CityBracket 2025 Round 1, Matchup 3: Rochester, NY vs Baltimore

This time we feature possibly the most odd first-round matchup (in terms of my experience of the places) in the entire bracket: Rochester, New York vs Baltimore (Maryland, but there's really only one famous Baltimore). On the one hand, I lived in Rochester for 4 years and in Baltimore's metro area for only 3 months; on the other, I basically never visited Rochester outside of living there, whereas I visited Baltimore to see family for most of my life. So I know both cities pretty well, but in an odd mismash of ways; let's see how it plays out.

Category 1: Visiting Without A Car

a) How can you get to the city? 

I have taken many train trips from Rochester to Chicago, and I think one to New York; the city lies on the route between the two (or Boston, since the train splits around Albany). It's actually relatively well timed for a US train, if you're not the kind of person to get woken up by a train stopping---the both directions of the Chicago-Rochester train are overnight and you arrive at a pretty decent time. A pleasant experience if you managed not to wake up at the Indiana/Ohio stops.

Don't fly into Rochester and expect to get anywhere easily though; the bus does go to the airport but we aren't talking a useful or productive link.

Baltimore has the easy upper hand: sitting on Amtrak's Acela line, the closest thing the US has to a high speed line, with a direct train link (both light and heavy rail) from the airport to the city, and frequent bus service to other Mid-Atlantic destinations as well. Easy in, easy out, actual choice of times and destinations.

VERDICT: Rochester 0, Baltimore 1

b) How do you get around?

Rochester has a high density of destinations in downtown, so you can probably get around pretty well as a tourist. The Erie Canal links city and town centers in the metro area on a walkable, bikeable path, and is scenic itself. There is a bus system, though I'm not going to advertise the RTS to tourists.

Baltimore has major flaws in its transit system: the inherent racism of not interconnecting the somewhat-suburban (white) light rail and fully urban (black) subway is a lingering issue. There is a card you can use on both, so at least there are steps in the right direction. There's also issues of interconnectivity with the regional MARC train as well...but ultimately for this matchup there's no contest. As a tourist, you could pick one of those 3 and it would get you everywhere you need to go, plus access DC (another whole city in this bracket) if you use MARC. 

Light rail will get you places. Not all the places (see below) but some.

VERDICT: Rochester 0, Baltimore 2

c) What are the limits on a visitor without a car?

I think here we're more even, mostly because Rochester is more concentrated in terms of where tourists might want to go. I don't think there are really any visitor-heavy spots that are difficult to get to.

Sometimes they're even pedestrian friendly events, like this foodtruck rodeo.

By contrast, Baltimore has more to see, but it makes it harder to do without a car by navigating from spot to spot by different methods. For example, the one tiny hipster neighborhood in Baltimore (Hamden) is actually hard to get to from much of the city by public transit.

VERDICT: Rochester 1, Baltimore 2

Category 2: Living Without A Car

a) Can you expect to get to work?

I bought my first car in Rochester because the answer was no.

Also sometimes even that got covered with ice, as in this close-in illustration that was very pretty but annoying to drive with.

Admittedly, I worked at a university well outside the city center. But Rochester does not have commuter-oriented transit in a meaningful sense, and Baltimore does. Unless you live walking distance from work, Rochester requires a car to work, and Baltimore will give you a lot more options, even including distant suburbs on the various forms of rail if you work downtown.

VERDICT: Rochester 1, Baltimore 3

b) Can you live the rest of your life?

Rochester suffers here from a specific memory of mine: hiking a mile plus without sidewalks in the snow to go play boardgames because the bus that was supposed to connect me did not actually come/exist after all. The service ends too early at night, the radial bus network makes it hard to make any connections that aren't to downtown alone, and sometimes it literally doesn't exist.

Baltimore doesn't have great transit connections to things like grocery stores, and that might cost it in later rounds but right now it's not close.

VERDICT: Rochester 1, Baltimore 4

c) How are the basic amenities?

Rochester actually scores well here. The parks are good and, more significantly, that Canal link means it is much more walkable than transitable, ironically. 

Baltimore is also well equipped with parks, and sidewalks (see above about the Rochester metro for that). We'll get more picky about amenities in later rounds, but here it's another tie.

VERDICT: Rochester 2, Baltimore 5

Category 3: Miscellaneous

a) Are there people on the street?

In downtown Rochester? Sure. Literally anywhere else in the metro area? No. Baltimore is not great at that either, honestly; I've spent a lot of time in both cities as the only person on the street. 

VERDICT: Rochester 3, Baltimore 6

b) Where is the city's urbanism going?

Baltimore has had some...problems getting an extension of its rail system going. That's what happens when a governor cancels your project unilaterally! But they are working on some transit-oriented developments that were (very) recently announced, because the new governor is more supportive.

Rochester has some nice ideas being studied, but nothing nearly so concrete as yet.

VERDICT: Rochester 3, Baltimore 7

c) Is it functionally diverse?

Well, no. 

We're talking some cities that have real, regrettably storied histories of segregation and racism, in living memory as well as in the deeper past. Rochester still has major issues with inequality and segregation along school district lines dividing the inner city from the suburbs. Baltimore has a massive issue with racist policing. As I've said in previous versions of this, there is no honor to be had here.

VERDICT: Rochester 3, Baltimore 7. If both get points for some things, sometimes both have to get no points too.

d) How do people there react to knowing you're not using a car?

People in both places will be a bit weird about it, in my experience, but in Baltimore it's more concern that you might not afford a car, whereas in Rochester it's sheer confusion. 

People do, in fact, use the light rail, even if many of them own cars.

VERDICT: Rochester 3, Baltimore 8

e) How do people react to people living close together?

The iconic Baltimore house is a row house. Rochester used to have those, but not nearly as much. 

In other words, Baltimore thinks it's pretty neat when people live cheek by jowl, while Rochester turned its back on that approach. Yes, Baltimore metro has a bunch of sprawl too, but so does all of America. Baltimore is still at least capable of imagining itself as close together.

FINAL VERDICT: Rochester 3, Baltimore 9