Renee probably knows more than me about this, but this is the first tangible signs of progress I’ve seen at the property in since Feb 9th when we blogged about Spin closing. Very exciting!

After two days of being unexpectedly closed, I can’t say as this was a major surprise. I had wondered if this was in the works. Retail is a hard business. And coffee is a low-cost item. Particularly in this economy, I could see that people are cutting back on $4 latte coffees. However, I am saddened to see this happen nonetheless. Having a coffee shop located at the end of our block was a MAJOR selling point for us moving back to Rochester. And I bought coffee in Spin every morning on my walk to my business on Somerton St. Additionally, at lunch, the scene inside Spin was always lively and friendly. This is a serious loss to my walkable urban existence.

Hello neighbors! Renee has required that I blog here to help spice up the new website. So today I wanted to talk about a little history of the Park Ave area. Did you know that there was a subway stop just a few blocks from our Park Ave neighborhood? Indeed, from 1927 until 1956 Rochester operated a subway system just a few blocks south of us along the old Erie Canal bed (which is now Interstate 490). Here is a great old shot of what the Culver Rd subway station looked like.

The subway was not particularly successful for Rochester. Even with a population of 300,000 people and over 1,700 factories in the city limits, it was a hard sell to get people to ride the crowded subways when the hot new “automobile” was just hitting the main stream. Here is another view of the Culver Road subway station near Park Ave.

See this link if you want to read more about the history of the Rochester Subway.  I would also recommend visiting ReconnectRochester.com and RochesterSubway.com.