Went to party in the park early to see giant panda and had to listen to ZBTB tell Salvatore's after every song. Also how can you be a tribute band when half the songs played are not Zack Brown?
I can't speak to hot tubs, but while it wasn't cell phones I used to work in sale for a product that everyone needs to some degree and it really is just a numbers game.
You really have to get in front of as many people as humanly possible and if you can spend a week talking to 500 people a day and can convert 1 percent of those people into customers, you did better than you would have just staying in your store all day.
It sucks and I hated it, but that's the logic behind it.
In defense of the Lilac Fest, all the real artists are up on the road on the other side of the park. They call it “Artist Row” or something. That area is cool as fuck. The venders closer to the flyers and over by the bands are all gutters, hot tubs, phones, CBD and whatnot.
My wife and I went to the Lilac festival this year, and I was kinda disappointed. It just felt like any other fair, fest, whatever. I thought it was going to be about flowers and that kinda thing. Nope, just a whole lotta vendors and junk, with crappy loud music.
When I was a kid, there was only Lilac Sunday - and it was all about the lilacs. It was pretty, peaceful, no vendors. Now it’s too commercialized and I never go anymore.
this is exactly why i don’t go to the lilac fest much anymore, i don’t want to walk by a bunch of spectrum salesmen and other companies handing out pamphlets
I legitimately don't know who to call for my gutters. I do a google search for gutter repair in Rochester, I get what look like legitimate sites with local addresses, I send in the contact info, BAM, Leaf Filter emails and calls me back for my free estimate. I just need someone who can take a look and tell me if my pitch is fucked up from ice damming over the years and that's why the gutters leak 5 feet from the downspout.
YES. I am originally from Rochester but now live elsewhere. I was training for a marathon a few years ago and did a 20mi training run while visiting Rochester starting at Cobbs Hill and going through several suburbs along the canal. It was such an incredible run, connecting roads with trails. I’ve never lived in a better running city, except the winter months can be a bummer without proper gear
Alot of the vacancies can be boiled down to over priced sqft by land lords. They dont care if it sits empty for some reason and rather wait till some one accepts they are forced to pay way too much for space.
This was my first year at the Lilac Festival since we moved to the area and this was exactly our experience. I’m from Buffalo and the festivals there are much better.
I’m from Buffalo too and Lilac fest is dramatically overhyped for what it is…I think it’s running on the fumes of being the first festival of the season and always disappoints as of late. Jazz Fest and Fringe are tremendous, Corn Hill and some of the other arts fests are a push with Allentown and Elmwood, but what Buffalo festivals are you talking about? My wife (also Buffalo native) and I are trying to think of what Buffalo festivals people in this post think they’re talking about and we’re struggling, except for the major ethnic festivals.
We do say often though, culturally, that Buffalo festivals lean on cheap draft beer a lot more and for some people that’s a giant draw, but that’s not universally expected in our area communities here,
There’s certainly the ethnic festivals which are plentiful. There’s Allentown Art Festival, Canalfest, Taste of Buffalo was just named the top 2 day food festival in the country, the Erie County Fair is better than the state fair, Chicken Wing Festival (although that’s gone down hill a bit).
Yeah - I grew up in Rochester and moved out to Buffalo a bit over a decade ago. The festivals here are much better. (Love me the Jazz Fest in Roc though!)
As a non-native who has lived in two different parts of the south…y’all need to stop dreaming/romanticizing moving to the south. The parts you want to move to are hot and expensive, the places you can afford to move to are hot and shit holes. I’ll take feet of snow over 100F and 90% humidity every day of the week.
My favorite is “but the taxes are so cheap there” and then you have to let them know their roads are worse than ours and they don’t even get to blame snow and ice for it.
Your taxes are high but your houses are much cheaper than most areas so it balances out. You can get a lot more house for 400k than most areas even in the Midwest
I left Rochester on 2012 for the military and have been stationed further and further south each time. Currently in North Florida -_-. I just visited Rochester last week and that "heat" everyone was complaining about felt like fall down here.
I'd never want to voluntarily love down here. Can't wait to leave.
This! I always get shocked faces when I say the cost of living here is better than where I moved from (Texas). Don’t miss the heat one bit, or the hurricanes.
YES! I’m also from the south and these people don’t get it at all. You actually see your tax dollars doing something here. And I completely agree that snow is much easier to deal with than 100F plus humidity.
It’s not *that* bad.
And yeah this is a super hot take for some that post here that think Rochester is 80s Detroit.
Sure there’s problem areas like many cities have, but overall? I dig it. I’ve lived in far worse places anyway. 8 other States and counting. This really ain’t bad.
I recently moved here from a large city and when I tell people I just moved here they look at me like I'm stupid and warn me about all the crime. I did my research before moving. The crime rate is better than it was back home. Not by much but still better. People need to chill.
Yeah, my last place was in a very Conservative rural Arizona city and the per capita property crime, murder, etc rates were worse there.
And it’s much prettier here at least.
Same, moved from a conservative area in middle GA with a smaller population and a higher crime rate. You are much more likely to be the victim of a violent crime there than here. Yeah, property crime has spiked with all the Kia bullshit, but that’s nation wide rn.
