considering move to Rochester-help please

[kazinfl]

Socalgirl, as a former Rochester resident who is married to a former Rochester Mayo Clinic employee, I will say the #1 reason to move to Rochester is to work at the Mayo Clinic. It is a first-class employer and if you take pride in your work, you will be thrilled to work for Mayo.

Some of the good things... you will freak out when you drive down US 52 or US 63 (the main arteries in and out of Rochester) during "rush hour" and wonder where all the cars are. There is no such thing as rush hour in Rochester, MN. This is the salt of the earth - smart, hard-working, decent, responsible people - a great place if you are raising a family or slowing down in life. Not so great if you are looking for culture and night life. But, you can get that in Minneapolis in 75 minutes and have basically anything you want. Minneapolis is a very underrated city. Housing is extremely affordable though there is very little variety in architecture. Lots of split level boxes. The coffee is great! MN is home to both Caribou Coffee and Dunn Brothers which are great coffee shops. No Starbucks on every corner, though there are a few.

Some of the not so good things... already covered the night life/culture. It is also very COLD much of the year (which might be why there are great coffee shops). Winters are long, fall is short, spring can be even shorter. MN is the land of 10,000 lakes but you won't find any good lakes within 50-100 miles of Rochester. The restaurant scene is comprised of the usual chain restaurants, but its starting to change. Check out Sontes or the new restaurant in the Galleria downtown - don't remember the name.

As for engineering, IBM is a big employer in Rochester, but it is a hardware development lab which has been cutting back as IBM moves from a hardware business to a services business. One of the negatives about Rochester's business climate is that it is a one-horse town and that horse is the Mayo Clinic. When I moved away, there were plans to build a bioscience center downtown but I'm not sure how that is progressing.

Hope this helps.

[spiritbear928]

OK I am from the Rochester area (Kasson to be precise) and I moved to Oregon. It was total complete culture shock. Looking back I would now view SE Minnesota as HOT AS HELL in the summer. Cold in the winter. Nice people. Some recreation but not like the NW. VERY CONSERVATIVE yet highly educated. Not rednecky like rural Oregon but not progressive like Portland or Eugene. Conservatives with education is what I remember. In Oregon the educated people are all liberal.

Rochester has some ethnic diversity but is mainly a white town. If you work for IBM or the clinic its nice and you can have a great family oriented life there. If not, there are no jobs.

Stark contrast of rich and poor and the only place I have ever seen where people with PHDs bag groceries. Thanks IBM

[fromupthere]

Actually there is quite a bit of ethnic diversity now. One of the elementary schools according to one school stat site is only 50-some percent white. We lived here for a couple years (98-00) and moving back here in 2005 was way different. Things had definitely changed in the early 2000s. It's not like it used to be.

[aecp]

So I am curious, what did you decide?

[Brent385]

Here's my impression of Rochester (I grew up about 20 minutes away from it):

Rochester has no soul.

Not in the good/evil sense. In the vibrant/alive sense. Rochester is basically composed of strip malls and franchises. Technically, it has a downtown area. However, roughly 96% of downtown Rochester is Mayo Clinic.

It is probably one of the most bland and boring cities I've ever been to throughout my life. It's got no nightlife, no unique culture, and nothing to do. Everything is spread out. In other cities, you can walk from shops to restaurants to bars. In Rochester, it almost seems like you have to drive 10 minutes to get anywhere. There is no such thing as a "night on the town" in Rochester.

That said, it's probably a good city for raising a family. For some reason, it wins awards.

But if you're between the ages of 18 and 30, I'd stay far away.

BTW, the Boundary Waters are amazing.