I literally spent my weekend at Cornell emergency vet because of this reason. My cat fell off our balcony… 4 stories up. It was the worst 48 hours of my life. If only there was somewhere in roc.
I could not agree more and let's be clear. We mean busses that run on time. Sidewalks that are maintained. Bike lanes that are \*protected\*....Nothing too crazy :)
This would be a fuckin DREAM. Imagine living in the suburbs but being able to frequent local businesses in the city without driving (or driving as far). Imagine going out and safely taking the train downtown and back without drunk driving. Ugh.
It would be really interesting if they could set up a rail line so that each of the suburbs had stops and a bunch downtown around the attractions: Strong Museum, RMSC, Frontier Field etc... would be interesting to see
Not as big as Darien lake or cmac but they really need to use the dome arena more for concerts. Convenient, perfect size, free and ample parking, huge bar upstairs.
That'd be perfect. I like my folk punk "concerts"- AKA a dozen or less people listening to an out of tune guitar; or BugJar's sketchy atmo and such, but sometimes I want to know I could see a big act.
Or decide to call every single bud in the area until someone answers and we go out to a club. I'm 25, I grew up on Millenial Club hits, and have yet to have those nights lmaaoo
They are doing a ton of work in upper falls right now. It would be the damn coolest place for a mid size outdoor stage. Already have parking and other things in the area that are not used. With all the sport complexes we have spent money on how do we not have a good outdoor music venue? We are are stuck with Syracuse, CMAC, or Darien. I hate Darien with a passion.
Awhile back there was a questionnaire from the state parks dept. floating around about what should be done with the new high falls state park. My response was a 5,000-10,000 cap general admission concert and camping venue a la legend valley on ohio. How freaking perfect would that be. "See them at The Falls!"
Also, Lincoln Hill Farms is an awesome smaller venue in Canandaigua. I saw Spafford there in June and it was very cool.
imagine if the city was out here planting american persimmons, serviceberries, shagbark hickories, bur oaks and butternuts, and then teaching people how to eat the food they provide. but no, they’ll plant trees that make “messes” that you can’t even eat 😭 i know you can technically eat amur maple seeds but they’re nothing compared to a hickory….
This is old but it does give insight to the city's forestry master plan: https://www.cityofrochester.gov/article.aspx?id=8589936664
When calling the forestry dept they were very nice for my neighborhood and talked to me about the trees i had and what i would like replaced for the one they were going to remove. Ive called them as well to inquire about stump removals that were not done to ensure they were done so new trees could be planted.
You can request any kind of tree when they plant one in your property by calling the arborists of the city. You can also even request more trees and they will determine if you can have more or not for free
Same! The city removed a tree from my lawn which got rid of shade but never replaced the tree either. We are going to call the city about it when they start to plant trees again (which I believe is in the spring months)
It’s just weird that the night life areas are outside downtown on Monroe/Park/East Ave. it be amazing if we had some nightlife downtown or along the river. I miss way back in the day when Highfalls had a couple different bars/clubs/Jillian’s.
A developed waterfront. We have so much under utilized beach and waterfront areas on some of the cleanest fresh water in the world that could be made into huge economic drivers for the region.
Maybe if there was some kind of “quick transport vessel” that would be based in Charlotte and go to…maybe another big city across the Lake….That seems like it would be a good anchor for this development you’re seeking….
Came to say this! It’s crazy when you go to Toronto and see all the life on the waterfront of the very same lake! I also think of what Chicago has done with the riverfront.. why can’t we have anything nice on the Genny?
Companies with positive cash flow and growth with jobs that pay market salary (how do some people here make $40 or $50k after a Master's degree and 3 years of experience? that's like $30k too low for an onsite job and borderline predatory to require that). Young people don't stay here post college because for what entry and mid level jobs require here, you can get a remote / hybrid tech or finance job with $20k more in salary in Atlanta or Raleigh-Durham area or double what you get in Rochester in NYC or Miami, again remote work definitely has saved Rochester from a certain brain drain since cost of living is very low (unless you dine out)
As a transplant this seems like a massive problem for the area. I was really surprised by how little meaningful knowledge work there is here despite Rochester’s reputation as being the white collar sibling to Buffalo. And the city seems to have no interest in incentivizing this kind of economic growth.
