North Minneapolis (home, employment, neighborhoods)

[LOLZ]

Originally Posted by Slig

There are some aspects of this area that attract me like the amount of diversity.

If you consider "diversity" to be mostly black.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

I consider diversity to be not lost in a sea of white people like I am in 98% of this state.

[LOLZ]

Originally Posted by Slig

I consider diversity to be not lost in a sea of white people like I am in 98% of this state.

Going from lost in a sea of white people to lost in a sea of black people is not diversity.

Minneapolis does have some diverse areas within its city limits, but I would not consider most of North Minneapolis to be one of them.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Ok, you have to put this data into perspective here. Basically every single city in the state of Minnesota apart from Minneapolis, St. Paul, Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center are 85% white or greater.

All information courtesty of http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/
from the 2000 census

population breakdown in selected neighborhoods:
Near North
58% black
14% asian
12% white
9% hispanic
1% native american

Jordan
50% black
21.5% white
16.5% asian
4.3% hispanic
1.8% native american

Hawthorne
38.9% black
34.9% white
13.6% asian
4.6% hispanic
2.1% native american

Willard Hay
63.7% black
15.2% white
12.0% asian
3.0% hispanic

These 4 neighborhoods comprise the Near North community or the area commonly referred to as "North Minneapolis." Yes, all four neighborhoods have a larger black population than any other race, but they are in no way comparable to the white population in the vast majority of Minnesota cities. All four neighbhorhoods have an Asian and White presence and the Near-North neighborhood has close to 10% Hispanics. There is no way you can convince me that this area isn't diverse. When you refer to lost in sea of black people it would make more sense in reference to neighborhoods in Chicago's southside where there are numerous neighborhoods with 95-97% blacks.

[freeopinions]

"If you consider "diversity" to be mostly black"

"Ok, you have to put this data into perspective here".


It's just bias, for god's sake. It's perceptual. Racism doesn't recognize statistics or logic, it's just personal bigotry.

Most of Minnesota is lily white, but if one black family moved into some neighborhoods, you'd think to listen to some people that they were suddenly living in the ghetto.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

All I'm doing is attempting to change LoLz's mind in agreeing with me that North Minneapolis is a diverse area.

[nick is rulz]

my brother lived off 26th and Irving N at one point. Him and two friends rented a house...three white kids in the ghetto. Now, people assumed that they would be harassed or beat up...etc etc, but that wasnt the case. He knew of someone who was robbed after living there a year...but robberies happen in Elk River and Chaska as well.


Now, is northside dangerous? Yes. Its dangerous if you're up there selling drugs on someone elses territory or if you're gangbanging. If you're minding your own business odds are you'll be left alone. Statisically, yeah you have better odds of being a victim of crime there overall but there are people who work, eat, sleep, and live in northside and they arent running from their house to their cars in fear of getting shot every day of their lives.

Whats most interesting about that area is how the dangerous neighborhoods are essentially in pockets. You can be on one block, and all the houses are maintained with neighborhood watch signs and the next block over its abandoned houses and people on the corners. The Victory neighborhood is in North Minneapolis but its actually very nice.

Its actually a shame it hasnt turned around. The view of the city is really beautiful from the north neighborhoods and theres a lot of old cool houses there (the ones that are maintained, that is).

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Dude, like I've mentioned on this forum, I gave the area a chance, I seriously looked into properties in North...for about a week. A good friend of a co-worker of mine bought a house in North around Dowling Avenue a several years ago for 110k. He stupidly didn't get the house checked out or appraised before he made the purchase, I don't even think he contacted a realitor about it. Well, the first thing he notices is that the house needs a new sewage mainline. $20,000 later he began to think twice about his purchase. Now it's years later and the house hasn't appreciated one bit. He's stuck in a place without good schools in the area to put his children in and he's living in a house that's basically unsellable. He's stuck in a neighborhood surrounded by rundown houses with "for sale" signs. I've driven down Lyndale and Penn and Lowry. All I see is "for sale" signs. Every block has atleast 5 of them. It's sad. Before I ramble any more, the bottom line is North Minneapolis is not a good investment for a homeowner. As a first time home buyer, I was very attracted to the area based on the house prices, by far the cheapest in the metro area. However, because of everything i stated above, and the fact that the property I was giving serious consideration was vandalized and all the visible copper plumbing was stripped, I sorta gave up and moved on to other options.

[nick is rulz]

I think the main reason it stays in shambles is the vast number of slummy run down properties that continue to be rented out by subpar landlords looking to make a buck rather than doing what landlords should do (i.e. maintenance).


In the heart of northside...like the 10xx block to the 35xx block, I wouldnt live there either.


Its an easy problem to ignore from afar...even within other parts of the city. Even crossing the Lowry Ave bridge into Northeast its like the difference is night and day. However, I think that the longer the problem is seen as isolated, the less likely it will be that it remains that way until it spreads out further and further.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Well, the two other historically rougher areas (NE and S) are both being revitalized and as a result are more up and coming neighborhoods than the rotting northside. Just look at south. Lake St is going to look really new and nice after all that construction is completed in a year or two and the light rail has totally changed the outlook on the Hiawatha corridor. The demand for south is rapidly increasing as can be seen when you compare the amount of available houses there to the amount in north. North probably outnumbers south on a 6 to 1 ratio. I'm also seeing alot of people tearing down the houses on the southside dating from 1890-1920 and throwing up brand spankin new houses. I have a couple buddies living in one of those new houses right off of Hiawatha and I really like that area now....just walk a couple blocks in either direction and you can hop right on the light rail and go downtown or to the airport or Mall of America, it's going to be even nicer when they build the central corridor line because you'll be able to take the rail right into downtown St. Paul. I would probably put NE in between S and N. I drove up University Ave the other day and right around Broadway I almost felt like I was in North Minneapolis. Otherwise though I feel that most of NE is pretty decent.