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What I've noticed from living and traveling around the country is that Southeast Michigan -- really, the Detroit metro area, not including the City of Detroit or Downriver -- is culturally the most similar to Buffalo of any Rust Belt city. Why? Two big reasons, among many others:
* Polish blue collar culture. Like Buffalo, Poilish-American culture is sort of the default for the region. There's Polish ethnoburbs with immaculate lawns and no shortage of lawn ornaments (Troy and Sterling Heights = a more middle class version of Cheektowaga), Polish-flavored Catholicism is the de facto default religion, people make a big deal about Easter, bowling is huge, and there's no shortage of people with unpronounceable last names.
Cleveland has a decent-sized Polish-American community, but it didn't have the same impact on the region's broader culture in the same way as in Detroit or Buffalo. Cleveland leans more "vic" and "vich" than "ski" and "czak".
In another way, I think of Pittsburgh as a "big Buffalo with hills". The built environment, accent, and landscape are completely different than Buffalo. Still, there's some big similarities -- blue collar heritage, pride in the ways that Pittsburgh is a bit out of step from mainstream American culture, and fanaticism for the Steelers that matches anything from the Bills Mafia.
Something I've noticed when I'm back in Buffalo -- ads for national brands on billboards and store point-of-sale displays are customized for the Buffalo market. You'll see the same thing in Pittsburgh. Really, the "Buffalo pride" and "Pittsburgh pride" thing is much more in-your-face -- really, not unlike what you'd see in Texas -- compared to Cleveland, Rochester, or Syracuse.
Because as a city Rochester has experienced measurable population loss but by saying "metro" well now your looking at over 2000SqMi of upstate NY counties which seems to continually change. As he said "it has never lost population in an official census"
I find it funny that each locality wants to be it's own city, town/village whatever municipality for the sake of identify & taxes but when it comes to trying to put a positive twist on a statistic then its the MSA, Metro, whatever title.
Rocherster is light years better then Buffalo, Also Rochester doesn't look a Zombie apocalypse has happened and have 3rd world conditions like most of Buffalo has.
Rocherster is light years better then Buffalo, Also Rochester doesn't look a Zombie apocalypse has happened and have 3rd world conditions like most of Buffalo has.
Buffalo city has a higher MHI and education attainment though and has increased in income much faster...
Rocherster is light years better then Buffalo, Also Rochester doesn't look a Zombie apocalypse has happened and have 3rd world conditions like most of Buffalo has.
Boy that's a play on words if I have ever read one....
Not really and it is a statement of fact. Monroe County, the county Rochester is in has only had 1 official census where it experienced population loss(1.4% in 1980). That's it.
Also, the difference is that Rochester can't annex and hasn't annexed in decades. So, to use the city limits would make for an apples to oranges comparison given the differences in terms of annexation by state. If many cities stopped annexing at the same time as Rochester and couldn't gobble up unincorporated/other suburbs, you would likely see a similar situation as the city of Rochester due to suburbanization.
Metros are formed based upon a 25% commuter interchange with the central county, if I'm not mistaken. That is uniform for all metro areas. Hence, why the lists we see are generally based upon the metro area and any metro can change based upon this criteria. If the commuter interchange is at least 15%, it is a part of the CSA. #noconspiracy
You are never going to have an apples to apples comparison for any number of factors but to compare a 6 county region and all that's in it to one city is ridicules. Rochester has lost population and Monroe county contains over a dozen towns/villages who can say why they have experienced growth if any. Save the annexation argument, the city has plenty of real estate to develop without trying to annex other residents who don't want to live within its boundaries.
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