The three Rochester mayoral candidates described competing visions for downtown during the Voice of the Voter debate this week.
The Center City has been undergoing a transformation from an office and commercial hub to more of a residential neighborhood. The pandemic and other disruptions have accelerated workplace trends creating significant vacancy in the remaining office towers. That has raised new questions about how to create vibrancy during and after the workday and on weekends but not also keep the city’s core as a place that is accessible and representative of the larger community.
Shashi Sinha, a local businessman, wants to focus on attracting more business, while shifting efforts away from the housing sector.
“What is happening right now, focused on downtown, building apartments – I don’t know where that’s going to get us,” Sinha said. “I think we need a vibrant economy. We need to bring people into downtown. That includes entertainment, that includes businesses.”
Mayor Malik Evans, who is running for a second term, said that the growing population will naturally pull more resources downtown.
“One of the things that we're doing downtown that I think is absolutely critical is we continue to have people live downtown,” Evans said. “Downtown is now one of our fastest-growing neighborhoods, and by next year there will probably be close to 20,000 people living downtown. That gives us a base of people that will need those services.”
The Evans administration has pursued a variety of funding streams to help pay for a downtown facelift, redoing portions of East Main and State streets, and assisting with private development and redevelopment across the Center City as well as with the city-owned convention center.
“You can’t have a donut hole in the middle of your city,” Evans said. “Rochester deserves to have a great downtown.”
He called the corner of Main and Clinton where Home Leasing is anchoring redevelopment of multiple blighted buildings, “one of the most successful things that I’ve been able to get done.”
That corner, long dilapidated, will be home to apartments and new storefronts, while other nearby projects include a boutique hotel and restaurant space – assisted by millions of dollars from New York state.
Home Leasing is constructing the project that will include commercial space on the ground floor, with apartments above. A new pedestrian plaza is planned, and developer Patrick Dutton’s team is working to rehab the old Kresge building.
For councilmember Mary Lupien, the focus on these projects is “backwards.”
“The problems that exist in our city with housing and homelessness and substance use are on the street in full display,” Lupien said.
She added that her administration would immediately move to redirect funding away from redevelopment currently happening and funnel it to programs and initiatives aimed at assisting Rochesterians in the direst circumstances. Her vision for downtown includes expanded housing, as well as spaces to deal with the opioid crisis.
“If we have people that are using substances, let’s build an overdose prevention center," Lupien said. "There are things that we can do to help the people of this community before the buildings.”
Lupien rejected the idea that city landmarks and historic commercial buildings need to be redone. And she took specific aim at the city’s designs for a $175 million transformation of the Broad Street aqueduct. The state has committed $9.5 million toward project design. But the tens of millions of dollars needed for construction has yet to materialize.
“Two hundred million dollars on this aqueduct project to take the top off the Broad Street bridge – I don’t think the community knows that that’s how we’re spending their money,” Lupien said during the debate.
Evans countered that it’s not the city’s money being spent on that project, because state funding is earmarked directly for it. He said that mayors should work with different levels of government to secure money for economic revitalization. He offered Main and Clinton as an example of how Rochester can rebuild without relying solely on city dollars.
“Because of our partnership with New York State – which is absolutely critical, as well as Monroe County – we were able to resurrect that corner," Evans said.
Lupien said the city should pursue other ways to spend state and federal dollars. It’s not clear that the city could change how state money gets spent, because economic development dollars are often specifically earmarked, and do not function as a general fund. But Lupien pledged to try, citing the aqueduct project as an example.
“That was money that we asked the state for, and we can ask differently,” she said.
Sinha said that the city administration should emphasize eliminating crime and improving downtown’s reputation as a safe place to go.
“I have met so many businesses; they are scared of break-ins and crime,” Sinha said. “Give them safety.”
