PROTECTING OURSELVES FROM OUR GOVERNOR

Direct action heats up New York’s budget season this year as we approach Hochul's bid for reelection. On Tuesday March 25, about 100 activists blockaded the State St entrance to the NYS Capital, demanding the passage of NY4All, a bill which would protect our immigrant neighbors. After blocking traffic on State St, activists and politicians took the party indoors and chanted, sang, and salsa’d in front of security and their turnstiles. “State Police were told not to arrest protesters that day, and the demonstrators left a few hours after the rally began.” (Told by who? Traditional knowledge suggests that the Governor’s office - even Hochul herself - has a hand in directing the behavior of State Troopers operating within the Capital Complex.) Read the rest!

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THE WEEKS TO COME

Need a community pick-me-up? There's lots of choice coming up, as spring comes over Rochester! And a few items to push as well: If you haven't made your voice heard lately about Hochul's egregious efforts to derail climate sustainability, tomorrow is the last day! Meanwhile the deadline has been extended to 4/15 to protest STAMPS horrific plans to turn the Tonawanda Seneca's sacred forest into a data center. And tonight is the Planning Commission meeting (5 pm) and public hearing (6 pm) at City Hall regarding Verizon's renewed request to erect a 6-story cell tower on Portland Ave. So, as Emma Peel would say to Steed in the original Avengers - "We're needed!"

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

"A lot going on" is becoming the new normal. That may not feel like a good thing - but when it is activism going on, it is! Trump and crony capitalism are doing incalculable damage both nationally and locally. One unfortunate collateral casualty is our collective peace of mind, with new demands and annoyances daily from emboldened corporations to add to our smoldering existential fears. Life was never easy and never will be, whatever the marketing campaigns and addictive algorithms are telling us, but our best lives are lived with other real people, fighting for what is right for all of us. That will be our route toward both a more equitable future and to greater personal peace amid the chaos of the present. 

ANOTHER BUSY WEEK

There is quite a bit newly in the rear view mirror this week, as we look back on the 1199 informational picket demanding a contract from Rochester Regional's Unity Living Center, the Really Big Lobby Day in Albany (see below!), an 1199 press conference on Medicaid, and a Healthcare Town Hall in Geneva that looks forward to those we are planning soon in Rochester and Buffalo.

Proposed billboard on Monroe and Canterbury / 60' cell tower / 936 Portland Ave - same scale

Over the past few years a coalition of neighborhood organizations has fended off three proposed digital billboard variance attempts and succeeded in protecting Cobbs Hill Park with the first Preservation District in over 30 years. Over the summer, Ames Grigg and neighbors in NorthEast Rochester protested the erection of a 60’ broadband-carrying (high intensity, high volume) cell tower at 936 Portland Avenue - and won as well. This month both of these zoning variance applications have been resurrected, and the cell tower (revised for a smaller footprint but same purpose) could be approved as soon as March 30th - and could then be used as a precedent for other carriers to build more and larger broadband cell towers in other residential neighborhoods, without having to ask. Ready to defend our neighborhoods against the megacorporations who increasingly prey upon them? Sign up here, and read on.    

This past Tuesday, March 10th, Rochester for Energy Democracy (RED) was busy attending the massive Defend NY event in Albany, as well as a Monroe County public hearing. One was a huge coalition effort of over one thousand New Yorkers from across the state, advocating for a slew of issues including protection from ICE, progressive taxation, and defending environmental justice. The other was a heartened demand from RED to our local legislature, advocating for greater accountability for RG&E and a study for a real alternative to a profit-sucking utility company. Both of these events are part of larger movements across NY, of people fighting for the means and justice to power the future.

GETTING INTO THE THICK OF IT

MEET NEW ORGANIZER CARLTON HUFF / METRO JUSTICE ANTI WAR HISTORY

Militarization is growing both locally and globally, from ICE deployments domestically, to ongoing occupation in Palestine, to threats of war in Iran. The Rochester Beacon reported that an estimated 10,000 people showed up for the “No Kings” protest in October 2025, and the demand for action has only grown since then. What can new Metro Justice activists learn from their predecessors?

MANOLO'S STORY OF DETENTION AND DEPORTATION

As we make signs and rally downtown to abolish ICE, petition our legislature to pass the NY4ALL act and get set to lobby in Albany (check for the three opportunities to catch free bus transport in the upcoming calendar!), you may be wondering what this story looks like from the other side. There are so many people being detained and deported despite our best efforts. Here is the story that one man, Manolo Lopez, shared with Doug Noble through a friend, with the request that it be shared.

Manolo was a happy newlywed working in a rural area of Guatemala with many dreams and plans for his life. Several Canadian and US corporations moved into the area, buying up farms and properties, not only displacing people but also putting locals out of work. Ultimately, there was no work to be found, and the crime rate was so extreme that he decided to leave Guatemala.