[Leica] Kodaks and Rochester's decline in pictures

[Jayanand Govindaraj]

Larry, Thanks for the info. I have been to Rochester, to meet the CFOs of Kodak and Bausch & Lomb, long ago in 1988, when I was working for Citibank. Don't remember too much of the place - it was a day trip from New York.
Cheers
Jayanand

Sent from my iPad

> On 22-Jul-2014, at 9:25 pm, Larry Zeitlin via LUG <lug at leica-users.org> wrote:
> 
> Jayanand,
> Interesting and very true piece on Rochester. For several decades Rochester was the center of the optical industry in the USA. Not only Kodak but Haloid (now Xerox), Bausch and Lomb, and a number of other optical companies were located in or near Rochester. Even before that Rochester was a center of agriculture and was originally known as the Flour City. The climate is hot in summer, cold in winter, and damp all the time. The proximity to Lake Ontario produces deep drifts of "lake effect" snow in frigid weather. The profitability of the optical industry and the benevolence of it's owners pumped tons of money into charitable institutions, hospitals, and education. Rochester often rated high on the list of the best places to live in the USA.
> 
> I am biased, of course. I have relatives who live in the city and its suburbs. Many of the horse racing pictures on my LUG gallery were taken at the nearby Finger Lakes race track and two of my children went to Cornell University. I was also a consultant (and a stockholder) of Kodak. But Kodak's decline threw a wrench into the gears. Employment dropped by nearly 75%. Beautiful homes are now cheap, probably the lowest price in NY state. Film, the company's cash cow, was to provide income for 20 years. Instead film sales dropped 90% in 7 years. And this was the company that invented digital photography. Bad, bad management judgment calls. Kodak's stock dropped from $88 per share to bankruptcy levels. Even Kodak executives use their iPhones to take pictures.
> 
> Leica, are you listening? The world is changing. See Jayanand's post for pictorial details.
> 
> Larry Z
> 
> - - -
> http://www.themorningnews.org/gallery/kodak-city
> 
> Cheers
> Jayanand
> 
> 
> 
> 
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