Rochester, NY - Kodak City

Rochester, NY


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Rochester, a city in New York State. I first know about Rochester was when my classmate come here as a student of Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT),in the early 70s. Our aim to Rochester is to attend Lilac Festival Concert which begin at 7.00p.m., at Highland Park, Rochester, on our journey to Niagara Fall. Another reason is, being hearing impaired, I am interested to have a look at the city, friendly to the deaf people. The other reason is that Rochester is the capital of Eastman Kodak.

Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. The Rochester metropolitan area is the second largest economy in New York State, behind the New York City metropolitan area. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City. It is the county seat for Monroe County. Because of the high prevalence of imaging and optical science among the industry and the universities, Rochester is known as the world capital of imaging, and also known as Kodak town. It is home to Eastman Kodak, and Xerox was founded in Rochester in 1906 as The Haloid Company. The Institute of Optics of the University of Rochester and the Rochester Institute of Technology in nearby Henrietta both have optics programs. In 2006, the University of Rochester became the largest employer in the Rochester area, surpassing Kodak. Rochester is the gateway to the scenic and culinary delights of New York's Finger Lakes region.

Rochester's population is approximately 219,773, making it New York's third most populous city after New York City and Buffalo. The tallest building in the city is the Xerox Tower(443 ft), located in downtown at 199, Clinton Avenue South, is 443 feet (135 m)tall. It was completed in 1968. Bausch & Lomb Place (center), and Chase Tower (left). Kodak Tower, located at 391, State Street, built in 1914, is today only the 4th tallest in Rochester.



Rochester has one of the highest populations of deaf people (per capita) in the United States, and as such sign language is not an uncommon sight around the city. It's not a given that you'll see ASL being used if you visit Rochester—unless you drop by the Rochester School for the Deaf, or the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology—but you never know.

For deaf people, few cities in the world are as accommodating as Rochester. Most businesses, especially in Henrietta and Brighton, are accustomed to working with deaf customers and often have teletype machines and dedicated TTY phone numbers. Open-captioned films are regularly shown at the local multiplexes (in particular, at Regal Henrietta), and many major events will be interpreted. At RIT, nearly all events have both captioning and interpreters. Wherever the event is held, a quick phone call is often all that is needed to ensure the presence of an interpreter.

Rochester and Niagara Fall are within the Niagara Frontier Region. The Niagara Frontier region of New York State consists of 5 counties situated near the Great Lakes of Erie and Ontario, just across the Niagara River from the Canadian province of Ontario and its Niagara Peninsula region. Buffalo, the state's second-largest city, and Niagara Falls, the "honeymoon capital of the world".

Rochester subway

From 1927 to 1957, Rochester had a light rail underground transit system called the Rochester Subway. It was the smallest city in the world to have one. There are proposals to put in a new system, possibly using some of the old tunnels. One includes converting the Broad Street bridge tunnel—the former canal aqueduct—into an underground pedestrian walkway, which would also include a Rochester Transportation Museum, and a tram system. The Broad Street Aqueduct was used as a subway tunnel

The former canal and subway tunnels have become a source of controversy. Many city homeless use the tunnels for shelter, and a few areas near tunnel entrances have gained the reputation as being dangerous. The city has considered multiple solutions for the space including recreating a canal way, putting the subway system back in or filling the tunnels entirely. The plan to fill the tunnels in has generated criticism as the cost of filling would be comparable to restoring the subway





Note there is another Rochester in Minnesota.

22/5/2010(Saturday) - New York - Syracuse- Rochester

Depart New York, Penn Station, at 12p.m. by Megabus, to arrive 6:30 PM at Rochester, Eastview Mall. MEGABUS.COM departures are located adjacent to Penn Station, on the north side of West 31st Street at the northeast corner of 31st Street and 8th Avenue.

Syracuse, NY

We stopped for an hour at Syracuse. Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, central of New York State, United States, and the fifth most populous city in the NY state. The city is named after the original Syracuse, (Siracusa in Italian) a city on the eastern coast of the Italian island of Sicily. Syracuse is not popular place for sightseeing. It is formerly an industrial town, but most have relocated to other places. The economy now is basically depend on education and the service industry.

Rochester, NY

Rochester Arrival: Arrivals and departures are located at entrance #4 on the north side of the Eastview Shopping Center. Eastview Shopping Cente is a regional shopping mall. Visitors can enjoy shopping at more than 180 specialty stores, dining at six sit-down restaurants and catching a movie at the Regal Cinema. Eastview is also home to 5 major department stores: Lord & Taylor, Macy's, JC Penney, Sears and The Bon-Ton. The Mall is open from Monday - Saturday - 10:00am - 9:30pm

We arrived at Eastview Shopping Cente, Rochester rather late, and the bus service to the downtown has stopped for the day. The shopping mall is also far from downtown of Rochester. We have no other choice, but to take a taxi to downtown. The taxi driver is a Ceylonese, friendly and take us straight to the hotel. The hotel is an old hotel, but the location at downtown is its attraction. As we arrive late at downtown, we are too late for Lilac Festival Concert which begin at 7.00p.m., at Highland Park, Rochester. We missed the festival.

