I remember the midtown plaza. Christmas time was the best. Loved it.

I lived there from 1981 to 2001. Watching this movie, it is clear that it was filmed near the peak of its prosperity. The demise of many of those industries was the end of prosperity in this region. It would take a miracle to see it return to prosperity.

I can't believe all the negative comments. Rochester and the surrounding areas were a wonderful place to live. You could come out of high school and get a job at Kodak or Xerox or Bausch & Lomb or GM without a college degree and make good money. There was a lot of prosperity, housing was fairly cheap, education was good and there was great healthcare available. It was a wonderful place to live. We would ride the bus from the suburbs down to Midtown to see the clock and go shopping there and Edwards and McCurdy's and Sibley's. And the roads there were tons better than any of the roads I experienced in other cities as an adult. Sadly this is all just memory. The jobs are gone,the quality of life deteriorating. The countryside surrounding is truly uniquely beautiful. Cuomo is driving my family out. So we will be saying goodbye to our beautiful land in Genesee County, the beautiful Valley.

I’ve lived in Rochester all my life and I’ve heard so many stories about how great it used to be it’s nice to see this. Rochester is still nice in some areas but unfortunately it’s gone downhill

burst out laughing at 15:24 "Rochester Gas and Electricity is renowned for the quality of its services" EDIT: IT'S SPONSORED BY RG&E THIS IS TOO GOOD

I worked in Midtown in the mid-80s. Miss it to this day.

Thank you for this history lesson on Rochester. I have lived here for 78 years and discovered that I didn't know enough about her history. Thank you truly. Nancy Carey Roselli.

As someone who was born in Rochester and lived there for 21 years. It's no longer anything like this.

I used to skip school and go to midtown plaza with my pals back in the 70s . Cought many salon on the genesee river at the falls in late October with my brothers. Where has the time gone ? Thank you for showing this but so much has changed . I do love New Youk . Christmas shopping some at the plaza with my aunts. It was majic and the Christmas music playing while we looked for the perfect gifts .

I was born in Rochester in 1960. Seen a comment no black people were present. Blame the movie makers. I played for an eastman kodak baseball team in the 70's. As an Italian American, I was the closest to a white person on the team. Went to high school at John Marshall with many blacks. Worked at a family business in the 80's and 90's, down rhe road from Rochester products. At least a third of our customers were black. A shoutout to Earl Forehand, my favorite customer of alltime. He was black.

I took my kids downtown at Christmas time. Looked at the Sibley' s window decor. Went to Midtown for the monorail and Santa's Mountain.

I remember living in Rochester and going to Midtown Plaza to see the clock they show. I loved it. Sadly much that was in this video has changed. However, that is what this video is about, change. Still it was nice to see the way things were when I was a young teen ! Especially the clock ! !

Oh my !! Rochester NY my birth place. I loved and hated it. Midtown before it was built was Mc Curdys, Manger Hotel and Waldorfs Cafeteria. I could go on and on but I'd be telling my age.😊

Went to East Jr Sr High School. 7th-12th grades. 1972-77. Left for the Army and W.Germany straight out of Highschool in 77. No matter where I lived on Earth, always came back to Rochester. Now, my grandchildren have children and I retired to Naples Florida. But my father still lives there. Hard to believe, but true.

If Kodak would’ve just changed with the times Rochester wouldn’t be as ghostly as it is now.

Its kind of sad watching this. Like a view of what could have been. What happened to us? Why does it feel like everything is crumbling apart and no one is doing anything about it? Society is falling apart as a whole and the city of Rochester feels like a broken shell of its former self. I find it incredibly disheartening,

This great city of Rochester is beautiful and historical to say the least. Honestly the decisions of the management of the Kodak company and there DVD patents that were sold thinking that DVD and CD technology was not the future at the time, is probably the snowball that began the changes we experience today.

I took classes at MCC in downtown Rochester 5 years ago when the downtown campus was located in the old Sibley building. That place felt out of time, secluded from the outside world and trapped in the 60s.

