- the native canadian

Bill, Bill, Bill. Back-peddling at this point is neither going to save face or the ferry.

The ferry ISN'T going to be 'self-supporting' or a 'moneymaker'? As in... it's going to be a drain on either public or private finances? As in... it's going to be yet ANOTHER ongoing money-losing proposition?

"... he is looking to the state and Toronto to kick in marketing dollars, which could lead to increased ridership".

But don't count on it. People all around Lake Ontario ALREADY know about the ferry service... but frankly my dear, they don't give a damn. Not enough people want to use a ferry to come to Rochester; how difficult a concept is that? Send up hot air balloons, shoot fireworks, hand out t-shirts, plaster the airwaves with jingles, buy entire pages of the Toronto Star... none of that will change people's minds about hustling on down to Rochester. They just don't have any desire to visit the area... certainly not enough to support the ferry service.

Geez... maybe the people of Toronto need to take out a full-page ad in the D&C saying:

It's so embarrassing when someone has to be drawn to the side of the room and told, despite their self-perceived popularity, nobody cares whether they're there or not. It's humiliating.

Let's see. There's an 'infusion' of PRIVATE capital - or - there's an 'infusion' of PUBLIC capital. Those are the only two choices as the Money Tree isn't ripe enough to start harvesting.

We've already tried the PRIVATE sector for cash and as CATS so capably demonstrated, the private sector can't come up with the cash need to support the ferry service which does nothing but bleed red ink.

That leaves the PUBLIC sector... and considering the public has an issue about throwing millions of dollars into superfluous projects which aren't needed anyway... I'd say the ferry's days are very limited indeed. Despite what the clueless ferry supporters say.

Mayor Bill is making truly desperate statements at this point and when it gets to that stage, it's painfully obvious there's something very wrong.

"Johnson said there is a plan to make it through the rest of the year but would not elaborate."

Hmm. Why are we talking about 'making it through the rest of the year'? To me, that has a fairly ominous overtone... sort of like, "we're struggling to keep this deal going because there aren't enough people using the service". It also sounds like Mayor Bill has designs on tapping into public money to prop up a doomed ferry service. Expect a Classic Shell Game to show up in the next few days. Float some bonds, sell some stuff, raise fares... whatever it takes.

There aren't enough people using the ferry to support the service. Never have been, never will be.

Pretending people are interested in visiting the Rochester does not necessarily make it so and for those who ARE, the conventional means of arriving into the community are fully adequate and sufficient. Planes, trains and automobiles can handle the 'crush' without some pricy and dedicated transportation link; it's been a while since I-490 has had both lanes backed up with earnest tourists from the Leroy exit on the Thruway all the way to Downtown Rochester. They're not exactly streaming into the area.

WHY aren't they streaming into the community? That's a question the Rochester area needs to answer for itself.

Johnson: Ferry Could Be Self Sustaining

Mike Doria (Rochester, NY) 11/01/05 - Rochester's mayor says he has been misquoted when talking about the fast ferry.

According to a Democrat and Chronicle newspaper article, Mayor William Johnson (D) said he made a mistake in promoting the ferry as self-supporting--or even a moneymaker--and said it's clear the venture requires new capital.

Now, the mayor says that is not entirely true. He said the only mistake he made was being so emphatic against any subsidy for the ferry to keep it running. He says he shouldn't have given the perception that he's against that.

However, he does say the ferry is self-sustainable. According to Johnson, the ferry only needs 350,000 customers a year for the ship to break even. (OK. So why is the ferry in the red?) He said between Rochester, Ontario, and surrounding areas, attracting people should not be a problem.

Johnson does say the marketing campaign needs to be strengthened, and he and the new mayor (to be elected next week) will ask the state government and Canadian government for money to help promote the ferry.

Johnson said unfortunate circumstances like fuel prices, and the late start have put the ferry in the position that it's in right now.

He said, “What I want to do is leave a strong product for next mayor...don't just want it to be something people take their friends to see ride in and out of port...we need people to get on board."

He said he's in the process of building the business plan for the ferry for 2006 and it does include ways the ship could bring in more capital. He won't elaborate on that just yet, however.

