page_title: History of Rochester, New York
section_title: The new millennium
hierarchical_section_title: History of Rochester, New York / The new millennium
caption_attribution_description: English: A picture of the Spirit of Ontario 1, part of The Breeze fast ferry service between Rochester NY and Toronto ON, taken August 8, 2004 by Ryan Tucker. Image was taken from the Pier at the Port of Rochester using a Kodak CX6330 digital camera. The vessel in the foreground of the picture is an unidentified United States Coast Guard patrol boat.
context_page_description: Settlement began in the late 18th century, and the city flourished with the opening of the Erie Canal. It became a major manufacturing center, and attracted many Italians, Germans, Irish and other immigrants, as well as a dominant group of Yankees of New England origin. The Yankees made Rochester the center of multiple reform movements, such as abolitionism and women's rights. It was famous as the center of the American photography industry, with headquarters of Eastman Kodak. In the 1970s it became fashionable to call the industrial cities along the Great Lakes 'rustbelt cities' following the move away from steel, chemical and other hard goods manufacturing. Rochester, with the presence of Ritter-Pfaulder, Bausch and Lomb, Eastman Kodak, Xerox, Gannett and other major industries, defied the trend for many decades following WWII.
  Of the 19 places in the United States named Rochester, at least 8 were named directly after Rochester, New York, having been founded or settled by former residents. These include: Rochester, Indiana; Rochester, Texas; Rochester, Iowa; Rochester, Kentucky; Rochester, Michigan; Rochester, Minnesota; Rochester, Nevada; and Rochester, Ohio.
context_section_description: The population of the City of Rochester at the 2000 census was 219,773, down 33.9% from its peak in 1950. In 2003 Rochester built a ferry terminal to house the Spirit of Ontario I. Product of the William A. Johnson, Jr. administration, the "Fast Ferry" was short lived and after troubles with the start-up and operations, newly elected Mayor of Rochester Robert Duffy announced that the city government would be cutting off funds for the ferry. The City sold the Spirit of Ontario I at a financial loss in 2007 to the German company Förde Reederei Seetouristik Gmbh & Co (FRS) for $29.8 million (US).
  In 2006, a new stadium funded by private and public sources, PAETEC Park, was opened, not far from Frontier Field, and became the home of the Rhinos professional soccer team. Its naming sponsor has changed and it was later known as Capelli Sport Stadium, and then as Marina Auto Stadium.
  The same year, the Census Bureau estimated that Rochester's population had declined further to 206,000. This would prove in the end to be the city's low point, as growth resumed in the second half of the decade. By the 2010 official census, Rochester had built back up to 210,565. More recent estimates indicate a population growth for the city of about 0.25% per year (or a little over 500 persons annually), which could bring the total over 215,000 by the 2020 census if the rate of growth continues.
  In 2007, PAETEC Holding Corp. announced that they would be building a new tower downtown in place of Midtown Plaza. The PAETEC Tower was said to be built slightly higher than the Xerox Tower. Since then, however, the company was sold, plans for the tower were scaled down, and a much more modest headquarters building for PaeTec's successor firm, Windstream, was completed in 2013.
  Mayor Duffy was both criticized and praised for his efforts to take "mayoral control" of the failing city school district, in a manner similar to school governance re-organizations in New York and Chicago. The issue effectively stalled at the end of 2010 when Duffy was elected New York State Lieutenant Governor, as part of Governor Andrew Cuomo's administration. His successor, Thomas Richards, was elected in a 2011 special election and announced that the issue had been "placed on the back burner".
  In 2013, Lovely Warren was elected Rochester's first female mayor. Under Warren, a project to fill in the Inner loop and convert it to a boulevard was undertaken and a plan to build a performing arts center on a parcel of the former Midtown Plaza is underway.
caption: The Spirit of Ontario I, center of one of the most controversial local issues of the 2000s
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