Dec 24

Dec 24 Top stories of 2021 on Med City Beat

News | 2021

Here is a selection of some of our most viewed articles of the past year.

Featured

'Batman' to 'Beetlejuice': Rochester native was among the most prolific screenwriters of his time

Warren Skaaren’s swift, empathetic approach to storytelling earned him a spot at the pinnacle of movie-making.

Rising to the moment: Rochester nurses reflect on their experiences from inside Mayo's Covid unit

Britta Balko, a nurse at Mayo Clinic Hospital — St. Marys Campus, can remember the first time she walked into a room of a patient who had contracted Covid-19. It was a little more than a year ago, as the country was beginning to feel the impacts of a novel coronavirus sweeping the globe.

Historic Rochester Workshop reinvented as a bar, food hall and barber shop

Workshop Food Hall and Bar, the latest project from Resident Property Management co-owners Andy and Kari Friederichs, will open to the public for the first time in mid-June, following the opening of Workshop Barbers in the space at 1232 Third Avenue SE earlier this month.

Why is a cave attached to this historic Rochester home? There are a couple of theories.

A real estate listing for a historic Pill Hill house generated some buzz this week after photos surfaced of an underground cave on the property.

Hemingway's final chapter: a look back at the writer's time at Mayo Clinic

Countless celebrities and prominent figures have come to Rochester seeking treatment at Mayo Clinic — Muhammad Ali, Johnny Cash, and Ronald Reagan, among others — but the story surrounding Ernest Hemingway, who came here 60 years ago this month for the latter of two stays at Saint Marys Hospital, is among the most compelling.

Woodworking hobbyists use their spare time to build desks for kids learning at home

In September, Ilia Shadrin watched his daughter Addison, a first-grader at Riverside Central Elementary, work through another year of distance learning. He saw some of her classmates on the group call, trying to learn in houses that can’t be properly set up for school: without a set space to learn, kids were working wherever they had space. That image sparked an idea: what if his hobby could solve that problem for some students?

Evidence emerges showing a pattern of plagiarism by Superintendent Muñoz

The newly-uncovered instances of Muñoz copying material without attribution are, perhaps, the most egregious yet. They include graduation speeches, letters to RPS families and students, even a tweet — all of which look to be plagiarized from other educators across the country.

George Thompson took a chance on Rochester. A half century later, he has no regrets.

In August 1968, a young engineer named George Thompson left his hometown of St. Louis to come to Rochester, making him one of first Black professionals to take up residence here. As he tells it, though, he originally balked at the idea of moving to the North — until advice from his father, Alexander, convinced him to take the chance.

Featured

Looking back at the remarkable life of Igor Vovkovinskiy

A native of Ukraine, Igor came to the Med City at the age of seven for what the family thought would be a short visit to find the cause of his remarkable growth — but eventually, Rochester turned into a permanent home for him.

What can Rochester do to revive retail downtown?

Prior to the pandemic, many of the retail spaces in the downtown area had been filled with bustling small businesses — the kinds that are vital for a thriving destination area.

Cover photo: Igor Vovkovinskiy / Licensed via Getty