Rochester is a city in and the
seat of government of
Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the
fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a population of 211,328 at the
2020 census. The city forms the core of the larger
Rochester metropolitan area in
Western New York, with a population of just over 1 million residents. Throughout its history, Rochester has acquired several nicknames based on local industries; it has been known as "
the Flour City" and "
the Flower City" for its dual role in flour production and floriculture,
and as the "World's Image Center" for its association with film, optics, and photography.
The city was one of the United States' first
boomtowns, initially due to the fertile
Genesee River valley which gave rise to numerous flour mills, and then as a manufacturing center, which spurred further rapid population growth. Rochester has also played a key part in US history as a hub for social and political movements, especially
abolitionism, and the
women's rights movement
Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...
.
Rochester is the birthplace and/or home of many notable companies including
Eastman Kodak,
Xerox
Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduc ...
,
Bausch & Lomb,
Wegmans,
Constellation Brands,
Gannett
Gannett Co., Inc. ( ) is an American mass media holding company headquartered in New York City. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation.
It owns the national newspaper ''USA Today'', as well as several ...
,
Paychex, and
Western Union. In part due to their influence, the region became a global center for science, technology, and research and development. This has been aided by the presence of several internationally renowned universities, notably the
University of Rochester and
Rochester Institute of Technology, and their research programs; these schools, along with many other smaller colleges, have played an increasingly large role in its economy. The city experienced significant population decline due to
deindustrialization in the late 20th century, although less severely than its
Rust Belt peers. The Rochester metropolitan area is the third-largest regional economy in New York, after
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
and
Buffalo–Niagara Falls.
Rochester is also known for its culture; in particular, the
Eastman School of Music, one of the most prestigious conservatories in the world, and the
Rochester International Jazz Festival anchor a vibrant music industry. It is the site of several museums such as
The Strong National Museum of Play and the
George Eastman Museum, which houses the oldest photography collection in the world.
History
Eighteenth century
The
Seneca tribe of the
Iroquois Confederacy lived around Rochester prior to the
American Revolution
The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
, and used the area as a hunting ground. Allied with the British, the Seneca were forced to cede or sell most of their land in New York after the war. The area now occupied by Rochester was ceded in the
Phelps and Gorham Purchase of 1788. As a reward for their loyalty to the British crown, the Iroquois were given a large
land grant on the
Grand River in Canada.
Nineteenth century
Rochester was founded shortly after by a wave of English-Puritan-descended immigrants from
New England
New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...
, who were looking for new agricultural land. They were the dominant cultural group in Rochester for over a century. On November 8, 1803, three men from
Hagerstown, Maryland, purchased a 100-acre (40-
ha) tract from
the Pulteney Estate along the Genesee River: Major Charles Carroll, Colonel William Fitzhugh Jr, and Colonel
Nathaniel Rochester, the namesake of the city. They chose the site because its three
cataracts on the Genesee offered great potential for water power. Beginning in 1811, and with a population of 15, the three founders surveyed the land and laid out streets and tracts. In 1817, the Brown brothers and other landowners joined their lands with the Hundred Acre Tract to form the village of Rochesterville. This name was unpopular, and in 1822 it was shortened to Rochester.
By 1821, Rochesterville became the seat of Monroe County. In 1823, the
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east–west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigability, navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, ...
aqueduct over the Genesee River was completed, connecting the city to the
Hudson River to the east. New commerce from the canal turned the village into America's first
boomtown. By 1830, Rochester's population had grown to 9,200, and in 1834, it was rechartered as a city. Rochester was first known as "the Young Lion of the West", and then as the "Flour City". By 1838, it was the largest flour-producing city in the United States.
A series of religious revivals occurred in the as part of the
Second Great Awakening, including a particularly notable revival led by
Charles Grandison Finney which inspired local social reform movements.
During the mid-19th century, as the center of the wheat-processing industry moved west with population and agriculture, the city became home to an expanding
nursery business, giving rise to the city's second nickname, the Flower City. Nurseries ringed the city, the most famous of which was started in 1840 by immigrants
George Ellwanger from Germany and
Patrick Barry from Ireland.
Shoemaking also became a major local industry as the city began to industrialize.
In 1847,
Frederick Douglass founded ''
The North Star'', an
abolitionist
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world.
The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...
newspaper, in Rochester. A former slave and an antislavery speaker and writer, he gained a circulation of over 4,000 subscribers in the United States, Europe, and the Caribbean. Douglass lived in Rochester until his home was destroyed in a fire in 1872, and a historical marker was erected at the site on South Avenue. Many other prominent abolitionists operated in the area and operated on the
Underground Railroad, such as
Thomas James and
Austin Steward.
Around the same time, the nearby Finger Lakes region was the birthplace of the
women's suffrage movement. A
critical suffragettes' convention was held in 1848 in nearby Seneca Falls, and Rochester was the home of
Susan B. Anthony along with other notable Suffragettes such as
Abigail Bush and
Amy Post. The city itself played host to the
Rochester Women's Rights Convention of 1848. The
Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, in 1920, which guaranteed the right of women to vote, was known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment because of her work toward its passage, which she did not live to see. Anthony's home is a
National Historic Landmark known as the
National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House.
Twentieth century
Rochester saw an expansion of new industries in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Irish immigrant James Cunningham founded the
carriagemaker James Cunningham, Son and Company. James Cunningham and Sons later founded the
Cunningham Car Company, a pioneer automobile maker. German immigrants
John Jacob Bausch and
Henry Lomb launched
Bausch & Lomb in 1861 and inventor and entrepreneur
George Eastman founded
Eastman Kodak in 1892.
Xerox
Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduc ...
was founded in Rochester in 1906 as the Haloid Company. In the early 20th century, Rochester became a center of the garment industry, particularly men's fashions. It was the base of
Bond Clothing Stores,
Fashion Park Clothes,
Hickey Freeman, and Stein-Bloch and Co.
The Erie Canal was rerouted south of Rochester by 1918 to allow widening as part of the
Barge Canal's construction. The short-lived
Rochester subway was constructed in the abandoned canal bed and operated from 1927 to 1956.
The dawn of the 20th century in Rochester saw rapid growth, driven by waves of immigrants arriving from Germany, Italy, Poland, and elsewhere. The city also grew in area, annexing suburban neighborhoods from the surrounding towns to arrive at its present borders. The population reached 62,386 in 1870, 162,608 in 1900, and 295,750 in 1920. By 1950, the population had reached a high of 332,488.
