From WXXI news.

This is connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour was made in a village along the Erie Canal, a village that was recently named the fourth hottest neighborhood in the U.S.. That's according to the real estate brokerage platform Redfin.

I'm talking about the village of Fairport, with 5000 residents and more than 900 acres.

You may know Fairport for Fairport Canal days to parks, outdoor activities.

Perhaps its walkable downtown.

Walkable is the word we'll be focusing on today.

Fairport has been growing, welcoming new businesses that mix with the range of housing designed for all ages.

These developments were made with walkability in mind.

Community groups emphasized their desire to have a truly walkable, bikeable village, and village leaders listened.

While certain projects like crosswalks and connections could make the village even more pedestrian friendly and perhaps create what some groups refer to as a walkers Paradise, the village is already drawing attention for how accessible it is to walkers.

So how has Fairport done all of this?

This hour we're going to sit down with village leaders, talk about the state of current development plans for the future, and how prioritizing pedestrians has transformed certain parts of the village.

I don't even know if the term downtown is what they would say.

Julie Damaris is the mayor of the village of Fairport.

Do you have a downtown?

Is that the right word?

Absolutely.

You say downtown Fairport?

Yes.

So we can.

Welcome, Madame Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

And welcome to Brian White, manager of the Village of Fairport and general manager of electric operations for Fairport Municipal Commission.

Welcome.

Thank you for being with us.

Thank you, I appreciate it.

So there is a lot going on there.

I was telling our guest for the program that I, you know, met a friend for coffee at the canneries, which you called there, right?

Yeah.

And I, you know, so I hadn't been there in a little while.

I know if you remember, a few years ago, there was, like, this whole bridge Project thing that probably the mayor got a few complaints over.

but now here you are.

And it's like, oh, my gosh, the first of all, the great coffee shop, awesome space there.

There was endorsed sports, training facility equipment.

Like, there's all kinds of cool stuff happening.

Restaurants, bars.

And, I'm just going like, boy, this looks like a model for how you repurpose the space.

How did you do that, Madame Mayor?

I didn't do it.

It was a team effort that comes from our village developers, as well as the staff at Village hall.

And, we have an amazing group of people who work for the village.

Who are the village staff?

They're the people who will be there before I got there.

And the people who will be there after I get there or after I leave.

And, working together with developers and looking for ways to improve what's going on in our village.

the cannery is, a huge success story.

That was a building that had been there since I grew up on the other side of Main Street back in the 70s.

That had been empty probably since.

I don't know, I think the 1980s, it was a disaster.

The parking lot was full of two foot deep holes and, finally somebody decided to do something with it.

And working together with staff, they were guided by, the village planner and our planning board, and, put together something that's pretty special.

And it's taken an old, empty building and brought new life to my side of the village, which is the north side.

So wherever listeners are listening today, this is a conversation about Fairport, but it's really about how we prioritize different aspects of life, how residents get listened to, what development happens.

So Rochester, we've talked recently about constellation moving its headquarters downtown Geneva.

Wherever you are, Penn Yan, wherever you're listening today, there's different questions about how you've organized your main streets and what is there and what fills all.

But in factory, it's an old canneries and a factory and warehouses.

I mean, everybody's kind of dealing with this.

So let me ask both of you.

I'll start with you, mayor.

But when you look at the cannery now, I mean, I don't know all the details that went into I'm not going to get into all the nitty gritty, but, sometimes you have to make the right kind of offer to get someone to invest in a space that's kind of derelict here.

Do you feel comfortable with the decisions that have been made to fill that space?

It was the right one for the village.

I think so we don't do anything in terms of the purchases for sure, or that type of work, but I think that there is support that's offered through us to, businesses that decide to come in.

I think it's a great property.

it highlights one of the challenges of being a popular location now, which is they have a private parking lot, and we encourage people to go park someplace else and walk there because we have an incredibly walkable village.

But I would say the biggest challenge that they have at that site right now is too many cars.

And, there is there are options that can help, lower that.

But I think it was the right decision.

And I'm so happy that all of these, they're not the only place that's blossomed.

Yeah, yeah.

We'll talk more about other.

Sure, sure.

But, it really is, a great addition to our community.

Brian, I got to think of on the list of problems you have, like, too many cars at a very popular place is one that beats the heck out of, like, holes in the windows and two foot holes in the parking lot.

And no one has been there for years.

I love that problem.

It's a great problem and it's not that it's too many cars or we have a parking problem, it's that that we become the site.

And really, the village itself has become more successful than what it physically can, can, can manage.

Right.

so it's not a bad thing.

The cannery is the, the issue there is it's just it's a huge success story taking and like you mentioned this early, I mean, about, you know, we're an older village, like most places are in the northeast.

and you're taking existing uses and buildings and trying to adapt them to what people expect and would like to have today as far as amenities, and when you provide that, in this form of a placemaking, which is what's happened to this cannery taken something that was an old canned company derelict, and then providing incentives.

We work with our fair Port Office of Community Economic Development to do some some pilot programs to get that re-energized.

And that project truly was and why there was public, some public incentives to help.