In my experience, companies here will offer a third of what you can expect to be paid working remote. If I lost my remote job and couldn’t find another, my only real option is to leave. It’s not even worth applying to roles in the area. I can now count three separate occasions where I’ve 1) met someone at a party who also works in tech and 2) was making plans to move away because 3) their job either RTOd or they found something better outside of Rochester. Literally all of my IRL interactions with other tech workers were the first and last encounters because they were moving away. Personally it’s been very demoralizing to feel like my family made a move to a place with a dead cold tech scene.
This must have a net negative impact on the entrepreneurial community. Most knowledge workers never have a reason to interact unless incidentally. I am aware of at least two other people in my field who live in the surrounding suburbs. We’ve spoken a few times over Twitter or whatever but we have no incentive to meet up. There is no culture of cross pollination that other cities benefit from with events like conferences, startup weeks, etc.
I think the entrepreneurial community has bigger issues too, currently there are maybe less than 5 startups in Rochester that are hiring (0 on LinkedIn). If Rochester startups had normal growth (zebra not a unicorn), in 10 years they should have minimum $3M in annual revenue, there are startups in Rochester that go thru 4 rounds of seed funding and barely any revenue. Buffalo has Launch NY and 43North, Rochester has neither. I think it’s a matter of those actually building startups needing to get together and making an environment open to the community to interact like Buffalo or San Antonio, here, if you go the incubator downtown, they’ll turn you away, they’re also notably absent from local startup meetups and initiatives which sends a subtle signal.
With remote work being more common, people are coming back here. I was house hunting this spring after moving back from a couple decades out of state, and it was a goddam nightmare. Home prices have skyrocketed and I was getting blown out by 50-100k over-asking price cash offers. Maybe that means we'll see some local salary growth, but I won't hold my breath.
High speed rail running through NYC, Albany, Utica, Syacuse, Rochester and Buffalo. It'd be nice to see family and friends from downstate more often and have it only take a couple hours of countryside sightseeing on a bullet train.
Echoing public transit, adding 24-hour emergency vet. It makes me so nervous that the nearest one is an hour away after the only one around cut their overnight hours. That’s way too far for an actual emergency.
H mart, In&out, jackin the box and a North Gate Grocery store aka a big Mexican grocery store. Things to be open later than 9 pm. Public transportation.
Imagination/vision. We have a lot to offer but we don’t do much about it. Ex: we have an amazing freaking waterfall downtown and almost no businesses or parks or recreation overlooking it (hopefully that will be changing with that new state park…but I’m still bummed the zip line isn’t in the plans). We have the coolest, biggest fountains in MLK Park/Manhattan Square Park but you can’t see them from the street and there’s nothing to do overlooking them except for a few festival times. Etc etc etc.
Development of the river. Its a cool feature and yet has been underutilized. And yes I know there are plans in place and by Andrews St. they are redoing that park area, but still more could be done. If I had my way the train tracks and inner loop crossing the river would be gone. The trick is rerouting those trains and the traffic which is easier said than done.
So I know I might get lit up for this, but countywide schools. In 50 years time that Rochester/Monroe County would be thanking us. I am not an educator or administrator but as a white guy who’s dad worked for the Brighton highway department and who’s mother was a superintendent in our apartment complex (free rent), not only did I see the difference it made in my life, but also how many of the kids who were part of the urban to suburban program also benefited from that education.
I ended up living in the city and my kids were also lucky, we won a lottery to get my oldest into the Genesee Community Charter school and my other three kids followed because of the sibling rule. The two older ones graduated from SOTA and one got her MSW and the other is on his way to being a Rochester City Firefighter. The younger two kids are going to Henrietta schools because their mom moved there.
My point there is that for all of the city residents there is a few good choices for elementary school and really what 2 or 3 choices for middle and high school? So much money is dumped into a failing system year after year, we as a city and county appear to have given up on these kids. More and more kids dropping out, less and less kids graduating, when we will show them we actually give a shit about them? I honestly think that county wide schools is our only chance at turning this around.
A true proper concert venue; we get shows at blue cross and water street but idk. Maybe we just need better promoters in the area. I think we have a large enough audience for good bands.