The surge in new arrivals, along with increased
industrialization, resulted in the city becoming a hotbed of labor activism. From the 1920s and continuing into the post-war era Rochester grew into a power center for newly formed industrial unions. It was one of the very few American cities where the labor movement was powerful enough to mount a successful
general strike when in 1946 an estimated 50,000 workers across multiple sectors walked off in support of hundreds of city employees who had been fired for attempting to unionize.

During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Rochester factories produced a variety of goods for the war effort, including fuel tanker ships, optical equipment, and radio proximity fuses, amounting to of military orders. Following the war, the city began engaging in
urban renewal
Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...
projects to revitalize downtown, including the construction of
Midtown Plaza and freeways like the
Inner Loop, and the demolition of the Front Street neighborhood. By the 1970s, the city experienced highway revolts against new projects, and in the 2010s, the city began filling in the Inner Loop to restore older neighborhoods.
In 1950, the Census Bureau reported Rochester's population as 97.6% White and 2.3% Black.
Rochester's black population tripled to more than 25,000 during the 1950s. Casually employed by the city's major industries, most African Americans in the city held low-pay and low-skill jobs, and lived in substandard housing. Discontent exploded in the three-day
1964 Rochester race riot, which resulted in five deaths, 350 injuries, nearly a thousand arrests, and 204 stores looted or damaged.
In the wake of the riot, the Rochester Area Churches, together with black civil rights leaders, invited
Saul Alinsky of the
Industrial Areas Foundation to help the community organize. With the Reverend
Franklin Florence, they established FIGHT (Freedom, Integration, God, Honor, Today), which successfully brought pressure to bear on Eastman Kodak to help open up employment and city governance.
With industrial restructuring in the later 20th century, Rochester's manufacturing workforce shrank. Kodak, long the city's largest employer, conducted massive layoffs prior to a 2012 bankruptcy. Demographic changes also occurred, including thousands of Puerto Ricans moving to the city after World War II.
Twenty-first century
By 2022, the city's population had declined to 209,352 (although the metropolitan area was considerably larger) with 45.1% recorded as White and 38.4% as Black or African American.
Although the total population declined, new arrivals continued to move to the city and change its demographic profile. The city became a major destination for refugees in the 21st century. In 2017, Rochester affirmed its status as a
sanctuary city
A sanctuary city is a municipality that limits or denies its cooperation with the national government in enforcing immigration law.
Proponents of sanctuary cities cite motives such as reducing the fear of persons which illegally immigrated fr ...
and in 2025 was sued by the
second Trump administration for immigration issues.
Geography

Rochester is located in
Upstate New York,
on the southern shore of
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...
. The
Genesee River bisects the city. According to the
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the city has a total area of , of which are land and are covered by water (3.42%).
Rochester borders the towns of
Irondequoit to the north and northeast,
Brighton
Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
to the southeast and south,
Chili to the southwest,
Gates to the west, and
Greece
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
to the northwest.
Rochester's landscape was formed by the
ice sheets during the
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...
epoch. The retreating ice sheets reached a standstill at what is now the southern border of the city, melting at the same rate as they were advancing, depositing sediment along the southern edge of the ice mass. This created a line of hills, including (from west to east) Mt. Hope, the hills of Highland Park, Pinnacle Hill, and Cobb's Hill. Because the sediment of these hills was deposited into a proglacial lake, they are stratified and classified as a "
kame delta". A brief retreat and readvance of the ice sheet onto the delta deposited unstratified material there, creating a rare hybrid structure called "
kame moraine".
The ice sheets also created Lake Ontario, the
Genesee River with its waterfalls and
gorge
A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tend ...
s,
Irondequoit Bay,
Sodus Bay
Sodus Bay is a bay on the south shore of Lake Ontario, one of the Great Lakes. Sodus Bay is located in Wayne County, New York, United States. Most of the bay is in the Town of Huron; however, the western part is in the Town of Sodus.
Sodus ...
,
Braddock Bay,
Mendon Ponds, numerous local streams and ponds,
the Ridge, and the nearby
Finger Lakes.
Water to the city is sourced from
Hemlock Lake,
Canadice Lake, and Lake Ontario.
Neighborhoods
Celebrate City Living, a partnership program between the city government and Rochester Coalition for Neighborhood Living, defines 35 neighborhoods in Rochester. Among these are the 14621 Community, 19th Ward, Beechwood, Browncroft,
Charlotte, Cobbs Hill, Corn Hill,
downtown Rochester, Dutchtown,
Edgerton, EMMA (East Main, Mustard & Atlantic Avenue), High Falls, Highland Park, Homestead Heights, JOSANA (Jay-Orchard Street Area), Lincoln Park, Lyell-Otis, Maplewood, Marketview Heights, Mayor's Heights, Monroe Village, NOTA (Neighborhood of the Arts), North Winton Village, Northland-Lyceum, Park Avenue, Plymouth-Exchange, South Wedge, Susan B. Anthony, Swillburg, Upper Falls, Upper Monroe, and Upper Mount Hope.
File:RochesterSkyline2017.jpg, Center City and the Frederick Douglass–Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge
File:Corn Hill 2.jpg, Townhouses in Corn Hill
File:Oxford Street Homes 1.jpg, Oxford Street Houses
File:Park and Oxford Intersection.jpg, Park and Oxford
File:EastEndApartments.jpg, Apartments in Rochester's East End
File:Rochouse wintercolours (8458281227).jpg, Houses on Park Avenue
File:Rochester aerial aug 17 2007.jpg, An aerial image of the city of Rochester taken in August 2007
19th Ward
The 19th Ward is a southwest neighborhood bordered by Genesee Street, West Avenue, and the Erie Canal, and is across the river from the University of Rochester. The neighborhood is one of the largest in Rochester. Now known by its slogan "Urban by Choice", in the early 19th century, the area was known as Castle Town, after Castle Inn, a tavern run by
Colonel
Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...
Isaac Castle. By the early 1820s, however, the area was overshadowed by developments in the north that would become downtown Rochester. Due to a tumultuous bend in the Genesee, the area was home to skilled boatsmen who assisted boats traveling north to Rochester and the area was consequently known during this time as "The Rapids". In the 1890s, as Rochester expanded, the area rapidly urbanized. By 1930, it was a booming residential area for doctors, lawyers, and other skilled workers. Homes in the originally upper-class neighborhood typically have gumwood trim, leaded glass, fireplaces, hardwood floors, and open porches. In the 1960s, property values fell as the population of Rochester did, the area experienced
white flight
The white flight, also known as white exodus, is the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, the terms became popular in the Racism ...
accelerated by school busing,
blockbusting, and
race riot
This is a list of ethnic riots by country, and includes riots based on Ethnic conflict, ethnic, Sectarian violence, sectarian, xenophobic, and Racial conflict, racial conflict. Some of these riots can also be classified as pogroms.
