Thanks for sharing this video! Rochester has many beautiful buildings and huge cultural events. We are renowned for various festivals all summer long. The Lilac Festival in the Spring, Corn Hill and Clothesline Arts Festivals, Jazz Festival, and many. The University of Rochester's main Rush Rhees campus is in the south portion of the city, along the Genesee River. There was once a women's campus at University Avenue & Goodman St. area; it is now the Memorial Art Gallery and Rochester's neighborhood of the arts. Within downtown is the glorious Eastman Theatre, the jewel of the Eastman School of Music, part of the University of Rochester. Many institutes of higher learning have moved or were founded in the suburban areas: we have the Rochester Institute of Technology with the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Nazareth University, St John Fisher University, Empire State College, Roberts Wesleyan University, Bryant and Stratton College, State University of New York College at Brockport and Monroe Community College, as well as Elim Bible Institute. Because of having three schools with large music programs (Eastman, Nazareth, Roberts) and dance (RIT and others), the city is home to many cultural events. There is rarely a night when you cannot see or hear a free concert or performance at one of the schools. Rochester was settled in 1812 and incorporated as the Village of Rochesterville in 1817. The completion of the Erie Canal in the 1820s had led to a boomtown atmosphere in the village, which would become incorporated as a full-fledged city of Rochester in 1834. I'm glad you spent some time at the Central Library of Rochester & Monroe County, which has an amazing local history collection. The water-feature on the North Terrace is shown in 0:13-0:17. Regarding the canal's further uses, it was a subway from 1927-1952. It closed as the route was needed for the increase in automobiles and the parts out of the downtown (center city) area became divided highways, or as we call them, expressways. In fact, the Rundel Memorial Building of the Central Library was actually constructed on top of the extant subway from 1934-1936. After the subway closed, it was never used as a pedestrian walkway. People were able to get in and out, but this was not an officially sanctioned walk. By the way, on of your favorites, LaSalle, did make a stop in this area. Just east of Rochester are the towns of Irondequoit and Webster. Separating them is a very large body of water, the Irondequoit Bay. At the bottom of this bay, LaSalle made landing in 1669. There is a LaSalle's Landing Park at the site now. The bay and Irondequoit Creek area was also visited by the Marquis de Denonville during his 1687 expedition. Because of its major optics industries like Bausch & Lomb, Xerox, and Kodak, Rochester has been known as the Imaging Capital of the World. Rochester is also known as the Lilac Capital of the world, with over 550 species in the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Highland Park, with many new strains developed here. Other famous places here include one of the country's oldest municipal cemeteries, Mt. Hope, where orator Frederick Douglass and women's rights champion Susan B. Anthony are buried, both having lived in Rochester. George Eastman's home is the world's oldest photography museum. The Rochester Public Market is one of the oldest, operating since 1827. The Strong National Museum of Play is a world-class museum with interactive exhibits and is also home to the National Toy Hall of Fame, the International Center for the History of Electronic Games, the World Video Game Hall of Fame, and the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play, and produces the American Journal of Play. Please come back for another visit, and treat yourself to a garbage plate as well!
I was born in 1964 and my family used to go to Sibley's at Christmas time. If I can recall, Sibley's had the clocks of the world. It was beautiful. My dad worked at Hallman Chevrolet for a while. Then I worked at a bank on the corner of Main and Exchange.
My grandfather was a Canadian immigrant. He moved to the states when he was a teenager. He got into Kodak not long afterwards. My mother was born as part of the booming "kodak family" generation. So she (and her sisters) became a first generation American. With his two hands he built his home, raised an entire family of 3 daughters, 10 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren with his career at Kodak. He was with the company 40 years when they filed for bankruptcy and he was incentivized to retire. Both he and my mother are no longer with us. We buried him last summer just before my birthday. But, i greatly appreciate the sacrifice and contributions that man made to all of our lives. Rochester and Kodak have played a huge role in my family history.
That is some family history, thank you for sharing! I did not know anything about Kodak before going to Rochester last summer (I mean, obviously I knew the name and used the products, but nothing about how it came about or developed, or George Eastman's story), but having read a bit about it, I cannot help but think that had Eastman been alive, or had a worthy heir to the business, they wouldn't have ignored their own R&D people coming with the digital camera and telling the management this was the future, and how much that would have impacted what the city is today.
George Eastman had no heirs because he was a gentleman who preferred the company of men. However he did have nieces and nephews, who still live in Rochester. Chester Carlson actually created Xerography in NYC, he came to Rochester because Joseph Wilson funded it here. Carlson hated the name Xerox, but Wilson wanted it. Like the original commenter many generations of families worked at Kodak. I worked there as an engineer when it went bankrupt and now work at Xerox. If you want to see empty buildings and wonder where all the people are come to the xerox plant in Webster. It is just a shell of what it was 35 years ago. They tore down some building so the land is taxed cheaper as undeveloped.
@@gremlinontheroadKodak is a tech company that peaked became entrenched in its product and lacked the ability to pivot. I worked in a skunk works that before me developed digital cameras, they also had a cell phone and early 3d printers. None of these products were produced. The patents were all sold off in bankruptcy, most after companies like Apple developed their own products. Apple did buy quite a few patents. Apple off in the future will have the same fate as Kodak. It almost happened in the 90s, but Steve Jobs returned to the company to innovate new products
I love my hometown. It’s heartbreaking to see it in such despair! I have been waiting my entire life for the city to return to its former glory, yet things only seem to be getting worse. I would move back in a heartbeat if the crime and economic conditions improved. I hope I don’t die before that day arrives… I miss it everyday.
Sibley's remained in business downtown until they were purchased by a chain, who sold the building to the Wilmots. Sibley's was founded by the family of Hiram Sibley, who founded Western Union
I grew up in Rochester and we would visit the Sibley’s store at Christmas for their wonderful displays. Therefore, sibley’s remained downtown, as Sibley’s, until at least 1990.
This was one of the 20 biggest cities in the nation by 1900 and also a city that had more people by 1920 than it does currently in 2020. That’s why there is such grand architecture. The city was pretty much built before cars. The Park Avenue neighborhood is now one of the largest national register historic districts anywhere. Beautiful city. My hometown.
@@xerorenegado15no one cares. Literally no one gives a shit. People over-exaggerate this kind of commentary. Rochester is still the 4th most populous city in the state of New York, and just recently got bumped down to 4th, as they were previously 3rd for a long time. I don’t get it why not just comment on how all of upstate NY is dying down? It’s no different than literally any other village, town, or small city throughout the state. Yes, high murder rates for very specific areas, but large parts of the city are incredibly safe. Going to the worst beachfront and most boring streets in the city is not really reflecting anything of note. Obviously the fun parts just moved to other areas in the city.
585 garbage plate gang 🕺 Also im a native so maybe im biased but I love the old architecture here. I used to walk around downtown at night stoned out of my mind just to look at the buildings ALSO, Hamlin Beach is the best beach here. No other beach is worth your time 🙊
Right; but what puzzles me most about your comment is: if the bar knows who the burglar is (i.e. they must have some evidence), how come the story repeats itself?
@@gremlinontheroadNew York State refuses to prosecute criminals. The police are apathetic and corrupt. The politicians endorse pro-criminal policy such as cashless bail and appearance tickets instead of punishment. The citizens have no recourse because of duty to retreat laws. In short, it’s the same thing happening to society as a whole, just amplified by the abysmally soft criminal justice system in New York.
We are famous for inventing a ground beef sauce that is served with a hamburger and two sides. You have a strange accent I guess this place is more interesting to foreigners than anyone who lives here , it kind of sucks
I guess always the case, my current home city has lots of good stories yet I don't even really look at them, or it, properly; not to mention the several places I've lived in before. Grass always greener, and everything looks better when you're on a holiday kind of thing... Must find that sauce though!
You completely missed PARK AVENUE- Quaint gift shops - cafes - restaurants and tons of people. Downtown is more of a business district with attorneys - real estate and county services. Nothing to see. You we’re actually walking distance from Park avenue.
