What Makes Fairport, Fairport?

In our first episode of Fairport Forward, hosts Johnna McCooey and Amy Olds introduce the podcast and explain why they wanted to start this series now —before any grant decision — so the community’s ideas and feedback don’t stay buried in a spreadsheet. This episode highlights key themes that emerged from public engagement events, including what people love most about Fairport, what’s behind the “Fairport Feeling,” and how we can honor what people love while planning responsibly for the future.

Transcript

FAIRPORT FORWARD

Episode 1, What Makes Fairport, Fairport?

[0:03] Johnna McCooey: Hi, I’m Johnna McCooey.
[0:03] Amy Olds: And I’m Amy Olds.
[0:05] Johnna McCooey: And this is Fairport Forward, where we talk about what’s next for the Village of Fairport. So, we’re going to get started with some introductions. Both of us are relative newbies to Fairport. I’m Johnna McCooey. I’m the Executive Director at the Fairport Office of Community and Economic Development. It is a mouthful.
[0:21] Amy Olds: It sure is.
[0:22] Johnna McCooey: It really is. Also known as OCED… (O.C.E.D). So at OCED we have a few different goals, but a lot of them are around business retention and attraction and growth—specifically in the Village of Fairport—and that coupled with a real focus on community development and how we support those things together to drive a vibrant community, one that is economically vital and thriving. So, I’ll let you introduce yourself and your role there.
[0:56] Amy Olds: Sure. So again, I’m Amy Olds and I work with Johnna. My title is Associate Director of Communications and Administration.
[1:03] Johnna McCooey: Another mouthful.
[1:04] Amy Olds: Another mouthful. But I’ve known Johnna for quite a long time—worked with her at several other organizations—and I’m so excited that she chose to bring me into the Village of Fairport so that I could explore even more opportunity with her within that economic development realm. Let’s talk about what we’re doing here today in our first episode.
[1:25] Johnna McCooey: Look at us. A podcast.
[1:26] Amy Olds: I know. A podcast.
[1:28] Johnna McCooey: We’re excited to be here, and before we got here—like I said, we’re both relative newcomers to the Village of Fairport—and we’ve spent the better part of the last year becoming familiar with the community, getting connected with the businesses, with the residents, with all the different activities, with all the iconic things that make Fairport, Fairport. And as part of that, it became clear early on for me that this is a great canvas for the Downtown Revitalization Initiative, which is a grant through New York State, which allows for up to—well, for us, our application is for the DRI, $10 million that will be invested in a slate of public and projects should we be granted the funds. And again, Fairport is a great canvas for that. We’ve seen a lot of growth over the last decade or so, both from a community engagement perspective and from a real economic change perspective. So it was exciting to be able to bring Amy on board to that effort, and we’ve been working hard over the last several months on this DRI grant—which kind of brings us to where we are today.
[2:40] Amy Olds: Yeah. So, as part of that application process—which it has been submitted just I think a week ago or so—yay! So now we just wait. But as part of that application process, we had to do several public engagement events. Obviously, it’s super important that the community be a humongous part of what direction the Village would choose to go with potential grant funding. And a big effort was put into a community survey. And that survey ended up garnering way more attention than I think any of us expected. We ended up with over 800 responses and it was very clear that there were several emerging themes that were important to the community—enough that they came up over and over and over again—and not even all related directly to the DRI application, but the community and what Fairport is and where Fairport is going in general. And we’d been toying with the idea—I know Johnna had thought a podcast would be a really fun thing to explore—but honing in on what that content was going to be, it hadn’t quite found its legs yet. And then when we saw this onslaught of comments and the themes emerging, it almost felt like it was kismet—like this is it, this is our content. We’re going to talk about what’s next for Fairport in relation to what the community—people have spoken—and they want to know more about some of these things, and that’s where we are now.
[4:07] Johnna McCooey: Yeah, definitely. The survey had a tremendous response. Like you said, we did hear great response to our projects that we had submitted in the application, but so many other things about what people love about Fairport, why they love Fairport, what matters to them as we see change happening—over the last couple of decades really in a more exponential way—how we manage through that, and what are the things that are really important to our residents and our visitors that hold those things really as part of the fabric that makes Fairport, Fairport. So we’re here to talk about all of those things and what the different themes are—to really take the survey and the grant application effort to its next step. You know, we have seen a lot of growth. We have been deemed like the hot spot, the place to visit, to go out, to live, and have a very walkable, accessible, and vibrant community to be in. So now is the time to really take that feedback that we got from the survey and turn it into an actionable plan going forward. So the first step of that is to examine those thoughts and comments. So, we’re going to get into what the survey said. The main thing—one of the themes—that you pointed out, Amy, was that the survey did get a lot of response and people have a lot of opinions—passionate opinions—and they don’t always agree, but it means that people are engaged. What are your thoughts about that?
