Green Party Calls Out City Council Members Fast Tracking Cobbs Hill Project
The Steering Committee of the Green Party of Monroe County has expressed its objection to both the process and potential outcome of the Rochester City Council’s pushing through a proposed plan to completely tear down affordable housing in Cobbs Hill Park and replace it with a more expensive housing complex that will displace many of the people who now live there.
“There are two issues here,” commented Green Party Co-Chair, Dave Sutliff-Atias. “First is the lack of transparency. The Neighborhood and Business Development Committee put this legislation on the meeting agenda with about 24 hours’ notice to the public. That’s working for developers not for the citizens they are supposed to represent. The second issue is about the plan itself. This plan tears down 60 affordable units of housing to replace them with a similar 60 apartments with an additional 40 market rate units. If the City is so bent on creating more housing and has the resources to do so they should renovate Cobbs Hill Apartments as the current tenants want and build another 100 units of actual affordable housing somewhere else.”
Dozens of citizens, most of who live in or around the current complex, have voiced opposition to this project as it is and have called for renovation over demolition. The Green Party of Monroe County supports the group Save Cobbs Hill in its effort to stop any gentrification that involved displacement of people.
Former Green Mayoral Candidate, Alex White, who has been working with the Save Cobbs Hill said, “This is the way our city government operates. Our elected representatives have never met a handout to rich developers that they didn’t like. And as there has only been one party in control of our City for decades, this is a partisan issue. The Democrats in power believe in corporate welfare and Greens do not.”
“We’re looking forward to holding some of these City Council members accountable in next year’s election,” added Sutliff-Atias. “We definitely need some new perspectives and fresh ideas on City Council.”
