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Message: [QUOTE="reedny, post: 3061770, member: 1423"] Interesting city/suburbs debate. In Rochester, we don't have an interstate slicing through the middle of downtown - there was a beltway (inner loop) but they've filled most of it in. Like Syracuse, the City has been successful revitalizing its entertainment districts and attracting new residents. Empty-nesters and Millenialls have helped tremendously. I have to say that the Syracuse center-city might be more vibrant. It looks nothing like it did when I went to graduate school back in the day. The trick will be convincing those young people to stay and raise families. Competition is keen. There are job opportunities and better weather elsewhere. One of the biggest obstacles, at least in Rochester, is poverty and its impact on the overall community. Here, 50% of the residents (mostly on the West side) fit the federal definition. That means Crime. It means Urban blight. Homelessness. Addiction. Rampant school truancy. Low graduation rates. And the diversion of lots of tax dollars for costly social services and law enforcement. Add these fiscal and social ills to typical urban annoyances - traffic, noise and the like - and you have serious quality of life issues. Despite decades of investment in education and neighborhood revitalization, many legacy problems persist - especially failing schools - that drove better educated/more affluent residents into the suburbs decades ago. In some respects, Rochester has been its own worst enemy - scoring about a D in closing the suburban-urban economic divide. It has made some progress with schools and constructed attractive signage and landscaping to mark City neighborhoods. But residents and visitors want to feel safe, and the City uses community policing only in high-crime areas. Elsewhere the cops are absent or sit in their cars. City "planners" have widened streets to facilitate traffic, making it more difficult for pedestrians and visitors to navigate. Parking is a nightmare - especially in popular areas that draw millennials and suburbanites. Instead of buying land and offering better options, the City prefers to send out brigades of meter maids to extort revenue. Enforcement is unmerciful - fees are sky high and if you're unlucky enough to have your car towed, good luck - you won't be returning anytime soon. There are tons of potholes and one-way streets that make transiting downtown difficult, and except for the ball park and public market, the City offers few 'destinations' - places where people can get out of their cars, walk around, enjoy themselves and buy things. The point is ... there are a lot of factors at work, in both cities, that have nothing to do with highway location. [/QUOTE]

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