

The following is a guest post submitted by Matthew Denker.

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Last week RocSubway learned that developer Thomas Masaschi is converting the old Ted Cohen’s Office Furniture store into three upscale penthouses, lofts and retail space on the first floor. You know the place ; behind the Hess gas station on Monroe Ave. So we thought, for this week’s edition of “Filling In,” why not look at Monroe Ave, and how we could make one of Rochester’s most walkable strips even better! We’ll focus on a few small changes that could be implemented quickly, and then a few bigger ideas for the corridor going forward…



Starting from the west at Union Street and moving east, parking lots like this one next to Dac Hoa should be concealed from the street using artful sculpture or scrims like shown above.



Next, unnecessary driveways off of Monroe—such as this one into the Brueggers parking lot and the one on the other side of the street for Autozone—should be removed where ever possible.



Another idea for the Monroe/Goodman intersection would be the addition of a Barnes Dance . A Barnes Dance crossing, or pedestrian scramble, stops vehicular traffic in all directions and allows for diagonal crossings. There are attractions at all four corners here, and because of the heavy vehicular traffic on both Goodman and Monroe (and turns between the two), the use of a Barnes Dance would greatly ease pedestrian crossing.

The final small change would be the addition of a pedestrian crossing at Sumner Park . Many dangerous crossings happen here, and a marked crossing here would help. Possibly even adjusting the traffic light at Oxford, so that eastbound traffic stops at Sumner Park and westbound traffic stops at Oxford. This would help immensely.



For a few much larger and forward-looking ideas, consider the following short list:

Next week, we’ll look at a couple of proposed developments in Rochester and consider why they should be built (even if the neighbors are against them), but how they could be significantly better than proposed.

• • •

About Matthew Denker:

Matthew Denker is a Project Director by day and a fantasy real estate tycoon by night. He has a deep interest in Rochester, NY, as well as the subjects of new urbanism, walkability, mass transit, and land use. Going forward he hopes to combine all of those things to make Rochester a city competitive not only with other small, successful cities, such as Portland and Minneapolis, but even better by leveraging its easy access to the world-class cities of Toronto and New York.

*Thanks to Cory Tinsley for the great detective work on Thomas Masaschi and the Ted Cohen’s development!

Tags: 7-eleven, Amherst Street, Arby's, Autozone, Barnes Dance, Brueggers, Dac Hoa, diagonal crosswalk, Dunkin Donuts, Filling In, Goodman Street, Matthew Denker, McDonald's, Monroe Avenue, Oxford Street, Pizza Hut, Rutgers Street, Sumner Park



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