I'm not going to tell anything about that second day of the retreat, as it should remain a surprise to everyone who has the opportunity to attend!
So, instead, I'll tell you about the first program day, Getting Grounded. The class was divided up into multiple teams who each took different routes around the city to get a better picture of our community. My team scored the City's Sectors 4 & 5, which comprise a significant portion of the 19th Ward (where I lived for 15 years) and the entirety of the Inner Loop. We started the day meeting up at the Downtown Presbyterian Church . We were given our driving directions for the day and then let loose onto the City!
Our first task was to stop and check out some new, very expensive homes being built downtown. These homes are located near the Plymouth Avenue area inside the loop and will be going for upwards of $250,000. Not a small chunk of change for the area they're in! The idea, I believe, in pointing these out was to showcase how there is an uptick in the number of people moving back into the City each year. They're not moving into cheap homes, though.
From there, we took a brief driving tour of the Corn Hill section of town. Although I've driven past it a thousand times, and have eaten at the restaurants in Corn Hill Landing dozens of times, I never really took the time to head back behind Nathaniel's to see what was back there. Turns out, that's a shame as there are some truly beautiful streets with amazing and diverse architecture!
Once we'd completed our circuit, we headed back downtown to get to our next stop, the Rundel Library, to meet up with city planner, Tom Hack. I'm ashamed to admit that having lived in Rochester for 18 years, I'd never actually stepped foot into the Rundel. But, then, since I'm a seriously digital-type person, I honestly haven't spent much time in libraries, period, over the last 20-25 years. I'm glad we had to stop in because the Rundel is a beautiful building!
And, what brought us to the library? Well, Tom Hack, as I said! He spent a goodly amount of time chatting with us about plans that are in the pipeline and wishlist for the City. He explained about the "watering" of Broad Street, which would essentially close off that street in a way that pays homage to the fact that it was once part of the Erie Canal. I'd heard about this plan before and always thought it was a stupid idea, but after seeing the full presentation, I'm VERY impressed! It really fits in with the RocCity 2.0 walkable downtown concepts!
Was that the only reason we were meeting up with Tom? Nope. Tom was also there to take us into...the subway tunnels!! For those who don't know, Rochester once had a subway, but it's been abandoned for about 60 years. I'll spare you the background, though. TEDxRochester 2012 speaker, Mike Governdale does a much better job of it on his blog, RochesterSubway.com. I've been wanting to get down into the tunnels for quite some time, so I was stoked when I found out my team would get that opportunity!
It lived up to expectations, too. I know it sounds stupid, but you have to understand that I rode the subway in Philadelphia every day when I was in high school. I never got the opportunity to see anything beyond the platforms and what flashed by as we zipped through the tunnels. I knew it was just going to be a dank, dark hole in the ground, but nonetheless I was glad to have finally gotten the chance. The first thing I noticed? A whole lot bigger than I'd thought! I've seen pics others have taken, but they're typically just of the Broad Street tunnel. There's so much more beyond that, and it was just creepy and cold and oh so neat.
The second thing, which was impossible to overlook, was the graffiti art everywhere. According to Tom, it changes from week to week, yet they've never actually seen anyone in there doing it. Each artist apparently gets a section to work on, and it appears almost as if there's a competition going on down there. Apparently, there's also folks who live in some parts, but we didn't get to meet any of those... :)
After leaving Tom, we continued on our tour. This time, we focused on the 19th Ward. We headed over to the Clara Barton school #2 where we met up with folks from Rochester Roots, a group that works with kids from the schools to farm fresh vegetables which are then sold at the St. Mary's public market. We got a tour of their facilities and greenhouse, but the real point of directing us here was to see the disparity in living conditions between here and Corn Hill just a short jaunt away on the other side of Ford Street. One really gets a sense of what the Occupy movement was about when you get dropped right into the midst of it all.
We then drove to the Boulder Coffee on Genesee Street to meet up with one of the directors of the 19th Ward Community Association. We chatted for a bit about what they're doing to increase the economic potential of that area, including getting the Brooks Landing project approved, funded and built. This has been a great boon to this community as it's driven money into a neighborhood that desperately needed it and the transformation is spectacular. We toured the area around the Staybridge Suites hotel which is just a gorgeous place to spend time.
From there we headed to lunch at Deli Sandros, a new deli representative of the revitalization of that community. Wonderful food, and if you get there an the Buffalo mac & cheese in on the menu that day, do NOT skip it!
At this point, we were WAAAY behind on schedule and so had to zip through the remainder of what we were supposed to see. But, on the whole, I think we got the point...there's a huge disparity in how people live in Rochester, but there's a lot of change happening that should lead to better things. We headed back to the church where we were greeted by a panel of community leaders. Each team then took a few minutes to create a presentation of what they experienced, and every one was so varied from every other. I think the one that was most interesting was the one that headed to Pittsford. Their tour started out visiting a trailer park! In Pittsford!
I learned a lot about our area in that fast-paced day, and have gained further appreciation of the hard working folks who are putting in the effort every day to make a difference in their community. I'm inspired by people like that, I suppose that has something to do with my doing TEDxRochester, and it energizes me to know there's so many people working to make Rochester a better place.
Tomorrow is program day #2: "Who takes care of whom", and about all I know is I'll be at the Open Door Mission at about 6am. So, that means coffee is #1 on the agenda!
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