That was it was a catalyst for the entire North Side and that whole development.

and it started with Iron Smoke Distillery, which is one of the few really successful national brands of local distilleries in the country.

and to have fair port on that bottle and then I can go visit my parents in Florida and see that same bottle.

The liquor store is pretty neat, but they took a chance there when that site was rough.

But it also went with their image of that kind of rough iron smoke feel.

And once they were there in summer, I took that initial chance like, oh, well, let's go piggyback on that.

And that's what it happens.

Like a mall effect.

You add one yet another, yet another for, you know, you have something.

and that site's a direct, correlation to, to that incentive.

And that's happened throughout the village.

And we keep trying to do projects that become catalysts for future development, really private investment.

Every dollar goes to the community can't be from a public grant or public infrastructure project.

Yeah.

How many businesses are in the cannery now?

I don't have enough time.

I had, but I would tell you probably 20, 20, it's 20 and there's nothing there.

Right.

pretty cool.

Yeah, it's a great story.

So, I want to broaden out the question of, you know, how you're going to prioritize this vision for the future.

Looking ahead to 2030 before we do that?

Is the population in the average village a little older than the average population in the state?

Do villages tend to be more retirees or not?

I don't know.

No.

Julie, you're shaking your head.

I don't think so.

I think, if we look at the the last census, the the demographic information, I think our village was like 21% to 24% over, I'm not sure where the cut off line is, but whether it's 60 or 65, the older, the older population is not enormously greater than any other village.

And in fact, I think there are some other villages that have a larger population of older adults.

We have a certain percentage.

But I can also tell you that a lot of what has gone on in at least the last 6 or 7 years in our village is looking for ways to, create opportunities that attract, other demographic folks.

So whether it's millennials or Gen X or Gen Z, looking at how we do things in our community to create opportunities that would draw them there, draw them into our village to, take up residence.

Oh, go ahead, Brian.

Yeah.

No, just say if you if you cater a village, we talk about this all the time internally.

when you cater to something, you got to find a mix where you can, you can you, you know, if you have existing population.

It's been there.

They've been there for 20, 30 years.

A lot of those folks don't want to move.

They love their homes.

They love where the village is going.

So they're not moving.

But if you don't and if they want to keep it a certain way because it's what they've always known for 20 or 30 years, then you're never going to have that next generation moving in and wanting to be there.

So you got to find that balance between trying, providing new amenities, adapting to where society expectations are going.

In addition to saying, hey, we're here for a reason, don't change everything.

There's no need to just always, constantly improve, right?

Always have your foot on the pedal.

Always be doing something so you don't become stagnant.

That's a really fine balance because sometimes those demographics, those parties can fight each other as far as keeping it the same and not doing so.

And we definitely see that quite often and hear about it in almost every situation or project that we, we discuss.

Yeah.

I mean, so I want to ask both of you about how you make sure you stay on top of what people want, because in general, we have we talk a lot about, you know, New urbanism.

We talk about walkability, we talk about how cities are trying to achieve that or create neighborhoods or districts.

that can do that better, whether it's with public transportation or just simply not always prioritizing only the automobile.

but this village, I mean, villages often have a bit of an advantage, I would think, a geographic advantage.

And I want to ask you, mayor, when?

Why?

What do you think really draws people to, you know, village living?

I'm not trying to kind of tee up like a commercial for Fairport.

I'm asking, realistically, it's 20, 25.

People talk about walkability, they talk about bike ability.

What is the quality of life draw that actually makes someone decide to move there?

Now, I think it's a combination of what we're talking about with walkability.

We have, a lot of historic homes or older homes.

the density.

We joke, if you don't want to know who your neighbor is, you shouldn't live in a village, because every, you know, there's smaller lot sizes.

It's walkability.

I can, you know, I moved back into the village in 2015.

I grew up there.

I live in the house that I grew up in.

And, I think there is a draw for the amenities that we've put in, whether it's different walking paths, the ability to be near the canal, those are draws, the fact that you can have an active lifestyle and live in a small community.

and for some people, the idea that they can live and walk to work, they don't have to always drive to work.

I live close enough to that.

It's a 15 minute walk from my house.

As long as I don't stop to chat with a bunch of people on my way to work, that I can get to work in 15 minutes, or I can ride my bike to, work.

Or I can ride my bike to go to my favorite yoga studio.

I think walkability, having a vibrant downtown, but also respecting that our community is a bunch of neighborhoods.

People like that sense of neighborhood, old trees, lots of trees.

they get to know their neighbors, historic looking homes, historic looking buildings.

Those are all draws that I believe bring people to our community.

and so when you talk about people wanting that, it's interesting because I think since the pandemic, especially, there's been a lot of focus on the ways we are disconnected as a society.

And, we saw during the pandemic a number of, businesses of all kinds closed and a lot of places, and since then, you know, a lot of customs have changed.

We, you know, we dress a little looser, we maybe maybe we don't go out as much.

Maybe we stream a movie instead of going to a theater.

we go to a coffee shop a little less, you know, we make coffee at home.

We are.

We are less connected often because of technology.

If listeners think I'm kind of a Luddite who's very anti-tax, and that's only because it's true.

yeah.

Well, you two, Brian, you and I are two peas in a pod.

I think it it can be a boon, but it can really divide us.

