by Diana Louise Carter | Tuesday, September 19, 2017 | EcoDistrict, Greentopia, Rachel Walsh
It’s time to launch the High Falls Eco-District! So no, that’s nothing like sailing a Frisbee over the edge of the Genesee River ravine in Greentopia’s backyard. It’s the formal process required to begin certification of the EcoDistrict north of downtown. The planning stage, which involved lots of meetings with stakeholders and then registering that plan, is over. Now the plan has to be shared with the public and adopted by individual stakeholders’ pledges toward green practices. This is all working toward certification by the international organization, EcoDistricts.org
Harkening back to Greentopia’s early days, the launch will be marked with a public EcoFair Oct. 7, from noon to 5 p.m., coinciding with Rochester’s annual Genesee River Romance event. This fair will be held on and near the Ponte du Rennes Bridge, that pedestrian pathway that has the best view of the river gorge and the river’s High Falls.
EcoDistrict Manager Rachel Walsh said the event will feature:
- A gardening project
- A fair filled with information tables and vendors
- The opportunity to recycle electronics
- A collaborate chalk mural
- Goats (Yes, goats. They’re the star of cute Internet videos, but also a sustainable way to remove brush
- A food truck (Maybe wash your hands between eating lunch and petting a goat.)
Other nearby events that day include Zagster bike tours of the area and tours of Monroe Community College’s new campus at Kodak Tower.
Next steps for the EcoDistrict include stakeholders making and signing commitments that will spell out how they will undertake sustainable efforts to take “equity, resilience and climate protection seriously,” Walsh said. It’s expected to take about three years to gather these written commitments, and then Rochester’s EcoDistrict will join dozens around the world.
“We won’t wait for certification to start projects,” Walsh said. The short list is a walking trail, solar power installation, a pollinator pathway and other programming. Come visit our fair on Oct. 7 and see what it’s all about.
by Diana Louise Carter | Monday, July 3, 2017 | Gorge, Greentopia, Michael Philipson
We’ve moved!
While it was nice being in the building on the corner of Platt Street and Brown’s Race, the sale of the building that housed Greentopia for the last several years resulted in our move to new digs across the way at 74 Brown’s Race.
“If you need us, we’re across the street,” said Greentopia Co-Founder Michael A. Philipson. The move happened May 1 and the new quarters are both larger and a little more accessible, as the space is all on one level now – no more steps and ramps! One added bonus is the new office provides additional income for our initiatives because it includes two spaces to rent out, one of which is occupied. Another bonus is our new boardroom and balcony look out over the Genesee River gorge. And that’s the reason Greentopia moved to the High Falls area in the first place.
Stop by if you get a chance. Just remember, we’re on the river side of the road now.
by Diana Louise Carter | Friday, April 15, 2016 | FlourGarden, GardenAerial, Greentopia
Validation is a great thing. Greentopia organizers got plenty of that this month when they met with Mayor Knox White of Greenville, SC, who was in town to speak at the Community Design Center’s annual Reshaping Rochester luncheon. Greentopia was a sponsor of the event.
White’s talk sounded like he was describing Greentopia’s plans for Rochester: “How a River Acts as a Community Connector.” But he was really telling the story of how redevelopment of the small Reedy River – a brook, really, with a 20-foot-tall waterfall – in Greenville because the catalyst for a revitalized and vibrant downtown.
“It changed downtown Greenville in ways no one could imagine,” said Lewis Stess, co-founder of Greentopia. “What we found most interesting is the direct parallel between our experience in Rochester and Greenville”, he said. Like in Rochester, where many natives and long-time residents have never seen or spent any time at High Falls, Greenville residents were unaware of the water asset in their community. Like in Rochester, some people felt the river was in an unsafe part of town. And, like in Rochester, redeveloping the river wasn’t a priority for public and private officials at first.
Once Mayor White, a corps of garden club members, and others persuaded city council to remove a four-lane highway bridge over the falls and build a pedestrian bridge instead, people began to see the possibilities. Knox was in the beginning of his second term as mayor when he was finally able to push the project to approval.
Now the 20-acre Falls Park on the Reedy River is the jewel of the city, an economic engine, and THE most popular spot for people to walk and picnic.
“The diversity is just unbelievable…families just flock to it,” White told the host on WXXI’s Connections with Evan Dawson show a week before his visit to Rochester. (Hear the podcast here.)
Stess said Falls Park has become the place visitors to town are taken as soon as they arrive. Clemson University recruits people by taking them to downtown Greenville before visiting the campus 20 miles away. Greenville’s downtown now thrives with restaurants, galleries, apartments and hotels. All that took 20 years to happen, but Greentopia, which has invested five years so far in the GardenAerial project at High Falls, is hoping for a quicker turnaround in Rochester. The FlourGarden, the first part in a series of gardens and features that surround the falls, was completed at the very end of 2015 and will have it’s grand opening in early May, 2016.
Stess said White was stunned when he viewed Rochester’s 96-foot waterfall. “Each city must find its own gem”, White said, and he was looking at Rochester’s.
“If you have water and a waterfall… it is kind of obvious that makes your city so unique and different,” White said in his radio appearance. “We always tell people: Find your waterfall…find what makes your city unique and different.”
