Goodbye

Over the past two years, this blog has allowed me to learn about what could arguably be considered one of America's most overlooked and understated regions.  Clearly, Rochester has many imperfections, some in obvious places (i.e. the center of the metro area), helping to cement a perception that has been far from optimal.  Yet some extremely low-grade research, as has been performed on this site, reveals a possibility that was thought by many to be impossible: Rochester's best days are still ahead of it.

The formula of a few jobs, continued downtown development, and shameless optimism is transforming Rochester, and the Rochester of 2025 might barely resemble the Rochester of 2010, the year of my family's arrival.  In fact, the transformation is already quite obvious, making this site, which aims to bridge perception and reality, less necessary.

I truly appreciate the (small) readership over the past two years.  Rochester is full of remarkably intelligent and passionate people, and I was honored to have a tiny sample of this group appreciate this voice.  While the site will no longer be updated, I hope that it can continue to serve as a place to find true facts (as opposed to alternative facts) about this great region.

In the near future, my time will be devoted to the standard tasks of raising children and holding a job, both of which I've learned can be surprisingly time consuming.

Thank you.

Amol Shrikhande

Criminal Justice

In The New Jim Crow, author Michelle Alexander meticulously crafts the argument that black Americans have been disproportionately targeted by the once widely advertised War on Drugs.  The result has been a massive growth in America's prison population, largely composed of black men, many of whom have spent years in prison for relatively minor drug crimes which would go unnoticed in much of the country.  Further compounding the injustice is the fact that upon release from prison, the label of felon (often forced upon "criminals" through plea deals) makes reentry into society amazingly difficult, as discrimination against felons in the arenas of housing and employment is perfectly legal.  The ultimate outcome has been the decimation of America's inner cities, with fatherless families being all too common and standard stereotypes being unfairly reinforced.  Remarkably, when citizens are asked about the most pressing issues facing our cities, criminal justice reform hardly makes the cut.

In Rochester, we unfortunately have a firsthand look at the hopelessness that can affect urban America.  Our local conversation mirrors the national conversation, with an immense amount of coverage focused on education, employment, transportation, and crime.  Relatively speaking, criminal justice reform receives far less attention.  Yet the reality that drug use in Pittsford is not treated nearly the same as drug use in the city of Rochester cannot be denied.  And the subsequent consequences to our community as a whole are equally undeniable.

Given the above reality, the following questions seem reasonable:

1. Does our media really need to provide intense coverage of every crime committed in the city of Rochester, often supporting preconceived notions and thus affecting how we direct our community's resources? 
2. Can our media at a minimum spend an equal amount of time on criminal justice reform as it spends on crime itself?
3. Does a city like Rochester really want to elect yet another police chief as mayor? (The answer might be yes, but the question warrants consideration.)

 

Absolute vs. Relative

As discussed many times previously, part of Rochester's charm is found in its tendency toward self-deprecation.  But as also mentioned several times, Rochesterians often find themselves on a slippery slope between humorous self-deprecation and damaging self-hatred.  This latter entity is defined by the feeling that our problems are unique (i.e. no other city in the world could possibly have the same issues.) This thought process clouds our local dialogue on many issues such as poverty, crime, education, transportation, etc.

Recently, the Democrat and Chronicle published an interesting article on the role of transportation (or lack thereof) in maintaining urban poverty.  The article addresses the important fact that Rochester has an overrepresentation of public transportation commutes greater than one hour (one way), markedly penalizing those living in or near poverty.  The author addresses the irony of this quandary in a region that prides itself on short commutes.  The fitting conclusion of the piece is that the location of jobs and public transportation infrastructure both need to improve.

Yet prior to taking the next step and concluding how horrible Rochester is compared to other cities, it is worth looking at public transportation statistics in relative terms rather than absolute terms.  Exactly how does Rochester compare to other locations with regards to public transit commute times?

