Maggie Brooks Ought to Pull The Plug On Renaissance Square
We at Monroerising.com are big fans of Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks. We think she has done a great job under some very trying circumstances. The challenges she faces are numerous — no control over the expenses in her budget and having to get your political opponents’ ok before you can raise the sales tax – for starters. And this is against the backdrop of a hostile daily newspaper, a minority caucus dedicated to causing her political problems and liberal activist groups that have stepped up their game by adding professional protesters to their ranks.
When Maggie Brooks first proposed Renaissance Square it was a daring solution to a problem that people had grown used to — a blighted downtown with absolutely nothing going for it. The project made sense. Remove the buses that clog Main Street, expand MCC’s presence and build a first class preforming arts center. It would bring people downtown and instantly become a Rochester landmark. Additionally, it would encourage private investment which has been sorely lacking.
But now there is a problem. Unfortunately, more of her colleagues in government are more interested in scoring political points than doing what’s best for our community. What better way to make Maggie look bad than by withdrawing support and dragging the project out as long as possible?
Any additional money for Ren Square will be very hard to get. And to top it off, the arts organizations who were supposed to benefit from this project are all over the board in terms of support.
Maggie fought the good fight on this one. She did what leaders are suppose to do – she had the vision and courage to offer a bold and dynamic project that would infuse new life into a downtown which was all but forgotten. She focused attention on downtown. Without this attention, there would be no Paetec Headquarters, no ESL Headquarters.
The deck is stacked against Maggie on this one. The naysayers and the people who are more interested in scoring political have the upper hand. It’s time to cut and run on this project.
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