About Rochester Love Notes
Rochester is a girl who doesn't realize she's hot. This web site is a collection of love notes and reflections that highlight her strange allure. They are written by her admirers, those who openly adore her and some who are secretly crushing on her from afar. We invite you to share your stories with us. We hope that this collection of notes will help us all become a little more comfortable with and a little more open about how much we love our city. And that, as new stories are posted, we will realize that in spite of her imperfections, Rochester is worthy of our deep admiration.

Submission Guidelines
We welcome our fellow admirers to submit their love notes to us at lovenotesrochester (at) gmail.com. Notes should be written to the City of Rochester -- she’s a girl. Make it short and sweet by keeping it under 500 words and 3 photos or fewer. Tell us a little bit about yourself -- your name, your current home, how long you've lived (or used to live) in Rochester and your profession should do. Or if you prefer, your love note can be anonymous (who doesn't want a secret admirer?). Our editorial team reserves the right to remove inappropriate content and correct grammatical and formatting issues.

The content of this site is a compilation of many authors thus the views expressed in individual notes do not reflect the views of other note writers. Submitting your note gives us the permission to share it elsewhere.

Ana Liss, Laura Fox and Tanya Zwahlen are three like-minded Rochestarians trying to improve the discussion about Rochester by showing her a little love.

Ana Liss was born in the South Wedge and grew up in Pittsford. She fell in love with Rochester as a kid, frequenting the Public Market, Seneca Park Zoo, and the Strong Museum with her family; and nabbing more than her fair share of chocolate chip cookies out of the free cookie bin at Wegmans during the '90s. Today, she's helping to build a brighter future for all of Upstate as an Empire State Fellow working in the New York State Executive Chamber on Governor Andrew Cuomo's economic development team. Previously, she worked in business development and policy analysis at the Greater Rochester Enterprise and the Center for Governmental Research; and was President of the Monroe County Young Democrats. Before that, she was the morning news anchor at WETM 18 News in Elmira, and did a stint as a reporter for our own 13 WHAM News. She is a staunch defender of the Flour City, possessing a war chest of trivia knowledge about it that sometimes comes in handy. Try her.

Laura Fox is an urban planner working for Bergmann Associates as a full-fledged Rochester resident after ten years of convincing her family that she'd never return. After a four-year love affair with Philly, she backpacked around the world for over a year, became a yoga instructor, worked on a bunch of farms in places difficult to find on a map and earned her Master's in Boston when the siren's call from Rochester became too loud to ignore. Her love for Rochester is wrapped up in her love for and from her family, boyfriend and friends. As an adult now living and working in Rochester she is inspired by the possibility of progress and sense of optimism alive in the city and her supporters. She spends her free time dreaming up ways to grow food in the city, running in the woods and being slowly converted into a carnivore by the culinary skills of her boyfriend Marty of Marty's Meats.   

Tanya is a city planner who relocated to Rochester from Boston via Ithaca in 2003. She tried not to love Rochester, but gave in around 2005. In 2007, she founded a city planning consultancy called Highland Planning, which specializes in commercial district revitalization and public outreach. In 2012, Tanya and her friend Jason Haremza started Young Lion, a company that creates works of art that celebrate Rochester as a place of opportunity and culture. She lives in the Highland Park neighborhood with her husband (Christian), their two children (Claire and Hartley), four chickens (Princess, Featherball, Deer Boss and Freckles), and cat (Ginger).