Good city, great healthcare - 2/17/2008

Rochester leave little to be disired for cultural and outdoor activities but access to the Mayo Clinic means access to many of the best physicians in the world. The healthcare at Mayo is the way it should be.

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healthcare - 1/21/2008

The Mayo Clinic is here... does healthcare get any better?

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A good place - If you're married with 2.5 kids - 10/18/2007

I grew up in this area and even spent several years after college in Rochester. Have a family? Great place to be! BUT -- It's really not a great place to be for young singles - especially if you are coming from a large metro area, you will be really bored! There is virtually no night life (unless you consider about 200 sports bars and/or a ghetto 1980s-esque club out of 'Miami Vice' to be nightlife). A lot of people who relocate from warmer climates can't take the winters. Also, if you happen to be gay, just keep moving north to Minneapolis/St. Paul, because Rochester is VERY unwelcoming to the GLBT crowd. The residents themselves are pretty nice, but the city / Mayo Clinic (they're one in the same) won't allow liquor license to anyone planning to open a gay bar - anything that might be considered offensive to the patients is highly frowned upon! The local drag queens perform in a hotel basement conference/ball room (seriously) about once every two months. It's pretty sad.

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Nice town if you are married or a man - 10/7/2007

If you are married with children or a single man, you may like living in Rochester. This is a white, conservative town of predominantly married people with children who go to church every Sunday. There is little diversity since everyone works at Mayo or IBM. The ratio of women to men is very high, maybe 6 or 8 to 1, although overweight middle age women abound. The food is some of the worst I've ever eaten, and good dining is nonexistent like good shopping. Avoid this city like the plaque if you are young, single (especially a single heterosexual female), childless, a democrat, or enjoy fine dining and shopping!

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Walking - 8/6/2007

Rochester has excellent recreational paths for walkers, bikers, etc. However, when a path crosses a street or highway, I do not feel safe because drivers in Rochester claim the streets and highways as their own. Yield for pedestrians happens on occasion, but is the exception, not the rule. Walking as transportation in Rochester is terrible. The paths are nice for recreation, but they are not direct. You compete for sidewalk space with bikers. Most are courteous but the few ruin the feeling of safe walking because one step to the left or right of a straight line, can get you run over by a bicycle. The street corners downtown and at select other places in the city have pedestrian walk lights but you compete with the right and left turning cars. The news reports frequent pedestrian-car accidents at the corner of 2nd Street SW and Broadway. The city does not work to remove the need for pedestrians to compete with cars at this dangerous intersection. The walk lights at most intersections are not exclusive. That is, the City permits left and right turning traffic to move when pedestrians have the walk light. Many cars keep moving despite the walk light. Some move in a courteous manner, others pull within a foot or so as I walk across the street. Some rush to make the turn before I reach "their" space. I do not feel safe in a crosswalk. These conflicts occur because traffic can move during the pedestrian walk time and the City allow these conflicts because it does not enforce laws that require a driver to stop at the stop line then continue if safe into the pedestrian’s crosswalk before turning right or left. Right turning traffic believes that the place to stop is at the corner rather than the stop line before the pedestrian crosswalk. I never feel safe because there is little or no enforcement with respect to stopping at the stop line. Most intersections out of the downtown area do not have striped crosswalks. The City has left some pedestrian commuter streets without a sidewalk. Homeowners force pedestrians into the street because they water the sidewalk. In the summer, this thoughtless practice forces me to walk into the street when walking to or from shopping or appointments. The City does not enforce clear sidewalks unless there is clearly a continuous hazard on a sidewalk. Businesses and residents clear snow from sidewalks very well downtown. The walk lights in the downtown area work without having to push a button. In the rest of the City, you

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Rochester, Mayo or bust - 4/24/2007

Rochester's market is pushed by the Mayo Clinic. This is great for rental home owners, resident doctors are always passing through. This is bad for the normal population because the hospital employs so many doctors and other higher payed professionals that the cost of living market is artificially high for anybody not employed by the clinic. Do not expect to find a job easily, the job growth is almost entirely the result of clinic expansion. The increase in the number of retail and hospitality jobs (the bulk of new jobs not Mayo related) is a function of a growth in the clinic by about 10%. The clinic employs over 30,000 people. The populaiton of Rochester is just over 90,000. Violent and property crime is also above average. The schools are strong though, and Rochester has its own symphony orchestra which is quite fine.

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Good jobs, low crime, nice people, horrible weathe - 3/25/2007

Rochester is a good place to live if you have young children, or like the small town feel. The schools are good, but crowded due to growth, and the town feels safe. The weather is the reason we will leave. It's cold 6 months of the year, and windy 12 months of the year.

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Rochester, Minnesota; A great place to be from. - 3/4/2007

Rochester is a great place to be from. There are three major employers in the city, Mayo Clinic, IBM, and Walmart. The cost of living is rising, just like anywhere else. My property taxes have increased over 35% in the last two years. Minnesota state tax has been among the highest in the country for decades. The culture in Rochester is extremely conservative, with very little regard for creating a more appealing environment that would attract a more diverase cross section of people to the city. Downtown is made up of various Mayo owned properties, and the majority of the other real estate directly or indirectly supports Mayo functions (hotels, office space, and such). There are a few nightspots that I think more people would frequent if there were other reasons to come to downtown. Rochester has not seen a big name rock band since Bon Jovi was here in the early 90's. Things that could be percieved as unhealthy or adverse to the city or it's population are generally not welcomed here. Some of that is bad and some good. I think I've said enough for now.

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clean, quiet...boring - 10/24/2006

I've grown up in Southeastern Minnesota since I was 7 and while it's a great area, it's very boring for the younger crowd. The people are pretty nice for the most part, but it seems like they all would rather keep to themselves then be sociable, and it's hard to get out and meet people if you don't fit into one of the very very few cliques. People are pretty conservative and close minded and if you stray too far away from the tree you aren't really accepted into the social circles, and it will be hard to find people with similar tastes. I could go on and on about the negative sides and this is just one point of view, so do some research to see if it's right for you. It's beautiful area, very safe city and area, good place to raise a family I'm sure. Just too fake and boring and unstimulating for me.

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Cost of Living in Rochester, MN - 8/29/2006

Quality of life is very good because income is relatively strong and cost of living is relatively low.

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RMB - 6/30/2006

Very good place to live.

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