CITY OF ROCHESTER
NEWS RELEASE
(April 30, 2009) -- Seeking to capture the momentum of this week’s arrest of 24 gang members in the Beechwood Neighborhood, Economic Development Commissioner R. Carlos Carballada, Community Development Commissioner Julio Vazquez, Neighborhood Service Center Director Molly Clifford and Police Chief David Moore held news in the Beechwood Neighborhood today to encourage more community involvement in the on-going Beechwood Focused Investment Strategy process, in which federal Community Block Grant Funding is concentrated on a select area.
“We are here to tell you that there is a connection between planting a new community garden or renovating a storefront and the arrest of suspected murderers and drug dealers,” said Commissioner Carballada, who will be the Commissioner of City’s new Department of Neighborhood and Business Development when it starts operations on July 1. “There is a connection between neighborhood revitalization and public safety. Here in the Beechwood Neighborhood, we call that connection focused investment.”
In conjunction with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other federal law enforcement agencies, the Rochester Police Department culminated this week an investigation into drug dealing and violent crime among a group of individuals operating in the Beechwood Neighborhood and surrounding areas. The investigation resulted in the indictment of 24 men and women on federal narcotics trafficking charges.
“Thanks to the Rochester Police Department and their partners in federal law enforcement, we have rid this neighborhood of a very destructive element,” Commissioner Carballada said. “Even before these arrests, we had identified Beechwood for extensive Focused Investment, and we have a plan to revitalize this neighborhood. The arrests give us big head start on that front, but we need the community’s help.”
Beechwood is one of four city neighborhoods to include a Focused Investment Strategy area, in which a significant portion of U.S. Community Development Block Grant funding will be concentrated. The goal is to use these funds to create an immediate and noticeable impact, which will then have a positive influence on surrounding areas.
Other FIS areas are Jefferson Avenue in the Southwest; Dewey and Driving Park avenues in the Northwest; and the Marketview Heights Neighborhood.
n the Beechwood Neighborhood, the FIS area is concentrated along the Webster Avenue and Rosewood Terrace corridors, which straddle the site of the Thomas P. Ryan Jr. Community Center and Library, which be complete in the fall.
The plan in Beechwood will use the CDBG funding to, among other things, promote home ownership, commercial property reinvestment and accelerated demolition of blighted structures. The City is working with stakeholders in the neighborhood, including the Beechwood Neighborhood Association, the Northeast Area Development Corporation and the Community Place of Greater Rochester.
One shining example of the strategy will be visible during this Saturday’s Clean Sweep, when a group of volunteers will transform a vacant lot at 30-32 Webster Ave. into a community pocket park. The volunteers will landscape the park using funds provided by Department of Environmental Services. The lot is adjacent to a commercial building owned by the NEAD that is now being converted into a tool library and a real-estate office for City-owned property in the neighborhood.
The tool library will eventually include a tractor provided by the City, which will be used to convert more vacant lots into attractive green spaces and help neighborhood property owners with renovations.
But in order for this strategy to be successful, more community members must become involved in the process. Anyone seeking opportunities to help revitalize the Beechwood Neighborhood should call the Southeast Neighborhood Service Center at: 428-7640.
“We need the community’s help,” Commissioner Carballada said. “In his State of the City Address Monday night, Mayor Duffy said ‘We’ll build the foundation. You do the rest.’ Well, this is the kind of foundation we are talking about.”
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News media: Contact R. Carlos Carballada at 428-8801 for more information