When counties were established in the province of New York in 1683, the present Monroe County was part ofAlbany County. This was an enormous county, including the northern part of the State of New York as well as all of the present State ofVermont and, in theory, extending westward to thePacific Ocean. This county was reduced in size on July 3, 1766, by the creation ofCumberland County, and further on March 16, 1770, by the creation ofGloucester County, both containing territory now in Vermont.
On March 12, 1772, what was left of Albany County was split into three parts, one remaining under the name Albany County. One of the other pieces,Tryon County, contained the western portion (and thus, since no western boundary was specified, theoretically still extended west to the Pacific). The eastern boundary of Tryon County was approximately five miles west of the present city ofSchenectady, and the county included the western part of theAdirondack Mountains and the area west of the West Branch of theDelaware River. The area then designated as Tryon County now includes 37 counties of the State of New York. The county was named forWilliam Tryon, colonial governor of New York.
In the years prior to 1776, most of the Loyalists in Tryon County fled toCanada. In 1784, following the peace treaty that ended theAmerican Revolutionary War, the name of Tryon County was changed toMontgomery County in order to honor the general,Richard Montgomery, who had captured several places in Canada and died attempting to capture the city ofQuebec, replacing the name of the hated British governor.
According to theU.S. Census Bureau, the county's total area is 1,367 square miles (3,540 km2), of which 657 square miles (1,700 km2) is land and 710 square miles (1,800 km2) (52%) is water.[4]
Monroe County is in Western State of New York's northern tier, northeast ofBuffalo and northwest ofSyracuse. The northern county line is also the state line and the border of the United States, marked byLake Ontario. Monroe County is north of theFinger Lakes.
Monroe County was chartered as a municipal corporation by theNew York State Legislature in 1892[5] and rechartered under New York's Municipal Home Rule Law in 1965.[6]
From1856 to1932, Monroe County voters voted for theRepublican candidate in every presidential election apart from1912.Democratic candidateWoodrow Wilson was able to win the county in 1912 when the Republican vote was divided between then incumbent presidentWilliam Howard Taft and former presidentTheodore Roosevelt. Monroe County voted for incumbent Democratic presidentsFranklin D. Roosevelt (1936,1940,1944) andHarry S. Truman (1948). From1952 to1976, Monroe County voted for the Republican candidate in all presidential elections except forLyndon B. Johnson's Democratic landslide in1964. In1980, incumbent Democratic presidentJimmy Carter won Monroe County, despite having lost in the county to RepublicanGerald Ford in1976. Monroe County went back to voting Republican in1984 and1988, but has voted for the Democratic presidential candidate every time from1992 onwards, including the2024 election. In 2020,Joe Biden received the highest percentage of the vote for a Democrat sinceLyndon Johnson's 1964 landslide.[7]
In recent years,[when?] the urban area's traditional partisan dynamic appears to have begun shifting in theDemocratic Party's favor at the local level. A Democrat won the 2017 race for county sheriff for the first time in decades, in 2019 Democrat Adam Bello was elected county executive after over 30 years of Republican control, in 2020 democratsSamra Brouk andJeremy Cooney flipped state senate districts long held by the GOP, and the traditionally Republican county legislature is now split 16–13 in favor of the Democratic Party. This matches a broader national trend of increased Democratic success in suburban areas.[8][9][10][11][12]
United States presidential election results for Monroe County, New York[13]
The county's executive branch is headed by thecounty executive, Adam Bello.[14][15] The executive's office is on the first floor of the county office building on West Main Street in Rochester. The county clerk isJamie Romeo, a Democrat.
The county was exclusively governed by a board of supervisors for the first 114 years of its history. In 1935, the position of county manager, appointed by the board, was approved by popular referendum.[16] In 1983, the position was replaced by a county executive, directly elected by popular vote, with expanded powers (e.g., veto).[17] In 1993, the legislature enacted term limits for the executive office of 12 consecutive years to start in 1996.[18]
The Monroe County Sheriff's office (MCSO) provides law enforcement and has the constitutional authority to operate the county jail and provide civil functions. As with most counties in New York, the MCSO also performs a range of police services and provides physical and operational security to the courts. The MCSO is led by asheriff who is elected by the residents of Monroe County, serving a 4-year term. The sheriff is considered the highestpolice official in the county, followed by an appointedundersheriff and subordinatechief deputy.[19] The Monroe County Sheriff is Todd K. Baxter, a Democrat.
Organizationally, the office is composed of numerous bureaus, each responsible for a given scope of functional operations. The jail bureau is the largest component of the sheriff's office, overseeing an inmate population of around 1,000. Under the New York State Constitution, the sheriff is thewarden of the county jail.
The police bureau of the sheriff's office operates a sizable road patrol force which serves municipalities within Monroe County that do not independently enforce traffic. They are also responsible for primary police patrols at theGreater Rochester International Airport and parks throughout the county. Deputies assigned to the marine unit patrol the coastline ofLake Ontario as well asIrondequoit Bay. The police bureau further employs amounted unit, bomb squad, SWAT team, hostage recovery, criminal investigations,scuba, andcanine units. The court security bureau provides security at the Hall of Justice as well as at thestate appellate court building.[20]
In 2011, the uniforms were named the 2011 Public Safety Uniform Award in the County Sheriff's/Police Department category by the North American Association of Uniform Manufacturers and Distributors (NAUMD).[21]
The county's legislative branch consists of a 29-member county legislature which replaced the earlier 43-member board of supervisors on January 1, 1967.[16] Members meet in the legislative chambers on the fourth floor of the county office building. All 29 members of the legislature are elected from districts. There are 16Democrats and 13Republicans. The president of the legislature is Yversha Román, a Democrat.[as of?] In 1993, the legislature enacted term limits of 10 consecutive years to start in 1996.[18] Legislators can return to the office after not being in the legislature for a term. Since the enacting of term limits, as of 2024 four legislators (Stephanie Aldersley, Karla Boyce, Calvin Lee Jr., and Robert Colby) returned after previously leaving due to the term limit; Boyce was reelected again three times; Lee and Colby were appointed to fill vacancies before subsequently being reelected themselves; and Aldersley was appointed before being defeated for reelection.