Downtown Rochester was once a bustling vibrante magnet. Rampant crime and the massive malls out in the suburbs killed it. Downtown has a few places for folks to live, but they're pricey. It's now beginning to build more affordable housing. But it's anybody's guess as to how long those new projects will last as peaceful. Rochesterians have a 50/50 attitude. Half good, half.. REALLY bad. The city is no longer the picture postcard perfect place it was in the 60s and 70s. We came from Brooklyn New York in 1969. Lived off of Mt. Hope Avenue when Mt. Hope was a railhead packed with warehouse from Alexander St., all the way to Highland Park. My dad would leave the front door wide open with just the screen door locked to let air circulate. Our bedroom windows were also wide open at night in the summer. No worries. Rochester is NO LONGER that type of haven😢
Really cool video. I liked the tongue in cheek humor. I was born and raised in Rochester and my dad worked at Kodak his whole career so we ended up with piles of super 8mm film all over the house. Back in college i used to run along the Genesee River from UofR up past the DinoBBQ and back which was like a mini tour of the city. I had no idea there Erie canal went over the river down town! It moved further south at some point apparently. Anyhow nice video thanks for taking the time.
Thank you for a good word, and for taking the time to comment, much appreciated! I loved the film, and the suspense of "is it going to come out okay" - such a shame they did not move on...
If you’re familiar w who Susan b Anthony is, she is buried at my hope cemetery and women’s National rights convention qnd lots of that history is in a town not far from here. U did an excellent job though w history, w what you did show. 👍🏼
In the 1980's, Kodak employed 90% of working people in Monroe County,and 60% of the working people in the 3 ajoining counties !! Kodak never had a union, Why?? George Eastman tried his employees with class!! If you worked at Kodak, you were set for life!!
they need to create a space downtown like Kansas City did ( Kansas City Power & Light ) a mix use center of bars , restaurants , and open space for live music .. This gives people a reason to come into town from the suburbs . Cash in on the downtown river that way . Clean up all the debris that collects and do a music and light show on the falls ( See Providence RI 's "River Fire" walk
I visited Rochester and in the local news a while back a woman was in danger and cops did nothing . She was murdered by her ex husband. From what I understand these 2 cops were charged for not helping her. Not sure how common that is but that is not good.
@@AdaptiveApeHybrid Same in most countries the exception are the nice clean Asian countries and even there it is starting to get downhill. Paris , France is a big dump! I have family there and they are leaving
Sorry, only just saw this comment, then looked at the Mark Twain house and the state capitol, and yup, you are totally right: I absolutely must go to Hartford!! Thank you, I'd never know otherwise.
Lived there...in the suburbs from '86 - '21...work related...enjoyed it...affordable cost of living...good school system...great place to raise kids...
Thank you - much appreciated. I really liked Rochester, and will surely come back. Maybe I'll stay downtown this time, see how scary it really is, with all the other comments...
@@lesterbangs3417 oh, that one - that must be the husband, although he's from North London, so not really a cockney 🙃 I did have hopes, but not much of it has rubbed off - but well, there's always the subtitles...
Sorry, I thought I replied to this ages ago, but seemingly not! I checked, it is still there and still a theatre, so a must next time, thank you for the tip, didn't find it last summer.
ROCHESTER CLOSED MIDTOWN AND THEN PUT BUSES IN THE TRANSIT CENTER AMD CLOSED ALL STORE'S DOWNTOWN AND NOW YOU BARELY SEE ANYONE AND PEOPLE ARE MOVING TO OTHER CITIES BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING HERE . THIS IS A SHAME.
It’s a lovey city. I’d move there in a minute and start fixing a house up in one of those neighborhoods. TheChurches are just beautiful. There’s a famous new German pipe organ there in one of those red sandstone gothic churches. That’s a wonderful thing for an American city to be known for.
Should've talked about Mount Hope, the Lilac Festival and Mount Hope Cemetery are both interesting bits of Rochester lore. I love Highland Park the most though, it's an phenomenal park/nature reserve/campground/flower garden (I love smoking weed by the water reserve, very peaceful.)
Hello, yes, thank you for the correction! Having read a bit more, it was only then that they stopped using the Sibley's brand. The company was first sold to Associated Dry Goods Corporation in the 1950s, but they continued under the old name, until May took over in 1986. Sorry about this - all I can say, this was my first encounter with Rochester history, and an awful lot to take in all at once. Which is, of course, no excuse for getting things wrong. Thanks again!
The original Reynolds Arcade was torn down in 1932, the current building was built after that. The Paddock Arcade in Watertown, NY has been in continuous operation since 1850.
This was quite entertaining, will have to check out more of ur vids…… learned somethings abt Rochester, been here since 1984 and didn’t know some of it. Cheerio! 👍🏼
The city is full of ghosts, and former glory. A woman I once was fond of was murdered in the city by two black men, and then she was dumped like trash behind a house on Skuse street. Rochester is now an active war zone with murders nearly every night. I worked at Great Lakes Press, Case Hoyt, Weyerhaeuser paper co on Boxart street, and also Xerox. I owned a house on Mohawk street for 13 years and finally left for greener pastures in 2003. I moved to an entirely different county. Rochester, like so many other cities has lost its soul to political cancer, greed, incompetency, and to a culture which covets immorality, violence, and social decay. Edit: I couldn't care less who agrees with me or not. This is just how the city has reflected on my life. I remember standing on the 4th floor of Great Lakes Press in the morning before anyone else got there, and watching the trains going through while I sipped coffee. Buildings still stood on Central ave, and Wegmans was still in Midtown. It really was a different world in Rochester. People were different..richer. They wore more hats.
I suppose no place in human history is ever great for very long, it all comes and goes, and it is just the way it is - still, quite sad to hear all these crime stories from so many people here. Even if I am much attracted to places full of ghosts and former glory (to use your wonderful phrase).
@@gremlinontheroad Rochester is rich in history for sure. It's still a powerhouse of big brains with the U of R, and RIT. It's also one of the better places in the world to be if you require medical care.
@@Atouk as I said to someone else who complained there was nothing in the city left but the UofR and the RIT, perhaps these are good place to start bouncing back from. I certainly hope it will. Really loved the architecture, the falls, and the pockets of life out where we stayed around Mt Hope.
@Atouk, you said the woman was "murdered in the city by two black men..." That's a terrible act, but what religion were these two murderers? That's as relevant as their skin color. Shouldn't we be told that as well? Or perhaps the fact that their deed was so horrible should be enough to place these two men in context, with no other characteristics needing to be added.
@@brianarbenz1329 Well, they were two black men. Can't change the facts. A woman was murdered, but describing her killers upsets you. What an amazing human being.
Once Kodak started outsourcing everything overseas in the 1990's Rochester died. We have been slowly decaying ever since. The local government spends money like we are thriving while the economy gets gutted by bad policy. The population grows while the jobs leave.
@@daviddavey1727 Upstate and Western NY are stuck in the same Rust Belt situation as places like Cleveland and Detroit. The only reason Detroit is in worse shape is because their industry left about a decade earlier.
Rochester was full of Great Corporations such as Rochester Products also part of General Motors, AC Delco, which later became ITT, and was sold to a French company named Valeo, There was Xerox, Bauch & Lomb, Kodak, Cooper Vision, The University of Rochester Medical school, Wegmans supermarket Chain, BJs wholesale club. there were plenty of jobs, a great economy it the 60's, 70's and 80's and 90's. I was fortunate to start my life there with my brothers and cousins escaping Communist Cuba and leaving my families Businesses taken over by Communism. Such a great Nation America is. We came over legally and started our new life in Rochester. Many fond memories of the wonderful people in Rochester that we will be forever grateful. God Bless America and God Bless Rochester....
In the past week, 2 US Postal workers who were delivering mail were robbed in Rochester. These happened in the middle of the day. Numerous cars are either broken into or stolen daily. A stolen car is used as a battering ram to knock down a storefront and then a second stolen car is used to haul the stolen goods away. Rochester is a horror show of a city and that is why you saw few people walking around. You were lucky you made it out of there without an incident.
What you described happens almost anywhere these days. With a defund the police movement, prosecutors overwhelmed by cases, and having to choose amongst the seriousness of crimes, criminals are taking advantage of it. Don't expect it to get better, coming to a town near you soon. I was at a grocery store recently, a guy walked out with a cart full of goods without paying. A young female employee tried to stop him, the guy threw water bottles at her, while his accomplice loaded the stuff in the car. A manager came out & took the employee inside, they took the loss. The police won't respond in stead they send a car with police volunteers to take a report 😮 Organized theft rings originating mostly in California are beginning to spread all over the country. Online sale sites you know the ones, offer an opportunity to sell designer products at high profits, since there is no whole sale cost.
wow... Didn't look or feel that dangerous. Such a shame, it is beautiful place. Does make me wonder how did they do it, 100 years ago, with next to none police force, no ability to track people, way lower general standard of living, yet all these cities we visited last summer flourished, and now they are dying.
