"Stop Mortimer Street Bus Barn/Create Amtrak Inter-Modal"

Hello, Supporters,

Stop Mortimer Street Bus Barn/Sign The Petition
http://www.harrydavis2010.com/node/455

Open and free elections to choose our new Mayor must be held, not by “nine or ten elites in a room”
http://www.harrydavis2010.com/node/436

Transit Center Is Closer To Reality
http://www.harrydavis2010.com/node/426

We have formed a Facebook Group,
"Stop Mortimer Street Bus Barn/Create Amtrak Inter-Modal"
http://bit.ly/bgUGuy

RGRTA to Host First of Two Transit Center Design Public Workshops on September 15.
http://www.harrydavis2010.com/node/431

We are a group of Rochester citizens, who want to stop the City of Rochester & the RGRTA from building the Mortimer Street bus barn at 80 St. Paul St. Rochester, NY and instead incorporate the RGRTA bus transit facility with the already budgeted renovated existing Amtrak Station.

It only makes sense to combine all forms of public transportation in the same location, creating a centralized inter-modal transit hub with high speed rail at the Amtrak Station only two blocks away in downtown Rochester.

We base our recommendation and also thank for their expertise the following transit and developer professionals:

John Robert Smith, CEO, Reconnecting America
http://www.reconnectingamerica.org/

John Robert Smith on transit-oriented development (TOD) in Rochester
http://www.harrydavis2010.com/node/281

We are again talking to John Robert Smith and MARK IV Enterprises. MARK IV are owners of the Warner Building, the recently remodeled residential building at 80 St. Paul St. Rochester, NY which is located on one side of the proposed Mortimer Street bus barn site. This same developer is also moving forward with the construction of two new town home projects to be built on property the RGRTA and the city intends to take for the Mortimer bus barn. The developer will probably be forced to file a law suit to stop the his townhouse properties to be taken by an act of eminent domain.

Elected officials have for years promised the citizens of Rochester the beginnings of a renewed downtown; when they are fortunate enough to attract the interest of extremely respected developers such as MARK IV Enterprises, the developer is rewarded by the attempt to grab their land and locate, in this instance a bus barn, along with all its fumes and other negative environmental impacts directly next to or on one of the first high end housing developments built or proposed for our blighted downtown.

We are also in the process of trying to raise funds necessary to engage the professional services of a political and community organizing firm from Washington, DC to assure we are successful it getting those in local elected office to change their vote and combine the bus barn with the Amtrak Station, which only logically makes sense.

Please join our organization. There are many reasons to organize now. First, we must make sure the city council knows the majority of city residents oppose creating a separate bus hub transit site, especially when it would require that additional great housing not be built downtown.

Second, assuming the city council schedules a special election for mayor in 2011, this transit oriented organization could be very influential in determining who our new mayor will be; A mayor who agrees with the problems of the Mortimer bus barn and sees the advantages of a combined transit mall, located at the soon to be refurbished Amtrak Station site. If we organize now, when we have a new mayor for Rochester, then we will be in a better position to really create new Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) in Rochester.

Please leave your thoughts here from time-to-time.

~Harry