And so I guess my confusion, the dissonance, I feel, is the habits that human beings are forming for themselves, especially since the pandemic is to be separated more often.

It's to be together less often it's to not know your neighbor.

It's to not know the name of the people who live two doors down.

It's to not go to third places.

And and then it's to wonder why.

How come everything's closing?

But what you're both describing is a community of people who don't want this.

I mean, I guess I'm wondering, do you think does does the village self-select for the people inside who actually do want those things?

Or do you think that we actually the human condition is to want those things?

I would say and I and I think people want those things, I think somehow we've allowed like anything I think society goes ups and downs and, and toes and trends and those different types of things.

I think people in the end, in general want to, to socialize, have friendships, have connections, have relationships, whatever those may be.

and they want to do that, but they want to do it in a fun and fun environment, so forth.

You're right.

it's easy now to to disagree very quickly and things be toxic or, I'm not willing to listen to a perspective just because I've made up my mind.

we are definitely in that, in that space.

I think the village of Fairport, for the most part, really I see is just the opposite there.

The Wednesday through Sunday, the village is packed as far as bars, restaurants, right.

Mondays a lot of things are closures.

people are out and about.

They look for reason.

I mean, the moment you have a a sunshine day or a day that's above 50 degrees, it's packed and there's a lot happening.

And it's not just something that I think that you see with the village of Fairport residents, I can tell you.

I mean, you have almost every time you go out, you don't know half the people are out there because people come from all over.

Right?

Which is wonderful.

They're coming here.

They're experiencing the offerings that we have.

you know, the the board, you know, 10 to 15 years ago really started making some, some intentional decisions to kind of, go against the grain and offer some things and do some different projects, and we can get into those, and to see what the reaction was.

And it's been very, very positive.

And they're not opening their door up to every little thing that wants to come in, every Applebee's, every there's, every that.

It's very intentional growth, intentional offerings that we really want to see.

Our comprehensive plan proves that and its intention in the verbiage that's in it, where we do not open our doors just to every little development or, or re-use of something like that, we want to make sure that it fits.

And it's okay to say no, you want to find that right thing where 1.5mi and we had the ability to be particular about what we want to do, because there's a there's a community that we're trying to, to try to create, but we have something there that's already successful.

Don't ruin it or throw it out or say, you have to, you have to, you know, you have to start over it.

You don't just keep progressing on those that those positive attributes and those are that's the cornerstone of economic development, taking those positive attributes you have and building on those successes.

And that's that's what we're trying to do.

I think we still want to be together.

Julie.

some people do, I think so, you know, we're not immune to the same kind of, disagreements or the desire to.

I don't want to talk to my neighbor about this, but, man, they're X, Y, and Z is driving me crazy.

You're probably just going to go, well, sure, I'm going to go call village Hall and say, fix that.

And the the first response is, have you even talked to them about it?

And and it happens in the village, I assure you.

but people choose it costs more to live in a village.

You have separate taxes than you have from just the town.

you are paying for amenities that happen in a village, and you're paying for that experience of living in a village.

And I think to a certain degree, there is some self-selection, because if people get into the village and they decide, this is not the life for me, they will go.

There are other places to go.

It's hard enough to find housing in the village of Fairport as it is.

So you've got to really want to live there, to move there.

How do you both feel about chains of businesses?

I mean, I'm not going to name what I'm envisioning, but there is a village in our region.

It's got this beautiful main street.

And then right there in the middle, is a chain gas station.

And then and then the Taco Bell that I'm not going to talk about.

When it opened up, I, I, you know, it's a choice.

It's fine.

Like, and people like it.

I don't dislike Taco Bell on occasion, but it was an interesting choice because it didn't look to me like it fit the character of what's happening there.

And so how did mayor how do you feel about chain businesses?

I think that it's not really about the business.

It's about what it looks like.

And does it look, our planning board wants to make sure that any business that goes in on our main street fits the look and feel of our main street.

Where, historic village.

And so, you're you're you're using an example that we've all dealt with in the last year, that, you know, there are franchises that exist on our main Street and people like, oh, well, those are fine.

And then a large chain comes in and they're like, well, no, you have to tell them, no, we'll it's like children.

You don't pick one as a winner or tell them, I love you best.

it's these are all children of the village.

The businesses that come in.

And if you want to conform to the building standards that we have and the look and feel, and also the newest local law that we just passed about a month ago, which, definitely contributes to the walkability, which is the fact that drive thrus are not allowed in the village of Fairport.

They are in direct contrast to, walk, a walkable community and, so how did that go over?

it actually went over really well, and it's near and dear to my heart because back in 2018, I live on the north side of the village, and the gas station at the end of our street was going to put in, they needed additional revenue, so they were going to put in a drive thru that would have backed up to our neighborhood street.

And I talked with other members of the local neighborhoods, and they're like, I like that I can walk.

I like that I don't have cars backed up onto our street because everybody's trying to get into the drive through.

So we met with that business owner and said, we're fine if you put this business inside of your gas station.

But the drive thru doesn't fit with our community.

And fortunately, we were able to talk about it with them and they committed to doing something else inside of the business, which was actually a benefit to our, neighborhood because they created bike racks outside.

