Help the Effort to Reconnect Rochester

This article was scraped from Rochester Subway. This is a blog about Rochester history and urbanism has not been published since 2017. The current owners are now publishing link spam which made me want to preserve this history.. The original article was published December 13, 2014 and can be found here.

     By       Mike Governale

It was nearly five years ago when I and a small group of RocSubway readers came together with a single goal; to strengthen our community by working to grow sustainable transportation options across our region. Together we formed Reconnect Rochester, Inc...

   With nothing but small donations from ordinary citizens (totaling less than $4,000 in 2013), we accomplished some pretty awesome stuff this year:

• We established three new dedicated task forces, including a Bus Improvement Committee, Rail Transit Committee, and a Pedestrian Safety Committee. Each team will work with the community to make measurable improvements in each of these areas. (to join one of these committees email       [email protected]     )
• We sent Rochester transit advocates to Albany with folks from RTS to ask our legislators for dedicated and reliable funding for public transit in Rochester.
• We pulled off another successful      ROC Transit Day

with even more fun stuff to do including a giant swing dance, city-wide treasure hunt, and bus excursions - all aimed at helping people become familiar with using our public transit system, AND all completely free of charge to the public. Participation increased over 70% from the year before!

• We hosted our first educational      lecture

, completely free of charge to the public.

• We have developed a plan to bring much needed      seating

to Rochester bus stops.

• We won our first small grant from APTA to build an online resource for alternative forms of transportation in Rochester.
• We are working with the City of Rochester on a plan to reuse and repurpose six large      bus shelters

on Main Street in our downtown.

• We continue to track local transportation projects so that we can notify the public of opportunities to have input.
• We continue to work "behind the scenes" to encourage our local city and town leaders to invest in active transportation planning, infrastructure, traffic-calming measures, and smart-growth policies.

    Reconnect Rochester

is a small group of volunteers with no members, no angel investors, and no full-time staff. We spend our own time and our own money on these things because we know that if     we    don't, no one else will. And so, small donations are critical for us to continue our work.

This year we set a modest goal to raise $5,000 through our end-of-year campaign. But so far we are falling well short with just $2,500 so far. I DO think we can still hit our target. But with two weeks left before the end of the year, we'll definitely need your help.

You Can Help

If you can, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution before December 31.     You can make a one-time or recurring donation online here

or send a check to:

Reconnect Rochester
   Hungerford Complex
   1115 East Main St., Box #61
   Rochester, NY 14609

Believe me when I say, we will make every little bit     travel    as far as we can.

    See more      Reconnect Rochester photos on Flickr