I don't know, it's not my job to come up with these ideas. But there's gotta be something else you can do with them other than a laser light show. Which, again, failed because of the city. Go figure.
that would be a good idea. I've been at the bottom of the falls and its really cool down there. minus the RG&E station, I can't think of anything else down there, so why not put something there?
I actually really agree with OTNY.....I feel like the city always focuses on the college aged/young adult crowd when they try to develop an area that will bring people into the city for the day/night. The city already has those people; college kids and recent grads live in the city and already spend most of their time and money there. It's the middle/upper-middle class families in the suburbs that the city of Rochester really needs to work on bringing in. Yes there is the Strong museum and Ontario Beach Park (really more of a suburban destination that might as well be in Greece, but technically in the city)...but I bet plenty of people with families would be happy to spend an evening in the city if there were some more family-friendly attractions there...I know we would! If High Falls had some good restaurants (and no I don't mean applebees or red robin), maybe a park-like area; it could probably generate a lot more business than simply another bar/club area of which downtown offers plenty.
Part of the problem was too-high expectations for what was a heavily subsidized part of downtown that, as others pointed out, is cut off from other parts of downtown.
I used to hang out at the joint at the far end of High Falls by the RG&E station (there was another in Brockport, can't remember the name). A buddy bartended there. At any rate, you guys nailed it, there wasn't a good mix of development, and mix of demographics. Rochester, in my mind, always does things bass ackwards, meaning they always put the cart before the horse, and often times chase quick-fix schemes rather than shining up a part of the city, inviting business and residential development, THEN try to attract investments along the lines of those described in other posts. Quick-fix=cronyism and invites all kinds of graft and whatnot, which the politicians, unions, and rich construction companies love.
Parts of the street grid in downtown need to be changed in order for there to even be a starting point. Redeveloping the Midtown site should have taken a back seat to a complete overhaul of Main, a bus terminal OFF of main (Mortimer St. Garage site would be perfect), and changing the street grid from one where 50,000 more people worked downtown 40 years ago to a 21st C. reality. Otherwise, that end of downtown resembles a cross between London during the Blitz and 1976 Warsaw, Poland. Direct the majority of bus traffic on to St. Paul and Clinton, into the Mortimer site, and be done with it.
Main St. should look like a real one, and public safety (and/or the apperance of such) should take precedence along with a 20+ year master plan. Downtown reminds me of Toledo and so many other Great Lakes 'burgs, blah and stuck in about 1960 institutional architecture. Instead of that stupid idea to fill in the old aqueduct, they need to narrow Main, get the buses off that street, widen the sidewalks a scooch more, put in streetscaping, and offer tax incentives for developers.
I see Pike is gonna be the holding company for the first building at Midtown. Didn't know Pike did that sort of thing, but, it remains to be seen what comes of the old Midtown property. That area, and across and down the street at Clinton and Main needs some serious work.
Simple answer:
Gloomy - Yes (except for the summer months)
Boring - No!
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