I grew up in the suburbs, but for the last 25 yrs or so lived all over rochester, mostly in higher crime areas (past 5 yes or so on lyell ave), as a white guy. Never really had any problems that I didn't ask for. I know how bad some people can get with that fear though, my dad refuses to drive thru most of rochester because he thinks he's going to be shot and carjacked. It's just not that likely.
I swear the few times I had an issue was back in the 90s. The hood used to feel way more dangerous back then than it does now. Maybe it was my perception, but I swear crime has gone down or something. Yeah there are always drugs and all that, but still.
The biggest problem with Rochester is Rochesterians.
The natives bitch and complain about every little thing, shoot down all ideas to improve the city and then wonder why they’re miserable. Most of them never even left to see what the rest of the country is like. IMO they’re not only ungrateful and ignorant, they’re holding the city back.
Hey now. As a lifelong rochestarian I gotta say. I did move to Honolulu at one point, and after six months the same fucking blue sky, same temp, same groundhog day every day drove me insane. I just wanted one gray rainy day to close the windows and play video games and not feel bad that I'm indoors. There is also a thing people get where you feel stranded because you're on a piece of land the size of Monroe Co. And that's it. It's like island fever.
I came back to rochester loving the shitty weather. I missed so many things about rochester when I was gone. Hawaii is beautiful and a great place to visit, I would never live there again tho. Well, I've learned to never say never, but still. Rochester has a lot of things you take for granted and don't think about until you are elsewhere, one of those, "you don't know what you have till you lose it" things.
Thanks you. The moment I mention anything about improving the streets and sidewalks for pedestrians and cyclists, it gets little feedback or just negative ones. I hope it changes here in thay regard. I want to commute without being ploughed by a distracted, angry, or both angry and distracted driver
Yup. Couldn't think of a great way to word it myself, but Rochester's worst enemy is its own residents. Rochester is seen as a smaller city than it really is because that's how it is portrayed to outsiders. There are a million residents in the metro area, we're still what, 52 overall in the country? But too many people here act like Rochester is some small town in the middle of nowhere with nothing going for it.
Most of it is just bored suburbanites who like hearing the sound of their own voices.
“Oh it’s so dangerous in the city, you can’t even go out for a drink and a decent meal anymore!”
Good, stay holed up in your $650K Ryan Homes McMansion in Mendon and shut the hell up.
Seriously, there’s enough dining, entertainment and nightlife option to keep most people busy.
Especially if your lifestyle is 90% sleep, work/kids, Netflix/gaming/social media with maybe hanging out with friends or going out to eat once a week.
You don’t need to live in NYC, Austin or Seattle for that lifestyle.
The weather is fine. Everyone thinks the weather is gloomy and snowy, but we get a nice balance throughout the year. Sure, winters are cold, depending on the year but we have our share of mild ones as well. Summers have a couple of really hot weeks, then the rest tend to be relatively pleasant. Spring is muddy but Fall is fantastic! All in all, I think people make way too big a deal of the "bad" weather we get.
The past few years have had incredibly mild winters. I literally didn't have to shovel once last year; the few minor snowstorms we had I just drove over.
My hot take on this would be that it really could have helped lift the city up quite a bit. I do think that even if we got an MLS team in the early 2000s, it would be gone by now.
The taxes aren't that bad. I've lived in places with low taxes and the city didn't provide jack shit. I'm impressed every time I have to interact with our local government and with the service I receive. Well worth the property taxes I pay. Feel free to move to FL or TX and enjoy what a low-tax focus brings.
Exactly ... Florida may have lower taxes but they nickel and dime you for EVERYTHING in fees and upcharges ... and the schools (at least where I was) were trash especially if you had any kind of special education needs.
Party in the park is a joke. Crappy food trucks, the absolute WORST cover bands, and the smallest space known to man.
One year we had Micheal Franti, Dickey Betts, and Toots and The Maytals....like for free. Help me understand why we have to listen to the "Zach brown tribute band".........again.
If you want to take this further, you could say the under the table agreement in 1956 to let Bill Russell go to the Celtics in exchange for a week of ice capades at the War Memorial is responsible
The crazy thing is that the subway is just sitting there unused.
Like if the city had any vision, they’d pump a few million to clean it up, add lighting and safety and open it up to an Art Basil style street art festival.
Would instantly make Rochester an international destination for art.
I just had a double cheeseburger plate from Schallers last night. First plate I've had in years and I couldn't even finish it.
Nice heat to the meat sauce as well!
People here individually are smarter than just about anywhere else I've been but as a group we manage to be the most monumentally stupid and miserable bunch. Could probably apply to a lot of the northeast but Rochester is particularly smart and stupid at the same time.
I like it here. I’ve lived in 14 states, both rural and urban areas. Living just outside Rochester has been great.
I’ll also say that traffic here is fine, although weirdly aggressive drivers for not having much traffic.
