COMMENT BY
Amy from Lynden, WA
COMMENT ABOUT PLACE
Vancouver, WA
COMMENT
Bad for progressive thinkers and diversity
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 mentality that dominates here. The drivers are the worst I've seen since living in Georgia/ Florida. I'm going to invest in a dash cam and make a YouTube channel about it. Not only will you get mowed down in a crosswalk or have someone constantly riding your bumper in icy conditions or honking at you if you go the speed limit, but at least three times a week people, I get stuck behind a driver that stops in the middle of the road or blocks traffic for no visible reason. Folks are very inconsiderate and it's maddening. They're most often old, white people in expensive cars or country bunkins in oversized trucks. I don't mind the cold winters, but it's frequently -15F or below December through March. Then you get hit with hot, humid summers that are unbearable if you don't have forced air conditioning. Because of the two extremes, utilities can be pretty pricey. We didn't get a spring or fall transition this year. We just went from cold to hot and back to cold again. Other folks have already mentioned the high cost of living. A semi-decent apartment from the 1980s will run you about $1,400 a month for a two bedroom. The lower end apartments on the bad side of town go for around $1,000 a month. Most people from Rochester have been born and raised locally so you don't get a lot of worldliness or outside views unless you're a doctor at the Mayo Clinic hired from afar. The water quality is also very, very bad due to insecticide runoff from the Mississippi River. We've had to live off bottled water since we got here. Lucky for us, we're not here for the long haul.