Oh.

Well, but you can't pick and choose the businesses as long as they fit.

they fit.

What's in your zoning code in terms of acceptable uses?

So no chain, no chain.

It's more about fitting what the character.

It's fits the character, and it's got to fit within the zoning code of what your community offers.

And mayor, you know, the notion of, making a choice to say no drive thrus because that attracts more cars and that goes against that's where walkability really is a zero sum game for cars.

And we're a society that has prioritized the automobile.

So when we talk about walkable neighborhoods in Rochester or anywhere else, you know, you're often running up against, well, there's some bike lanes.

But, you know, people are nervous about automobile traffic.

And automobiles always seem to get the priority.

And do we need another parking lot?

So you made a zero sum game choice.

and it sounds like it did not create a negative backlash.

I think cars didn't.

It's the opposite.

Yeah.

Because, people are happy in our village to not have additional traffic that's just driving through.

So, yes, there is a parking lot near this business, a new business that's just going in that, you park your car and you walk in and you're on the same playing field with all the other businesses that serve the same or sell the same types of things that you do, because none of them have drive thrus.

You want to add to that, Brian?

Sure.

So, chain or no chain, preference from a personal standpoint is I think what makes our village unique, or any village for that matter, is that we have offerings that you don't get in a lot of other places.

Right?

I can go anywhere, regardless of how good or bad a chain is or what have you.

they can be very, very good.

but you can get that at ten different spots in ten different local government.

So you're going to drive through before you get to the village of Fairport coming here.

There is something unique in your time at the cannery early before we we came on set and the unique offerings that are there, the plethora of different things you don't see anywhere is the draw that brings you there to experience something new, something creative, something different.

and that's what you're seeing in the village of Fairport.

everything is coming up and it's having its own spin, its own look, it's own feel that's creating something of a really placemaking value versus just driving down your typical, you know, commercial corridor or Jefferson Avenue style street where you can get anything you want, when you want, all on the same street.

So, the mayor's correct when saying it really doesn't matter about the business, but it's how they operate, how they integrate themselves with the community, how they approach it, that type of thing.

But I would love to see more unique shops and restaurants versus something that I can get, much more frequent somewhere else.

I was taking the P were the appropriate government stance as a new, not an absolutist.

Unchanged.

You don't have a ban on chains.

No, there's no ban on or can you.

But but you may have a preference.

Yeah I certainly have a preference.

Okay.

and I mentioned at the outset here that, that Fairport was recently named the fourth hottest neighborhood in the US, according to the real estate brokerage platform Redfin.

What was that news like?

I mean, was that a surprise?

Is that like a banner day for you, mayor?

it's a double edged sword, because all of a sudden, it's hard to hard to buy like it brings.

Well, it's already difficult to buy and find property in the village of Fairport.

It's a double edged sword because you have somebody holding you up saying, this group is really great, really, really great, and then you have to live up to those expectations.

And if you're not always striving to live up to those expectations, it becomes you're not doing something right.

So it's like when you are, when you feel like you're successful, there's no place else to go.

We're not going down, but there's no place else to go but down.

again, this is a good problem to have.

It is a great problem that, you know, we did a little inventory based, there's another article that just came out in Travel and leisure, and it highlights a lot of small local businesses that exist within the village of Fairport.

I sat in village managers, White Village Manager, White's office this morning and said, this is not counting all the businesses along our main street, but we have two small groceries, a meat slash butcher shop, an indie bookstore.

We have restaurants, breweries, a soap store, men's and women's boutique stores, other just straight boutique stores.

We have a plant store.

We have two art studios.

We have a bakery.

We have three yoga studios.

We have a high end guitar and instrument store.

We have a farmer's market.

That's all within that.

Is that like three quarters of a mile on that area of Main Street?

That's our business district.

Those exist in our business district.

How could you not love that?

Okay, well, so I'm not buying that.

This is the double edged sword that you say it is.

I'm just not.

By.

No, I mean, I understand your point, mayor, that people are always thinking about what's the new thing, what's the newest innovation?

But you don't have to innovate all the time, right?

I mean, ultimately this has to be a net benefit to Fairport.

Doesn't mean it looks like this.

It is.

It gets a lot of notoriety.

And it's really nice for, village government, village, village government, both elected and staff to hear that somebody appreciates the work that we've been doing.

Brian, what did you think when you heard about that?

I loved it, I think it's a wonderful, feather in the hat.

I think it solidifies what we already know.

it's not really about being the best.

it's never really been the intention.

The point is to maximize our opportunities and maximize, what we can do in this village.

and it's nice because, you know, we have a community that's really embraced, moving this village forward.

I mean, I will tell you, ten, 12, 13 years ago, the village was very, very different and not in a bad way.

The village has always had a really amazing reputation.

People always wanted to be there, but it was a bedroom community, right?

You live there and you want somewhere else for things, right?

you had your basic, you know, diner type, you know, a bar, a brewery there.

and so what we've done is we've really tried to take advantage of, you know, what's going on, what are the hotspots?

What are people want?

you won't believe the amount of businesses that we have in our community and the developments that have happened by solely saying, hey, I'd like to have a cookie shop in the business, in the neighborhood, and a staff member or someone else on the board would go talk to that business that's located in Webster saying, hey, what do you think about Fairport?