I miss them days in my hometown

Something else that is overlooked is the incredible role Rochester played in the Underground railroad. An amazing amount of brave, dedicated hero's, men and women, of all colors, work secretly for 70 years, to help freedom seekers make that last leg of their journey into Canada. Because it was undocumented, to protect those who were a part of the abolitionist movement, so many of these people got no credit for the chances they took and the suffering they, themselves incurred against body and property because of their participation. Very few accurate documents exist. But there are two really good books that include a lot of this history and Rochester is a huge part of that, 'The Underground Railroad, from Slavery to Freedom' Siebert. and William Still's book, 'The Underground Railroad'. It is an incredibly rich and vibrant story of real life hero's and hair raising true stories and puts things into a perspective and context that allows people to relate to what was going on in a real and empathetic way. I guess what has always confused me, was how we got to the place we are now, in those towns and communities and cities? Places where the abolitionist movement was embraced so completely and then became, later, a divided place. When I grew up in LeRoy and went to Wolcott Street School, in the 1960's. There were like two black kids in the school. That part never made sense to me. And the Cornhill incident that took place in Rochester in, what, 1964? Really? How does a city fall so far from such a rich and glorious history to that? At any rate. It may not be so glorious right now, but it's history was one of the richest in America.

1963 to present was a period of significant decline of this city. Rochester is a notorious case study for the horrendous decisions that were made by city planners of this era

Funny, I grew up in Rochester ,NY around the time of this video ! I can vividly remember going to see this clock. Now it still plays but I found that a new high rise building had engulfed the plaza it was in. But it still is available for sightseers to enjoy.

It was a good area when I was near there in the 1960's. Once my mother forgot me in the fabric section of Sibleys department store. She drove all the way home to Morganville, near Stafford. My dad asked where I was and she had to come all the way back. I just sat quietly for over two hours waiting. My dad went to Colgate Rochester Divinity school and it was an amazing place then. Beautiful buildings and all the lilacs. So many wonderful things to do and see. I live in Seattle now but I have good memories of this area.

Watching in 2023. Crazy how different it is

🤔 ISN'T THE NARRATOR..ROD SERLING???!!!!😊😉..I AM CERTAIN HE WROTE THIS AS WELL..SEEN HIM AROUND BACK THEN! 🤣 LOVE THIS!♥️

The mall that they intro in the beginning is downtown, I dont live in rochester but the sister city and I visited this building about a year ago. They turned it into a food court/bar, the food there is pretty good but its unfortunate because you are no longer allowed to go upstairs. It interesting to see whats become of this history, then to witness it as it was a long time ago.

....then the executive board said "digital will never take over film".

Certain areas still have wonderful places - Strong Museum of Play, Seneca Park Zoo, Lilac Festival, Blue Cross Arena to mention a few. My daughter was raised there. Brought my 2 teen grandchildren last summer to visit the area from S Florida, and see relatives in the area, finally. Hard to believe Strong Hospital is now their largest employer. Hope the city, and area, recover.

Rochester, a city of quality, too bad that’s not true anymore.

I think Rochester looks way better then Syracuse, Binghamton, Elmira, Cortland, Utica, Buffalo, Endicott, Albany I mean all these cities in New York state in general. might not be what it used to be but Rochester out of all the cities is the nicest. The downtown does look nice and there upgrading compared to all these other cities upstate and in the CNY area. And surrounding areas are good. There's a lot of work to be done no question but Rochester is not A bad City......I like Rochester.

I lived in old Rochester for over 60 years...... It was wonderful until the people and values changed.... Now I live in Florida.

10:05 Pretty cool to me seeing this shot. You can see where they were doing construction to build the main runway 4/22 for jet usage. Interestingly enough, the first jet flight in to Rochester was via American Airlines and they had to land on 10/28 (the long runway that goes left to right in this shot, with the very visible runway markings on the left end of it, the runway 28 side) instead as 4/22 wasn't yet completed.

Rochester is a beautiful place. It's the bad politics and bad ideas which have run it into the ground. Maybe if things were run (or left alone) like they were in Nathaniel's day there would be prosperity again.

As far as upstate/western NY, Rochester has it all over its neighbors. If the weather wasn't horrific, it'd be a nice place to live.

