Page Four  

10 SEPTEMBER 2004

Have no Fear... the Rump Group is here!!

Friday, September 10, 2004
Home > News > Local News		Rochester Time: 10:29 pm

Oh my yes, 'Dutch'.  Are we supposed to believe anti-Ferry people will  'ring your phone off the hook'?  Obviously pro-Ferry supporters will try to prod anyone with money to belly up to the bar and slap down a fat check to Save The Ferry.

Yeah... THESE are the Good 'Ol Boys' Network in the local business community.

To be honest, I sincerely hope Local Money steps in to bail out CATS; there are no losers like TWO TIME LOSERS.  After tossing MORE local private cash into a STILL doomed project (really - just what's changed to suddenly reverse the loss of revenue?), once the local Smug Ones find out the reality that regardless of commercial traffic, there STILL isn't enough passenger revenue to support a long-term service, the sweet smell of vindication will be everywhere.

And the local Good 'Ol Boys will have more than egg on their pretentious faces; their business credibility will sink along with their pet project.  Their trademark smirks will be offset by pointing fingers and outright guffaws.  Now THAT'S a 'win-win' situation which is a 'sure thing'.

It's developing into the classic American philosophy that ANY problem can be solved by simply dumping enough money on the stinking mess.  Didn't work for education, doesn't work for a 'war' in Iraq and it sure as hell isn't going to work to resurrect a real booger of an idea. 

As always, addressing the symptom instead of the underlying CAUSE is no way to resolve a problem.  And the underlying cause of the Ferry's failure is: there aren't enough passengers to offset the operating costs over a long-term period.  Incessantly babbling about the numbers of passengers during a peak season grows tiresome; show me the same figures in the second week of January and I'll be impressed. (And no, a beautiful new Toronto terminal isn't going to be the motivating force to cause people to swarm the ticket booths.)

If TOTAL boarding, crossing and disembarking time were a maximum of two hours... maybe.. MAYBE taking the Ferry would be justified.  That would still only cut 60 minutes off the transit time from driving... and I'm not sure that's worth US$ 60... but at least more people MIGHT be able to justify the cost.  The Ferry would have to be able to cruise at no less than 90 miles per hour in order to allow enough time on each end of the trip for loading and unloading to complete the whole ordeal in two hours.  Highly unlikely... especially in the middle of winter.  Great Lakes swells in AUTUMN have sunk ships FAR larger then The Breeze (anyone remember a giant called the Edmund Fitzgerald ?).

But if 'Dutch' and the Boys want to buy a White Elephant, that's certainly their prerogative.  Doesn't show much fiscal responsibility, but it's becoming clear fiscal responsibility is a hallmark of Toronto Business and not Rochester.

Gee, 'Dutch'.  Wonder what it must feel like to be bested by a CANADIAN contingent?  I mean, already CANADIAN business acumen has proven superiour to the American model... Toronto doesn't have to figure out what to do with a brand spanking new Ferry terminal which sits collecting cobwebs less than five months after it was completed.  You American business 'leaders' wanna talk about who looks like the fools now?  And you guys want a SECOND chance to prove that?  No problem!

Have at it, Rumpers.  Spend-spend-spend your way to fame and infamy.

It's not so much the loss of cash (you guys will write it off anyway), but it's definitely the loss of face that I'm looking forward to.  It's so much fun to see obnoxious egomaniacs fall flat on their well-padded butts.

Especially at their own game.

Saturday   September 11, 2004 Fast Ferry Leaves Couple Stranded   by Liz Medhin photo by Matt Mann Published Sep 10, 2004 News of the Fast Ferry's suspension spread quickly Tuesday. Information about what passengers could do to get home was a little slower. Dustin and Nicole Muroski headed up to Toronto for the World Cup of Hockey last Saturday. Two days before they were to leave, they heard the ferry would not be taking them home. "We saw that on the news, the Toronto news, and [CATS] didn't tell us anything. They just said, ‘No more rides.' And we had no way home." The Muroskis say they called CATS several times and even called the Mayor's office, but none of their calls were returned. They say when they got home, there was a message on their answering machine from CATS about the suspension, but that it was little help to them while they were stranded in Toronto. "It could be possible that one may have slipped through the cracks, but it is the first that we've heard of since we've provided this service over the last few days," said Cornel Martin, President of CATS. Martin says calls have flooded in ever since the suspension was announced. He says volunteers are now working overtime to make sure that ticket holders know that bus service will be provided instead. As for the Muroskis, they ended up flying home. A local travel agent in Toronto heard their story and offered them two free tickets back to Rochester. CATS will continue to provide bus service between Rochester and Toronto at least until September 12.