Would you ever think about that?

I will tell you, 60% of our business have come that way.

very organic.

If you want something, go out and get it.

Go try.

we have a very, very professional team, that with the board in their direction and their desire to move this stuff can really make things happen.

and it makes me grateful to have them.

they're very bright in what they do and how they go about it.

but the community's really responded well, which is fantastic.

We've taken some really chances on some projects, whether we were making some major investments into your canal frontage.

I mean, if we're a canal town, embrace that.

Right.

For the longest time, it was, it was very derelict around the canal corridor just for lack of investment.

Right.

So, you're taking your probably your most positive attribute.

Otherwise you're just another village in another New York state or, upstate town.

and but we we made a lot of improvements there, but we took a originally lean West was a small example, but a project where we took a, a street centric, vehicle centric street and turn it completely into a pedestrian corridor.

No more cars, no more nothing.

We put some money into it.

It was after the fact that we were doing another project.

We were like, hey, we're really going to dump people off from the canal.

and coming in our community, the first thing they're going to see is a street that really hasn't been touched or loved in a long time, made it fully pedestrian.

It is probably one of the most successful stories that we've had in the village.

But moreover, it was a catalyst, just like the cannery was to rebuild, redevelop all of the businesses along that corridor.

there was an old garage, they called them.

We called them machete building.

Machete shop.

it was purchased for around 200,000 bucks, maybe six, seven, eight years ago.

Nine years ago.

It is now on the market right now.

You can see it for $2.5 million and it's build site, whatever you like.

And one of the more prominent restaurant tours, in the Monroe County area owns it.

Right.

but all the businesses around there have have developed that and have really seen gains and so forth.

And that's what you really want to see and has really makes us nice to do that.

And it's become something that's, that we're known for, taking these little things, doing the extra mile, not just doing projects, but how do you go about them and how do you just make them that's that little extra so far.

So you're hearing Brian White, manager of the Village of Fairport, general manager of electric operations for Fairport Municipal Commission, Julie Dormer, it's mayor of the village of Fairport there with us in studio, talking about the vision for their village and the context of trying to really put your values into practice as a place that people say they want it to be walkable, they want it to be bikeable.

They want it to be pedestrian friendly.

They want it to be the kind of place where you can live and work and maybe walk to work.

And so here is Fairport, named the fourth hottest neighborhood in the U.S., according to the real estate brokerage platform Redfin.

Big news for them.

And on the other side of this break, we're going to get some of your feedback with questions for our guests.

Stay with us.

I'm Evan Dawson Wednesday on the next connections.

In our first hour, the candidates for Rochester City School Board join us talking about their visions for the school district and how to improve schools for students.

In our second hour, there's been a lot of talk about how we talk about serious illness with our family since the disclosure that President Biden has metastasized prostate cancer.

We'll talk about what the experts.

Are.

In a democracy, serious journalism isn't a luxury.

It's a necessity.

Accurate, objective reporting gives us the information we all need to form an opinion about issues and events.

Your monthly membership will help WXXI provide this essential kind of journalism.

Please become a sustaining member@wxxi.org.

All right.

It's been all nice for Fairport.

Now for the controversy.

I mean, like they're used to these kind of questions.

And we're going to talk to the mayor of the village, Fairport.

Julie, Damaris, and the manager of the village, Brian White, with questions from listeners, starting with that big controversy about letting Starbucks move in, a listener on YouTube says with a handful of wonderful local coffee shops, why did the village allow a Starbucks to move in?

Okay.

You're up.

Okay, I'll take it first.

Go ahead.

Mary, I've been well schooled by our village planner.

We don't make a decision about who wins and who loses in our community.

They came to us.

They.

It was a part of a development deal to make sure that there's a historic bank building on our main street that sat empty for many years.

And as part of the development deal to to occupy that bank building was something that we really wanted in the village.

the owner of the property said, I'm going to develop the property next to it.

And, this is who's going to go in it.

And they are a coffee shop.

They don't have a drive through.

They don't look like a Starbucks if you drive down Main Street.

This is what I talked about with the we can control what the buildings look like.

We can control the fact that they don't have a drive through, right now, that property that they are doing the development on and the historic bank that's next door, if you drive up and or walk up, I urge you to walk up and look between those buildings and see what they've done with the exterior, where they're putting in outdoor seating.

The bank drive through is now a walk up window where there's outdoor seating for the restaurant.

the same thing will be true for the Starbucks that's going in there.

I don't get to choose, nor does village staff get to choose, saying, not you, but you and I love all the independent businesses.

I, have partaken plenty of coffee and all of the independent coffee shops.

I think the one I went to is fair.

Poor.

Yes.

Fair poor.

Great place.

It's a great place.

and they actually be used to be where Lulu's is or not.

Lulu's, Clementine's another independent coffee shop.

and then they moved to the cannery, and there's junction 361, which is right across the street from them.

So it's not a matter of saying Starbucks yes or no.

It's how does this fit onto our main street?

Do they, follow the appropriate uses?

Are they?

If you look at the building that they built, it fits perfectly on our main street.

