Thinking of moving back to Rochester after 35 years in Florida.
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That is true, but with respect to the "downtown area", and the retail businesses that once populated it, the area is "dead". When my family moved here, in December of 1957, "downtown" was indeed, as previously mentioned, a small replica of old time New York City. Today, too much of the area looks really shabby.
The local newspaper, the Gannett owned, Democrat & Chronicle, recently published an article on a couple of investors who are working on refurbishing the storefront(s) that are located on the northwest side of the major street corner, Main Street and Clinton Avenue. The article included a picture of the building. I was shocked at how shabby the area looked!!
Kudos to the men, but I think they're facing a steep, uphill battle.
We moved to Buffalo in 1953 and the downtown was really hopping. We had a business there and I went downtown 100's of times. Unfortunately, they tore down many great, historically significant buildings including Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece, Larkin Building, which is still a parking lot 70+ years later. Downtown Buffalo is shabby as well, but they have attempted to revitalize the waterfront, but overall its a shell of what it was in the 1950's, as many cities are. A new Convention center and waterfront stadium would be a game changer but I doubt I will live to see it.
That is true, but with respect to the "downtown area", and the retail businesses that once populated it, the area is "dead". When my family moved here, in December of 1957, "downtown" was indeed, as previously mentioned, a small replica of old time New York City. Today, too much of the area looks really shabby.
The local newspaper, the Gannett owned, Democrat & Chronicle, recently published an article on a couple of investors who are working on refurbishing the storefront(s) that are located on the northwest side of the major street corner, Main Street and Clinton Avenue. The article included a picture of the building. I was shocked at how shabby the area looked!!
Kudos to the men, but I think they're facing a steep, uphill battle.
Please don't judge downtown by that one block of buildings. It is very visible. Oftentimes, the most prized buildings/ locations go undeveloped because they are the most expensive due to location. But I have heard that it is finelly going to be redone. BTW, right next door there is/ will be a small car museum of 60's, 70's muscle cars.
Please don't judge downtown by that one block of buildings. It is very visible. Oftentimes, the most prized buildings/ locations go undeveloped because they are the most expensive due to location. But I have heard that it is finally going to be redone. BTW, right next door there is/ will be a small car museum of 60's, 70's muscle cars.
I don't think I am, but it's not just that one block of Main Street that I'm thinking of. When I was much younger, and the downtown area was "hopping", the businesses occupied the area from Gibbs Street (at the Eastman Theater), all the way west to St. Paul Street, on both sides of the street. Including some of the other areas of the city, fanning out from Main and Clinton, there were around 12-14 new car dealers, within the city limits. How many are there now?
(and I don't mean this as a personal comment.....)
Also, I thought the car museum was located in the former Edwards Department Store building, and was already open. No?
I don't think I am, but it's not just that one block of Main Street that I'm thinking of. When I was much younger, and the downtown area was "hopping", the businesses occupied the area from Gibbs Street (at the Eastman Theater), all the way west to St. Paul Street, on both sides of the street. Including some of the other areas of the city, fanning out from Main and Clinton, there were around 12-14 new car dealers, within the city limits. How many are there now?
(and I don't mean this as a personal comment.....)
Also, I thought the car museum was located in the former Edwards Department Store building, and was already open. No?
Looks like it's open, but temporarily closed, or maybe by appointment.
I know, 95% of you at least are going to tell me that I'm wacko. But we are considering moving back to Rochester after living 35 years in South Florida. I've had a great life here, have owned two breakfast and lunch restaurants in the past down here. We've had five really cool homes over the years all within a couple of miles of the ocean. Love palm trees and the weather. Hate hurricanes. But, we are both pushing 70, no kids, and have close family and friends of many years up in Rochester. When you get older, your priorities change. Do I hate winter? Pretty much. And we cannot afford to be snowbirds and have two households, but we will be in a position to live year long in Rochester but come down to Florida say maybe a month or so in the winter to get away. When I first moved here to South Florida, it was little villages by the sea. Now it has been incredibly overdeveloped and the traffic is horrendous most of the time. There are many many great things to do here, today we drove down to Hollywood and had a fabulous breakfast and it's so beautiful, and we go to Fort Lauderdale, West Palm beach, etc and there's just so much to do that I know Rochester is going to pale in comparison. But again, when you get older your priorities change and I would like to be around my close family and my old friends, though I have made a few really great friends here in South Florida who are more like family and will definitely miss them should I move. I've always wanted to live in one of those great old apartments with a fireplace around the Park Avenue area of Rochester and have definitely done some investigating and made a few phone calls. I have been told either that that area is still very safe, or that it is unsafe, so not sure what to believe. The rents on a two bedroom would be very doable for us, especially compared to South florida, where the rents have gone