[5:48] Amy Olds: Yeah, definitely the passion came through. And regardless of if you think “yes, I want that done” or “no, absolutely not, don’t touch that—that’s my favorite thing ever,” the way it is—though, that passion resonates that it’s a strong community pride. There are folks that are engaged, and to your point, this podcast is one way that we can make sure we don’t lose that momentum that we have going—that public engagement—particularly with people that live and visit and work all in our Village. One comment that resonated with me that I think also justifies us doing this project in general was someone saying, “Oh, this survey—it’s just another survey and just lip service. Check this box and move on and tell the state you did your engagement.” And that kind of stung a little, and it made us—took that to heart—because we put so much effort into it and we truly believe in this opportunity for our Village. So this is our way of saying, no—we’re going to dive in. You know, it might be hard at times. There’s going to be some topics that are, you know, very polarizing almost. But we’re going to talk about it. We’re going to talk through the concept of this being a conversation—an ongoing conversation. There’ll be opportunities to weigh in throughout this podcast series with your comments still so that we don’t have a one-way street going here. This is definitely intended to be a conversation. We hope to bring in some experts and community members that can share their expertise and examples of their thoughts on some of our themes. So the concept of this podcast is that each week or episode we will dive into one of those emerging themes at a much deeper level—things like parking, things like, you know, how the charm can’t be lost—just to tease a couple things. But we’re really excited.
[7:40] Johnna McCooey: Let’s get into that. So let’s get into the survey. You talked about the response, but give us some of the data, the details, and bring us into what were some of those themes that we’re going to be diving into.
[7:55] Amy Olds: Sure. So we had, as I mentioned earlier, 830-something responses— a lot of them electronic, but actually we received several handwritten as well, which I think just speaks even more to the engagement: folks were going to the library, picking up a hard copy, and taking the time to mail it into us. So there’s definite community passion there. Of those 830-something responses, 85% or more— a little more than that I think—indicated that they were Village or Town of Perinton residents, which is the town that encompasses the Village of Fairport, which to me says, wow, what an engaged public. You know, we had a couple people that, you know, “Oh, I just visit Fairport,” or “I’m from Greece, but I come to Fairport for, you know, this particular festival,” for example. And then we had a couple that were people that had moved away but still obviously follow Fairport stuff on the socials, and one I think was from Missouri. So it was kind of interesting to see some folks that took the time—or “Oh, I only come there for the holidays to visit my grandparents”—but they have fond memories of it and took the time to still weigh in. But at the heart of that—those 85%—that means they’re engaged and they’re taking the time, and this wasn’t a simple survey. The survey was in depth and it required a time commitment.
[9:16] Johnna McCooey: Give us like a quick—what was in the survey? You don’t have to get into all the details so people know, like at a high level, what were we asking?
[9:24] Amy Olds: So a lot of the beginning was a lot more: how do you see yourself engaging with Fairport? So again: do you live there, do you work there, do you visit there? Then there was a part where you had to decide what your most desirable outcomes of potentially receiving grant funding were—“Oh, I want it to be more accessible, more walkable, more this, that.” And then we had descriptions of conceptual projects that both the Village from a public standpoint and private business owners and property owners, developers had submitted their concepts for some transformational projects, and the public was able to read a very brief description, maybe see a rendering or a conceptual layout of a project and say, “I like that. I could support that. I could learn more about that.” And so we have a sense of how—
[10:19] Johnna McCooey: So these are the projects that are in the grant application.
[10:21] Amy Olds: Correct.
[10:22] Johnna McCooey: And the total of those projects was $76 million.
[10:26] Amy Olds: Yeah. About $76 million in value there, which would be obviously amazing and very transformational. A big part of the application was showing that you have the capacity to administrate that kind of volume, which I think we do. And then the public was able to leave comments—and the comment section is where the treasure was.