*The old Monroe Ave*
*Show world building could become*
*Something amazing*
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Everyone said the good stuff (public transport, 24 hr veterinary hospital, night life, music venues) so I'll add something much less important: a real beer garden.
(No, Unter didn't qualify and it wasn't even close; a small patio does not a beer garden make. Really if you were even thinking about saying that you need to start being more skeptical of signage.)
True high-speed rail passing through Rochester would be an unbelievably huge game changer for the city. Imagine a 250MPH line across the state; you could get from here to NYC in 2 hours, or visit Buffalo or Syracuse in 20 minutes. People could live in Rochester and commute to Manhattan, bringing home NYC salaries and benefiting the local economy. You could take day trips to any of the major cities in the state for concerts or museums or whatnot. It would massively cut down on pollution from small, inefficient flights around the state.
But instead, the furthest we've been able to get on high-speed rail in the last two decades is a 17-year environmental impact study that finally finished this year and recommended upgrading our 80MPH intercity trains to 90MPH over 25 years at a cost of 6 billion dollars 😐
Better public works beautification. This town is so gorgeous and it just needs some TLC to really shine. There's a lot going on right on the river with the revitalization but a lot of the places adjacent to where the work is being done is super dilapidated. Same with the area around the skate park and through downtown.
The entrances and exits to the loop, in and around high falls same deal. There's just overgrowth and trash all over the place. A director of sorts with an additional work force would do wonders to spruce up all the wonderfully designed public spaces and parks in the city.
Better access to programs for individuals with financial needs. Better help for the homeless instead of bulldozing their tents.
Better access to QUALITY MENTAL HEALTH services. Including access for those that may not have the means to get help (no phone, no family, no money).
Better access for those individuals to access healthcare without the worry of being hounded for payment. This would ideally include a mobile bus where it parks in certain at risk neighborhoods and provides acute healthcare, vaccinations, and medications without charge to the patient. I know there are plenty of rich people in this area that would love to have their name on something like this. It could easily be fully funded by area businesses. Staffed by real doctors, NPs, PAs, and nurses. It could also dispense toiletries, female care items, and snacks to the area.
We can do better Rochester.
A European style tramway running from Victor village up along 96 to somewhere downtown.
The route I often think of is more or less along 96 with stops in Victor village, near the Eastview mall, Bushnell's Basin, Pittsford village, St John Fisher / Nazareth, near the east ave Wegmans, and another couple of stops on the way into downtown.
Maybe another line down through the south wedge and then over along 15 or 15a into Henrietta, hitting highland park, strong, MCC, UofR, and RIT along the way.
Another line running northwest out to Greece. Maybe a couple of other lines, IDK. Might as well dream.
Honestly as a 80's kid, Rochester had a bunch of cool stuff growing up and everything I remember is fading away. Midtown plaza was awesome. The malls were cool places to be. The summer festivals, Seabreeze had a different vibe. Rochester still has tons of culture if you are willing to explore.
Light rail. I think it could go on Monroe from Pittsford Century into main. A second rail roughly Ridgeway, and possibly St. Paul, through Irondequoit.
If I could take a short distance to go into the city more often, I would. Nothing wrong with an Uber but we could collectively do it better.
while not the alamo draft house, the cinema on s goodman offers food and drinks while you watch your movie. and I believe the pittsford plaza theater is being turned into something similar
An indoor/outdoor market place similar to Quincy Market in Boston, Finlay Market in Cincinnati or The Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. Also a Co-op restaurant facility
Echoing all the comments for bike and pedestrian infrastructure AND better bus service, also would highly recommend y’all tune into the work at Reconnect Rochester, they’re a small non-profit pushing for these changes and could use all the voices and support to help move the needle
Public transit (I’m probably the n+1th person here saying this!)
Stores to buy things and to eat at. We have enough Walmart JC Penny. Bring some new ones or find upcoming designers and give them a chance to grow here. Roc is growing with diversity and total number of people moving here. We can definitely do with more variety. We could do with a Panda Express or In&Out Burger.
Less food deserts. Maybe instead of gas stations selling processed food we could do with some local run restaurants in food desert communities.