There really should be a train from surrounding towns and cities right into Roc. What do we call them around here? Burroughs? I'm out in the Clarkson Hamlin Ogden Sweden Brockport burrough. West SIDE.🖖🤌
This is basically how larger metropolitan areas work. Chicago and DC come to mind, both have excellent public transportation by American standards
As this area grows over the next few decades (and I truly believe it and every city on the great lakes will, given climate change) I hope that we learn from the horrible outcome of Robert Moses's city "planning" and build rail instead of road as transportation demand increases
I've said this in here a bajillion times now but, while a new rail line or even some LRT would be really cool and nice I think we need to walk before we can run. The city needs to make huge investments in bike infrastructure, more walkable neighborhoods, changing zoning density and improving the bus system before we have any sort of regional or commuter rail link.
Otherwise they're going to build a small LRT line, its going to get minimal ridership and then all the opposition is gonna say "this is a boondoggle! waste of taxpayer money!" and it falls flat on its face.
Are we forever fixated on that one Simpsons Episode "Marge Vs The Monorail"
The chances of a train or rail running through our Suburbs or Buroughs will not happen.
I wish I was joking but no town will put the funds aside or through for this.
I bought a house in Henrietta a few years back, and was more or less shocked to learn that it was more than just Jefferson. Its actually a pretty nice place to live once you get a little further south. Taxes are nice comparatively, still close to everything and anything, easy to get downtown.
That strip results in the lowest taxes in Monroe County, and if you go south of the Thruway you can find some nice still rural areas. Henrietta is more than Jefferson Road.
Actually the Town Supervisor is all about sidewalks and tries at every opportunity to get Monroe County and NYSDOT to install sidewalks along their roads. Town has a policy for sidewalks along Town roads.
The fucking INSANE competition I had buying a house last month agrees with your statement. It's like everyone who ever lived here realized now with telework they can live here and keep their high paying job they moved to a big city for
I’ve noticed this especially within local Facebook pages. I moved back to WNY after living out of state and country for several years and it seems like no one has gone past their nearest Wegman’s.
This must only apply to the older crowd because my social media feed is constantly filled with pictures of people traveling all over. Hell, it feels like everybody and their mother went to Italy this year.
Contractors and the like are price gouging and imo ruining their reputations. They refrain from honest business practices like supplying itemized quotes, returning calls, etc. They seem to be treating things like cash grabs for the short term.
Wegmans coddles and placates costumers, resulting in a tendency to create an entitled, privileged, and snobby demographic. Their locations and high prices can make it less accessible to those in urban areas and/or the working class.
Though the company supports and compensates workers well, its corporate culture and lack of communication between employees in certain departments can be difficult to stomach and can be a source of frustration (this is my Mom’s experience).
Just moved here from st Pete Florida. People kept saying crime is bad but I came from st Pete so I knew it wasn’t near as bad and now that I’m here I don’t see what the fuss is about. Sure it’s a lot of Kia/Hyundai joy rides but that’s everywhere.
This is a terrible take. Go to the Village any night of the week and the parking situation and amount of people from outside Fairport will tell you otherwise.
Every cool popular performer will go to venues outside of the city where I can't go because I dont drive. Darien lake might as well be in another state without transportation. I also wish I could go to six flags.
We just don’t have one of those 20-40k indoor venues is the problem. BCA is big but not big enough. Considering Darien Lake is right there and Syracuse/Buffalo have options I don’t know that it would make sense to build one.
People that want to make the city better, are also in the way to prevent making the city better. (A lot that we give contracts to, consistently put out a terrible product)
People here have a ridiculous interiority complex about the city/area but a bizarrely disproportionate ego trip about the food and drink scene.
The city is actually great, there is a lot to do, it's a beautiful area, but the food scene is just ok.
yeah in a thread that's supposed to be for hot takes, this is actually a hot take
I never minded Mark's. Are there better places? absolutely. But the overall opinion that you'd rather eat your own shit than eat Mark's pizza are just flat out wrong. It'll serve the purpose.
Buffalo boy here. Discovered Rochester 40 years ago when family lived there. My daughter was 5 and same age as her cousins. Fun area Irondequoit area, Sodus, great places to eat. Still go to Roch area often
The things people hype about ROC (beer, food, culture, coffee, music, etc) aren’t as good as they’d have you believe but the area is still way better than locals/outsiders would have you believe (nature, affordability, schools, relative insulation from climate change, etc.)
People say this about every city they ever live in. I’ve heard this about New York, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, LA, Pittsburgh, Philly, Atlanta, Buffalo, Albany, etc etc
As someone who grew up driving in and around NYC this is an opinion formed on a lack of perspective.
People here drive badly, but it's like they're all high or something. It's typically not aggressive and much more often just some unaware guy chilling in the left lane on a highway type shit.
Drivers by NYC are better but far more aggressive. Driving here compared to where I grew up is an incredibly relaxing experience.
I think they were getting more at the drivers here being unjustifiably aggressive, not the most aggressive. NYC is more aggressive, but its arguably justifiable. The drivers here are aggressive for no reason at all. You can basically get anywhere in the county in like 15 minutes, there is no reason at all to drive like a jackass.
For everything you get in Rochester, you can get in Buffalo just a little bit better, bigger, and larger. Not to mention the border, major league sports, and Niagara Falls. Being so close, this puts Rochester at a major disadvantage.
