Rochester Sunday Assembly Kickoff

I’ve been volunteering with four other women (no men volunteered - what’s up with that?) to organize the kickoff of Sunday Assembly in Rochester – Sunday was the rollout of new chapters across the nation and the world. The organization was started in England as a godless community (not necessarily atheist or agnostic, just without reference or deference to a deity), to be as inclusive as most religions are exclusive. It took many months of meetings to get ready for this morning’s event, since we had to figure out everything from where to meet, what to eat (very important!), how to find musicians (music is a must), and how to get people to donate their time and the funds necessary to make this happen.

The Academy of Medicine, on East Avenue, graciously allowed us to use their auditorium at a discount, in order to help get us off the ground. The space is wonderful, the seats are comfortable (unlike, say, pews), and the parking ample and free. Volunteers brought cake and cookies and coffee and tea, as well as juice for the youngsters. And of our total 50+ people who turned out to find out what Sunday Assembly is about, we did have a handful of kids.

The morning’s topic was “wonder,” which not only fit into the motto of Sunday Assembly (live better, help often, wonder more), but tried to address the audience’s curiosity of what Sunday Assembly is. In addition to a speaker (Arlene Leach from Nazareth College, talking about wonder in education), four of the organizers, including me, participated in running the assembly (our fifth, one of the plaintiffs in the Greece invocation lawsuit, was unfortunately traveling this week). There was a lot of excitement about the event, and the D&C even sent a reporter and photographer (although neither stayed for the actual assembly).

It was thrilling to be part of something brand new in Rochester, and part of a larger community in the world. Our goal is to provide a monthly place to meet, celebrate life, and find ways to volunteer as a group, to dispel the belief among people of belief that non-believers are non-participators. We just need a way to get organized! I was flattered that after the assembly, a young woman asked me if she could have a copy of my talk – she wanted to share it with some of her friends who didn’t understand what Sunday Assembly is. So I’m also putting a part of that below. Our next meeting is October 26, and should be a lot less stressful to plan, since we will be in the same lovely venue, and we’ve already approached a potential speaker. So the next hurdle is to form a legal entity and get our 501c3 status, so we can apply to be on the Assemblies List for invocations at the Greece Town Board Meetings...

Excerpt from my reflections at the Sunday Assembly:

When I am explaining to people who wonder what Sunday Assembly is, I find it’s easiest to explain it in terms of what it is not – it is not a religion or dogma, it is not a church, it is not a certain set of beliefs, or even a certain set of non-beliefs…. So why are we here? ….One of the benefits of belonging to a church is its ability to address people’s need to belong – to connect with other people – to be part of a community. Until now, atheists and agnostics haven’t had much opportunity for this…. So one of Sunday Assembly’s goals is to fulfill that need to belong to a group of like-minded people, to connect with the other “Nones” who comprise ‘1 in 5’ in the U.S.

Another reason to be part of Sunday Assembly is to counter the notion that “atheist” and “agnostic” equate to “amoral” and “apathetic.” As most of us probably would agree, the Bible is not the basis of morality, and we don’t need the threat or promise of an afterlife to be good here and now in this life. But we can learn from organized religion – in terms of the “organized” part. Groups of people are more visible than individuals, and groups have the potential to make the whole greater than the sum of just its parts…. The non-religious haven’t had an organized opportunity to counter (religious groups), until now. So we hope to have a large enough presence that we can be active as a group volunteering, whether it’s to take a rotation at a soup kitchen or to participate as a team on a 5K run….

So whether you’re here because you’re looking for a community for yourself or your children that doesn’t involve praying to a deity and looking to a supernatural power for guidance, or because you want to be active in the larger community in the name of non-religion, or just because you’re curious, you are welcome here. Personally, I am here because I want to meet more of the ‘1 in 5’s – to show each other that we do exist, we’re not just a statistic. And to show the community that we do exist, in a way that can be a positive influence in Rochester. I look forward, with your participation, to the day when some sort of contribution to Rochester by Sunday Assembly becomes as newsworthy in the D&C as those of a local religious group. And I look forward, with your participation, to building Sunday Assembly into an organization whose presence in Rochester simply becomes part of its everyday fabric.

