Does rochester feel like a smaller American version of Toronto?

[North_Coast]

Originally Posted by JWRocks

Interesting that 100 years ago Rochester and Toronto were similar sized cities. I've always felt that Kodak has added a certain complacency to the citizens and being closed minded to new and bigger ideas. I hope I didn't offend anyone with that statement, I used to work there too.

MONTREAL/TORONTO: There were some significant events over the years that caused explosive growth in the Toronto area relative to Montreal; the Quebec Sovereignty Movement, American immigration restrictions (Particularly with respect to Irish, southern European and Eastern European Immigrants) and the transfer of Hong Kong from British control to China in 1997.

ROCHESTER
The large number of Corporations founded in Rochester over the years was at one time a magnet for this area. It resulted in a powerful economic independence here that caused an insular "smugness" and parochialism here during the growth period. The smugness may be gone, but the parochialism among some of the population still remains. Among the innovators and entrepreneurs, though, the spirit to regrow our economic infrastructure is strong. The builders and innovators tend to stay because of the high quality of life here. The complacent types tend to move to warmer climates. That's actually a good trend for the area.

OUT-MIGRATION FROM THE NORTH
Just like Kodak brought affordable photography to the world, our friends in Syracuse brought affordable air conditioning to world (Carrier Corporation), resulting in mass migrations to the Sunbelt from the North. What's cool (no pun intended), though, is that our metro population actually grew steadily while neighboring cities throughout the Northeast, with exceptions, fell in population during the "rust belt" era.

[King of Kensington]

Originally Posted by james777

Rochester has a population of 210,000 while Ottawa has a population of 883,000. I would not think that they are close in size. Having visited Rochester twice, and Montreal numerous times, I see no resemblance. Not only that, the size difference is much greater between Rochester and Montreal than it is between Rochester and Ottawa. Montreal is really a big city, with all of the amenities of a big city.

The 883,000 figure is the population of a very large area - as the entirety of the county Ottawa was in was merged into one city in 1998. The pre-1998 boundaries of Ottawa have a population of around 300,000. Ottawa's metro area is just a tad bigger than Rochester's.

[King of Kensington]

Originally Posted by North_Coast

I travel a lot in Canada.

Toronto seems more like a Midwestern US city to me - maybe because of the flat landscape and the architecture that reminds me a lot of Chicago.

The closest match to Rochester is Ottawa, in my opinion. Close in size, culture, topography, quality of life etc.
If you had to compare Rochester to the larger Canadian cities - it's more like Montreal than Toronto.

Southern Ontario isn't really "midwestern" - while Toronto differs in urban form from say Boston it doesn't really resemble a Midwestern city any more than Rochester does. Southern Ontario has more in common with upstate NY or even western Massachusetts in terms of landscapes and colonial/Victorian feel than with Illinois or Indiana.

Rochester resembles Hamilton wayyy more than it does Montreal. I'd say Rochester resembles Montreal far less than it resembles Toronto.

[North_Coast]

Originally Posted by King of Kensington

The 883,000 figure is the population of a very large area - as the entirety of the county Ottawa was in was merged into one city in 1998. The pre-1998 boundaries of Ottawa have a population of around 300,000. Ottawa's metro area is just a tad bigger than Rochester's.

Nice city, Ottawa. A couple of things impress me about Ottawa in comparison to the way Rochester has been managed over the years.

The Rideau Canal system. Intact - and a great resource. In Rochester, the Erie canal bed was removed to be converted into a subway line earlier, and expressways later. They recently decided to fill in a huge portion of the old canal running under Broad Street in the city. There were discussions about rewatering the old canal bed in various parts of the city - not likely to happen, and a great potential resource that is gone forever.

Metro Consolidation. There are simply too many fiefdoms, with government types protecting their jobs and influence in each community in the Rochester area. The City of today does not have the power to annex the various suburbs - because of metro sprawl that has has 80% of the metro population living outside the city limits.

Luckily, it would have cost too much to turn the Genesee River into a N-S expressway - so we have a unique benefit of having three significant waterfalls running through a beautiful gorge that runs through the heart of the city.

[4pack]

Not even close. lets pull in the rugs at 5pm. except for a select few area's. This is not against anyone living in Rochester just the comparison.