Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
What about places like Blaine/Spring Lake Park/Mound View/Circle Pines?
Commute to work not withstanding as that's not a heavy sticking point and is one of the more negotiable aspects due to another personal reason.
Any of these would be fine, IMO. Blaine probably has the relatively better options for shopping and may trend slightly more upscale in demographics.
Mounds View probably the better schools of the bunch.
Circle Pines will be more rural.
Have you considered Fridley? I haven't shopped price of housing but might be able to find in your range. You'd also be the closest to Uptown area. Not all of Fridley is perfectly safe, but much of it is...(and "unsafe" in Fridley is more likely nuisance or quality of life crimes than violent crimes).
My mom and stepdad live there and have for a while. In terms of safety, I don't think there is anything wrong with it. The reputation, IMO, comes because of a somewhat blue collar reputation (and some might derisively say "redneck").
Do we need to worry about any racism or intolerance if living in Coon Rapids? The reason I ask is first she's heard some horror stories from years past about it and we also know a family who had racial graffiti sprayed painted on their home. I'm in the club of it can happen anywhere and some people are idiots regardless of where you go.
Do we need to worry about any racism or intolerance if living in Coon Rapids? The reason I ask is first she's heard some horror stories from years past about it and we also know a family who had racial graffiti sprayed painted on their home. I'm in the club of it can happen anywhere and some people are idiots regardless of where you go.
If there were such a thing as a racist Twin Cities suburb, Coon Rapids would have to be one of them. I've heard some of the same stories you have! I think it's one of the few suburbs in the metro that was historically WASP and old generation American, and is now slowly beginning to diversify, primarily lead by the African American populace. Other cities that are black and white only tend to have a slightly different demographic and cultural aspect, or are diversifying in a wider variety of ways. I'm totally making this up, but it's just my guess as to why Coon Rapids may be an outlier in this respect.
Yeah, I heard Fridley is sort of going downhill crime-wise and school-wise....is there any truth to that?
To be honest, it's now been a number of years since I lived there. When I did, it was in a neighborhood of all single-family homes between Medtronic and Fridley HS. That said, it was pretty quiet and I don't remember any crime problems. My guess is it will depend on exactly where. If you are more in commerical areas or apartments, you might have relatively more troubles. If you are in a quiet culdesac area, not likely as much. However, that is just my guess.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lpcxa0
Do we need to worry about any racism or intolerance if living in Coon Rapids? The reason I ask is first she's heard some horror stories from years past about it and we also know a family who had racial graffiti sprayed painted on their home. I'm in the club of it can happen anywhere and some people are idiots regardless of where you go.
CR might be slightly more likely, but I don't think I've heard any rash of incidents. If I remember correct, I think you mentioned white/Asian mix (sorry, don't have the original post up)? If correct, you will probably attract less attention than if a black/white mix (please don't all judge, I think I'm just speaking a truth - regardless of if I agree with the mentality or not...which I don't).
You will probably feel a bit of a "novelty" in the area and I'm not sure there will be many other Asians in the area. Also, other than highly "Midwesternized" and homogenized "Chinese" restaurants that might be in the area, I would not expect much in the way of Asian culture or influence.
Any of these would be fine, IMO. Blaine probably has the relatively better options for shopping and may trend slightly more upscale in demographics.
Mounds View probably the better schools of the bunch.
Circle Pines will be more rural.
Have you considered Fridley? I haven't shopped price of housing but might be able to find in your range. You'd also be the closest to Uptown area. Not all of Fridley is perfectly safe, but much of it is...(and "unsafe" in Fridley is more likely nuisance or quality of life crimes than violent crimes).
Mounds View is an older community with an economically diverse population. They draw from North Oaks ($$$$$$$) and their families are motivated. Hence, the children are high performers. It's not like the teachers are "better". But there are groups of students inside of that district that don't care.
That said, if your kid is in the highest math and reading group in Coon Rapids they will be shinning while the lowest reading groups in the same school will be struggling. Therefore, the schools that are rated "average" simply have classes and groups of kids that don't care as much. Schools that are rated "better" or "excellent" simply have a larger subset of competitive families that mandate performance out of their children. Like it or not, it does correlate to parents income. Once a lot more kids want to coast than work hard, you get into a situation where the entire expectations are lowered and I would stay away from those schools. I'm not so sure Coon Rapids has arrived at that point. Other MN communities have.
IMHO, people that focus on school rankings are missing the bigger picture. The family culture is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more important than a stupid school rating. It amazes me that people are actually moving a few miles here or there to get into a "better" rated school. They fail to realize that they as parents control the family culture. An average MN school or even an "incredible" MN school won't decide their brain power and work ethic.
I'm speaking from experience. My DD just got accepted to a couple dental schools (5000 apply, 100 get in) and my DS got a full ride to a top 10 University (14,000 apply, 1000 get in). We lived in Andover but were in the Anoka boundaries. If you look at the school rating that my kids went to, they were very "average". But there was a subset that pushed hard because of the family culture. I was delighted with nearly all of the teachers as well. I could have bought a house in Edina but I wanted to be close to my lake home so I went to the northern burbs. If my kids went to Edina schools, they would have gotten a similar education as compared to Anoka. They simply would have been more motivated students because of the demographics. Our family culture picked our fate; not the schools.
Sorry to rant and it wasn't aimed towards you.
