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| Downtown Rochester: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly |
By: Christopher J. Wilmot
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Posted: Monday, February 15, 2010 7:04 am
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An impressive skyline, and perhaps a new Main Street?
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Monday, February 15, 2010 Rochester, NY - First, the good (and occasionally, the excellent) about today's downtown, and what might be coming soon, to an urban center near you:
1.) The Inn on Broadway, featuring Tournedos Restaurant: The former University Club is now called The Inn on Broadway. As the name suggests, the Inn is on Broadway, where Scio changes street names. This exquisite boutique hotel caters to the out of town business crowd, as well as those looking for an in-town vacation, and sports 23 unique guest rooms (all actually slightly different from the others). The Inn has been around a decade, and has four "private event" rooms for business meetings and wedding receptions, as well as boasting valet parking, with an unusually large parking lot for an urban hotel.
However, the centerpiece of this downtown gem is its only restaurant, Tournedos. This is, without exception, very likely the best restaurant in Monroe County. The meat selections are exceptional, and while I don't consume alcohol, Tournedos has an extensive wine collection, all temperature controlled, enclosed in glass, and just behind three old fashioned, massive black leather-like booths. The fish selections are fine; the bread and Cesar salad are particular favorites, yet probably the most unusual and best menu item in the house are the Gratin Potatoes. You'll think you died and went to heaven.
Tavern 26 (most regulars simply refer to it as "the lounge") is the hotel's only bar, and is nicely appointed, with just enough light, and is set up for mature adults (and I don't mean the elderly, necessarily). The over-stuffed chairs are comfortable, by the gas fireplace, and the bar tender is very courteous, just like the wait staff in the restaurant.
Don't miss the food, the ambiance, and the fantastic location, next door to WHEC TV-10, and very walkable to the Eastman Theater, the Little Theater, Spot Coffee and Java Joe's. The Inn on Broadway is one of Downtown Rochester's best kept secrets.
2.) The Little Theater: Very few cities, anywhere, even much larger in population than Rochester, have an 'art house' independent movie theater complex as wonderful as the Little. From its original, large East Avenue theater (Little #1), to the newer, more modest in size theaters 2-5, just behind the older edifice, the Little shows first run American independent, European, and the occasional Latin American and Canadian masterpiece films, with the tastiest popcorn in town (I am quite Pavlovian when it comes to attending movies, and chomping on popcorn).
In the newer complex in the rear, there is a decent café (food is good, but not great), yet with live entertainment on some evenings. The Little also is kind enough to provide, free of charge, one page reviews of the film you are about to see, or one that you will hustle back to the Little to see very soon. The Little is member supported, so if you haven't joined, please do so immediately (I did only recently, and now I sleep better at night). We must make sure to never lose this cultural treasure, in our own backyard.
3.) The High Falls of the Genesee River: Notice how I didn't write, "The High Falls District". But I'll save my criticism for that neighborhood later. The 'High" or 'Upper Falls' of the Genesee River are truly spectacular, especially since the waterfall crashes to the floor of the river gorge in the middle of a dense urban area. Technically, the High Falls are outside of the Inner Loop, but only by about 50-100 feet.
Formed about 20,000 years ago, when the most recent Ice Age moved the Genesee River about 10 miles to the west (pre-Ice Age river basin is present Irondequoit Bay), the High Falls are muddy brown, like the bottom of the Genesee, yet tall, and breath taking, especially from the pedestrian bridge that spans the Genesee Gorge, connecting the High Falls District, and St. Paul Blvd. A must see for out-of-towner's, and Rochesterians who, like native New Yorkers (City) who grow up in Gotham, yet have never been to the top of the Empire State Building.
4.) The New ESL Headquarters: Located where Chestnut meets Monroe Avenue, directly across the street from the Strong Children's Museum of Play, the sparkling, brand new, and not quite completed Eastman Savings and Loan (ESL) headquarters building is a clear and unequivocally 'net positive' addition to Downtown Rochester.
The architecture is neither stunning, nor plain. In a sense, this is not an employment 'net positive' to Monroe County, since ESL simply moved its headquarters from one local municipality (Irondequoit, on Kings Highway) to another (Downtown). But, with its attractive parking garage (I know, an oxymoron) bordering the property to the south, right next to the Inner Loop and I-490, and its impressive pedestrian entrance, it would be hard to argue that this addition to the Downtown skyline is anything but good (although the building only 'rockets up' about five or six stories). Still, all in all, a good choice for the southern section of the Inner Loop.
5.) The Strong Children's Museum of Play, and, the Manhattan Square Park Ice Rink: These marvelous, family oriented venues are just what the urban doctor ordered for an Inner Loop that otherwise lacks safe and inviting city-scapes for families, and curiosity seekers alike. The Museum of Play went through a multi-year, multi-million dollar renovation not so many years back, and the result is a much improved museum for all ages. From the butterfly house, to the Toy Hall of Fame upstairs, patrons could spend hours here, and if they tote children, adults will find it quite difficult to drag their pride and joy out of the exit.
By the way, this is the third largest children's museum in the world, behind only Mexico City and Indianapolis. Don't miss it.
Just to the north of the Children's Museum is the Manhattan Square Park Ice Rink. I've been Downtown a lot lately, and because this winter the temperature rarely approaches even the freezing mark, its been a great season for outdoor ice skating Downtown, amid the near-by skyscrapers of the HSBC Tower (formerly Marine Midland); Xerox Tower (Rochester's tallest at 443 feet or 30 stories); and the apartment buildings adjacent to the site, just to the east.