Those incidents are concentrated in certain parts of the cities which most people I know don’t even frequent, downtown, and the eastern part of the city is quite safe
@joshuabatres182 Yes it's true that you really don't want to go into some parts. If you're in the city you definitely want to have your street wise spidey senses turned up!
My brother sent me a surveillance video of a gang in Indianapolis who stole a truck and used it as a battering ram to break in and rob a gun store. It was astounding how organized they are. They know exactly what they're going to take, and they're in there for less than a minute. Crime in Indianapolis is horrendous.
I don't know. An awful lot of people commented on how dangerous and unpleasant Rochester is. I was only there for a day, but found it beautiful, even in it's somewhat forlorn condition, and the history is mind-blowing. You have every reason to be proud for your home city. Now let's hope people just don't walk away from it.
Can’t be greatful that Rochester turned you into a tougher than nails person that can handle any condition? Why tell people your from NYC? Kind of odd. Can be plenty dangerous there too.
I will harangue to anyone that Rochester is a golden place to live and the idiots who live there don't even know it. Now, all these things I am going to mention existed when I left, and may not exist any more. But here: Rochester has a world-renowned music symphony and music school that runs free student concerts every weeknight all during the school year. Record stores include the nationally-famous Bop Shop, the nationally-famous House of Guitars, and the supermarket-sized Record Archive. There is a world-famous jazz festival, and in the Eighties there was a very active New Wave scene. (My brother totally ripped off the House of Guitars for his 1957 Precision Bass and I totally ripped them off for my 1960 Jazzmaster.) Rochester has two beautiful beaches that nobody goes to. They keep trying to fk up Charlotte, maybe they succeeded by now, I don't know. Rochester has not just an art movie theater but it is a triplex. Plus the Cinema theater (which closed). Plus the Dryden, that has shows that people fly in from all over the country to see. Rochester has a downtown baseball stadium, painfully cheaply constructed because the mayor at the time didn't want to support a white people's sport. Rochester has the University of Rochester and RIT, both top-of-the-list schools. Rochester has or had the largest number of pizza joints per capita in the country. And an Italian market and sub shop that has been continually operating since the mid-1940s, and knows how to make a meatball sub that nobody else knows how to do. Rochester used to have mind-blowing burger joints until Mediocreburger Industries bought them all. They have Kithno's, whose Friday Fish Fry is indescribable. Does Rochester still have all-night diners? They did when I was there. And Cobbs Hill Pizza, which made the only steak sandwich that is actually as delicious as people think their steak sandwiches are. And Pontillo's Hudson and Ridge, where the guy who ran it was actually named Guido and made a pie that had The Thing that distinguishes real pies from imposters. And probably lots of others that I can't remember. The last time I was up there I toured all the great food places I could hit in four days and didn't near get to all of them. And fairs and festivals all during the summer. And great flea markets within a reasonable Sunday drive. And great garage sales because people have lived in their homes for seventy years. Gigantic classic car shows. And a freakin' amusement park with rollercoasters and stuff. You think other cities have amusement parks? OTHER CITIES ANYWHERE NEAR THIS SIZE DON'T HAVE ANY OF THIS STUFF.
Not much that we found - mine kind of enjoyed the high falls area with the preserved ruins of a mill and the bridge over the ravine, and very much wanted to go investigate the Erie canal bed on the closed-off former tram bridge (Broad Street, level -1), but we didn't think that was such a great idea. Ontario beach was fun, especially the carousel, and we happened upon a live concert in the park near the beach later that evening - but someone commented that I missed a very lively area at Park Avenue (comment by harleyboy200). Maybe there's something there.
@@AK.__ No trouble at all, and just remembered: we walked past this place (it's around East Avenue at Main), a cat cafe (= where you can buy a ticket to seat in a room with cats, play with them etc., although usually there's no lifting them up, which is understandable, but also quite difficult with cat-eager kids) www.pawsitivecatcafe.com/ It was closed as it was a Tuesday, so we couldn't go, so I have no review for you, and also, I don't how old your child is/children are, and if they like cats (mine's crazy about them, but we can't have one because we travel too much 🙃), but for us that is always a super hit, so maybe an idea.
@@gremlinontheroad Thank you for advise! This should be lovely. We have 2 cats and my kids love them. My son is 11 and has ADHD (can't really concentrate on art , museums, architecture etc) . Sometimes he can "dive in" to the toys and games activities, and sometimes simple stay in the hotel room makes his mood. We planned to go this weekend, but decided to postpone, to collect bit more info. So.... let's see.
Oh I totally intend to! Thank you for both kind comments (and, as I seem to have missed several things, if there is anywhere in the city you think a tourist should definitely see, please do tell, I am making a list for that next time). Great profile name(s) by the way! 🙂
Once Kodak moved out, that was the end of Rochester!! We knew it was going down years before, the whole country has been going down since the end of WWII. Companies like bausch & lomb, Ganett tv and newspaper, xerox, taylor instruments, poloroid, and more! Kodak means "hand-held"!! It was a wonderful place to live,work and play all in the same day!! Dont feel bad, buffalo, syracuse, Albany, utica, rome, binghamton, olean, is all shot to ****!! Taxes are sky high- income and property both! It snows and food and utilities are way too expense!! Pollution is another problem! 😢
Rochester NY in 2023 = High crime/No bail laws and high taxes. That is about it. City in very rapid decline, with no hope of rebound in sight. Same as most other cities run by Democrats for decades
It said so in the Wiki entry (as in, the name remained, the company itself having been taken over in the 1908s), although I'm never fully sure when to trust wikipedia. It was quite hard to find sources on this remotely (found plenty of fascinating stuff on Henry Sibley, though!), so thank you, now I know!
At Kodak, you could borrow photo equipment at no cost! And if u were full time, you could go to Kodak School for 8 hours every week to learn how to use Kodak products!! I knew a man who's job it was to get customers to use 1 more sheet per year of Kodak paper!! That is what his job was for years! George Eastman was never married, he awoke everday to the sound of organ music that his male organist played to tell him it was time to get up!! What a life!! George Eastman committed suicide! He had a gay old time of it!! And so did his organist!
I have read that Rochester was the Silicon valley of the 1950s, and early '60s, as in the center of that era's consumer tech innovations by Kodak, Xerox, BASF and (I learned from watching this) Bausch & Lomb. Rochester was listed as having the lowest unemployment rate of any metro area in the nation. Then, in the summer of 1964, the '50s/early '60s ended; Rochester had severe rioting by black residents after a killing of a black man in police custody. Blacks said these incidents happened too often and all leaders cared about was basking in their low unemployment rate and toasting the Eastmans, Bauschs and Lombs. The well off discovered black people and came face to face with the fact that the power structure in this nation had created ghettos. The old illusion was over.
Somehow, I did not find the rioting story in what I read - likely because anything after 1918 just seems too recent to me, and I lose interest beyond the 1930s. That would cause an enduring rift, and explains the optics of some of the other comments. Can you recommend some reading on these events please?
@@brianarbenz1329 yes, sorry, didn't realise that YT deletes links in comments. Bit of a pain, but found some materials using the details you mentioned, including some newspaper articles from the time - fascinating. Thank you very much for telling me about it, much appreciated!
@@Leroy-wm4ib I tried to link to 2 PBS sites with info avbout the Rochester riot in '64, but the Gremlin said YT won't allow such links anymore. I'll see if I can get more info on how to access them.
Thank you! Well I feel like I missed things, and would like to spend more time in other places, so might well be back, so thanks for the advice. Will bring some big friends along...
I thought all images that I included in the video are public domain and came either from LOC, NY digital library, British library or wiki commons, but as I've been reading everything I could find about Rochester, maybe I did mix things up at some stage of the production. Could you please kindly point me to one or two of the items that you believe did not, so I can go back and check? Thank you!
@@chuckinhouston9952 Trying my best here, sorry if it's not quite up to scratch. If you do find my croak irritating, just turn me off, some people say they enjoyed the story with only the subtitles.
@@AdaptiveApeHybrid well, thank you... since these are my stories, I want to tell them. Not that I would not much rather sound like, say, Keira Knightley, but tough luck, have to work with what I've got.
You're joking? It's fun and fantastic (the accent), and she has a great voice. Gremlin, don't let that Flintstone guy get you down. It does seem like a lot of work to enunciate this way with some connecting sounds that feel like non-sequiturs. But since I understood the narration without straining, I feel now like I'm finally bilingual after a lifetime of futile efforts to learn a 2nd language.
