So this is what we have to look forward to in Rochester over the next several days:

And you know they're probably wrong about Sunday.

Posted by ksmoker at 9:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I'm glad to see that the Democrats have done well. No rubber stamp Congress for the remainder of GWB's term.

A year or two ago, it was difficult to imagine that the Democrats to pick up this many seats. Even with the tumultuous political climate, it is still mildly surprising, but what's worse is that we think this is so. About 30 of the House seats are switching over to Democratic control with around 20 of those seats previously occupied by Republican incumbents. From what I can tell, this only represents 5% of all House members running for reelection.

The incumbent advantage has long been a concern and is often blamed on sitting candidates' ability to raise more money than potential challengers. I would claim that the bigger culprit is the gerrymandering of districts.

Check out our home town. I could move in any direction within a five mile radius of downtown Rochester and have my choice of four different US congressional districts. Also check out the arm of the 22nd district, reaching up to protect Ithaca from being swallowed by the 24th. These aren't the worst examples of gerrymandering, of course, but it's still pretty annoying.

My district, the 28th, is the most ridiculous one, locally. Louise Slaughter represents both the cities of Buffalo and Rochester proper, along with a sliver of Lake Ontario frontage connecting the two. This is a solidly Democratic district (Slaughter won something like 76% of the vote), while the other three local districts were much tighter and, contrary to the nationwide trend, these districts retained their Republican incumbents.

So, what's the big deal, you say? Well, ideally our representative would have our local interests at heart. Greater Rochester has four different House representatives. How are we to have a coherent community voice in Washington?

If all politics is local, we certainly have more than our fair share...

Posted by ksmoker at 9:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Or at least it could be, the space is great, the bands are great, they just need the crowd.

That's how it seemed to me on Friday night when I met Greg, Seth, and Christine at the Clarissa Room (formerly Shep's Paradise) to hear the Mike Melito quartet. Maybe it was the Labor Day weekend, or maybe there were other things going on in town, but the attendance was a bit sparse. It was nice not to have to deal with the crush of the RIJF crowd and the noise common at the Crowne Plaza gigs, but the music certainly was worthy of a larger audience with Melito, Mike Dubaniewicz, Bob Sneider, and Phil Flanigan providing a steady stream of quality jazz.

Keep an eye on the jazz@rochester postings and get out to hear some great music in a great setting.

Posted by ksmoker at 9:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In Rochester, we spell it F-A-S-T F-E-R-R-Y.

Now the Democrat and Chronicle reports on a local group who propose an alternate spelling: L-I-G-H-T R-A-I-L.

The system could be built for an estimated $64.3 million and would cost $400,000 to $2.4 million annually to operate, according to the group's study. Twelve to 18 months after startup, the study projects ridership on the Charlotte line of 5,000 to 6,000 weekday trips.

Let's do the math. Let's go with a yearly operating cost of $1.5 million with roughly $2 million in fares collected (that's 2 million riders at $1 a pop). That leaves $500,000 left each year to pay back the loan on the $64.3 million startup costs.

Hmmm. Maybe we city residents can defer payment on the loan until after we finish paying off the $28 million ferry debt.

Let's just hope we never have to learn how to spell P-A-E-T-E-C P-A-R-K

Posted by ksmoker at 7:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)