The greater Rochester region has many opportunities of a big city, renowned for theater, music, dance, an impressive range of museums, art galleries and community festivals. Residents contribute to the civic life of the community through voting, charitable giving, volunteering and in many other ways. Yet the community also faces serious problems such as climate change and transportation challenges.

Looking at transportation, nearly a quarter of households in the City of Rochester lack access to a vehicle, making it difficult to access the community’s assets and address basic needs. Public transit is available through the Regional Transit Service, yet ridership hasn’t rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, and 85% of commuters drive to work. Those who take transit have longer commutes, with a third of commuters using transit spending an hour or more getting to work. Cyclists, walkers, motorcyclists and those using cabs or other means have some of the shortest commutes – 40% of whom got to work within 10 minutes.

Safety on the road is another concern, with thousands of crashes each year that injure or kill those in cars as well as cyclists and pedestrians. Of particular concern is the high rate of injuries and fatalities in the City of Rochester.

Civic engagement can be gauged in part through voting and charitable giving. Residents in our region are registered to vote and turn out to vote at rates similar to the state. In 2021, 84% of regional residents were registered to vote. In 2020 (a presidential election year), 64% of regional residents voted, compared to 57% of state residents and 62% nationally.

Residents in the region spent 0.8% of their income on charitable giving in 2020, lower than the state and national rates (1.6% and 1.5% respectively).

Tourism revenue in our region was over $1.7 billion in 2021. This was a 50% increase from 2020, likely reflecting a recovery in tourism and travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The spending on recreation by tourists was over $101 million in 2021, up 52% since 2020 due to the recovery from the pandemic.