Tag: Post-Bulletin

Post-Bulletin: Our View: Multilingual signage points to future

We want people from throughout the world to fall in love with our community. We want our community to love them back.

Including languages other than English on pedestrian signage is a simple, effective way to show openness, respect and that our city is ahead of the curve.

Wayfinding, or helping pedestrians get around via signage, is already something Destination Medical Center planners will need to address.

Post-Bulletin: Our View: Prototyping builds connections and brings energy into the city

Prototyping is the practice of designing and building small-scale projects in the city as a way to test new ideas. It is being applied in Rochester to help encourage healthy habits in the downtown.

Ideas included “game-ifying” Rochester’s bike trails, mobile beaches, a sculpture of the inner ear that translates echoes into other languages, a zoo at Soldier’s Field, life-sized emojis, multi-lingual pedestrian signage, interactive windmills and more.

As far out and cool as those projects are, the further the evening of ideas wore on, the more we noticed something.

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Post Bulletin: Firm selected to lead Chateau re-use

A consulting firm’s commitment to public engagement was the difference maker Tuesday as the city of Rochester’s Chateau Theatre Re-Use Task Force decided between the final two firms to lead the restoration and re-use project at the downtown theater.

“Community involvement doesn’t have to be ‘open the doors and see who shows up,'” said John Mecum, a principal at Minneapolis-based Miller Dunwiddie Architecture.

The public engagement process for re-use of the Chateau Theatre could involve public events, performances and focused meetings with performing arts organizations, said Denita Lemmon, an associate principal at Miller Dunwiddie.

$1.8 billion in infrastructure planned with DMC

In the next two decades, Rochester leaders will face the largest public infrastructure decisions in the city’s history. In tandem with the Destination Medical Center initiative, about $1.8 billion in infrastructure projects are on the city’s near horizon.

Of the estimated $1.8 billion in infrastructure identified in the DMC Development Plan, about $720 million is targeted to create 16,000 new structure parking spaces; $348 million is envisioned to create a downtown transit circulator; and $112 million is planned for other transit, streets and city loop improvements, according to city documents.

Post Bulletin: Our View: Change requires defined expectations

After waiting a few minutes to speak during a downtown press conference on transportation this week, Rochester City Council Member Michael Wojcik glanced over his shoulder and referenced the possibility that new buildings may have popped up during his wait.

The joke featuring unrealistic expectations in the midst of Destination Medical Center efforts draws attention to blossoming realities: Developers are looking for local opportunities, and growth is coming.

In the wake of St. Cloud-based developer Larry Brutger’s decision to back off plans to erect a new Holiday Inn across from Mayo Clinic’s Saint Marys Hospital, a related reality is being brought to light — development takes time, and everything doesn’t always go as planned.

Post Bulletin: City report supports Holiday Inn TIF

Stevan Kvenvold
Stevan Kvenvold

The city of Rochester administrative staff has put its support firmly behind the use of tax-increment financing in conjunction with one of the city’s most public development proposals, a Holiday Inn at Second Street Southwest.

City administration spent about three weeks compiling a report that reviewed development issues related to the Holiday Inn development and other development questions in the Second Street Southwest corridor. City Administrator Stevan Kvenvold provided the report to the Post-Bulletin on Tuesday.

“The city staff after that last (Destination Medical Center Corp.) Board meeting took it upon themselves to keep getting some information put together so we could keep continuing and hopefully make some decision for the developer, who has been at it for some time,” Kvenvold said Tuesday.

PB Dialogues: The future of the arts for Rochester

arts_pathA healthy community embraces creative expression. From painting and photography to theater and dance, the arts inspire us, energize us, and help us tap into our own imagination.

February’s Post-Bulletin (PB) Dialogue, moderated by PB editor Jay Furst, will gather several community arts leaders and advocates together to discuss the future of arts in downtown Rochester during an informal, 90-minute conversation at the Rochester Public Library.

Post Bulletin: Public spaces take stage in DMC spotlight

Public spaces are as integral to Destination Medical Center plans as the private development that will surround them, and the Rochester City Council is nearly ready to take a step ahead in designing those spaces.

The council at a Monday committee of the whole meeting discussed plans to advertise for public space design services, for the DMC subdistrict Heart of the City. The city would coordinate with the DMC Corp. Board to issue a request for proposals, said Gary Neumann, assistant city administrator.

Post Bulletin: Community engagement offers promise

Flurries of questions and conversation filled the spaces between people in two rooms at Forager Brewery on Thursday. Discussions compared the difference between a tunnel and a subway, between 30-year-old plans and current proposals and between what the landscape looks like today and the potential for decades in the future.

Ultimately, the focus of the gathering hosted by Imagine Kutzky was Rochester’s Second Street Southwest Corridor and what potential changes mean for the rest of Rochester.

Just as important, however, is what such an event means for the city and its residents. Conducted in an informal style, the gathering provided ample opportunity to connect with local activists, business leaders and city officials, all with the goal of sharing ideas and gathering information.