Downtown Rochester Research Articles

Handcraft as urban intervention: In recognition of the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Sewing Society

In 1851, in Rochester, New York, a group of nineteen women banded together as the founding members of an anti-slavery group in order to support the work of the abolitionist, writer, orator and newspaper publisher, Frederick Douglass. They were the benefactors of Frederick Douglass, himself regarded as the founder of the twentieth-century Civil Rights movement. They called themselves the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Sewing Society, although they dropped ‘Sewing’ from their group’s name in 1855. Yet the fact that ‘Sewing’ was included in the original name of this reformist group indicates the foundational role of craft not only as a guiding activity, but also as a key activist mechanism to abolish the institution of slavery. This article explains how a contemporary craft intervention in downtown Rochester, New York, involving 400 swatches contributed from across the United States, sought to honour and reclaim the history of this social-reformist group, at Corinthian Hall, the physical location where they held their abolitionist fundraising bazaars in the nineteenth century. That building is now a parking lot in the heart of central Rochester. Ultimately, yarn is argued to be a social-action tool to help reverse historic erasure in a crowded urban environment.

Exposure to air pollution in indoor walkways of a suburban city

Indoor walkways are often connected to sources of indoor pollutants such as retail stores, restaurants, and parking garages. To measure the air quality within indoor skyways and subways in downtown Rochester, MN, a mobile monitoring platform was deployed at least once per month for one year. Nineteen segments of each walkway type were measured for 5-min intervals twice per sampling day. Adjacent storefront or building type did not significantly impact air pollution concentrations measured in walkway segments; however, trends were observed in some spatial comparisons. Segments adjacent to restaurants had elevated PM2.5, TVOC, and CO2 concentrations, while elevated O3 and PM10-2.5 concentrations occurred adjacent to parking garages and streets. Inhalation dose was simulated for a range of walking routes for a baseline distribution of exposure, estimated for a healthy middle-aged adult male walking all identified routes. Compared to this baseline case, exposure increased by 179–457% (p < 0.001, all pollutants) when dining; by 15–18% (p < 0.001, all pollutants) for an elderly population; and by 11–37% (p < 0.001, all pollutants) during annual peak concentration periods. Low levels of air pollution are being maintained in the measured indoor walkways, and personal exposure can be significantly reduced by avoiding restaurant-dense areas around mealtimes.

Unfolding Perception: Materiality and Time in the Work of Tara Merenda Nelson and Andy Warhol

The first time I visited New York City in 2012, I was anxious to see the Empire State Building. I walked along Fifth Avenue from Central Park and passed by without noticing it. When I realized that I was at Thirty-first Street, I turned around, and there it was. After paying my ticket and queuing, I went to the observatory on the top floor. Images of the building began to unfold and overlay my direct experience, and my perceptual relationship with it began to change. Before, the Empire State was an idea constructed from pop culture. It was King Kong (1933, directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack), Empire (1964, by Andy Warhol), and many others. But, now the Empire State has a spatial reference for me. It has become part of my perceptual archive of images; my mind reconstructs it through the recollection of direct experience. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The process of perceiving and giving meaning to images is a puzzling psychological exercise that enlarges with perceptual experience. Linking meaning with perception is a process of accumulation that expands and regenerates every time we encounter an image. We see images and we try to make sense of them. We seek recognition and attempt to fit them into our categories of long-term memory while dealing with our short-term memory experience of them. The mechanics of human perception combine the empirical process of experiencing the world and the mental process of assimilating what is seen. Tara Merenda Nelson's multimedia installation End of Empire (2014) enlivened my curiosity about not only the image per se, but the processes of perception as well. When I first saw the piece created in collaboration with Gordon Nelson at Visual Studies Workshop, I was struck by its particular combination of elements. The installation, the first piece of the artist's ongoing FourMats series (2014-present) is a multiformat vertical puzzle of the Kodak tower in downtown Rochester. Nelson divided the building into four parts that were each filmed simultaneously in four different formats. The first three parts of the tower are analog--shot on discontinued Ektachrome color-reversal stocks of 16mm, Super 8, and slide film--while the base of the tower is a high-definition digital video. Each portion of the tower operates as a separate entity, with different aspect ratio and physical qualities native to its format. The illusion of die tower as a single image is formed with the magnified scale and the line created between the top and bottom right corners, which connects the four distinct formats. It is undeniably the Kodak tower that the viewer confronts. The building is a core element of Rochester's skyline, a landmark of its bright economic past and prosperous industry. Outside Rochester, even when the building is unknown to the viewer, its crowing Kodak sign makes its identity clear. Kodak means film, and its tower still represents the epicenter of film production. End of Empire challenged me with moving images of the Kodak tower for the first time. My knowledge of the object resided in memory, while the installation was an immediate viewing experience. When I asked Nelson about her experiences showing the piece in other locations, she said that it was like bringing Kodak and the history of film to different spaces. Although audiences did not always know the building itself, they were always able to engage with the materiality of the piece and its symbolic references. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] End of Empire stands as a reflexive requiem to film and its industry as well as an homage to Warhol's Empire, filmed fifty years previously. Although a single piece, its structure is a result of contrast and opposition. By juxtaposing four different formats, Nelson unfolds their perceptual and material differences. The top of the building is constructed with the three obsolete film stocks, which exhibit the fading and scratches of celluloid's inevitable degradation with each successive screening. …