Africa
A ...
s downtown, and crime increased, with violence,
drug use, and neglected property further diminishing property values. In recent years, neighborhood revitalization has come from the "Brooks Landing" development along the Genesee River.
Gentrification
Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has ...
has occurred in the 19th Ward and adjacent Plymouth-Exchange area from the conversion of housing stock to student housing for the University of Rochester. Located in the 19th Ward are the
Arvine Heights Historic District,
Chili–West Historic District,
Inglewood and Thurston Historic District, and
Sibley–Elmdorf Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Browncroft
The Browncroft neighborhood is built on the former nursery grounds of the Brown Brothers nursery, between the town of Brighton and Winton Road. Many Tudor and Colonial houses are contained within, and the business district situated on Winton Road has a mix of restaurants and shops. The
Browncroft Historic District
The Browncroft Historic District is a national historic district located in the Browncroft neighborhood of Rochester, New York. The district contains 518 contributing buildings, two contributing sites, two contributing objects, and two contrib ...
was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 2004.
Charlotte
Charlotte is a lakefront community in Rochester bordering Lake Ontario. It is home to Ontario Beach Park, commonly known as Charlotte Beach, which is a popular summer destination for Rochesterians. A new terminal was built in 2004 for the
Rochester-to-Toronto ferry service and was later sold after the ferry ceased operations in 2005. The Port of Rochester terminal still exists, but multiple attempts by the city to make additions have failed since 2016.
Corn Hill
Corn Hill is located in the city's old Third Ward, and best known today for the annual Corn Hill arts festival. Many of the city's wealthiest residents lived in the neighborhood during the 19th century, but they relocated to the East End and suburbs after the turn of the century.
The neighborhood experienced decline, and much of the Third Ward was demolished for the construction of I-490 in the 1960s. Revival began in the late 1960s, as several of the Victorian homes in the neighborhood were restored by the Genesee Landmarks Foundation. In 1969 the Corn Hill arts festival was held and became an annual feature.
The
Third Ward Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Edgerton
The
Edgerton neighborhood is in the city's northwest quadrant, along Lake Avenue. Historically an Italian-American neighborhood, the area around Lyell Avenue has been a target for the formation of a designated Little Italy neighborhood, although few Italian Americans live there today.
The neighborhood is known for struggling with a high crime rate. Residents have pursued a number of strategies to improve the neighborhood in recent years, including the construction of housing for the homeless.
The neighborhood features Edgerton Park, which was once home to most of the city's professional sports teams.
Maplewood

Maplewood is located in the northwest quadrant, centered around Lake Avenue and Maplewood Park.
Eastman Business Park is located on its north edge. The neighborhood once contained both mansions for the wealthy and worker housing for nearby factories like Kodak's. Many of the neighborhood's old mansions have been converted to multi-family housing. Due to its diverse architectural heritage, the
Maplewood Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
Marketview Heights
The Marketview Heights neighborhood is northeast of downtown Rochester, running east from Union Street just north of Atlantic Ave. It is best known as the location of the Public Market, which first opened in 1905 and offers a variety of groceries and other goods from farms and shops from surrounding areas, primarily on the weekends. In the late twentieth century, the neighborhood experienced a severe decline, and roughly half of residents lived below the poverty line in 2000. Public investment was made in the neighborhood after 2008 to implement a number of community proposals. A second round of proposals are being explored currently for the planned removal of the Inner Loop in the southern end of the neighborhood.
Park Avenue
Park Avenue is centered on the eponymous street southeast of downtown. It originally functioned as a service street with businesses that catered to wealthy residents who lived on nearby East Avenue.
Between 1894 and 1975, it was also home to Park Avenue Hospital. Today, the neighborhood is one of the most desirable in the city, highly valued for its walkability and density of bars, clubs, and restaurants.
The city's annual pride parade is hosted in the neighborhood. The Park Avenue Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020.
South Wedge
The South Wedge is a wedge-shaped neighborhood centered on South Avenue between the Genesee River and Interstate 490. It began as the home of several families involved in trades on the Erie Canal. In the 1840s, the Ellwanger and Barry nursery was built on South Avenue, introducing greenery to the neighborhood and drawing tourists. Frederick Douglass lived in a house in the neighborhood. The area fell on hard times after World War II, when residents moved to the suburbs and several homes and businesses were abandoned. The South Wedge Planning Committee was established in 1973 to revitalize the neighborhood. Today, the neighborhood is a hub of small businesses. The
South Wedge Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013, and the Gregory Tract Historic District was listed in 2022.
Climate
Rochester lies in the
humid continental climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...
zone (
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...
: ''Dfa'') and has four distinct seasons.
Winters are cold (temperatures drop to on 4.2 nights annually). Like much of the eastern Great Lakes, Rochester is very cloudy and overcast in winter. Rochester normally receives heavy snow in winter (primarily
lake effect snow resulting from its location on the southern shores of Lake Ontario), ranking among the snowiest large cities on earth and occasionally setting records for annual snowfall among large US metros. The 30-year annual average snowfall is just above .
Spring sees plentiful rain with the rising temperatures, and occasional late snowstorms depending on the year. Summers are warm and sunny; there are occasional short periods of high heat and humidity but in general, Rochester is set apart from most of the continental US by comparatively cool, comfortable summers (ranking among the top five coolest summers among large metros alongside
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
,
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
,
Portland, Oregon
Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...
, and neighboring Buffalo). Autumn features brilliant foliage colors, cooling temperatures and occasionally an excess of rain depending on the year, though precipitation is generally plentiful and dispersed fairly evenly throughout the year.
Demographics
As of the
2020 United States census, the population of Rochester was 211,328. Like most
Rust Belt cities, the city has experienced a sustained population decline over the last 60 years. In 2020, for the first time in 200 years, Rochester dropped to the
fourth most populous city in the state behind
Yonkers
Yonkers () is the List of municipalities in New York, third-most populous city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the most-populous City (New York), city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County. A centrally locate ...
. However, in 2020, an increase in the city's population was reported for the first time since the
1950 Census.
2020 census
As of the 2020 Census, 38.0% of Rochester residents were non-Hispanic Black, 33.0% were non-Hispanic White, 19.8% were Hispanic/Latino, 3.9% were Asian, 0.2% were Native American or Pacific Islander, and 5.1% were mixed or other.