It reflects the historic nature of the buildings on both sides of it.

And it's not it's not your, brown wood drive around the building.

Starbucks.

Okay.

Do you understand the questions or concerns about it?

I absolutely do.

you know, I love the village that I grew up in.

I love the village as it exists now.

I love all of those independent businesses, and I would love to have lots them.

But to make sure that this one property didn't sit vacant for another ten years.

Yeah, there were some compromise.

I won't even say that compromise today seems to be a dirty word.

It's not.

there were some choices that were made, and as long as they could meet the requirements that were put forth by the village, I think that they will be a good neighbor.

And I think that they will be a good addition.

And not everybody some people like Starbucks coffee, so it's another opportunity by law.

There's a Starbucks every three miles in this country.

I think more than some people like it.

I'm just I mean, it's a lot there's a lot of Starbucks.

But to Brian's point from earlier, I don't have to go to Fairport to get a Starbucks.

I can get Starbucks anywhere.

Okay.

Yeah, I cannot get Fairport anywhere.

And I can't imagine going to Fairport and choosing the chain, but that's just me.

What do you think?

Oh, I agree with you completely.

And to your point, you know, we have three local coffee shops that are highly successful in the village and all of them you must walk to and get out of your car.

And some are actually in some kind of plazas where it even makes it more difficult to get in.

And they still do really, really well.

And I think that speaks to that, to the business climate in the offerings that they're doing and the niche market that's providing and the quality of the product.

you know, to, to the mayor's point, we can't discriminate in which businesses come there.

It's illegal.

So that's, that's that's a null and void issue.

but the fact is Starbucks still wanted to come here, even though they couldn't have a drive through, which they push really hard to do.

And we stopped that pretty quickly.

and they still wanted to be here and do that.

They're building looks like no other Starbucks you've ever seen, you know, and, you know, should they not be that tenant in 5 or 10 years?

That building can be used for anything with the really great re adaptive reuse.

And it mirrors the historic, business that surges into that building as well.

So it really, really works well.

And part of that project is really, to the mayor's point, creating that outdoor seating and, walk up ability to do that and grab a drink on Main Street and create that vibe.

So, I, I'm, I'm totally fine with Starbucks being there.

I think it looks great.

I think they've really, changed their, their corporate temperament to be in a community like ours.

They're respecting what we're trying to do, and I think they'll be great, great partners.

so a question about tree projects are I team was just in Fairport this afternoon, and some people said that they were concerned that trees were being removed on Main Street.

But according to the village website, the idea is to remove non-native trees and plant native ones.

So number one, is that correct?

Also, how did they come the decision to replace the main street trees?

Did they have to because of construction in this part with development?

And how did they land on the service?

Berry as a replace.

Is that the correct term?

I'm reading with the note from my colleagues as a replacement.

And what is it's very possible.

Okay.

and can they speak to the fears of people who hate to see trees cut down at all?

Okay, there you go.

So, I can speak to the fears of that.

I'm a tree hugger, and I don't want to see trees come down either.

I mean, it really makes the difference between a good community and something that's not there.

It provides everything from esthetics to to quality of life and value.

with respect to our trees, our main street is going through a very comprehensive $5 million streetscape project, which really consist of a full revamp and rehabilitation of the right of way, the public right of way, and our main street from the curb to the really facades of the buildings which is about a ten foot corridor.

so part of that is, you know, they haven't been touched in 40 or 50 years.

So we're getting new infrastructure, new utilities, new lighting.

new new street signage, new sidewalks, granite curbing, all that type of thing.

So, in order, in an effort to do that, the existing trees there, needed to come out for those utility works.

However, if you've ever walked on Main Street, while it's walkable, it wasn't so much the the existing trees that were there, were planted in such a way that they were really heaving all of the sidewalks, pushing out the curbs into the roadway.

And almost all of them were that case, and they were mostly all we had an arborist come in.

They were all in significant decline.

Right.

They have been planted and kind of lived out their useful life expectancy.

So what we did is we tried to really keep some of the trees that had that.

We're not so much in the downtown corridor surrounded by concrete.

If we could have kept them in those areas where they were some grassy medians, we did.

So, to have those bookends of some larger trees.

But everything within the commercial corridor of that concrete setting, was removed in lieu of that, we are replacing much more mature trees than your typical 12 footer that's coming in.

they all are native to, this New York, region.

so they should do.

Well, there's going to be a variety.

I believe there's somewhere 30 or 40 different types of trees that are coming in.

We're really the only thing we had before was, like, your typical honey locust, which all planters planted back in the day, and those types of things.

So they're fairly hardy to that environment.

and we're planning about doubled the amount of trees that we had on Main Street.

So yes, there is a there is a gap between their full, mature tree that was there to what we're planning.

I'm hoping with the structured soils that we're putting in that was designed by Cornell and some of the other attributes and the proper planting settings, and also providing tree rates, and those types of things are going to survive and be much more healthy in the long run.

The mayor is very glad you took that one for mayor.

you know, had a lot of details that the I know those details because we live and breathe those details and people probably ask these questions very concerned.

Yeah, I am a tree hugger like Brian.

