Indianapolis vs Minneapolis (Fishers, Carmel, Hope: rental, insurance, mover)

[Sugacoles]

Can anyone tell me how living in Indianapolis compares to living in Minneapolis? Cost of living, crime, bus transportation, etc.

[Toxic Toast]

I have only been to Minneapolis once, to visit family. They are building light rail in Minneapolis, right? Indy is moving that direction, but nothing yet. I would imagine that our bus system is much, much worse than Minneapolis.

[chalcedony]

Cost of living is a fair part cheaper in Indianapolis, but home values appreciate sloooowly in Indy. Rental costs are low in Indy, but homes are so cheap that many people find it costs about the same for a mortgage as for a rental.

Compared to Minneapolis, public transport in Indy is practically non-existent. They're working on it, but have a long way to go. No light rail here, and a pretty mediocre bus system. The people mover is slightly less effective than the one in Detroit, except it doesn't really count because it is privately operated (though available to the public).

Crime in the two cities is tougher to compare. By most metrics, Minneapolis is an incredibly safe city, but then it has huge enclaves of affluence that are almost completely homogeneous. Indianapolis' crime isn't as bad as many cities but is definitely not low. Indianapolis is probably a bit more socioeconomically mixed on a block-by-block level, which means crime is a bit more distributed across the city. The impression I get of Minneapolis is that most of the city is quite safe but crime in some of the lower-income minority neighborhoods (many of which are Somali or Hmong) is particularly pronounced, and the higher cost of living makes upward mobility a bit more difficult.

[wh15395]

Originally Posted by chalcedony

Compared to Minneapolis, public transport in Indy is practically non-existent. They're working on it, but have a long way to go. No light rail here, and a pretty mediocre bus system. The people mover is slightly less effective than the one in Detroit, except it doesn't really count because it is privately operated (though available to the public).

This is sad, but true. In fact saying that our bus system is mediocre is probably a compliment. Hopefully the Indy Connect plan passes and we can have trains and buses throughout the city and the suburbs.

[domergurl]

Originally Posted by wh15395

This is sad, but true. In fact saying that our bus system is mediocre is probably a compliment. Hopefully the Indy Connect plan passes and we can have trains and buses throughout the city and the suburbs.

I'm going to say it will never happen. At the most, there may be improved bus transit, but trains? Nope ... never.

[Toxic Toast]

Originally Posted by domergurl

I'm going to say it will never happen. At the most, there may be improved bus transit, but trains? Nope ... never.

There is no doubt in my mind we will at the very least see the Nickplate line.

[wh15395]

Originally Posted by Toxic Toast

There is no doubt in my mind we will at the very least see the Nickplate line.

That's what my opinion is too. Now how soon it will happen, I don't know. It would at least be nice to have more express bus routes than Carmel and Fishers and to make them run all day. It would also be good to have routes that go between places instead of everything going downtown.

[urbanologist]

Historically, Indianapolis once had one of the most extensive street car systems in the nation so it wouldn't be anything new to the city to bring back rail. Since a lot of cities are building them you never know. The city has actually been progressive in a lot of ways especially with a very active downtown, kick butt retractable dome stadium, and a state of the art 1 billion dollar airport terminal that some cities would kill for right now.

Downtown wise Minneapolis has Nicollete Mall and Indianapolis has Circle Centre Mall that attracts a lot of people which I find interesting when it comes to shopping but the "Mall of America" in the twins is still king of all malls in this country. In conclusion, both cities do very well with their downtowns. I like both cities but it depends on what you actually want from them. Indy is by no means completely dead in the water since it has a very bright future ahead to look forward to with all these new projects. I hope the Colts play when the city hosts the superbowl.

[Ravekid]

Originally Posted by domergurl

I'm going to say it will never happen. At the most, there may be improved bus transit, but trains? Nope ... never.

It won't happen, because people like me are sick and tired of having other people take more and more of our money year after year.

