An Open Letter to Mayor Robert J. Duffy

Shawn O’Hara
60 Penhurst St
Rochester, New York 14619
October 24, 2009

Mayor Robert J. Duffy
30 Church Street
Rochester, New York 14614

Dear Mayor Duffy,

Today the 19th Ward witnessed another outrageous and senseless act against our community, with the suspected arson at 202 Trafalgar Street. We are devastated. Again.

Not less than a week ago our community was rocked by the flagrant, broad daylight, shooting of a young person on Thurston Road. And now, six days later and only blocks away, a resident of 40+ years and her son, as well as a new family to our city have been left homeless by this disturbing event.

For years our community has been fighting to lift ourselves up in an effort to end the violence and make our streets safe. But we are getting tired Mr. Mayor, and we need some help.

As you may know, the Southwest side of Rochester has one of the oldest community associations in the country, with our 19th Ward Community Association. We are also the home to many active block clubs, neighborhood groups and organizations that are fighting to make our streets safe, walk-able and crime free. We have marched. We have organized. We have held candle light vigils. But as quick as pulling a trigger, or lighting a match, all of our hope, energy and enthusiasm is extinguished. Our residents are tired, scared and feed-up. With many of us feeling helpless.

As the Mayor of this great city, I ask you to please consider committing more resources to our neighborhood. Such as fully staffing our Neighborhood Service Center, installing sound responding street cameras, and aggressive enforcement city codes, and laws such as littering, illegal parking and traffic violations. Coupled with these basic service improvements, it would be beneficial to implement and fund the final phase of the Thurston Road design study.

With these investments and improvements, the 19th Ward would not only become a more desirable place to live and work, they would also facilitate the increase of property values resulting in increased revenue for the city. But aside from the monetary benefits, we should consider the emotional well being of our community as a whole. Think of the positive effect on a child, knowing that they can walk to school safely without the fear of being shot. Think of the positive effect for a block club that can meet to plan a street fair, instead of planning on how to help a burned out family. These are the small things that happen, when we invest in our streetscapes, repair our building facades, and encourage business development. It is time Mr. Mayor. It is time to help us lift ourselves up, and end this seemingly endless battle against decay, violence and crime. It is time.

Sincerely,

Shawn O’Hara
Resident 19th Ward Rochester, New Yrok
Student Rochester Institute of Technology
Founder/Administrator Location19.org

Cc:
Patricia K. Malgieri, Deputy Mayor
G. Jean Howard, Chief of Staff
Darryl W. Porter, Assistant to the Mayor
Richard Hannon, Director of Special Projects
Dana Miller, City Councilmember At Large
Adam McFadden, City Councilmember South District
David Moore, Police Chief
Charles Reaves, Commissioner, Recreation and Youth Services

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Permalink Reply by Margy Meath on October 26, 2009 at 9:41am

BRILLIANT Hilary and not at all too long! LOVE LOVE LOVE it especially the 2nd last paragraph.

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Permalink Reply by Anthony Fasolo on October 26, 2009 at 1:27pm

Oh Hillary! Once again touche'

Anthony

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Permalink Reply by Inge Mallory on October 26, 2009 at 7:21pm

BRAVO !!!!!!!

A great letter. Thank you for writing it.

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Permalink Reply by Shawn on October 26, 2009 at 9:27am

Thank you Hilary, I hope with our collective voices we might be heard. Boy I wish I could write like that!
-Shawn

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Permalink Reply by Hilary Homer on October 26, 2009 at 9:43am

Are you emailing or writing a letter letter?

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Permalink Reply by Shawn on October 26, 2009 at 9:46am

I emailed my letter to all those listed above, as well as the D&C, and the City Newspaper.

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Permalink Reply by DeWain Feller on October 26, 2009 at 10:04pm

Shawn (and Hilary) I would strongly encourage you to mail (US Mail.. AKA Snailmail) in hard copies of your letters. My experience is that written letters are often taken more seriously by public officials than emails.

Great letters!

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Permalink Reply by Marian Boutet on October 26, 2009 at 6:25pm

Wonderful letter, Hilary - and not too long at all. Every word of it is meaningful. Could you copy your letter to Shawn's list as well as the officials Willie Lightfoot mentioned in his post a couple of days ago?

"There should be a letter to Maggie Brooks and the County too. Where are the County resources. Shierff, probation,da [District Attorney] office etc...The County should pay more attention to City issues. We pay county taxes too, which went up by the way! Where is the county? Its going to take all resources City and County to help change our city. I support the letter and these issue as well. Nice job."

Everyone else - please do the same. The more voices, the more powerful we are.

