Pete,
What a well thought out response to the issues at hand. The thing I admire most about you IS the fact that you got where you are through hard work, no programs, no handouts and no excuses. The RPD definitely has its hands full and anything that involves people will never be perfect.
We DO need mentors for children and usually you would find the mentor in the parents. Here in lies the problem. No easy answers here. Unfortunately our society, not just Rochester, has a pervasive problem with children born to children, or at the very least, to those not ready to take parenting seriously.

I agree that poverty does not have to go hand-in-hand with crime. If this were true, the whole country would have gone up in smoke during the great depression.

We need opportunity, we need children born to mentors, we need no excuses for our behavior. And we need many, many, more grassroots conversations like this one. Thank you for the platform.
Cheryl Griggs