Wow 7 years later since I've moved away and they've polished the turd that is Rochester, these videos amaze me that Rochester and people from hang their hats on "ghosts of Rochester past" like Kodak, a subway system that was defunct in the 1950s" celebrities who are from the area, and famous city leaders like Fredrick Douglas, which btw speaking of which Fredrick Douglas would be disgusted that the city is a still redlined keeping minorities out of the "nice scenic areas" of downtown and east ave its no wonder the downtown is dead. If you plan on moving to Rochester please dont its a hollow city and people will hype it up to be cooler than it really is
Nope, I was just passing through, expecting nothing, yet found quite a lot (for a tourist to visit, I mean - even if, as several others pointed out, I should congratulate myself on getting out in one piece). Well, things come and go, so maybe it will have its renaissance at some point, the (still standing) buildings are worth it.
It’s boring… I’ve been there before they have a good hospital called strong hospital for treatment I was getting years ago. Nothing really to do except go to the mall, and to be honest with you I was bored 😑 They have a museum for kids think it was called the Strong museum
Hey there, well, it sounds like you weren't having a great time, but I guess that is hard when you're in for a hospital treatment. I think I could do a couple of days (i.e. 2 or 3) spending more time in the historical buildings downtown (with just one day, didn't have the time to go inside), do the Eastman house, the cat cafe, the Eastman theatre and the nightlife reported in some of the locals' comments here that I missed completely, but hey, you're talking to a person who had fun for 4 whole days in Goderich, Ontario, so it does take a warped mind 🤣 Thank you for both comments!
@@gremlinontheroad you should see the Greyhound bus station in Rochester it’s atrocious. The station kind of looks like a mobile home trailer and it’s a dump. I must say their Amtrak station is nice, it was brand new a few years back
@@KJJ782 I do have a track record of missing train stations in places and the regretting on having missed out - don't know, never on my way somehow. I'll add it to the list for next time (not sure I'm brave enough for the bus station. Maybe I'll have some very big friends by then.) Have a good weekend!
From what I have been able to find out, the downtown store closed in January 1990, and at the time new shops in malls outside of the downtown core were being opened under the "Kaufmann" brand. Not sure how reliable these accounts are.
@@gremlinontheroad It’s true. Don Alhart has a great video from 1990 on his UA-cam channel covering the Sibley’s closing. Incidentally, Rochester’s other homegrown department stores McCurdy’s and B. Foreman closed in 1994, also acquired by Kauffman’s. Wegmans left downtown that year too, leaving it without a grocery store and that was effectively the end of Midtown Plaza (although it held on until 2007 as a dead mall). The early 90s were not kind to downtown Rochester.
@@redcomic619 Thank you, that is very informative! And I do hope the downtown will come back, although from what people write in their comments here, it will have to come a long way.
Hello there, I am not sure I understand your comment. At 2:50, I say that Rochester had a population of over 9000 people in 1830 (more precisely, about 9200, which is the number given in several sources, including the chapter on the city's history on UoR's main page). The population was almost 300,000 people by 1920, so yes, 250,000 now is absolutely realistic (it appears to be around 200,000 for the city, but over a million in the wide metropolitan area). Not sure, however, what these undeniable facts have to do with tracking the numbers/growth in the mid-1800s. Help me out here.
I am very sorry to hear that, especially as this is why I put subtitles on the videos, so people can just turn off the audio. I could have a bot speak from text, of course - maybe something to consider.
@@gremlinontheroad thank you for your reply. I re-watched the video using subtitles without sound and all was fine. I enjoyed the video very much as a former resident of New York State. Cheers and best wishes to you!
@@stephenkolarac5305 thank you very much for taking the time to watch again, and for reverting, much appreciated! It is a learning curve for me, and I really need the feedback, the negative more than the backslapping, as the idea is for the audience to enjoy the story rather than suffer (for example, because of my creaky voice - alas, some things you're born with and there's not much you can do). I'm giving the text to speech bot serious consideration, although, mentally, the struggle is to let some machine tell the stories I am dying to share...
@@lifeofgremlin Oh please don't do that! It's a blast listening to you narrate. I'd watch a video for your narration alone even if I had no interest in the subject matter. The videos I refuse to watch are those with monotonous bots doing the talking.
@@kikovazquez7277 first, thank you, I really don't know what to say as I never could take a compliment; and secondly, you obviously do like a challenge! I recommend the Fort de la Tour story (apologies in advance for the many typos in the subtitles, not quite sure what happened there but haven't yet had the time to go back and fix it), it's a few episodes back on the channel (somewhere around Saint John, NB).
Thanks for sharing this video! Rochester has many beautiful buildings and huge cultural events. We are renowned for various festivals all summer long. The Lilac Festival in the Spring, Corn Hill and Clothesline Arts Festivals, Jazz Festival, and many. The University of Rochester's main Rush Rhees campus is in the south portion of the city, along the Genesee River. There was once a women's campus at University Avenue & Goodman St. area; it is now the Memorial Art Gallery and Rochester's neighborhood of the arts. Within downtown is the glorious Eastman Theatre, the jewel of the Eastman School of Music, part of the University of Rochester. Many institutes of higher learning have moved or were founded in the suburban areas: we have the Rochester Institute of Technology with the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Nazareth University, St John Fisher University, Empire State College, Roberts Wesleyan University, Bryant and Stratton College, State University of New York College at Brockport and Monroe Community College, as well as Elim Bible Institute. Because of having three schools with large music programs (Eastman, Nazareth, Roberts) and dance (RIT and others), the city is home to many cultural events. There is rarely a night when you cannot see or hear a free concert or performance at one of the schools. Rochester was settled in 1812 and incorporated as the Village of Rochesterville in 1817. The completion of the Erie Canal in the 1820s had led to a boomtown atmosphere in the village, which would become incorporated as a full-fledged city of Rochester in 1834. I'm glad you spent some time at the Central Library of Rochester & Monroe County, which has an amazing local history collection. The water-feature on the North Terrace is shown in 0:13-0:17. Regarding the canal's further uses, it was a subway from 1927-1952. It closed as the route was needed for the increase in automobiles and the parts out of the downtown (center city) area became divided highways, or as we call them, expressways. In fact, the Rundel Memorial Building of the Central Library was actually constructed on top of the extant subway from 1934-1936. After the subway closed, it was never used as a pedestrian walkway. People were able to get in and out, but this was not an officially sanctioned walk. By the way, on of your favorites, LaSalle, did make a stop in this area. Just east of Rochester are the towns of Irondequoit and Webster. Separating them is a very large body of water, the Irondequoit Bay. At the bottom of this bay, LaSalle made landing in 1669. There is a LaSalle's Landing Park at the site now. The bay and Irondequoit Creek area was also visited by the Marquis de Denonville during his 1687 expedition. Because of its major optics industries like Bausch & Lomb, Xerox, and Kodak, Rochester has been known as the Imaging Capital of the World. Rochester is also known as the Lilac Capital of the world, with over 550 species in the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Highland Park, with many new strains developed here. Other famous places here include one of the country's oldest municipal cemeteries, Mt. Hope, where orator Frederick Douglass and women's rights champion Susan B. Anthony are buried, both having lived in Rochester. George Eastman's home is the world's oldest photography museum. The Rochester Public Market is one of the oldest, operating since 1827. The Strong National Museum of Play is a world-class museum with interactive exhibits and is also home to the National Toy Hall of Fame, the International Center for the History of Electronic Games, the World Video Game Hall of Fame, and the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play, and produces the American Journal of Play. Please come back for another visit, and treat yourself to a garbage plate as well!
I was born in 1964 and my family used to go to Sibley's at Christmas time. If I can recall, Sibley's had the clocks of the world. It was beautiful. My dad worked at Hallman Chevrolet for a while. Then I worked at a bank on the corner of Main and Exchange.
I Recall MIdtown Plaza had the Clock of All Nations.
My grandfather was a Canadian immigrant. He moved to the states when he was a teenager. He got into Kodak not long afterwards. My mother was born as part of the booming "kodak family" generation. So she (and her sisters) became a first generation American. With his two hands he built his home, raised an entire family of 3 daughters, 10 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren with his career at Kodak. He was with the company 40 years when they filed for bankruptcy and he was incentivized to retire. Both he and my mother are no longer with us. We buried him last summer just before my birthday. But, i greatly appreciate the sacrifice and contributions that man made to all of our lives. Rochester and Kodak have played a huge role in my family history.
