Rochester Writers

My friend Alex did a rather unusual thing: he came to Rochester for Spring Break.  This blog is about the experience of living in Rochester; I can think of nothing better to contribute than to convey the musings of a friend who wandered here for a while. Read on for the experience of one traveler in this city.

This has been a very good Spring Break, one that exceeded my expectations immensely. I'll go into gorey details about my weekend later, but for now, I'm kind of enthralled with Rochester and how much it has to offer for a city that is seemingly on the verge of no longer existing.

I'm staying here, at the Ant Hill Co-op, started by my friend nibot during his (ongoing) stint as a Physics graduate student at the University of Rochester. The house is very cool, upon my arrival, I ended up in a Nyquilled haze jamming with people playing violin and guitar, and sleeping on what must be the most comfortable futon ever made. Tobin took great joy in driving me around the city pointing out things that were abandoned, in spite of being in essentially perfect working condition. In particular, abandoned power plants, abandoned subways, abandoned greenhouses, abandoned hospitals of all stripes, and scores of abandoned homes and office buildings.

Of course, not everything in Rochester is abandoned, in fact, it's far from it. This is the Wagner Castle, which the city purchased for $37,000 (Tobin was jealous), and then proceeded to convert into a regional hub for gardening. Around back there are sunken gardens, and there is a phenomenal mural (made up of a $25,000 wallpapering job, actually) covering the foyer and spiraling up the staircase. The best thing about it, however, was that we had virtually no idea it existed. There are many exceptional things in Rochester, but you don't know that, because everyone is convinced the city is an awful place to be. If I didn't have a collection of skilled Rochesterians guiding me, I could see how I would come to that conclusion.

We went to a very classy cafe called Open Face, which served us a cookie sandwich (!), and has an entire wall devoted to the glory of Moxie.  It has exceptional design and was constructed by some past RIT students.

Across the street is an exceptional store that sells parts of houses. You can see the huge row of bathtubs in front—they also had hundreds of doors, pillars, windows, furnace grates and pretty much anything else you could imagine. Only in a city that's half abandoned do you find such neat shit.

Later we headed to Tobin's loft, which he doesn't need, but can rent because in a city that's half abandoned, you can rent two places for the price of one. His rent and utilities for a loft and a room in his co-op are still less than mine in Cambridge for a small room in a small house. The loft is an incredible thing, with the most random assortment of (awesome) crap you can imagine. I particularly like the way things dangle from the ceiling, such as a fan, crates, a globe...

Rochester has also afforded a large number of awesome diner experiences, which are pretty cheap (you can get out with a bill less than $5) and very diner-licious. This one had tremendously good music and a kitschy 50s atmosphere.

The true hidden gem of Rochester, however, is Artisan Works, which is a cross between a museum, a gallery and a workshop. It is a converted cannon factory, which is fucking amazing, and has floor upon floor of incredible stuff. A few highlights include the victorian dining room, which they encourage you to use, the artsy cat that allegedly talks to you, and the phenomenal rooftop patio that's likewise overflowing with art. The place is mind-bogglingly huge, and I haven't seen anything like it anywhere. When we drank a pitcher and jammed by the fire outside the Lux, the favored local bar, locals had heard of it, but never been there. Only in Rochester.

I don't know if I'd want to live in Rochester, but "exceeds expectations" is an understatement in this case. Rochester is bustling with art, because artists can afford to live here, and if I wanted to take a few months to write a book or record my masterpiece, I think the ROC would be a really great place to do it. It has a sort of charming decay to it, as though you can pick up what's left and do whatever you want with them, and for people with energy and enthusiasm, it's clear how this place can be lovable. Then again, everyone I've talked to has told me of their plans to leave, hopefully sooner rather than later, but it's easy to see how this city could turn into something very real and very cool given the right clientele.

And finally, I invite you to investigate this statue:

The inscription reads:

EPILEPSY
CAN EFFECT ANYONE,
ANY AGE, ANY TIME
IT DOES NOT STOP THEM
FROM REACHING THEIR
FULLEST POTENTIAL

Why does this inscription make so little sense, why did anyone make a gorilla as the statue of liberty, and why are the two connected? This was at the Rochester Psychiatric Hospital, which has an abandoned 19-story building, and the eeriest row of identical abandoned homes I've ever seen.