"Errr... uhhh... NO, no. I didn't say that. Well... OK, I DID... but what I MEANT was..."

Does it get any more idiotic than this? The mayor of Rochester, despite every sign the ferry is hitting economic bottom, says "the ferry only needs 350,000 customers a year for the ship to break even". "Attracting people should not be a problem".

Well... apparently there IS a problem if the first quarter bottom line is $4.2 million in the red. That means the next quarter needs to attract enough passengers to make up the $4.2 million - AND - attract enough passengers to cover expenses for the next quarter. That's not going to happen because it CAN'T happen. Two months of the next fiscal quarter will see the ferry drydocked and generating ZERO passenger numbers.

Even if the proposed party barge idea sees light and a few rentals are made, nobody would ever seriously suggest it would generate enough capital to cover costs. Any school child could see the ferry needs to have 959 passengers EACH and EVERY day of the year in order to reach the mayor's break even figure of 350,000. 959 passengers EACH and EVERY day just to BREAK EVEN.

How did I arrive at the 959 passenger number? Why, by a very complicated and involved scientific process known as 'Arithmetic Division'. For the academically-inclined, here is my mathematical computation:

I understand that's some very heavy statistical analysis there, but evidently a large percentage of the Rochester area has a difficult time grasping the concept. On months when the ferry carries an average of 849 passengers per day (July 2005) that means the next month will have to see a daily average of 959 P L U S an additional 110 passengers EACH day in order to make up for the previous month's shortfall. The months when the ferry carries NO passengers (January and February 2006) means the next month MUST see 2,877 passengers EACH day (959 + 959 + 959) in order to keep pace with the required daily average.

What Bill wants and what Bill gets are two entirely different things. The local ferry supporters are all hot 'n bothered about keeping the service afloat, yet even the city mayor acknowledges people are simply gawking at some Big Boat in the Port of Rochester and not actually using it.

That's sort of like the scads of locals who own Hummers and BMW's; It's there to impress but not to use. Certainly not to use to go W A Y up to Toronto.

So the locals sit on their butts and stay put. Nothing ventured, nothing lost. Use the ferry? Might as well ask Rochester area residents to hop on board a spaceship to Mars. And the ferry languishes without enough passengers to make it break even and people wonder why. Pathetic. Truly pathetic.

First, there's the matter of not enough tourists wanting to use the ferry to visit Rochester. Then, there's the local Rochester area residents who venture as far as the county line and consider themselves accomplished travelers. Travel to Ottawa? Are you crazy??

Yet the locals seem to feel Ottawa residents should come visit Rochester. On the ferry, no less. And the ferry languishes without enough passengers to make it break even and people wonder why.

Email comments have seen a subtle change in temperament lately. Comments from locals are taking on a 'Well-At-Least-We-Tried' air as if to say, "We threw a stone to a drowning man... what more do you want?" Folks, if that's the best you can do, then your best isn't good enough.

Coming up with untenable solutions to very real problems does not make for solid rationale. Simply whipping up some bizarre project with no basis in reality is no reason to declare "We tried". When CATS presented the ferry plan for the first time, THAT was the moment when reality should have kicked in and red lights should have lit up everywhere saying, "This is not a sustainable concept".

Focusing on desired numbers instead of realistic numbers, the local 'leaders' bought into the Amwayesque vision of riches and fame which would make Rochester some sort of tourist destination... or at least a transportation hub where thousands of Canadians would pour forth and populate the shopping malls and expressways heading to other locations. Even the store manager at the Bass Pro Shops at the Waterloo Outlet Mall said he was expecting a flood of Canadian tourists and Finger Lakes realtors were bracing for a flurry of new cottage sales to Canadians who would choose the ferry heading south instead of a car heading north.

It never happened. It never could. You've read why not right here since August 2001.

I also get email from fellow naysayers who say "Right on" and for those, I'm grateful. I never started this tirade with any intention other than as a one time editorial of sorts... certainly not to launch into a five year bitch session of All That Ails Rochester. Having resided in the Rochester area for more than 50 years, coupled with a personal involvement in Southern Ontario for more than 30 years I felt I had a firm enough knowledge of how each operated... enough to know the ferry project was doomed from the very beginning.