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Permalink Reply by Shawn on October 28, 2009 at 10:11am

Here is the first response I've received to my open letter. It's from the Office of the Police of Chief, from Mark Beaudrault. I would have to say that in the last couple of days I have heard of tickets bring given for illegal parking. And today on my way down Thurston Road around 7:30am, I saw 2 cop cars patrolling the street, which is the first time I remember seeing them so early in the morning.

We need to keep our voices loud and clear. Thanks for everyone's help!
-Shawn

Dear Mr. O’Hara:

Please be advised that Chief Moore is in receipt of your email dated October 24th , 2009 concerning crime in the 19th Ward, specifically the arson fire at 202 Trafalger Street. We do understand your concerns.

The Police Department approaches every day with a sense of urgency and a desire to find innovative solutions to our City’s challenges. The Rochester Police Department (RPD) is committed to the development and perpetuation of programs designed to prevent and control crimes, as such we are continuously looking for innovative ideas to address violence. Some innovative solutions implemented are IMPACT, Zero Tolerance, Shotspotter (gun fire recognition) and police overt observation cameras.

It is clearly understood in the RPD that all employees and components are responsible for enhancing the quality of life of our constituency, implementing the tenets of our community-involvement strategy, and for achieving our crime prevention and community goals. We will continue to develop partnerships and resources within the community to build problem-solving coalitions, to instill a sense of mutual responsibility for enhancing public safety, and to increase the community’s capacity to resolve issues related to crime and the fear of crime.

We do believe that with the help of our community-involvement initiatives and crime prevention activities that we can address the problems that pose the greatest concerns to the community and where this activity is most geographically prevalent.

Crimes such as the arson fire are extremely serious for the community as a whole. Please be assured that our Arson Task Force is diligently working on the investigation.

Mark Beaudrault

Office of the Chief of Police
Rochester Police Department
185 Exchange Blvd
Rochester, NY 14614
(585) 428-3644

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Permalink Reply by cy kastner on October 28, 2009 at 8:20pm

This is the reply I received.

Does anyone have a reply with different words
in it ?

If so, maybe we could trade City responses like
"baseball cards" !

Dear Mr. Kastner:

Please be advised that Chief Moore is in receipt of your email dated October 23rd and 25th , 2009 concerning crime in the 19th Ward, specifically the arson fire at 202 Trafalger Street. We do understand your concerns.

The Police Department approaches every day with a sense of urgency and a desire to find innovative solutions to our City’s challenges. The Rochester Police Department (RPD) is committed to the development and perpetuation of programs designed to prevent and control crimes, as such we are continuously looking for innovative ideas to address violence. Some innovative solutions implemented are IMPACT, Zero Tolerance, Shotspotter (gun fire recognition) and police overt observation cameras.

It is clearly understood in the RPD that all employees and components are responsible for enhancing the quality of life of our constituency, implementing the tenets of our community-involvement strategy, and for achieving our crime prevention and community goals. We will continue to develop partnerships and resources within the community to build problem-solving coalitions, to instill a sense of mutual responsibility for enhancing public safety, and to increase the community’s capacity to resolve issues related to crime and the fear of crime.

We do believe that with the help of our community-involvement initiatives and crime prevention activities that we can address the problems that pose the greatest concerns to the community and where this activity is most geographically prevalent.

Crimes such as the arson fire are extremely serious for the community as a whole. Please be assured that our Arson Task Force is diligently working on the investigation.

Mark Beaudrault

Office of the Chief of Police

Rochester Police Department

185 Exchange Blvd

Rochester, NY 14614

(585) 428-3644

MB0548@cityofrochester.gov

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Permalink Reply by Margy Meath on October 28, 2009 at 8:43pm

geeeeeeeeezzzzz............. it reminds me of calling Dell's "customer service" with a complaint and about 5 minutes into the conversation, you realize that Dave (in India) is reading from a script and isn't really HEARING what you're saying.
On a similar note, I have just returned from the 'street watch meeting' where we discussed 'drug houses'..... more on that later, but one of the speakers said THREE different times "please don't call the Mayor's office or the Chief's office" - his point was that the complaint ends up with him anyway, but perhaps we're hitting some 'nerves'.

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Permalink Reply by Shawn on October 28, 2009 at 8:51pm

WHAT! Don't call the Mayor or The Police Chief! I guess we just learned that this is NOT an open door type of City Hall. Well unless you want to build a new office tower downtown, or move your company there. I know I am saying this without being at the meeting. But that's what I'm drawing from that statement. Maybe we need to turn it up a notch?