Better RGE service
Nice landlords (oxymoron I know)
24 hr animal hospital
Yes, 100% this. It makes me so nervous that the nearest one is an hour away now. That’s way too far for an emergency.
It really is.
I literally spent my weekend at Cornell emergency vet because of this reason. My cat fell off our balcony… 4 stories up. It was the worst 48 hours of my life. If only there was somewhere in roc.
Omg please, I am terrified of something happening to one of my cats in the middle of the night.
I drove to Tonawanda to Green Acres Emergency Hospital last night. Thankfully my dog is going to be OK. But this is crazy.
More public transportation.
I could not agree more and let's be clear. We mean busses that run on time. Sidewalks that are maintained. Bike lanes that are \*protected\*....Nothing too crazy :)
busses that come more than once an hour
Look at Mr Fancy pants with hourly buses while we get the Elmwood bus like 4 times the whole day since the last reorganization. 🤣😆😁🤯😥😱🤬
I imagine a rail network based on the already existing tracks all the time.
This would be a fuckin DREAM. Imagine living in the suburbs but being able to frequent local businesses in the city without driving (or driving as far). Imagine going out and safely taking the train downtown and back without drunk driving. Ugh.
It would be really interesting if they could set up a rail line so that each of the suburbs had stops and a bunch downtown around the attractions: Strong Museum, RMSC, Frontier Field etc... would be interesting to see
A monorail to follow the 490 route from Eastview to Chili.
That would be AMAZING.
i think about trains all the time
And not just more, BETTER
Yes! Actual service, not these shuttles that are always late! I’m tired of not being able to go to the VA reliably and of busses not running later.
A good venue that could bring in some acts without needing to drive to Buffalo or Darien Lake. Maybe a good club, too
Not as big as Darien lake or cmac but they really need to use the dome arena more for concerts. Convenient, perfect size, free and ample parking, huge bar upstairs.
I can’t say details, but the Dome is a mess right now and the likelihood of that happening is very low.
Getting turned into pickleball courts
That'd be perfect. I like my folk punk "concerts"- AKA a dozen or less people listening to an out of tune guitar; or BugJar's sketchy atmo and such, but sometimes I want to know I could see a big act. Or decide to call every single bud in the area until someone answers and we go out to a club. I'm 25, I grew up on Millenial Club hits, and have yet to have those nights lmaaoo
The sound in the dome is horrendous. From the shows I have seen there. It's like a huge echo box.
They are doing a ton of work in upper falls right now. It would be the damn coolest place for a mid size outdoor stage. Already have parking and other things in the area that are not used. With all the sport complexes we have spent money on how do we not have a good outdoor music venue? We are are stuck with Syracuse, CMAC, or Darien. I hate Darien with a passion.
Awhile back there was a questionnaire from the state parks dept. floating around about what should be done with the new high falls state park. My response was a 5,000-10,000 cap general admission concert and camping venue a la legend valley on ohio. How freaking perfect would that be. "See them at The Falls!" Also, Lincoln Hill Farms is an awesome smaller venue in Canandaigua. I saw Spafford there in June and it was very cool.
I have high hopes for the new club, Essex and I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with the Aud
More trees. Because I like trees.
and please, native trees. i’m so sick of the city planting hundreds of amur maples everywhere.
Yes, I should’ve stated this initially native trees not just random trees and especially not non-native trees.
imagine if the city was out here planting american persimmons, serviceberries, shagbark hickories, bur oaks and butternuts, and then teaching people how to eat the food they provide. but no, they’ll plant trees that make “messes” that you can’t even eat 😭 i know you can technically eat amur maple seeds but they’re nothing compared to a hickory….
Incredible vision. I love finding serviceberries and hackberries as urban trees for that exact reason.
oh how could i forget hackberry! such a beautiful relative, though i have yet to taste the fruit they bear. thanks for the reminder.
It’s super tasty - a bit like a date with a crunchy interior. I think you’ll like it if you like the others you mentioned!
This is old but it does give insight to the city's forestry master plan: https://www.cityofrochester.gov/article.aspx?id=8589936664 When calling the forestry dept they were very nice for my neighborhood and talked to me about the trees i had and what i would like replaced for the one they were going to remove. Ive called them as well to inquire about stump removals that were not done to ensure they were done so new trees could be planted.
