The neighborhoods of Northeast Rochester have been beset for decades by poverty, violence, and lack of access to jobs, healthy food and transportation.
But scores of residents have committed to a brighter vision for their community, and they've been working for the last year-and-a-half with the City of Rochester, the Community Design Center, and other organizations to map out a better future
"I am very confident it will come to fruition,” said Miguel Melendez, special projects director of the Ibero American Development Corporation. “I am not confident it will happen fast. In talking with the residents, they know that some of the challenges have been twenty, thirty year challenges. Things in the community didn't turn out this way overnight, so it will take some time to redevelop the area."
Melendez has been helping to organize community involvement in what's called the El Camino Revitalization Area Vision Plan, essentially a blue print for the westernmost part of the Northeast Side.
The completed plan was unveiled last week by the Community Design Center. Executive director Mo Duggan says there are both short and long-term goals, including a vibrant shopping district at the La Marketa site on North Clinton Avenue. She says this would not only revitalize the area, but provide access to the goods and services needed in the community.
"So think of things like, someone mentioned they wish there was a veterinarian, or a dentist in the area, or places where people who are very talented artisans to sell their wares."
Other plans call for new housing, help for residents who want to become homeowners, and short-term solutions such as speed bumps to make it more difficult for people to come into the neighborhoods to buy drugs.
Duggan said the Community Design Center will help facilitate the changes, but the community is the brains behind the vision.
