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Wow! I am actually shocked at all of these responses. Ok...so maybe my demographic is different. I am a mom to 3 young kids and yes...I live closer to the center of town..which is much different than the outskirts, but I am horrified at how much this town has changed over the 6 years that I have lived here. Lets see...what I see around town are parents that neglect their children which then in turn...grow up and turn into punk hoodlums. The young are extremely disrespectful to the "grown ups" and run around town cursing, vandalising, smoking and drinking. Did you know that we have a few gangs in this lovely town of ours? Yes..you see...some come from Cali...others from Phili...they chose Rochester from the internet results on govt assisted housing. This was told to me by a local police officer. What else?...oh yes...how about the burglaries that have been occuring around town. Lets see...there have been 70 since Sept. These people are going in during the day...during the night..and have no fear of people being inside when they break in. I will only make a quick mention to the drug problem this town has. It is so bad..we find needles in my neighbors bushes. My favorite part about Rochester are the number of people that smoke cigarettes. Good Lord...we can keep the cig. companies alive long after people stop buying. I can't tell you how many times I see people driving in their cars with the windows rolled up smoking with young young children in the back. Makes me ill!!
Bottom line here is yes...Rochester has lovely land...and beautiful scenery...and is close to the mountains, beaches and lakes...but I personally think it is much more of a city than a town. I wish I had done more homework before we chose this town to raise our kids in.
Good Luck!
The OP was asking about the Baxter Lake area, which is a really nice area.There's a couple streets near downtown that have always been kinda rough. I think at one time that area was housing for all the mill workers.The mill burnt down a long time ago but the houses remain. Not a whole lot of homework needed to deceide on that area, just a drive down the street. Overall Rochester is a pretty nice place,move to the outskirts. It's a whole different world.
Wow! I am actually shocked at all of these responses. Ok...so maybe my demographic is different. I am a mom to 3 young kids and yes...I live closer to the center of town..which is much different than the outskirts, but I am horrified at how much this town has changed over the 6 years that I have lived here. Lets see...what I see around town are parents that neglect their children which then in turn...grow up and turn into punk hoodlums. The young are extremely disrespectful to the "grown ups" and run around town cursing, vandalising, smoking and drinking. Did you know that we have a few gangs in this lovely town of ours? Yes..you see...some come from Cali...others from Phili...they chose Rochester from the internet results on govt assisted housing. This was told to me by a local police officer. What else?...oh yes...how about the burglaries that have been occuring around town. Lets see...there have been 70 since Sept. These people are going in during the day...during the night..and have no fear of people being inside when they break in. I will only make a quick mention to the drug problem this town has. It is so bad..we find needles in my neighbors bushes. My favorite part about Rochester are the number of people that smoke cigarettes. Good Lord...we can keep the cig. companies alive long after people stop buying. I can't tell you how many times I see people driving in their cars with the windows rolled up smoking with young young children in the back. Makes me ill!!
Bottom line here is yes...Rochester has lovely land...and beautiful scenery...and is close to the mountains, beaches and lakes...but I personally think it is much more of a city than a town. I wish I had done more homework before we chose this town to raise our kids in.
Good Luck!
I agree about downtown Rochester - compared to what I'm used to seeing, it looked more like Lynn, Revere, or Saugus, MA to me. I was just there this summer, and it's SCARY! It's had that reputation since I was a kid....
Once you get outside of the downtown, like others have said, it's beautiful. Since you don't have kids in school, you'd probably like it as long as you didn't buy "in the city" itself. I looked at land in Rochester, but decided against it since I'll have a kid in school. I'll be settling in Barrington, less than a mile from the Rochester border.
Wow! I am actually shocked at all of these responses. Ok...so maybe my demographic is different. I am a mom to 3 young kids and yes...I live closer to the center of town..which is much different than the outskirts, but I am horrified at how much this town has changed over the 6 years that I have lived here. Lets see...what I see around town are parents that neglect their children which then in turn...grow up and turn into punk hoodlums. The young are extremely disrespectful to the "grown ups" and run around town cursing, vandalising, smoking and drinking. Did you know that we have a few gangs in this lovely town of ours? Yes..you see...some come from Cali...others from Phili...they chose Rochester from the internet results on govt assisted housing. This was told to me by a local police officer. What else?...oh yes...how about the burglaries that have been occuring around town. Lets see...there have been 70 since Sept. These people are going in during the day...during the night..and have no fear of people being inside when they break in. I will only make a quick mention to the drug problem this town has. It is so bad..we find needles in my neighbors bushes. My favorite part about Rochester are the number of people that smoke cigarettes. Good Lord...we can keep the cig. companies alive long after people stop buying. I can't tell you how many times I see people driving in their cars with the windows rolled up smoking with young young children in the back. Makes me ill!!
