Depends on your priorities.The way Rochester is organized, you'll be much further away from a lot of city life or have to deal with traffic and parking to go to the fest in a town. The small towns have a festival or two, and most have other activities happening as well in their bars and rec halls. But, the city has something like 70 parades and different festivals throughout the year as well as scores of city wide advents like First Friday the monthly small business promotion day.If you value those sorts of things and want to be where the action is, live downtown. The worst day of traffic here is better than the best commute I ever had in DC, Philly, or NYC. And all the resources are here. The super wealthy buying up all the new condos and gentrifying center city are making sure of that.If youu2019d rather NOT have to deal with the humanity, live in a suburb or rural village. There are some incredible towns like Fairport and Honeoye Falls that are lovely, and barely 20 minutes from most of downtown.The fact that this is even a thinking point for you, makes me want to suggest neigh orhoods like the South Wedge, 19th Ward, and Lock 66 or Park Ave neighborhoods. They have the feel of more of a sizeable town with the access of a city.