Last edited by MN-Born-n-Raised; 01-08-2013 at 04:27 AM..
Do we need to worry about any racism or intolerance if living in Coon Rapids? The reason I ask is first she's heard some horror stories from years past about it and we also know a family who had racial graffiti sprayed painted on their home. I'm in the club of it can happen anywhere and some people are idiots regardless of where you go.
I don't think Coon Rapids would present any more problems on this front than most parts of the metro.
If you are worried about this my suggestion would be to look toward an area of Blaine with houses that are from the 80's or newer. Many of those areas will have greater than 10% of the population Asian (a quarter of all blocks in Blaine do). If you go to stores along Highway 65/Central you will generally see people of multiple races and hear multiple languages.
Mounds View is an older community with an economically diverse population. They draw from North Oaks ($$$$$$$) and their families are motivated. Hence, the children are high performers. It's not like the teachers are "better". But there are groups of students inside of that district that don't care.
That said, if your kid is in the highest math and reading group in Coon Rapids they will be shinning while the lowest reading groups in the same school will be struggling. Therefore, the schools that are rated "average" simply have classes and groups of kids that don't care as much. Schools that are rated "better" or "excellent" simply have a larger subset of competitive families that mandate performance out of their children. Like it or not, it does correlate to parents income. Once a lot more kids want to coast than work hard, you get into a situation where the entire expectations are lowered and I would stay away from those schools. I'm not so sure Coon Rapids has arrived at that point. Other MN communities have.
IMHO, people that focus on school rankings are missing the bigger picture. The family culture is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more important than a stupid school rating. It amazes me that people are actually moving a few miles here or there to get into a "better" rated school. They fail to realize that they as parents control the family culture. An average MN school or even an "incredible" MN school won't decide their brain power and work ethic.
I'm speaking from experience. My DD just got accepted to a couple dental schools (5000 apply, 100 get in) and my DS got a full ride to a top 10 University (14,000 apply, 1000 get in). We lived in Andover but were in the Anoka boundaries. If you look at the school rating that my kids went to, they were very "average". But there was a subset that pushed hard because of the family culture. I was delighted with nearly all of the teachers as well. I could have bought a house in Edina but I wanted to be close to my lake home so I went to the northern burbs. If my kids went to Edina schools, they would have gotten a similar education as compared to Anoka. They simply would have been more motivated students because of the demographics. Our family culture picked our fate; not the schools.
Sorry to rant and it wasn't aimed towards you.
To a point this is true but when you are faced with a school where less than half the kids graduate, it's hard to go against peer pressure. Study after study has proven that for high school students, what their peers think is far more important then what their parents say. The difference between Anoka schools and Mounds View schools are minimal and not consequential. I doubt your children would have had the same experience or have gotten the same education had they gone to Minneapolis North or any number of very low performing inner city schools. When a teacher has to spend extra time getting other kids caught up, the better students suffer quite a bit. Lack of exposure to topics because of this, means lower test scores and significantly lower chances of getting into top colleges. That is the beauty of the MN schools, you do have a lot of choices. Ask on any other major city forum here and you will get a handful of districts to consider and warned to stay away from the rest. Here it is just the opposite. MN students recently were shown to outclass the WORLD in math and science, 2nd in science, 6th in Math. MA students were 5th in math and 8th in science--the only other state to have any top 10 rankings
I don't think Coon Rapids would present any more problems on this front than most parts of the metro.
If you are worried about this my suggestion would be to look toward an area of Blaine with houses that are from the 80's or newer. Many of those areas will have greater than 10% of the population Asian (a quarter of all blocks in Blaine do). If you go to stores along Highway 65/Central you will generally see people of multiple races and hear multiple languages.
For reference the number of populated census blocks with greater than 10% Asian in each area mentioned:
Anoka: 13 out of 297 (4.4%)
Blaine: 209 out of 764 (27.4%)
Circle Pines: 4 out of 49 (8.2%)
Coon Rapids: 95 out of 779 (12.2%)
Fridley: 77 out of 416 (18.5%)
Mounds View: 36 out of 144 (25%)
Spring Lake Park: 20 out of 110 (18.2%)
For comparison purposes:
Minneapolis: 886 out of 4613 (19.2%)
St. Louis Park: 72 out of 609 (11.8%)
Bloomington: 269 out of 1050 (25.6%)
To be honest, it's now been a number of years since I lived there. When I did, it was in a neighborhood of all single-family homes between Medtronic and Fridley HS. That said, it was pretty quiet and I don't remember any crime problems. My guess is it will depend on exactly where. If you are more in commerical areas or apartments, you might have relatively more troubles. If you are in a quiet culdesac area, not likely as much. However, that is just my guess.
CR might be slightly more likely, but I don't think I've heard any rash of incidents. If I remember correct, I think you mentioned white/Asian mix (sorry, don't have the original post up)? If correct, you will probably attract less attention than if a black/white mix (please don't all judge, I think I'm just speaking a truth - regardless of if I agree with the mentality or not...which I don't).
You will probably feel a bit of a "novelty" in the area and I'm not sure there will be many other Asians in the area. Also, other than highly "Midwesternized" and homogenized "Chinese" restaurants that might be in the area, I would not expect much in the way of Asian culture or influence.
There are sub-sections that look to be roughly 8%-10% for some Census tracts...
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