through the roof. Though all my relatives up in Rochester live in the suburbs near Pittsford, I am not a suburb person and after owning five homes over the years down here, we want to rent. I'm just wondering if Park Avenue is relatively safe? We are not naive, and in our last home before our present one, it was in downtown Lake Worth Florida, a few miles down the road from us, Lake Worth is like a very funky Key West, beautiful but very sketchy. We found a dead body of a beaten man just a couple houses down from us a few years back, and the guy in the home behind us shot his wife and then committed suicide. We definitely had more than a couple of hookers come into our backyard and had to call the cops. So we are not naive nor green, and we still loved our very funky compound we had. We are both retired on a decent social security and in all honesty the reason we also want to sell our present home is that it would allow us to have the money saved to do extra things like go to Europe, take another trip to Los Angeles and San francisco, which we did a few years back, eat a few more dinners out here and there, etc. Those kinds of endeavors would be impossible were we not to sell our present home here in South Florida. I worked in downtown Rochester at many of the fine restaurants in the early and late '70s and early '80s, and was constantly downtown, which was our little NYC. I realize that that is long gone and downtown is pretty much dead, which is really sad because it was fantastic.Anyway, I know this is kind of rambling, I'm really tired LOL. Just wondering what people's thoughts are. Thnx! ( P.S. I wrote a very similar post to this one on Craigslist recently and it was flagged for removal within 5 minutes. WTF?? How was what I wrote offensive? That in itself made me hesitant to move back to Rochester lol.)
We moved to the Rochester area from FL about 6 months ago and we are really happy here. Since you are not a fan of Rochester's winter weather I think you have the right idea, just budget for a month-long FL vacation each year.
The section of Rochester you are targeting is very appealing to us too (we like the East Ave neighborhood), and you're right - for every person who tells you that area is totally safe there seems to be another who insists it's become sketchy. I think in general the concern is not so much about personal safety but more about running into weirdos being weird and also things like car break-ins and bike thefts. However, right now there is this story in the news about a Park Ave rapist: https://www.whec.com/top-news/man-ap...s-on-park-ave/ Here is the crime map provided by the police department: https://www.cityofrochester.gov/crimemapping/ And for more crime/safety details about specific neighborhoods you can use this contact info: https://www.cityofrochester.gov/arti...?id=8589936730
I know you explained you're not a suburb person, but maybe consider Brighton just beyond the city limits, that's another location we really like. It could give you a nice combination of safety plus convenience to that fabulous south-east quadrant of Rochester. You know what though - I bet you'll feel safer in Rochester than you did in some of the locations where you lived in FL. I feel safer here than I did in FL.
We moved to Buffalo in 1953 and the downtown was really hopping. We had a business there and I went downtown 100's of times. Unfortunately, they tore down many great, historically significant buildings including Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece, Larkin Building, which is still a parking lot 70+ years later. Downtown Buffalo is shabby as well, but they have attempted to revitalize the waterfront, but overall its a shell of what it was in the 1950's, as many cities are. A new Convention center and waterfront stadium would be a game changer but I doubt I will live to see it.
You're certainly not going to live to see a waterfront stadium, since the new Bills stadium is being built across the street from the old one. As for the convention center, I think Poloncarz semi-recently commented on preferring to not throw money in that direction, given the amount of time that a convention center spends not being utilized. But I'd have to google to refresh my memory
I know, 95% of you at least are going to tell me that I'm wacko. But we are considering moving back to Rochester after living 35 years in South Florida. )
I am in the 5% that don't think yo are crazy. I went to college in the Rochester area in the early 80's and worked there for a couple years in the late 90's. I absolutely loved Rochester Metro but came to the Boston area for better employment opportunities. We are now in our early retirement years and are considering moving back to Rochester for similar reasons as you: crazyness of Boston traffic and general conjestion. But also similar to you,we now have a zillion great things to do around here and are concerned if Rochester has enough to keep us happy. You have the additional draw of family/friends, which is HUGE.
The Rochester area appeals to me since it is a mid size city with all the conveniences pretty much within a 25 minute drive without the conjestion. I can't speak to the Park Avenue area but we lived in Brighton which was very convenient. It sounds like you like living in a "citified" area but without extreme crazyness and I can relate to that.
I think your plan is very sound to rent for a while and see how it feels. You might even consider an airBnB for a month or so if budget allows to get a better "preview" before actually moving. I am thinking like you, it would be nice to "unlock" some of the value of our existing home and buy a less expensive house. I am a little nervous committing to buying a house before knowing it's right, so we may do something similar to you.
I'm not sure why your post on the other sight was deleted, there was nothing in there that should offend anybody.
I also wonder if the Canal villages would work OP, as they offer walkability and some shopping/things to do.
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