So… I’ve been hanging out, listening, engaging, watching, remembering, thinking and intaking. you bet i’m pretty busy and attentive… well no. It’s all been by accident and on the sly.

Actually, so i’ve met some really cool people. And they’re connected to really cool people, and things, and knowledge. I won’t bore you with the details, it’s an interesting chain of connections but, they are all real neat, environmental etc. people.
Through them, I’ve found out that Rochester actually has a housing co-op. Ant-hill co-op. It’s real new and young, but really cool that we have one in Rochester. Apparently Madison, Wisconson has a ton of co-ops. One of the people I met is from Wisconson and is connected with Ant Hill.. that’s how i know.
*now personally, co-op -the word- reminds me of RIT’s version of internships, or my mom told me of how some neighborhoods or groups of people would grocery shop all together and then split it up….*
My first naive connection, in my brain, when i heard of this co-op was to think/associate it with the idea of a commune, also another really old word. But it’s all the same general idea… a bunch of people living in community with eachother, sharing groceries, taking care of a garden and other various “quasi-public” events. Which is really cool.
This is really chopy. Anyways, it’s really interesting to me, the whole concept of simple living. This, I believe, comes largely from the environmental side and sustainable living stuff. It’s very cool. It actually connects with the New Urbanism indirectly but it makes sense in my head. But it’s interesting and cool that a bunch of people will get together and choose to share food, shop somewhat organically, live simply, share in the chores of a house, take care of a garden try to do a lot of stuff with the garden, bike places instead of drive and create this community/culture by living together. Soo cool, really neat. I hope it works and lasts.

But another thing that happened was, while hanging out with these really cool, inspiring people, that we were hanging out in the South Wegde in Rochester NY. What’s really really cool is that in the south wedge, they’ve been working for a long time to get an organic, whole foods market in that area. Like a locally owned grocery store. Because when you think about it, the closest grocery stores to the south wedge is either in henrietta, Gates, way east on East ave or Abundance up on Monroe Ave.

I mentioned the grocery store that’s happening over in Syracuse, in the city proper… I almost peed my pants with joy when i found out about this new one in Rochester… I think the sign said it was South Wedge Grocery… maybe. and I never knew about Abundance, so that makes it really neat that there are 2 cool grocery stores in the city of Rochester. They may not meet the needs of all diet types, but it’s really cool.

I don’t know how long any of this is going to last. Who will survive the torment of the ciy, wegmans sure pulled out of Rochester, excpet their East Ave store right on the east edge of the ciy. (dont’ get me wrong, i worshipped wegmans while apart from the northeast at college) We just need to have more faith in the city. Another thing, there’s another coffee shop (yay, whoopy) but that means that it’s better than some lower end fashion shop, bad bars (i’ve not been, can’t really pass judgement) and low end convinent stores. it’s a coffee shop!! a place for the neighborhood, for the community to hang out, a place to go. a destination. A destination. a destination for community. that’s all we ever want.

*bows* thanks for enduring this rambling, disjointed, hopeful joy.

OH and the old people.  how can we do anything about that?  I don’t know.  They’re already helping themselves out somewhat. Living in Condos with lots of other people.

I think the thing we would need to do, is create the sort of communities and city neighborhoods that would eliminate some or  most of the need to drive. This would be through having corner grocery stores that were actually practical.
*side note*  when visiting my grandparents in Syracuse on st. patty’s day, grandma showed my mom and I an article about some guy that started a grocery store in the city.  Syracuse is working hard to renovate their old buildings in the city.  This particular project is in the Amos Building and will have luxury apartments on the other floors and this grocery store on the first floor.  How cool is that?  and it’s not just some lame grocery store, i think they’re making it a “luxury” one.  For the life of me I can’t find any google articles on it specifically.
*end side note*  But if we do things like that.  Put some restaurants and coffee shops  and grocery stores in the city, in these little communities,  and neighborhoods.  Just think of NYC.  they do it real well.  My sister has a bunch of stuff way close by and a fairly easy transit system to use.

That’s the other thing.  Create a public transit system that would feel safe, and easy to use.  Old folks move slowly and don’t like anything complicated.  So if you’re introducing something new to them, like putting a quality transit system in a city, you’ve gotta make it user friendly.  You gotta sell this stuff.  get the widowed women talking.  If they feel safe, then you’ve got a successful thing.

But you’ve gotta build up your city commerce back to the street level neighborhood stuff, you’ve gotta get a good transit system and you’ve gotta move them back into the city.  The other thing is.  they’re old, they don’t do stairs well, so the majority won’t be buying the colonial and cape cod houses.  but the high rises are trashy looking.  SO somehow that would have to be reconciled.  because we want to keep the integrity of the city without continuing to build the same old trash that we’ve been building for the last 60 years.

That’s my two cents.