First the 9/11 airline passengers and now the hapless travelers of The Breeze... Canadians seem to always be there to bail out stranded Americans (even after the disgraceful and shoddy treatment they were shown by some tactless and tasteless douche-bag of a President back on 2001).

What remains to be seen is this: How is it two adults who can afford a few days in Toronto (= Not Cheap) plus tickets to the World Cup of Hockey, can't seem to be able to afford two one-way bus tickets back to Rochester?  Whether they should have to pay for them is moot; whining "Alms for the poor" with outstretched hands seems more of a ploy for attention and publicity than it does any real sense of desperation and need.

And not only did the Muroskis get free transportation back to Rochester, instead of bus fare they were given airline tickets.  That's Class.

That's Toronto.

That's Canadian.

Hey Rochester!  Do you have any IDEA of how much of a laughingstock you've become?  'Smugtown' has successfully transformed into 'Buffoontown'.  It's sort of like when the coolest kid on the block becomes the target of ridicule after his REAL character shows through.  All the Abercrombie & Fitch clothes in the world can't hide the fact that he's a jerk.

<sigh> Yanno... the most graceful exit from this entire debacle would be to simply shut up, let the natural progression of insolvency take course and let the damn thing die a quiet death.  It really WOULD save further embarrassment and humiliation instead of these last ditch heroics which are only causing non-Rochester communities to cramp up with laughter already.

It's bad enough the thing made it as far as it did before choking on its own stupidity, but to exacerbate and prolong the demise only serves to propagate even MORE international press items about some backwater burg in Upstate New York thinking it's in the same league as The Other Guys. 

And of all cities to try and attract customers!  Toronto - with its exploding economy and growth  - is arguably the most progressive world-class city on the Great Lakes and is so diametrically opposite to Rochester that is hard to imagine anyone who knows where Bloor and Yonge are could fathom hoards of Torontonians would eagerly look forward to hopping on a pricy boat ride to Nowheresville NY.  But evidently, SOME over inflated self-imaged 'planners' did exactly that.  And now the residents of the Rochester area are stuck with paying the bill for a gussied-up port with a fancy fast barge tied up doing nothing.

Do I hate Rochester?  No.

Do I think Rochester has the resources and capability of being an innovative and forward-thinking town?  Absolutely.

Do I think Rochester will actually USE these qualities to become all that it could be?  Not by a long shot. 

THAT'S the part about this community that bugs the hell out of me.  The potential is there, but is totally stifled by a lack of alternative thinking, progressive innovation and a refusal to break out of its conservative and traditional shell.  Nice, predictable, no surprises, off-in-our-own-little-world Rochester.  The community that could, but doesn't.  Residents that actually DO plunk down white picket fences and pretend they're Ward, June, Wally and the Beaver.  It's true.

It's only when the Rochester community tries to deal with The Real World Outside of Monroe County does it find its something of a social misfit.  The quintessential tourist who has 'em giggling behind their backs outside their element.  The self-aggrandizers who define themselves by what they DO instead of who they ARE.  The viciously competitive who're dismayed that the other kids could care less about playing their game.  It's a sad sight.

The bloom is definitely off the rose in this tired old Flower City.  It really WAS a pretty decent place not so long ago until attitudes and misplaced values turned it into a nondescript and underwhelming area.  It's no secret the 18- to 35-year olds are leaving this area in a non-stop caravan of U-Hauls.  That's a sad sight as well.

The Fast Ferry is/was a not-so quiet act of desperation upon which an economic recovery was pinned.  Now that it's all over except for finding a home for a rather forlorn-looking ship, the residents of this area are starting to get sweaty and nervous.  The great visions of a ship disgorging cash-laden tourists hungry for a Rochester Experience on a year-round basis never materialized and political and business leaders are frantically trying to Save the Dream.

Only... this time, that's all it was. 

Ce n'était qu'une rêve.  It was nothing but a dream.

11 SEPTEMBER 2004

Saturday, September 11, 2004
Home > News > Local News	Rochester Time: 4:56 pm

Insane.  This whole affair stinks to high heaven.  The Rochester City School district faces a $7 million budget shortfall... yet there's 'no money' to cover education in a city with astronomical drop-out rates.  Priorities?

