Really?

Please rise as you're able for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Welcome everybody to our March 2nd, 2026 City Council meeting.

And we begin our city council meetings with our open common period.

This is an opportunity for members of the public to address the council on uh issues that we are not holding a separate public hearing on uh uh later this evening.

Each uh person has up to two minutes to speak for a total of 20 minutes.

I will keep track of time through two methods.

One is the stoplight here and in front of me, and the second is the red digital clock to the left of me.

Uh so please know I may need to cut you off because of the limited time, and we want to also make sure that everybody has an opportunity to speak.

I'd also ask that speakers be concise to allow more people to speak, and uh encourage you to limit comments generally to topics that are within the scope and jurisdiction of the council's ability to affect policy.

Uh council members and staff do not respond directly to your comments, uh, but will instead follow up if you need uh us two separately, and if you have materials to share with the council, please hand them over to our uh city clerk and Caseau, who is uh raising her hand right now.

Uh and so you will now be invited up to speak in the order of which you signed up.

So we start with Mr.

Barry Creesel.

I mean Barry Barry Skolnick.

I saw Barry and John walking in today together.

So Mr.

Skolnik, go ahead.

Okay, I hope this is on.

Anyway, um, yeah, I'm speaking um coming up to speak about the Rochester Economic Development Authority and the request for TIFF being associated, being assigned to the City Walks apartment houses.

Um there when you look at the number to total percentage of uh of apartments that are is go is going to people who uh are of lower income or middle income, it's actually going to be less because um the uh the heffron house, which is my uh mayor Martin Hefferin's old house, that one used to be excluded used to have m lower rents and still had lower rents up until when Nozer signed uh the apartments over to he was the former person who ran for mayor, um, sent that over to the developer and he he sold it to them.

Um so right now if you look at the total percent of of affordable housing in that unit, it's actually less rather than the more.

And some people say there's urban blight, but I've looked in in those buildings.

I don't see any blight, I don't see any rodents, I don't see any mice, I don't see any deterioration.

So I'm not sure exactly how they're defining urban blight, unless it means they really want to build their project and they want money for it, and so whatever is in their way is blight.

But in terms of doing something for the city, getting rid of the Hefferin House, Mayor Hefferin's house, um, is it is a shame.

He basically uh would constructed St.

Mary's Hospital and the Chateau Theater as well as numerous other houses.

And um again, he he was he served as sort of like as one of the only rooming houses where he was the owner and he also had served meals and things in there, and so yeah, it was one of the last ones that was left in Rochester.

So while it didn't get on tie, wasn't in a timely way submitted enough where I could get it landmarked.

It still was something again.

He was a mayor of Rochester, he was president of the board of Alderman.

He also served as a uh somebody who was doing anesthesia, a jack of all trades for uh St.

Mary's Hospital.

And I'm just hoping that not so much for the House itself, which I wish could have been saved, but I know it's not going to be.

I'm just concerned about why uh you're actually giving TIFF to it.

They already got money from the DMC, I think, through state grants.

And I'm just very concerned that it just doesn't deserve to have TIFF, because again, why?

Do we give it to all projects?

What separates that out?

And the two buildings which they say are now on some public role.

How do we know that want to stay there?

Anyway, so they you so you can't add that to the uh number of affordable housing units.

So again, please look at it.

I don't think it deserves TIFF.

Um, again, why?

There's no degradation there whatsoever.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Skolnick.

Uh, next up we have uh Mike Schmidt.

Hello, folks members, Madam Mayor.

Uh I come before you today as the chair of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Commission, also known as PBAC.

For those of you who don't know, the PBAC is a commission of eight people selected by the mayor for having strengths and skills and knowledge regarding alternative modes of transportation, focusing specifically on biking and walking.

Uh, among the many statements in our mission are the following.

Increased bicycling access to transit is needed to support transportation solutions needed to support the destination medical center initiative and walk and bike friendliness are key economic drivers for the cities for cities of all sizes, strengthening the local economy by attracting businesses, investment, and skilled workers that have the option to locate just about anywhere.

Uh I we've had the opportunity to listen to many presentations from the city and from Tool Design Group iteratively since uh September of 2025.

And through that, we've heard a lot of different options and uh uh many multiple options that are available.

Uh I come before you today to say that we support Sixth Avenue through 4th Street, not before that.