This bashfest just sort of evolved into an ongoing critique of the inanity of corporate personalities and agendas run amok and governmental policies and perceptions stumbling along blindly. The stupidity of moneyed nitwits trying to force their assumptions on the public is too good to ignore and this just happened to be one time when I knew they were totally off base. And I've proven as much.

So where does the ferry go from here? Nowhere, man. It'll simply keep limping along as it's done ever since the initial hype wore off. Mayor Bill will leave office with the dubious legacy of a doomed ferry over his head yet the blame can't be laid entirely at his feet. Had the residents of the Rochester area stood up at the first CATS proposal and asked "What the HELL are you guys snorting?", the ferry wouldn't have seen the light of day. They didn't.

Had State and Federal officials and others higher up on the food chain asked, "Is this a joke or something?", the ferry would have never bumped its way into the Port of Rochester. They didn't.

Had the banks and loan sources asked, "Do we look like fools to you?", the ferry wouldn't have even been an issue. THEY didn't.

Had someone in a decision-making position - anyone - listened to some Canadian Mohawk living in the Rochester area in August of 2001, they would have seen why the ferry concept was a flawed plan.

Damn, baby. If I had a consulting fee of 1% of the total cost of this mess, I'd be living in a 6000 sq ft Craftsman bungalow on a private lake 400 miles north of Montréal pulling in pike by now and - trust me on this - you wouldn't be reading this.

Keep sending those comments. From the email, the local comments are 50% in agreement and 50% whiny. At least the Canadian readers are highly amused and that's validation in itself.

The local government tells the taxpayers they're going to get a ferry business whether they want it or not. Or whether they even need it. No vote, no proposition, no questions.

The ferry goes belly up or is in the process of doing so. "Oh... sorry... here's the bill".

Mayor Bill blames everything and everyone under the sun EXCEPT those who pushed for the establishment of a ferry business... despite repeated warnings the thing didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of ever attracting enough passengers to make it a viable business. "Tell me what I want to hear and you're a genius. Tell me what I don't want to hear and you're an idiot."

Now Bill says it was 'bad publicity' and the province of Ontario and state of New York need to fork over a fat marketing budget to advertise the existence of a gargantuan floating white elephant... which anybody who's ever heard of the Great Lakes knows is floundering like some beached whale.

He just doesn't get it. ROCHESTER just doesn't get it. Who in hell wants to go to Rochester? On a ferry? The passengers - those curious visitors from across the pond - are just not there. Don't take my word for it; the numbers do not lie.

He's setting you up, people. Just as former Monroe County Executive Jack Doyle did when he stated Frontier Field wasn't going to cost the taxpayer a dime, Johnson is opening the possibility that yet another local financial fiasco is going to be shoved down the taxpayers throats. Frontier Field hasn't turned a profit since the day it opened either; why not add a ferry business to boot?

If creditors weren't getting paid, it might be as easy as it was previously to get a court injunction slamming the ferry into 'Park' indefinitely à la CATS. That way, the thing could be bled to death without any hope of resurrection and we'd be finished with this humiliation once and for all. Instead, Johnson makes menacing threats to the taxpayers, promising to extort tens of millions of dollars if the thing goes under.

Smarten up, locals. You're stuck with the bill whether the thing sails OR sinks - that happened the minute the city of Rochester backed the $40 million loan. The longer the ferry operates, the bigger the debt because there's only $2.5 million left in the slush fund and when that runs out, Johnson is promising to borrow more money to prop up the business. That IS your intention, isn't it Mr. Mayor?

The September report.. sort of a pasted-on addition to the quarterly report (which didn't report a financial quarter's worth of data anyway)... is due out next week. The news will be even more dismal and you can call me on that prediction if I'm wrong. September passenger numbers sucked and the revenue will be equally as bad.

All the best advertising in the world isn't going to inspire Ontarians or New Yorkers to jump to the reservation lines because frankly, there's little to any interest in visiting a region wracked by violence and showing every sign of an economic wasteland. The Rochester area isn't upbeat or optimistic; it's a depressed and depressing region. Not the sort of place which inspires tourism.