In 2020, there were 91,500 households, of which 18.8% were married couples living together, 9.9% were unmarried co-habitating couples, 42.3% had a female householder with no partner present, and 29.0% had a male householder with no partner present. Of all households, 41.3% were made up of individuals, 25.3% had children under 18 living with them, and 9.2% had someone living alone 65 or older. 33.1% of housing units were owner-occupied, and 66.9% were rented. The age distribution was 18.8% under 18, 15.4% from 18 to 24, 30.8% from 25 to 44, 22.6% from 45 to 64, and 12.4% who were 65 or older. The
median age was 32.9. For every 100 females, there were 93.6 males.
According to 2020
American Community Survey estimates, The median income for a city household was $37,395, and for a family was $43,873. Males had a median income of $30,379, versus $28,260 for females. The
per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year.
In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the city was $24,916. About 25.5% of families and 30.4% of the population were below the
poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 48.2% of those under age 18 and 17.3% of those age 65 or over.
Although losing population since 1950, over the course of the past 70 years Rochester has become a major center for immigration, particularly for arrivals from
Eastern and
Southeastern Europe
Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe is a geographical sub-region of Europe, consisting primarily of the region of the Balkans, as well as adjacent regions and Archipelago, archipelagos. There are overlapping and conflicting definitions of t ...
,
sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...
, and the
Caribbean
The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
. Rochester had the highest percentage of
Puerto Ricans of any major city in the United States in 2013,
one of the four largest
Turkish American communities, one of the largest
Jamaican American communities in any major U.S. city and a large concentration of
Polish Americans along with nearby Buffalo, New York. Rochester's
Bhutanese and
Nepalese communities are among the largest in the United States, concentrated primarily in Jones Square and Edgerton with growth fueled by recently arrived migrants and refugees. In addition, Rochester was ranked number 9 in the nation for the largest Italian population in the United States in 2018.
Rochester has been reported to have the largest ''per capita''
deaf population in the United States by the
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
because it is home to the
National Technical Institute for the Deaf
The National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) is the first and largest technological college in the world for students who are deaf or hard of hearing. As one of nine colleges within the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Roches ...
. A 2012 report by the NTID concluded 3.7% of the Rochester metropolitan area is deaf or hard-of-hearing, compared to a national rate of 3.5%. Rochester has the largest deaf and hard-of-hearing population ''per capita'' when analyzing the working-age population, but may not have the largest ''per capita'' deaf population among all cities, due to deafness being much more prevalent in the elderly.
Economy
Like many Rust Belt cities, Rochester was traditionally a manufacturing center, home to companies such as
Bausch & Lomb,
Kodak, and
Xerox
Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduc ...
. In the 21st century,
deindustrialization has occurred. Xerox and Kodak each laid off thousands of workers in the 1990s and 2000s, causing the
University of Rochester to become the city's top employer in 2005, a title it holds today.
Bausch & Lomb moved to Bridgewater, New Jersey, in 2014. The
Gannett
Gannett Co., Inc. ( ) is an American mass media holding company headquartered in New York City. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation.
It owns the national newspaper ''USA Today'', as well as several ...
newspaper company and
Western Union were founded in Rochester by
Frank Gannett and
Hiram Sibley, respectively, but have since moved to other cities. Today, the city's top employers are its educational and medical institutions. After the University of Rochester, major employers in these fields include
Rochester Regional Health, the
Rochester Institute of Technology, and
Carestream Health. In recent years, a
high technology industry has grown in Rochester, fostered in part by collaborations between private
startup enterprises and the local higher learning institutions. Other organizations such as High Tech Rochester provide local startups with mentorship, office space, and other resources. Like its legacy manufacturers, Rochester's modern technological focus is on imaging and
optical science among the industry and universities.
The Institute of Optics of the University of Rochester and the Rochester Institute of Technology have popular imaging programs, and a research hub for
photonics has operated in the city since 2015 following federal and state investment. Rochester is also home to the
''Fortune'' 500 beverage company
Constellation Brands and the
''Fortune'' 1000 company
Paychex (Fortune #681) and the supermarket chain
Wegmans. The median single-family house price was $247,000 in the third quarter of 2023 in greater Rochester, an increase of 10.3% from a year earlier, according to the
National Association of Realtors.
Arts and culture

The city of Rochester is home to numerous cultural institutions. These include the
Garth Fagan Dance, the
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the
Rochester City Ballet,
Rochester Contemporary Art Center, the
Rochester Broadway Theater League,
Hochstein School of Music & Dance, the Auditorium Theater, and numerous arts organizations.
Geva Theatre Center is the city's largest professional theater. The East End Theater is on East Main Street in the theater district. The
Eastman School of Music, one of the top musical institutes in the nation, and its auditorium are also within the East End neighborhood. The
Eastman Theatre is host to the
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and other musical/drama events.The Rochester Association of Performing Arts is a non-profit organization that provides educational theater classes to the community.
Architecture
Several churches are among Rochester's architectural features, including
Asbury First United Methodist Church,
St. Joseph's Church and Rectory, and the
First Unitarian Church of Rochester, which was designed by
Louis Kahn and described by
Paul Goldberger as one of "the most significant works of religious architecture of the century". Significant
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
buildings include the
Cinema Theater and
Times Square Building, noted for its 42' tall "Wings of Progress" sculpture. The
Midtown Plaza, the nation's first downtown shopping mall, first opened in 1962, and remains partially standing today.
Museums
Museums in the Rochester area include the
Genesee Country Village and Museum,
George Eastman Museum,
Memorial Art Gallery,
Rochester Museum and Science Center,
Strasenburgh Planetarium,
Susan B. Anthony House,
New York Museum of Transportation,
Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum, and
The Strong National Museum of Play. In 2023, plans were announced for a museum dedicated to the life of Frederick Douglass in the city.
Festivals
Rochester hosts a number of cultural festivals every year. The
Lilac Festival at
Highland Park is attended by hundreds of thousands annually. Established after an 1898 gathering, it features the largest collection of lilac varieties in North America, a parade, and dozens of musical acts and food vendors. The
Rochester International Jazz Festival was established in 2002 and is one of the largest
jazz festivals in the United States. It takes place in late June at dozens of clubs, concert halls and free outdoor stages throughout
Downtown Rochester, regularly drawing over 200,000 visitors. Other notable annual festivals in Rochester include the
Rochester International Film Festival in June, the Corn Hill Arts Festival in July,
and the
Rochester Fringe Festival in September.
