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.
Been reading many of the posts on here recently and wanted to get some local feedback. I’m in my late 20’s, married SAHM with one infant. There is a possibility my husband and I may be relocating up here at the end of the summer. In your experiences with the area, what are five advantages and five disadvantages of living here?
I understand many might be relative to personal opinion and lifestyle, but any impartial comments for both sides would be helpful. Thanks.
lots to do for a city it's size(nightlife, festivals, music, etc)
lots of great, locally owned restaurants
easy access to great cities such as toronto, nyc, boston
cheap
laid back people
worst
taxes
public employee unions large influence
incompetent leaders
too many layers of government
economy
5 advantages:
1) Low cost of living
2) Laid back culture
3) Ease of raising children (while still being able to expose them to big city cultural amenities)
4) Abundant outdoor activities/beautiful scenery
5) Surprisingly diverse city/county (people, restaurants, events, etc.)
Disadvantages (could only think of 4):
1) Weather is often suboptimal
2) Downtown is improving but overall still seems abandoned and not vibrant
3) Taxes (though suburban schools and parks are very nice)
4) Surrounding counties are beautiful but not particularly diverse
Been reading many of the posts on here recently and wanted to get some local feedback. I’m in my late 20’s, married SAHM with one infant. There is a possibility my husband and I may be relocating up here at the end of the summer. In your experiences with the area, what are five advantages and five disadvantages of living here?
I understand many might be relative to personal opinion and lifestyle, but any impartial comments for both sides would be helpful. Thanks.
I dehate the WEATHER but I'm from FL so i guess i cant be parcial. but we are in May and still pretty darn COLD!!
You'll never want to leave, what with the fabulous parks, beautiful beaches that the city is trying its best to ruin, great classical, jazz, and indie music scenes, local radio as good as NYC and maybe better, astonishingly great blue-collar food, and glorious summer.
You'll run away screaming because it's always cold, gloomy, and cold.
I can't take the cold and I have to leave and I'm very unhappy with what I'll be leaving
So NYC radio sucks horribly as well? For as long as I have lived, radio was always 100% better every other place I visited. Aside from a few interesting college radio shows, it's the worst.
I've battled with Rochester loathing since I moved here in '90. But it's good in that traffic isn't much of a problem (590 at rush hour sucks, though), cost of living is low and most people in the city are friendly. There's a mix of very old school, blue-collar type people and those with very liberal attitudes. Some of the suburbs are seriously stuck-up, but every city has those. Education is awful, though. Most people don't want to send their kids to city schools. I know that's true in a lot of places, but for a city our size, it just seems worse than it should be.
Weather is a problem, but hey, nothing's melting down or blowing away or going under water here. The absolute worst it's gotten in my 20 years here was the '91 ice storm, which ruined a lot of trees and cut off electric for a week in my 'burb. That's what passes for a disaster around here. I've been feeling a little lucky for that lately.
Good
1. Top public school districts in the country (Brighton, Pittsford)
2. Low cost of living
3. Very safe neighborhoods with historic beautiful old houses (Brighton)
4. Many outdoors activities in Upstate (The Great Lakes, Finger Lakes, Waterfalls all over, 1000 Islands, Adirondack Mt, Skiing)
5. Rochester is a really funky town with many thinks to do from art shows to concerts to festivals
Bad
1. The winters are not really that long (Nov-March) but they feel long because the sun does not shine much in the winter
2. It snows everyday other day in the winter which is fun in Nov and Dec but gets old quick
3. There are areas of the City that are not safe but if you stay in the Southeast this should not be a problem
4. They salt the roads so your car is going to rust
5. The taxes are high and New York state has many regulations
1) I personally liked the four seasons
2) The lake is very pretty
3) Decent amenities like orchestra and a museum or two
4) Family oriented (if you are at that stage)
The bad...
1) very provincial and narrow minded populace. Very few free and forward thinking people
2) The nightlife is lame
3) Not very diverse
4) Not a diverse economy
5) Not good at marketing itself at what it does well. (beautiful lake setting and cheap)
Remember, there is a reason why it is so inexpensive
After leaving 5 years ago and visiting periodically to see family ( all my friends have left and moved South or West as well) 4 years in college and now in San Diego, the grass is MUCH greener on the other side!
Don't miss it at all and neither do any of my friends who relocated
My God, I'm so f*cking sick and tired of seeing this BS word "diversity" thrown around. Can someone PLEASE explain how Rochester either needs to be more diverse, or is already plenty diverse? We have plenty of blacks, indians, puerto ricans, jews, etc., how is that NOT diverse? And also, why on earth does it even matter?!?!
And lol @ "free and forward thinking people", you definitely belong in liberal hippie CA with that kinda thinking. Can you elaborate on that please? We have plenty of gays in Roc and they seem to be loved for some reason, I would think that easily qualifies as "free and forward thinking"???
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.
It is a good place to live
