Thoughts on Rochester?

[cathleeninnh]

or Darling Daughters?

[Dreepa]

Dungeons and Dragons?

[Russell Kanning]

They're everywhere!

What's with NH? It has lots of DD ...

Not sure what you mean by DD shortage. I think I pass 3-4 on my 35 mile trip to work, and it seems like they're popping up in every gas station now. Maybe the Keene area is missing out. You do have Bagel Works, though (I think it's just called "The Works" there).

You know you are from New England when ...... you don't get the Dunkin' Donuts jokes.

[Russell Kanning]

Well Ian ..... are you getting a feel for the local flavor in Rochester?

[FTL_Ian]

Well Ian ..... are you getting a feel for the local flavor in Rochester?

It's been a few pages since that has been mentioned!

[Mark]

They're everywhere!

What's with NH? It has lots of DD ...

Not sure what you mean by DD shortage. I think I pass 3-4 on my 35 mile trip to work, and it seems like they're popping up in every gas station now. Maybe the Keene area is missing out. You do have Bagel Works, though (I think it's just called "The Works" there).

You know you are from New England when ...... you don't get the Dunkin' Donuts jokes.

Gotcha. Sorry...

Back to Rochester for a second -- I don't know if the original poster has kids or not, but the youth sports programs are great. A local landowner gave a huge chunk of property for athletic use years ago, and it now contains a football field, 8 or 9 baseball fields, two or three softball fields, and a bunch of soccer fields. We've been happy with the schools so far, but only one of ours is enrolled (we keep the other one working in the basement  ), and he's only in first grade.

Last I remember the tax rate was in the high 20's per $1K. Assessments just went way up for most people. From the looks of things the housing market probably peaked last year, so you might not be facing the buying competition that people have been experiencing over the last several years. A few years ago, my friend across the street put a sign on his lawn and sold it within a week with no realtor, for more than his asking price. Houses in my neighborhood are taking from a few weeks to a few months to sell now.

I'd call the city council relatively liberal, but not really consistently so. I guess that doesn't make much sense, but basically there are a couple that are steady fiscal conservatives and the rest may either tighten or loosen the purse strings depending on whether it's one of their pet issues. There were a few changes in last week's elections, but I don't know enough about the new people (not in my voting ward) to say much about them.

[davemincin]

Find the comments on Rochester most interesting.? Aside from Lloyd, and Pat M, do not believe
any of you have more that passed though.

Rochester is like many small cities in NH, an old mill town, and the largest city in the Seacoast Region.
Run down a bit, perhaps, but it also affords real opportunites if you are looking for real estate, or business
opportunities, dare I say looking to make a buck.

Rochester sets in what I call our Seacoast strip....Heading north from Portsmouth, 10 minutes, Dover, another
10 Rochester, followed up 10 later with Farmington.? Heading north from Portsmouth the property gets more
reasonable as you move north, but so does opportunity increase.

Rochester is a workingman's town, many of the folks actually work in the shipyards in Portsmouth.? Rochester is
convient, Concord 45 minutes, Manchester 50, Boston, straight shot about an hour, depending on were.

Believe someone also mentioned Suzanne?? Personally I have found no one in NH more dedicated to freedom, and
feel real fortunate to call her friend.?

Dave

[Mark]

Find the comments on Rochester most interesting.  Aside from Lloyd, and Pat M, do not believe
any of you have more that passed though.

I've lived there since May of 1996. I'm passing through very slowly.

[Lloyd Danforth]

 

You should attend one of Dave's meetings.

[BaRbArIaN]

I lived there from when I was 12 until my mid 20s, and since then have lived in the surrounding area like Dover, Newmarket and now Somersworth.   Rochester isn't bad, it doesn't have the uncaring aura like a big city would.   The only downside seems to be the city counsil is split between the liberal "more taxes good" people who want to eventually be a suburb of Massachussetts in spirit if not in fact, and the conservative "no more taxes, unless its for projects me or my associates have a stake in" crowd, which talks a good game about slowing the growth of local government but somehow never seems to bite the bullet and do it.   

Much of the run down areas are holdovers from when a good sized majority of the people were either from Quebec here working the shoe factories and mills, or descended from them and tended to build small houses of lower quality that were brightly colored but extremely close together.   Descendents still comprise a large fraction of the community and their politics seems to be conservative/catholic oriented for the most part.   Most problems in the little crime there are drug/alcohol incited random acts of passion and stupidity.  The police blotters they publish once a week tell it all, sometimes in an amusing fashion.   

The Rochester Chamber of Commerce is a bit clickie, but they seem to try to improve things as best they can.  Years ago they had a big push on to expand the night time attractions in the downtown in hopes of getting people to come and spend a little there instead of the malls or out of town.  Unfortunately the then mostly conservative catholics on the council decided that large night time businesses like clubs and big restaurants would "attract the wrong element and cause trouble" i.e. young people having fun at night frightened them lol.

I think by attrition the council is getting younger though, so there is hope.

As far as taxes, they periodically re-evaluate property values for tax purposes to pretend your rates go down when you actually pay either the same or a little more after the smoke clears.  The valuations of course usually seem to be above when any reasonable person would buy any given property for, so there may be some sloppiness requiring correction at city hall there.

The local area paper, the Foster's Daily Democrat is hardly democratic for the most part, but has a virtual lock on the flow of information.  They own the free weekly paper too (they didn't used to) so there isn't much else in print but what they decide on.  People who hold views outside the editor's seem to not get much favorable press, and nobody has the energy and/or resources to publish another one to compete with them.   The town cable monopoly is now called Metrocast, and every 5-7 years or whenever it gets renewed the public is officially but quietly notified, then if too many of them show up at the council sessions where the contract is being discussed, they jam it into a closed session to finalize it.  Not very open government on some issues it seems.

Lots of room for activated, informed and stubborn Libertarians to jump in and make a difference.      I'm in the local chapter of the Jaycees there (Junior Chamber) and try to get some volunteer community service projects done, so there are some people here that are willing to donate time and energy.   If it wasn't for us for example, there would be no fireworks every year at the fairgrounds (privately organized and paid for by admissions to the event by us), they wouldn't even put sparklers on the mayor's lawn they are so cheap about stuff like that, but boy if they have a pet project like rennovating the old Opera House next door to the fire station, they find a way to lend city resources.

Just my 4 cents (went on twice as long as I should I suppose).

[Kat Kanning]

Thanks, Barbarian, and welcome to the forum!

[freedombabe]

If you like Massachusetts, you'll like Rochester. 

It's not much like the rest of NH.

[Pat McCotter]

They're everywhere!

What's with NH? ?It has lots of DD but no http://www.krispykreme.com/ . ?Is it outlawed or something? ?Heck, all of northern New England is without KK. ?What the heck? ?When I move to NH, will I have to go to Costco to get some KK?

AAAAHHHHHHHHH Nooooooo! Krispy Kreme stores in New England are closing!!!!!!!!!!!

[Russell Kanning]

Hey Ian .... update on Rochester ..... it is cold there right now ....... down to 15 at night.

[FTL_Ian]

*Does not compute!*