Rochester,City of Dreams,most of them wet. Charlotte development will be next.

trip back into time

so many mob members lived there back then

ROCHESTER NEED TO HAVE MORE MANUFACTURING COMPANY AND MOST OF THE CITY IN THE US. IS BROKE NOW WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ASAP I HAVE A MASTER PLANS

The ROCK ROCKING ROCHESTER.. USE TO BE BUT NOT ANY MORE!! POOR POOR ROCHESTER NY!! MY HOMETOWN!! NOW A DAM JUNGLE!!

7:00 The rare van version of Chevrolet's Corvair!

Now a ghetto. As a kid took bus from breman st to midtown back in the day.

👍🏻👍🏻

Breman st ghetto. Hollenbeck st ghetto. When I lived there mostly Europeans kept the neighborhoods clean. Now go there and look for yourself.

I can’t believe it went from this, to it’s current state today. I believe we’re the in the top 5 most unsafe cities in the country now

Via issiee , Rochester will never be the same..

Funny how they talk about smooth flowing road ways. Flash forward to 2019, and and now they're a nightmare.

Damn so honestly Rochester's big problem was they didn't do enough to attract business. Obviously they got unlucky with all their major businesses being in declining industries, but after that they should've done more to attract new growing businesses.

Im from Central New York Utica Area. As i can see in the comments there are many good and bad things to say. But the bottom line is if there wasnt power drunken ignorant corrupt idiots runnin the state...Just maybe Upstate and the Valley area would be the gem it once was. Its so sad to see many New Yorkers tryin to move away because the state is beautiful. Yeah the winters can be bad sometimes and is costly to live but youll get that in many other places too. Every state has its own flaws not every state is perfect. But atleast its nice to look back on some positives

Do you know where or how this was meant to be shown when it was made?

If only my grandparents knew how short lived it would be.. then again I wouldn't be born right now otherwise lol

Meet this was better than Caesars Palace

And by 1977 the Columbians owned Rochester and the Fed stepped in and Kodak shut down to avoid corruption charges

15:25 water water *flashes back to 1985 water contamination...

Aaaaand...how wrong we were.....

Still racism was alive in Rochester ...u don’t see no black people, families, or workers in this video. The next year ‘64 came the Rochester Riots cuz of the the racism and shit. Sad

shit..that was 60 years ago...

Wehy didn't we heed the warning at the 8:20 mark? We didn't listen! We didn't listen!!! Sprawl has ruined us, ruined I say!

I was born in Rochester 1949. Dad worked for EASTMAN Kodak Co. It was privately owned by George Eastman. Every year I can remember Kodak gave out an impressive Bonus regardless of the Economy.. My Dad worked for them 1950 to retirement in 1975. I'm long gone now...I know that EASTMAN Kodak Co. Went Public; the year I don't recall but it was The beginning of the End...

So nice that there was a time when people didn’t look like broken down bums

This video is more like fantasy.

Lol Rochester is nothing like this now .. it’s just literally killings everyday 💔

Wrong title!!

NOWADAYS YOU CAN GET ROBBED AT A RED LIGHT PRETTY MUCH ANYWHERE IN OUR CITY, & MOST PARTS OF THE INNER CITY ARE STRAIGHT UP NO-GO ZONES... Really Sucks. The scum of the earth has slowly crept into Rochester's Streets and is multiplying rapidly by the minute, it would take a miracle to clean this place up.

Wu Roc 585 Shot out to FUA-KREW SAI, Zagnif Nori, 38 & Eto

Black people were Economically starved out and it still continues today

Rochester N.Y. the city of Pot 🕳

10:45 "What's being loaded or unloaded to is clean cargo..." Well, move the camera upstream a mile and you'd see a great big coal dock that shipped coal that came by train from Pennsylvania to Canada. It's where Turning Point Park is now. I suppose it got left out of the video because coal is black. Speaking of black, that's not all that was left out of this lily white production. Systemic what?

They said the “I” word , multiple times ban this video!! I’m sure someone is offended

Why can't I see

I ain’t seen a black person the whole video 😂😂🤷🏿‍♂️

Come here if you like the idea of being enslaved by tax!

the whole downtown needs to get bull dozed and start over . EVERYTHING ,even some surrounding areas. A new start a new game plan. The history is over and done with no one cares no more just move on

Damn you, Democrats destroyed Rochester they touched ! 🤬😡😑🤦🏽‍♀️

Haha....and now Rochester is a dump! Thanks Democrats.