Rochester, NY

After 15 years away from his home town of Rochester, NY, it was both thrilling and sad to come home.

Rochester holds a deep place in Adam’s story. Growing up here — sailing on Lake Ontario, learning guitar, building friendships — shaped who he became. So returning, even after a decade and a half away, felt like something more than just a change of address.

It’s thrilling to be back near family, to walk familiar streets, and to reconnect with the architecture and the lake that defined so much of an earlier chapter of life. But Rochester has faced real challenges: population decline, revenue shortfalls, and a community working hard to find its footing again.

Rather than standing at a distance, Adam and Renee decided to get involved — in ways that put their convictions into practice.

When Adam co-founded his most recent business, the choice of location was deliberate. He sited the company in the corridor between University Avenue and East Avenue — one of Rochester’s most walkable and transit-accessible neighborhoods — specifically so that employees could get to work by foot, bike, or bus. The business brought over 30 full-time jobs to Rochester, a tangible investment in a city that needs exactly that kind of commitment. It was a statement that how a business plants itself in a city matters.

Renee channeled her energy into Reconnect Rochester, a nonprofit dedicated to championing transportation choices — by bus, rail, bike, and foot — that make Rochester a more vibrant and equitable community. She joined the board and eventually served as its President, helping to advance an organization whose mission directly addresses one of Rochester’s most persistent structural challenges: a city built around the car, with neighborhoods that have been isolated as a result. She later ran for Village Trustee in Pittsford — and won — bringing that same commitment to civic life into elected office.

Together, Adam and Renee also found community at First Unitarian Church of Rochester, one of the largest Unitarian Universalist congregations in the country, with a history stretching back to 1829 and a long tradition of social reform — the same congregation where Susan B. Anthony organized some of her earliest advocacy. The church’s commitment to love without limits, justice grounded in action, and a spiritual journey that honors each person’s unique path resonated deeply. Their involvement there has been both a source of community and a reflection of the values that brought them back to Rochester in the first place.

The underlying strength of this community — its people, its history, its creativity — is real. The relationships Adam and Renee have built since returning have only deepened that conviction.