Spoon River Anthology

I was so excited when I got the initial email invitation to take part in a street performance of Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology for the Rochester Fringe Festival, coordinated by Rochester theatre group Method Machine. Decades ago, in high school acting class, I performed in a student production, and I still remember two of my characters, plus the songs I had sung. I volunteered these in my reply, but was assigned a different poem – Amelia Garrick (I suspect that with trying to coordinate 244 participants, accommodating requests was not a priority for them!). Hers wasn’t one we did in school, and it’s not on the original cast recording so I had no help on figuring out who she was (yes, I still have my paperback with the notes, and I do have the record…). 

my group of wanderers

Was she an aborted baby? An institutionalized child? A lesbian lover? A husband’s illicit affair? And how would those interpretations affect my reading? My friend Colleen weighed in on characterization, and she actually pointed me in a great direction with a suggestion of violence – I decided I was a middle-aged first wife, poisoned by a social-climbing successor. We had one rehearsal, mostly for logistics, not acting (and I think for the director to make sure we would really show up, in costume and makeup…).

Last night was show time! Most of the ghosts were lined up along Gibbs Street downtown, but I was assigned to an area near the Spiegeltent as a ‘wanderer.’ At 6:30, bells rang, and a dozen of us milled around, speaking in turn, and able to choose whom to confront. As many times as I rehearsed my lines, I was nervous that I would forget them in the heat of the moment, and I was glad that the half-hour performance time allowed for more than one chance to get it right. We were extremely lucky with the warm and dry weather, so we had a decent audience. I only got to do my poem twice, but I enjoyed my wandering, and I really freaked out one couple, who started walking faster to try to lose me, and a couple of kids, who kept looking around to see if I was still there. My husband, his sister, and his brother-in-law also attended the spectacle, but I tried to stay away from them, so I wouldn’t break my concentration.

j'accuse!

At 7:00, the bells rang again and we all dispersed into the crowd, and resumed our own identities. The couple I spooked actually asked to have their photo taken with me then. It was a fun experience to perform, and to see the audience’s reaction. If you didn’t get a chance to experience this presentation of Spoon River, you have another opportunity tonight at 6:30.

Geva Evening

Part I – Merged II – Rochester Fringe Festival

Jim Hanson, whom my friend Colleen had introduced me to last year, choreographed two of the seven pieces in the program at the Next Stage Theatre at Geva (along with Melanie Aceto and Heather Roffe, who also performed). Colleen and I caught the third and final performance, which was extremely well attended. I’m not generally a fan of modern dance, but I’m always game to broaden my horizons, and a Fringe performance is the perfect opportunity, since they're usually short and inexpensive! There were a couple of pieces I didn’t “get,” and one I thought was interesting...in concept... but far and away my favorite was the final piece: Ophelia’s Reclamation, choreographed by Jim. It was stunning, and I liked the choice of music in addition to the beautifully fluid movement Jim conceived.

Part II – Lobby

The Geva lobby was bustling as I’ve never seen it before. As the audience for Merged II let out, a line was forming for the next Next Stage performance, and the doors were also open for the evening’s performance of Wait Until Dark on the Main Stage. All of the tables in the café were occupied, so it took some time for me to locate my husband, who had walked to Rocco’s (yes, it can be done!) for dinner, instead of watching dancers, and who was meeting me to see the play. We also ran into various other friends, some departing Merged II, others waiting for Wait Until Dark. And we were enthralled by the work of Sand Mandala artist, Katie Jo Suddaby (also part of Fringe). She seemed to be almost in a trance as she tapped tiny amounts of sand into her design, and used tiny instruments to make even tinier spaces for even tinier amounts of a different sand color to be applied. But she did entertain questions, and when I said it was sad that her entire creation would simply be destroyed when she’s done, she calmly responded that that was the nature of life – everything is temporary. Since I’m a person who used to glue most of her jigsaw puzzles together when I was done, she was definitely talking to someone with a different Weltanschauung…

Part III – Wait Until Dark

This production only runs until October 5, which is too bad, because it is wonderful. I didn’t check my watch once or squirm in my seat (well, I did squirm a bit, but from suspense, not boredom). I never saw the movie, because I don’t like things that give me nightmares (might have come from seeing  Bunny Lake is Missing as a young child?!), so I was truly seeing this show for the first time, and I didn’t always guess the twists. The actors were all very well cast, and the action moved at a good pace. Even the music was perfectly chosen. If you miss it here, you can still see it if you plan to be in Tuscon or Phoenix in the next month or so, where it’ll transfer when it closes in Rochester.