Cuisine
One food product Rochester calls its own is the "
white hot", a variant of the
hot dog or smoked
bratwurst made by the local
Zweigle's company and other companies. Another local specialty is the
Garbage Plate, a trademark of
Nick Tahou Hots that traditionally includes macaroni salad, home fries, and two hot dogs or cheeseburgers topped with mustard, onions, and their famous meat hot sauce. Many area restaurants feature copies or variations with the word "plate" commonly used as a general term.
Chicken Francese was first popularized by Rochester's Italian American community.
The
Genesee Brewing Company is headquartered in Rochester, where it holds an annual December tradition of assembling a tower of beer kegs in the shape of a Christmas tree. Other local franchises include
Abbott's Frozen Custard,
Bill Gray's,
DiBella's, and
Tom Wahl's.
Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, which originated in Syracuse, also operates its second franchise downtown in the former
Lehigh Valley Railroad station on the Genesee River. The
Ragú brand of pasta sauce used to be produced in Rochester. Some of the original facility still exists and produces products for other labels (including Newman's Own) as Private Label Foods. Rochester was also the original home of
French's
French's is an American brand of prepared Mustard (condiment), mustards, condiments, fried onions, and other food items, best known for their popular yellow mustard. Created by Robert Timothy French, French's "Cream Salad Brand" mustard debuted ...
Mustard, whose address was 1 Mustard Street.
Sports
Professional sports
Rochester has several professional sports teams:

The Rochester Royals (now the
Sacramento Kings) were a professional basketball team in Rochester from 1945 to 1957 with roots as an amateur team dating back to 1923. They won the NBA title in
1951, defeating the
New York Knicks in 7 games. Rochester and its surrounding area also has a rich
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...
history and has hosted numerous professional tournaments on its local golf courses, most recently the
2023 PGA Championship.
Collegiate
NCAA Division I
NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...
teams include the
RIT men's and
women's ice hockey teams, and the
University of Rochester men's squash team, which has ranked top 5 in Division I.
Parks and recreation

Notable cemeteries include the Victorian-era
Mount Hope Cemetery,
Holy Sepulchre and
Riverside Cemetery. Mount Hope became a popular picnicking destination during the late nineteenth century, and the city began to develop public parks.
Rochester's park system was initially designed by landscape architect
Frederick Law Olmsted in the 1890s. Olmsted intended to preserve natural landscapes for the city residents to enjoy. The system included four major parks:
Genesee Valley Park,
Highland Park, Maplewood Park, and Seneca Park,
the last of which is today home to the
Seneca Park Zoo.
The park system was expanded in the early twentieth century with Cobb's Hill Park and
Durand Eastman Park in 1908, Edgerton Park in 1911, and Ontario Beach Park in the early 1920s. The Park Commission also constructed new facilities in all parks, filling them with playgrounds, pavilions, and sports facilities. Modern additions to the park system include Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park, Turning Point Park, and Tryon Park, which are located on former industrial and urban sites, in contrast to the early parks. Most of the city's parks lie on the Genesee River and can be accessed by the Genesee Riverway Trail, which runs for the river's entire length through the city. Current city facilities include 12 full-time recreation centers, 48 playgrounds, two artificial ice rinks, 74 softball/baseball fields, 42 tennis courts, four soccer fields, and 45 outdoor basketball courts.
Government

Rochester is governed by a
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
serving as chief executive of city government and a city council consisting of four district members and five at-large members. Rochester has had a
Strong mayor-council form of government since the approval of its current charter in a referendum in 1984.
Administrative officers are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the city council. All city legislation is proposed and passed by the council, and subject to a
veto
A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president (government title), president or monarch vetoes a bill (law), bill to stop it from becoming statutory law, law. In many countries, veto powe ...
by the mayor, unless a majority of two-thirds approved it. The current mayor is
Malik Evans, serving since January 1, 2022.
Upon the city's charter in 1834, the mayor had few powers and most power was vested in the city council, which was composed of alderman representing individual wards. The charter was frequently modified during the 19th century to expand or reduce the mayor's powers, until an 1898 act by the New York State Legislature centralized all appointments under the mayor. The city abolished the mayor's office and adopted a city manager system in a 1925 referendum, after which the mayor became a minor position and the city manager assumed executive authority, with both being chosen by the members of the city council. A 1984 referendum restored the Strong mayor system.
William A. Johnson, the city's first African American mayor, served from 1994 to 2005.
Lovely Warren, the city's first female mayor, served from 2014 to 2021.
Federal representation
The city is covered by
New York's 25th congressional district currently represented by Democrat
Joe Morelle of
Irondequoit, Monroe County, in Congress. From 1987 until 2018, the city was represented by longtime Democrat
Louise M. Slaughter of
Fairport, Monroe County, in Congress.
State representation
After redistricting based on the
2020 United States census, the city was split between two state senate districts:
After redistricting based on the 2020 census, the city was split between three state assembly districts:
County representation
Rochester is represented by districts 7, 16, and 21–29 in the Monroe County legislature (a 29-seat body with legislators elected to two-year terms). Rochester is also under the jurisdiction of the county executive (currently Democrat Adam Bello) along with the rest of Monroe County. The District Attorney is also elected at the county level along with several other offices (such as Sheriff and Clerk) which in part govern the city.
Courts
Rochester is part of the 7th Judicial District of the
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the superior court in the Judiciary of New York. It is vested with unlimited civil and criminal jurisdiction, although in many counties outside New York City it acts primarily as a court of civil ju ...
and the 4th Department of the
New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division.
Rochester City Court
Rochester City Court is part of the
New York State Unified Court System and consists of ten full-time judges, each of whom is elected to a 10-year term. Each judge must be a city resident and must have been an attorney in New York for at least five years. Judges have a mandatory retirement age of 70. Vacancies on the court are filled by the mayor, and judges so appointed must run for a full term at the next general election.
In New York State, the 61
city courts outside of New York City handle the arraignment of felonies, try misdemeanors and lesser offenses, and try civil lawsuits involving claims of up to $15,000. Rochester City Court also hears small claims matters up to $5,000. Rules of practice and procedure within all city courts are prescribed by the Uniform City Court Act. Rochester City Court, like all city courts, follows the individual assignment system ("IAS"). This means that each case is assigned to a judge when the case is first initiated, and, with a few exceptions, stays under the supervision of that particular judge until the case is resolved.
