Tea and Vitriol

 Last month, State Assemblyman Harry Bronson announced that he was supporting the candidacy of City Councilman Malik Evans for mayor. Big deal. That was to be expected. It was Harry's way of sticking it to Lovely, who pulled out all of the stops last year to oppose his re-election campaign, running her then chief-of-staff, Alex Yudelson, against him. Her actions were unethical, underhanded and downright sneaky but perfectly legal according to some rather peculiar bylaws by which the Democratic committees operate in Monroe County. Her control of the City committees guaranteed that Yudelson would get the party's endorsement. What it did not guarantee was that Yudelson would win the Democratic primary, where Harry soundly trounced him and went on to win the general election against his regular Republican opponent, Peterson Vazquez. Harry and Lovely have been less than cordial political opponents from the get-go, each representing the two dominant, opposing political factions of th

During the mayoral campaign of 2017, one of her other candidates for mayor accused incumbent Rochester mayor Lovely Warren of knowingly violating campaign funding rules and regulations.. The public was assured that the District Attorney's office took these allegations very seriously and would investigate them, very slowly, as it turned out. Meantime, Mayor Warren won re-election, easily trouncing her Democratic opponents in the primary election, including the candidates who accused her in funding improprieties, and defeating the Republican candidate in the General Election. During the next three years, not much more was said publicly about these accusations, except that occasionally the DA would state that she was still investigating them. Finally, on October 2, 2020, three and a half years AFTER the initial accusations were made, Mayor Warren was indicted on charges of knowingly committing campaign funding fraud.  Three days later, she was arraigned, after having her own photograp

Rochester on the Genesee was sometimes referred to as "Smugtown," because it seemed to be impervious to the calamities that were ruining the great cities of the "Rust Belt" after World War II. Pride goeth before a fall and a haughty spirit before destruction. The secret of Rochester's early successes was a simple one: It kept re-inventing itself. From a canal town to the "Flour City," to the "Flower City" and finally onto becoming a great manufacturing and industrial city. "Rochester-made means quality" was the city's proud boast during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This was accomplished by intelligent inventors, investors, developers and a competent City Council,  which Rochester seemed blessed with a surfeit of. City government consisted of a strong city council-city manager, with a weak mayor, which was changed only in the 1980's to a strong mayor form of government. Just before Rochester's precipitous decli