In Rochester, as per the Census Bureau's 2014 one-year American Community Survey, the average commute time for transit users was 40.2 minutes.  This transit commute time happened to be lower than that in San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, Jersey City, Philadelphia, Oakland, Portland (OR), Newark (NJ), Denver, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Santa Ana (CA), Houston, and Cleveland.  What do these 15 cities have in common? They were recently ranked among the top 25 best cities for public transportation.

Wine (Again)

On a recent flight back to Rochester, I partook in a spontaneous conversation on the merits of the Flower City.  The general consensus was that life here, aided by a dose of optimism, can be fantastic.  The gentleman next to me succinctly pointed out that Rochesterians must sacrifice only two things, namely bragging rights and direct flights.  While the direct flights commentary is difficult to contest, the bragging rights issue is more debatable.  What city can boast a major downtown hotel having to close its kitchen due to a mouse infestation?

All joking aside, here is yet another example of how our disrespected town can keep some pretty solid company.  Infogroup recently sought to identify America's best metro areas for wine drinkers (among metropolitan statistical areas with over one million residents.)  The methodology was quite simple - the most wine retailers and wineries per 10,000 residents.  The top 10 were:

1. Portland, OR
2. San Francisco, CA
3. Seattle, WA
4. Sacramento, CA
5. Rochester, NY
6. San Jose, CA
7. New York ,NY
8. Washington, DC
9. Hartford, CT
10. Cincinnati, OH

Family

The holiday season serves as a great (usually) opportunity to reconnect with family.  During this year's festivities, I had the realization that Rochester is in many ways just like a dear family member:

• Great pride comes with discussing Rochester's assets and accomplishments (museums, breweries, schools, Finger Lakes, inner loop removal, etc.).
• At times, Rochester can be remarkably irritating (repeated discussions about Kodak, the train station (shack), the Family Dollar store next to the empty garage type thing on Main Street, etc.).
• After some time away from Rochester, a strong desire to reconnect develops.
• Something about Rochester demands taking abundant photographs.
• Making fun of Rochester is fair game, unless a non-Rochesterian is making the jokes.
• After years of knowing Rochester, you got to admit that he/she is a really good kid.

Embrace It

Unbeknownst to me prior to my arrival in Rochester, the area receives an abundance of snow.  (Okay, perhaps I did have slight forewarning of the weather.)  Surprisingly, the ample winter precipitation is frequently met with a collective groan, rather than what could be an emphatic embrace.  Because as is often the case, when Rochester does something, it does it in world-class fashion (think music, Riesling, children's museum, iconic companies, etc.)  Not only does it snow here, it snows in a way that makes the world take notice.  In fact, as measured by average annual snowfall among cities with over 100,000 residents, Rochester is one of the ten snowiest in the world.  So rather than shy away from this label, it's possible to wear it with pride.  Here are the top ten, in reverse order:

• Buffalo, NY, USA (95 inches)
• Rochester, NY, USA (99 inches)
• Akita, Tohoku, Japan (107 inches)
• Saguenay, Quebec, Canada (123 inches)
• Syracuse, NY, USA (124 inches)
• Quebec City, Quebec, Canada (124 inches)
• St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada (131 inches)
• Toyama, Hokuriku, Japan (143 inches)
• Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan (191 inches)
• Aomori City, Tohoku, Japan (312 inches!)

Another List

In a move away from politics, the time seems right for another meaningless (yet potentially meaningful) list.  As the capital of film, it would seem logical that Rochester should be an ideal location for cinephiles (also known as movie buffs).  And the data, at least as collected by one source, would agree.  In 2013, Movoto Real Estate ranked the 10 Best Cities for Movie Lovers.  Although not perfectly specified, it appears that the 100 most populated metro areas were assessed by the following criteria:

• Movie theaters per capita
• Video rental stores per capita (perhaps a bit antiquated)
• Indie theaters per capita
• Number of annual film festivals
• Number of film/cinema museums
• Film societies per capita
• Drive-in theaters per capita
• Specialty theaters per capita

Here are the top 10:

1. Portland, OR
2. San Francisco, CA
3. Atlanta, GA
4. Las Vegas, NV
5. Pittsburgh, PA
6. Minneapolis, MN
7. Rochester, NY
8. Orlando, FL
9. Seattle, WA
10. Cincinnati, OH

(Rochester is also tough to beat in terms of movie watching weather.)

