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quality of life
nightlife
scenery
daytime activities/events
shopping/entertainment venues
overall vibe of city and people
How about describing what these qualities mean to you? Without that, we'll just be voting our preferences, which might be completely different from yours.
For example, if you like a traditional and more eastern vibe, you might prefer Minnesota. But if we like modern, trendy, young, and heavily left, we'd probably vote for Portland. Since we are answering your request, it should be about you, not us. What about quality of life? A nice hangout to loiter around, or a quality spot where you can use your mind? Daytime activities: hanging around getting buzzed, or going to a museum, for example. We don't know anything about you and your preferences.
You didn't list it, but how about weather? That's often important to people. There's a huge difference in weather between the two places. Culture and history are vastly different.
quality of life - Minneapolis
nightlife - depends on what one is looking for
scenery - Portland
daytime activities/events - Minneapolis
shopping/entertainment venues - Minneapolis
overall vibe of city and people - Minneapolis by far
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thoreau424
For example, if you like a traditional and more eastern vibe, you might prefer Minnesota. But if we like modern, trendy, young, and heavily left, we'd probably vote for Portland.
You didn't list it, but how about weather? That's often important to people. There's a huge difference in weather between the two places. Culture and history are vastly different.
According to 2016 Census estimates, the median age in Minneapolis is 32.0 and Portland it's 36.7. As far as being trendy and heavily left is concerned Minneapolis definitely holds its own against Portland. Minneapolis has been on the national map in regards to pop / sub culture longer than Portland has. Regarding weather, I'll take the cold of January and February over the limited sun and constant drizzle that Portland experiences.
QOL: Portland
Nightlife: even
Scenery: Portland by far
Daytime Activities/Events: depends on what you're into, but I prefer Portland
Shopping/Entertainment: Minneapolis has all major sports and better shopping as well
Vibe of City and People: even, people seem friendly in both places based on what I see from this forum. They also seem like very nice places to live.
Unfortunately, Minneapolis is too cold for 4-6 months of the year for me, so I vote Portland.
quality of life:
nightlife
scenery
daytime activities/events
shopping/entertainment venues
overall vibe of city and people
Quality of Life: Tie I'd say.
To most Americans, generally "quality of life" only refers to the place where they can generate the highest possible income for themselves and find the dirt cheapest possible housing costs to go with that. That appears to literally be how Americans on this forum treat the "quality of life" factor on boards like this and others like SSP.
That's cool and all, I guess, but in the rest of the world and especially here in Europe, "quality of life" generally refers to a place's ability to offer basic and essential services and programs, a higher degree of civic engagement by the residential population towards the localized political/administrative structure, foster a diligent educational system for both primary school and higher institutions of learning, political leaders show a great deal of transparency and forward thinking, transport is a constantly addressed issue, low crime rates and not just because a city has "reduced its crime than compared to in the past" but primarily because crime becomes an intolerable facet to every day life (i.e. see Singapore or the Nordic Nations), and high productivity levels and all the things that come with it (i.e. people work out, stay fit, read, do things to stimulate their brains both individually and culturally, interact, explore other cultures, so on).
So I'd say a tie. Both are low crime cities, for American standards have "basic and essential services" up to the standard you'd expect for American cities of their size, and generally both foster a localized culture where people want to work hard and be productive members of society (by American standards at least). These are all commendable traits and definitely add on to the respective regions' quality of life and standard of living expectations.
Nightlife: I haven't been to Minneapolis to know how it compares but Portland's last call extends past 2 A.M. on certain days of the week and when I was there that was an advantageous trait. Couple that in with it being a good drinking town and generally walkable, so clusters of bars and establishments within a vicinity of one another and it was a pretty solid experience.
I don't know about Minneapolis, given I've never been.
Scenery: Portland wins here but not by significant margins. The Portland area has mountain ranges all around it, heck, even near downtown you have steep hills and stuff. It's a very green area, which makes sense, the Pacific Northwest is as green a region as they come and the ocean is like 80-85 miles away from Portland. Minneapolis is nicely forested, has hills and inclines, and a swarm of lakes. Nothing spectacular that people from around the world should travel to experience when it comes to scenery, but for those that live in the area, it gives them something to work with and generally looks good. I would go with Portland though.
Daytime activities/events: Can't answer that since I haven't been to Minneapolis but Portland is a pretty active city. Portland has one of the only 2-4 downtowns in all of America that I've been to that feels like a neighborhood first and a commercial district for offices and employment centers second. That's pretty awesome.
Shopping/entertainment venues: I would imagine they are pretty on par with shopping given that both areas have around the same general range of people. However, Minneapolis probably wins entertainment given that sports is an entertainment mechanism and Minneapolis has all 5 major professional sports leagues now with NBA, NHL, NFL, MLS, and MLB. In contrast Portland only has NBA and MLS, which isn't bad by any means because for me all I care for are the NBA, MLB, and MLS as it is but objectively less is still less no matter how you cut it.
Overall vibe of the city/people: I love the vibe in Portland and love the culture there. I haven't been to Minneapolis to know what it is like but Minneapolis is on my bucket list of places to see in the United States, one of the rare few places that I still need to see and/or experience. I have a good impression with Minneapolis, I am always generally impressed with places that are well run, have legit qualities worth bragging about (see my take on quality of life earlier in the post for examples), have a good degree of cosmopolitanism to them for their sizes, and have high productivity across the board both economically but also culturally. We'll see, when I get around to seeing Minneapolis, we'll see how much of what I thought is real and how much an over-expectation.
quality of life: Minneapolis
nightlife: Minneapolis
scenery: Portland
daytime activities/events: Minneapolis
shopping/entertainment venues: Minneapolis
overall vibe of city and people: Minneapolis
Minneapolis has more diversity, and the people are less polarized. I also like the business friendly environment and cultural attractions.
Pretty much this....Portland does have great though, which is a plus for me. I kinda think that Minneapolis, Denver, Portland all have similar feel to them with difference here and there.
I agree with this EXCEPT I think nightlife is solidly better in Portland (later last call, higher density of bars, better beer culture, etc.)
Minneapolis has more upscale offerings, and a better music scene in my opinion. I also like that the people are less pretentious. Portland probably offers more for the 18-25 crowd, though. I voted Portland for scenery, but Minn is also a very healthy city for recreation.
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