Saved by Play: The Rise and Fall of Urban Renewal in Rochester's Southeast Loop

This Rochester History author spotlight features Katie Eggers Comeau and Ben Comeau, authors of the article "Saved by Play: The Rise and Fall of Urban Renewal in Rochester's Southeast Loop." The construction of the Inner Loop scarred the neighborhoods ringing downtown Rochester, including the area near Monroe Avenue and Union Street that became known as the Southeast Loop. The neighborhood spent a decade as a construction site bisected by the new sunken highway, with the unsurprising result that it was then labeled a “slum” and slated to be cleared and replaced by high-rent apartment towers.

Join us as mother-son team Katie Eggers Comeau and Benjamin Comeau explore how flawed assumptions, shortsighted plans, and unlucky timing doomed the Southeast Loop Urban Renewal project, and how the unexpected arrival of the world-class Strong National Museum of Play kicked off yet another transformation.

The in-person program will also be livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/@RochesterPublicLibraryNY/streams.