Yeah... we see where the priorities lie. 

NYS Governor George Pataki and the State Comptroller Alan Hevesi might start having second thoughts about the free 'n easy 'gifts' and 'loans' to the Rochester community in general.  The taxpayers of New York State... ALL of New York State... are fully educated enough to know pork barrel projects when the see them.

And this one has had SWINE written all over it from the first media release.

So why'd the local and state governments buy into the rhetoric?

Because so-called 'experts' told them it was a good idea.  Nifty graphs, rosy figures and gee-whiz technology swept 'em off their feet and the prospect of 'tourist dollars' must have seemed intoxicating to a state trying to jump-start the moribund Rochester area economy.

Well, there's much to be said for optimism in a rationale plan.  However, the Ferry concept was not based in rationality and... by recent events... not much of a thought-out 'plan' either.  And if some local malcontent with a website was able to see this, how is it the Big Suits were duped into a Ferry scheme which lasted less than four months into a forty-year lease agreement?

Was CATS "properly or well qualified" to develop and manage a Fast Ferry service across Lake Ontario?  What CATS qualifications were checked prior to local and state governments signing on the dotted lines?

Was CATS 'adequate for the purpose' of operating a Ferry service between Toronto and Rochester?  Recent events would suggest not if the service wasn't financially coherent.

Was CATS 'legally qualified' to present the public with a unique and novel concept such as a Fast Ferry (despite the claims to redundancy and a completely optional service)?  That remains to be seen.  Bankruptcy courts have a way of sorting out who is or isn't legally qualified or responsible, but from early indications, there are certainly many questions to the legality of the whole project considering the amount of public money which was spent.

Linguistically, the opposite of 'competent' is 'INcompetent'.

And the combination of millions of dollars of taxpayer money and 'incompetence' equals Official Public Inquiry.  Or should, anyway.

As for the Rochester area crying poor and needing money, there are far more needy communities in New York State which could use $14 million in far more pragmatic ways.  There are communities of Northern New York which... if they received just ONE million dollars... would dramatically improve the quality of life for their residents in an area where development and jobs are scarce.

If the Rochester area flippantly tosses millions into sports venues which generate less-then-zero revenue on an annual basis - or - 'entertainment districts'  which are filled with revolving-door businesses which can't turn a profit - or - a Fast Ferry which has to pull the plug in less than four months... then clearly the so-called 'need' of the area should be held to closer scrutiny.

Bluntly put (..and by now, the Gentle Reader knows this author knows no other way), Rochester business and political leaders have monkeyed around with ill-conceived and executed projects to the extent where State and Federal officials SHOULD start questioning further requests for money.  Buffalo teeters on insolvency, yet Rochester gets cash for a superfluous and unnecessary boat ride to Toronto.

There's not a helluva lot of sympathy for Rochester coming from THIS corner.  After the local employer giant lays off tens of thousands MORE within the next two years, this area is going to find out just how ridiculous this Fast Fiasco really was.  Residents who can't pay their taxes or mortgage aren't likely to have much of a use for a pricy way to cross the lake.

And THAT'S reality.

09/09/2004 - Updated 04:11 PM ET Page 11A Rochester — After 11 weeks and scores of trips across Lake Ontario, the Spirit of Ontario has cut its engines. The high-speed ferry carried 140,000 passengers between Rochester and Toronto before its parent company halted service. The company blames government hurdles on both sides of the border for debts of about $1.7 million.

A tiny snippet which probably means nothing to 99% of the USA Today readership.

Nor should it.  Rochester NY isn't exactly Front Page news outside Rochester NY.

There's a subtle lesson there; keeping a realistic perspective is the first step to developing realistic community initiatives.  Wanting to play in the Majors with a Minor League team is more of an exercise in frustration than a formula for success.

And despite wistful cozying up to a World Class city, the Rochester community needs to bear in mind it has far more pressing matters it needs to contend with than image control.  Trying to attract visitors while crime is rampant, jobs are drying up and infrastructure is decaying doesn't appear to be a winning strategy. 

Doesn't seem to be the way Metropolitan Toronto does it, anyway.  First things first.

But what do Canadians know, right?

