Grand Rapids to UMD,, crazy far? (Duluth, Plymouth: ski resort, rentals, how much)

[GoWild]

I desire to relocate to Grand Rapids MN, and go to College full time at UMD for secondary teacher. I am sure there are some people that do that commute daily, but is that really to far for a student. I would get a little car with better fuel mileage for sure. I desire to raise the family in the GR area. I hear nothing but great things about GR and would like to retire their although never having been their though. UMD area mostly the same but not as good. I hear about staying away from certain areas, and gangs, and higher (normal) cost of housing in the area. I hear about staying away from Cloguet as well,, Gangs?,, in Cloguet,, hmmm. The plus i see for the UMD area is that its closer to DH skiing areas and the boundary water areas, as well as vast public hunting areas(?).

Grand Rapids I hear is somewhat of a Minnesotan version of "Mayberry" i guess. Not too small, but big enough to have all that is necessary, and if needed, I suppose just travel to UMD or to the Mpls/Stpl area.

I was raised in the Wayzata/Plymouth area and have not lived their since HS almost 20 years ago. That type of life i would dig. We did not go to the cities that often anyway. Sure every now and then, for the occasional baseball game (and that was it), more so during HS around the Lake of the Isles, Calhoun, and that "other" lake. "The loop", U know. So to me, the Cities was more of a backdrop for a daily look in the direction, but not so necessary for me,, except for the vast education oppurtinities. 99% of what I needed was not in the city. My stomping grounds revolved around ice skating rinks, Movie theatres, Ridgedale, Target, the Library, occasional trips to the junkyard, and Target,, and skiing, but that was out of town. Fishing, and swimming during the summer, and Hockey and skiing during the winter, was my life, besides school. All these things were withing bycicle distance which pretty much dictated my area of the world for me,,, 3 mile radius max. I just didnt care to ride my bike farther than that, unless being chased of course,, lol.

Bemidji, and UMD offer what I need in College.

[fromupthere]

It's probably a minimum of an hour and a half one way to go from Grand Rapids to UMD.

[acrylic]

Do NOT do that commute. I'd say the smartest thing is, if you wanted to live farther away from Duluth is live in Cloquet. But there's a lot of little towns in between - Esko, Proctor, Hermantown, etc. That would drive you nuts, every single day, that drive. Think of it this way - with that 3 hours roundtrip driving you'd be doing every day, how much homework could you have done? And the rest of the time to spend doing what you love? I'd say just live in Duluth. Think about the winter time when there are hazardous driving conditions. Wouldn't you rather live real close to school, instead of super far? Anyways, my two cents. I just highly recommend not living in GR and going to school in Duluth. I wouldn't do it, and no one I know would do it.

[newcastle]

The commute time would be way too long. There are no gangs in CLoquet outside the stupid high school students who think they are in a gang. Ridiculous. There are bad areas of Duluth but nothing comparative to a really large city. There are areas I would not move to, but there are not any areas I feel unsafe walking around.

Every semseter you will have to work in a school environment for at least 4-5 hours a week plus regular class work. If you need ot be in a school in Duluth at 8:00 a.m. How are you going to do it while living in GR?

[fishingprof]

grand rapids to duluth is about 70 miles i made the trip several times this last fall.

[jasper1372]

I grew up in Grand Rapids and went to college at UMD in Duluth. I moved to Duluth for 4 years rather than commute. To me anyway that would be way to far to commute twice a day. And as someone else mentioned you have to potentially deal with slippery roads for at least half the school year.

That being said (I don't live in Duluth anymore), I can see why you'd rather live in Grand Rapids rather than Duluth. Truth be told (my opinion anyway) Duluth is a dumpy old gray town that is slowly falling apart...kind of like suicide by the installment plan. The weather sucks and there is nothing to do entertainment wise other than bars or attending a movie at a theatre.

There are other communities around Duluth that are decent in one way or another. Find a place in Hermantown or if you want to drive a few miles check out Cloquet. Not that you're going to have much more to do entertainment in this communities....but at least they aren't so dumpy.

[slamont61]

In my opinon, the GR area would be GREAT for raising a family. A commute from there of any distance is crazy. The weather in the winter is unpredictable at best and could put your education at risk if keeping a schedule is important.

Why not find a smaller town that is within striking distance to the School you wish to attend and stay there through Graduation.

GR is twice the size of my town. We ARE mayberry in Minnesota, and that is a good thing, really. I wouldn't wish to leave this area ever except to travel. Small town Minnesota is the perfect heaven on earth, so long as you don't mind the cold of winter. None of us do although we all complain about it in every day conversation. We all just deal with it. In the summer it's so beautiful around the area with all the Lakes and deep woods. Nothing can come close to the quiet solitude of a remote cabin in any season.

You are on the right path, but need to find a different route to your final destination.

[GoWild]

Thank you to all that posted a reply on here. You were very helpfull. I am convinced with the bottom line answers to my traveling concerns, and will more than likely settle closer to the UMD area. I will now focus my research to neighborhoods in the area that the family would most appreciate. I desire for the kids to be able to walk or ride their bikes to where-ever they need to safely, for their own entertainment like friends, school, park, or trails nearby as me and and my buddies (gang size often times,, lol), were able to ALL over the Wyazata area. There were sidewalks everywhere. As I look at the Google Satelite map of the Duluth area, i just NEVER realized Duluth was so dense with neighborhoods. I have read that anything East of 19th St. was ok. Therefore I am "blindly" interested in the areas North and East of the UMD campus as it appears on the map. I imagine their should be plenty of available House Rentals in the area. A year on the ground and I'm sure we will get a solid idea of where to reside. We just do not want to "land" immediately into a bad area and have to "ride-out" a year, till the lease is up.

Thx again

[aluminumpork]

You won't encounter any "bad" areas east of 21st East. Woodland, Lakeside, Congdon are all east of 21st and are very safe, and definitely not "dumpy". Congdon has many large, expensive homes and mansions, whereas Woodland has a combination of both normal sized homes and larger homes. Lakeside is well known as a family oriented neighborhood. You'll also find smaller, less expensive homes there. If you want to be within walking distance of UMD, then you'll want a place in Woodland, and no worries, there are no bad areas in Woodland.

Duluth has plenty of inner-city trails (including the boardwalk/lakewalk that is now all the way to 36th Ave East and will be expanded all the way to the edge of East Duluth) and parks and is extremely wooded city for how dense it is.

[nerfer]

I went to UMD and had some friends who commuted maybe 20 miles a day at max, and they complained about that. To move to Grand Rapids for the purpose of commuting to Duluth is insane. I used to drive back home from UMD every 3 weeks and it was about two hours to Deer River and another hour home if conditions were good, which gives at least 1.5 hours from UMD to G.R. It's always slow going thru G.R. no matter when you drive that. There's more 4 lane now (mostly west of G.R. which doesn't do you much good), but it's still a mind-numbing drive (especially the tamarack swamps around Floodwood, basically 53 to Wawina).

There's plenty of safe and affordable housing near or in Duluth. Then you might even be able to bike to campus and be healthy instead of sending all that gas money over to Al Qaeda and sponsor more terrorists or another ski resort in the desert. You really need a better plan or better information because this one just doesn't compute. (I'm trying to be tactful, but I don't think it's working...sorry).