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Restaurants, housing on drawing board for 19th Ward hub | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:00:32 GMT

Hope for Mt. Hope

The global recession has slowed the University of Rochester's plans to redevelop a swath of Mt. Hope Avenue for student-oriented businesses. Ronald Paprocki, UR's chief financial officer, said the university had hoped this year to issue requests for proposals to various developers for land it owns on Mt. Hope south of Elmwood Avenue, including the parking lot that UR built after demolishing the closed Mt. Hope Wegmans Food Markets store. Instead, the university in the next few weeks will come out with requests for qualifications as it seeks to create a list of developers around the nation able and potentially interested in the redevelopment project, Paprocki said. UR then will discuss potential redevelopment options with those developers, he said.

Minneapolis developer Ron Christenson — whose Christenson Corp. put up both 910 Genesee St. and the neighboring Staybridge Suites hotel at 1000 Genesee St. — hopes within weeks to have an agreement signed with a restaurant that would have his firm building that 5,900-square-foot restaurant site and potentially housing above it.

That housing would be in addition to condominiums that Christenson Corp. is planning for nearby land along the Genesee River.

Construction on that condo project, with housing ranging from $180,000 to $250,000, could start late next year, the developer said.

Christenson estimated the hotel and office building projects represent $20 million in investment thus far, with the restaurant and condos projects carrying a possible $15 million price tag.

Margaret Wertheim on the beautiful math of coral | Video on TED.com

Tue, 05 May 2009 16:50:20 GMT

Victor's Valentown Museum struggles to bring in revenue | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:42:57 GMT

Like many small, struggling museums, Valentown, located across from Eastview Mall, has failed to generate much revenue from paid admissions and find steady new funding to get out of the red. The financial arrangement last year for its big fundraiser, named Spooktacular, netted almost five times more for its organizers than for the museum.

Two of the organizers of that event are also board members of the Victor Historical Society, which owns the museum. Such an arrangement — board members having business agreements with the organization they serve — has increasingly been used by the historical society to provide programs. But that creates potential conflicts of interest, according to experts on nonprofit organizations.

Valentown's recent history illustrates the difficulties facing small museums that lack a paid staff and have historic buildings with high costs — challenges now magnified by the troubled economy.

"It makes it much harder for smaller institutions in a difficult economic environment," said Ford Bell, president of the American Association of Museums.

Attendance tends to rise in successful museums during tough economic times because more people are looking for "staycations"— attractions close to home — but private donations and government grants typically drop.

A formula for success, said Bell, is to connect museums to the communities they serve so that these cultural institutions are considered as important as libraries or schools.

Valentown has never had an easy existence. Levi Valentine built Valentown more than a century ago, with the hope that it would become a destination shopping center, much as Eastview Mall on the other side of Route 96 has become.

Valentown Hall opened in 1881 to great fanfare, but the railroad that Valentine counted on to bring in customers didn't extend to the area.

By 1920, the building became a storehouse for a farmer who in 1940 planned to tear it down. The late J. Sheldon Fisher, a local historian, stepped in and bought the building for $400.

Fisher, whose parents met at a Valentown Hall dance in 1905, converted the hall into a museum, which he packed with artifacts, papers of historical importance and books from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Fisher's legacy can be found in the small shops and display areas on the first two floors of the museum, showcasing everything from high-button shoes and molds for hats to bottles of patented medicines and such household items as a wheel for cutting cheese.

"The collection of the society goes far beyond the boundaries of the town and even the county. It's a regional attraction of wide importance," said David Palmquist, head of museum chartering for the state Education Department.

Financial disclosure statements show that the historical society is still deep in debt to Golisano. With interest, Golisano was owed about $300,000 at the end of 2007, according to treasurer Steve Schmidt.

The historical society, which has about 140 members, continues to show a deficit. Interest owed on the loan continues to account for a large part of the annual deficit — about $26,000 of the almost $39,000 shortfall in 2007.

With a limited number of volunteers and no heat, Valentown is open only on Thursdays and Saturdays from the end of May through September. Paid admissions totaled about 500 people in 2007, but only about 275 last year.

Some renovations have been done — from rebuilding the porch to upgrading three bathrooms. But an estimated $600,000 is needed to fix up the building so it could be open year-round.

In 2007, Carol Finch, then board president, and Schmidt were each paid $10,000 to manage such projects as the renovations and do some of this work themselves.