Worm Power

Worms – ew! Manure – ew! And yet… I had no idea what I was going to see (or smell) when I signed up for my garden club’s tour of Worm Power, in Avon, except worms. Actually, I saw very few worms (mostly because I declined the offer to run my hands through the composting bin). But they were there, doing their dirty work! And surprisingly, there was virtually no “farm” smell.

The input holding bay

Dan Johnson, the Operations Manager, gave us an extremely in-depth explanation of the process and history of the organization, which is located on Coyne Farm, a “dairy of distinction” whose 1000+ cows produce about 125,000 pounds of “high quality waste” per day. Worm Power, founded by Tom Herlihy in 2003, has turned a waste problem into a business opportunity through vermicomposting, and they’ve done it in an extremely energy-conscious manner. Most of their components were built here in NY, all of the water they use is from rainwater, and they are looking to install solar panels.

Their three inputs –15 daily truckloads of dry manure (the liquid is squeezed out and diverted to a lagoon), moldy silage, and on-site compost – are mixed and then put into enormous bins, where the ingredients are so compacted that the normal 12-18 month composting period is reduced to just under 2 months. After aerating to destroy pathogens, weed seeds, and chemicals, the contents are mixed again and loaded into 21 different enormous bins to become “worm chow” for the roughly 44 million worms (each bed contains about 2.5 million red wigglers, most of which were purchased from bait farmers). These worms live in the top 6-8 inches, where they eat, produce their “castings,” and lay eggs (something I probably learned in 5^th grade but forgot is that being hermaphrodites, worms mate and then both get pregnant). The castings and eggs get pushed down, and additional compost layers are added, forcing the worms to move up. It takes about a month for the eggs to hatch, then they come to the top, and continue to live for 12-14 months.

"compost tea bags"

The bottom layer in these bins is cut off and taken for its final processing. Some of the compost is put into “compost tea bags” for making liquid fertilizer (which we were told is excellent for house plants). The used solids are recycled as one of the initial inputs as the process begins again. The remaining (dry and odorless) compost goes through a separator to get the proper consistency for final sale. About 5% of their sales are retail (mostly small garden stores, such as J&A, Garden Factory, and Bristol’s), but they also supply Wegmans Farm and Broccolo. Most of their sales are to high-end farms and wineries, many in California. They’re hoping to find a partner in that state, so they can eliminate the transportation waste. With its $7million facility, Worm Power is the largest organization of its kind in the US – the next largest, in California, is one-tenth the size.

The microbial community of the worms’ skin and guts are so beneficial that Worm Power is working with Cornell, with some grant funding, to research the use of compost for disease suppression. Dan explained that the certified organic compost helps release the nutrients of clay soil, and actually increases soil’s water holding capacity, thereby reducing the need to water, and increasing plants’ ability to survive drought. He also informed us that sun and chlorine are enemies of the compost’s microbes (the nutrients remain), so the fertilizer is best used at the plants’ roots, and rain or distilled water is best.

happy ladies with their 1-pound bags of Worm Power!

We're very lucky to have such creative and environmentally conscious people right here in our backyard, and I can only hope that they find the additional grants or venture capital to expand across the country (and world – why not?). And I have a new respect for these little soil cleaner / nutrient makers, and will try to be a little less squeamish and more thankful when I dig them up in my garden accidentally. And maybe soon I'll need some larger pots for my pathetic little houseplants!

Greater Rochester Women’s Philharmonic Orchestra

Who are they, you ask? What kind of music do they play? When and where do they perform? Apparently, the group was established and is conducted by Nancy Strelau, an Assistant Professor at Nazareth College, in 1991. That’s as much information as is provided in the program of their recent Chamber Orchestra concert of the Beethoven Triple Concerto at Nazareth’s Linehan Chapel. I only found out about the performance from my singer friend Chelsea, who is also a proper violinist, and just joined the Women’s Philharmonic. The group is comprised of all volunteers, including students, teachers, amateurs, and professionals (I recognized one of the violists from a Concentus concert she accompanied, and Ms. Strelau informed us that several of the musicians were with the RPO and would be heading over to Kodak Hall right after the performance for the RPO’s concert that evening). I tried googling them when I got home, but they mysteriously have no website; I could only find some old concert postings, and some one-off Facebook events. The chapel was pretty full, so they must be doing a great job just with word of mouth!

