Rochester?

[mebisonII]

The restaurants thread made me realize that a couple of you apparently live near Rochester or visit frequently. There's a small-to-moderate chance I may pursue a job there in the not-too-distant future. I'd be interested in your take on the town. Nothing real specific I need to know, just general plusses and minuses of living there.

edit: I guess its worth mentioning that I've stopped through there a few times, so I've at least been downtown, although I wasn't there long enough to explore much.

[bisonmike2]

I've been there a couple of times. Cool town. I really like the whole clinic campus. Like a miniture version of a downtown in a large city.

[TransAmBison]

I was there when my wife was looking for a job. We checked out the town and went out with a friend who lives there. It felt very snobby. Really rubbed us the wrong way. I was very glad we did not move there. Might have just been us, though.

[BlueBisonRock]

Rochester is an excellent family town and consistently was named as the Money Magazine "Best" city a few years back. In fact, the criteria was changed in order to get other communities on the list.

The community is centered around health care and the Mayo Clinic. (Mayo is also the largest employer in the area). The various RYxA (Rochester Youth put your sport here Association) organizations do a great job of providing opportunities for kids to learn and play various sports. And there are a couple of excellent areas that provide baseball, soccer, and football fields. Lights and all.

There are four high schools (three public) that have excellent academic and athletic reputations.

In contrast to the FM lakes regions, Rochester folks either travel to Hayward or hit Lake Zumbro or the river for boating and recreation.

Post secondary education is provided by Rochester Community and Technical College, Winona State, the Mayo Clinic, and the newly formed UofMN - Rochester.

There are a greater number of hotel and resturants in the area in support of the many visitors to the Mayo Clinic.

On the other side of the equation, the streets do tend to roll up about ten pm. Again, Rochester focuses on the Mayo Clinic visitor or on kids. And, there is more of a gang influence and undertone today than there was 20 years ago.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me.

[mebisonII]

BBR, thanks for the info! I may hit you up for more info if things get more serious in the job hunt. Oh, important question for now: How is the restaurant distribution? Are there at least some good non-chain and/or ethnic places in town? What can I say, my life revolves around food most days. :hungry:


TAB, I'm a little curious about that as well. I've lived in very similar towns (hospital/higher-ed dominated) and not had any problem, but Mayo is in a bit of its own world as far as I can tell.

The one college friend I had out of Rochester was great, though, albeit a little quirky. :)

[BlueBisonRock]

BBR, thanks for the info! I may hit you up for more info if things get more serious in the job hunt. Oh, important question for now: How is the restaurant distribution? Are there at least some good non-chain and/or ethnic places in town? What can I say, my life revolves around food most days. :hungry:


TAB, I'm a little curious about that as well. I've lived in very similar towns (hospital/higher-ed dominated) and not had any problem, but Mayo is in a bit of its own world as far as I can tell.

The one college friend I had out of Rochester was great, though, albeit a little quirky. :)

There is a decent distribution of resturants. Some would say that it is better than normal because of the appeal to the out of town clinic visitors. And, for Tony, there is good Mexican food to be found. I usually don't have a problem finding a place, but my wife would say I can find B Dubs to be a gormet experience. :D

TAB presents an interesting thought. There is an undertone that is present, but it is no different than I have seen in a number of other towns (small town attitude? No significant college / university influence?). I see less focus on adults socializing than I do on centering activities on the kids. Lets call it cool, but not cold.

Good luck with the opportunity!

[tony]

There is a decent distribution of resturants. Some would say that it is better than normal because of the appeal to the out of town clinic visitors. And, for Tony, there is good Mexican food to be found.

Woohoo about the Mexican food!

I've been to Rochester a couple times and thought it was pretty nice (but then I have a college buddy there who has built an Irish pub in his basement.) I can vouch that they have some nice, interesting restaurants.

[bisonpride4ever]

Rochester is nice. Lived here or in the area with my wife for the past few years. The city is basically centered around Mayo Clinic and IBM. There is a little bit of an attitude with some people in the city but its really not much different than other towns. There a plenty of place to eat here but I think the bar scene is better in F-M. House values and rent is a bit higher I think than Fargo. One thing I've noticed more often here is that a lot of the rentals in Rochester are income based due to the large amount of Mayo Clinic employees (30k+) and IBM employees (5-7k) that make a very nice living. I know when my wife and I first looked for places to live when we first moved here, it was kind of a pain in the ass because of this fact. Three things I absolutely love about this area is: a) proximity to the Twin Cities. It takes me about an hour to get from Rochester to Twin Cities. b) if Rochester isn't your thing, there are several nice size towns (2k-5k) within 20 minutes of here (Stewartville, Byron, Pine Island, Dover, Eyota, St. Charles, Kasson, among others) c) its really nice country down here. Bluff country east of here is nice. Decent hunting down here too, especially turkeys. There are some monsters down here. Rochester is getting a bit of a gang problem here due to the proximity to the Twin Cities and Chicago. Believe it or not Rochester is actually closer to Chicago than it is to Fargo. There are rough areas of town and nice areas of town just like every other city. The only thing I don't like about Rochester is that the Bison aren't here but other than that, I love it here.

[mebisonII]

Rochester is nice. Lived here or in the area with my wife for the past few years. The city is basically centered around Mayo Clinic and IBM. There is a little bit of an attitude with some people in the city but its really not much different than other towns. There a plenty of place to eat here but I think the bar scene is better in F-M. House values and rent is a bit higher I think than Fargo. One thing I've noticed more often here is that a lot of the rentals in Rochester are income based due to the large amount of Mayo Clinic employees (30k+) and IBM employees (5-7k) that make a very nice living. I know when my wife and I first looked for places to live when we first moved here, it was kind of a pain in the ass because of this fact. Three things I absolutely love about this area is: a) proximity to the Twin Cities. It takes me about an hour to get from Rochester to Twin Cities. b) if Rochester isn't your thing, there are several nice size towns (2k-5k) within 20 minutes of here (Stewartville, Byron, Pine Island, Dover, Eyota, St. Charles, Kasson, among others) c) its really nice country down here. Bluff country east of here is nice. Decent hunting down here too, especially turkeys. There are some monsters down here. Rochester is getting a bit of a gang problem here due to the proximity to the Twin Cities and Chicago. Believe it or not Rochester is actually closer to Chicago than it is to Fargo. There are rough areas of town and nice areas of town just like every other city. The only thing I don't like about Rochester is that the Bison aren't here but other than that, I love it here.

Awesome, thanks! Sounds like a good place to me.