After redistricting based on the2020 United States census, New York's 27th district was eliminated and Monroe County went from being split between two congressional districts to being wholly contained in one:
Monroe County is a home to a number of international businesses, includingEastman Kodak,[23]Paychex,[24] andPictometry International,[25] all of which make Monroe County their world headquarters. While no longer headquartered in Rochester,Xerox has its largest manufacturing facilities in Monroe County,[26] and Bausch and Lomb was headquartered in Rochester until it was acquired byValeant Pharmaceuticals. Monroe County is also home to regional businesses such asWegmans,[27] Roberts Communications, Inc.,[28]Holding Corp.,[29] and major fashion labelHickey Freeman.[30]
Several industries occupy a major portion of the jobs located regionally, with health care comprising a significant portion of jobs in Monroe County. The University of Rochester (including its numerous hospitals) is the largest employer regionally with over 27,000 workers;Rochester Regional Health (parent company of Rochester General and Unity hospitals) is the second largest consisting of over 15,000. Wegmans is third with about 13,000 local employees.[33]
Monroe County, New York – Racial and ethnic composition Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
As of thecensus of 2020, there were 759,443 people, 301,948households, and 232,500 families residing in the county. The population density was 1,155 inhabitants per square mile (446/km2). There were 330,247 housing units at an average density of 502 units per square mile (194 units/km2). The county's racial makeup was 68.6%White, 15.7%African American, 0.3%Native American, 4.3%Asian, 0.01%Pacific Islander, 4.0% fromother races, and 7.1% from two or more races.Hispanic orLatino of any race were 9.6% of the population. 18.6% were ofItalian, 15.3%German, 11.3%Irish and 8.3%English ancestry according toCensus 2000. In 2007, 4.64% of the population reported speakingSpanish at home, while 1.43% spokeItalian.[47]
There were 301,948 households, out of which 54% weremarried couples living together, 18% had a female householder with no husband present, 6% had a male householder with no wife present, and 23% were non-families. The average household size was 2.37.
In the county, the population was spread out, with 21% being 18 or younger, 15% from 19 to 29, 13% from 30 to 39, 11% from 40 to 49, 14% from 50 to 59, 12% from 60 to 69, and 13% who were 70 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. 52% of the population wasFemale, and 48% wasMale
The median income for a household in the county was $62,103. Theper capita income for the county was $35,797. About 12.7% of the population were below thepoverty line, including 19.0% of those under age 18 and 8.0% of those age 65 or over. 90.4% of those 25 years or over was aHigh school graduate or higher, and 38.6% of those 25 years or over had aBachelor's degree or higher.
There are some 25 public school districts that serve Monroe County,[49] including the Rochester City School District, 10 suburban school districts in Monroe #1BOCES, seven in Monroe #2–Orleans BOCES, and several primarily serving other counties (Avon,Byron–Bergen, Caledonia–Mumford, Holley,Wayne,Williamson andVictor central school districts).[50]
In New York, the termhamlet, while not defined in law, is used to describe an unincorporated community and geographic location within a town. The town in which each hamlet is located is in parentheses.
^Governing Monroe County: A Staff Report to the Charter Study Commission.Rochester, New York: The Center for Governmental Research. 1974. p. 15.OCLC21663493.
^Governing Monroe County: A Staff Report to the Charter Study Commission.Rochester, New York: The Center for Governmental Research. 1974. p. 25.OCLC21663493.
^"Business briefs".Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. July 7, 2010.Dick Kaplan announced his resignation as CEO of Pictometry International Corp., the Henrietta-based aerial imaging firm that he has built into one of the Rochester area's better-known companies.
^Daneman, Matthew (August 6, 2010)."PAETEC cuts loss to $7.5M".Democrat and Chronicle. RetrievedAugust 11, 2010.PAETEC Holding Corp. is edging closer to — but still falling short of — profitability. The Perinton-based telecommunications company reported a loss of $7.5 million for the quarter that ended June 30, an improvement from the $16.5 million it lost in the same quarter a year earlier and from the $9.5 million it lost in the January–March quarter this year.
^"Rochester Center".Ithaca, New York:Ithaca College. RetrievedDecember 21, 2011.Ithaca College maintains a teaching and research facility in Rochester, NY on the campus of the Colgate Rochester Crozier Divinity School (CRCDS on South Goodman St. at Highland Ave.) and is affiliated with the University of Rochester and Strong Memorial Hospital.
Sherwood, D. A. (2003).Water Resources of Monroe County, New York, Water Years 1997-99, with Emphasis on Water Quality in the Irondequoit Creek Basin : Atmospheric Deposition, Ground Water, Streamflow, Trends in Water Quality, and Chemical Loads to Irondequoit Bay [Water-Resources Investigations Report 02-4221]. Ithaca, New York: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey.
_-_Towns%2c_Villages%2c_and_City.svg)
