- Arguably the best suburban public schools relative to property value in the country
- Short commute times
- An elite music school, orchestra, and jazz festival
- Extremely affordable health care, on a relative scale
- The gold-standard for grocery stores
- A dearth of natural disasters
- A tradition of forward thinking on social justice
In adding to Rochester's ability to excel at the not-so-exciting, here is an old list (2005) of the American metropolitan areas with the lowest per capita carbon footprint, measured by per capita emissions from transportation and residential energy use. In typical fashion, Rochester found its way into the top 15:
- Honolulu, HI
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA
- Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA
- New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA
- Boise-Nampa, Idaho
- Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
- San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
- El Paso, TX
- San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA
- Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA
- Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville, CA
- Greenville, SC
- Rochester, NY
- Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, Il-IN-WI