That is some family history, thank you for sharing! I did not know anything about Kodak before going to Rochester last summer (I mean, obviously I knew the name and used the products, but nothing about how it came about or developed, or George Eastman's story), but having read a bit about it, I cannot help but think that had Eastman been alive, or had a worthy heir to the business, they wouldn't have ignored their own R&D people coming with the digital camera and telling the management this was the future, and how much that would have impacted what the city is today.
George Eastman had no heirs because he was a gentleman who preferred the company of men. However he did have nieces and nephews, who still live in Rochester.
Chester Carlson actually created Xerography in NYC, he came to Rochester because Joseph Wilson funded it here. Carlson hated the name Xerox, but Wilson wanted it. Like the original commenter many generations of families worked at Kodak. I worked there as an engineer when it went bankrupt and now work at Xerox. If you want to see empty buildings and wonder where all the people are come to the xerox plant in Webster. It is just a shell of what it was 35 years ago. They tore down some building so the land is taxed cheaper as undeveloped.
@@gremlinontheroadKodak is a tech company that peaked became entrenched in its product and lacked the ability to pivot. I worked in a skunk works that before me developed digital cameras, they also had a cell phone and early 3d printers. None of these products were produced. The patents were all sold off in bankruptcy, most after companies like Apple developed their own products. Apple did buy quite a few patents. Apple off in the future will have the same fate as Kodak. It almost happened in the 90s, but Steve Jobs returned to the company to innovate new products
I love my hometown. It’s heartbreaking to see it in such despair! I have been waiting my entire life for the city to return to its former glory, yet things only seem to be getting worse. I would move back in a heartbeat if the crime and economic conditions improved. I hope I don’t die before that day arrives… I miss it everyday.
Sibley's remained in business downtown until they were purchased by a chain, who sold the building to the Wilmots. Sibley's was founded by the family of Hiram Sibley, who founded Western Union
Sibley's history is beginning to sound a lot like it's worth a whole story of its own. Thank you for sharing this!
I grew up in Rochester and we would visit the Sibley’s store at Christmas for their wonderful displays. Therefore, sibley’s remained downtown, as Sibley’s, until at least 1990.
Enjoyed this. Thx. Love your accent and humor. Cheers!
This was one of the 20 biggest cities in the nation by 1900 and also a city that had more people by 1920 than it does currently in 2020. That’s why there is such grand architecture. The city was pretty much built before cars. The Park Avenue neighborhood is now one of the largest national register historic districts anywhere. Beautiful city. My hometown.
The most dangerous too.
Your hometown is lame, now I see what this what the title of this video means "Rochester NY full of stories but empty"
@@xerorenegado15no one cares. Literally no one gives a shit. People over-exaggerate this kind of commentary. Rochester is still the 4th most populous city in the state of New York, and just recently got bumped down to 4th, as they were previously 3rd for a long time. I don’t get it why not just comment on how all of upstate NY is dying down? It’s no different than literally any other village, town, or small city throughout the state. Yes, high murder rates for very specific areas, but large parts of the city are incredibly safe. Going to the worst beachfront and most boring streets in the city is not really reflecting anything of note. Obviously the fun parts just moved to other areas in the city.
@@xerorenegado15😮
@@TSD438 What is so dangerous about it than any other major city. Please explain.
585 garbage plate gang 🕺
Also im a native so maybe im biased but I love the old architecture here. I used to walk around downtown at night stoned out of my mind just to look at the buildings
ALSO, Hamlin Beach is the best beach here. No other beach is worth your time 🙊
The bar next door has been burglarized 4 times in the last month by the same guy. Rochester isn’t quite empty.
Right; but what puzzles me most about your comment is: if the bar knows who the burglar is (i.e. they must have some evidence), how come the story repeats itself?
@@gremlinontheroadNew York State refuses to prosecute criminals. The police are apathetic and corrupt. The politicians endorse pro-criminal policy such as cashless bail and appearance tickets instead of punishment. The citizens have no recourse because of duty to retreat laws. In short, it’s the same thing happening to society as a whole, just amplified by the abysmally soft criminal justice system in New York.
We are famous for inventing a ground beef sauce that is served with a hamburger and two sides. You have a strange accent I guess this place is more interesting to foreigners than anyone who lives here , it kind of sucks
I guess always the case, my current home city has lots of good stories yet I don't even really look at them, or it, properly; not to mention the several places I've lived in before. Grass always greener, and everything looks better when you're on a holiday kind of thing... Must find that sauce though!
I saw Sammy Hagar solo in 97 at the Eastman Theater.
Lived in Fairport 97-02. Rochester is a beautiful city...but it certainly does have its "parts".
I was on stage singing with the band after winning a WCMF contest
@@thorodinson5520 oh wow...I can't remember...was he singing Mas Tequila?
The view from kodak marketing/ education center made genesee river seem like a wilderness park
I only saw it from the pedestrian bridge across the gorge, but even from there, agreed! Thank you.
You completely missed PARK AVENUE-
Quaint gift shops - cafes - restaurants and tons of people. Downtown is more of a business district with attorneys - real estate and county services. Nothing to see. You we’re actually walking distance from Park avenue.
Should have asked around... Thank you, something definitely not to miss next time. I did love the architecture downtown, though.
Downtown Rochester was once a bustling vibrante magnet.
Rampant crime and the massive malls out in the suburbs killed it.
Downtown has a few places for folks to live, but they're pricey.
It's now beginning to build more affordable housing. But it's anybody's guess as to how long those new projects will last as peaceful.
Rochesterians have a 50/50 attitude. Half good, half.. REALLY bad. The city is no longer the picture postcard perfect place it was in the 60s and 70s. We came from Brooklyn New York in 1969. Lived off of Mt. Hope Avenue when Mt. Hope was a railhead packed with warehouse from Alexander St., all the way to Highland Park. My dad would leave the front door wide open with just the screen door locked to let air circulate. Our bedroom windows were also wide open at night in the summer. No worries.
Rochester is NO LONGER that type of haven😢
Really cool video. I liked the tongue in cheek humor. I was born and raised in Rochester and my dad worked at Kodak his whole career so we ended up with piles of super 8mm film all over the house. Back in college i used to run along the Genesee River from UofR up past the DinoBBQ and back which was like a mini tour of the city. I had no idea there Erie canal went over the river down town! It moved further south at some point apparently.
Anyhow nice video thanks for taking the time.
Thank you for a good word, and for taking the time to comment, much appreciated! I loved the film, and the suspense of "is it going to come out okay" - such a shame they did not move on...
If you’re familiar w who Susan b Anthony is, she is buried at my hope cemetery and women’s National rights convention qnd lots of that history is in a town not far from here. U did an excellent job though w history, w what you did show. 👍🏼
In the 1980's, Kodak employed 90% of working people in Monroe County,and 60% of the working people in the 3 ajoining counties !! Kodak never had a union, Why?? George Eastman tried his employees with class!! If you worked at Kodak, you were set for life!!
they need to create a space downtown like Kansas City did ( Kansas City Power & Light ) a mix use center of bars , restaurants , and open space for live music .. This gives people a reason to come into town from the suburbs . Cash in on the downtown river that way . Clean up all the debris that collects and do a music and light show on the falls ( See Providence RI 's "River Fire" walk
Shoutout to my city 🙏🏾🙏🏾❤️
I'm currently living here right now as we speak been living in Rochester NY when I was born
Lived in Rochester most my whole life and it's horrible here in 2020s ..Crime is horrible people dying daily and yea houses be shot up
I visited Rochester and in the local news a while back a woman was in danger and cops did nothing . She was murdered by her ex husband. From what I understand these 2 cops were charged for not helping her. Not sure how common that is but that is not good.
Welcome to literally any metropolitan area in America friend
@@AdaptiveApeHybrid Same in most countries the exception are the nice clean Asian countries and even there it is starting to get downhill. Paris , France is a big dump! I have family there and they are leaving
@@karimsanchez3213 that's fair.
@@karimsanchez3213 No it's not. Not at all
The subway was immaculate and the urban art moved in still beautifully decorated
That subway is a piece of shit 😂😂 God people from Rochester will polish any turd and try to sell it off as a precious stone
With the downsize in Kodak and Xerox its pretty much just a stop on the way to Buffalo
Don't know, went on to Buffalo for the next stop and felt like there was a lot more in Rochester...
@@gremlinontheroad the standard joke from NYC was that there was New York City and everywhere else was “just Buffalo”.