No Excuses

Prior to moving to Rochester from the New York City vicinity, I was asked if Rochester is diverse.  On the surface, the diversity of Rochester does not compare to New York City, which is seemingly home to residents from nearly every country across the globe.  However, upon further review, Rochester brings a different kind of diversity to the table.  Existing side-by-side are the Northeast with the Rust Belt, the densely urban with the classically rural, and the die-hard environmentalism linked to fresh water with the vehement conservatism linked to overregulation.  As such, Rochester is immensely diverse.  And given the ease of navigating the metro area (for most of us), we have very few, if any, excuses for not trying to appreciate and understand citizens that may not look exactly like, think exactly like, and/or live exactly like us.  In the current divisive post-election times, our ability in Rochester to understand all angles arguably surpasses that of less balanced regions.  Here is one person's take:

• As a brown guy, I can't say that I'm particularly excited about the sudden appearance of swastikas.  On the other hand, attributing Donald Trump's victory to racism is ludicrous.  Several of my brown family members (myself excluded) eagerly voted for Trump.  Similarly, many predominantly white working-class and/or rural counties that voted for Trump actually voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.  Not far from Rochester, Seneca County, Cayuga County, Oswego County, Madison County, Cortland County, Broome County, and Ostego County all voted for Obama in 2012.  In 2016, all seven counties voted for Trump.  Did the residents of these counties suddenly become racist? Highly doubtful.
• To divide America into rural and urban America may be equally simplistic.  As above, many regional rural counties gladly voted for Obama in 2012.  Furthermore, America's most densely populated state, New Jersey, saw nine of its twenty-one counties vote for Trump.
• Finally, explaining this outcome as a vote of the college educated versus the high school educated is just as condensed a version as any.  Some of the staunchest conservatives this country knows have been educated at the country's most elite institutions of higher learning.  A few examples include:

1. Laura Ingraham.  The conservative radio show host is a graduate of Dartmouth College.  Interestingly, she hails from Connecticut, which is generally a dark blue state.
2. Ted Cruz.  The ultraconservative senator from Texas is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. 
3. Clarence Thomas.  The conservative Supreme Court justice is a graduate of Yale Law School.  He also happens to be African-American.
4. Ann Coulter.  The conservative political commentator is a graduate of nearby Cornell University.  Neither Ithaca nor Coulter's native New York City are known for conservatism.

America is complicated, and simple answers do not exist.  As Rochesterians, we are perfectly situated to have this realization.  As history has shown, we will rise to the challenge.

Layers

Mercifully, the current election cycle is coming to a close (hopefully).  Through the pain and the chaos, the only safe conclusion is that the world is complicated.  And in an odd way, Americans must be drawn to this complexity.

Bringing it back to Rochester (as this blog always does), complexity is one of our surprising, yet defining features.  Despite being one-tenth the size of the Chicago metropolitan area and one-twentieth the size of the New York City metropolitan area, Rochester has depth, and with it the ability to match the entanglement of larger competitors.

