RochesterWriters

We'll get back to our D&C Conversation shortly, but let's take a break for a minute to discuss an interesting development in the Renaissance Square saga. One of our local bloggers, the Moderate Urban Champion, has a smart post on recent developments there.

The short story is that Neil Bauman, father of local Internet king eBaum, owns some of the property that was to become Ren Square. He's frustrated at the lack of progress, and has proposed that the theater on the site be replaced with residential towers. The Urban Champ thinks this is a good idea.

I agree with the Urban Champ: forget about the theater. Rochester could always use another venue, but Ren Square was the CatDog of urban development projects. The notion that a bus station by day could become a high-end theater district by night left potential retailers scratching their heads. Were they supposed to open combination newsstand/bistros?

Bauman's plan to build housing adjacent to the city's main transportation hub, right next to the urban campus of the local community college, seems like a no-brainer. It's something a real-estate developer, not a politician, would propose.

The Ren Square theater was a political sop to suburbanites who aren't going to ride buses or attend the center-city MCC campus. It's lingered far too long, and I hope Bauman's plan deals it a death blow.