@@daviddavey1727 hee hee...Thank you for this one!
If you like forgotten cities with interesting history, interesting buildings, and bizarrely few people on the streets, you must come to Hartford.
Sorry, only just saw this comment, then looked at the Mark Twain house and the state capitol, and yup, you are totally right: I absolutely must go to Hartford!! Thank you, I'd never know otherwise.
Lived there...in the suburbs from '86 - '21...work related...enjoyed it...affordable cost of living...good school system...great place to raise kids...
Coming from someone who lives in Rochester, this is a nice video
Thank you - much appreciated. I really liked Rochester, and will surely come back. Maybe I'll stay downtown this time, see how scary it really is, with all the other comments...
12:08 111 East Avenue! I lived there from 1990-1994 for $285/month.
You lucky ducky!
That was an impressive narration. I counted at least three different accents in one voice 😁
I can do more, I can do more! And hey, none of them will be any kind of native English! 😂
@@gremlinontheroad I could swear there was an occasional bit of London cockney amongst it all. Hey, you know what they say. If ya got it use it! 🙂
@@lesterbangs3417 oh, that one - that must be the husband, although he's from North London, so not really a cockney 🙃 I did have hopes, but not much of it has rubbed off - but well, there's always the subtitles...
My parents watched this city slowly die, now they scold me for going there for restaurants and such because of safety and I dont blame them.
but you do come back! that's how recovery starts...
Once upon a time, Rochester had 320,000 souls thriving in it.
210k today, but the surrounding suburbs and greater metro area is bigger than it has ever been.
Should have shown the Eastman theatre, if it’s still there, the place was beautiful.
Sorry, I thought I replied to this ages ago, but seemingly not! I checked, it is still there and still a theatre, so a must next time, thank you for the tip, didn't find it last summer.
The theatre is there and still used regularly. It is absolutely gorgeous inside.
ROCHESTER CLOSED MIDTOWN AND
THEN PUT BUSES IN THE TRANSIT
CENTER AMD CLOSED ALL STORE'S
DOWNTOWN AND NOW YOU BARELY
SEE ANYONE AND PEOPLE ARE MOVING
TO OTHER CITIES BECAUSE THERE IS
NOTHING HERE . THIS IS A SHAME.
It’s a lovey city. I’d move there in a minute and start fixing a house up in one of those neighborhoods. TheChurches are just beautiful. There’s a famous new German pipe organ there in one of those red sandstone gothic churches. That’s a wonderful thing for an American city to be known for.
Once again, a fascinating detail I missed! Thank you!
One interesting thing about the cities in upstate NY is they have some great architecture downtown, a legacy of their more prosperous days of yore.
Except both Niagara Falls and Lockport, those two upstate cities largely destroyed their historic urban fabric with urban renewal.
Should've talked about Mount Hope, the Lilac Festival and Mount Hope Cemetery are both interesting bits of Rochester lore. I love Highland Park the most though, it's an phenomenal park/nature reserve/campground/flower garden (I love smoking weed by the water reserve, very peaceful.)
I know, I missed quite a few things! Gives me a reason to come back, though. And I stayed across the road from Mt Hope, arghhhh...
Sibleys depatment stores were purchased by may company in the 80s.
Hello, yes, thank you for the correction! Having read a bit more, it was only then that they stopped using the Sibley's brand. The company was first sold to Associated Dry Goods Corporation in the 1950s, but they continued under the old name, until May took over in 1986. Sorry about this - all I can say, this was my first encounter with Rochester history, and an awful lot to take in all at once. Which is, of course, no excuse for getting things wrong. Thanks again!
Left 30 years ago. You can only keep painting things so many times. Who can afford the taxes?
Born Rochester New York.Played in the house next to Eastman house. Look like George Ellwanger lived on Fintray place, Rocheser New York.
The original Reynolds Arcade was torn down in 1932, the current building was built after that. The Paddock Arcade in Watertown, NY has been in continuous operation since 1850.
This was quite entertaining, will have to check out more of ur vids…… learned somethings abt Rochester, been here since 1984 and didn’t know some of it. Cheerio! 👍🏼
Thank you very much, much appreciated!
The city is full of ghosts, and former glory. A woman I once was fond of was murdered in the city by two black men, and then she was dumped like trash behind a house on Skuse street. Rochester is now an active war zone with murders nearly every night. I worked at Great Lakes Press, Case Hoyt, Weyerhaeuser paper co on Boxart street, and also Xerox. I owned a house on Mohawk street for 13 years and finally left for greener pastures in 2003. I moved to an entirely different county. Rochester, like so many other cities has lost its soul to political cancer, greed, incompetency, and to a culture which covets immorality, violence, and social decay.
Edit: I couldn't care less who agrees with me or not. This is just how the city has reflected on my life. I remember standing on the 4th floor of Great Lakes Press in the morning before anyone else got there, and watching the trains going through while I sipped coffee. Buildings still stood on Central ave, and Wegmans was still in Midtown. It really was a different world in Rochester. People were different..richer. They wore more hats.
I suppose no place in human history is ever great for very long, it all comes and goes, and it is just the way it is - still, quite sad to hear all these crime stories from so many people here. Even if I am much attracted to places full of ghosts and former glory (to use your wonderful phrase).
@@gremlinontheroad Rochester is rich in history for sure. It's still a powerhouse of big brains with the U of R, and RIT. It's also one of the better places in the world to be if you require medical care.
@@Atouk as I said to someone else who complained there was nothing in the city left but the UofR and the RIT, perhaps these are good place to start bouncing back from. I certainly hope it will. Really loved the architecture, the falls, and the pockets of life out where we stayed around Mt Hope.
@Atouk, you said the woman was "murdered in the city by two black men..." That's a terrible act, but what religion were these two murderers? That's as relevant as their skin color. Shouldn't we be told that as well? Or perhaps the fact that their deed was so horrible should be enough to place these two men in context, with no other characteristics needing to be added.
@@brianarbenz1329 Well, they were two black men. Can't change the facts. A woman was murdered, but describing her killers upsets you. What an amazing human being.
Only things keeping afloat are RIT and U Roch
Construction seems to be booming right now
The accent is just too hard to listen to. Couldn’t make it through the video. Are you a French, South African, Australian, Englishman?
Once Kodak started outsourcing everything overseas in the 1990's Rochester died. We have been slowly decaying ever since. The local government spends money like we are thriving while the economy gets gutted by bad policy. The population grows while the jobs leave.
Sadly, this rather seems the fate of most old cities in that area, both sides of the border. Heartbreaking to see, really.
@@gremlinontheroad yeah, it really is a shame.
Sounds a lot like neighbor Syracuse!
@@daviddavey1727 Upstate and Western NY are stuck in the same Rust Belt situation as places like Cleveland and Detroit. The only reason Detroit is in worse shape is because their industry left about a decade earlier.
@@daviddavey1727 yeah, missed that one and supersorry about it, too.
Rochester was full of Great Corporations such as Rochester Products also part of General Motors, AC Delco, which later became ITT, and was sold to a French company named Valeo, There was Xerox, Bauch & Lomb, Kodak, Cooper Vision, The University of Rochester Medical school, Wegmans supermarket Chain, BJs wholesale club. there were plenty of jobs, a great economy it the 60's, 70's and 80's and 90's. I was fortunate to start my life there with my brothers and cousins escaping Communist Cuba and leaving my families Businesses taken over by Communism. Such a great Nation America is. We came over legally and started our new life in Rochester. Many fond memories of the wonderful people in Rochester that we will be forever grateful. God Bless America and God Bless Rochester....
Excellent video.
thank you very much, this is extremely kind to say. Filming might have been better, but each subsequent one is a learning curve... Best wishes to you!
In the past week, 2 US Postal workers who were delivering mail were robbed in Rochester. These happened in the middle of the day. Numerous cars are either broken into or stolen daily. A stolen car is used as a battering ram to knock down a storefront and then a second stolen car is used to haul the stolen goods away. Rochester is a horror show of a city and that is why you saw few people walking around. You were lucky you made it out of there without an incident.
What you described happens almost anywhere these days. With a defund the police movement, prosecutors overwhelmed by cases, and having to choose amongst the seriousness of crimes, criminals are taking advantage of it. Don't expect it to get better, coming to a town near you soon.