Created in 1876, the Court was initially named the "Municipal Court of the City of Rochester" and had two judges. Originally, city courts throughout the state were self-regulating, and prescribed their own rules of procedure and bounds of jurisdiction.
[Latwin, Joseph (Fall 1990). "City Courts: Organization and Civil Jurisdiction". Westchester Bar Journal, 279.] Rochester City Court was governed by the Rochester City Court Act, which was a part of the Charter of the City of Rochester. In 1935, Judge Jacob Gitelman introduced weekend sentencing. He was the first judge in New York State to do so. In 1964, the New York State Constitution was amended to require uniform jurisdiction, practice, and procedure for the city courts, to be regulated by the state legislature.
The court's first African-American judge, Reuben K. Davis, was appointed to the city court bench in March 1967.
In the 1980s, the court heard cases involving the prosecution of the "Topfree Seven", women who intentionally bared their chests once a year in order to protest the criminalization of female nudity. Judge Herman J. Walz ruled that the women could not be prosecuted under New York's public nudity statute because their act of going topless in order to protest the law was imbued with First Amendment protections. The decision was later affirmed by the
New York Court of Appeals. By 1995, Rochester City Court had eight judges. A ninth was added in 2001. The Court was brought to its current complement of ten judges in 2014.
Education
Primary and secondary education
The City of Rochester is served by the
Rochester City School District, which encompasses all public primary and secondary education. During the 2022–23 school year, 22,238 students were enrolled in the district, with an average expenditure per student of and a four-year graduation rate of 71%. The district is governed by a popularly elected seven-member board of education. The Rochester City School District operates 14 public secondary schools, each serving grades 7 through 12.
*Dr. Alice Holloway Young School of Excellence (7–8)
*
East Lower School (6–8)
*
East Upper School (9–12)
*
Edison Career & Technology High School (9–12)
*Franklin Lower School (7–8)
*Franklin Upper School (9–12)
*
James Monroe Lower School (7–8)
*
James Monroe Upper School (9–12)
*
Joseph C. Wilson Magnet High School (9–12)
*Northeast College Preparatory High School (9–12)
*
Northwest Junior High at Douglass (7–8)
*Rochester Early College International High School (9–12)
*
School of the Arts (7–12)
*
School Without Walls (9–12)
For the 2022–23 school year, Rochester additionally had fourteen free
charter schools serving grades Kindergarten through 12. Other private schools in and near Rochester include
McQuaid Jesuit High School,
Aquinas Institute and
Bishop Kearny High School.
Colleges and universities

Rochester and the surrounding region host a high concentration of colleges and universities, which drive much of the economic growth in the five-county area. The
University of Rochester is the only large research institution primarily within the city limits, although
Monroe Community College and
SUNY Brockport operate campuses
downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...
. The Highland Park neighborhood was home to
Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School (part of whose facility is leased by
Ithaca College's Department of Physical Therapy) and an office maintained by the
Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
The University of Rochester is the metropolitan area's oldest and most prominent institution of higher learning, and one of the country's top research centers. It includes a nursing school, the
Simon School of Business, and the
Eastman School of Music. It was founded and endowed by
George Eastman in his years as a
philanthropist. He also contributed greatly to the University of Rochester from wealth based on the success of Eastman Kodak.
Five institutions began operations in the city and later moved to Rochester's inner-ring suburbs: the
Empire State College Rochester Learning Center,
Monroe Community College,
Rochester Institute of Technology,
St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry and
Nazareth University. Rochester was the host of the
Barleywood Female University, a short-lived women's college from 1852 to 1853. The Lutheran seminary that became
Wagner College was established in the city in 1883 and remained for some 35 years before moving to Staten Island.
Libraries
The Rochester Public Library is headquartered at the Central Library of Rochester & Monroe County, which is located in the
Rundel Memorial Library
The Rundel Memorial Building is a historic library building located at Rochester in Monroe County, New York. It is the original downtown site of the Rochester Public Library, and along with the Bausch & Lomb Library Building directly across the ...
building and the adjacent Bausch & Lomb Public Library Building in downtown Rochester. The city is part of the larger Monroe County Library System. Library cards are freely available to residents of Monroe County and valid at the eleven branch libraries in the city and other branches in the county. The library had 8.1 visits per capita and over 6,000 programs as of 2018.
Media
The ''
Democrat and Chronicle,'' a
Gannett
Gannett Co., Inc. ( ) is an American mass media holding company headquartered in New York City. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation.
It owns the national newspaper ''USA Today'', as well as several ...
newspaper'','' is Rochester's main daily newspaper. Other local publications exist which cater to special interests, such as the ''Rochester Business Journal'' and the ''Minority Reporter''. Former publications serving the city include ''Insider'' magazine, the ''Rochester Post Express'', the ''Rochester Evening Journal'', and the ''
Times-Union''.
Rochester is also served by several local television and radio stations, with
WROC-TV as the oldest television station serving the Rochester metro area. The
WXXI Public Broadcasting Council is a non-profit organization in Rochester which provides public television and community radio programs. WXXI owns or operates several radio stations, the television station
WXXI-TV, the alternative weekly publication ''
City
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
'' Magazine, and the
Little Theater.
Several movies have been filmed at least in part in Rochester, including ''
The Amazing Spiderman 2'' (2014) and ''
The Tomorrow Man'' (2019).
Infrastructure
Transportation
Maritime

There is marine freight service at the
Port of Rochester on Lake Ontario, which is connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the
Saint Lawrence Seaway. The Erie Canal intersects the Genesee River on the south side of the city.
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, a number of passenger ferries operated on Lake Ontario between the Port of Rochester and Canada. Service ended in 1950 when the ''Ontario I'' and ''Ontario II'' ended their route between Rochester and
Cobourg. A new ferry, the
Spirit of Ontario I, operated between Rochester and Toronto from June 17, 2004, to December 12, 2005. The ferry suffered from numerous issues, including two separate pier collisions that damaged it. The initial operator,
Canadian American Transportation Systems (CATS), went bankrupt by the end of the 2004 season. The city of Rochester then purchased the ferry and signed a contract with
Bay Ferries Great Lakes
Bay Ferries Great Lakes was a marketing name used by Bay Ferries Management Limited, a subsidiary of Northumberland Ferries Limited (NFL).
History
In February 2005 Rochester Ferry Company LLC, a subsidiary of the City of Rochester, New York p ...
to resume operations in 2005. The resumption of service was delayed until summer, causing the ferry to continue to operate at a loss. In 2006, the operation was shut down and the ferry was sold.