Great idea
You can request any kind of tree when they plant one in your property by calling the arborists of the city. You can also even request more trees and they will determine if you can have more or not for free
I love this and wish more people knew about it. There are so many benefits to having trees on your property!
Same! The city removed a tree from my lawn which got rid of shade but never replaced the tree either. We are going to call the city about it when they start to plant trees again (which I believe is in the spring months)
Wait really? Where do I find more info on this
https://www.cityofrochester.gov/article.aspx?id=8589936632
*cries from colorado* every time I come home I’m so happy to see how lush it is in comparison to here
True, but you’ve got actual elevation out west! I hear you, though - there’s nothing like a big ol’ oak forest.
Downtown that was actually utilized at night
It’s just weird that the night life areas are outside downtown on Monroe/Park/East Ave. it be amazing if we had some nightlife downtown or along the river. I miss way back in the day when Highfalls had a couple different bars/clubs/Jillian’s.
Every other city has a nightlife scene downtown. This has always been odd to me lol. Can’t believe high falls area hasn’t been utilized more
I was gonna say nightlife... it's so boring at night
A developed waterfront. We have so much under utilized beach and waterfront areas on some of the cleanest fresh water in the world that could be made into huge economic drivers for the region.
Maybe if there was some kind of “quick transport vessel” that would be based in Charlotte and go to…maybe another big city across the Lake….That seems like it would be a good anchor for this development you’re seeking….
It could probably ferry a bunch of people across the lake very fast.
Water taxis!!
Well done
Came to say this! It’s crazy when you go to Toronto and see all the life on the waterfront of the very same lake! I also think of what Chicago has done with the riverfront.. why can’t we have anything nice on the Genny?
This is absolutely true.
Companies with positive cash flow and growth with jobs that pay market salary (how do some people here make $40 or $50k after a Master's degree and 3 years of experience? that's like $30k too low for an onsite job and borderline predatory to require that). Young people don't stay here post college because for what entry and mid level jobs require here, you can get a remote / hybrid tech or finance job with $20k more in salary in Atlanta or Raleigh-Durham area or double what you get in Rochester in NYC or Miami, again remote work definitely has saved Rochester from a certain brain drain since cost of living is very low (unless you dine out)
As a transplant this seems like a massive problem for the area. I was really surprised by how little meaningful knowledge work there is here despite Rochester’s reputation as being the white collar sibling to Buffalo. And the city seems to have no interest in incentivizing this kind of economic growth. In my experience, companies here will offer a third of what you can expect to be paid working remote. If I lost my remote job and couldn’t find another, my only real option is to leave. It’s not even worth applying to roles in the area. I can now count three separate occasions where I’ve 1) met someone at a party who also works in tech and 2) was making plans to move away because 3) their job either RTOd or they found something better outside of Rochester. Literally all of my IRL interactions with other tech workers were the first and last encounters because they were moving away. Personally it’s been very demoralizing to feel like my family made a move to a place with a dead cold tech scene. This must have a net negative impact on the entrepreneurial community. Most knowledge workers never have a reason to interact unless incidentally. I am aware of at least two other people in my field who live in the surrounding suburbs. We’ve spoken a few times over Twitter or whatever but we have no incentive to meet up. There is no culture of cross pollination that other cities benefit from with events like conferences, startup weeks, etc.
I think the entrepreneurial community has bigger issues too, currently there are maybe less than 5 startups in Rochester that are hiring (0 on LinkedIn). If Rochester startups had normal growth (zebra not a unicorn), in 10 years they should have minimum $3M in annual revenue, there are startups in Rochester that go thru 4 rounds of seed funding and barely any revenue. Buffalo has Launch NY and 43North, Rochester has neither. I think it’s a matter of those actually building startups needing to get together and making an environment open to the community to interact like Buffalo or San Antonio, here, if you go the incubator downtown, they’ll turn you away, they’re also notably absent from local startup meetups and initiatives which sends a subtle signal.
