Rochester, New York A Best Place To Walk?

Prevention Magazine has ranked Rochester, New York…
As one of the top 25 best walking cities!

Say what!? The best walking city? How in the world did they come up with that rating? In its May issue, the healthy lifestyle magazine rated Rochester and the surrounding suburbs 17th on its list. The area also received an honorable mention for safety, low crime rates and pedestrian fatalities. Just in case you’re wondering, San Francisco was ranked number one, followed by Boston, New York City and Philadelphia.

Okay, who are they trying to kid here.

For anyone living in Rochester, New York, they know this is a joke! Maybe the suburbs are safe, but Rochester? Really? Rochester, New York? The city with a high crime rate. The city that’s installing cash-grabbing-intersection cameras because people like to run red lights. The city that decided to put a soccer stadium in the red-light district of town?

A great walking city…really?

Read on …

Do Cameras Improve Traffic Safety?

The City of Rochester, New York is planning to move forward with a plan to start taking pictures of people who disobey traffic signals. Rochester’s City Council passed what’s called home rule legislation requesting the state legislature to approve the plan to install 50 red light cameras. The cameras would be installed in what are described as the busiest intersections in the city.

Approval from New York State could come as early as next week. The Rochester Police Department will then conduct a study to determine exactly how many drivers run red lights in the city, before the cameras are installed.

But, do cameras really work at traffic lights? Or, do they simply cause more accidents?

Read on …

Whatever Happened To Responsible Spending?

It seems no one knows how to budget responsibly anymore. As a matter of fact, one could say the phrase responsible spending is more of an oxymoron these days than anything else. Of course you could also say those who are supposed to know how to spend responsibly are nothing more than morons!

Yes, we’re in the midst of hard economic times. But reality is, this was brought on by greedy leadership who figured they could spend like there was no tomorrow. Then, even when companies tanked and did poorly, the leaders and CEO’s who failed, were rewarded with outlandish bonuses and salary increases.

The bubble had to break sometime. Since it was a really big bubble, it broke in a really big way!

Read on …

A City On The Edge of the Erie

For people living near and around Rochester, New York, much of what goes on in the city could be referred to as a soap opera. It seems every time you turn around, there’s another example of poor decision politics going on. Could it be those in leadership are always looking for the quick fix instead of the right fix? Officials in Rochester have a tendency to put all of their eggs in one basket. Then, they go for government funding, and in the end, many times, the project fails.

Could it be that’s happening again with PaeTec?

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Responsible New York?

Usually when he’s referred to in the news, he’s called Rochester Billionaire Tom Golisano. He’s also the founder of Paychex and his name appears on buildings all over the Rochester, New York area. Big bucks has a way of having people name buildings after you. Of course when the person pretty much says the only way you’ll get the money is if you put my name on it, many organizations bow to the almighty dollar. Usually buildings are named after influential people after they die. It’s called a legacy and a remembrance of someone. But, such is not the case with the many Golisano named buildings in the area. It appears the man is buying a legacy.

But this could simply be the tip of the iceberg…

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Rochester, New York Announces Incentive Bonuses

While performance-based pay is commonplace in the private sector, the Mayor of Rochester, New York has decided to implement the practice at the government level. As a result of his new plan, the already cash-strapped City of Rochester, is handing out thousands of dollars in bonus pay. This plan, especially coming at this point in time, has at least three major problems.

• The economy is in a bad way.
• Mayor Duffy is handing out taxpayer money to pay huge bonuses.
• Mayor Duffy spends more time crying for money in Albany than he does at home. How can he justify this reckless spending?

All of this also comes at a time when the President of the University of Rochester, Joel Seligman, announced this week he will not take a pay increase next year because the U of R is uncertain of what will happen to their funding stream in the midst of the current economy.

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Trimming An Already Bloated Budget

Governor David Paterson’s job approval rating may have dipped to 51% this week, but one thing is for sure - New Yorkers overwhelming support his message that the state should cut spending. The question is, just how to cut that spending. The Governor is projecting a $2 billion dollar shortfall for this fiscal year, and it looks even worse, rising into the double digit billions for next year. In a recent poll, 75% of voters think the state budget gap of $2 billion should be closed by cutting spending. 10% support increasing taxes while just 9% favor borrowing money.