In keeping with the election theme, here are just a handful of (some ridiculous) preconceived groups targeted by political pundits, none of which are unique to Rochester, but all of which have a solid representation within a 30-mile radius of downtown:

• The coastal elite types
• The middle America working-class types
• Muslim refugees
• Non-Muslim refugees
• Regular Muslims (like the ones who are doctors, teachers, and lawyers)
• Legal immigrants
• Illegal immigrants
• People who look like immigrants but were born in the U.S.
• The urban types
• The middle-of-nowhere types
• The Coexist bumper sticker on a Toyota Prius types
• The Confederate flag on a massive pickup truck types
• The church types
• The atheist types
• Mexicans
• Non-Mexicans
• Hispanics who aren't Mexican
• Mexicans who aren't Hispanic (that may not be a thing)
• Non-Hispanic Spanish Speakers
• Women
• Men

The Mundane

Part of the difficulty in selling our fine town is that it excels at the mundane.  Las Vegas has glitz, Miami has the beach, Orlando has Disney World, New Orleans has Mardi Gras, and Washington D.C. has bloated self-importance.  Meanwhile, Rochester has:

• 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:

1. Honolulu, HI
2. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA
3. Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA
4. New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA
5. Boise-Nampa, Idaho
6. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
7. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
8. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
9. El Paso, TX
10. San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA
11. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA
12. Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville, CA
13. Greenville, SC
14. Rochester, NY
15. Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, Il-IN-WI

Crime Revisited, Again

Given that certain Rochesterians insist that the city of Rochester is remarkably dangerous, here is a list of 25 cities with over 100,000 residents that these Rochesterians should never, ever visit.  (In other words, these are the 25 Most Dangerous Cities, from least to most dangerous, as measured by violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2015 - sorry, Rochester did not make the cut.)

• Minneapolis, MN
• Tallahassee, FL
• Springfield, IL
• Anchorage, AL
• Springfield, MA
• Buffalo, NY
• Atlanta, GA
• Toledo, OH
• Hartford, CT (I lived there for four years.)
• Lansing, MI
• Washington, DC
• San Bernardino, CA
• Indianapolis, IN
• Stockton, CA
• Springfield, MO
• Kansas City, MO
• Oakland, CA
• Little Rock, AR
• Baltimore, MD
• Rockford, IL
• Milwaukee, WI (I was born there.)
• Memphis, TN
• Birmingham, AL
• Detroit, MI
• St. Louis, MO (My wife and I went to college there, lived off campus, and survived!)

More on Baseball

Baseball, once firmly entrenched as the national pastime, has lost its place in the American conversation.  Sports radio is dominated by football talk, and the occasional discussion about baseball occurs seemingly less often every year.  National television ratings remain marginal, with the World Series losing ground to Netflix original series.  In many ways, the tale of baseball has numerous similarities to the tale of Rochester.  And, of course, the simple story of decline is at best misleading and at worst completely inaccurate.  Here are a few parallels:

• Baseball, it could be argued, had its heyday in the 1950's and 1960's.  The city of Rochester peaked in population at about 332,000 in 1950.
• Baseball, in its heyday, boasted names such as Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Sandy Koufax. Today, names like Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, and Clayton Kershaw don't have the same ring, which is not to say that they are not great players.  Rochester once had an impressive lineup of iconic companies, namely Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch & Lomb.  Today's anchors include the University of Rochester, Wegmans, and Paychex - while they may not carry the same weight, they are powerhouses in their own way.  (Not to mention that the iconic companies are still around.)
• Baseball, as it stands today, is not a flashy sport.  Rochester is known much more for intelligence, hard work, and grit than glitz and glamour.
• Baseball has a tendency to glorify its past, much in the same way that is seen in Rochester.  Interestingly, the glory days were not always so glorious.  As an example, when Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's single-season home run record, Yankee Stadium was more than half empty.  Similarly, it's hard to imagine that Rochester's history was as utopian as remembered.
• Baseball has been accused of being slow to adopt 21st century technologic advances.  Rochester's risk aversion can be viewed as a similar handicap, leaving Rochesterians with amenities that don't quite match the quality of the residents.
• Baseball, largely due to regional television contracts, has moved from a sport of national prominence to a sport of regional prominence.  Rochester, while not a household name across the country, undoubtedly remains a critical presence in Upstate New York.
• Baseball has lost ground to football, an immensely entertaining yet rather brutal sport, one that may not stand the test of time.  Rochester has lost residents to the sunnier and apparently trendier Southwest.  Yet this same region may have difficulty reconciling population growth with water scarcity.
• For all the discussions about baseball's decline, many facts point to a baseball that is stronger than ever.  Ratings on local television broadcasts are extremely strong, revenues are at all-time highs, and paid attendance in 2015 was the seventh-highest ever.  And as much as certain residents want to talk of Rochester's decline, the metro area's population is larger than it has ever been, the millennial growth rate is among the highest in the country, and downtown's population is booming. 