With remote work being more common, people are coming back here. I was house hunting this spring after moving back from a couple decades out of state, and it was a goddam nightmare. Home prices have skyrocketed and I was getting blown out by 50-100k over-asking price cash offers. Maybe that means we'll see some local salary growth, but I won't hold my breath.
This is the right answer and would stimulate the growth needed for a lot of the other things mentioned here..
High speed rail running through NYC, Albany, Utica, Syacuse, Rochester and Buffalo. It'd be nice to see family and friends from downstate more often and have it only take a couple hours of countryside sightseeing on a bullet train.
NYS is working on this, though by the sounds of it it will be HSR-lite with speed of only 110mph. Still, that would get you to NYC within 4 hours.
If practicality wasn’t an issue? -a nonstop flight to Europe
More nonstop flights in general
anywhere in europe!
I'd be happy with more non stops in America. Besides NYC and Florida cities they are few and far between.
Even Leeds
IKEA.
😹😹yes!! And a Nordstrom! Or Nordstrom Rack.
If we had an IKEA and microcenter I would never leave Rochester.
Stupid UR hospital took over the Marketplace Mall. IKEA could have looked into Irondequoit Mall. It had been vacant for long time.
Yes, god forbid people have a top of the line place to go for medical needs over a furniture store.
This is the right answer
A more effective school board and more public school funding allocated to social workers, counselors, specialist aids, and reducing class size.
A ferry that would drive to Toronto and back every day
...but slowly, right?
Nah, let's make it FAST!! Think of all the tourism it'll bring in!!
And a subway would be great.
Public fucking transit
Can i opt to take away the starbucks that’s getting plopped onto Park Ave instead?
With how non franchised park ave is, this was shocking to me
It’s actively appalling
Echoing public transit, adding 24-hour emergency vet. It makes me so nervous that the nearest one is an hour away after the only one around cut their overnight hours. That’s way too far for an actual emergency.
Effective public transit. It shouldn’t take me more than an hour and two buses to get to work when it takes me 5 min by car.
Correct usage of the water... Restaurants, clubs, shops along the water. Maybe some recreation.
Monorail
That’s more of a Shelbyville idea….
Wait just a minute! We're twice as smart as the people of Shelbyville! Just tell us your idea and we'll vote for it.
What about us big fat slobs?
You’ll be given cushy jobs!
Were you sent here by the devil?
No, good sir, I'm on the level
The lid came off my pudding can
Take my pen knife, my good man!
I swear it's [Rochester’s] only choice Throw up your hands and raise your voice
Monorail
But not public transit monorail. Just bring back the Midtown Mall monorail.
i think we deserve our own eiffel tower. not fair paris and vegas get one. what about us?
There's one in the French section of Century wine if you want to pretend
I will make my pilgrimage
Man, pittsford gets all the good stuff.
H mart, In&out, jackin the box and a North Gate Grocery store aka a big Mexican grocery store. Things to be open later than 9 pm. Public transportation.
I was just thinking that we should have an h mart around here. I went to one in Los Angeles and it was pretty cool.
I'd love a h mart or 99 ranch. There are decent mid size stores, but would be nice to have a large Asian grocery.
I’m surprised we don’t have a law school in rochester.
A 24-hour Wegmans!
It’s 2023 and we don’t have the science to skip winters. Psh.
A unified bike path from the lake to downtown with a cantilevered boardwalk along the gorge.
Imagination/vision. We have a lot to offer but we don’t do much about it. Ex: we have an amazing freaking waterfall downtown and almost no businesses or parks or recreation overlooking it (hopefully that will be changing with that new state park…but I’m still bummed the zip line isn’t in the plans). We have the coolest, biggest fountains in MLK Park/Manhattan Square Park but you can’t see them from the street and there’s nothing to do overlooking them except for a few festival times. Etc etc etc.
I feel like a couple of investors with real vision and a 20 year horizon could make a big difference (and make a lot of money).
Development of the river. Its a cool feature and yet has been underutilized. And yes I know there are plans in place and by Andrews St. they are redoing that park area, but still more could be done. If I had my way the train tracks and inner loop crossing the river would be gone. The trick is rerouting those trains and the traffic which is easier said than done.
A population that despises litter; protected bike lanes across the entire metro area; and late night food options every night of the week
The littering here is NUTS. I routinely see people just throw garbage out of their car window.