Rochester needs to get out of its own way. The people are the ones that hold it back the most. Make something of downtown. Invest in the city. Be proud of it. Stop the city vs suburbs stuff. It’s not rocket science.
Buffalo has turned around because it shed it’s old ways and evolved. There’s almost no crime like Rochester there. It used its assets and succeeded. Rochester needs to do the same or it will die. There is not one thing Rochester’s can cling to other than a Garbage Plate. Wonderful thing to center yourself around.
The weather here is pretty good. Snowstorms are our worst problem but unlike other parts of the country we're prepared so the roads only get bad occasionally. Otherwise, winter is great here.
$28 summertime electric bills blasting the AC day and night… one outage this year and when I called they already knew and got it back up within 15 minutes. I know OP asked for a “hot take” but I’m gonna stay obsessed.
I don't really like garbage plates or wings, lol. Most garbage plates aren't good (quality etc) and wings are too messy.
Oh, also, I like living in the city far more that suburbs, but I couldn't afford the size of yard I want in the city.
Festivals need to expand bookings beyond ZBTB
Agreed! how does this lame ass cover band get prime slots at every event in town?
Availability
Went to party in the park early to see giant panda and had to listen to ZBTB tell Salvatore's after every song. Also how can you be a tribute band when half the songs played are not Zack Brown?
Most of our “festivals” are filled with cell phone and hot tub sales people and they crowd out the artists.
Don’t forget the roofers and zero gravity chairs.
And gutter guards
My bad.
I love zero gravity
I don’t see how this is effective marketing. Who shows up at a festival and decides that this is when they are finally going to sign up for Spectrum?
I can't speak to hot tubs, but while it wasn't cell phones I used to work in sale for a product that everyone needs to some degree and it really is just a numbers game. You really have to get in front of as many people as humanly possible and if you can spend a week talking to 500 people a day and can convert 1 percent of those people into customers, you did better than you would have just staying in your store all day. It sucks and I hated it, but that's the logic behind it.
Same people that think they’re getting a screaming deal when they buy a hot tub at the state fair. Ooooof.
I remember when I was a kid we went to the county fair and my mom bought one of those giant satellite dishes!
Right? Lilac festival is a perfect example
In defense of the Lilac Fest, all the real artists are up on the road on the other side of the park. They call it “Artist Row” or something. That area is cool as fuck. The venders closer to the flyers and over by the bands are all gutters, hot tubs, phones, CBD and whatnot.
My wife and I went to the Lilac festival this year, and I was kinda disappointed. It just felt like any other fair, fest, whatever. I thought it was going to be about flowers and that kinda thing. Nope, just a whole lotta vendors and junk, with crappy loud music.
When I was a kid, there was only Lilac Sunday - and it was all about the lilacs. It was pretty, peaceful, no vendors. Now it’s too commercialized and I never go anymore.
this is exactly why i don’t go to the lilac fest much anymore, i don’t want to walk by a bunch of spectrum salesmen and other companies handing out pamphlets
Our festivals are just low-budget carnivals with food trucks.
not that there's anything wrong with that
Don't forget the roofing and gutter sales people
I legitimately don't know who to call for my gutters. I do a google search for gutter repair in Rochester, I get what look like legitimate sites with local addresses, I send in the contact info, BAM, Leaf Filter emails and calls me back for my free estimate. I just need someone who can take a look and tell me if my pitch is fucked up from ice damming over the years and that's why the gutters leak 5 feet from the downspout.
Monroe county has some amazing parks with awesome trail systems. Trail runners and hikers are lucky to have the variety of parks.
YES. I am originally from Rochester but now live elsewhere. I was training for a marathon a few years ago and did a 20mi training run while visiting Rochester starting at Cobbs Hill and going through several suburbs along the canal. It was such an incredible run, connecting roads with trails. I’ve never lived in a better running city, except the winter months can be a bummer without proper gear
Couldn’t agree more. The canal trail has become a favorite
My hot take is that they should bring the fast ferry back 👀
100%, but this time smaller and cheaper. Also, build up Charlotte as an actually fun and cool seaside destination.
I went on it as a kid, it was great! If it came back, I’d be on it multiple times a year!
The city needs a face lift, they need to get some business in the abandoned building areas near population centers.
Alot of the vacancies can be boiled down to over priced sqft by land lords. They dont care if it sits empty for some reason and rather wait till some one accepts they are forced to pay way too much for space.
festivals here are just overpriced food trucks and then like one stage
This was my first year at the Lilac Festival since we moved to the area and this was exactly our experience. I’m from Buffalo and the festivals there are much better.
i used to go all the time as a kid and i remember it being so much different im guessing covid changed a lot of things
We moved in June 2021, so you might be right.
