History of Rochester, New York - The New Millennium

The New Millennium

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. 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 funds for the ferry. The city sold the Spirit of Ontario I in 2007 to the German company Förde Reederei Seetouristik Gmbh & Co (FRS) for 30 million US dollars.

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 is now known as Sahlen's 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 have been scaled down, and a much more modest headquarters building for PaeTec's successor firm, Windstream, is under construction and expected to be completed some time 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 has annoounced that the issue has been "placed on the back burner".