Rochester Natives!!! Help me!! (Brighton, Monroe: best suburbs, condos, crime)

[lrbsfs_05]

I'm just trying to get some info or opinions about the city (around Clinton/Elmwood and the Brighton area) from those of you who live there, since i'm in Alabama and thinking about moving there, but it's not really easy to see for myself :P any thoughts/info is helpful. Thanks!

[IfULivedHere]

Brighton butts right up to the city limits of Rochester. It's an older established community. Older homes, tree-lined, sidewalks, street lights. It's beautiful and has one of the best high school districts in the country. Small lots. Not sure where you're coming from but it's like the historic district just outside of the downtown area of Huntsville, except much bigger and not every home is "historic". Not sure what prompts your move but includes or is next to the areas that include the U or Roch, RIT, Strong Hosp, and pretty much everywhere else. I live in Baltimore now but grew up and still visit (mom lives in appartments in Brighton, dad lives in webster). You can be anywhere in the greater rochester area in about 15mins, any time of day. Elmwood and clinton is pretty much the U of R if my memory serves me. Again great location. Rochester does have some "ugly" areas but those areas are good. On the north side of downtown Clinton gets rough but you're a "world" away down on Elmwood. I know Huntsville well and the Ft. Rucker area alright. Rochester is a little "bigger city" than Huntsville, it's surrounding suburbs are huge and form a horseshoe around the city. Those make the metropolitan area much bigger than H'ville. Let me know what else.

[shibainu]

Originally Posted by lrbsfs_05

I'm just trying to get some info or opinions about the city (around Clinton/Elmwood and the Brighton area) from those of you who live there, since i'm in Alabama and thinking about moving there, but it's not really easy to see for myself :P any thoughts/info is helpful. Thanks!

Brighton is probably one of the best suburbs of rochester. It is close to the city limits but the neighborhoods that it is next to are all pretty good. Elmwood and clinton is an area with a lot of medical practices.It is not where the U of R is located . U of R is closer to mt. hope which is in the city. The elmwood and clinton has Apts and condos. There is a grocery store on clinton. I believe Brighton area also has the highest Jewish population in rochester.

[I'minformed2]

That area of Brighton is very nice...practically an extention of the Park Avenue/Browncroft/Monroe Avenue area of the city (the most desirable area of the city of Rochester). You're close to all the cultural assets and nice parts of the city...and well distanced from the seedy/crime ridden areas.

[karen824]

We moved to Brighton at the end of June (from near NYC) and we love it so far. I have one child in the middle school and one in the high school--both schools are excellent. The previous poster was right about being able to get almost anywhere you need to go in the greater Rochester area in 15 minutes--that's what my sister-in-law told me (she's lived here for over 20 years), but coming from Westchester, I could hardly believe it!
Our neighborhood is made up of homes from the late 50s/early 60s, so the lots are a bit bigger than in other parts of Brighton.
If you have kids and you are debating between moving to the city of Rochester or Brighton, I would definitely suggest you pick Brighton, if you can at all afford it (you can definitely get a house here for less than $200,000--people warned us that the taxes were high, but coming from Westchester, they seem low to us! But they do probably average about $5,000/$6,000 a year.) The city of Rochester schools are unfortunately not very good.

[lrbsfs_05]

Thanks for all the info, especially to IfULivedHere since I used to live near huntsville, and that helped a lot Schools don't really matter cause my husband and I have decided not to have kids. If we do, it's gonna be a LONG time from now. Thank you sooooooo much (all of you) for all the help, it's just reaffirming all my hopes and expectations It's gonna still be a couple of years, since we're trying to get out of debt, but I can't wait until we can move!!