The Mind, Body &amp; Spirits Inspired Dining Organic Restaurant

The new Mind, Body &amp; Spirits Inspired Dining Organic Restaurant, located at 301 S. Main Street in downtown Rochester, MI, opened in November of 2008. It is located on the southwest corner of S. Main Street and W. Third Street. It is housed in an existing two-story brick building with a full basement and has a New Greenhouse / Kitchen / Restrooms / Dining Deck Addition located in the former rear parking lot area to the west.

Comparison of sources of submicron particle number concentrations measured at two sites in Rochester, NY

Sources contributing to the submicron particles (100–470 nm) measured between January 2002 and December 2007 at two different New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) sites in Rochester, NY were identified and apportioned using a bilinear receptor model, positive matrix factorization (PMF). Measurements of aerosol size distributions and number concentrations for particles in the size range of 10–500 nm have been made since December 2001 to date in Rochester. The measurements are being made using a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) consisting of a DMA and a CPC (TSI models 3071 and 3010, respectively). From December 2001 to March 2004, particle measurements were made at the NYS DEC site in downtown Rochester, but it was moved to the eastside of Rochester in May 2004. Each measurement period was divided into three seasons i.e., winter (December, January, and February), summer (June, July, and August), and the transitional periods (March, April, May, September, October, and November) so as to avoid experimental uncertainty resulting from too large season-to-season variability in ambient temperature and solar photon intensity that would lead to unstable/non-stationary size distributions. Therefore, the seasons were analyzed independently for possible sources. Ten sources were identified at both sites and these include traffic, nucleation, residential/commercial heating, industrial emissions, secondary nitrate, ozone- rich secondary aerosol, secondary sulfate, regionally transported aerosol, and a mixed source of nucleation and traffic. These results show that the measured total outdoor particle number concentrations in Rochester generally vary with similar temporal patterns, suggesting that the central monitoring site data can be used to estimate outdoor exposure in other parts of the city.

Creative providers: Counseling and counselors in family planning and reproductive health