Greentopia found what makes our city unique. Greentopia champions it, day in and day out. Now the rest of Rochester can, too.
by Diana Louise Carter | Wednesday, January 13, 2016 | Development, FlourGarden, GardenAerial, Gorge, Green Visions, Greentopia
It’s going to be an exciting year for Greentopia, as we move further into creating some of the physical projects that have been a goal since our inception. Here’s a look at what’s coming:
- Any day now: the FlourGarden will be finished. Final details, such as wood bannisters on metal rails, are being put in this week. The project is the first of several steps to build the GardenAerial, a series of public amenities, infratructure and gardens surrounding the High Falls. Perennial native plants are in, but dormant now. You can also check out our new handrails and water channel. Fountains are there but not visible at the moment. This new amenity will really come alive in the spring, so watch out for our Grand Opening events!
- March through May: Greentopia offers tours of the High Falls area on the first and third Thursdays of each month, weather permitting. You will need to sign-up online and arrive at 81 Browns Race a few minutes before noon to be included in a 30-minute walking tour of the waterfall in a canyon in the middle of downtown Rochester.
Did we mention these are free?
- In April: Green Visions will embark on its fourth year. This is the community program that provides job training and work in the horticultural field for urban youth, at the same time that it beautifies the JOSANA neighborhood in Northeast Rochester. In 2015, this program sold flowers to Wegmans, Hart’s Grocery and customers of the Rochester City Public Market. In 2016, Green Visions hopes to develop a larger commercial customer base and become more self-sustaining. You’ll soon be able to directly sponsor one of our Urban Flower Farmers – a youth from JOSANA neighborhood doing rewarding and meaningful work. The price is affordable even for small businesses.
- May 15: A Garden Party, a brand new fundraiser to celebrate the opening of the Flour Garden. This will be an affordable event seeking to attract a broad range of people to see the newest development at High Falls. Check back here soon to find out more and buy tickets.
- Throughout 2016: Development of the Pont du Rennes. New community interest and opportunities have arisen to make the pedestrian bridge a more important corridor connecting Genesee Brewery and St. Paul Quarter on the east bank and MCC and the Rochester Red Wings games on the west side of the river. As a result, Greentopia will turn its capital development focus on Granite Mills Square and this bridge. Some may recall that when Greentopia held its first GreentopiaFest, creating a park in the sky out of the bridge was one of the bold ideas shared then. Now, with the completion of the FlourGarden, it’s time to get moving on that!
And here’s something you won’t see in 2016 – Greentopia festivals, like the ones offered free for four years. The original festival and the film festival that grew out of it both took lots of time, effort and money, but they were worth it to bring awareness to Rochester’s biggest hidden asset — High Falls. Our founders and board of directors have decided that the time has come to devote those resources to making the GardenAerial at High Falls a reality. The festivals aren’t truly gone, though. Many of their elements (free and low-cost events) will be spread throughout the year, but in a more sustainable way that supports the goal of attaining a vibrant, publicly-accessible realm around the falls. To become a part of that, consider becoming a member.
And look out 2016!
by Diana Louise Carter | Wednesday, December 2, 2015 | FlourGarden, GardenAerial, Greentopia
Imagine sailing over the High Falls on a zip line.
Or if you don’t enjoy white-knuckle adventures, imagine sauntering serenly through an arboretum suspended high above the Genesee River on the Pont de Rennes Bridge. (Those of you who know French just have to pretend that name isn’t redundant.)
These are just two elements of the GardenAerial, an $85 million series of public features to be built around the High Falls. While some sources of funding exist to help out with this huge capital investment in the city’s public realms, virtually no grants keep the lights on and pay the salaries of the people who are leading this vision. And that’s where you come in. This week starts Greentopia’s annual campaign, the effort to pay for some of the overhead that goes into making High Falls more visible and enjoyable for all.
The very first step of the GardenAerial is under construction right now and due to be completed by Christmas Eve: the Flour Garden. The once-leaking raceway along Race Street in the High Falls District has been rebuilt as a water garden. Perennial water plants just went in. During warm months a fountain will flow. And at night, glass rods in the garden will be illuminated, creating a mini-light show.
“We are creating something from nothing,” said Lewis Stess, Greentopia’s CEO and co-founder. “We are progressive, future- thinking.” If you want to help that future arrive, please help. Please answer the email or letter you receive with a donation. If you didn’t get one, please visit our donation page. And dream a little about what’s coming next.
by Diana Louise Carter | Wednesday, August 5, 2015 | GardenAerial, Green Visions, Greentopia
Imagine sailing over High Falls. The wind whipping your hair, the spectacular view surrounds you. You start out from a promontory on the east side of the Genesee River and you zip along at a thrilling pace until you land on the west side near the bottom of the gorge that runs through the city of Rochester.
That experience — perhaps the largest permanent zip line in North America — could happen as soon as the late summer of 2016, in Phase 2 of Greentopia’s GardenAerial project. GardenAerial aims to transform the Middle Gorge of the Genesee into a world-class showcase of sustainable and sensitive development in harmony with the natural beauty and ecology of the Gorge. (Phase 1, the FlourGarden in Brown’s Race, is due to be completed this fall.) Greentopia is spearheading the effort as it seeks the necessary approvals for take-off and landing spots, as well as additional grant funding. The state has already funded a feasibility study on greater public access to this area that will become the GardenAerial. Estimated cost for the ride is an affordable $20, a fraction of what Bellevue, WA., charges for a zipline in one of its urban parks.
For an idea of what the High Falls zipline experience might be like and how it fits into the GardenAerial, view this video.
See what WHAM-TV Channel 13 is saying about the GardenAerial zipline.
