City marks completion of new river wall in Corn Hill

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — The city marked the completion of a new river wall on the Genesee Friday.

It was built across Exchange Boulevard from Corn Hill and it was built high enough to reduce flood insurance for people who live in the neighborhood.

It also created a new green space that the city named the North Star Commons in honor of the newspaper run by Frederick Douglass and the teachers who came up from the south to teach in city schools in the 1960s.

Dr. Andrew Ray with the Southern Black Teachers Program was one of those teachers.

"A community is known by the schools it keeps and all children belong to all of us," Ray said. "So when we arrived here that was our mantra and that’s what we did. … and we will do all we can to make this project a success for this community."

The wall was part of the city’s ROC the Riverway project, which aims to get people to access the river downtown.

It’s scheduled to be done next summer.