New York’s Rochester draws residents fleeing extreme weather

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — In 2020, following ferocious wildfires across Southern California, Jasmin Singer and her wife, Moore Rhys, decided they had had enough of Los Angeles. They packed their bags and moved to New York state.

They debated between Ithaca and Geneva before finally picking Rochester, about a six-hour drive northwest from New York City. Rochester won out in part because of a more stable climate and progressive policies aimed at combating climate change, caused by the burning of fuels like gasoline and coal.

“We were all kinds of nutty about climate,” said Singer about picking Rochester.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is a collaboration between The Associated Press and the Rochester Institute of Technology.

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One of America’s first boomtowns and a former manufacturing hub, Rochester has captured the eye of some people looking to escape extreme weather events. Other midcentury industrial urban centers such as Buffalo, an hour’s drive from Rochester, and Duluth, Minnesota, have garnered attention in recent years for being known as climate havens. That is because they are less likely to experience events fueled and exacerbated by climate change, such as droughts, hurricanes and wildfires.

Far from coasts, cities like Rochester, Buffalo and Duluth don’t face hurricanes or storm surges. At the same time, they are connected to large lakes, giving them an ample water supply and helping insulate against drought impacts.

Still, while anecdotes abound of people who are moving to such cities for climate reasons, there isn’t yet evidence of a large demographic shift.

“There hasn’t been a clear signal that people are leaving to climate (friendly) regions, or regions with an abundant water resource,” said Alex de Sherbinin, director and senior researcher at the Center for Integrated Earth System Information at Columbia University.

That is expected to change in coming decades, as climate will increasingly be a factor driving migration. It already is many places around the world, particularly developing nations that lack the infrastructure and resources to withstand climate shocks. Each year, natural disasters force more than 21 million people from their homes, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Rochester has many draws

Originally from New Jersey, Singer said Rochester also appealed to her for a few reasons, even though she had never visited the city before the move — affordable housing, its move toward increasing renewable energy use and proximity to eastern coastal cities, among them.

It was also important to be somewhere culturally diverse and friendly toward LGBTQ people, Singer said.

For Jon Randall, wildfires that hit the Bay Area in 2022 pushed him to leave California.

“For six weeks you couldn’t go outside,” said Randall of the fires, adding that he and his wife searched online for potential places to live and retire. They picked Rochester, in part to be closer to family in Long Island, where he is originally from.

The average annual temperature in Rochester, which has 200,000 residents, hovers around 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius), warmer than that in the summer and colder in the winter. The city is home to the University of Rochester, a private research institution, and the Rochester Institute of Technology, which sits in the southwest suburbs. Rochester is also known for its “garbage plates” — French fries covered in hamburger meat and baked beans, a favorite local comfort food.

The city has adopted several progressive climate plans in recent years, including an initiative to reduce carbon emissions by 40% by 2030. It’s part of a statewide push to build cleaner infrastructure, such as expanding its electric vehicle charging network. In 2019, the city launched an initiative that gives up to $9,000 to new resident homebuyers.

Climate is often one of many factors in decision to move

Studies have found that people rarely choose where they move based on climate reasons alone. They also weigh other factors such as affordability, family ties and job opportunities.

People move where they think they can maintain a certain quality of life, and Rochester — with its freshwater resources — can make for a more attractive destination compared to other cities, de Sherbinin said.

Duluth garnered a climate-friendly reputation after commissioning an economic development package to attract newcomers in 2019. That same year, Buffalo mayor Byron Brown called the city a “climate refuge” in a speech.

No such proclamations have been made by local officials recently, including in Rochester. Mayor Malik Evans’ office did not respond to phone calls and emails seeking comment for this story.

Rochester has a large Latino population

Rochester has welcomed a steady increase of Latinos over the last several years. Today, 61,000 residents in Monroe Country, the largest in the Rochester area, identify as Latino or Hispanic, with 70% Puerto Rican, according to a 2019 report by the Center for Governmental Research, a Rochester-based consulting firm.

Arelis Gomez moved to Rochester in 2016 from Puerto Rico in search of work opportunities and better education for her children, following her brother who had moved to New York City a few years prior.

Arelis Ayala, her mother, followed her daughter in 2019, finally making the move after wanting to leave since Hurricane Jorge in 1998, which hammered many parts of the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico.

“It was a really hard decision,” Ayala said about her move to be closer to her daughter. Ayala and her daughter hope to eventually bring the rest of the family to Rochester.

Jonathan Gonzalez and his then pregnant wife moved to Rochester after another major storm, Hurricane Maria, pummeled Puerto Rico in 2017.

“It was pretty difficult to live in Puerto Rico those days,” Gonzalez said, adding that everything, including hospitals, were closed because of no electricity.

His mother already had a home in Rochester, which made it a natural place to go. Starting over was hard, though Gonzalez feels at home now.

“I love Rochester,” he said.

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