A New Deal for Rochester
Posted by Alex White · October 23, 2013 3:00 PM

The Real Solutions to Crime in our City
Posted by Alex White · October 18, 2013 3:07 PM

City Wants Rights Free Zones
Posted by Alex White · October 15, 2013 1:25 PM

As we have started hitting the streets, knocking on doors, I haven't had much time to blog lately.  But I think what I'm going to show you is very important and is a perfect example of why we need change in our local government. 

You're not going to see something like this in the media or at any upcoming forums.  This may seem to some as a personal attack, but it's not.  This is about issues - how our government is run and what is done with our tax dollars. 

In case you missed it, a number of Green Rochester candidates attended the most recent City Council meeting and attempted to put in a bid on Midtown Tower.  This offer was not only ignored, but mocked by the current mayor as "political theater".  When the vote for the deal to give a $430,000 property away to a Tom Richards campaign donor, came up, the current City Council President objected to the parking provision of the deal, the least expensive part, but in the end, ended up voting for the big chunk of the corporate welfare, as did the other elected officials. 

GR Mayoral Candidate, Alex White, posted a blog about the whole affair called, Midtown Tower of Lies. 

Links to the blog post was shared on Facebook by a number of people.  But City Council Member, Carolee Conklin was not content with getting everything they wanted.  She had to defend her decision on a constituent's Facebook page.

What follows after the jump is the edited conversation between the constituent [LW], Ms. Conklin, fellow GR City Council Candidate, Dorothy Paige and myself.  The only edits made were removing the constituent's name, removing unrelated comments by people not involved in the conversation and Facebook jargon ("reply", etc.)

For a couple decades I've read widely, on a hobby basis, in the healthy-lifestyle-science area.  My interest began when I was trying to boost my intellectual performance while in graduate school.  Later, when I started a family at age 50, my interest shifted to staying healthy and being around to watch, help, and enjoy my kids as they grew into adults.

Last night I had the honor of introducing one of my favorite healthy-lifestyle-science heroes, Michael Greger, MD.  Greger's talk was sponsored by the Rochester Area Vegetarian Society, a good place to learn how to become vegan and improve your health.  He delivered his lecture, "The Role of Diet in Preventing, Arresting, & Reversing the 15 Leading Causes of Death", to an overflowing audience of 124 at The Summit at Brighton, "a provider of independent senior living" here in Rochester.  Many in the audience attended despite being drenched due to a thunder storm that struck just before the talk began.  You can watch the same lecture on YouTube here.

I'm prompted to mention all this after reading Dorothy Paige's blog on our single-payer health-care option. 

I have been meaning to blog on this for a while now, but things with both Green Rochester and Benny Warr have been so hectic that I haven’t had a chance to sit down to collect my thoughts.  

For those who do not know the situation, on May 1st, Benny Warr was on Jefferson Avenue when members of the Rochester Police Department decided to clear the public sidewalks of everyone.  Yes, you’ve read that correctly.  There was no crisis; marshall law was not enacted.  The police do this in neighborhoods that are mostly inhabited by people of color.  But we will get to get to that a bit further down.

Benny was on Jefferson Avenue in his electric wheelchair when the police told him to leave.  He decided to go to a friend’s house via the bus.  Seems that waiting for the bus was not acceptable to these police officers, so to get Benny off Jefferson Avenue, they decided to arrest him.  Again, we will get to the problem with this further down.  

Some of you may know that in my work with ADAPT, I have been arrested participating in civil disobedience.  Most of my brothers and sisters in ADAPT have disabilities and many use wheelchairs.  I have seen a number of police agencies, both local and federal, arrest people in wheelchairs.  I have never, ever seen a police officer use this technique.  (Yes, this is a link to the higher resolution video of the arrest)

Benny ended up in the hospital with broken ribs and other injuries.  

If you follow Green Rochester, you know that all of the candidates have been working on behalf of Benny and his family.  We were involved in the planning of the rally of support that happened last Saturday and from this incident, we will continue to be involved.  Not only that, we will be using this incident and others that occur on a daily basis to continue to mold our collective and individual platforms to deal with the problems we are having with our public employees who we pay to “protect and serve”.  You can help by signing this petition.

So what problems are we having?

Short video: Good for Sheriff
Posted by Emily Good · October 17, 2013 9:27 PM

Rochester Accent Interview
Posted by Emily Good · July 01, 2013 4:08 PM

Restore Weekend Visits to MCF and MCJ
Posted by Emily Good · June 24, 2013 9:20 PM · 1 reaction

I wonder why, in this city, we have so much violence.

In my neighborhood the other day three young people were shot and one of them, a young woman, has died.

I have had bullets hit my home once and one came through the wall into my house.

One night while I was riding my bicycle home from Frontier Field. I rode up Campbell Street and I was shot at. Two young men were sitting outside a known drug house one block from my home. I was a half block from my home. The young men took off when they realized they had missed. One week later that same house was set on fire.

When I called the Police they never came out to make a report because the bullet missed me.

What can we do to change things in Rochester?

Are the issues of drug houses, gang activity, lack of a good education, lack of jobs and hopelessness responsible for the violence? Maybe.

I believe that all these issues and many more may be responsible.

Life seems to have been devalued in modern society where violence is seen as a a way to solve problems.

I believe that we need to come up with a radical idea to help change this city.

I know that there are many people in this city who are looking for a way to heal this city and reduce the violence. They say it takes a village to raise a child but I believe it takes a whole city to bring about a major change.

We can work together to make the changes. I believe that the people of this city working with the Green Party are the ones who are going to make the needed changes happen.

Let's help make the changes our city needs.

Questionnaire from Suzie B. Anthony's Wordpress page
Posted by · September 15, 2013 9:32 AM

City purchase of property damaged by demolition contractor
Posted by · July 19, 2013 11:25 AM

Louise Slaughter's Support For Tom Richards
Posted by · July 15, 2013 10:56 AM

City Council Candidate Forums
Posted by David Sutliff-Atias · September 10, 2013 10:09 PM

Crime in the 19th Ward
Posted by David Sutliff-Atias · August 26, 2013 11:20 PM · 3 reactions

Green Rochester in Candidate Forums
Posted by David Sutliff-Atias · July 25, 2013 8:32 PM