Air

Rochester is served by the Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport (GRIA). Scheduled air service is provided by
American,
Allegiant,
Delta
Delta commonly refers to:
* Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet
* D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet
* River delta, at a river mouth
* Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...
,
Frontier,
JetBlue,
Southwest
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west— ...
,
Spirit, and
United.
FedEx
FedEx Corporation, originally known as Federal Express Corporation, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company specializing in Package delivery, transportation, e-commerce, and ...
founder
Fred Smith has stated in several articles that
Xerox
Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduc ...
's development of the copier, and its need to quickly get parts to customers, was one of the economic issues that led him to pioneer the overnight delivery business in 1971. Because Xerox manufactured its copiers in Rochester, the city was one of the original 25 cities FedEx served on its first night of operations on April 17, 1973.
In 2016, Governor
Andrew Cuomo announced a $63.4 million project to renovate the GRIA. The renovations include a large canopy extending over both main entrances, solar panels, a rainwater collection system, and modern communication and security enhancements. All construction was completed by October 2018.
Rails and mass transit

Local bus service in Rochester and its county suburbs is provided by the
Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority (RGRTA) via its Regional Transit Service (RTS) subsidiary. RTS also provides suburban service outside the immediate Rochester area and runs smaller transportation systems in outlying counties, such as WATS (Wayne Area Transportation System). All RTS routes are based out of the RTS Transit Center on Mortimer Street. Rochester has intercity and transcontinental bus service via
Greyhound and
Trailways.
Rail service to Rochester is provided by the Louise M. Slaughter Rochester Station, served by
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
's ''
Empire Service'' between New York City and Niagara Falls, the ''
Maple Leaf'' between New York City and Toronto, and the ''
Lake Shore Limited'' between New York City/Boston and Chicago. Prior to 1965, Rochester had a smaller station reminiscent of New York City's "
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal station, terminal located at 42nd Street (Manhattan), 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York Ci ...
". It was among
Claude Fayette Bragdon's best works in Rochester. The current station is modeled after Bragdon's work and named in honor of former longtime congresswoman
Louise Slaughter.
Rochester used to be a major stop on several railroad lines. The
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...
provided service to Chicago and Buffalo to the west and Albany and New York City to the east and southeast. The
Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway (absorbed by the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad) served Buffalo and Pittsburgh until 1955. A rail route to Salamanca in southern New York State afforded connections in
Salamanca to southwestern and southeastern New York State. The last long-distance train was the ''Northern Express''/''Southern Express,'' operated by the
Pennsylvania Railroad on the
Genesee Valley Canal Railroad, that went to
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania via Canandaigua, Elmira and Williamsport; service ended in 1971. Also serving Rochester were the
Erie Railroad and
Lehigh Valley Railroad.

From 1927 to 1956, Rochester had a
light rail underground transit system called the
Rochester subway, which was first operated by
New York State Railways and later by the
Rochester Transit Corporation.
Rochester was the smallest city in the world to have such a system. After the subway was shut down in 1956, the eastern half of the subway past Court Street became the
Eastern Expressway, and the western end of the open cut was filled in 1976. The tunnel was last used for freight service by
Gannett Company to bring paper to the printing presses for the
Democrat and Chronicle in 1997. In the years since, the tunnel has become a hub for
graffiti artists. Several proposals have been made to completely fill the remaining tunnel, redevelop the underground space, or convert the bridge to a pedestrian crossing. Portions have been filled in at the western end and the eastern end for new above-ground development. The
Broad Street aqueduct, which contains part of the tunnel, was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1976.
Major highways and roads
Three exits off the
New York State Thruway (
I-90) serve Rochester. Rochester's expressway system, conceived in the 1950s, was designed as two concentric circles with feeder expressways from the west, south and east. The system allows for quick travel within the metropolitan area and a lack of the traffic gridlock typically found in cities of comparable size; in part this is because the system was designed to accommodate rapid travel between the suburbs and downtown, and also because it was built when the city's population was over 330,000, whereas today it is a full third less.
The
Outer Loop circles just outside the city limits while the former
Inner Loop once circled around the immediate downtown area within the city (the easternmost sector was closed in 2015). From the west are
Lake Ontario State Parkway,
NY 531 and
I-490;
I-390 feeds from the south; and
NY 104,
NY 441, and
I-490 approach from the east.
In the early 1970s, the Genesee Expressway Task Force, City leaders, and the New York State Department of Transportation studied the feasibility of connecting the outer and inner Loops with a new southern expressway. The proposed route extended north from the I-390 and I-590 interchange in Brighton, cutting through Rochester's Swillburg neighborhood. In 1972, consultants Berger Lehman Associates recommended a new 'Busway', an expressway with dedicated bus lanes, similar to Bus Rapid Transit. The expressway extension was never built. In 2016, the City of Rochester launched the
Pace Car Program.
I-390 (Genesee Expressway)
*I-390 runs south–north, crossing
I-90 (exit 46) and routing north through Rochester's western suburbs. Its northern end is at
I-490, however, it continues north as
NY 390 until it merges into the
Lake Ontario State Parkway. South of I-90, I-390 runs to
Avoca, where it meets with
US 15 and the Southern Tier Expressway,
I-86.
I-490 (Western/Eastern Expressway)
*I-490 runs west–east through Rochester, starting at
Le Roy and ending in
Victor. It interchanges with the two other Interstates in Rochester: I-390 at the western city limit and
I-590 at the eastern limit, as well as connecting at both ends with the Thruway,
I-90 (exits 47 and 45). In July 2007, a new bridge over the
Genesee River was completed and named the
Frederick Douglass–Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge.
I-590
*I-590 runs south–north through Rochester's eastern suburbs. Its southern end is at I-390, while the northern terminus is at
I-490; the highway continues north to the shore of Lake Ontario as
NY 590.
*In decreasing usage is the term "
Can of Worms", referring to the previously dangerous at-grade intersection of
I-490 and expressway
NY 590 on the eastern edge of the Rochester city limits, bordering the suburb of
Brighton
Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
. In the 1980s, a multimillion-dollar project created a system of overpasses and ramps that reduced the danger but resulted in the loss of certain exits.
NY 104 (Irondequoit-Wayne County Expressway, West Ridge Road)
*NY 104 – Just east of the NY 590 interchange, NY 104 becomes the Irondequoit-Wayne County Expressway and crosses the
Irondequoit Bay Bridge. On the other side of the Bay Bridge, in the town of Webster, NY 104 has exits before returning to an at-grade highway at Basket Road.
