Geneva and Ontario County – Our Home in the Finger Lakes, Community Leaders & More

Looking east over Seneca Lake from South Main Street across from Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Welcome to Geneva and the Finger Lakes. If you imagine the perfect life as one with a relaxed pace with entertainment being centered around leisure, cultural arts, culinary fares, with beautiful landscapes and peacefulness – stop here. If a smaller modern community with university influences, a stable economy, accessibility to large city amenities and premier shopping in less than 30 minutes are important to you, we're the place. We're lakes and sailing in summer, a ski resort when there's snow, and in the center of 100 wineries which come alive in the fall at harvest time, and then spring blooms after sleeping peacefully each winter.

Our friends and neighbors have been recognized time and again as the nation's friendliest people. Family memories of picnics and outdoor activities, telling stories by the fire, and watching children grow up too quickly, seem easy to imagine here. If it's possible to fall in love with a place, it would be the Finger Lakes of New York, where we are lucky to be.

We are the East Coast's "Napa Valley" with a cost of living 2/3 less. We are within a half-day's drive to New York City, Boston or Toronto, and 45 minutes to Rochester – New York's 3rd largest city with its surprisingly strong cultural abundance; in under an hour is Ithaca and Cornell University, and Syracuse.

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Geneva is located in Ontario County – we sit on the North end of the largest of the beautiful Finger Lakes
of New York in "the Heart of Wine Country."

At the end of the Ice Age glaciers began to retreat northward and they disappeared entirely from New York for the last time around 11,000 years ago, leaving the beautiful 11 Finger Lakes behind which stretch across central New York. Geneva is on the north shore of Seneca Lake, the second longest, at 38 miles long, 3 miles wide, and it is the second deepest lake in the United States. In fact, Seneca Lake has 50% of all the water of the Finger Lakes.

This massive amount of water has a temperature moderating effect by blanketing a warm air mass over fields that combined with the glacier soil grow phenomenal produce that we take for granted until we travel elsewhere. Geneva is home to New York State's Food Laboratory, the USDA's National Grape Genetics Center, and Cornell's Agricultural and Technology Park – we are literally "ground zero" for some of the best food as well as food science and technology, in the world. And while some communities have growing concerns about their water supply, fresh water is everywhere here.

Our region is ideal for wine production. New York State is #3 in the country and Seneca Lake has more wineries than any of the other Finger Lakes in wine production and our award-winning wines are being served at the White House and leading New York City restaurants. $1 Billion in tourism and wine sales will circulate around us in the next decade and this is not only a stabilizer for our economy but we are capitalizing on it as city leaders and business owners are committed to growing our lakefront and Downtown Geneva.

We warmly welcome you to our Online Job Tour of Geneva and our area, to our neighbors, and to Finger Lakes Medical Associates as you consider us for your career and life for your family.

Civic Leaders:

"We have a highly-intelligent, vibrant, population due to the colleges as well as people who move here to work in our different industries, which include engineers, scientists, healthcare practitioners, retirees, and people in the wine industry – this is very unlike most small communities of our size which can have one type of people, one mentality and little intellectual or economic diversity." – Mayor Alcock

Ron Alcock
Geneva Mayor
Mayor's Welcome

Matt Horn
City Manager
Growth Plans

Janelle Toner
Recreation Director
Programs/YMCA

Stuart Einstein
Former Mayor (Ret.)
His special lake view

Kevin Schoonover
Smith Opera House
Opera House Photos

Geneva's South Main Street row houses and their views of Seneca Lake are
rarely for sale due to their desirability and walking distance to Downtown

A relaxing "lake lifestyle" with an air of distinction, culture, and history along with our colleges and vineyards, is what awaits you in Geneva and Ontario County. We are where many in the northeast have summer vacation homes. A Fiber Ring installed in our immediate area promotes a super high-speed broadband connection for our residents and businesses, so we are a "getaway that isn't away" from anywhere. Weekends are spent sailing or speed boating, traversing premium shopping, wine-tasting, snow skiing, fly-fishing, biking, hiking our gorges, or dinner and a date at the Smith Opera House or an event sponsored by our premier private colleges, or our Historical Society. Families not only fit right in, but Ontario County wins awards for its family-centeredness. Our home here in the Finger Lakes is just about perfect!

