PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MAX SEIFERT
Our general-election coverage is in two parts this year. This week we're running our endorsements for Monroe County executive, County Legislature, City Council, and the Rochester school board. There's also a preview of the district attorney race. Next week (November 2) will be interviews with the contenders for county executive: Democrat Sandra Frankel and Republican incumbent Maggie Brooks. (Brooks' schedule determined how we planned our coverage.)
In the races for school board and City Council, we urge you to keep the incumbents in office. In the races for county executive and County Legislature, we urge you to vote for Democrat Sandra Frankel and to return the Lej to Democratic control.
Frankel has good ideas for addressing the county's most pressing issues, and she has significant experience as an elected executive. She's also shown that she can turn a government's finances around.
But Frankel will need a Democratic Legislature to make the dramatic changes the county needs.
News Articles
Monroe County needs a dramatic change in government. The community has tremendous resources and potential, but Republican administrations, current and past, have either set their sights so low, or have been so cynical, that without change we...
News Articles
The races for City Council this year have taken place mostly below the radar. But though they lack the drama of the city school board races or the visibility of the county executive race, they are nevertheless critically important. The next...
News Articles
On November 8, voters in Monroe County will choose many of the people who will run local government, preside over the courts, and determine school policy. It is no exaggeration to say that the four Rochester school board seats on city voters'...
News Articles
Both candidates for Monroe County district attorney say the race to replace Mike Green is about experience. For Democrat Sandra Doorley, that means 20 years with the DA's office, beginning as an assistant district attorney and eventually...
Comments for "2011 Endorsements and DA race preview" (7)
City Newspaper is not responsible for the content of these comments. City Newspaper reserves the right to remove comments at their discretion.
Catherine said on Oct. 26, 2011 at 4:53pm
I think, in your cover photo, you meant for people to be finger-spelling "VOTE" in ASL, not "VORE." "T" is signed with a fist where the thumb is placed in between the index and middle fingers, while "R" is the "fingers crossed" sign in the photo! Oops!!
Kelly W said on Oct. 27, 2011 at 11:24am
Catherine, I don't think the cover photo was a mistake. I think it was a deliberate attempt to phonetically spell out the word vote to Rochester's hearing community. They have effectively insulted them and myself as a hard of hearing person and possibly the Deaf community. Perhaps I 'm making too much of this, but sign language was deisgned to visually transmit information with the hands/fingers.....it's a popular language in our community and it would have been pretty awesome if they had dared take the risk and actually used it. Instead, they chose to dumb it down and even worse, not even very creatively. Really City?
Evinn said on Oct. 27, 2011 at 1:05pm
I agree with the disappointment in City's cover design. There is a large D/deaf and Hard of Hearing population in Rochester, and ASL (American Sign Language) is their primary mode of communication. Many City readers are knowledgeable of ASL because of this. Using hands to communicate visually and choosing NOT to use ASL was a poor decision. The real issue is, why use the hands for this cover? The use of children to ellicit a better turn-out at the polls ("vote for our childrens' future") seems like a good idea; overlooking the improper use of a cultural language is a gross oversight.
Max S. said on Oct. 27, 2011 at 2:22pm
Thanks for the feedback. My intentions weren't to offend the deaf community and I'm sorry if you do take offense to it. My goal with this image was to represent the community coming together to make a difference. The choice not to use ASL was for two reasons: Not everyone knows ASL, and this story, although it includes everyone in the Rochester community, wasn't specifically about the deaf community in the area.
Dianrez said on Oct. 28, 2011 at 4:44pm
"wasn't specifically about the deaf community"...missed the point. American sign language is already a part of the community and is taught in many schools as an elective. It is not just used by deaf people, but has appeared in Boy Scout manuals and dictionaries for generations. To make up an arbitrary finger representation of the alphabet when there is an existing hand alphabet known by thousands of people just doesn't make sense.
just me said on Oct. 29, 2011 at 9:43pm
This cover image is similar to when artists choose to photograph local architecture to represent alphabetic letters and spell a word out with those images. The connotation of the fingers surely brings ASL to mind but surely users of such a richly visual language can appreciate the attempt to do something that doesn't adhere to the rules of a language but rather aligns with the lack of rules regarding the graphic arts.
Zack said on Nov. 01, 2011 at 3:34am
Alex White for City Counsel!!! A Rochester for All of us!
Leave A Comment
Respond on Your Blog
Create an Account
or
Login
If you have a City Account you can not only post comments, but you can also respond to articles in your own City Blog. It's just another way to make your voice heard.