Baseball

Now that the Bills' season is over, Rochesterians can focus on baseball.  The national pastime is a good fit for Rochester, a musically inclined city, but not in a top 40 sort of way.  While football is like pop music (catchy, immensely popular, and possibly overrated), baseball is more like classical music (painful at times, yet occasionally exhilarating and unrivaled).  In any event, here are a few interesting tidbits about our region's contribution to baseball:

• Baseball was invented in Upstate New York (Cooperstown).  Apparently, this story is not actually true, but as the current election cycle shows, the truth is unimportant.
• Many of the baseball scenes of one of the best baseball movies of all time, The Natural, were filmed in Buffalo's old War Memorial Stadium.
• Traditionally, baseball bats have been made from ash trees (now seriously threatened by the emerald ash borer).  Where are these ash trees located? Upstate New York, of course.  Rawlings obtains its ash wood from the Adirondack region.  Louisville Slugger bats have largely originated from 6,500 acres of timberland in northern Pennsylvania and across the border in New York State.
• Alumni of the Rochester Red Wings include Bob Gibson, Eddie Murray, Stan Musial, Cal Ripken, Jr., Frank Robinson (manager), and Earl Weaver (manager).
• The upcoming Major League Baseball postseason looks to feature many teams genuinely longing for a World Series.  The Chicago Cubs haven't won since 1908, and the Cleveland Indians last won in 1948.  The Texas Rangers and the Washington Nationals, both somewhat younger franchises, have never won.  The Baltimore Orioles last won in 1983.  At the time, the Orioles were managed by Rochester Red Wings alum and Rochester resident Joe Altobelli.

Crime Revisited

Rochesterians, both historically and currently, have embraced change.  This endearing characteristic is representative of our small town's worldliness.  Yet listening to certain Rochesterians discuss urban crime often raises the question of whether these discussants have ever stepped foot outside the Rochester metro area.

The city of Rochester, while by no means the safest spot on the planet, has some serious competitors when it comes to violent crime.  In 2014, the violent crime rate in Rochester was 839 per 100,000.  Here are a few equally-branded locales that in the same year put Rochester's violent crime rate to shame:

• Cleveland: 1,334.3 (per 100,000)
• Baltimore: 1,338.5
• Milwaukee: 1,476.4
• St. Louis: 1,678.7
• Oakland: 1,685.4
• Memphis: 1,740.5
• Detroit: 1,988.6 

But how about better-branded locales? Here are a few that also had Rochester beat:

• Las Vegas: 841.1 
• Anchorage (in Alaska!): 864.6
• St. Petersburg (in the Florida that Rochesterians worship): 864.9
• Chicago: 884.3
• Orlando (yes, in beloved Florida): 901.1
• New Orleans: 973.9
• Houston: 991.4
• Minneapolis: 1,012
• Philadelphia: 1,021.4
• Miami (that's in Florida by the way): 1,060
• Nashville: 1,122.5
• Washington D.C. (that's the nation's capital): 1,185.3
• Atlanta: 1,227.4

Running

I don't run, although I clearly should.  As it turns out, for those who do run, Rochester is a rather desirable spot to carry out this pursuit.  Runner's World recently sought to identify America's 50 Best Running Cities.  Beginning with a list of 250 U.S. cities with populations over 160,000 that had been identified as having a high participation in running, the authors then ranked each city based on five weighted indexes of importance to runners:

• Run Index (40% weighting) - included factors such as number of races, number of running clubs, number of running stores, etc.
• Parks Index (20% weighting) - included factors such as parks per 10,000 residents, walkability, etc.
• Climate Index (20% weighting) - included data on precipitation, temperature, and air quality
• Food Index (10% weighting) - included data on farmers markets per 1,000 residents and healthy food availability/affordability
• Safety Index (10% weighting) - included data on violent crime, pedestrian fatality rate, and travel time

Rochester was not a top performer in any individual index, but as is often the case, it excelled as a total package.  Of the 50 best running cities, here are the top 20:

1. San Francisco, CA
2. Seattle, WA
3. Boston, MA
4. San Diego, CA
5. Washington, DC
6. Portland, OR
7. Minneapolis, MN
8. New York, NY
9. Omaha, NE
10. Denver, CO
11. Chicago, IL
12. Madison, WI
13. Colorado Springs, CO
14. San Jose, CA
15. Los Angeles, CA
16. Rochester, NY
17. Pittsburgh, PA
18. Tucson, AZ
19. Raleigh, NC
20. Boise, ID

Blank Canvas

Rochester, for all its detractors, also maintains a remarkably passionate fan base.  This fanaticism is driven by several factors (all of which have been noted many times), including:

• World-class music
• An intense focus on the arts
• Access to top-tier education
• A beer, wine, and coffee scene that can match almost anywhere
• A history worth retelling
• Truly diverse architecture and landscapes
• All of the above without a painful commute
• All of the above at an affordable cost
• All of the above with the open-mindedness of a larger city

Beyond these factors, Rochester also offers one other key element that generates an immense amount of enthusiasm: a blank canvas.  For an undeniably creative community, the ability to be part of a revitalization story borders on exhilarating.  While citizens shape their communities all over the world, the process in Rochester is arguably one of the most alluring:

1. Rochester is a paradoxical blend of unestablished and established.  In other words, while opportunities for rebuilding and reshaping are numerous, a strong and proven foundation exists.
2. Rebuilding in Rochester is a not-so-subtle undertaking.  Our conversations do not revolve around a small corner at the margin of the city but rather the following somewhat conspicuous stretches:

• The waterfront along a picturesque, northward-flowing river that bisects the heart of the entire metropolitan area
• The waterfront abutting a Great Lake, across which lies by far the largest city of another country
• The most important plot of land in downtown Rochester and perhaps the whole region

So let's get painting (okay, that was bad.)

Rewording

A recurring theme on this blog is the statistically unfair comparison of Rochester to other cities across the country.  While Rochester comprises about 19 percent of its metropolitan statistical area (MSA), it can occasionally be compared to cities that comprise 40 percent (Raleigh), 42 percent (New York City), 49 percent (Memphis), or 60 percent (Albuquerque) of their respective MSA's.  As such, studies that depict Rochester as the most horrible city in America are not always telling a complete story.

As reported by the Democrat & Chronicle, a recent investigation performed by EdBuild attempted to identify the steepest lines of economic segregation in the country.  By looking at pairs of contiguous school districts throughout the country, the researchers could determine the borders across which there was a large disparity in child poverty rate.  The disparity in child poverty rate between the Rochester City School District and its eight bordering school districts (Penfield, Brighton, West Irondequoit, Rush-Henrietta, Gates-Chili, Wheatland-Chili, Greece, and East Irondequoit) was rather high.  In fact, all eight borders were in the top 1.2 percent nationally for this measure of economic segregation (among 33,526 borders studied.)