The ice rink is an easy snowball's throw away from the Children's Museum, and is in such close proximity, it feels like another feature of the museum, albeit an outdoor attraction. Manhattan Square Park has suffered since the City closed the observation deck atop the strange yet interesting hodge-podge metal structure, just to the west of the ice rink. Nonetheless, seeing kids and adults skating outdoors this past weekend reminded me of what Downtown Rochester once was (a haven and delight for pedestrians), and what Downtown could still be !
...The Bad
1.) The Amtrak Train Station: Due to President Obama's (and his Democratic Congresses') massive and unrelenting deficit spending, this cookie-cutter, unimaginative, outdated, and 'below grade' internationalist box, will likely receive a major face-lift, if not a total demolition. Thank you, Representative Slaughter. Finally, we might garner a train station, like Syracuse and Albany, that allows passengers, especially of the wheel chair-bound-sort, a level, 'at grade' entrance and exit to the several a day Amtrak trains that roll through Downtown Rochester. All we have now is a leaky outdoor overhang on the train platform, whose waiting area is paved with asphalt, and a glorified bus station inside, with questionable bathrooms, and vending machines as stand-ins for real concessions (again, SEE the Syracuse and Albany Stations, which, by the way, are located in metro areas and cities smaller in population than Rochester). It's about time !!
2.) East Main Street, between the Liberty Pole, and the Genesee River: This urban wasteland was counting on the $100 million-plus that Downtown would have received from the Federal government if RenSquare had been approved. While perhaps an ill-conceived project, it's hard to kiss goodbye that kind of taxpayer funded largesse. Now, the street of broken dreams has little hope of any revitalization (I don't believe a word of that 'PAETEC Headquarters' crap at the Midtown site; and, the Rochester Broadway Theater League (RBTL) doesn't have a pot to piss in, let alone the $40-$75 million it would allegedly take to build a state-of-the-art Broadway roadhouse-style theater).
Listen up, you business geniuses at City Hall: When women are afraid to frequent a former or current retail / commercial strip, anywhere in the U.S. (or world, for that matter), that's the end of your retail / commercial strip, morons!!
How many times does it take for this economic reality to get through the apparent thick heads at the corner of Church and Fitzhugh Streets? Want an inexpensive solution, which would represent a good beginning toward the sustainable rehab of East Main Street? Narrow the sidewalks slightly, stripe the street for angled vehicular parking, and most importantly, remove every bus shelter from East Main Street, between the river and Midtown!!!! Also, order City police officers (hear that, Ronnie E.?) to get out of their cars, and off their horses, and walk a beat, gun and billy club exposed. Only safety and ease of parking will ever return East Main Street Downtown to prosperity.
3.) Lack of Suburban Style Parking: As much as we'd like to kid ourselves, Downtown Rochester will never be a smaller and vibrant version of Manhattan or Toronto. So, since Greater Rochester is almost over-built with grid urban streets, highly functional suburban boulevards, and fine interstate highways, let's all finally recognize that absent some fictitious light rail system that may never arrive, the car is king, here in Rochester and Monroe County. Now that we've established this fact, City Hall types need to focus not only on angled street parking (ever been to East Rochester? Seems to work there), but on large, open air parking lots, close to the action.
Yes, these could be pay lots (but the price better be very affordable), yet these new parking lots must be plentiful, and obvious to suburbanites, who still possess most of the disposable income in Greater Rochester. People, especially women (and this man) hate parking garages, for at least two important reasons: They are 'perceived' as unsafe, and, have fun exiting one of these behemoths at rush hour, and please enjoy the glacially-slow exit, and the sweet inhalation of car exhaust.
4.) Lack of Gourmet Corner Grocery Stores, Dry Cleaners, and Fast Food Eateries: The critical mass needed to support Downtown neighborhoods, and the now fictitious after work crowd (maybe someday) will only be sustained with small businesses that are found every first or second block in functional urban centers like Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, DC (where I lived, in the District, for two years), Boston, and Manhattan. True, we can never be as large or urban focused as those cities, but if you live at the beautiful Sagamore East, at Scio and East Avenue, where exactly does one purchase their food and household sundries; drop off and pick-up their dry cleaning, or walk to a multitude of Downtown eateries? Well, the fact is, you must hop in your vehicle, and drive east down East Avenue, and enter Wegmans (East at Winton), or stop off at Julian's Dry Cleaners (on Blossom, just east of Winton); and if you want fast food, try walking in a snow storm from the Sagamore to the McDonald's on Monroe Avenue, or the Wendy's at East and Winton. And, there are no gourmet corner grocery stores downtown, at least of which I am aware.
5.) Tear Down / Demolish Midtown Tower: I've traveled to 47 of the 50 U.S. states, four Canadian provinces, every continent save Australia and Antarctica (where there aren't any tall buildings), and I've never seen a high rise building as ugly (and strange) as Midtown Tower. At least at one time its saving grace was that it offered the "Top of the Plaza" restaurant, with its great views, and amazing Monte Cristo sandwich. Now it's virtually if not totally empty, and is still, like it always has been, two ugly buildings for the price of one. Its lower 'gray' colored internationalist, minimalist box is non-descript, with its gold colored, hideous accoutrement sitting atop. It has never, ever fit in with the rest of the Rochester skyline, which frankly isn't half bad.
In any conceivable redevelopment of the Midtown site, this architectural pestilence must come down, to the ground.
...and finally, The Ugly (SEE The Bad !)
-Christopher J. Wilmot
Pittsford, NY
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Member Opinions:
By: CityResident on 2/20/10
As far as downtown is concerned: when "order" as in "law & order" is put back into the formula of police work downtown will have a chance to become viable. Surface parking is for malls, not for high density urban locations. Annmarie Van Son Rochester, New York
By: AlanForCongress on 3/27/10
Did anybody realise there is no Starbucks inside the inner loop? Is that sad or what... Alan Aszkler Fairport, New York
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