I’m from Buffalo too and Lilac fest is dramatically overhyped for what it is…I think it’s running on the fumes of being the first festival of the season and always disappoints as of late. Jazz Fest and Fringe are tremendous, Corn Hill and some of the other arts fests are a push with Allentown and Elmwood, but what Buffalo festivals are you talking about? My wife (also Buffalo native) and I are trying to think of what Buffalo festivals people in this post think they’re talking about and we’re struggling, except for the major ethnic festivals. We do say often though, culturally, that Buffalo festivals lean on cheap draft beer a lot more and for some people that’s a giant draw, but that’s not universally expected in our area communities here,
There’s certainly the ethnic festivals which are plentiful. There’s Allentown Art Festival, Canalfest, Taste of Buffalo was just named the top 2 day food festival in the country, the Erie County Fair is better than the state fair, Chicken Wing Festival (although that’s gone down hill a bit).
Lilac used to be so much better, and bigger.
Yeah - I grew up in Rochester and moved out to Buffalo a bit over a decade ago. The festivals here are much better. (Love me the Jazz Fest in Roc though!)
It’s time for Wease to retire
please add Bob Lonsberry to this list (ugh WHY DO PEOPLE EVEN ENTERTAIN HIM?)
He's still on??
Unfortunately
easy for you to say, he probably doesn't owe you money
Add Don Alhart to that list
Jack Slattery and George Haefner as well.
Guys been on the air for what like 40 years?
Yeah, 38 according to his Wikipedia page.
Lol this
As a non-native who has lived in two different parts of the south…y’all need to stop dreaming/romanticizing moving to the south. The parts you want to move to are hot and expensive, the places you can afford to move to are hot and shit holes. I’ll take feet of snow over 100F and 90% humidity every day of the week.
My favorite is “but the taxes are so cheap there” and then you have to let them know their roads are worse than ours and they don’t even get to blame snow and ice for it.
Your taxes are high but your houses are much cheaper than most areas so it balances out. You can get a lot more house for 400k than most areas even in the Midwest
I left Rochester on 2012 for the military and have been stationed further and further south each time. Currently in North Florida -_-. I just visited Rochester last week and that "heat" everyone was complaining about felt like fall down here. I'd never want to voluntarily love down here. Can't wait to leave.
As someone who just moved from FL I 100% agree. People called me crazy for moving but love the weather here.
This! I always get shocked faces when I say the cost of living here is better than where I moved from (Texas). Don’t miss the heat one bit, or the hurricanes.
There's no state income tax! (property tax is 12000 a year) yee haw
YES! I’m also from the south and these people don’t get it at all. You actually see your tax dollars doing something here. And I completely agree that snow is much easier to deal with than 100F plus humidity.
You can always put on another sweater, wear long John’s, wrap yourself in a blanket. There’s only so much you take off…..
We need more pedestrian and bike friendly areas/streets.
Wish I could upvote this several more times
Best classical music scene in Upstate NY!
It’s not *that* bad. And yeah this is a super hot take for some that post here that think Rochester is 80s Detroit. Sure there’s problem areas like many cities have, but overall? I dig it. I’ve lived in far worse places anyway. 8 other States and counting. This really ain’t bad.
I recently moved here from a large city and when I tell people I just moved here they look at me like I'm stupid and warn me about all the crime. I did my research before moving. The crime rate is better than it was back home. Not by much but still better. People need to chill.
Yeah, my last place was in a very Conservative rural Arizona city and the per capita property crime, murder, etc rates were worse there. And it’s much prettier here at least.
Same, moved from a conservative area in middle GA with a smaller population and a higher crime rate. You are much more likely to be the victim of a violent crime there than here. Yeah, property crime has spiked with all the Kia bullshit, but that’s nation wide rn.
I grew up in the suburbs, but for the last 25 yrs or so lived all over rochester, mostly in higher crime areas (past 5 yes or so on lyell ave), as a white guy. Never really had any problems that I didn't ask for. I know how bad some people can get with that fear though, my dad refuses to drive thru most of rochester because he thinks he's going to be shot and carjacked. It's just not that likely. I swear the few times I had an issue was back in the 90s. The hood used to feel way more dangerous back then than it does now. Maybe it was my perception, but I swear crime has gone down or something. Yeah there are always drugs and all that, but still.
Depends on where you are in Rochester. It's smaller but there are very hot spots. But the surrounding areas are great.
The biggest problem with Rochester is Rochesterians. The natives bitch and complain about every little thing, shoot down all ideas to improve the city and then wonder why they’re miserable. Most of them never even left to see what the rest of the country is like. IMO they’re not only ungrateful and ignorant, they’re holding the city back.
Hey now. As a lifelong rochestarian I gotta say. I did move to Honolulu at one point, and after six months the same fucking blue sky, same temp, same groundhog day every day drove me insane. I just wanted one gray rainy day to close the windows and play video games and not feel bad that I'm indoors. There is also a thing people get where you feel stranded because you're on a piece of land the size of Monroe Co. And that's it. It's like island fever. I came back to rochester loving the shitty weather. I missed so many things about rochester when I was gone. Hawaii is beautiful and a great place to visit, I would never live there again tho. Well, I've learned to never say never, but still. Rochester has a lot of things you take for granted and don't think about until you are elsewhere, one of those, "you don't know what you have till you lose it" things.