The city's ferry plan was wrong, pure and simple. Months ago I wrote that fiddling with the passenger numbers - which the city said was CATS' downfall - would make no difference at all. Predicting passenger numbers did not necessarily make it so, as we've all seen, even after downward revisions. The revised numbers may have been closer to reality but certainly and obviously, they were not close enough. Not enough to make financial sense anyway and isn't that the point of a 'business'?

Well, according to Bill Johnson, the purpose of a business is to be in operation... whether it makes money or not. "Give it a year", he says. Late startup, poor advertising, high fuel costs, no commercial traffic, not U.S. flagged, mechanical breakdowns, too many naysayers, Customs issues, no VLT's, Homeland Security concerns, bad weather, lack of consumer confidence, reservation problems... the ferry supporters have all but blamed the odor of the fish as 'reasons' why the ferry business hasn't taken off.

OOOOhhhhh... don't say THAT!! EVERYBODY wants to visit Rochester. Don't they?

WROC-TV8 joins the fray of muckrakers. This is one blistering indictment of the city's blind desire to launch the service... come hell or high water.

Ferry consultants gave city warning rough waters ahead

10/31/2005 11:00 PM
(Rachel Barnhart, WROC-TV)

A few weeks before the city bought the fast ferry at auction, city council approved spending more than $50,000 to hire maritime experts Tony White and Bob Mansfield to develop a plan to launch a city-owned ferry operation. The pair were also officers for Canadian American Transportation Systems, the ferry's former owners.

The plan was later rejected by the city's ferry board, in favor of one submitted by Bay Ferries, Ltd., an established Canadian ferry company. The city decided it wanted to hire an operator, rather than run the business itself.

In the wake of news the ferry lost more than $4 million in its first few months, Mansfield says the city should have heeded much of the advice he and White spelled out in their plan.

"They won't even make enough money to cover the interest payments on the $40 million loan," Mansfield said in a phone interview with News 8 Now. The former Chief Technical Officer for CATS now runs a vessel in Egypt.

News 8 Now obtained a copy of the Mansfield/White plan. It's more than one hundred pages long, in which the pair warns the city about many of the problems that ended up costing the project big bucks.

Repairs

The Mansfield/White plan, written last winter, places urgency on getting the ship immediately into dry dock for repairs. Mansfield and White warn that dry dock berths were quickly being reserved. The pair also warned a contract to fix the engines must be brokered as soon as possible with the manufacturer. Both the engine and dry dock repairs became a major issue in why the ferry launch was delayed until June 30th.

Fuel

The plan called for fuel surcharges. Surcharges could have brought in more than $1 million, according to the plan. The ferry board has not wanted surcharges, for fear of turning off passengers.

U.S. Flag

Mansfield and White planned to get the ship a U.S. flag. It's currently registered in the Bahamas. Mansfield says, when their plan was written, the U.S. Coast Guard had been very close to reflagging the ship. "Senator Schumer and Congresswoman Slaughter bent over backward to get the U.S. Coast Guard to the table," Mansfield said. "There was very little work to be done."

Mansfield has a theory about why the ship hasn't been reflagged. He says the vessel would be harder to sell. "The problem I see is the salability of the boat. If it's a U.S. flag ship, it becomes very difficult to flag it somewhere else. It's almost as if everybody thinks it's not going to survive and they're protecting their interests by not putting it under the U.S. flag."

Bay Ferries has said the hold-up is not being able to find qualified U.S. crew members. Mansfield says Bay Ferries may have trouble recruiting workers without a year-round schedule, and because of recent layoffs. Mansfield adds Bay Ferries may also have problems getting a U.S. flag because its sailing schedule and staffing levels require long hours to be worked by the crew.

Cutting Costs

Mansfield and White called for a year-round ferry service that would run seven days a week. The pair also called for keeping staff on the payroll year-round, or else risk having to hire a new crew every season. "We truly believed there was a market there for the wintertime when people didn't want to drive to Toronto on the dodgy roads of New York," Mansfield said.

In contrast, Bay Ferries has reduced weekly round trips and plans to shut down the ferry in the winter. Some workers have already been laid off for the fall and winter season.