12 SEPTEMBER 2004

Sunday, September 12, 2004
Home > News > Local News	Rochester Time: 7:25 am

As ferry sits idle, its bills pile up Why the ferry shut down CATS says there are at least six main reasons the company had to shut down its service last week:   The maiden passenger voyage was delayed seven weeks after the ship struck a pier in New York City, and then its engines had to be modified. The company incurred $2.1 million in debt while the ship sat idle.   Fuel costs have been higher than anticipated.   U.S. Customs and Border Protection has not allowed the company to carry commercial trucks. CATS says it was losing out on a possible $18,000 a day in revenue.   Canada Border Services Agency has imposed customs fees amounting to $2,500 a day.   Pilot fees were much higher than expected. The company was paying about $5,200 a day, not $6,000 as previously reported. (Company officials had not converted the Canadian dollars to U.S. dollars.)   The Toronto Port Authority hasn't built a permanent ferry terminal in Toronto. The company says the Australian-based financial backer Export Finance and Insurance Corp. won't let it access $1.5 million in escrow to keep the service going until the trucking, customs, pilot and terminal issues are resolved. Inside   List of problems cited by the ferry company,<3,8.9>12A   Mark Hare: It's too soon to pull the plug,<3,8.9>1B Rick Armon Staff writer (September 12, 2004) — As Canadian American Transportation Systems and leaders of Rochester and Toronto work to get the $42 million Spirit of Ontario sailing again, answers to what went wrong with the high-speed ferry are hard to find, though facts are emerging. Less than three months after making its maiden passenger voyage across Lake Ontario, the ship now sits idle in the Genesee River alongside the $16 million ferry terminal built with taxpayer money. CATS shut down service without warning Tuesday, citing a $1.7 million debt. The shutdown has left the private Rochester-based company — which received millions in city, state and federal aid — caught in a public relations nightmare. Mostly, people demand to know why the business sank so quickly, especially after CATS announced that about 140,000 passengers rode the ferry in 80 days. Asger Manoe, for one, isn't surprised. "They don't seem to have any money at all," he said. Manoe speaks from experience. A Denmark resident, he helped bring the ship from Australia to Rochester and then helped train the local captains. He is among vendors who say they haven't been paid. "I really feel sorry for Rochester and for all the good people over there who believed that this would give the area a kick," said Manoe, now back in Denmark. "There is a lot of people to blame, and I would blame CATS for being unrealistic in their expectations and overselling the project to the public." The promise and expectations of the ferry were evident April 27, when the Spirit of Ontario pulled into the Port of Rochester for the first time. Hundreds — some say thousands — of people lined both sides of the Genesee River to greet the ship after its journey from an Australian shipyard. Some waved flags, and the Rochester Yacht Club serenaded the ship — the community's newest tourist attraction and potential answer to its economic doldrums — with a cannon salute. But behind all of that excitement, Monoe said that there were too many top managers and that money was wasted. "It's difficult to know what is going to happen, but be sure they will never start again, and The Breeze will leave Rochester within a few months," he said, using the ferry's nickname. "It's impossible to start again because nobody will trust new owners." He is among those who helped bring the Spirit of Ontario to Rochester, only to have a falling out with CATS. Bills come due Monoe said he never got paid the $6,283 he is owed for his work. Manoe, who supplied the Democrat and Chronicle with copies of e-mails back and forth demanding his money, doesn't expect to ever see that cash. Others are wondering, too. CATS owes the U.S. St. Lawrence Seaway Pilots' Association $26,000 for pilot services, or more than a week's worth. The company also owes about $25,000 to the Great Lakes Pilotage Authority in Cornwall, Ontario. "We're taking steps to protect our position," said Ron Jacobs, controller with the Seaway Pilots' Association. "We're looking at possibly filing a lien if we have to." Robert Lemire, chief executive officer of the Great Lakes Pilotage Authority, said his agency has been unable to contact CATS about the outstanding bill. CATS also owes money to Hornblower Marine Services Inc., an Indiana-based company that helps run marine operations. Hornblower and CATS parted ways about two weeks ago, with several workers from both companies saying it was