What a difference a day makes.

One moment we’re planning on a couple of billion dollars of construction. The next minute, we’re wondering if we’ll even get the money from on high that we’ve been proceed.

There’s a lot on the table. The Midtown revitalization project is depending upon $65 million coming from Albany to make this dream come true. Close to $200 million has been promised for parts of the Renaissance Square project. RIT is looking for the remaining money needed for their Golisano Institute for Sustainability and SUNY Brockport is trying to secure the money they need for their Student Activity Center. There’s the Crime Lab, the Facilities Modernization Project at the City School District (a billion plus dollars in itself) and the vital transportation dollars needed for the Kendrick Road I-390 Exit. Just last month, the area’s construction industry got a real boost with the groundbreaking of the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Clinical and Translational Science Building.

Add a myriad of downtown housing projects to the mix (I just had lunch with Heidi Zimmer-Meyer and got an earful of what’s on the horizon) and you would think we’re in a boom town. Well, until the stock market had a slight bump. Suddenly, we found ourselves on a downward spiraling ride and someone noticed we were in a hand basket.

That – and another interesting observation I recently made – gave me a giant chill. After speaking at a dinner of the local chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction I was struck by the sound of Geese heading southward in the evening sky. The it hit me square in the face. The one bird missing from the fall migration are Cranes.
Not a single one is on the skyline of downtown.

I don’t mind telling you that prior to this, and with all the optimism about construction in Rochester and Monroe County, I was hoping we might adopt it, albeit temporarily, as our national bird instead of the eagle. The site of cranes on the horizon means buildings are going up, prosperity is the word of the day, jobs are plentiful, and good economic times are rolling.
Instead, our skyline is as barren as a Sahara landscape at high noon.

It’s no secret that we’re living in volatile economic times. Now, more than ever, this community must come together as a unified voice to speak out for our fair share of resources from Albany and Washington. Laborers Local 435 Business Manager Bob Brown has summed it up best when he says “Let’s just all get together and get the pie, and then fight over who get’s the biggest piece after we bring it home.”