NY 390
*NY 390 is an extension of Interstate 390 from the I-390/I-490 interchange in Gates. The northern terminus is at the Lake Ontario State Parkway in Greece, less than a mile from the Lake Ontario shoreline.
NY 590
*NY 590 is a limited-access extension of Interstate 590 that runs from an interchange between Interstate 490 and I-590 on the Brighton/Rochester border. The northern terminus is at Culver Road in Irondequoit, near Sea Breeze (the western shore of Irondequoit Bay at Lake Ontario).
Inner Loop
*The Inner Loop Runs from I-490 to Main Street on the north end and from 490 to Monroe Avenue at the south end. Formerly a loop, the eastern end was demolished and replaced with a surface road between 2014 and 2017. Unsigned reference NY 940T begins and ends at I-490, and the rest of the Loop is part of I-490 between exits 13 and 15, including the
Frederick Douglass–Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge. This expressway is commonly used to define the borders of Downtown Rochester.
Lake Ontario State Parkway
*Lake Ontario State Parkway travels from
Lakeside Beach State Park in Carlton, Orleans County. The eastern end is at Lake Avenue in the city of Rochester in Monroe County.
Public safety
Fire protection and
EMS services are provided by the Rochester Fire Department. The department employs 509 personnel
and operates thirteen engines, six trucks, and heavy rescue from fifteen
fire stations. In FY 2021–22, the department responded to 38,876 incidents.
The current fire chief is Stefano Napolitano.
Law enforcement services are provided by the
Rochester Police Department. The current chief of police is David Smith. Independent oversight of the department is provided by the Police Accountability Board, established in 2019 to investigate and discipline officers for misconduct. In 2023, the New York Court of Appeals ruled that the board could not enforce disciplinary actions on any officers in the department, as it would violate the contract between the city and police union.
In 2019, Rochester had 1,540 reported violent crimes. That same year, Rochester had 7,142 property crime incidents. These included 33
murders, 429 robberies, 976
aggravated assaults, 1,269
burglaries, 5,222
larceny thefts, 102 forcible
rapes, 651
auto thefts, and 83 acts of
arson.
On November 12, 2021, Rochester Mayor
Lovely Warren declared a
state of emergency due to a rising violent crime rate in the city, which produced 81 homicides by December 31, the highest number of any year on record. Additional law enforcement assistance was requested from, and granted by, the state government. On July 21, 2022, Rochester Mayor
Malik Evans declared another state of emergency due to ongoing gun violence.
Rochester experienced a decline in its violent crime rate in both 2023 and 2024. In 2024, there were 37 reported homicide incidents (there were 45 victims), a 26 percent drop compared with 2023. There was also a sharp decline in automotive vehicle thefts in 2024—2,068 reported incidents, down from the record 3,943 in 2023. Overall, property crime incidents were down 33 percent in 2024 compared to 2023.
Healthcare
Most healthcare services in the Rochester area are provided by
University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) and
Rochester Regional Health (RRH). Major hospitals in the Rochester area include:
*
Highland Hospital, a URMC facility with 261 beds. Highland is a level 1 perinatal center and a primary stroke center.
*
Rochester General Hospital, a RRH facility with 528 beds. Rochester General is a comprehensive stroke center and level 2 perinatal center.
*
Rochester Psychiatric Center, a psychiatric hospital operated by the
New York State Department of Mental Hygiene. The hospital's campus contains the abandoned
Terrence Building.
*
Strong Memorial Hospital, a URMC facility with 886 beds. Strong is home to the
Golisano Children's Hospital for pediatric care, and is an AIDS center, burn center, comprehensive Stroke center, level I trauma center for both pediatric and adult care, and regional perinatal center.
*
Unity Hospital, a RRH facility with 311 beds. Unity is a regional perinatal center and primary stroke center.
In 2023,
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
reported that Rochester was becoming a desirable community for
transgender individuals due to its network of gender-affirming care providers, such as Trillium Health.
Notable people
:''See
List of people from Rochester, New York''
Notable individuals who were born in or lived in Rochester include American social reformer and women's rights activist
Susan B. Anthony, African-American social reformer and abolitionist
Frederick Douglass, and
Kodak founder
George Eastman.
Sister cities
Rochester has twelve
sister cities
A sister city or a twin town relationship is International relations, a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties.
While there ar ...
, as designated by
Sister Cities International. They are all dedicated by a branched concrete walkway over the Genesee River, dubbed the Sister Cities Bridge (known as the Frank and Janet Lamb Bridge since October 2006):
Rochester's sister cities are:
*
Rennes
Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...
, France (1958)
*
Würzburg, Germany (1964)
*
Caltanissetta
Caltanissetta (Sicilian language, Sicilian: ''Cartanissètta)'' is an Italian comune with a population of 58,012 inhabitants, serving as the capital of the Province of Caltanissetta, free municipal consortium of Caltanissetta in Sicily.
The earl ...
, Italy (1965)
*
Rehovot, Israel (1972)
*
Kraków
, officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...
, Poland (1973)
*
Bamako, Mali (1975)
*
Waterford
Waterford ( ) is a City status in Ireland, city in County Waterford in the South-East Region, Ireland, south-east of Ireland. It is located within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster. The city is situated at the head of Waterford H ...
, Ireland (1983)
*
Veliky Novgorod, Russia (1990)
*
Hamamatsu
is a Cities of Japan, city located in western Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. In September 2023, the city had an estimated population of 780,128 in 340,591 households, making it the prefecture's largest city, with a population density of over the t ...
, Japan (1996)
*
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic (1997)
*
Xianyang, China (2007)
*
Alytus, Lithuania (2009)
See also
*
USS ''Rochester'', 3 ships
*
Rochester, Kent
Notes
References
Further reading
* Keene, Michael. ''Folklore and Legends of Rochester: The Mystery of Hoodoo Corner and Other Tales'' (2011
excerpt and text search* McKelvey, Blake. ''Rochester on the Genesee: The Growth of a City'' (1993
excerpt and text search 292 pp; a brief history by the leading specialist
*
External links
*
Greater Rochester Visitors Association
{{Authority control
Cities in Monroe County, New York
Cities in New York (state)
Cities in Rochester metropolitan area, New York
County seats in New York (state)
New York (state) populated places on the Genesee River
Populated places established in the 1810s
Populated places on Lake Ontario in the United States
Ukrainian communities in the United States
History of Christianity in the United States
Populated places established in 1803