The Fate of Cities

Not that it should come as any surprise, but a new report is demonstrating what is undoubtedly at the core of many of the problems facing the city of Rochester. The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, a non-profit formed to help distressed urban economies, studied job growth in inner cities compared to metropolitan statistical areas. (Inner city has a specific definition.) Rochester ranks at the bottom, losing more than 2 percent of its jobs between 1995 and 2003 at a time when the surrounding MSA grew by a percentage point. That performance was nearly the worst of any of the 82 urban areas. The study is part of the Inner City Economic Forum, which promotes inner city investment. Another reminder that, as they say, "you can't be a suburb of nowhere."