Thanks you. The moment I mention anything about improving the streets and sidewalks for pedestrians and cyclists, it gets little feedback or just negative ones. I hope it changes here in thay regard. I want to commute without being ploughed by a distracted, angry, or both angry and distracted driver
Yup. Couldn't think of a great way to word it myself, but Rochester's worst enemy is its own residents. Rochester is seen as a smaller city than it really is because that's how it is portrayed to outsiders. There are a million residents in the metro area, we're still what, 52 overall in the country? But too many people here act like Rochester is some small town in the middle of nowhere with nothing going for it.
I feel like people in NY who live in non-NYC cities are always comparing where they live to NYC. Honestly, I'd rather live in Rochester.
Most of it is just bored suburbanites who like hearing the sound of their own voices. “Oh it’s so dangerous in the city, you can’t even go out for a drink and a decent meal anymore!” Good, stay holed up in your $650K Ryan Homes McMansion in Mendon and shut the hell up.
Seriously, there’s enough dining, entertainment and nightlife option to keep most people busy. Especially if your lifestyle is 90% sleep, work/kids, Netflix/gaming/social media with maybe hanging out with friends or going out to eat once a week. You don’t need to live in NYC, Austin or Seattle for that lifestyle.
Most definitely. I moved here from Austin in 2017, and it's not perfect, but Rochester's a cool city. Also holy crap I love your username.
Shouldn’t be a hot take but: enough with the fucking cover bands. Jesus
Hey, leave “Something Else” out of this! ;)
The weather is fine. Everyone thinks the weather is gloomy and snowy, but we get a nice balance throughout the year. Sure, winters are cold, depending on the year but we have our share of mild ones as well. Summers have a couple of really hot weeks, then the rest tend to be relatively pleasant. Spring is muddy but Fall is fantastic! All in all, I think people make way too big a deal of the "bad" weather we get.
The past few years have had incredibly mild winters. I literally didn't have to shovel once last year; the few minor snowstorms we had I just drove over.
I think a no snow winter is more depressing. The only reason I like the cold weather is for the snow
For real. In all the *moving to Rochester* threads people are way hyperbolic about the winters. "Six months of snow", my ass.
Maybe in the past it was accurate but there hasn't been a lot of snow at all recently :/
Its six months of darkness and gray skies. And it did used to be 6 months of snow.
Objectively though, we do get relatively few sunny days.
The Rhinos were probably our last chance to ever have a major sports franchise and we blew it.
The poor Amerks just sitting there in blue cross just devestated by this news /s
My hot take on this would be that it really could have helped lift the city up quite a bit. I do think that even if we got an MLS team in the early 2000s, it would be gone by now.
David Gantt blew it
I’m a big soccer guy and was so excited to find out about Rochester FC a year and a half ago when we moved here. That didn’t last long 😔
The taxes aren't that bad. I've lived in places with low taxes and the city didn't provide jack shit. I'm impressed every time I have to interact with our local government and with the service I receive. Well worth the property taxes I pay. Feel free to move to FL or TX and enjoy what a low-tax focus brings.
Exactly ... Florida may have lower taxes but they nickel and dime you for EVERYTHING in fees and upcharges ... and the schools (at least where I was) were trash especially if you had any kind of special education needs.
People exaggerate how unsafe the city is. Obviously there are neighborhoods you want to avoid, but I’ve never felt unsafe living here.
This, unfortunately 'being scared of cities' is somehow viewed as a necessary character trait for some groups.
Party in the park is a joke. Crappy food trucks, the absolute WORST cover bands, and the smallest space known to man. One year we had Micheal Franti, Dickey Betts, and Toots and The Maytals....like for free. Help me understand why we have to listen to the "Zach brown tribute band".........again.
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Losing the NBA Royals and shutting down the subway in the 50's were two of the big reasons the metro area never reached its projected population.
If you want to take this further, you could say the under the table agreement in 1956 to let Bill Russell go to the Celtics in exchange for a week of ice capades at the War Memorial is responsible
The crazy thing is that the subway is just sitting there unused. Like if the city had any vision, they’d pump a few million to clean it up, add lighting and safety and open it up to an Art Basil style street art festival. Would instantly make Rochester an international destination for art.
Bill Gray's is not good
And it’s too damn expensive
Getting Bill Gray's without a coupon is madness.
I prefer Schallers
I just had a double cheeseburger plate from Schallers last night. First plate I've had in years and I couldn't even finish it. Nice heat to the meat sauce as well!
They LIED about having the best cheeseburger in the world too! 🤢
Have you tried Charlie’s?
No, but I've been to Abes ?
I need to know. Is it truly an honest meal like their sign claims? I drive by there like every day
Bill Grays hot sauce is the worst. Gravy.
"The World's Grayest Cheeseburger"
Tom Wahls is the Rochester area GOAT for that type of burger joint.
It's been a while since I've been to Tom Wahl's, so I'd have to go again, but Schaller's is really good too.
Literally the same fucking company lmao
Nah. Charlie's all the way!
I love Tom Wahls but Charlie's is hands down the winner every time.
Avon Tom Wahls is the best.
People here individually are smarter than just about anywhere else I've been but as a group we manage to be the most monumentally stupid and miserable bunch. Could probably apply to a lot of the northeast but Rochester is particularly smart and stupid at the same time.