Ms. Strelau introduced the piece and the outstanding soloists (Corinne Stillwell, violin; Mimi Hwang, cello; Elinor Freer, piano), and explained that the piece is seldom performed because of its level of difficulty – “the cello part is brutal.” She remarked that the orchestra was there to support the wonderful soloists, and that the performance was “the orchestra’s gift to them.” It was a wonderfully played gift, and the soloists didn’t disappoint in their acceptance – they all seemed to be enjoying the piece, especially the pianist, and they all made their performances appear effortless. I could have listened to them all afternoon, except for the exceedingly uncomfortable pews (why must the venues with the best acoustics also be the ones deliberately designed to make the audience uncomfortable?).

I chatted briefly with Chelsea at the conclusion, and shared my amazement that this excellent music was offered to us free of charge. She said the group occasionally does perform for donations – not for themselves, but to benefit other causes (for example, Alternatives for Battered Women). I wish I could get on their distribution list for future concerts, but I’m not sure they even have one! 

Rochester Fringe Festival – Dashboard Dramas

Jan, Sue, Mary Ann & me, with some actors in the
background, before we knew what we were in for!

I was intrigued by the description:  “Four original 10-minute plays set in actual cars, where you’ll experience the most intimate theatre of your life.” It sounded like fun, and at the very worst, it’d be over in about 45 minutes! So I corralled three of my friends to give this a try with me yesterday. Mary Ann and Jan started in car #1, and Sue and I in car #2, but since the playlets weren’t related, the order was irrelevant. The one thing that connected each of them was the beginning and ending lines; for example, the last line of car #2, “dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb” was picked up as the first line in car #3, with a slight twist. It really was quite intimate – and sometimes uncomfortable, as the actors either looked right at us, or yelled over us in the back seat. There were some very funny moments, and also a few poignant ones.

Jan & Mary Ann in their last car

The plays were written and acted primarily by local talent, and one of the authors explained to us after the performances that they were just meant to represent things that might happen in cars. Perhaps, but all of these scenarios were definitely dramatic, and for the most part, parody of what might actually happen in a car. Still, they were very entertaining. There are more performances of the Dashboard Dramas – the festival goes through next weekend – if you’re looking for something that really feels fringy.

The Rochester Fringe Festival is in its third year, and continues to grow in the number of events it offers (although many of the performances are local college a cappella groups – I wouldn’t classify them as ‘fringe’). It is still primarily a ‘by and for’ Rochester festival, and doesn’t take over the entire city, as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival does, but the latter has decades of experience, with 2600 shows over 25 days, compared with Rochester’s 300+ shows over 10 days. But it’s very exciting, and a bit daunting, to have this much artistic activity happening all at once downtown.

We were lucky with the weather this weekend, and I hope we will be next weekend, as well, for the free outdoor performance of Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology. Look for me in the Spiegelgarden (parking lot at Gibbs & Main) – I decided it would be fun to participate in the festival this year!

http://rochesterfringe.com/shows/show/spoon-river-rochester

What's in a Name - Condo vs. Townhouse

Two new housing developments recently caught my eye: The Reserve, in Brighton, a 327-unit complex off Clinton Avenue on the Erie Canal; and Kilbourn Place, in Pittsford, a 41-unit development sandwiched between East Avenue and 490. I was particularly interested in checking out the Reserve, since an ad in the July 26 Democrat & Chronicle promised that “IN A MILLION YEARS, YOUR TAX RATE WILL NEVER CHANGE….Not only does the Reserve beat other communities in price and amenities, but also your taxes are low and stay that way forever.” Really???

I did a bit of googling about condominium property taxation, and found that New York has a soft spot for condos – according to Real Property Law 339-y, condos aren’t valued based on their market value, as individual residences are. Instead, the entire complex is valued as a single entity on an income or cost basis, similar to an apartment building, and then that valuation is apportioned to the individual units. The result is that a condo’s assessed value is often a small fraction of its market value. Still, I didn’t understand how a condo would have a different tax rate than other residential properties. As it turns out from two visits to the Brighton Assessor’s Office, it doesn’t…

First, though, I trundled off to visit both properties.