But outside of Spooktacular, the museum has few activities that generate revenue, and the money-makers that do exist typically involve board members who run programs on a profit-sharing basis with the historical society.

Finch has a Ghost Hunts business at the museum, separate from Spooktacular, which had $7,647 in revenue in 2008. After expenses, Finch received $4,719 and the society got $2,327.

Since last year, Houser has held tea parties at the Ichabod Town Homestead on the museum grounds. In 2008, the tea parties generated $6,107 in revenue, with Houser receiving $4,413 and $1,159 going to the historical society after expenses.

Meanwhile, events such as Peddlers Heritage Days and a Civil War Re-enactment are no long held at Valentown because they lost money.

Spooktacular, which started in 2002, turns the museum into a haunted house for weekend tours from the end of September through Halloween. Not only has the event exhausted board members but it also has drawn criticism for detracting from the museum's mission.

"I didn't like the direction the board was going. I am more into the historical," said Victor resident Sue Stehling, who resigned as a board member in 2006.

Prior to 2008 all Spooktacular profits went to the historical society, which in 2007 totaled $18,665. But in the summer of 2008, Schmidt said, it was determined that the workload was too great for the board to take on.

Schmidt, Finch and her two adult daughters, Jamie Varney and Jo-el Hibbard, struck a deal with the board. Schmidt said that Palmquist was told about the arrangement.

Under the board's agreement with the four organizers, the historical society got a guaranteed $5,000 — but no more. More than $24,000 went for expenses ranging from advertising to costumes and supplies. That left the four organizers with $24,271 to share for their work, according to the preliminary breakdown of the financing.

Innovation lessons from Pixar Director Brad Bird - The McKinsey Quarterly - innovation interview Pixar director - Strategy - Innovation

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 07:36:29 GMT

Passive-aggressive people—people who don’t show their colors in the group but then get behind the scenes and peck away—are poisonous. I can usually spot those people fairly soon and I weed them out.

McKinsey Quarterly requires registration to read the whole article, but the whole interview makes it worthwhile.

So I said, “Give us the black sheep. I want artists who are frustrated. I want the ones who have another way of doing things that nobody’s listening to. Give us all the guys who are probably headed out the door.” A lot of them were malcontents because they saw different ways of doing things, but there was little opportunity to try them, since the established way was working very, very well.

Slayings frustrate Rochester mayor | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:41 GMT

In the city's latest homicide, officers responded about 3 a.m. Saturday to a reported home invasion at 50 Glenwood Ave., and found a man inside with a gunshot wound to his buttocks. Police said the man, who has not been identified, lived at the residence and was uncooperative before he was taken to Strong Memorial Hospital.

His injuries initially were not considered life-threatening. However, the bullet had continued into his abdomen and caused internal injuries. He died during surgery, police said.

Jennifer Rodriguez, 19, and fiancé Travis Moss, 23, both of Rochester, were at 242 Glenwood visiting Moss' aunt this weekend.

They knew the 19-year-old homicide victim, who lived in the house next door. They'd "chilled with him six or seven times," Moss said.

The shooting death of a 19-year-old man early Saturday morning in northwest Rochester was the latest in a violent eight-day stretch that saw six homicides.

Officials suspect drugs played a role in the two most recent slayings.

A clearly frustrated Mayor Robert Duffy said Saturday that the city must "go back to the drawing board" to find an answer to the bloodshed. For now, police are changing tactics, to be more aggressive and visible in an effort to break up suspected drug activity.

Obama, Assembling Team, Turns to the Economy - NYTimes.com

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 04:41:14 GMT

“You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste; it’s an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid,” Mr. Emanuel said in an interview. “In 1974 and 1978 we never dealt with it, and our dependence on foreign oil never changed.”

GOOD » The Hidden Cost of War»

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:40:39 GMT

In 2003, Donald Rumsfeld estimated a war with Iraq would cost $60 billion. Five years later, the cost of Iraq war operations is more than 10 times that estimate. So what's behind the ballooning figures? Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilme's exhaustively researched book, The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict , breaks down the price tag, from current debts to the unseen costs we'll pay for many years to come. RESOURCES: The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict ; War At Any Price? The Total Economic Costs of the War Beyond the Federal Budget . By the Joint Economic Committee ; threetrilliondollarwar.org .