Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2014/07/22

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Subject: [Leica] Kodaks and Rochester's decline in pictures
From: jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj)
Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 21:53:38 +0530
References: <8D173DC80C14D25-11A8-180E8@webmail-vd004.sysops.aol.com>

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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Replies: Reply from csaganich at gmail.com (CJ andS) ([Leica] Kodaks and Rochester's decline in pictures)
In reply to: Message from lrzeitlin at aol.com (lrzeitlin at aol.com) ([Leica] Kodaks and Rochester's decline in pictures)