I was at a grocery store recently, a guy walked out with a cart full of goods without paying. A young female employee tried to stop him, the guy threw water bottles at her, while his accomplice loaded the stuff in the car. A manager came out & took the employee inside, they took the loss. The police won't respond in stead they send a car with police volunteers to take a report 😮
Organized theft rings originating mostly in California are beginning to spread all over the country. Online sale sites you know the ones, offer an opportunity to sell designer products at high profits, since there is no whole sale cost.
wow... Didn't look or feel that dangerous. Such a shame, it is beautiful place. Does make me wonder how did they do it, 100 years ago, with next to none police force, no ability to track people, way lower general standard of living, yet all these cities we visited last summer flourished, and now they are dying.
Those incidents are concentrated in certain parts of the cities which most people I know don’t even frequent, downtown, and the eastern part of the city is quite safe
@joshuabatres182 Yes it's true that you really don't want to go into some parts. If you're in the city you definitely want to have your street wise spidey senses turned up!
My brother sent me a surveillance video of a gang in Indianapolis who stole a truck and used it as a battering ram to break in and rob a gun store. It was astounding how organized they are. They know exactly what they're going to take, and they're in there for less than a minute. Crime in Indianapolis is horrendous.
Looking for reasons to be thankful to be from here because I've never been and when I traveled to other states I usually told people I was from NYC.
I don't know. An awful lot of people commented on how dangerous and unpleasant Rochester is. I was only there for a day, but found it beautiful, even in it's somewhat forlorn condition, and the history is mind-blowing. You have every reason to be proud for your home city. Now let's hope people just don't walk away from it.
@@gremlinontheroad I prefer thankful as opposed to proud.
@@LesssThanAverageJoe That is a very thoughtful approach.
Can’t be greatful that Rochester turned you into a tougher than nails person that can handle any condition?
Why tell people your from NYC? Kind of odd. Can be plenty dangerous there too.
I will harangue to anyone that Rochester is a golden place to live and the idiots who live there don't even know it.
Now, all these things I am going to mention existed when I left, and may not exist any more. But here:
Rochester has a world-renowned music symphony and music school that runs free student concerts every weeknight all during the school year. Record stores include the nationally-famous Bop Shop, the nationally-famous House of Guitars, and the supermarket-sized Record Archive. There is a world-famous jazz festival, and in the Eighties there was a very active New Wave scene.
(My brother totally ripped off the House of Guitars for his 1957 Precision Bass and I totally ripped them off for my 1960 Jazzmaster.)
Rochester has two beautiful beaches that nobody goes to. They keep trying to fk up Charlotte, maybe they succeeded by now, I don't know.
Rochester has not just an art movie theater but it is a triplex. Plus the Cinema theater (which closed). Plus the Dryden, that has shows that people fly in from all over the country to see.
Rochester has a downtown baseball stadium, painfully cheaply constructed because the mayor at the time didn't want to support a white people's sport.
Rochester has the University of Rochester and RIT, both top-of-the-list schools.
Rochester has or had the largest number of pizza joints per capita in the country. And an Italian market and sub shop that has been continually operating since the mid-1940s, and knows how to make a meatball sub that nobody else knows how to do. Rochester used to have mind-blowing burger joints until Mediocreburger Industries bought them all. They have Kithno's, whose Friday Fish Fry is indescribable. Does Rochester still have all-night diners? They did when I was there. And Cobbs Hill Pizza, which made the only steak sandwich that is actually as delicious as people think their steak sandwiches are. And Pontillo's Hudson and Ridge, where the guy who ran it was actually named Guido and made a pie that had The Thing that distinguishes real pies from imposters. And probably lots of others that I can't remember. The last time I was up there I toured all the great food places I could hit in four days and didn't near get to all of them.
And fairs and festivals all during the summer. And great flea markets within a reasonable Sunday drive. And great garage sales because people have lived in their homes for seventy years. Gigantic classic car shows.
And a freakin' amusement park with rollercoasters and stuff. You think other cities have amusement parks?
OTHER CITIES ANYWHERE NEAR THIS SIZE DON'T HAVE ANY OF THIS STUFF.
And oh by the way it's the home of Wegmans
Best pizza in the world.
House of Guitars and pizza on the bucket list for next trip!
@@gremlinontheroad Every shop's pizza is a little bit different, but pretty much all of them are good. lol
So many communities fading away more or less…
Yes, it is sad - although several of these fantastic buildings appeared to be under renovation, so there is hope.
Lovely video
I don't know where they got this narrator, but they ought to take her back where they found her.
Btw, there’s like 7 major schools/ university type all here.
Really? I knew of 3. With 7, it must bounce back, eventually. It must!!
Great video, thank you for details, i honestly enjoyed. But I also understood, that basically nothing really to do there with kids.
Not much that we found - mine kind of enjoyed the high falls area with the preserved ruins of a mill and the bridge over the ravine, and very much wanted to go investigate the Erie canal bed on the closed-off former tram bridge (Broad Street, level -1), but we didn't think that was such a great idea. Ontario beach was fun, especially the carousel, and we happened upon a live concert in the park near the beach later that evening - but someone commented that I missed a very lively area at Park Avenue (comment by harleyboy200). Maybe there's something there.
@@gremlinontheroad Thank you for info!
@@AK.__ No trouble at all, and just remembered: we walked past this place (it's around East Avenue at Main), a cat cafe (= where you can buy a ticket to seat in a room with cats, play with them etc., although usually there's no lifting them up, which is understandable, but also quite difficult with cat-eager kids) www.pawsitivecatcafe.com/ It was closed as it was a Tuesday, so we couldn't go, so I have no review for you, and also, I don't how old your child is/children are, and if they like cats (mine's crazy about them, but we can't have one because we travel too much 🙃), but for us that is always a super hit, so maybe an idea.
@@gremlinontheroad Thank you for advise! This should be lovely. We have 2 cats and my kids love them. My son is 11 and has ADHD (can't really concentrate on art , museums, architecture etc) . Sometimes he can "dive in" to the toys and games activities, and sometimes simple stay in the hotel room makes his mood. We planned to go this weekend, but decided to postpone, to collect bit more info. So.... let's see.
@@AK.__ Oh good! Hope you'll have a good time. Best wishes!
Please come back sometime!
Oh I totally intend to! Thank you for both kind comments (and, as I seem to have missed several things, if there is anywhere in the city you think a tourist should definitely see, please do tell, I am making a list for that next time). Great profile name(s) by the way! 🙂
You didn’t see Rochester if you didn’t go to the Park Avenue neighborhood.
Once Kodak moved out, that was the end of Rochester!!
We knew it was going down years before, the whole country has been going down since the end of WWII.
Companies like bausch & lomb, Ganett tv and newspaper, xerox, taylor instruments, poloroid, and more! Kodak means "hand-held"!!
It was a wonderful place to live,work and play all in the same day!! Dont feel bad, buffalo, syracuse, Albany, utica, rome, binghamton, olean, is all shot to ****!!
Taxes are sky high- income and property both! It snows and food and utilities are way too expense!!
Pollution is another problem! 😢
I used to work in the wilder building 2019-2022
Rochester NY in 2023 = High crime/No bail laws and high taxes. That is about it. City in very rapid decline, with no hope of rebound in sight. Same as most other cities run by Democrats for decades
Sibley's lasted until 1990 BTW.
It said so in the Wiki entry (as in, the name remained, the company itself having been taken over in the 1908s), although I'm never fully sure when to trust wikipedia. It was quite hard to find sources on this remotely (found plenty of fascinating stuff on Henry Sibley, though!), so thank you, now I know!
At Kodak, you could borrow photo equipment at no cost! And if u were full time, you could go to Kodak School for 8 hours every week to learn how to use Kodak products!! I knew a man who's job it was to get customers to use 1 more sheet per year of Kodak paper!! That is what his job was for years! George Eastman was never married, he awoke everday to the sound of organ music that his male organist played to tell him it was time to get up!! What a life!!
George Eastman committed suicide!
He had a gay old time of it!! And so did his organist!
Rochester was so well known.
the suburbunisation tide is turning in other places, so I hope life will come back. Amazing architecture, and so many stories.
Thanks for this video!
Be it ever so crappy, there's no place like home!
There's nothing left but crime and pot holes.
She got some facts glaringly wrong. ie. Siblies did not disappear until sometime in the seventies!
Lake Ontario did NOT freeze 1 year recently, its the 1st time in history not to!! Global warming!!
Except it wasn't! Great closing line!
Thank you! Practicing closing lines in case, one of these days, I get the time to sit down and write something...
This accent is crazy
You should have sobered up before you narrated this mess.
