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Explore Rochester while learning about important city issues and exciting initiatives.
Additional registration fees apply. Pre-registration required. Space is limited.
Add a tour to your full conference registration when you are registering. Already registered but want to join a tour? Please contact us at registration@lmc.org and we will assist you! (Please note, the Wednesday Mobile Tours and Pre-Conference Workshops are concurrent).
Mobile Tour 1: The Infrastructure of Leisure: Rochester’s Planning & Implementation for Parks and Recreation
Preconference tour: Wednesday, June 26, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Creating recreation and leisure spaces that the public love takes more than just passionate professionals – it takes years of careful planning, diligent budgeting, complicated grant applications, and community engagement. This tour highlights the best of parks and recreation in Rochester, including the new state-of-the-art aquatic center at Soldier’s Field Memorial Park, improvements to the city’s multi-use trail system and natural play areas at Cascade Lake Park, and partnerships which enhance the community such as 125 Live Senior Center. Learn how the city planned, funded, and included the public in these large scale projects.
Note – This tour involves visiting multiple park facilities, including walking outdoors.
Tour Facilitators: Dale McCamish, Recreation & Facilities Division Head, City of Rochester; Mike Nigbur, Park Forestry Division Head, City of Rochester
Cost (includes lunch at 12 p.m.): $65
Mobile Tour 2: Rochester Wastewater Utility Innovation
Preconference tour: Wednesday, June 26, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Join us for a tour of the Water Reclamation Plant, which treats an average of 13 million gallons of wastewater per day for the City of Rochester and its residents. Public works staff will share highlights of the wastewater treatment process including innovative solutions to everyday challenges. Experience the scope of the wastewater treatment center and explore how sustainability and environmental principles influence the city’s decision making. The tour will also feature the award-winning manhole cutter and extraction equipment along with a variety of improvement projects and upgrades at the plant which have resulted in energy savings.
Note – This tour involves a fair amount of walking and navigating numerous stairs and tight spaces.
Tour Facilitators: Aaron Luckstein, Deputy Public Works Director of Environmental Services, City of Rochester; Tyler Niemeyer, Director of Public Works, City of Rochester
Cost (includes lunch at 12 p.m.): $65
Mobile Tour 3: Downtown Rochester: A Collaborative Structure for Equitable Design of Shared Space
Thursday, June 27, 2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Downtown Rochester has transformed in recent years, adding art, pedestrian areas, and riverfront improvements. This work has not happened through happenstance, but has been through an intentional partnership with Destination Medical Center using a process called co-design.
No one person or organization can address the complex problems facing communities today, especially because they disproportionately impact certain communities over others. Equitable co-design is about a rigorous and meaningful opportunity for individuals to have a “say” and inform decision making.
This tour consists of two parts: first, a classroom session at the Mayo Civic Center where you’ll learn about co-design methods. Then, a walking tour of downtown Rochester will show you how co-design has influenced the city’s physical landscape. You’ll see how it was used to design the Discovery Walk project, a four-block public space. We’ll also showcase examples of co-design in action for small business grant applications funded by the Mainstreet Grant program, and how it’s shaping future riverfront improvements through a small-area planning process.
Note – This is an outdoor walking tour.
Tour Facilitators: Chao Mwatela, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Director, City of Rochester; Josh Johnson, Strategic initiatives Director, City of Rochester; Wafa Elkhalifa, Equitable Development Coordinator, Destination Medical Center; Jamie Rothe, Director of Community Engagement and Experience, Destination Medical Center
Cost: $30