I love trees, except during allergy season.

but, we are they took such great care and our landscape architect for this project, which is really important to our downtown corridor, spent so much time in consideration to the point of looking at the location.

What kind of sunlight does this part of the street get?

How tall is the building that's located co-located, so that I choose the type of tree that's going to maximize its growth and support the frontage of that building, so that I'm not putting a tree that's going to be completely shaded out, and now it will thrive in that spot.

And our tree board, which is, volunteer board, went through and redid the, the tree listing to make sure that we were including all native species to the area.

So when you say service area, service Berry, I'm like, well, probably if it's on that list, it's native and it's, it's a good tree.

All right.

We're going to we have a lot of feedback.

We're going to get through as much as we can on the phone first.

Christine.

Hey, Christine.

Go ahead.

Take my question to your panelist is what is Fairport doing to diversify their population?

From where I stand, it looks very Caucasian to me.

But it's the efforts to encourage African Americans, families and couples and single people to participate in the full life of Fairport.

Christine, thank you for the phone call, mayor.

I'm happy to answer that.

You cannot force anybody to live someplace.

but what I can tell you is, as more opportunities for housing, come up in our community, I think that you start to see different people.

And as we start to do things like diversifying, creating walkability, creating different types of places that people want to be, you'll see that diversity happen.

on my side of the village, which you shouldn't have, a village that's 1.5mi that I say on my side, but I live on the north side of the village.

my neighborhoods or my neighborhood has always had, a high, higher immigrant population.

and, my family was no different than any other family that moved there in the 60s.

And the kids who I hung out with at that point in time, many of their families were workers that were moving to the area to support the American can.

So I had all, Italian immigrants, Puerto Rican immigrants, many different types of people who lived on the north side of the village.

That's not to say that they don't live on the south side of the village, but, I think that if you look at our, vision statement for the future, it says that we will welcome anyone who chooses to make this their home.

And that's how I feel about it, is that Fairport needs to be welcoming to anybody who wants to make their home there.

I can't tell people where to live.

Maybe connected to that, Barbara Rice to say, she's worried that Fairport is inaccessible for first time homeowners.

She said, we have lived in Fairport for 40 years, and my son, who is in his 30s and most of his friends, cannot afford to buy a home.

It has become too expensive for young people to buy a home in Fairport that is from Barbara.

So what do you both think about that?

Well, That right.

Well, might might be.

I would feel probably the same way today if I had to go buy my home in Fairport, which I, you know, I bought it ten years ago, which the climate was different, but a lot of that is really out of our control.

We've we've created it, we've done our jobs, you know, create our environment that's really conducive to wanting to be there.

the market is going to kind of determine, you know, you know, what the prices are for certain things and so forth.

the housing, you know, as the mayor referred to, it's not so much about, you know, the racial diversity.

Anyone can live there that there's nothing ever stopping that at all.

What we're trying to do is, you know, we've been a very large, single family home village for a very long time.

So what we're trying to do, and it's incorporate in our comprehensive comprehensive plan, we're going through a zoning code review right now is we want to encourage through zoning to be able to have condos and apartments and townhouses and those other types of things, that people want to live in.

You know, it wouldn't be great to live on Main Street and you come off of your mixed use.

That means a sushi restaurant on the bottom, and then you're living upstairs, and you come and you walk around downtown and you come home.

Right.

so we're trying to provide those opportunities in those areas.

So should a developer want to come in and they see our, our, our, our zoning code and they say, hey, this is a permissive use.

I don't have to go through a whole lot of back and forth.

The planning board, they're encouraging us to do this, to have them to come in and make those investments.

And we're really trying to push that forward with our with our updates.

I think that this is an ongoing issue, that, yes, we live in a time when property values have risen a lot.

But I can tell you that back in the late 80s and early 90s, when I was looking for a place to live, I so wanted to move to the village of Fairport and looked at houses and I thought to myself, I don't know how we're ever going to be able to afford one of these houses.

And we ended up moving to Ontario County because we couldn't afford to buy a house in the village of Fairport.

That was 1987.

I don't think it's I think we see these big prices and yes, they are, I think, astronomical.

But this community, this Monroe County community has often had lower home prices than any place else in most of this nation, and it's starting to catch up with us.

that's what we talked about last hour on this program.

Yeah.

And, and, and when I was looking back in the 80s, I never thought I would live back in the village of Fairport where I grew up.

it was an opportunity that came up in the 2015 where I could actually afford to buy this house, and, was in a situation that we moved in.

All right, let's keep moving.

A lot of feedback here.

This is Nancy in Fairport.

Hi, Nancy.

Go ahead.

Hey, my question is, you know, you talk about, and stress, the walkability of the village and no drive through, but what are you doing to address the, increasing aging population and how they and people with limited ability to walk, and people with disabilities can get around and enjoy the amenities as well.

Okay.

Thank you.

Nancy.

Jeremy.

Take it.

Or do you want to go?

Well, I think, we're constantly investing in our infrastructure.

Hence, with the streetscape project, you know, the board has doubled, over the last year, there there are sidewalk, replacement program.

they're putting in over $200,000 a year.

