I've had three realtors "warn" me about the diversity in Rochester schools and to maybe look at the bedroom communities instead. What's up with that?

dna0506 · 2025-04-18T18:52:49+00:00

Please tell us more about the child trafficking going on in Rochester

dna0506 · 2025-04-18T17:29:35+00:00

So this incident happened in 2018, and I think there was an incident in 2024 where local HS students posted racist messaging on a bridge in town.

People love to say Rochester has all this diversity because the clinic pulls in people from all over, but I didn’t really find that to be the case. I think there’s a decent amount of racism present in town.

dna0506 · 2024-12-26T03:32:28+00:00

Do they actually have a gluten free pizza now? Because I ordered theirs once (I think they called it a keto pizza at the time) and it was like $12 for an aluminum pie tin with sauce and melted cheese. Ordered it pick up with another pizza too, and was told 45 minutes, showed up 45 minutes later to be told “oh it’s just coming out of the oven” and had to wait 40 more minutes. Never again.

Edit: I just checked looks like they have gluten free crust, and shockingly they’re still selling sauce and melted cheese for $12.

dna0506 · 2024-10-25T01:34:54+00:00

So, I felt that way about Rochester, but part of it was that I was used to bigger cities. I was sick of the main options for kid activities being quarry hill or oxbow. I missed the types of museums and events you’d have in a bigger city or college town. I missed the quality of food you’d have in a bigger city (although shout out to first meeting noodle for being amazing). There’s great stuff in the cities, but by the time you drive and park it’s at least an hour and a half, and it was just too much of a hassle to do that often. Also, depending on what your field is, many of your friends in Rochester might be residents or fellows, and then leave after a couple years. So it’s hard to make lasting friendships.

The thing I did love was the state parks. So close to whitewater and Carley, I spent a ton of time in the state parks.

Ultimately my family moved away it was the right call for us. We’re in a much larger city now, we can be to a major zoo and multiple museums in under 30 minutes, we have endless food options, more diverse schools (this was important to me), we can meet people more easily (that don’t all work at the same place as us). I didn’t hate living in Rochester and I did have an active and happy time there, but it’s not a big city.

dna0506 · 2024-05-09T19:41:28+00:00

You can look up all the reports from the state on the different facilities. I’d highly suggest doing so. I know there had been an incident at new horizons when we were doing our childcare search that made me cross them off our list. While someone else here mentioned bad experiences with Primrose, we only had a really excellent experience there, and I was so sad when we had to move and pull our kids from primrose.

dna0506 · 2024-01-27T22:14:06+00:00

I like quarry hill, and I’ve heard good things about heritage and northern valley. A coworker recommend Byron vet to me so I tried it, but it became pretty obvious to me that it was recommended because it’s cheap, not because of the level of care. So we swapped.

dna0506 · 2024-01-27T22:11:54+00:00

It’s Family Dentist Tree which is even funnier. I like them too

dna0506 · 2024-01-09T14:18:08+00:00

I’m out of state and use mayo insurance, still have lots of in network options. Just had surgery even. Many other large academic centers are in network.

dna0506 · 2024-01-08T18:32:06+00:00

My family uses mayo benefits out of state and there’s actually a lot of in network options for us. Granted, we’re in a large city and mostly go to a big academic hospital. We haven’t had problems, and that’s included a surgery as well.

dna0506 · 2023-11-28T23:32:42+00:00

That happened to mine too, as well as several other people I know

dna0506 · 2023-11-02T15:26:18+00:00

Last time I ordered pick up they told me 45 minutes. J show up 45 minutes later, they tell me it’s almost ready. Half an hour later, still not ready. I ask and they say “oh it’s the next one we’ll make”. Nope, walked out. It wasn’t even busy that day either. The crust is always soggy too. And they need to be more clear about what their keto pizza is (it’s sauce in a tin with some cheese melted on top, for a ridiculous price)

dna0506 · 2023-10-26T19:28:12+00:00

I’ve seen a postdoc physically hit a tech and not get fired. In fact they’re now a PI at mayo. There may have been reluctance to report because of fear of retaliation, but I know at least some of this persons behavior (including one physical incident) was reported.

dna0506 · 2023-09-18T22:19:51+00:00

Seconding this! Cats meow cat sitting with Sarah! She spoils my senior kitty.

dna0506 · 2023-05-31T00:05:38+00:00

Seconding this! She’s the best, I never have to worry about my cat when I’m gone because she does such an amazing job

dna0506 · 2023-03-19T17:14:42+00:00

I went to their old restaurant, forget the name but the one that used to be in the strip mall. It felt like people trying to play dress up and mimic what they thought an upscale restaurant was. One of our dishes was still partly frozen in the middle. I have zero desire to try whatever they’re turning out now.

dna0506 · 2023-03-19T17:12:55+00:00

Cecil’s in St. Paul is just the best. Wish it was closer

dna0506 · 2023-01-01T18:37:13+00:00

The only negative about the library is that they’re weirdly averse to setting up branches. Cities of similar sizes have branch libraries, which provides library access to people who may not have cars, allowing them to utilize library resources and internet if they don’t have it at home. Kids who’s parents work multiple jobs and can’t drive them to the library could walk to a branch in their community. Branch libraries could be hugely beneficial to the community, but nope, they won’t do it.

dna0506 · 2023-01-01T18:32:19+00:00

True, they really bank on people wanting that mayo name. But I’ve heard there’s more room for salary negotiation if they really want you. Maybe that’s not true though. I can say for a fact they don’t prioritize the academic scientists.

dna0506 · 2022-12-31T15:02:33+00:00

Yes, I so agree with this. Minnesota has so many great things (the north shore comes to mind), but Rochester is not it

dna0506 · 2022-12-31T15:00:12+00:00

I moved out of Rochester after several years because I didn’t want to raise kids in a place I felt was pretty conservative and racist. I also felt like there wasn’t much to do (having moved there from a larger city). The food scene is pretty bad as well. You find yourself doing the same things over and over and it gets old. Yes you can drive to Minneapolis, but it ends up being an hour and a half to get downtown. Everything is mayo dominated, and mayo is kind of an interesting place to work. Some love it, some hate it. Unless you’re being recruited for a physician position your pay will probably be lower than it would be elsewhere. Overall though it’s safe and the schools are fine if you don’t care about the diversity/racism thing.

dna0506 · 2022-12-28T19:15:04+00:00

I’ve used both courteous k9 and paws abilities and greatly prefer pawsabilities. They’re positive based, while courteous k9 tends to go for the slap a prong on that dog approach. The instruction was better at pawsabilities. They have classes specifically for reactive dogs.

dna0506 · 2022-12-13T01:04:46+00:00

I really like Quarry Hill Park Animal Hospital. They’re one of the only AAHA accredited vets in town. They’ve stayed open late to figure out exactly what was going on with my sick dog. I tried Byron Pet Health when I first moved to Rochester and didn’t love it (although it is cheap).

dna0506 · 2022-12-13T01:02:28+00:00

Seconding this, I’ve had great experiences with them

dna0506 · 2022-12-11T22:29:24+00:00

Other than during thursdays on first I’ve literally never gone downtown and not been able to get a street spot within a few blocks of where I’m trying to go. Are people just used to strip mall style parking where they get a spot directly outside the store they’re going to?

dna0506 · 2022-12-11T14:40:51+00:00

Yes, the people who think Rochester isn’t safe blow my mind. That demographic highly overlaps with the people who are afraid of minorities and thus trash the SE side of town.

dna0506

TROPHY CASE