Father Tracy Center: A haven at North Clinton Ave.'s 'ground zero'
In the middle of the human misery that lines N. Clinton Ave. in Rochester, there is music.
You hear it every time the door opens into the Father Laurence Tracy Advocacy Center, tucked into a nondescript storefront on the 800 block. It is the kind of music that makes you want to get up and dance, even if you don’t know how. The salsa, the merengue, the mambo.
“It is a way to try to offset the sounds of the streets,” says Rudy Rivera, the center’s part-time executive director and sole employee.
Rivera is not talking about the frequent wail of ambulance and police sirens, or the gunshots parishioners heard one Sunday from the pews in nearby St. Michael’s Church. He is talking about the internal noise that taunts and tortures people who are struggling with addiction.
— Julie Philipp, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
WXXI: How has the opioid epidemic affected communities of color? (4/20/22)
Spectrum: Law enforcement, local advocacy center battling opioid crisis in Rochester (4/14/22)
WHAM: Study looks at factors behind opioid epidemic in Rochester (4/11/22)
WHAM: Advocacy group calls for action on North Clinton Avenue after Friday's shooting (12/6/2021)
Spectrum: Social worker walks the streets of Rochester, helps the disenfranchised (5/12/21)
WHAM: 'Unacceptable': Neighbors rally for help from leaders, community amid N. Clinton violence (4/9/2021)
Minority Reporter: Blacks, Latinos Accounted for Higher Percentage of Monroe County OD Deaths in 2019 (9/22/2020)
Democrat and Chronicle: La Marketa gives neighborhood hope in battle to end Clinton Avenue drug trade (11/25/2019)