Well, the agonizing debates over whether or not the ferry from Rochester to Toronto is a good thing is over - and the ferry lost. Apparently there were a host of reasons why this thing failed - from a lack of experienced people in developing a plan, to the wrong boat size, to a total disinterest from the Canadian's, and a whole lot more.
As someone who was involved in the initial lobbying campaigns for the funding to do this project, here are a couple of my observations. First, CATS founder Dominick DeLucia was one of the slickest fast talkers I ever met. This was a guy who
"graduated first in my class at Simon School - or maybe second". Well, um, which is it? Either it was first or it wasn't... you can't even answer THAT question honestly? In his presentations to UNICON, the Chamber, City Council, the County Leg, and the State delegation, everything was very VERY fast, and very rosey. The numbers looked great, and why shouldn't they? He was looking for $15 million in state funding and loan guarantees!
The various delegations should be taking a big piece of the responsiblity for this failure - they valued union votes over fiscal responsibility, and they didn't use their staff to evaluate the plan. It was the unions (particularly the construction unions) who were really pushing this thing. In fact, I even developed an email e-advocacy campaign where people could send in their letters of support for the ferry to the delegation members! Well, just because lots of people support something, doesn't mean it's a good idea! What if I had a million people support building a giant swastica downtown? Would that mean we should fund the thing? They might STILL have supported it, but given the state had no further comittment to seeing this thing succeed (read: subsidy) they must have known deep in their gut that this was doomed to failure. Ever ride the ferry's in Seattle? They're not luxury, and they're not profitable... they're necessary means of transportation that is state subsidized. The fact is, the State and the Canadian government should have partially subsidized this thing as a mechanism to increase cross-border tourism - and with some simple math, could have figured out the long term benefits. But the state was "broke" and the Canadian's government is equally disfunctional as our own.
On the other hand, i LOVED the ferry. It was a great ride, and I WISH it could have worked, but it sounds more and more like we pulled another bush league move and allowed this thing to be managed by people we knew nothing about (CATS) and later run by a board of people who's real responsibilities lay elsewhere. Why oh why did they put all those City Council members on that board?! Didn't these people have a CITY to run? Couldn't they have brought on some sort of administrator who's single responsibility was seeing that this ferry company as AT LEAST RUN WELL?
If anything, this just proves that (a) City Council members really have very little to do and (b) they're not very good at doing real work when given the chance. Now obviously, the Mayor is also responsible for pushing City Council around - but it's not like that's hard to do with a group as weak as they were (I say "were" because we're finally seeing new people in City Council). And I applaud Karen Noble Hanson (did I just write that?) for her comments in the latest article about the lack of information given the ferry board. I also chide Gladys Santiago for saying everything was a-o-k and that they were given ample information. Gladys, you can stop kissing Johnson's ass now - he's gone - better start sucking up to Duffy or else you might be out of a "job".
Now, I hope that Duffy does something to give the city a real boost. Consider - we can still bond out money to do stuff, so long as the residents want them to! Why not bond out $11.5 million anyway and do a bunch of really nice public works? It shows a tangible comittment to the city, and it makes everyone feel better after this ferry fiasco. Considering all the good things going on downtown - Troup-Howell bridge, Sagamore on East, Corn Hill Landing, Paetec Park, Renaissance Center development, and a host of other things, including the exciting developments in loft apartments, bars, clubs, and restaurants - the City SHOULD take on some more debt to add to all this excitment and make people feel really good about downtown again.
My FIRST suggestion? Take some money and put up a sign across the old McGrory's building on Main Street that shows what's going to be built on that sight - even if it's only conceptual. Residents - and visitors - need to know that exciting stuff is happening in the City, with Renaissance Square being the most anticipated. I think that would be a step in the right direction to giving city residents a psychological boost. And while we're at it, spend some more on City cops to make our streets safer - that too would be a huge bonus to the area.
Just my two- no, six- no, twelve, BAKERS DOZEN, cents!