Abstract This paper examines family planning and reproductive health counseling using qualitative data from four sites. Skillful counselors are creative. They improvise on counseling protocols that are never more than bare bones outlines. They also perform in a dual sense, carrying out a task and doing so in a way that engages their clients. To accomplish this, they draw on structuring resources from the wider society and culture as well as the settings in which they work. The implications of the creativity of counselors for the management and evaluation of counseling services are noted. 1. Introduction Counseling and counselors are regarded as key components of family planning and reproductive health services in developed as well as developing countries. Counseling is thought provide with new information in an interpersonal context that enables them profit from (Frank and Frank 1991:145). It helps concerned with family planning free and informed about [contraception] and act on those choices (Gallen, Lettenmaier and Green 1987:2). It enables those concerned with or suffering from HIV/AIDS to cope with stress and take personal decisions required avoid or live with the condition (UNAIDS 1997). The role of the counselor is make this happen, giving and receiving relevant, accurate information help make decisions and creating the trusting and caring with clients that makes this go smoothly and effectively (Gallen, Lettenmaier, and Green 1987:7). Though these appealing claims have led a great deal of program effort, they have not been fully tested. None of the methodologies commonly used assess the quality2 of counseling services or their outcomes - mystery client studies,3 situation analysis,4 quasi-experiments,5 randomized controlled trials,6 and transcript analysis7 - provide close-up, detailed views of the content of counseling sessions and the work counselors do make them happen.8 Mystery-client studies and situation analyses include observation of provider-client interactions in family planning facilities - by a mock client in the former case and a third person in the latter - but the indicators observers are asked record are somewhat superficial gauges of the nature of the provider-client relationship (Miller, Askew, Horn, and Miller 1998:249). Quasiexperiments and randomized controlled trials have used intention-to-treat analyses. That is say, [p]articipants [are] grouped according the intervention assigned by randomization, regardless of whether they received or completed the assigned intervention ... (Metcalf et al. 2005). Or precisely how. Transcript analysis comes closest describing the conduct of counseling, but it begins by jettisoning the language in which counseling actually occurs.9 All of this research rests on two assumptions. The first is that models of counseling adequately specify the content of counseling sessions. The second is that counselors can and should reproduce prescribed forms of counseling without significant variation on all occasions, with all clients, and in all languages. This paper uses qualitative data from four sites examine those assumptions. The next section introduces key concepts used in the analysis. The third section, based on fieldwork carried out in 1999, discusses the between counseling guidelines and actual counseling talk at a clinic in downtown Rochester, NY, operated by Planned Parenthood of the Rochester/Syracuse Region. In the fourth section, I test my analysis of counseling in Rochester with material from published studies of counseling in three other sites. 2. Counseling as a form of verbal interaction In counseling, a client or and a counselor or counselors speak one another.10 If we are understand how counseling is accomplished we must set aside our ideas about what constitutes good counseling and about the effects of counseling and focus instead on the verbal interaction of which it consists. …

Replacement of the Troup Howell Bridge, Rochester, New York

The Troup Howell Bridge carries I-490 over the Genesee River and several streets in downtown Rochester, New York. When deterioration necessitated a new bridge, engineers sought a context-sensitive replacement. The bridge's location affords opportunities for aesthetic enrichment: it is set in the foreground of the city skyline, which includes architecturally noteworthy buildings that house mainstays to international businesses such as Eastman Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch & Lomb. The project design team included the New York State Department of Transportation, Erdman Anthony and Associates, Inc., and H2L2 Architects. An aesthetics committee consisting of local government officials, adjoining neighborhood representatives, American Institute of Architects members, and artists provided feedback throughout the design process, which ensured that the solution fit the environment. Many of the committee preferences were implemented in the final design. The centerpiece of the new eight-span bridge will be a 132-m (433-f...

Seasonal and Spatial Variations in Human Cell Mutagenicity of Respirable Airborne Particles in the Northeastern United States

