Moving from Atlanta to Minnesota (Minneapolis, Bloomington: loans, houses, private schools)

[atl.onmove]

Hi everyone, I am looking to relocate from Atlanta to a medium sized city, with good schools(elementary) and an active social atmosphere. I am a single mom who would eventually like to start a business there. I would rather be on the outskirts and have access to the city than live in the hustle and bustle of it. Since FORBS has rated the twin city as #1 best place to live I would like to hear from its own residents......I have been reading the threads on here, but can anyone compare Atlanta to Minnesota.

[AQUEMINI331]

Minnesota's a little colder than Atlanta.

[golfgal]

Our schools are tops in the nation so that will take care of that for you. Yes, we are colder in the winter but that also keeps out things like termites, cockroaches and snakes that can kill you.

What type of business are you looking to start? There are a lot of small business loans and opportunities, especially for women, in MN.

[Minnehahapolitan]

Does out of town mean a suburban area, or a rural town or city that is still within reasonable drive-time to The Cities?

[atl.onmove]

I am looking to live on the outskirts of the city the suburbs.

[sugarbeet]

You will probably find the cost of living higher here, depending on where you choose to live. By cost of living I mean the type of home you can get for your money, taxes, quite possibly groceries and gas as well, depending on a number of factors. However, I believe the cost is worth it to live in progressive state with excellent services.

[Bagira]

Originally Posted by sugarbeet

You will probably find the cost of living higher here, depending on where you choose to live. By cost of living I mean the type of home you can get for your money, taxes, quite possibly groceries and gas as well, depending on a number of factors. However, I believe the cost is worth it to live in progressive state with excellent services.

Nope groceries are wicked cheap in the TC area taxes are on the bottom half of the US. Stop saying TAXES are high and its so spendy in MN its not at all.

[golfgal]

There is a whole host of places you could live in the Twin Cities area--which is REALLY a nice thing about Minnesota. Depending on what line of work you are in and what type of business you want to start you can probably have your pick of suburbs. Stillwater and Northfield are good suburbs for small businesses usually.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by atl.onmove

Hi everyone, I am looking to relocate from Atlanta to a medium sized city, with good schools(elementary) and an active social atmosphere. I am a single mom who would eventually like to start a business there. I would rather be on the outskirts and have access to the city than live in the hustle and bustle of it. Since FORBS has rated the twin city as #1 best place to live I would like to hear from its own residents......I have been reading the threads on here, but can anyone compare Atlanta to Minnesota.

Sure. I grew up in Minnetonka and lived in Bloomington and Eden Prairie (all suburbs of Minneapolis) for just about 40 years before moving down to Atlanta three years ago.

Atlanta and the Twin Cities are similar in terms of sprawl (Twin Cities 6,364.12 total sq mi., Atlanta metro 8,376 sq. mi.), but the Twin Cities have two core cities which together are larger than Atlanta, and the road system in the Twin Cities seems to make a lot more sense to me (there are a lot more major parallel E/W and N/S routes in the Twin Cities, while Atlanta seems to have a somewhat more random road layout).

Schools are very good in general in the Twin Cities, at least in the suburbs (can't speak for inner city schools), while Atlanta is spottier (some very good public schools, many mediocre schools), and I think weathy people are a lot more likely to send their kids to private schools in the Atlanta metro.

The Atlanta metro is the home of a major airline (Delta) as well as a hub, and it houses the headquarters of a number of large/influential companies including Coca Cola, Home Depot, UPS, and Georgia-Pacific.

The Twin Cities are the home of a major airline (Northwest) as well as a hub, and they house the headquarters of a number of large/influential companies including 3M, Best Buy, Target, and General Mills.

Both Atlanta and Minneapolis are considered Gamma World Cities. The Atlanta metro is roughly 5.1 million people, and the Twin Cities is roughly 3.5 million right now.

Housing in the Twin Cities is considerably more expensive than the Atlanta metro, but there are exceptions. The Atlanta metro (especially the Northern half) is quite hilly and literally covered with trees, while the Twin Cities isn't quite as hilly and doesn't quite have as many trees but is still very nice on both counts, and the Twin Cities metro has a **LOT** more lakes.

Atlanta has one little river (the Chattahoochie), one of the big reasons there's such a water problem right now, but it normally gets twice as much rain as the Twin Cities (Atlanta sees 51 inches of rain per year while Minneapolis sees 25-30). The fact that Atlanta is roughly 16 inches below normal also helps to account for the current water situation down here, as you're probably acutely aware.

The Twin Cities sits on the Mississippi, which is a much larger river even that far north, and the Minnesota River is another river about the same size which comes in from Big Stone Lake on the western MN border and meets the Mississippi right south of Minneapolis by the airport.

Both cities have nice parks and such along their respective rivers. I think the Twin Cities has a lot more parks in general, and it has a LOT more bike trails and such than Atlanta does. Atlanta is a Really Bad Place to be a biker, I think...