because CATS couldn't pay its bills. But Hornblower President John Waggoner and CATS President Cornel Martin said the relationship ended because CATS no longer needed the marine company's help. "I guess without going into lengthy detail, HMS is no longer involved in the operation of the Spirit of Ontario, and we left on good terms," said Waggoner, who declined to say how much the company is owed. Martin said CATS is paying installments. Frank McKeown, president of Corporate 800 in Tampa, Fla., a telecommunications company, said CATS owes his company $16,000. Corporate 800 handled overflow telephone calls for the ferry company in July and August. "We pulled their chestnuts out of the fire," McKeown said, referring to customer complaints about getting through to CATS. He said the company has not responded to calls or letters. Martin disputes McKeown's claim. CATS was unhappy with Corporate 800's service, believes it was overcharged and is challenging the bill, Martin said. For its part, CATS says the ferry fell victim to issues outside its control, including a highly publicized accident and government regulations. The company's primary lender, Netherlands-based bank ABN Amro, has not returned calls for comment. Another financial backer, the Australia-based Export Finance and Insurance Corp., initially didn't know the service had shut down. Officials of Export Finance and Insurance will be in Toronto and Rochester over the next two weeks to talk with the company and city leaders. "It's a sad thing for Rochester if it closes down," said Henry S. Stewart of Greece, who has ridden on the ferry. "It was nice to see us connected with the city of Toronto."  (ed. You wish, Henry.) But even if the ship does resume sailing, there is concern that public confidence has been eroded so much that no one will want to ride it again. Business plan faulted CATS' business plan has come under severe attack since the ferry shut down. The company wanted to draw its core passengers from a pool of 9.6 million people living in the "Golden Horseshoe" — a region that runs from Ontario, Canada, through Rochester to Syracuse. The voyage was sold to the public as a vacation — a ride on a cruise ship as opposed to a ferry. Eighty-five percent of its business was supposed to be leisure travelers, with the rest business and commercial traffic. Documents given to the State Infrastructure Bank in 2002 showed that CATS expected 662,956 passengers to ride the ship in its first year — only 42 percent of its capacity. The company expected to carry 159,777 cars, 4,067 tour buses and 12,202 trucks in the first year. Even before the ferry sailed, skeptics called those numbers too optimistic. But it has been the series of problems since the ferry started operation that has given critics ammunition. CATS has complained that it was not allowed to carry commercial trucks, it had to pay Canadian customs fees, that pilot fees were higher than expected and that no permanent terminal has been built in Toronto for the ferry. The U.S. and Canadian governments reneged on promises, it says — an allegation that government officials deny. But the bottom line, critics say, is that these issues weren't resolved before the service started. "I do not take that as a sign of good management," said Bob Barbato, an associate professor of management and the director of the Small Business Institute at Rochester Institute of Technology's College of Business. Indeed, a February 2001 proposal submitted to the city indicated the company expected to pay about $875,000 a year in Canadian customs fees. "CATS does anticipate the payment of additional service fees related to Canadian customs and immigrations but will seek federal or provincial funding to reduce or eliminate that cost," the document says. Ferry's successes CATS and its supporters point to the 140,000 passengers who rode the ferry in less than three months to show that the business can be successful. A lack of passengers wasn't a reason for shutting down the service, the company said. But can the ferry recover from this round of bad publicity? Many believe it can. "As far as the public is concerned, people are still going to be excited about it," said Wendy Wright, professor of public administration at the State University College at Brockport. (ed. A very gross generalization which is completely unproven and improvable.  Just as an example, I, for one, am not particularly 'excited' about it.) Barbato agreed. "The answer is almost always yes, you can recover from these things," he said. "But every time that you demonstrate an inability to follow through on expectations and promises, you don't just lose customers but you position yourself for future dissatisfaction when even little things go wrong." RARMON@DemocratandChronicle.com