Mansfield says the city asked him and his partner to cut costs in their plan. "We were asked to cut our costs, and to cut the sailings, to shut down in winter. And we said to do that would be suicide, that you would not maintain a service."

In response to city concerns about costs, Mansfield and White wrote in their plan, "We firmly believe that Rochester deserves a high quality service and that reducing staffing levels, crew numbers and sailing schedules will lead to service failure and ultimate shutdown."

Reserve Fund Dwindles

Mayor William Johnson told News 8 Now the city has "between $1.5 and 2 million left" in the reserve fund. The city has a $40 million line of credit, money that taxpayers have to pay back if ferry profits do not materialize.

The mayor says the ferry staff is working a plan for 2006 that will not require a subsidy, and will include new revenue from advertising and other ventures. The mayor says the ferry deserves a full year to operate.

Johnson also says taxpayers have not spent any money on the ferry, even though taxpayers paid for the terminal, and city staffers are doing security and maintenance work at the terminal. High-level city staffers have also spent countless hours on the project. State taxpayers also chipped in millions of dollars to buy the boat.

Ferry Creditors in Court

CATS' creditors appeared in federal court Monday morning. Bob Mansfield is among the people demanding payment for services rendered. The ferry's former lien-holders say they should be paid first. The judge reserved decision.

"Tell me what I want to hear and you're a genius. Tell me what I don't want to hear and you're an idiot." Sounds like the advice of Mansfield and White wasn't exactly what the city ferry folks wanted to hear... "So we'll just ignore their warnings". Let's examine the issues raised by WROC.

Repairs: Mmmm... this one's somewhat of a moot point. Why? Because the delayed start had no effect on people pretty much ignoring the ferry service anyway. The ferry could have restarted four months before it actually did... the end result would still have been the same: Not enough passengers to support a project of this magnitude no matter whether they started 'on time' or not. Even with the entire month of June, there still wouldn't be enough revenue to offset the losses.

Fuel: Yeah? So what? Even with fuel surcharges bringing in $1 million, that STILL can't offset the $4.2 million in losses. As for 'turning off customers' with a fuel surcharge added to the fare, I don't think that would have had any effect. I'd hazard a guess the overwhelming majority of the prospective passengers were 'turned off' by the lack of incentive, reason or desire to use the ferry. It offers nothing other than 'an exciting alternative to driving'. Big Woo. There has to be a more compelling reason than that and an extra $5 (or whatever) either in the fare or as a fuel surcharge would be a minor... not major.. consideration.

U.S. Flag: Mansfield and White got 'em on this one. Senator Schumer and Congresswoman Slaughter both made very public overtures to get the flagging issue resolved. It was a real problem due to having to pay for an expensive U.S. overseer on board... remember? Having the ship U.S. flagged eliminated that requirement, saving money. Why it's still a Bahamian-flagged ship is anybody's guess.

Yeah, OK. I'll buy that. The issue slid quietly under the public radar and has an element of truth to it in Mansfield's theory. Why else is the ferry still not U.S. flagged? Might as well leave the backdoor open to dump the pig when the writing's on the wall.

Bull. There are plenty of qualified U.S. crew members available. Of course, if the wages, benefits and hours are pathetic it's not hard to believe no one wants the job. I'd say if the wages were $120,000 a year for a crew member, Bay Ferries would be swamped with eager applicants.. which dispels the "not being able to find qualified U.S. crew members" theory. They're out there; they're just not going to work for peanuts like Bay Ferries wants. That's a huge difference.

Like so much of the business world today, the Ferry Corporation and Bay Ferries want a Doctoral graduate at high school graduate wages. And when no applicant is willing to do that, Bay Ferries says "We can't find qualified people". Triple the starting wage along with beefy benefits and see what happens. I'd imagine well qualified U.S. crew members would 'suddenly' appear.

So did the city's original proposal which was the bill of sale given to the public. The city promptly ripped the thing apart and did as it wanted anyway. Twice daily cruises? Gone. Year-round service? Gone. Commercial traffic? Nowhere to be seen. Selling advertising on board? Who knows? It's as if the city Ferry Corporation is thumbing its nose and smirking at the public for actually believing them.

