Quote Originally Posted by Hermod View Post
In the 1950s, Rochester and Birmingham had shops. All the shops are outside of town now and Rochester and Birmingham are full of shoppes.
Comment??
In the 1950's, Rochester was the absolute sticks, and now it's fully [[sub)urbanized and rather affluent, so the character of retail has changed.

Birmingham was already suburbia in the 50's, but it was a more down-to-earth community with "regular folks". There was always an undercurrent of more quiet, WASPy wealth, but it didn't get snobby and affected until maybe 15-20 years ago.

There isn't much shopping in either community. People go to the malls and big box for that sort of stuff. Birmingham has some high-end stuff on Maple Road, but not like before. There does seem to be a bit of a recent revival, though, which could be [[good) economy related.