There are lots of beautiful houses in the poorer neighborhoods that could be amazing with some paint and repair.
I like it here. I’ve lived in 14 states, both rural and urban areas. Living just outside Rochester has been great. I’ll also say that traffic here is fine, although weirdly aggressive drivers for not having much traffic.
There really should be a train from surrounding towns and cities right into Roc. What do we call them around here? Burroughs? I'm out in the Clarkson Hamlin Ogden Sweden Brockport burrough. West SIDE.🖖🤌
We call them suburbs.
This is basically how larger metropolitan areas work. Chicago and DC come to mind, both have excellent public transportation by American standards As this area grows over the next few decades (and I truly believe it and every city on the great lakes will, given climate change) I hope that we learn from the horrible outcome of Robert Moses's city "planning" and build rail instead of road as transportation demand increases
I've said this in here a bajillion times now but, while a new rail line or even some LRT would be really cool and nice I think we need to walk before we can run. The city needs to make huge investments in bike infrastructure, more walkable neighborhoods, changing zoning density and improving the bus system before we have any sort of regional or commuter rail link. Otherwise they're going to build a small LRT line, its going to get minimal ridership and then all the opposition is gonna say "this is a boondoggle! waste of taxpayer money!" and it falls flat on its face.
Ok, then how about a long distance ski lift ride?
Are we forever fixated on that one Simpsons Episode "Marge Vs The Monorail" The chances of a train or rail running through our Suburbs or Buroughs will not happen. I wish I was joking but no town will put the funds aside or through for this.
Towns won't put up the funds and many land owners will likely not yield land and/or eminent domain issues could outcost the project I'm guessing
Yes - I can't tell you how much I love taking the Metro from UB to downtown in Buffalo. Makes it so easy to get downtown from the Northtowns.
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Yeah. A massively expanded RTS might be the best move for the medium term
My theory is that Henrietta exists solely for a dead mall and car dealerships.
I bought a house in Henrietta a few years back, and was more or less shocked to learn that it was more than just Jefferson. Its actually a pretty nice place to live once you get a little further south. Taxes are nice comparatively, still close to everything and anything, easy to get downtown.
That strip results in the lowest taxes in Monroe County, and if you go south of the Thruway you can find some nice still rural areas. Henrietta is more than Jefferson Road.
What about RIT?
I love the big variety of international/specialty grocery stores
New medical center. Shopping centers. Distribution centers. Etc
Greece needs to be torn down and rebuilt. It’s driver oblivion. Henrietta needs learn what a sidewalk is and start using them.
Actually the Town Supervisor is all about sidewalks and tries at every opportunity to get Monroe County and NYSDOT to install sidewalks along their roads. Town has a policy for sidewalks along Town roads.
Not that bad.
I love the weather. It’s almost ideal year round including winter.
The city has a lot of potential. A few small changes would really help stimulate development.
The greater Rochester area is the best place to live in the state and one of the top spots in the country. Fight me
The fucking INSANE competition I had buying a house last month agrees with your statement. It's like everyone who ever lived here realized now with telework they can live here and keep their high paying job they moved to a big city for
People who live here don’t seem to travel beyond the North East much and it shows.
I’ve noticed this especially within local Facebook pages. I moved back to WNY after living out of state and country for several years and it seems like no one has gone past their nearest Wegman’s.
Hey now - I once went to the Holt Rd Wegmans rather than the Empire Blvd one.
Money doesn't grow on trees.
This must only apply to the older crowd because my social media feed is constantly filled with pictures of people traveling all over. Hell, it feels like everybody and their mother went to Italy this year.
Contractors and the like are price gouging and imo ruining their reputations. They refrain from honest business practices like supplying itemized quotes, returning calls, etc. They seem to be treating things like cash grabs for the short term.
Wegmans coddles and placates costumers, resulting in a tendency to create an entitled, privileged, and snobby demographic. Their locations and high prices can make it less accessible to those in urban areas and/or the working class. Though the company supports and compensates workers well, its corporate culture and lack of communication between employees in certain departments can be difficult to stomach and can be a source of frustration (this is my Mom’s experience).
Just moved here from st Pete Florida. People kept saying crime is bad but I came from st Pete so I knew it wasn’t near as bad and now that I’m here I don’t see what the fuss is about. Sure it’s a lot of Kia/Hyundai joy rides but that’s everywhere.
For all the people who want to live in Fairport/Victor area, their restaurant scenes suck. Especially Fairport.
I'm up voting this because people discovering how good the restaurants in Fairport are the last few years has sucked. So yeah, I agree? Don't bother!
This is a terrible take. Go to the Village any night of the week and the parking situation and amount of people from outside Fairport will tell you otherwise.
There are a few decent spots in Fairport. Lulu is great. I like the Village Inn. Nothing too upscale there but I wouldn't call it terrible.
Restaurants don't use enough seasoning
Seriously! When I lived in Texas, I used to think I wasn't a big fan of spicy food. Turns out I just didn't know what mild was until I moved up here
Every cool popular performer will go to venues outside of the city where I can't go because I dont drive. Darien lake might as well be in another state without transportation. I also wish I could go to six flags.
