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

  Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will succeed Andrew Cuomo as Governor of New York State when his resignation takes effect in two weeks. She will be the first female Governor of New York State, a fact that is eliciting orgasmic delight from progressive liberals and the women's movement, claiming it is another giant leap for equality and women's rights. It is no such thing. Hochul will become governor by default, and Cuomo never chose her with the purpose of her ever succeeding him, except in the case of him running for and winning the presidency, which is now forever out of his reach. The media has been going apeshit to print stories about Hochul because nobody outside of the circumscribed area of extreme western New York State knows anything about her. That's because she has been standing in Cuomo's shadow for six years and her previous, brief national political experience is nothing to write home about or provide greater positive insights into her character. She is