We probably put about 500 grand into it just this year alone.

we're repaving probably about ten streets a year.

crosswalks, accessible ramps, Ada compliances of the forefront.

we are putting a lot of, trying to put in, pedestrian bicycle infrastructure in there to make sure that these streets are known to have an active transportation and a multi-use, modal toward their use.

you know, I don't think it's anything we're doing currently is prohibiting or going against trying to find more accessible avenues to, to to get through the village.

we've even had conversations, you know, maybe having some type of trolley system in the future or something like that.

You know, we're looking at maybe doing a downtown revitalization initiative, grant for submission October, which some of that has been brought up is maybe some options to have some, some opportunities for people to get from point A to point B in the village without even walking.

So we're trying to take a look at all those types of things and what we can do.

but we're working on it the best that we can.

Last thing I'll say, because I know you need to get to some more calls, but, accessible adventures of, Rochester.

They have, cited the village of Fairport for as we add amenities, we try and make sure that those amenities have opportunities for everybody of different physical states to be able to take advantage, whether it's, a kayak launch that is accessible or our public restrooms that were built a few years ago have adult changing tables as well as youth changing tables.

So we're in the work that we do.

We're looking for ways to make sure that it's accessible to everybody.

Nancy.

Thank you.

This is Robert in Fairport.

Next.

Hey, Robert.

Go ahead.

Robert.

Let's see here.

It might be me.

What did I do here?

Let's do this.

Watch this.

Robert's back on hold now.

I've got Robert.

I don't have him.

We don't have him.

I can't hear you.

Oh, no.

You oh I do, that was my fault.

Go ahead.

Robert.

Yeah.

Thanks for, thanks for taking my call.

I have a question about hikers landfill.

Because I know in the past that that's been an issue.

You could smell it from the village of Fairport.

I'm kind of, you know, wondering, what's going on with that?

Is there any, effort?

there?

I mean, we take in probably a significant percentage of New York City's garbage ends up there.

I'm just curious, what's the status?

Is there?

Good question.

Robert.

how often can you smell it, mayor?

less than I used to be able to, but there are, you know, every couple of weeks I can tell when they've been unloading trains.

because I can smell it in my back porch.

I can smell it in my yard.

They do that typically during the middle of the night.

and I live 1.5 miles away from the landfill, and I can tell you that people as far as Penfield in East Rochester can smell the landfill.

Okay, so is anything being done?

Is there anything that can be done from your perspective?

we are in the village of Fairport, and the landfill is located in the town of Harrington.

So while I would love to say that I can do something about it, I will always voice village resident concerns as much as I possibly can.

Which is to what?

Stop growing it.

stop operation, stop expanding.

Don't make it smell, don't make it smell.

Don't be.

Just don't be disruptive.

With trains that wake people up.

However, one of the things that we have done in the village, which is our way of working towards that is we have a collectively composting program.

I know, you know, we compost in the village of Fairport and it's what we can do as a village to reduce what goes into the landfill.

thank you.

Robert.

Michael wants to know, does Fairport have its own power, authority?

Well, whenever we're on power three, we have our own electric utility, which only does distribution.

We don't create power or generate power.

We just distribute power.

It turns out like everybody's heard Fairport Electric, and they think that's the greatest thing about living.

Is that the greatest thing about living there?

No, but it's a nice attribute.

It's.

But it's not its own power.

Authority.

thank you.

Michael.

and Linda says, I'd like to brag about our little village of Naples, New York.

It's a walkable town, which you've been discussing.

There's a great feeling of community here.

And whenever someone needs help, five people show up to do that.

And she said we had an amazing thing happen during Covid.

We had nine brand new locally owned businesses open during the time of Covid.

Eight of them are still thriving in downtown Naples.

That's great community support.

And of course, people are drawn to our area because the music and festivals.

So Linda's very proud of that.

Hey, maybe that's another story here.

I love getting to know how we are.

You know, the different corners and corridors of our region are doing.

Fairport was on our radar because of this, this big rating they got from the brokerage platform Redfin.

Fair ports, the fourth hottest neighborhood in the country.

But really it's a conversation about the priorities, the choices that those who are governing for our port make, how they're listening to residents, how they're responding to concerns.

And you've heard so much this hour from our two guests, and I want to thank them for making the time.

The mayor of the village of Fairport is Julie Dom Arts.

Thank you for making time for us today.

Thank you for having us.

And the manager of the village of Fairport is Brian White.

Thank you, Brian, for being here.

Thank you.

What are you guys eating tonight?

my front porch.

See, I was going to see if you wanted to choose a single business, but they're not going to single anybody out.

I know if they're going be like McCartneys.

We love all of our children.

Oh, it's all your children.

congrats on this nice honor recently.

Thank you for telling the story here.

And listeners, thank you for making the time here, for making connections part of your day, whether you're on YouTube, on the 60 News YouTube channel, or the many platforms from all of us at connections.

Thank you for listening.

Thanks for watching.

We're back with you tomorrow on member supported public media.

This program is a production of WXXI Public Radio.

The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of this station.

Its staff, management, or underwriters.

The broadcast is meant for the private use of our audience.

Any rebroadcast or use in another medium without express written consent of WXXI is strictly prohibited.

Connections with Evan Dawson is available as a podcast.

Just click on the connections link.

At WXXI news.org.