Catching up — part 2
Here is a report from Arlene about a community meeting that I hosted on April 11th.
Take Me to the River—a Community Meeting on Brooks Landing
Thirty-five people attended a community forum hosted by Anita Cameron, Systems Advocate, of the Regional Center for Independent Living, on the Brooks Landing Development. John Borek from Sector 4 Community Development Corporation spoke on the twenty-year dream that is becoming reality. He spoke about the strengths of the Southwest sector of Rochester- 83 churches, civil war historical sites, the Sibley tract- and it’s potential. This project is a river front economic development collaborative effort of the City of Rochester, Bergmann Associates, the University of Rochester, Sector 4 Community Development Corporation, and the 19th Ward Neighborhood Association. He spoke about the current construction of an extended stay hotel (with balcony access to the river), boat launch, office building, retail shops, and pedestrian trail. Future plans for the area include a coffee house (Urban Brew) on the Northwest side of the intersection, as well as a future U of R residence hall.
Rick Rynski, Economic Development Specialist (City of Rochester), and Mark Johns, Senior Landscape Architect (Bergmann Associates) presented plans and architectural renderings of the hotel site, on the Southeast corner of Brooks and Genesee, the business offices (leased by U of R) and shopping complex on the Northeast corner. The drawings showed boat launches, pedestrian trails and wheelchair accessible parking for the extended stay hotel.
The audience posed questions regarding accessibility of the office building. Concerns were expressed about the lack of direct wheelchair access from the boat dock to the hotel’s rear entrance. Kathy Tanchick shared a story of the collaborative review process of remodeling plans with the Strathallan Hotel, and the opportunities this presented for the disability community to contribute to the economy of the area, through planning and hosting events and conferences. Bruce Darling talked about the need for developers and organizations to move past meeting minimum accessibility standards, to embracing the concept of full accessibility, stating ‘separate is not equal’. After several impassioned comments, Chris Hilderbrant was able to enlist a commitment for a future meeting, to discuss accessibility. The meeting ended with a tour of the facility, to illustrate the aesthetics and viability of a fully accessible building.
Ground has been broken on the extended stay hotel; it is slated for completion in April 2008. A drawing of the project and details are available at http://rocwiki.org/Brooks_Landing_Project
Here are some thoughts from Chris:
After this presentation, I asked the builder/developer guys if they wanted a tour of the building to see what we had done here in renovating a really run down space into something awesome. I expected that it would be a quickie tour, they’re builders after all, not service providers – and we had just asked them some heavy questions about the access of their projects.
BUT.
These guys loved the tour. I’ve seen very few people get as into a tour of our building and agency as these guys did. As we stopped and talked with staff around the first floor, they got more and more into what we do. One has a 90 year old mother who’s frustrated with her current aide service. Another has a close friend with a disability that they’re not yet willing to address.
One of the developers said “You can cut the passion in this building with a knife – it’s incredible”
Another is an adjunct professor of architecture at the U of R… he wants to bring his fellowship students to see how a well designed building integrated with an excellent social conscience can provide great services to the community…
So, in addition to an agreement from them to meet with us to review the access of their projects, we gained: a couple new referrals, an opportunity to educate young architects, and a much greater understanding within the minds of these designers of why we push so hard to make their projects accessible.
I was quite pleased.
There will be a meeting between the Brook’s Landing folks and some of us at CDR/RCIL. That meeting will take place on April 23rd. I will keep you posted.