Samples of respirable airborne particles (similar in size to PM_(2.5)) were collected at five sites in the northeastern United States every sixth day during 1995 and tested in a mutagenicity assay based on human cells. Three sites were located in Massachusetts: in downtown Boston, in a suburban area 20 km to the north, and in a rural area 100 km west of Boston. The other two sites were located in downtown Rochester in upstate New York and in a rural area 35 km to the west. Bimonthly composite samples (10−11 sampling days per composite) were extracted in organic solvents and tested for mutagenicity at the thymidine kinase locus in h1A1v2 cells, a line of human B-lymphoblasts that constitutively expresses P450 CYP1A1 cDNA. Mutagenicity levels were significantly higher in winter than in summer at all sites, both per microgram of airborne particulate organic carbon (OC) and per cubic meter of air. Mutagenicity per microgram of OC was significantly inversely correlated with air temperature (r = −0.95 in NY, r = −0.40 in MA) and ambient concentrations of OC (r = −0.4). Annual averages of mutagenicity per microgram of OC in upstate New York were roughly 2-fold higher than in Massachusetts; however, no clear intrastate spatial variations were evident. Mutagenicity per cubic meter of air showed an increase of roughly 1.5−2-fold from rural areas to urban centers within each state. This increase was influenced by higher OC concentrations in the urban locations (up to 2-fold) but not by higher mutagenicity per microgram of OC. These results indicate that cold weather is significantly correlated with the human cell mutagenicity of respirable particles in the northeastern United States and further show that populations of urban centers in this region are exposed to higher levels of airborne human cell mutagens than in nearby rural areas.

Volumetric Assessment of Airborne Pollen and Spore Levels in Rochester, Minnesota, 1992 Through 1995

To reassess airborne pollen counts and to study spore counts by volumetric collection in Rochester, Minnesota. Samples of pollen and spores were collected from the top of a six-story building in downtown Rochester by use of a rotational rod sampler, which was activated for 30 seconds every 10 minutes for 24 hours a day, 5 days a week, from mid-April to mid-October 1992 through 1995. Particles were stained with Calberla's fluid and viewed microscopically by transmitted light. Identifications were substantiated by comparison with field-collected "known" materials and standard reference guides. Data were expressed as "particles retained/cubic meter of air sampled." Because the methods of collection varied, only qualitative comparisons could be made with a study done in Rochester more than 3 1/2 decades earlier. For tree pollens, a similar progression of appearance and seasonal duration were noted for most species. Alder (Alnus), willow (Salix), and hickory-pecan (Carya), however, were found to have distinctly longer seasons, and walnut (Julgans) was detected 2 weeks earlier in the season. The most frequently detected tree pollen had changed from oak (Quercus) to apple and crab apple (Malus), which was not reported at all previously. Ragweed (Ambrosia) was still found to peak at the end of August and had a similar duration. Study of grass and nettle pollen as well as the Amaranthaceae-Chenopodiaceae complex yielded findings similar to those in the prior investigation. Fungal spores were detected from April through October and represented a substantial percentage of the airborne allergens; Cladosporium, ascospores, and basidiospores were the most common. Volumetric assessment of airborne pollen and spore levels in Rochester, Minnesota, yielded useful information for clinicians in southern Minnesota that could help direct skin test selection.

The Sibley Music Library of the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester

The Sibley Music Library of the Eastman School of Music is a major full-service library. Together with the Rush Rhees Library serving the colleg s on the River Campus and the Edward G. Miner Library serving the Sch ol of Medicine and Den istry, it is an i tegral part of the University of Rochester Library System. Occupyi g on of the buildings of the Eastman School complex in downtown Rochester, New York, it has a primary goal to serve the students, faculty, and staff of the Sc ool. Secondarily, it acts as a music reference resource or the community. This dual role may be understood in th light of the library's history, which antedat s by two decades the founding of the School with which it is now associated.

Human Performance Requirements for an Innovative Transit Bus Operation

Human performance requirements for an innovative transit bus operation system utilizing exclusive bus lanes in a downtown are described. Requirements for transit company personnel and bus patrons are discussed. Performance levels achieved during a test and demonstration of the system in downtown Rochester, New York are analyzed. Transit company personnel performed at an average level of 94% compliance with their particular requirements; bus patrons at an average level of 87 percent. Overall compliance level (transit personnel plus patrons) was 74 percent. The system was found to be feasible; it was successfully integrated into regular transit operations. It provided a reserve capacity potential 26% above the then-scheduled flow. Computer simulation using Rochester, New York parameters as inputs suggest that, with certain operational changes, potential capacity could be increased 59% over flows scheduled at the time of the experiment.