Earlier this week I addressed the New York State budget crisis in two other posts;

1. A Republican Money Machine
2. A New York State Stalemate

In the New York State Stalemate post I quoted a recent press release from Assembly Republican Leader Jim Tedisco which said “Some serious and substantive proposals were offered to help address New York’s mounting budget deficit.” Later in the post I mentioned I planned to ask Republican Assemblyman Brian Kolb what those proposals were. I also pointed out that I had an interview with the Assemblyman and I took some Twitter questions from people. Assemblyman Kolb had some great budget cut suggestions, and he also addressed some other key issues as well.

Read on …

Economics 101 Class Is Now In Session

The National Debt Clock near Times Square, New York
Wednesday, October 8, 2008

In the midst of the financial tailspin we now find ourselves in, the National Debt Clock in New York City ran out of digits midweek to record the growing figure. As a temporary fix, the dollar sign was switched to a figure — the ‘1′ in the now over $10 trillion dollar national debt. The Durst Organization, which takes care of the sign, says it plans to update it next year by adding two digits.

That means the updated National Debt Clock will be capable of tracking debt up to a quadrillion dollars!

If that doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what will. I don’t even know what a trillion dollars is, let alone a quadrillion! The late Manhattan real estate developer Seymour Durst put the sign up in 1989. At that time his intent was to call attention to what was then a $2.7 trillion debt. Apparently those in positions of government leadership don’t care about the debt, nor did the sign catch their attention. If the sign caught their attention, we should now be debt free!

With this in mind, while I’ve said it before, I will say it again, I am NOT an economist, but I can certainly figure this out.

So listen up governmental leaders…
The Economics 101 Class Is Now In Session!

Read on …

I’ve blogged extensively about New York State’s ‘accidental’ Governor, David Paterson. It appears he likes to make rules for others, while ignoring them for himself. At times it appears he’s making decisions in a bubble, or at least behind closed doors in either the Governor’s mansion or the Governor’s office. First he quickly moves on a budget after inheriting the office because his predecessor liked high priced call girls. In an effort to gain favor with New York State voters, he made a knee jerk reaction and passed something he didn’t have all the details on. Now, when the budget doesn’t balance, he decides to make across the board cuts.

Then, showing his ignorance of the New York State Constitution, the ‘accidental’ Governor Paterson decides to issue an edict from his office mandating that all governmental agencies and counties must start paying benefits to same-sex couples. Not only does this break the Constitution of New York State, which says “marriage is between a man and a woman”, but it also breaks the bank for many counties who are already over-mandated. The so-called mandated programs cost counties millions of dollars each year.

Now, the latest blunder by the ‘accidental’ Governor comes in the form of approving the hiring of a friend of his to a government agency. In the midst a budget crunch, and in the midst of calling for a “hiring freeze,” Governor Paterson apparently figures his “hiring freeze” words apply to everyone else, but not him.

Read on …

Preparing for the morning news run today two headlines jumped off the page at me;

• Teen Gets Maximum for 2007 Shooting
• 15 Year Old Shot and Killed

The headlines are about teens in Rochester, New York. I find it somewhat ironic that the same day two stories involve violent crimes involving teens in the City of Rochester, the latest FBI Crime Statistics report for 2006-07 says the following about New York State;

• Crime in Monroe County, which is where Rochester is located, declined by 9.3%. That’s more than two times greater than the statewide drop of 3.7%
• New York has become the fourth safest state in the nation and the safest large state in the country
• New York has had a reduction in overall crime for 17 consecutive years.

The numbers may say crime is in decline, but with what I cover day in and day out, I’d like to find out exactly how the FBI are arriving at those numbers. Especially in Rochester where it seems violent crime is up. Not only does violent crime seem to be up, but it also seems like teens killing teens crime is up.

Read on …