Before concluding how terrible, closed-minded, and intolerant we Rochesterians are, the data warrants a second look.  If the nine suburbs that make up the eight bordering school districts were part of the city, the city of Rochester would then comprise about 49 percent of its MSA (i.e. the same as Memphis.)  In such a case, what are now strict economic borders would turn into mere neighborhoods within one city.  The aforementioned study's conclusion would then read: Rochester has some very wealthy neighborhoods and some very poor neighborhoods.

Having lived in both Manhattan and the Bronx, I am confident that this circumstance is not unique.

Mindset

The essence of Rochester can be captured with the catchphrase "big city amenities without big city hassles."  An outsider might wonder what sets Rochester apart from similarly sized regions which may lay claim to the same slogan.  As outlined many times, Rochester's artistic, musical, and educational offerings are not just present but often world-class.  Furthermore, when these offerings are viewed on a per-capita basis, Rochester always seems to surface near the top.  Yet Rochester's big city amenities move beyond these tangible elements into the realm of something more nebulous...mindset.  Many are attracted to America's large cities not just for employment, cultural merits, and sporting events, but rather a general outlook that is current and perhaps ahead of its time.  What places Rochester in a select group is that despite not being a huge city, it frequently displays the mindset usually reserved for larger metros.

A perfect example is found in the following ranking assessing America's Most LGBT-Friendly Cities.  Vocativ, a media and technology company that uses proprietary data mining technology, looked at 16 "key lifestyle metrics" to identify the top 35 most LGBT-friendly cities among America's 100 most populous metropolitan areas.  Here are the top 10:

1. Los Angeles, CA
2. New York, NY
3. San Francisco, CA
4. Des Moines, IA
5. Chicago, IL
6. Seattle, WA
7. Albany, NY
8. Rochester, NY
9. Denver, CO
10. Madison, WI 

Hipster

I'm slightly too old, chubby, and gray-haired to fully comprehend the definition of hipster.  Furthermore, living in suburban tract housing automatically disqualifies me from having a proper opinion on the matter.  That said, I can drink third wave coffee, listen to indie music, and throw back microbrews with the best of them.  Fortunately, Rochester offers this scene in abundance.  In fact, the hipster scene in Rochester is one of the most vibrant in the country, at least by one measure.

Infogroup, a big data, analytics, and marketing services provider, sought to identify the Top 10 Most Hipster U.S. Metro Areas among metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) with over 1 million residents.  Nine types of businesses were identified as being closely related to hipster culture:

• microbreweries
• record/tape/CD retailers
• music dealers
• non-chain coffee shops
• beer/ale retailers
• thrift shops
• bicycle dealers
• tattoo parlors
• music/live entertainment

MSAs were then ranked by their concentration of these hipster businesses per 10,000 residents.  The top 10 were:

1. Seattle, WA
2. Portland, OR
3. Denver, CO
4. Sacramento, CA
5. Grand Rapids, MI
6. San Diego, CA
7. Providence, RI
8. Pittsburgh, PA
9. San Francisco, CA
10. Rochester, NY

Upgrade

Despite having a population of almost 1.1 million within its metropolitan area, Rochester is often labeled as a small town.  While the whole "big-city amenities/small town charm" mantra has its merits, one can't help but wonder if Rochester is sometimes held back by its label (and associated mentality.)  Here are a few facts:

• Rochester is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the country without at least one NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NCAA Division I men's basketball, or NCAA Division I football team. 
• While smaller metro areas such as Omaha, Syracuse, Des Moines, Spokane, Tulsa, Wichita, and Boise can host NCAA men's basketball tournament games in March, Rochester apparently has no hope.
• Despite being a remarkably musically-oriented bunch, Rochesterians routinely travel to Buffalo for big-name concerts such as Coldplay, Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Bruno Mars, etc.
• Rochester's arena has a reasonable group of tenants, among which one has a deep-pocketed owner.

Without knowing all (or even any) of the details, the following would seem to be a reasonable conclusion: given all the potential options for wasting our tax dollars, wasting them on a new arena with increased seating capacity is a necessary upgrade.