Makes a lot of sense when efficiency and safety are issues. Having to retrain a staff each year is OK for summer playground folks but really doesn't stand to reason when applied to a ferry service. And since the service was promised year round anyway, that shouldn't even have been a consideration.

OH PLEASE!! That's just totally asinine. Any spongebrain who's spent more than one winter in this region knows the roads themselves are completely bare for 85% of the winter. Yes, yes... it snows here in the winter you nervous wimps, and if you're too damn pathetic to know how to drive in the winter you shouldn't be living up here anyway. Go wrestle with killer hurricanes in your beloved South, you whiny little girls. This is the Northeast. It snows in the winter. Live with it... or do us all a favour and get the hell out. You and your bellyaching won't be missed.

And Mansfield and White were right. Shutting down for two months will be the death knell for the service. A transportation service makes no money sitting still. Even with a few Bar Mitzvahs and parties on board while tied up.

'IF' ferry profits don't materialize? Try 'WHEN' ferry profits don't materialize.

In other words; Johnson is lying through his teeth and the Thorazine-laden public actually bought his spiel. The taxpayers have ALREADY spent tens upon tens of millions of dollars for this atrocity... and is about to be handed a bill for tens upon tens of millions of dollars more even if the boat is sold.

Ferry Creditors in Court: No, Dom Delucia, we haven't forgotten you... although I bet you wish we had.

Delucia is as culpable as anyone. He brought this disgusting proposal to the community in the first place and deserves to be sued into eternity for the irreparable damage it has done.

So he could stuff his own wallet with some get-rich-quick scheme like a true greedy corporate self-centered misfit, that's what. Doing a service to Rochester and Toronto? Yeah, anyone who believes THAT one needs to attend a seminar on Chronic Naiveté. Delucia was in it for himself.

Right again. Every week the ferry is in business, the debt mounts. Take the ship out of service and unless it's sold P.D.Q., that debt escalates even faster. Every week the average passenger numbers drop and so does what little revenue there is; who feels like dealing with worsening weather on Lake Ontario? Even with cozy digs on board, slogging around waiting for shore transportation in Toronto or Rochester is anything but cozy from here to April. Take the car along? For the price and the time it takes, you're better off driving and coming/going on your own time schedule... not some rigid timetable of a ferry company.

No question about it. The Rochester Ferry Corporation and Mayor Bill Johnson are definitely feeling the heat now and it's getting more and more difficult to defend keeping the service operating. The ferry will NOT see a 2006 season. It can't, because the money's running out and there are far too many hard facts which make borrowing more money almost a criminal act at this point. We're talking malfeasance now.

I'd say knowingly and repeatedly lying to the public about no taxpayer money being spent on the ferry could certainly be construed as either 'misconduct' or 'wrongdoing'.

But again, I'm just some 'little socialist Canadian' who doesn't know how things work in the States, right? Maybe yes, maybe no.

But I can tell you this: I sure know what DOESN'T work in Canada. And that would be some pitiful little ferry project going nowhere fast.

And what about Don Cormier and the folks at Bay Ferries? If they didn't have hesitations before, they must be itching to ditch this whole mess and scoot back to Nova Scotia... never to set foot in Rochester again. Well, they took on this project without coercion and now have to suffer the consequences. Naturally, I hate to see a Canadian company shafted as badly as these people are about to get, but the city of Toronto bought into it as well.

At least Toronto didn't lose too much in this travesty. Considering the GTA's annual budget, building a ferry terminal is like tossing down a PortaJohn. Didn't work out? Ehh... trash the thing, throw Rochester in the Assigned Risk Pool and nobody's going to shed too many tears over the loss. It's not like all that many Torontonians were using the barge anyway. Toronto was just doing Rochester a favour by tossing it a bone and a pat on the head. "Nice little mutt. Now go home and let the purebreeds do their thing."

Any bets on how anxious Canadian firms or communities will be to do business with Rochester again?

Any bets on how much of a joke the Rochester community has become around Ontario and New York?

