Why build a new theater?
On our article on the challenges facing artists and arts institutions, "Affording the Arts": With so many great cultural organizations with such crucial fiscal demands, why does Mayor Lovely Warren support wasting $85 million dollars on a performing arts center downtown that the public has no great desire for and that will likely require annual ongoing subsidy from city tax dollars? This makes no sense at all and is clearly a misplaced priority.
LARRY CHAMPOUX
Praise for CDCR's leader
On "Designing for a Better City," our interview with Maria Furgiuele, the new director of Community Design Center Rochester: Love what you're doing! Keep it up. As a Millennial, one of the biggest draws to Rochester is that it has an affordable pre-war urban fabric, and the city appears to be heading in the right direction thanks to people like you.
NATHAN POLSELLI
Fighting Trump
During the last election campaign, Donald Trump made it abundantly clear, on almost a daily basis, that he was a demagogue, a misogynist, a bully, emotionally unstable, a cheat, a fraud, and a borderline bigot. Yet he polled over 60 million votes.
Even taking into account that Hillary wasn't a very appealing candidate and that a high level of Russian disinformation dissemination appears likely, such a vote tally reveals an astonishingly high level of selfishness and ignorance among the American electorate.
As with a mindless wildfire that destroys everything it touches, we can try to battle Trumpism. But we have to be prepared to accept that ultimately we may have to simply wait for it to burn itself out.
CHARLIE ADAMS
Trump's world
Get rid of the poor, / the sick, the disabled, / and old people.
No free speech. / Shut down the press. / Government TV.
Arrest the protesters. / No dissenters.
Welcome to Trump Soylent Green World.
DON WILSON
Police need two-person units
In light of the recent shooting of RPD Officer Jeremy Nash, I implore Mayor Warren to mandate a two-man patrol policy. Had Officer Nash been a one-man unit, undoubtedly the outcome would have been more devastating.
My personal experience as a patrol officer proved that two-man units provide maximum officer safety. Taxpayers would also benefit, because fewer vehicles are deployed and less fuel would be utilized.
As a former patrol officer and current court officer, it is heartening to witness the outpouring of community support after an officer is victimized. However, we cannot abandon our officers upon their departure from the hospital. The citizenry must demand and hold accountable the politicians who refuse to provide the essential tools necessary to keep our officers safe.
Any assault on the police who are sworn to serve and protect us should be deemed an attack on all of us. Rochester Police Locust Club President Mike Mazzeo will tirelessly pursue all avenues to insure that all RPD officers return home safely after their tour of duty, fulfilling his commitment to protect the police.
WALT SIMONI
