Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Rochester has a higher murder rate than Syracuse, if I'm not mistaken.
Rochester also seems to have a somewhat more gaping distance between rich and poor than Syracuse does. Rochester has tonier suburbs, but also a darker dark side, if you ask me.
Rochester has a 16 or so block area called the "crescent" that is home to a majority of the violent crime. The only reason you would have to worry in Rochester is if you were a drug dealer, wandering around the wrong part of town at night, or a "holdout" from the old neighborhood that refuses to leave, especially if a shopowner. I imagine the same is true in Syracuse though.
Raleigh-Durham put a LOT of effort and money into creating Research Triangle Park. The state did tons to attract industry, including giving them major tax incentives. It also helps that there are 3 major universities here to siphon research money and resources from. Its just too expensive to run a company in upstate NY.
Also, lots of people here complain about the sprawl. It does suck, and the growth is so rapid that they aren't building infrastructure fast enough. Many larger homes are being abandoned due to the mortgage crisis, and some subdivisions are emptying out. Schools are crowded, and most districts have a year round program. We're in desperate need of more public transportation. So yeah, its not rainbows and unicorns here. There's no perfect place.
But, yeah, there's no snow here and heating costs are lower (something to consider this coming winter if you heat with gas). Also, air conditioning is widespread now, which is another major reason the South has had a major population boom.
grew up in utica and now live in houston. while any kind of sprawl is undesirable and unsustainable, at least here in TX, it is due to rapid population growth where as with NYS metro areas; it's merely the existing population relocating from the central cities out into the suburbs.
Rochester has a higher murder rate than Syracuse, if I'm not mistaken.
Rochester also seems to have a somewhat more gaping distance between rich and poor than Syracuse does. Rochester has tonier suburbs, but also a darker dark side, if you ask me.
You have to put in to perspective we are a larger city and county by far with population. And yes we do have a higher murder rate but as Rachcha said 90% them are drug related.
And yes Rochester is a white-collar city the gap will be there. With high end CEOs in Kodak, Xerox, Bausch and Lomb, PaeTec, Wegmans and Paychex the difference is there.
I apologize if someone has said this already, but Syracuse and Rochester are a lot more similar today than they were in the past. With the exodus of jobs from those Fortune 500 companies headquartered there - B&L, Kodak, Polaroid - Rochester is struggling as well, and already contends with many of the same issues as Syracuse.
A sense of civic pride from sports teams and braving snowy weather binds Syracusans together, and slow growth over the last 20 years has left us with a more than adequate highway system, even if it has to be repaved constantly. The near future is in supporting individual enterprise, keeping money in the community, and in education, things Syracuse University is actively trying to support.
I am a recent departure from Syracuse. I was born there, and raised there. Not in the city but in the suburbs in Clay. I went to college in Oswego and then left. Why did I leave Syracuse? There's nothing there. To us young people Syracuse looks like a dead end. It has very very little for jobs and opportunity and it isn't bringing new jobs in. The weather isn't exactly a plus either.
I don't know how to fix Syracuse and I won't pretend to come up with a solution. I don't like where I am now in San Francisco though and I miss Syracuse and New York in general, but I have no options. Syracuse offers me nothing. I feel like this is a huge problem with Syracuse and a main contributor to it's lack of growth. Of course this all goes back to the lack of jobs and the inability to attract jobs as the source of the problem. I have hope for Syracuse, but I also see the current attempts to attract business there as naive. Syracuse does need change and it needs to start with a modernization of Syracuse. If Syracuse has nothing to offer to begin with then why would anybody invest there?
Great Post!
I know someone I graduated with who moved out to the Bay Area too....
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