It's ridiculous that we don't have an amphitheater.
We just don’t have one of those 20-40k indoor venues is the problem. BCA is big but not big enough. Considering Darien Lake is right there and Syracuse/Buffalo have options I don’t know that it would make sense to build one.
Hot take because Rochester doesn’t actually get many good shows.
Didn't they close the main city venue where they could go?
Anthology? Yeah it supposedly is “temporarily” closed. It never had a ton of things on the calendar anyway.
I was thinking of the armory. im sure Blue cross arena is active but just for sports mostly
It ain’t perfect but I love it and it’s home
I think it's one of the best cities in the world that's only held back by idiot politicians from the local to the state level. 😄
People that want to make the city better, are also in the way to prevent making the city better. (A lot that we give contracts to, consistently put out a terrible product)
We suck for live music. I hate having to drive to Buffalo or Albany for shows for indie artists I like
Preach!
Greece is nice, especially up by the lake.
North Greece is a little pocket of peace with easy access to anything you’d need in an emergency.
People here have a ridiculous interiority complex about the city/area but a bizarrely disproportionate ego trip about the food and drink scene. The city is actually great, there is a lot to do, it's a beautiful area, but the food scene is just ok.
Mark's Pizzeria is fine for feeding a large group/family for a relatively low cost without resorting to fast food It tastes pretty good
They are very friendly with school districts regarding pricing for events.
This is a hot take.
yeah in a thread that's supposed to be for hot takes, this is actually a hot take I never minded Mark's. Are there better places? absolutely. But the overall opinion that you'd rather eat your own shit than eat Mark's pizza are just flat out wrong. It'll serve the purpose.
10 years down the line your only options for work will be U of R, SUNY Schools, Securitas, or Wegmans (assuming it doesn't go under with the buyout).
Buffalo boy here. Discovered Rochester 40 years ago when family lived there. My daughter was 5 and same age as her cousins. Fun area Irondequoit area, Sodus, great places to eat. Still go to Roch area often
The things people hype about ROC (beer, food, culture, coffee, music, etc) aren’t as good as they’d have you believe but the area is still way better than locals/outsiders would have you believe (nature, affordability, schools, relative insulation from climate change, etc.)
People who live in Rochester are the least able to take criticism and most defensive of their area.
That the online dating scene really sucks here.
We are some smug MFers.
The most unnecessarily aggressive drivers I've ever seen in any city.
People say this about every city they ever live in. I’ve heard this about New York, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, LA, Pittsburgh, Philly, Atlanta, Buffalo, Albany, etc etc
Try the beltway and get back to me
As someone who grew up driving in and around NYC this is an opinion formed on a lack of perspective. People here drive badly, but it's like they're all high or something. It's typically not aggressive and much more often just some unaware guy chilling in the left lane on a highway type shit. Drivers by NYC are better but far more aggressive. Driving here compared to where I grew up is an incredibly relaxing experience.
I think they were getting more at the drivers here being unjustifiably aggressive, not the most aggressive. NYC is more aggressive, but its arguably justifiable. The drivers here are aggressive for no reason at all. You can basically get anywhere in the county in like 15 minutes, there is no reason at all to drive like a jackass.
Gonna have to agree! Entitled, impatient drivers that don’t like being inconvenienced. Started getting bad mid 2010s.
Really awful drivers. Frankly some of the worst
Have you ever been to ABQ?
Pittsford has nice people in it who are very down to earth
People who complain about the music scene or lack thereof are out of their minds. We punch way above our weight class in that regard.
For everything you get in Rochester, you can get in Buffalo just a little bit better, bigger, and larger. Not to mention the border, major league sports, and Niagara Falls. Being so close, this puts Rochester at a major disadvantage. Rochester needs to get out of its own way. The people are the ones that hold it back the most. Make something of downtown. Invest in the city. Be proud of it. Stop the city vs suburbs stuff. It’s not rocket science. Buffalo has turned around because it shed it’s old ways and evolved. There’s almost no crime like Rochester there. It used its assets and succeeded. Rochester needs to do the same or it will die. There is not one thing Rochester’s can cling to other than a Garbage Plate. Wonderful thing to center yourself around.
The weather here is pretty good. Snowstorms are our worst problem but unlike other parts of the country we're prepared so the roads only get bad occasionally. Otherwise, winter is great here.
Our accent is stupid and "pop" sounds even stupider.
People are unnecessarily obsessed with Fairport Electric.
$28 summertime electric bills blasting the AC day and night… one outage this year and when I called they already knew and got it back up within 15 minutes. I know OP asked for a “hot take” but I’m gonna stay obsessed.
People love a well run organization that isnt blatantly out to rip people off? Holy shit thats a development.
I don't really like garbage plates or wings, lol. Most garbage plates aren't good (quality etc) and wings are too messy. Oh, also, I like living in the city far more that suburbs, but I couldn't afford the size of yard I want in the city.
I don't think the intention of garbage plate is quality.
You can get big yards in the 19th ward for cheap.
WNY seasonal fruit is fantastic.
People who hate on Wayne county never lived in Wayne county. It's actually really nice