I love the Twin Cities. I really like our current location here in Mableton, but I've not been here long enough to honestly "love" the place. I could, though.

You don't see the ITP/OTP rivalry so much in the Twin Cities, and much of the area ITP is suburban (Edina, St. Louis Park, Richfield, etc.), unlike Atlanta. For Minnesotans, ITP means city folks in Atlanta, while OTP means suburban folks living outside the I-285 perimeter freeway.

Also, while Atlanta is a weird patchwork mix of incorporated cities (which cover less than half of the metro area) and unincorporated-but-still-suburban areas which make up the majority like Vinings, Cumberland, Mableton, etc., the Twin Cities is almost completely incorporated. Twin Cities suburbs are all formally incorporated cities that touch each other, and there isn't a no-man's land in between where the country controls basic services. Bad from a tax perspective, I guess, at least speaking as a homeowner. :-)

I can answer a lot of specific questions comparing the NW Atlanta metro to the SW Twin Cities metro. Other parts of the Twin Cities I'll have to let others speak for.

[pirate_lafitte]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

Sure. I grew up in Minnetonka and lived in Bloomington and Eden Prairie (all suburbs of Minneapolis) for just about 40 years before moving down to Atlanta three years ago.

Atlanta and the Twin Cities are similar in terms of sprawl (Twin Cities 6,364.12 total sq mi., Atlanta metro 8,376 sq. mi.), but the Twin Cities have two core cities which together are larger than Atlanta, and the road system in the Twin Cities seems to make a lot more sense to me (there are a lot more major parallel E/W and N/S routes in the Twin Cities, while Atlanta seems to have a somewhat more random road layout).

Schools are very good in general in the Twin Cities, at least in the suburbs (can't speak for inner city schools), while Atlanta is spottier (some very good public schools, many mediocre schools), and I think weathy people are a lot more likely to send their kids to private schools in the Atlanta metro.

The Atlanta metro is the home of a major airline (Delta) as well as a hub, and it houses the headquarters of a number of large/influential companies including Coca Cola, Home Depot, UPS, and Georgia-Pacific.

The Twin Cities are the home of a major airline (Northwest) as well as a hub, and they house the headquarters of a number of large/influential companies including 3M, Best Buy, Target, and General Mills.

Both Atlanta and Minneapolis are considered Gamma World Cities. The Atlanta metro is roughly 5.1 million people, and the Twin Cities is roughly 3.5 million right now.

Housing in the Twin Cities is considerably more expensive than the Atlanta metro, but there are exceptions. The Atlanta metro (especially the Northern half) is quite hilly and literally covered with trees, while the Twin Cities isn't quite as hilly and doesn't quite have as many trees but is still very nice on both counts, and the Twin Cities metro has a **LOT** more lakes.

Atlanta has one little river (the Chattahoochie), one of the big reasons there's such a water problem right now, but it normally gets twice as much rain as the Twin Cities (Atlanta sees 51 inches of rain per year while Minneapolis sees 25-30). The fact that Atlanta is roughly 16 inches below normal also helps to account for the current water situation down here, as you're probably acutely aware.

The Twin Cities sits on the Mississippi, which is a much larger river even that far north, and the Minnesota River is another river about the same size which comes in from Big Stone Lake on the western MN border and meets the Mississippi right south of Minneapolis by the airport.

Both cities have nice parks and such along their respective rivers. I think the Twin Cities has a lot more parks in general, and it has a LOT more bike trails and such than Atlanta does. Atlanta is a Really Bad Place to be a biker, I think...

I love the Twin Cities. I really like our current location here in Mableton, but I've not been here long enough to honestly "love" the place. I could, though.

You don't see the ITP/OTP rivalry so much in the Twin Cities, and much of the area ITP is suburban (Edina, St. Louis Park, Richfield, etc.), unlike Atlanta. For Minnesotans, ITP means city folks in Atlanta, while OTP means suburban folks living outside the I-285 perimeter freeway.

Also, while Atlanta is a weird patchwork mix of incorporated cities (which cover less than half of the metro area) and unincorporated-but-still-suburban areas which make up the majority like Vinings, Cumberland, Mableton, etc., the Twin Cities is almost completely incorporated. Twin Cities suburbs are all formally incorporated cities that touch each other, and there isn't a no-man's land in between where the country controls basic services. Bad from a tax perspective, I guess, at least speaking as a homeowner. :-)

I can answer a lot of specific questions comparing the NW Atlanta metro to the SW Twin Cities metro. Other parts of the Twin Cities I'll have to let others speak for.

General Mills cereal my favorite. I love Chex and Wheaties.
You put the differences between ATL and MPLS-St.Paul really well. Sounds like MPLS is progressive in many ways, although I should go there myself to see.
What do you know about nightlife in MPLS and the differences between nightlife there and in ATL?