The Flip Side

As seen in many previous posts, the misrepresentation of the Rochester region has landed the city of Rochester on certain undesirable lists that focus on poverty, crime, and undereducation.  Redrawing city limits to be in line with other metro areas across the country could statistically eradicate many of Rochester's problems.  But since we are stuck with the current boundaries, we can be equally irrational and use the city population of about 210,000 to our advantage to show how we match up with much larger cities and their respective metro areas:

• With a population of 679,036, El Paso, Texas, has over three times the population of Rochester.  As of 2010, 19.6% of its region had a college degree - about 163,992 residents.  In the same year, 33% of Rochesterians had a college degree - about 347,926 residents.
• With a population of 612,780, Louisville, Kentucky, is almost three times as big as Rochester.  Its flagship university, the University of Louisville, is ranked #168 by U.S. News & World Report.  That's 135 spots behind the University of Rochester.  In fact, that's 22 spots behind St. John Fisher College.
• With a population of 557,169, Albuquerque, New Mexico, is over 2.5 times as big as Rochester. Per Newsweek, it has one public high school in America's top 500 public high schools.  As noted in the past, Rochester has five. 
• With a population of 464,704, Mesa, Arizona, is over double the size of Rochester.  As of 2011, it had 2,409 arts-related jobs.  In the same year, Rochester had 12,600 arts-related jobs (i.e. over 5 times as many.)
• With a population of 446,599, Omaha, Nebraska, is over double the size of Rochester.  Omaha has a Triple-A baseball team (as does Rochester), was once home to the current Sacramento Kings of the NBA (as was Rochester), and does not have an AHL team (which Rochester does.)