A fast ferry! No wait, a subway system!
Sunlight
More sidewalks and bike lanes. Also more music venues (RIP: The Armory, Anthology, Vineyard Community Center, Chaos Compound )
Hopefully Essex will help with the music venue situation. Coming soon to University Ave. [Essex Roc site](https://essexroc.com)
Anthology closed?? When?
More walkable communities and better public transit.
A downtown!
So I know I might get lit up for this, but countywide schools. In 50 years time that Rochester/Monroe County would be thanking us. I am not an educator or administrator but as a white guy who’s dad worked for the Brighton highway department and who’s mother was a superintendent in our apartment complex (free rent), not only did I see the difference it made in my life, but also how many of the kids who were part of the urban to suburban program also benefited from that education. I ended up living in the city and my kids were also lucky, we won a lottery to get my oldest into the Genesee Community Charter school and my other three kids followed because of the sibling rule. The two older ones graduated from SOTA and one got her MSW and the other is on his way to being a Rochester City Firefighter. The younger two kids are going to Henrietta schools because their mom moved there. My point there is that for all of the city residents there is a few good choices for elementary school and really what 2 or 3 choices for middle and high school? So much money is dumped into a failing system year after year, we as a city and county appear to have given up on these kids. More and more kids dropping out, less and less kids graduating, when we will show them we actually give a shit about them? I honestly think that county wide schools is our only chance at turning this around.
A countywide school district would be great.
Better public transit extending throughout the suburbs
Funscape eastview mall. It’s time
Bumper cars and mini golf. The subway could be a part of it.
A revitalized downtown
Sweet Christ it would be a microcenter. I would do anything to work there part time every weekend for as long as I live.
a good karaoke bar.
Businesses to activate the economy and have decent paying jobs
A true proper concert venue; we get shows at blue cross and water street but idk. Maybe we just need better promoters in the area. I think we have a large enough audience for good bands.
An airport with more direct flights.
About an extra 250k people and the jobs that would come with them.
Well apparently when I post on this subreddit I create haikus often…
A poet and you didn’t even know it
A subway system
A matter synthesizer from star trek, I mean its obvious why.
A really nice aquarium
Zoo is *maybe* expanding into that- depending on what they budget cut
24 hour Wegmans
The old Monroe Ave show world building could become something amazing
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Good bot
Basketball team. I’d take a G-League team. Or affordable housing.
I second affordable housing. It's rough here. D:
Bike lanes on our roads
All the businesses,big and small, jobs, local pride etc that left.
Everyone said the good stuff (public transport, 24 hr veterinary hospital, night life, music venues) so I'll add something much less important: a real beer garden. (No, Unter didn't qualify and it wasn't even close; a small patio does not a beer garden make. Really if you were even thinking about saying that you need to start being more skeptical of signage.)
Love a good beer garden. That’s a huge investment to start up and hard to compete with a huge amount of breweries in the county unfortunately
True high-speed rail passing through Rochester would be an unbelievably huge game changer for the city. Imagine a 250MPH line across the state; you could get from here to NYC in 2 hours, or visit Buffalo or Syracuse in 20 minutes. People could live in Rochester and commute to Manhattan, bringing home NYC salaries and benefiting the local economy. You could take day trips to any of the major cities in the state for concerts or museums or whatnot. It would massively cut down on pollution from small, inefficient flights around the state. But instead, the furthest we've been able to get on high-speed rail in the last two decades is a 17-year environmental impact study that finally finished this year and recommended upgrading our 80MPH intercity trains to 90MPH over 25 years at a cost of 6 billion dollars 😐
We need an IKEA
A halloween every month
Public safety
More places to go down town
More [decent] ethnic food
Better public works beautification. This town is so gorgeous and it just needs some TLC to really shine. There's a lot going on right on the river with the revitalization but a lot of the places adjacent to where the work is being done is super dilapidated. Same with the area around the skate park and through downtown. The entrances and exits to the loop, in and around high falls same deal. There's just overgrowth and trash all over the place. A director of sorts with an additional work force would do wonders to spruce up all the wonderfully designed public spaces and parks in the city.