Kilbourn Place

According to the saleswoman, the units are not condominiums (which are not allowed in Pittsford) but townhouses, so there is no special valuation, and will have the same tax rate as other residents (appr. 3.5%) and assessment valuation methodology. A quick estimate, based on the unit plans, is that the total sales value of this property will be in the neighborhood of $22.5 million, thus generating around $790,000 in additional taxes, although probably less because of STAR exemptions, so perhaps more like $745,000. School taxes are 72% of the total tax, so this development should add about $500,000 in revenue for Pittsford schools – a drop in the bucket of the total school budget of $47.4 million, but at about 1%, it should help mitigate the lower tax cap for next year (although the developer’s goal is only to complete phase 1 in 1.5 years, so not all of the revenue will be realized immediately). Oh, and the unit I visited was lovely, and the windows did a fine job of blocking out the highway noise (although I’m not sure the bedrooms of the units closest to the highway would be that quiet).

The Reserve

The layout of City Gate in the Reserve's
sales office*

The total estimated sales value of this complex is $180 million. But because they will be assessed as condos, instead of generating around $7 million in taxes, at Brighton’s current tax rate of about 4%, the developer, Costello & Sons, estimates the complex will pay only “$2.5 million in school taxes, $539,000 in town taxes, and $197,000 to Brighton Fire & Ambulance annually.” This implies an assessed value of around $81 million, less than half of its market value. Costello & Sons probably didn’t estimate any STAR exemptions, so the tax collections might be even less. Still, this is a marginal increase over Brighton’s total assessed value for 2014 of $2.6 billion. Again, if all else were equal (i.e., if other properties weren’t leaving the tax rolls because they’ve become tax-exempt), the additional tax revenue from this development should reduce the need for the town to break the tax cap (as voters allowed Brighton to do this year).

I showed the salesman at the Reserve the D&C ad and he acted as if he’d never seen it, and couldn’t really explain it. I then called their main number and chatted with a salesman named Tyler, who assured me that because of New York’s condo tax law, there is a tax break for any residences with common walls, and the tax rate would be between 1.3-1.5% and never increase. Again, I was incredulous.

Brighton Assessor’s Office

The Assessor’s Office hadn’t seen the ad either, but they weren’t surprised at the misleading information, and said they’d spoken with the Reserve’s representatives and would do so again. They assured me that there is only one residential tax rate, and that there is no reason Reserve residents should expect that rate not to fluctuate. They did confirm that the assessed value is likely to be significantly below market value, and acknowledged that this favoritism for condos means that other residents end up picking up the difference. Condo residents like to justify this reduced value based on the association fees they must pay, and the fact that the complex owns the common areas. As a current homeowner and a former condo owner in NJ, I find this reasoning specious. The condo fees equate to the regular maintenance expenses a homeowner has (landscaping, building repair) and the fact that the residents don’t have personally responsibility for anything outside their walls is a draw, not a drawback, for people who choose to live in condos. There have been attempts to rectify this valuation (see http://www.stopthetaxshift.org/local-taxation/35-restriction-on-assessments-for-condominiums-and-cooperatives) but they have so far met with no success.

Time will tell whether these developments are tax-positive/neutral/negative for our towns. I suspect that Kilbourn will have fewer families with children (so not a proportionate use of the Pittsford schools), and perhaps fewer full-time residents (this development screams Naturally Occurring Retirement Community, and if the retirees choose to shield their income by living 6 months plus a day in Florida, they’ll use even fewer local services).

High property taxes are a huge issue in Monroe County, as evidenced by the Greens Townhomes’ ad: Pittsford address with low Henrietta taxes.

If you’re as annoyed as I am by the condo tax break, write to your New York representatives and urge them to eliminate this inequity. Otherwise, maybe think about moving to the Reserve, to lower your taxes significantly!

* I was so excited that REI was coming to Rochester I emailed them to thank them. Their Customer Service department replied that it “wasn't able to confirm that (they) are opening a new store in Rochester, NY.” Hm...