'Ferry's Successes' appears to be low on the list and somewhat limited, no?

No matter.  It would seem the time for 'success' has passed anyway.

As for the article title of "As ferry sits idle, its bills pile up", a quick review of my entry of Thursday September 09 shows an observation strangely parallel to the local fishwrapper article of Sunday, September 12.

It sure looks like there's a growing line of creditors with outstretched hands waiting to be paid and there's a recurring theme that CATS "has not responded to calls or letters".  Not the most responsible way for a company to behave but why should that come as a total surprise?

Any company which has been "unrealistic in their expectations and overselling the project to the public" isn't in contention for Responsible Company of the Year.  The whole CATS debacle is looking more and more like a bunch of Good 'Ol Boys getting together to set up one of the Our Gang comedy backyard stage productions in the barn.  Hackneyed, inept and solely focused on making a fast buck while discounting, discrediting and outright ignoring very real obstacles.... all of which pointed to a doomed concept.

That's where the idiotic 'Team Player' mantra comes in.  'Team Players' don't raise any negative (and real) concerns for fear of being branded a 'Non-Team Player'.  The insanity behind the corporate 'Team Player' mentality is so blatantly obvious, it's a wonder it's been adopted by as many organizations as it has.  This corporate philosophy is dangerous as it squelches independent thought and opinion... and in the case of CATS, had there been more naysayers who had been listened to, it's entirely possible the project would have been scrapped before spending yet-to-be-tolled dollars and ill-feelings.

The 'Team Player' approach is an anachronism from the late 1980's and 1990's (that's about when all the glossy 'Inspiration' and 'Team Player' posters started coming out) which has been discredited YEARS ago.  Today, the folly of that mode of thinking has been replaced by individual contribution where a variety of points of view are valued and considered to arrive at a more accurately balanced and represented conclusion.  Ignoring the negative to accentuate the positive is a great way to play Pollyanna, but it stinks where a business plan is concerned.

But the local Good 'Ol Boys aren't known for keeping with the times (can you say Eastman Kodak?).  And the results are predictable as have been shown in this website since August 08, 2001.  Remember:  this is a community where "Change Is Bad, Status Quo is Safe, Warm and Cozy". 

Conservative, traditional risk-avoidance-at-any-cost Rochester.  Even to the point of failure before getting off the ground.

This huge corporately-laid egg is merely the most publicly visible gaffe in a long history of blunders in the Rochester community and in short, the dirty laundry has finally had a very bright spotlight trained upon it for the amusement of all to see.  What transpires from this point is anybody's guess, but I'll wager the local Good 'Ol Boy Network will be under greater scrutiny by both locals AND non-locals for quite a while.

"Fool me once, shame on you; Fool me ten times, shame on us all".

We won't be fooled again.

September 12, 2004 3:48 PM

Hmm.  Let's think about the local 'All-Is-Rosey' TV station's unscientific poll.

The overwhelming majority of those readers responding to the poll said, "The whole operation seems to have been doomed from the start".  That being the predominant sentiment, just how was CATS able to forge ahead with a 'doomed' operation?

The Good 'Ol Boy Network strikes again.  The 'little people'... despite being the intended prospective passengers... were ignored.  Not a big shocker there, but this this time the Suits counted on the support of those 'little people' and were met with stunning silence.  Sure, a couple of weeks showed a healthy ridership (dropping the fare by 50% may have had something to do with that; imagine how many riders CATS would have had if they dropped the fares by 90%) but there still wasn't enough bottom line profit to clear the $1.7 million debt.

Ridership numbers are meaningless by themselves; what's important is the profit per ticket and that's where CATS failed and failed from the very beginning.

If CATS had ten passengers paying $7,000 per ticket, they'd still garner more income and potential profit than 1,000 passengers paying $60 per ticket.  The ridership number alone is no gauge of EITHER success or profitability.

Moral?  Ignore CATS reports of the numbers of riders.  It doesn't indicate long-term viability at all.  'Popularity' is best left to the junior high class president elections; as far as 'proving' to the lenders that the Fast Ferry project is salvageable, 'popularity' may be an interesting point but it's not a compelling enough reason to let CATS get their hands on the $1.5 million escrow account.

"Spin, spin Sugar.."

Ahhh... "Spin".  A very trendy way of saying 'propaganda'.  "Putting a spin on...",  "Spinning a tale...", "A different spin...", "spinning a web of...".

"Spinning sugar...". AKA  "Concocting a sweet palatable confection for mass consumption".  "Manipulating data to sway opinion and support".  Illegal?  No.  Unethical?

"Who cares?  Let's just get this thing moving (...so we can start cashing in)."

Spin, spin sugar.  Eat it up, you gullible Ferry supporters.

Sunday, September 12, 2004
Home > News > News Columns > Mark Hare	Rochester Time: 5:29 pm

Well, in this case, I'm not sure a 'bad win' is any better than a 'no win'.  Shoving a Band-Aid emblazoned project out on the Lake will only serve to prolong the inevitable end.

Mark Hare is a mainstream writer whose conservative pontificating mirrors what the Democrat & Chronicle's readers WANT to read.  Should he cut and paste the liberal tirade found on this website, he'd be hitting the bricks in a heartbeat.

"It wouldn't replace the car, but people would take it because it was fun and not outrageously expensive."