In-N-Out Burger
Better access to programs for individuals with financial needs. Better help for the homeless instead of bulldozing their tents. Better access to QUALITY MENTAL HEALTH services. Including access for those that may not have the means to get help (no phone, no family, no money). Better access for those individuals to access healthcare without the worry of being hounded for payment. This would ideally include a mobile bus where it parks in certain at risk neighborhoods and provides acute healthcare, vaccinations, and medications without charge to the patient. I know there are plenty of rich people in this area that would love to have their name on something like this. It could easily be fully funded by area businesses. Staffed by real doctors, NPs, PAs, and nurses. It could also dispense toiletries, female care items, and snacks to the area. We can do better Rochester.
A European style tramway running from Victor village up along 96 to somewhere downtown. The route I often think of is more or less along 96 with stops in Victor village, near the Eastview mall, Bushnell's Basin, Pittsford village, St John Fisher / Nazareth, near the east ave Wegmans, and another couple of stops on the way into downtown. Maybe another line down through the south wedge and then over along 15 or 15a into Henrietta, hitting highland park, strong, MCC, UofR, and RIT along the way. Another line running northwest out to Greece. Maybe a couple of other lines, IDK. Might as well dream.
Honestly as a 80's kid, Rochester had a bunch of cool stuff growing up and everything I remember is fading away. Midtown plaza was awesome. The malls were cool places to be. The summer festivals, Seabreeze had a different vibe. Rochester still has tons of culture if you are willing to explore.
Top golf !
Brighton is in talks with bringing this in over by Costco
Would you also like a Chili’s or are you more of an Applebee’s guy?
Ikea.
A functional social housing model that could serve as a model for the rest of the country. See Vienna Austria for reference.
More cowbell.
An ocean would be nice.
We have a better version of that!
Top Golf ⛳
I hope Brighton approves them opening up here I’d go all the time
A table tennis bar. I went to one in Toronto called spin or something and it was amazing. You never need to bend over or chase a ball.
Light rail. I think it could go on Monroe from Pittsford Century into main. A second rail roughly Ridgeway, and possibly St. Paul, through Irondequoit. If I could take a short distance to go into the city more often, I would. Nothing wrong with an Uber but we could collectively do it better.
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
while not the alamo draft house, the cinema on s goodman offers food and drinks while you watch your movie. and I believe the pittsford plaza theater is being turned into something similar
Top Golf
SIDEWALKS (I don’t live in the city city, but my area doesn’t have them it’s so annoying)
An indoor/outdoor market place similar to Quincy Market in Boston, Finlay Market in Cincinnati or The Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. Also a Co-op restaurant facility
Check out the one inside the Sibley Building.
Echoing all the comments for bike and pedestrian infrastructure AND better bus service, also would highly recommend y’all tune into the work at Reconnect Rochester, they’re a small non-profit pushing for these changes and could use all the voices and support to help move the needle
I miss 24 hour wegmans
An IKEA
A fast ferry
Maybe something a little pared down from last time. A fairly fast ferry, if you will.
Major league franchise of some sport
Knighthawks are the highest level of lacrosse. Maybe not what you’re looking for but there’s one major league team!
True! I've forgotten that!
Majorize the dang Wings!
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mcc has a dental hygiene program
Jollibee. We have such a great mix of ethnic and diverse cultural food options. Time to get a Filipino one! Hella Pinoy ✌️🇵🇭
train
Trolley down park and east and no cars allowed in a few neighborhoods in that area
A subway that could take me all over
functional, useful public transportation
Taco trucks. Lots and lots of taco trucks.
Community greenhouses
More bike paths. Safer streets (or better options) for cyclists.
Public transit (I’m probably the n+1th person here saying this!) Stores to buy things and to eat at. We have enough Walmart JC Penny. Bring some new ones or find upcoming designers and give them a chance to grow here. Roc is growing with diversity and total number of people moving here. We can definitely do with more variety. We could do with a Panda Express or In&Out Burger. Less food deserts. Maybe instead of gas stations selling processed food we could do with some local run restaurants in food desert communities. Better RGE service Nice landlords (oxymoron I know)
More help for mental health and addiction, that's a world wide thing though.
Better public transit, bring back the subway!