Suggestion

Part of the hardship of being a Rochesterian is sharing the state with Downstate New York.  This geographic situation generates surprisingly frequent comparisons to New York City.  Areas of comparison include anything from restaurants to cultural events to public transit to shopping.  And therein lies the hardship - Rochester gets crushed in this head-to-head matchup.  Left out of the discussion are the facts that New York City is the largest city in the U.S., one of the largest in the world, and perhaps the most diverse spot on Earth.  Its metropolitan statistical area (MSA) also happens to have a population that is around 20 times greater than Rochester's MSA, making the aforementioned analysis somewhat questionable.  In order to balance the results, I would suggest that Rochester be measured against the following MSAs, all of which are smaller than Rochester by at least a factor of 10:

• Enid, Oklahoma
• Dubuque, Iowa
• Hot Springs, Arkansas
• Pocatello, Idaho
• Manhattan...the one in Kansas

My preliminary research suggests that Rochester has more restaurants than Enid.