Quote:
Originally Posted by Crawford
Buffalo is smaller than popular perception, Rochester bigger. They have almost the exact same population and economy, but Buffalo just registers as a somewhat large city, and Rochester registers as another random Syracuse-type city.
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That perception probably comes from the fact that Rochester’s metropolitan area is considerably less urban and anchored by a smaller core city:
MSA—2018
Buffalo: 1.130 million
Rochester: 1.071 million
Albany: .883 million
Syracuse: .650 million
UA—2010
Buffalo: .936 million
Rochester: .721 million
Albany: .595 million
Syracuse: .412 million
City—2018
Buffalo: .256 million
Rochester: .205 million
Albany: .097 million
Syracuse: .143 million
Buffalo also anchors a CSA, a larger binational area, and is the largest city in a very cohesive regional sub identity (Western NY), all lending to its larger feel.
Wikipedia, however, also states that downtown Rochester is the largest employment core upstate at 50k so there’s that.
An difference can be seen in building heights within their urban cores, with the tallest in each city being:
Buffalo: 529’
Rochester: 443’
Albany: 589’
Syracuse: 311’
Going further, the breadth of height also shows difference (as measured by average height of 10 tallest buildings):
Buffalo: 345’
Rochester: 322’
Albany: 327’
Syracuse: 239’
Number of buildings over 200’ per city, irrespective of their location (within the core or not):
Buffalo: 28
Rochester: 16
Albany: 22
Syracuse: 10
Buffalo is, on a reading of the whole of the metrics, a larger place.