• Progressive Farmer Ranked Ontario County "#1 in the US" Best Places to Live in 2006
• America's Promise Ranked Finger Lakes #1 of the nation's 100 Best Communities for Young People
• Prentice Hall Press named Geneva 35th of 100 Best Small Towns in America
• Geneva is just 1 of 2 communities in New York State to be listed in the Nationwide Guide to the Best in Small Town Living
• Rochester, a 30 minute drive, has been twice named "America's Friendliest City" by American Demographics magazine, based on its helpfulness to strangers.

"Best Places to Live" Statistics:

• As of 2011, Geneva's population is 13,316.
• The median home cost in Geneva is just $88,000. Home values have maintained themselves despite the poor overall national economy in the late 2000s.
• Compared to the rest of the country, Geneva's cost of living is 12.90% Lower than the U.S. average.
• Geneva public schools spend $8,889 per student. The average school expenditure in the U.S. is $5,678. There are 11.8 students per teacher in Geneva.

Rochester Ratings – closest major metro area to Geneva and New York's third largest city:

• #2 Most Secure Places to Live 2011 (Large Metros)
• #6 Most Secure Places to Live (Mid-Sized metros – Syracuse ranks #3)
• #6 The Best Cities for Thanksgiving
• #7 Most Competitive Public Colleges

Area Photo Gallery:

A memorial of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female physician in the United States, on the campus of Hobart College and William Smith Colleges – where she earned her M.D. Seneca Yacht Club – life here revolves around our Finger Lakes.

Area Photo Gallery

Brief Summary/Facts:

• Compelling combination of living in an idyllic "smaller town" while working with the largest multi-specialty physician practice in the Finger Lakes.
• Extremely progressive community – unlike many rural towns in the US, two elite private colleges, Cornell's Agricultural Experiment Station & Technology Farm Park – an incubator and support tech park for food and food science companies, provide more new families of global nationalities added to the "youthful" feel from our overall student population which represents 20% of Geneva's population.
• Ontario County's population reached 110,000 in 2010 and household income has increased 34% in the past 10 years.
• 40% of our county's total labor force holds an associates or higher degree.
• The Seneca Lakefront Development initiative will grow the downtown area and waterfront with shops and residences, a boating museum and added parking, which will further grow population and tourism dollars.
• The epicenter of wine country and the finest organic produce and robust farmers market in the United States, grown from the famous "glacier soil" of the Finger Lakes.
• Amazing "lake-lifestyle" combined with ski resort in winter time, amazing fall colors.
• Plentiful arts, entertainment, world-class culinary center, and close-by Rochester, contribute to year-round calendar of fun and festivals.
• Historic architecture abounds in Geneva, with 2 historic districts and 28 properties outside those districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places and/or the City of Geneva's Register. Belhurst Castle, now a resort and winery, was once on the largest privately-owned orchard and farm in the state.
• Founded in 1806, Geneva celebrated our Bicentennial in 2006!
• Public boat launches and wineries are within five minutes from Downtown – you can be on the water or enjoying a premium wine and dinner immediately after work.
• A quiet "get away from it all" after-work time with no traffic, no long-lines at stores, immediate access to boat, golf, with free parking and accessible arts and shows, with appreciative patients, and overall lack of large city problems, with no stress nor noise and air pollution.

References:

City of Geneva: www.geneva.ny.us, Finger Lakes Visitors Connection: www.visitfingerlakes.com, bestplaces.com, Tourism Alliance: www.fingerlakes.org, www.thesmith.org, www.genevahistoricalsociety.com, www.visitrochester.com

Unless otherwise indicated, every photo was taken specifically for this presentation. Unlike many company websites and recruitment materials, in this presentation there are no "stock" photos or images that aren't authentic. Finger Lakes Medical Associates, LLC is very grateful to our friends and neighbors for making our Online Job Tour so special. We truly appreciate you!

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