To the OP: While Indy might be cheaper now, there are plenty of organizations and political "leaders" who continue to press for the need of more and more taxation. Our city loves to bailout billionaires, and other smaller "private" entities that are really pubicly funded entities. Indy is well known for pay-to-play politics. A lot of our smaller organizations that promote the city, run certain facitilies, etc. are publicly funded, yet they dole out private business sized wages to the upper folks. There is no end in sight to this madness. Currently, folks who are for fair and common sense government are being attacked at all fronts:

-Rapid transit in this city sucks, but that is because all the poor people who should be riding the bus don't. They constantly drive on suspended licenses and/or without insurance. The punishments for doing so are repeated slaps on the wrist. It is a horrible circle: The bus system doesn't get fairs they normally get in most metro areas, so they cut services. Poor people in those areas then start taking the risk of driving w/o a license or insurance, instead of walking another five blocks to catch another bus, which then causes even more lost revenue. There is currently a money grab attempt which would expand mass transit. A few folks will get ultra wealthy, while the rest of us actually end up with a loss. It likely won't happen, because it relies on counties which get almost nothing to subsidized fancy trains that will serve other counties. I plan on getting active on this and helping destroy it.

-Billionaire bailouts..there is one of those public entities that pays private wages called the CIB, or Capital Improvement Board. They manage the sports facilities in the city, along with some other properties. They are broke, and the Indy elected "leaders" want to take money from as many people as they can so this organization can continue to give breaks to billionaire pro-sport team owners, in addition to being a place where friends and family can land a job that pays outragous wages.

-K-12 in this area is drunk on keeping up with the Jones' One school builds a swimming pool, every other school has to have one. One school builds a million dollar football field, the school next door wants a $1.2M field. Thankfully our governor not only helped cap our property taxes, but he finally forced K-12 to get smart about spending.

There are other issues than just the above. Thankfully we have some blogs that do a good job in exposing this BS, but it doesn't seem to matter. The elites do what they want in this town, and the people will eventually pay dearly for it. I never thought I would move away, but given where taxes, "user fees", etc. are heading, I think it makes more sense to avoid large metro areas the size of Indy (or thereabouts). The elites in Indy want to act like Indy is big time, it isn't. Me and my wife do OK, because we don't have kids. We are the kind of people folks want to have kids, but I seriously don't know how folks here do it. I know many of them live paycheck to paycheck, as it is costly to live in a nicer suburban area with good schools, with a decent car, etc.. You can live comfortably here on $35K, but you will have to live frugal. No spending thousands on a vacation every year, no eating out constantly, taking your lunch to work, etc.. If you can land a $60K+/year job as a single person, you can live somewhat like a king, but eventually you will end up paying, as this city and state is broke, just not as broke as others right now.

[urbanologist]

Originally Posted by Ravekid

-Rapid transit in this city sucks, but that is because all the poor people who should be riding the bus don't. They constantly drive on suspended licenses and/or without insurance. The punishments for doing so are repeated slaps on the wrist. It is a horrible circle: The bus system doesn't get fairs they normally get in most metro areas, so they cut services. Poor people in those areas then start taking the risk of driving w/o a license or insurance, instead of walking another five blocks to catch another bus, which then causes even more lost revenue. There is currently a money grab attempt which would expand mass transit. A few folks will get ultra wealthy, while the rest of us actually end up with a loss. It likely won't happen, because it relies on counties which get almost nothing to subsidized fancy trains that will serve other counties. I plan on getting active on this and helping destroy it.

I'm all for opening a rail line in the metro. I use to go to the connections meetings and I can tell for sure they will eventually build a starter line in within this next decade according to the present plan. The current problem is that they already added a maximum number of lanes allowed around a good portion 465 which is between 8-12. Unlike some cities we do not have enough interstate highways running within the 465 circle (ie I-69). Once 465 becomes completely maxed out there can be no more expansion due to the many developed areas existing around the corridor. They can not annex that much land because it would become too cost prohibitive to do so. I'm very sure you do not want to foot that kind of bill as a tax payer. Having rail and more buses is actually cheaper compared to highway infrastructure costing billions more. The federal highway funding has been cut for a lot states and cities around the country forcing them to look for other options which is why you are seeing more rail systems popping up everywhere these days. There's a lot of people who shouldn't be driving illegally and many who do not have cars. When the price of fuel does go back up who in the hell wants to pay 4-5 dollars a gallon again...not me. Hybrids are too expensive so I will drive less to save money. Rich people have cars most poor people do not.