Rochester, a Not So Dying City

High Falls in Rochester, New York. Photo by Brinna Dochniak

Areas in the city of Rochester are being inhabited by more and more small businesses in recent years. This is possible because of the relatively cheap cost of leasing and buying spaces for businesses to reside. Larger cities like Detroit, Michigan have renewed their focus on the role of small-business development to revitalize areas in the city and these focuses are starting to take shape nationwide. Rochester is a great example of a city that is on its way with this concept.

Jacob Rakovan, an owner of The Spirit Room, a small business in downtown Rochester said, “I love Rochester as a city. I can’t imagine anywhere else having the kind of space that the Spirit Room looks to create.”

The city of Rochester is rich in history, which is why places like The Spirit Room are so unique.

Jacob Rakovan standing along side shelves in The Spirit Room. Photo courtesy of Jacob Rakovan

“We are inherently a Rochester bar, steeped in Rochester history and Rochester’s literary, artistic, culinary and cocktail culture. If you took the Spirit Room out of Rochester, it would no longer be the Spirit Room. So many places look to recreate successful concepts from elsewhere, just importing somewhere else’s idea two years behind the curve and calling it new. Why can’t Rochester create its own culture, and ideas, and kinds of spaces? The thing I get asked over and over again is 'Why here?' We live here, this is our city. Where else should we create a business? I don’t really understand the question. Rochester is a vibrant, living, place,” said Rakovan.

Culture is a huge part of why people get drawn to places like Rochester not only to open businesses but also to experience them. The idea that Rochester was a dying city that is rising again fits well with the mold of The Spirit Room.

“I would rather captain my rowboat than bail the Titanic for someone else. I like how responsive we can be, and how free we are to create the culture we want to uphold. If someone comes in and acts like an asshole, we can throw them out. We are creating our culture one decision at a time, and building our processes. It is exhilarating and exhausting and terrifying. I love it,” said Rakovan.

Businesses like The Spirit Room are being located in downtown areas as opposed to the suburbs not only because of more available leasing spaces, but because of the area itself. It’s locally owned places like The Spirit Room that are bringing Rochester up from the dead.

“The suburbs are boring. The whole concept of the suburb is dying. For the generations who came out of the Great Depression and World War ll it might have made a kind of sense; if you are willing to overlook all the coded classist and racist assumptions that underpin the whole idea, which I am not,” said Rakovan.

Madison Farrand, a resident of Rochester, said: “I like coming to locally owned coffee shops because I think it’s a lot cuter to be in and a lot more homey. It’s so much more comfortable than being in a rushed Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts all the time.”

Street view of Glen Edith located off of Park Avenue in Rochester, New York. Photo by Brinna Dochniak

When it comes to cities like Rochester, people tend to see them as cities that have “died out.” According to Jacob Rakovan, those people are looking in all the wrong places if they think that is the case.

“White-flight suburbs and districts divvied up by class and race is what got this city into the state it is in. Feeding that monster is not going to fix it. People are moving back into the urban core, because who wants to live in a Fisher Price, Applebee’s version of reality, when the real world is right here? I love Rochester. I think people that do not are not looking. They certainly are not seeing the things that see, which is world class music, food, art, cocktails. A place with waterfalls in the middle of it, and green belts running all the way to a Great Lake, a place with cultures and people from all over the world. Rochester’s culture is amazing, with a great, no-bullshit working class, and a Rustbelt current running through all of it. Also: Garbage Plates. Why the hell would we choose a mall kiosk over that?” said Rakovan.

Social media plays a huge role in advertising for businesses in this generation. This is huge for small businesses: if they are able to get people to endorse their products through their social media, it is free advertising.

Kathryn Kennedy, a student at RIT, said: “Word of mouth and social media is a very good way for these small businesses to market themselves.”

Photo of Kathryn Kennedy enjoying breakfast at The Frog Pond. Photo by Brinna Dochniak

Rick Mislan, a professor at the Saunders College of Business at RIT, said, “Small business is about community. Specifically with social media like Facebook and Instagram. I endorse them [businesses] through my social media in a general sense because it was good-- so it’s like a grassroots type of thing.”

“It creates sort of like a sense of community when you come to a little coffee shop that not a lot of people know about,” said Farrand.

Comeback stories for cities like Rochester are built block by block, with diverse and stable communities creating a contagious vitality that could spread street by street to form a diverse and thriving city. Vibrant local businesses are these blocks’ bedrock.