Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Wow, seeing all these provincial posts about how "Bad" Rochester is, Makes me glad I moved away from such ignorant people. I was born in Dover and grew up in Rochester, it has some areas that need improving, but the whole town isn't on food stamps not even close. It has a vibrant arts community that is gaining momentum, shopping and some good restaurants that are popping up around downtown. Also another virtue is the location almost the best location around. An hour to the mountains, Boston, Portland and a half hour to Lake Winnepesaukee and the coast. I have lived in five different states and Rochester is a fine little community. In fact when I brought my girlfriend who's from the Midwest back to visit my folks she was laughing at the reputation that Rochester gets in NH for being such a bad place. She thought it was crazy and I agree with her. I guess to sum it up, the people that rip on Rochester have never left Strafford county or any of the counties surrounding it. Even Farmington seems like something out of the Andy Griffith show after living in so many different places. There is a reason why NH consistently ranks #1 in livability polls. It's all good in NH!
Its bad, for NH standards. I'll rip Rochester until it gets better. Why come to NH and purposely live in this town? Yes, its not gangland but there's so much better that NH has to offer. Oh, I grew up in the seacoast area and have lived in 8 states plus a foreign country.
NH is good, but Rochester is not as good. If you're happy there, more power to you.
Its bad, for NH standards. I'll rip Rochester until it gets better. Why come to NH and purposely live in this town? Yes, its not gangland but there's so much better that NH has to offer. Oh, I grew up in the seacoast area and have lived in 8 states plus a foreign country.
NH is good, but Rochester is not as good. If you're happy there, more power to you.
Sent from my GT-P3110 using Tapatalk 2
True. And its not being provincial when one is relaying actual facts from an actual incident.
My friends who moved there from southern California thought it was safe as well, until the incident where the wife was attacked right outside her door. they punched her pretty badly and her husband felt helpless. They're now in Newton, Mass have a smaller place but are happier.. at least they don't have to pay for private school tuition as the schools in Newton, MA as superior to the public schools in Rochester.
I actually drove up the street that the OP was asking about a couple days ago. There are still some pretty nice areas off of Charles St. The areas that always were bad are still pretty bad. It sure isnt the Rochester that i remember as a kid in the 60's and the 70's. The downtown area was a really nice area to grow up in. It seems that when the Steeplegate Mall went in, the downtown area seemed to dry up. It looks like their trying to move forward with a few new small businesses ect.Give it time.It'll turn around just like Dover did. It wasent that long ago that Dover was talked about badly. There are some really nice areas on the outskirts of town. Up towards Crown Point Rd area is good area as is over along the Salmon Falls River. Out towards Barrington ok. Up towards Milton has some nice country. Overall it is a great location as far as distances to the mountains, the ocean and plenty of lakes.
All I'm saying is it gets unfairly ripped on, Dover has it's problems as does Concord, Manchester, Nashua and even Portsmouth. I was a product of their public schools and had a fine childhood. They had great facilities for youth sports and my memory growing up there was good in the 1990's. The incident you speak of can happen anywhere, doesn't matter the income bracket. Look at the crime rate compared to the national average, I just get frustrated when people deter against a town that could use some fresh energy. What's your motivation? I live in an affluent community in suburban Las Vegas and let me tell you Rochester is just a good. The only reason why I don't live around the area now is because I love to travel and my line of work requires lots of travel. Oh and btw I grew up in Cold Spring Manor a low income neighborhood and I graduated from a 4 year university and work for the Department of the Interior now. That town just devastated me haha.
My daughter lives in and has been a middle school teacher in Dover for many years. She previously taught in Rochester. It seemed they didn't give education of their kids a priority in Rochester. Large classes and poor pay for the teachers. She was so happy to get the job in Dover. I think, slowly, they may be improving in Rochester as they are able to get younger and more forward thinking people on their city council. the council at that time was VERY resistant to spending on education. If you don't have good schools, new families will not be interested in locating there.
I bought my house in Rochester in 2006. I worked in Portsmouth, and would have loved to live in the greater Portsmouth area, but I couldn't afford anything. So Rochester it was. Expanding on what all the other posts have said, yes, it is scummy in some ways and OK in others. In the 5 years I lived there, I think I went to a downtown business 3-4 times (aside from my bank and to get my haircut). Nothing but dirtbags and losers hanging around. The joke of a mall is not much better. On the other hand, many of the local people are hard working, middle class people living a normal life. And the proximity to the mountains, lake, outdoors does make it attractive. For some reason the scumbag ratio in this town is higher than average, and even accepted and encouraged. There was some kind of effort to revitalized downtown, but it seems to have gone no where. There is opportunity here, but with such a high proportion on non-working, benefit-sucking degenerates in the town, it has a long road ahead.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
