Posted by “I don’t want to walk around downtown Rochester,” said a recent visitor that hadn’t been to the city in decades. As someone who loves to show the progress we have made as a city over the last decade and a half, I was deflated by this comment.
But I get it… if you haven’t been to Rochester in 15 years, you likely would still believe it was just the way you left it. Hollowed out, lonely, lifeless and vacant. The once booming economy, led by the “big three” employers, Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch and Lomb, was reduced to a shadow of its former self as all three companies were essentially erased from the downtown scene just after turn of the century. Couple that with decades of white flight and you had a downtown with nothing but a failing mall, which also closed in 2008.
Flash forward to this past week. Justine, my friend of 20 years, was on a trip to The States from her home in Barcelona, Spain. She was visiting friends and family in Rochester, where she grew up. When we met, I lived in the suburbs while Justine snagged a humble little apartment in the city. Justine was always discovering the fun but few-and-far-between gems in Rochester. Eclectic cafes, authentic hole-in-the-wall ethnic restaurants and delightful little shops… you name it, she found it. And she introduced me to these experiences as well. While I was born in Chicago, I never thought Rochester could have elements of the same energy. Even in 2007, Justine’s adventure-thirsty mantra found those tiny eclectic urban pockets and shared them with others. While my eventual embrace of Rochester city life came much later, I credit Justine in part for showing me that you can find the great places in any city, you just have to look.
Justine moved to Spain in 2011. She always wanted to travel and see the world, and I was super psyched when she had the opportunity.
A few weeks ago, however, she reached out and said she was visiting and wanted to spend an evening riding around Rochester by bike. So I devised a route that highlighted the city’s changing landscape, renewed beautification and re-imagined vibrancy, and on Thursday, August 1st, we set out on a journey to reconnect my friend to a city that has been through a whirlwind of change.
We approached the city on the Genesee Riverway Trail via the new Northstar Commons.
I showed her the new downtown employment hubs, Constellation Wines and Butler Till.
She saw the amazing downtown apartment explosion that is Tower280, The Metropolitan, The Nathaniel, the revived Sibley Building and more. We visited Unwine’d and had a couple glasses of vino before heading over to the place I truly wanted Justine to see, Parcel 5. The former site of the aforementioned Midtown Mall, the city park was playing host to the Puerto Rican festival that night. The energy of the crowd was incredible, and the vibe was off the charts.
More importantly, watching my friend spin around as she took in the view she never knew (Midtown Mall was not demolished until after she moved away) was such a treasure. I was one of the staunch advocates for the space to become a park many years ago, and to see Justine experience the fruits of this advocacy was honestly pretty special. The height of the sky at the sight of old demolished midtown plaza left the greatest impression on Justine.
“I could stand square in the center of the city and feel a whole new heartbeat vibrating all around me,” she said. “For the first time, I could look up and see an uninterrupted, azure-blue sky pierced with the golden and violet hues of sunset stretch across the river to the liberty pole, past the park and descend into the parcel where we stood.”
We continued our ride to the former Inner Loop area, now home to Rochester’s newest neighborhood. Justine was tickled to follow the new brownstone buildings hugging the previous Inner Loop, gapping at the new sidewalks leading to a packed beer parlour, a buzzing gaming cafe, and a new hotel gracing the jubilant and colorful steps of the Strong Museum of Play.
We finished the night in the Swillburg and South Wedge neighborhoods, enjoying great food and drink.
Justine said it best. “I feel like an alien in my own city.” She was overcome by the evolution of Rochester and simply could not believe how different it was. She was constantly in awe of a city that has come so far from what she knew. Obviously, Rochester has a long way to go before it stands with the ranks of Barcelona, but Justine’s appreciation for Rochester’s progress was pretty special to witness.
Sometimes we forget how quickly and frequently change happens in our cities these days. But over the last 15-20 years, the evolution of my city has been extensive, and for that I am truly grateful. And to see that change through someone else’s eyes? Well that was just truly special.
***I am an urbanist influencer and do not have a formal degree in urban planning. While I am deeply passionate about urban design, trends, issues and topics, I believe in this time of undisciplined media to be honest and transparent regarding my lack of any kind of formal journalism or urban planning education. I still believe in my ability to present my viewpoints on interesting topics, but I fully admit that I have not been trained in the higher-educational rigors of expertise on such perspectives. My goal is to challenge people to think differently, not to be the the cited source of unquestionable truth. This footer will now accompany every Urban Phoenix piece, and I am proud to offer this transparency in a time when opinion is often coveted over rigorously-tested fact.***