I have read that Rochester was the Silicon valley of the 1950s, and early '60s, as in the center of that era's consumer tech innovations by Kodak, Xerox, BASF and (I learned from watching this) Bausch & Lomb.
Rochester was listed as having the lowest unemployment rate of any metro area in the nation. Then, in the summer of 1964, the '50s/early '60s ended; Rochester had severe rioting by black residents after a killing of a black man in police custody. Blacks said these incidents happened too often and all leaders cared about was basking in their low unemployment rate and toasting the Eastmans, Bauschs and Lombs.
The well off discovered black people and came face to face with the fact that the power structure in this nation had created ghettos. The old illusion was over.
Somehow, I did not find the rioting story in what I read - likely because anything after 1918 just seems too recent to me, and I lose interest beyond the 1930s. That would cause an enduring rift, and explains the optics of some of the other comments. Can you recommend some reading on these events please?
@@gremlinontheroad I keep posting links, but they keep disappearing. I linked to two PBS sites about the '64 riot. Must be a copyright thing.
@@brianarbenz1329 yes, sorry, didn't realise that YT deletes links in comments. Bit of a pain, but found some materials using the details you mentioned, including some newspaper articles from the time - fascinating. Thank you very much for telling me about it, much appreciated!
@@brianarbenz1329 If you can tell me where can I find information about the riot of 64. Thanks 🙏
@@Leroy-wm4ib I tried to link to 2 PBS sites with info avbout the Rochester riot in '64, but the Gremlin said YT won't allow such links anymore. I'll see if I can get more info on how to access them.
FACE IT PEOPLE, everyone is leaving, the few that stay will have to pay higher taxes for all that have left........sucker's.
It’s murder city now in glad you made it through our city . Stay away from the abc blocks if you come back..
Thank you! Well I feel like I missed things, and would like to spend more time in other places, so might well be back, so thanks for the advice. Will bring some big friends along...
You used so many items from Rochester Museum and science center and gave no credit
I thought all images that I included in the video are public domain and came either from LOC, NY digital library, British library or wiki commons, but as I've been reading everything I could find about Rochester, maybe I did mix things up at some stage of the production. Could you please kindly point me to one or two of the items that you believe did not, so I can go back and check? Thank you!
What kind of accent is this?
Wish I could decide myself, but there are all too many possibilities. Let's just go with not English...
Annoying
@@chuckinhouston9952 Trying my best here, sorry if it's not quite up to scratch. If you do find my croak irritating, just turn me off, some people say they enjoyed the story with only the subtitles.
@@chuckinhouston9952 No, it's not annoying. My ancestors immigrated here from the country of Annoyingia, and I don't talk like that.
YOU DONT REALLY HAVE A VOICE FOR VOICE OVERS
No, I don't! Or the accent! But since that doesn't seem to stop very many other people, why should it stop me?
@@gremlinontheroad I like it 🤷🏻♂️
@@AdaptiveApeHybrid well, thank you... since these are my stories, I want to tell them. Not that I would not much rather sound like, say, Keira Knightley, but tough luck, have to work with what I've got.
@@gremlinontheroad no shame for things one can't control
You're joking? It's fun and fantastic (the accent), and she has a great voice. Gremlin, don't let that Flintstone guy get you down. It does seem like a lot of work to enunciate this way with some connecting sounds that feel like non-sequiturs. But since I understood the narration without straining, I feel now like I'm finally bilingual after a lifetime of futile efforts to learn a 2nd language.
One or my friends lived there, but him and his family got sick of it and moved to Milwaukee, with more industrialization
Wow 7 years later since I've moved away and they've polished the turd that is Rochester, these videos amaze me that Rochester and people from hang their hats on "ghosts of Rochester past" like Kodak, a subway system that was defunct in the 1950s" celebrities who are from the area, and famous city leaders like Fredrick Douglas, which btw speaking of which Fredrick Douglas would be disgusted that the city is a still redlined keeping minorities out of the "nice scenic areas" of downtown and east ave its no wonder the downtown is dead. If you plan on moving to Rochester please dont its a hollow city and people will hype it up to be cooler than it really is
Nope, I was just passing through, expecting nothing, yet found quite a lot (for a tourist to visit, I mean - even if, as several others pointed out, I should congratulate myself on getting out in one piece). Well, things come and go, so maybe it will have its renaissance at some point, the (still standing) buildings are worth it.
It’s boring… I’ve been there before they have a good hospital called strong hospital for treatment I was getting years ago. Nothing really to do except go to the mall, and to be honest with you I was bored 😑 They have a museum for kids think it was called the Strong museum
Hey there, well, it sounds like you weren't having a great time, but I guess that is hard when you're in for a hospital treatment. I think I could do a couple of days (i.e. 2 or 3) spending more time in the historical buildings downtown (with just one day, didn't have the time to go inside), do the Eastman house, the cat cafe, the Eastman theatre and the nightlife reported in some of the locals' comments here that I missed completely, but hey, you're talking to a person who had fun for 4 whole days in Goderich, Ontario, so it does take a warped mind 🤣 Thank you for both comments!
@@gremlinontheroad you should see the Greyhound bus station in Rochester it’s atrocious. The station kind of looks like a mobile home trailer and it’s a dump. I must say their Amtrak station is nice, it was brand new a few years back
@@KJJ782 I do have a track record of missing train stations in places and the regretting on having missed out - don't know, never on my way somehow. I'll add it to the list for next time (not sure I'm brave enough for the bus station. Maybe I'll have some very big friends by then.) Have a good weekend!
Sibley lasted until the 1990s
From what I have been able to find out, the downtown store closed in January 1990, and at the time new shops in malls outside of the downtown core were being opened under the "Kaufmann" brand. Not sure how reliable these accounts are.
@@gremlinontheroad It’s true. Don Alhart has a great video from 1990 on his UA-cam channel covering the Sibley’s closing. Incidentally, Rochester’s other homegrown department stores McCurdy’s and B. Foreman closed in 1994, also acquired by Kauffman’s. Wegmans left downtown that year too, leaving it without a grocery store and that was effectively the end of Midtown Plaza (although it held on until 2007 as a dead mall). The early 90s were not kind to downtown Rochester.
@@redcomic619 Thank you, that is very informative! And I do hope the downtown will come back, although from what people write in their comments here, it will have to come a long way.
can they find someone to speak properly?
Trumplandia in upstate New York! Annoying AI narration?
2:50 for 9000 people??? Is that a joke? You can easily fit 250 thousand there. Wake up.
Hello there, I am not sure I understand your comment. At 2:50, I say that Rochester had a population of over 9000 people in 1830 (more precisely, about 9200, which is the number given in several sources, including the chapter on the city's history on UoR's main page). The population was almost 300,000 people by 1920, so yes, 250,000 now is absolutely realistic (it appears to be around 200,000 for the city, but over a million in the wide metropolitan area). Not sure, however, what these undeniable facts have to do with tracking the numbers/growth in the mid-1800s. Help me out here.
Hard heads a what rochestarians are so this person didn't really pay attention. Just wanted to tell ya
I find it difficult to follow the accent of the narrator. I gave up watching after a few minutes. Sorry
I am very sorry to hear that, especially as this is why I put subtitles on the videos, so people can just turn off the audio. I could have a bot speak from text, of course - maybe something to consider.
@@gremlinontheroad thank you for your reply. I re-watched the video using subtitles without sound and all was fine. I enjoyed the video very much as a former resident of New York State. Cheers and best wishes to you!
@@stephenkolarac5305 thank you very much for taking the time to watch again, and for reverting, much appreciated! It is a learning curve for me, and I really need the feedback, the negative more than the backslapping, as the idea is for the audience to enjoy the story rather than suffer (for example, because of my creaky voice - alas, some things you're born with and there's not much you can do). I'm giving the text to speech bot serious consideration, although, mentally, the struggle is to let some machine tell the stories I am dying to share...
@@lifeofgremlin Oh please don't do that! It's a blast listening to you narrate. I'd watch a video for your narration alone even if I had no interest in the subject matter. The videos I refuse to watch are those with monotonous bots doing the talking.
@@kikovazquez7277 first, thank you, I really don't know what to say as I never could take a compliment; and secondly, you obviously do like a challenge! I recommend the Fort de la Tour story (apologies in advance for the many typos in the subtitles, not quite sure what happened there but haven't yet had the time to go back and fix it), it's a few episodes back on the channel (somewhere around Saint John, NB).
Godbless u. I was raped here in this beautiful city. I miss it
The city or being raped?