2026 Compare Cities Rankings:
Rochester, MN vs Petaluma, CA

#9 Most Comfortable Summer Cities

#10 Most Secure Places to Live 2011 (Mid-Size Cities)

#18 America's Best and Worst Cities for Crime (Smallest Metro Areas)

#101 Best Green Cities

#113 America's Most (and Least) Stressful Cities (117 Smallest Metro Areas)

#144 2005 Best Places to Live

#1 America’s Best Cities for Foodies

#23 America's Best and Worst Cities for Crime (Mid-Size Metro Areas)

#137 Best Green Cities

#166 2005 Best Places to Live

Roch (and Minnesota) is a great place IF you live off the govt dole; subsidize undesirable things (through generous welfare benefits, lax law enforcement and sentences,  More

Rochester is very vanilla. As a progressive, this place is not good. The area leans conservative and you'll see Trump signs everywhere... so that tells you the type of  More

I moved here over 20 years ago from California and I was in shock for the first couple of years that people actually lived in such a cold climate! Winter starts around  More

I agree with the low star reviews. Been here for 25 years, raised a family and seen everything turn to the left and worse. Weather is glorious, love the old Victorians  More

We’ve lived here for 3 years and we love it. It has taken some time to grow on us. We moved from SF where we had lived over 15 years, we were not used to one year leases  More

I’ve lived here a couple of years (after living in others parts of the Bay Area for 15+ years) and I love it! Great neighborhoods, friendly folks, good schools with  More