Rochester is not tourist area. It is the birthplace of amateur photography, Rochester has long been known as Kodak Town. Lilac Festival, Highland Park (Sa Su: Park at MCC, 1000 E Henrietta Rd, Brighton), (info@lilacfestival.com), which was held between 14-23 May 2010. For ten days every May, Rochester's flagship festival celebrates the community—and its flowers—in beautiful Highland Park, designed by renowned landscaper Frederick Law Olmsted.

Our hotel is East Avenue Inn Downtown, located at No. 384 East Avenue, Historic District, Rochester, NY 14607 (Formerly Days Inn). Located just steps from the busy nightlife district of the East End at East Avenue and Alexander Street, its location is the hotel's biggest selling point. Across Alexander Street is the Murphy's Law, opposite is Anchor Bar Rochester NY.

Rochester's East End, within downtown, is well known throughout the area for being a center of late-night activity. It gets its name for being the stopping point for East Avenue, and both East and the surrounding streets are crowded with bars, nightclubs, coffee shops and high-end restaurants. The Eastman School of Music, one of the top musical institutes in the nation, is also located within the neighborhood along with its auditorium. The Eastman Theatre now plays host to the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and other musical/drama events. Scattered around the city are also pockets of restaurants, bars and nightclub.

We have a night walk around the East End. A police patrol was stationed at the corner of one of the street, the police inform us or may be comfort us that if we faced any problem in the city, just make a call, they will be around in the short time. It is indeed comforting words from police. Not many tourists are around in the Rochester downtown, especially Asian.

The Little Theatre, located at No. 240 East Avenue, run by a not-for-profit corporation, the historic Little Theatre, shows a wide variety of foreign, independent and classic films in five theatres. There is also a cafe bakery (serves a full dinner menu along with wine and beer), sometimes with live music. $7 ($5 weekend matinées). It is heartening to know that theatre or cinema showing films is still operating today in Rochester. Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, 108 East Ave, one of George Eastman's greatest legacies, is having their performance at Eastman Theatre, their main performance place. It is located at 60, Gibbs St (at East Main). The newly renovated Kodak Hall at the Eastman Theatre is the best place to catch the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the best mid-sized city orchestras in the country.

We have coffee in Java's Cafe, 16 Gibbs St (next door to Eastman Theater/Kilbourn Hall). Another downtown coffee shop, more popular with the art house crowd. Java's prices and products are similar to Spot. They also sell a variety of large homemade cookies in a variety of styles for about a dollar.

After coffee, we went to the Chinese restaurant, Golden Port Dim Sum, just opposite the cafe. The restaurant was owned by Vietnamese Chinese, seems popular with the locals. The performance by Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra at Eastman Theatre just over, there are many musician having their dinner here.

The night in Rochester is equally exciting, as the hotel is located at the East Avenue, where the night life just begin. Moreover this is Saturday night. We did not joined the Saturday crowd at East Avenue. As we need a good rest after traveling from NY.

23/5/2010(Sunday) - Rochester- Buffalo

Downtown

We wake up early and have a walking tour around the downtown. Walk along East Ave until we reached Main Street East. The downtown is having many historical old buildings, with the Kodak Tower standing tall in the area.

High Falls - The majestic High Falls of the Genesee are what attracted settlers to the area. A 96-foot (29 m) waterfall in the center of downtown is certainly a unique sight; viewing is best from the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge. But also take a walk around the old warehouses on the west bank between the bridge and the falls; this is the area known as "High Falls" and home to a very nice museum/visitor's center and some very old milling equipment. We walk along the bridge, until the other end where the bridge connect to Plant Street, which lead to St Paul Street. We then walk into Ward Street which lead to N Clinton Street. The area is residential area. We walk along N Clinton Street until Central Avenue. The railway track is crossing the street above. Finally we reached the Cumberland Street, where Greyhound bus station is located.

As it is still early and is Sunday, there were no people walking around downtown.

Greyhound bus station
The bus station is located at 186 Cumberland Street, Rochester, NY. A small bus station. It is located at the land land border by Joseph Avenue, Cumberland Street, Central Ave and N Clinton Ave. The security at the bus station was tight, border guard board the bus for security check prior to departure to Buffalo. This is because the Rochester is near to border of Canada.

Rochester is only about 90 minutes away from one of the world's greatest natural attractions, the spectacular Niagara Falls. You could also go to Buffalo, the state's second-largest city and home to historic architecture, major league sports, and plenty of Buffalo wings. To the east, Syracuse is also 90 minutes away.