[10:48] Johnna McCooey: Yeah, that’s really where we’re gonna get into today. And for the most part, the themes that we’re going to talk about in our next episodes were developed from the public comments, because while we’re so proud of the projects that we put together for that application, what we really heard—or we saw the survey used as a way for people to have a voice in general about development, change, and the impact of those things on the Village. So, they didn’t hold back. They talked about the projects and they talked about things that weren’t related to those projects.
[11:29] Amy Olds: I do want to say: you said something like they weren’t holding back on their feedback, but I also want to point out that we were definitely, throughout the application process, pretty open about making sure that we stayed super transparent with the community as well. There was nothing happening behind closed doors that wasn’t shared with everyone there. We really did—the engagement process was ongoing. It happened early. It happened regularly. And the survey was actually the last step to make sure that everybody who hadn’t been able to come to the call-for-projects meetings, to come to one of the public open houses, to engage at one of the pop-ups at the canal or at the farmers market, still had an opportunity to be informed. So to your point when we talk about that “not holding back,” I think that’s more about: yeah, we see your projects, but we have other things to say—and this is really about the voice of the community and hearing that voice and making sure we take that forward in our planning.
[12:49] Johnna McCooey: I think that we want to talk about what were some of the common threads in the survey. So, what were some of the themes? We talked about parking—parking, parking, parking.
[12:58] Amy Olds: Yeah, we’ll get into that. Actually, we’ll probably be kicking it off with that next week, but parking was a big one. I think folks often have operational questions, you know—like, “Oh, I love the idea of that new development, but what about the parking?” You know, there’s always that footnote. And then sometimes it’s hard to talk about a concept without all of a sudden getting lost in some of the “but what”—this, but this, but this. And those are conversations that, of course, have to be had. So parking is a big one. Housing—whether it’s affordable housing, more multifamily units or not. A lot of folks feel strongly about whether or not you have owner-occupied units or you have Airbnbs. People feel very strongly one way or another on that. We have walkability as a huge one.
[13:47] Johnna McCooey: Bike, bike.
[13:48] Amy Olds: We have a pretty walkable community. I think one of the things that we’re going to talk about is balance. We’re proud of our walkable community. We also have to remember not everyone is a walker—and accessibility, and making sure Fairport is: however you get there—on foot, on bike, on car, on boat—it works for you and what your needs are. Multimodal access, for sure, is a topic that we’ll talk about. Just art—art, art—and its contribution to the Village and what percentage should be dedicated to the arts.
[14:27] Johnna McCooey: Art is an economic driver. As an economic development agency, we’re always interested in that flavor of the conversation. And those things are important to the residents too, right? They hear things like, “Wow, $10 million—that can do a lot of things. Let’s make sure that’s doing things that are really important and additive to everyone.”
[14:48] Amy Olds: Yeah, and overall, you might say parking was the number one mentioned thing—and maybe it was. It was. But I think when I read through the comments, it’s the desire to maintain that Fairport feeling.
[15:03] Johnna McCooey: The charm.
[15:05] Amy Olds: I feel that we’re a charming little town—
[15:10] Johnna McCooey: Yeah. Village. Sorry. We should probably say that that is also another way that people feel very strongly about the community: Fairport is a village. But in general, the idea that there’s a small village charm, its canal frontage—maintaining and protecting the things that the community loves and not losing sight of that as we look to grow and move forward. Tangible assets like the canal and the historic buildings and the walkability and the friendliness, but also leaning into what’s next for Fairport—appreciating the growth and development we’ve seen in particular over the last decade.
[16:00] Johnna McCooey: We’ll talk kind of about throughout some of these threads: the reason we talk about parking is because of the vibrancy we’re experiencing, some of the redevelopment that has happened over the last decade, and how it’s important to balance those things and that growth with maintaining that charm and character and the things that really make Fairport, Fairport. So the idea of balancing nostalgia and progress definitely is something that’s on our minds as we read through the comments—how strongly folks feel about maintaining the charm and the Fairport feeling. These are things that have to be taken into consideration when we’re looking to submit projects and hone in on the projects that may or may not have legs. I mean, that’s something I think that’s important for the community to understand as part of the DRI process: all of these things at this point are conceptual.
