Renaissance Square needs some serious rethinking five years later

The Democrat and Chronical, the local Rochester, NY newspaper, published an opinion piece from me in Saturday's paper. Unfortunately, some sections of my piece were edited out for space reasons. Below is the complete letter I submitted, which urged our local leaders to do some re-thinking of the Renaissance Square project in light of the changing times. While I do not favor abandoning the project totally, a major argument I made (which was omitted in the published version) was to redirect some of the spending to a revitalization of the Sibley Building as the new Renaissance Square, and allow the current Ren Square site to be redeveloped by the private sector, which seems far more feasible in the currentl environment than it did five years ago.

To the Editor of the Democrat and Chronicle:

I was very discouraged to read about the latest Renaissance Square developments. The inflexibility shown by some of our political and educational leaders does not demonstrate leadership or vision, but rather a stubborn unwillingness to accept the need for a course correction.

I fully supported the Renaissance Square concept when it was announced five years ago. But times have changed. Funding for the theater is not secured, and will be hard to raise in the current economic climate, and other theater projects have gotten underway to fill the void. Midtown Plaza will now be demolished and redeveloped. ESL is building downtown. Where once Renaissance Square was seen as the only good news for downtown, we now have other projects underway, largely driven by the private sector. In the meantime, the economy has faltered. Governments are running huge deficits. High speed rail was not an option when the first intermodal discussions occurred in 2003-04, but is now a reality with potential funding. In light of the current national desire for energy independence and improved transportation efficiency, it would be irresponsible to ignore it.

An issue that I have yet to hear addressed by the Renaissance Square leadership team is the impact of emptying the Sibley's building. We couldn't fill McCurdy's, so what good is it to have another unviable, empty behemoth on Main Street? Isn't there an option that could renovate the Sibley's Building to better accommodate MCC, renovate the tower for student housing, and preserve a landmark in the process? Recycling Sibley's would also be a "green" thing to do, following another of those trends that was not so hot when this whole thing got started. And perhaps private industry could find a better use of the current Renaissance Square site, as some have suggested, particularly as the parcel is now far more valuable than it was back in 2004 because of the neighboring redevelopment.

These course corrections would still provide jobs, and perhaps the current funding for a new MCC Downtown Campus can be re-directed to the Sibley's Building. Let the transportation issue be addressed separately.

Our leaders need to wake up, realize it's not 2004 anymore, and be courageous enough to admit that changing times require a serious rethinking of the project. Continuing to ignore the advice of Louise Slaughter, one of Washington's most powerful politicians, is foolish in these times. Walking away from the money might be the prudent solution, and may allow that money to be better spent on other projects that are more relevant to struggling taxpayers in these troubled times. In the meantime, the turn-around in downtown already underway will likely result in a higher and better use for the Renaissance Square site.

Andy Burke