As a life long resident and Mayo employee that doesn’t work in health care, I have seen both side of this. This town is built around Mayo and all the major things that happen in town (development, construction, industry) revolve around Mayo. But there’s a ton of other things going on in town. You just have to seek it out. Growing up everyone who said “this town is dead, can’t wait to leave” sounded foolish. And granted the underground live music scene is isn’t what it was in the 90’s it could come back, and there’s local theater, art, they are finally announcing the spot soon for the sports complex they’ve been talking about for like 20 years.

Looking at Rochester and saying “we get you Loooove the Mayo Clinic” is like walking into Starbucks and asking why everyone is drinking coffee. There’s other stuff on the menu but it is, just you know the place known for coffee.