Mark, you might want to back off the Xanax a bit and take a look at the Real World in the Rochester area.  Your Marie Antoinette routine of "if they're hungry, let them eat cake" just doesn't fly anymore.  There are too many residents in this area who are on the brink of financial ruin due to job losses, rising taxes, unattainable health care coverage and marginal pensions. 

Suggesting "people would take it because it was fun" smacks of insensitivity and elitism; in case you haven't noticed, the number of people who can simply drop a few hundred for a family to have a fun way to get to Toronto is getting smaller.  Declining numbers of prospective passengers doesn't bode well for non-stop lineups for ticket purchasing.

And even prior to The Breeze, I just KNOW you and your family were frequent travelers to Toronto, yes?  Even now, you and your family have plans to revisit Toronto by car, yes?  Frequent and repeat travelers are what The Breeze needed to succeed and I KNOW you and your family make frequent trips to Toronto... otherwise, it would make you a hypocrite of the highest order.

Guess what, Mark?  Despite your rose-coloured glasses, not everybody has a full-time job which would allow them the 'fun'  of even DRIVING to Toronto... let alone take some pricy and unnecessary mode of transportation.  I know that must come as a stunning shock to you, but that's Real Life in the Real World of Rochester today.  The Rochester area is in a world of hurt right now.  Grow up.

And at least make a marginal attempt to keep up with the times.

Sunday, September 12, 2004
Home > Opinion > Letters	Rochester Time: 6:40 pm

Just a minute here.

Doing a Google search on 'rochester ferry' and I don't see too many local websites which spoke out against the Fast Ferry project (except for this website).

I didn't see too many protesters picketing or protesting the Fast Ferry deal from its inception.  As a matter of fact, I didn't see any.

There weren't too many full-paged ads in the local paper criticizing the CATS proposal; there weren't any at all.

No citizen groups organized to Fight The Ferry.  No soccer Moms furiously taking on No Ferry poster and coffee klatch parties.  No mass petitioning.  No bullhorns at Charlotte.

So where do these readers get off pointing a finger at the politicians and governments?  Where were these chafed writers in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004?

'Team players'.  'Follow the crowd'.  'Don't make waves'.  Typically Rochesterian.

Yet when The Breeze is all but declared DOA, these people 'bravely' rush forward with clenched fists, stamp their little feet and say, "I knew it all along".  Gutsy.  REAL gutsy.

One other question:  Just HOW do these politicians get in office anyway? 

Answer: They're voted in by the people who write Letters To The Editor.  By people who whine about an unfriendly business climate in New York State.  By outraged citizens who vote them in... only to turn around and complain bitterly about the very people the majority chose to do their bidding.

Who's to blame for that?

Think about that in November.  Then go ahead and vote as you always do so you can maintain the status quo and never change anything. 

That, too, is typically Rochesterian.

The lenders (the Australian-based  Export Finance and Insurance Corporation) are dropping in Toronto this week, then Rochester the following week to lay down the law for CATS.  They'll be deciding whether they think the whole service is... well, serviceable... and allow CATS to access the $1.5 million in the escrow account they (EFIC)  hold.  If... IF... EFIC thinks the whole thing could work, you can bet the farm they're going to slam down some provisos which must be met before CATS can grab the cash.

EFIC knows the score; they don't even need to hop on a flight up here.  And you can bet their minds are already made up as to whether they'll ease the way or leave the strongbox locked.   They COULD just say, "Nuts to you guys; it's YOUR problem which YOU need to sort out" and "oh by the way, just as a reminder; your September installment is now due".

My guess?

They'll throw out some very reasonable challenges, with some pretty good knowledge they can't be met.  CATS agrees, because to not agree is an instant death knell anyway.  CATS fails to meet the requirements, EFIC ends up looking like the fair party which offered CATS a chance, the Repo Guys come in and Big Boat is repossessed.

With debt building by each hour the Ferry sits tied up... and the season pretty much over... $1.5 million ain't gonna go too far.  Even if commercial traffic is allowed, with passenger confidence  W A Y  down, it's difficult to imagine a (primarily) high tech truck barge is going to be able to survive for very long.

And Rochester will have a very nice and very empty new ferry terminal to serve as a monument to unreal corporate dreams.

Or schemes.  That part remains to be seen.

Now.... where can one get a good deal on bulk tar and a few truck loads of feathers?  I think there might be a need in a certain community on short notice.