Sarah Taddeo, Staff writer; 7:22
p.m. EDT April 30, 2014
(Photo: Jamie Germano/staff photographer)
- Community members took a walk through PLEX neighborhood, brainstormed development ideas
Rochester’s first African-American
physician, funeral home director and architect each worked out of Rochester’s
Plymouth-Exchange, or PLEX, neighborhood.
But most Rochesterians don’t know
this rich history. The PLEX Neighborhood Association hosted the Take Part
Community Walk on Wednesday to remember the area’s past and discuss its future
as an up-and-coming district.
The neighborhood sits along the
Genesee River between Ford and Genesee streets. Walk participants gathered at
Carlson Community Center on Coretta Scott Crossing and traveled a planned route
around the neighborhood, while residents and Rochester Regional Community
Design Center members pointed out significant buildings and green spaces along
the way. A discussion of the experience and participants’ reactions and ideas
followed the walk.
Dorian Hall, who grew up on Plymouth
Avenue and lives there today, said he wanted the walk to be a tool for
brainstorming and awareness in a neighborhood that has had victories and
challenges.
“This neighborhood hasn’t always
thrived,” Hall said. “Moving into the city is sometimes dangerous, but here, it
really is pretty quiet. What people would normally think of this neighborhood
is mostly stereotype.”
Developers knocked down or renovated
some of the older buildings in the neighborhood — some of which date back to
1875 — which gave the area its mixed architectural feel. Some renovation
projects, like the Renaissance Café at Plymouth and Columbia avenues, preserved
some architectural elements to retain the neighborhood’s original aesthetic.
University of Rochester students started
moving into the area a few years ago, which brought traffic and demand for
residential renovation into the area. Housing communities like Ant Hill
Cooperative renovated some of the neighborhood’s large Victorian houses for
affordable student housing.
While new neighborhood faces are
good, some see the influx of students as gentrification, or a demographic shift
toward wealthier residents, said PLEX resident Nolia Brooks.
“This neighborhood is on the rise,
but high rents are making it so that people living here can’t afford it
anymore,” Brooks said. “Students rent four rooms in a house here at $500 a
shot, but no family around here can think about paying $2,000 to rent that
house.”
Hosting events like the walk gives
residents the chance to raise concerns about development trends in the area,
and to talk about what is being done to revitalize the neighborhood, Hall said.
Leading the walk’s discussions were
Rochester Regional CDC director Joni Monroe and Columbia University assistant
professor Lourdes Hernández-Cordero Rodriguez, who lectured Wednesday night at
Gleason Works Auditorium as part of the community organization initiative
Reshaping Rochester.
“We’re not trying to tell anyone
what they should do with this neighborhood,” Monroe said. “We’re trying to
bring people together for significant input on this area’s positives and its
issues.”
Monroe and Rodriguez said
neighborhood development should be focused on how residents see their community
and what goals they have for its future.
“Sometimes decisions about spaces
are made without communities in mind,” said Rodriguez. “We should look at this
space as a place where people form families and bonds, and decide how we can
use it in a way that is respectful of that.”
After the walk, groups sat together
and mapped out development ideas discussed while out in the neighborhood. One
group had a playground situated on the waterfront and new residential
development in abandoned manufacturing facilities.
Neighborhood residents won’t see
desired improvement in their communities if they aren’t invested in the
process, Hall said.
“If you’re not involved, then you
get left out,” he said. “We don’t want to be stuck with a developer’s idea of
this area. We want to make sure local history and input makes it into the
projects that happen here.”
SJTADDEO@Gannett.com
