Rochester’s fast ferry has been sold to a company that will use it on the English Channel.<\/p>\n
Once the sale closes next week, the city will take the money and repay $7.5 million borrowed from city insurance reserves for shut-down expenses. The remainder, less a brokerage fee, will be applied to a $40 million debt owed to Australian lender Export Finance and Insurance Corp. The city borrowed from EFIC to buy the ship for $32 million in February 2005 and restart the Rochester-to-Toronto service last June.<\/p>\n
Thomas Richards, the city’s corporation counsel who negotiated the sale, said the remaining debt of slightly less than $20 million will become a taxpayer obligation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Twenty million. That’s what we’re stuck with. Oh, and the public embarrassment.<\/p>\n
Giving up on the ferry was a retreat. But it was a retreat from a position that was untenable. The people of Rochester deserve better.<\/p>\n
So how about, for starters, applying the lessons we’ve learned on the ferry to our thinking on the so-called Renaissance Square.<\/p>\n
Just because our politicians want to strike heroic poses and direct taxpayer money to a project doesn’t mean it’s right for our city. Pork spending is not good governance.<\/p>\n
Here’s a post I wrote on Renaissance Square<\/a> that compares it to a Miami art fair that has led to measurable economic growth. Check out the difference in the price tags. Renaissance Square: “estimated” cost $230 million. Art Basel: less than $5 million the first year. Current budget (three years later): $14.4 million.<\/p>\n
Note also that the growth of the budget came after <\/em>the fair had started proving itself out.<\/p>\n
No, we’re not Miami. But there’s no reason we can’t learn from what Miami has done. Ya know, it’s that best practices thing. It’s also the kind of governance that can navigate a city to greatness instead of crashing it into a dock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rochester’s fast ferry has been sold to a company that will use it on the English Channel. Once the sale closes next week, the city will take the money and repay $7.5 million borrowed from city insurance reserves for shut-down … Continue reading