The Lake Shore Limited eastbound train runs from Chicago to New York City. It used to operate like the Empire Builder with two major destinations splitting the train at Albany. Now you must change from train 48 to train 448 at Albany to go on to Boston. My trip from Seattle to Boston involves 3 trains, 3 nights and 3 days.
Amtrak 48 curves around the tip of Lake Michigan and across northern Indiana to follow close to the southern shore of Lake Erie all through the night. Luckily this is just a densely industrial strip with no lake views. A sleep for over 10 hours this night.
The path in the morning runs parallel to the Erie Canal for awhile. The eastern canals look like straight rivers since they blend into the vegetation, have muddy bottoms, and brown/green water. They look nothing like the concrete ditches with metal scaffolding and sky blue water found in the west. Then again, the eastern canals were built for transportation while the western canals are for irrigating crops and people.
I am again counting off cities I worked in at some point in time. Chicago, South Bend, Toledo, Columbus in the center of Ohio, Cincinnati on the Ohio River, Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany. Most of my former clients in this area are not the dominant rust belt industries but many are manufacturers in stasis or decline. There cities are not sharing as extensively in the rampant renewal I witnessed in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and Chicago.
Rochester is a case in point. Home of both Kodak and Xerox, who have seen better days as their competitive advantages in image processing are eliminated as bits and dots replace chemicals and hardware, Rochester itself looks as seedy as it did when I worked here in the 80’s and the 90’s. Surely there is a newish suburban band around town but I firmly believe that a real city must have a vibrant core that’s alive with people and fueled by prosperity. What will it take for the good times to return to this region?