[16:56] Amy Olds: Conceptual—
[16:57] Johnna McCooey: But rooted in real, and ready for legs. So now this podcast and the idea that there’s feedback time now—conversations now—that’s what’s going to get us to the point where we can hone in and say: okay, we had these 18 projects. Now we’ve spent three months really engaging even more with the community, and we’ve decided: wow, these five are really it—so let’s tighten up and focus on those so that we’re in a really good place when it’s time to hit the ground.
[17:36] Johnna McCooey: That it’s an opportunity right now for folks to continue to be engaged—to send us a contact form submission after every episode with your thoughts. We want to know what you think. And if you didn’t have an opportunity to submit your original survey, it’s not too late to weigh in. And you might even have a different opinion after listening to some of our experts that come in and talk through some of these concepts. And we hope to also look to other villages and other places for inspiration as well. There are a lot of other canal towns. This was the bicentennial of the canal this year, so we’ve learned a lot of what other canal towns are doing—what they’re doing right, what they are doing—
[18:18] Amy Olds: We are the crown jewel of the—
[18:20] Johnna McCooey: Crown jewel, but there’s room for more. There’s room for more. Yeah, you’re absolutely right. It’s about seeing where we’re at now and where we’re going—right? Fairport Forward. And that’s a great segue to our role from an economic and community development perspective: to make sure we take it forward in a way.
[18:43] Johnna McCooey: And this was kind of one of the comments that came through: there’s such a great foundation—and I’ve said before, Fairport is such a great canvas—you have to be a really careful steward of that. You want to bring progress forward and continue all the great momentum we have, continue to support the community in the great ways that we already do. We haven’t talked a lot about kind of the community side of the things we do, but Fairport—one of those intangible things that makes it so special—is the community.
[19:15] Johnna McCooey: I know a lot of people say, like, “Oh, our community is great,” but it really is a place where you can make a difference. You can have an impact. There are so many organizations working to give back to the community. We’ve got a really strong merchants association. We’ve got a Fairport Perinton Partnership that works to bring our two communities together. We have our office [OCED] that’s focused on supporting those community events like the Canal Fest and the Fairport Music Fest. And those things then not only bring tremendous economic impact to our village during those days, but they also drive a lot of community giving beyond that. The Fairport Music Festival has raised over $3 million in its history. And that all started from a small group of guys in the Box Factory in Fairport that was like, “Hey, we like music and we want to kind of start this thing,” and now it’s iconic. And that is just how Fairport is. People come together to get things done for the good of the village and it turns into something tremendous.
[20:28] Johnna McCooey: And so as we talk about: how do we take it forward? We have to take it forward with that very special kind of intangible dynamic in mind. And we can’t just say, “Oh, Fairport is hot and vibrant—let’s put a Sephora on Main Street.” People probably wouldn’t love that, and it wouldn’t fit in with the character. It wouldn’t fit in with the charm. It’s thinking more about what could we get out of what’s happening right now, as opposed to being a careful steward for the future of the village. And that’s really what we’re here to do.
[21:00] Amy Olds: What makes Fairport, Fairport? I mean, a lot of it is that—think about how we know each boutique shop owner by name. You walk in, they know their customers by name, you know them by name. We were just at a merchants association and you look around and—you know, I’ve only been here a few months and I know these people and they know me and they wave to me on the street—that’s incredible. It’s incredible community, right?
[21:23] Johnna McCooey: Exactly. So that kind of brings us back to where we started. We’ve got this great feedback, we’re ready to get all of our ducks in a row once we move forward in the grant process, but also it has given us a great blueprint for focusing on things that are really important and impactful for our community.
[21:50] Amy Olds: Yes. And we can continue the conversation, as you said, in these coming episodes. Some of the topics will be really fun. Side note: both Amy and I—boy—have some experience in the parking realm. We do, from our prior time with a large commercial real estate developer—and, um… parking, parking, parking. Parking has always been a theme. So there’s a lot to explore there, too. You know, it’s not just “we need more parking—oh, there’s more spaces.” There’s a lot of nuance that goes into the parking and how to alleviate congestion, and we’ll save that for next time.
[22:28] Johnna McCooey: Okay, so that brings us back to where we started. We have this great slate of projects. We’ve got all this feedback from the grant that’s going to drive the themes of our podcast and the next theme, the next topic for the next episode: parking. You guessed it—parking.
[22:46] Amy Olds: So it’ll be very exciting. We look forward to talking about all things parking next episode.