Tea and Vitriol

 A recurring theme among the dying cities of the "Rust Belt" is that redeveloping their dead downtown areas will revitalize them. That this "renaissance" will "save" their cities. It has really never worked in the long run. This is largely because the proponents for such plans have chosen to ignore the history of the cities in question, of the organic growth that led to making their downtowns vibrant. They have also chosen to forget that times have changed. Such is the case of our own fair city, Rochester, New York, where downtown redevelopment has been a stunning failure Rochester reached its zenith in the 1950's. With a population of 350,000 souls, its downtown was crammed with all kinds of retail establishments, restaurants, nightclubs and movie theatres. Downtown Rochester was so congested with people and traffic that the Inner Loop was built to allow people to avoid the crowds. At the same time, changes had occurred in America that would produce t