Bottom line here is yes...Rochester has lovely land...and beautiful scenery...and is close to the mountains, beaches and lakes...but I personally think it is much more of a city than a town. I wish I had done more homework before we chose this town to raise our kids in.
Good Luck!
I agree with you 100%
As some other posters have pointed out, here are 2 Rochesters: The horrible metro Rochester area and the surprisingly nice rural outskirts. I am unfortunate enought to live in East Rochester. I'm surrounded by low class rental units, white trash, section 8 criminals and just generally awful people. And no, I'm not exaggerating. And yes, there are some good people around as well, few and far between.
I bought a couple of years ago during the boom years, as I couldn't afford anything around Portsmouth (where I work). What a mistake. I just want to finish some upgrades to this house and GET OUT!! And I know I'm going to take a big $$ hit, but I don't care.
Whats funny is when you drive out to Blue Job or Baxter lake, 10 minutes from metro Rochester, it's nice!! Who would have thought?
I haven't been through Rochester in many years, but back in the 1980s it had a bad reputation and did indeed seem pretty trashy from my experience. Portsmouth was nice, Dover wasn't quite so nice, and Rochester was a dump. More recently, as housing prices in Portsmouth skyrocketed, Dover has improved significantly with younger families moving in and the town looking really nice. I would imagine that Rochester must have improved somewhat as a trickle effect, but that's just a guess.
I haven't been through Rochester in many years, but back in the 1980s it had a bad reputation and did indeed seem pretty trashy from my experience. Portsmouth was nice, Dover wasn't quite so nice, and Rochester was a dump. More recently, as housing prices in Portsmouth skyrocketed, Dover has improved significantly with younger families moving in and the town looking really nice. I would imagine that Rochester must have improved somewhat as a trickle effect, but that's just a guess.
Rochester is getting better slowly, but it's not quite there yet, especially downtown. It's what Dover was 20-30 years ago...
I've read what everyone has said - and I have to put in my 1 cent...lol
the ride down Salmon Falls Road to Rollinsford is absolutely gorgeous and that's all Rochester, still. Rolling farm lands and beautiful homes exist on the east side as well as the west side near the Baxter state park area.
it's rural, it's fine to see and is easy on the eye.
Yes, Rochester has a little down town area - it it's fairly populated for a small city. But the downtown is all one way streets that form a triangle. Off of one of the points is Spaulding high school, which shows signs of improvement in appearance.
I laugh at the newspaper that is free and comes out weekly. Here is an example of the police log:
Sunday, April 11
1:06 a.m. - A cocker spaniel, name of Molly, gets loose while on a walk, by golly. It's found at Hannaford, How jolly.
Thurs. April 15
6:49 p.m. - a Brock St. man who lost his cat several week ago, and who posted his loss on several pet sites, has received and e-mail saying "they are holding his cat" and he has to do several things. Police ascertain the threat comes from the UK and is an Internet scam.
3:50 a.m. - A "horrible" scream rents the night near Lone Oak Ice Cream. Police spot a fox in the neighborhood.
anyway. seriously. It's a small city with small city things happening.I recommend checking it out, the taxes are high compared to surrounding towns, but the bargains are still there.
Hey, I noticed this Post was Kind of old, But thought I would give me opinion.I grew up In Wakefield which is about 30 mins North.I attended Rochester high. Rochester definalty has it's parts when it's a little run down.But i'd say concidering many other places the crime is very low for it's popuation.I wouldn't say it's the greatest for rasing kids, but maybe some outskirt areas such as Gonic,Barrington,Derry or even wakefield area.There are plenty of historic places in Rochester and nice areas but taxes are pretty high,visit,do your research but most of all as a whole there isn't a betteer place to live outside of NH!! It's beautiful!! Best wishes!
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Police spot a fox in the neighborhood.
