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Eco-logue is published bimonthly by the Rochester Regional Group of the Sierra Club * Join the Rochester Group by Printing out our Brochure & sending it to us.
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The Rochester Regional Group of the Sierra Club, along with many groups in Rochester, such as the Seneca Park Alliance, Friends and Neighbors of Seneca Park, and many public officials including some members of the Monroe County Legislature, and Mayor William Johnson, are not opposed to a better zoo. We are against the destruction of the lower park only to increase parking. We are for the preserving of the Trout Pond area, a small wetland, and surrounding meadows threatening to be disturbed by the newest expansion plan. As the National Sierra Club platform states, we are for: “…the preservation of hills, coasts, wetlands, outlying natural areas and agricultural lands, convenient public open spaces, including parks, playgrounds and natural 'unimproved' areas.” We are not, as the Seneca Park Zoo Society states, “the vocal minority.” The Rochester Regional Group of Sierra Club, which has over 2,400 members in the Rochester area, has opposed the commercial use of park space because this reduces the amount of open space available to all regardless of their economic status. We are for, not against, working with the city and county in the wholesale preservation of Rochester’s cultural and environmental integrity. The Sierra Club is deeply committed to progress towards sustainability, that is, development in a manner that preserves valuable natural resources at the same time it creates better living conditions for members of the greater community. Mayor William Johnson is a nationally recognized leader in the effort to halt sprawl—dispersed development outside of compact urban and village centers along highways and in rural countryside. Mr. Johnson’s 2010 Renaissance Project is clearly not against anything, but is instead a vision of Rochester as a modern developing city attractive to visitors and a healthy environment for its inhabitants. Why has there been no effective dialogue on the expansion of the zoo been made between Monroe County and the City of Rochester? Why must progress towards sustainability continually be a pitched battle between those for development and those for the preservation of our environment? The needs of progress and the environment are not fundamentally in disagreement—both are needed for our future to be sustainable. The Rochester Regional Group of the Sierra Club urges the Monroe County Legislature to consider re-examining a proposal for the expansion of the Seneca Park Zoo. We recommend that the county and city governments, the Seneca Park Zoo and other interested groups sit down and workout a satisfactory plan in which the Seneca Park Zoo and its surrounding environment, including the Olmstead designed park, are preserved. No one wins in matters where progress is made at the expense of our environment. The present expansion plan, without financial funds and with much support from its promoters, is only one of many alternatives. It threatens to compromise our Olmstead Park; one of few inner-city natural settings left in Rochester, and the trust of the people for their governments to work unselfishly. Let the City of Rochester and the Monroe County government be the model of compromise and sustainable living.
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