Sorry, but this guy is clueless. With Casino Rama an hour away (I mean, you DO know where Casino Rama is.. don't you, John??) and Casino Niagara an easy 70 minutes away, why in the world would Torontonians and Canadians screw around with U.S. Homeland Security, the expense and hassle of a 3-hour boat ride and a disadvantaged exchange rate on their money?

A casino in downtown Rochester? NOW who's got the stupid idea? Thriving casinos do not exist without a host of other diversions to go along with them. Turning Stone has spas, RV campgrounds, luxury hotels, modest hotels, golf courses, Native culture and history, shops, health clubs, a plethora of restaurants, stage shows headlining big name acts and the convenience of the Main Street of New York, the NYS Thruway, right at its driveway. Casino Niagara has... well, Niagara Falls at its doorstep as well as the extraordinary Niagara Region which is God's Country by itself. (Yes, I have no problem professing my love of the Niagara Peninsula but then, you Niagara folks already know that.)

Downtown Rochester has zip. A few restaurants and night clubs, a gay bathhouse and any number of seedy doorways reeking of God-Only-Knows-What. Lovely. Just what the intrepid tourist is looking for in a fun-filled getaway weekend.

Only half right. If Parrinello has his way, he will exceed the stupidity of his predecessor quite handsomely.

This is somewhat disturbing as few doubt that Duffy will win. Marketing, as the Faithful Reader has gleaned from this tome, is a real waste of money. People on both sides of the pond already KNOW about the ferry, but have no real interest in using it. There's no compelling reason to use it. That's easy to see... just look at the lack of passengers.

Financial woes of a start-up business imply the business has yet to reach its stride... when the ferry has ALREADY reached its stride in August. It wasn't enough. It's all financially downhill from here.

Yes and no; right and wrong. The ferry is ALREADY a financial abyss as losing $4.2 million in less than three months is a sure sign something's not working. There's nothing 'unfair' about protecting the public's interest by bailing out before the service causes even worse damage than it has to date.

CATS tried and failed and the city of Rochester tried and failed in the same amount of time. It's patently obvious the plan will not work whether it's given one year or ten years for all the obvious reasons outlined here. The ferry had more than one chance to prove itself and it failed miserably on both occasions. It is not only 'fair' to pull the plug, it's an eventuality.

Why? Scaling down the size of the ship does not have a one-to-one relationship with reducing costs; if it did, then a 27-foot Bayliner would ostensibly be a real cash cow. Tim's got it wrong; it IS a problem with the service. It makes no sense to fork over a fare to use a method of transportation no faster than driving and a whole lot more inconvenient. A smaller ship only means the monthly loan payment and fuel costs are lower. So is the passenger revenue while the staffing and infrastructure remains the same. Net result is merely a slower death and this debacle is agonizingly slow enough as it is.

God Knows we couldn't add another 15 minutes to the forum... the Rochester community might actually get to hear some alternative view and that's an anathema to the Rochester area in general. 'Progressive' and 'alternative' have no place in the Greater Rochester area... just look at the people and local agendas. Remember: 'Different' and 'Change' are evil twins and not to be uttered in public around here, you Socialist clown, you. Sorry, but we can't spare 15 minutes of our time to listen to an innovator. That's just asking for too much.

Legalize marijuana, indeed. As if Mr. and Mrs. Suburbia aren't toking up in the 3BR Contemporary as we speak. Why, legalizing weed might actually take the criminality out of a bunch of stoners sitting at home stuffing themselves silly with Ding-Dongs and bothering no one. The city's supplying them with filled Baggies and they, in turn, are supplying the city with cash. Maybe if more people had decent paying jobs, they might not have to resort to criminal behaviour to pay the rent. Ya think?

The mayoral race is no gamble even if Republican Monroe County Executive Maggie ~~Jowls~~... err... uhhh.. BROOKS ... has given Parrinello the Royal Assent. Queen of the Hive, Brooks rules the worker bees with a tight rein as they so earnestly desire as evidenced by their repeated clamourings for conservative County Execs. When it comes to supporting suburban family values, Mags is a natural (at the expense, of course, of innovative and progressive county development). If it's sprawl they want, then by Maggie, it's sprawl they shall have (even though sprawl has been undeniably responsible for at least part of the county's budget shortfall).