Best and worst areas (Minneapolis, St. Paul: houses, neighborhood, construction)

[Cruz Azul Guy]

I'll give the OP what they want as everyone else is obviously dancing around the question. If you're in the city the "high crime" areas are as follows:

North Mpls - north of Olson memorial highway, west of the mississippi river, east of the parkway. If you go far enough north it gets more tame (think the Victory area).

South Mpls - east of 35W, west of Hiawatha, south of 94 until maybe 38th st.

Eastside St. Paul

Frogtown St. Paul

Since I've never lived in St. Paul I cant give you exact borders.

Suburbs to avoid - Hilltop, Brooklyn Center, Some areas of Brooklyn Park (although it's nice near the golf course and river)

There, I said it. Are you happy now

[lepoisson]

Thanks! That's pretty much what I was looking for.

[Old Prospector]

Originally Posted by lepoisson

Thanks! That's pretty much what I was looking for.

No problem.

[Camden Northsider]

Originally Posted by lepoisson

Thanks! That's pretty much what I was looking for.

Keep in mind that if you're seeking nonprofit careers, there's likely going to be a concentration of them in those very same areas listed above. And FWIW, we don't take kindly to persons that frown down upon or blanket stereotype our neighborhoods (in fact, if you were to actually reside in one of them, it might help you land a few interviews) . Just some unsolicited $.02 here from a nonprofit hiring manager.

[lepoisson]

Originally Posted by Camden Northsider

Keep in mind that if you're seeking nonprofit careers, there's likely going to be a concentration of them in those very same areas listed above. And FWIW, we don't take kindly to persons that frown down upon or blanket stereotype our neighborhoods (in fact, if you were to actually reside in one of them, it might help you land a few interviews) . Just some unsolicited $.02 here from a nonprofit hiring manager.

I wasn't wanting to offend anyone, just making sure I wouldn't end up in a very unsafe area. The Twin Cities in general seems very safe. Even the "unsafe" neighborhoods are probably safer than "unsafe" areas in other cities.

Anyways, there were certain places when I lived in New Orleans that I did not feel comfortable stopping my car during broad daylight. No way I'd live there as my personal safety and life would be at risk.

Because my field is educational technology and tech support, my job search will probably be limited to larger entities like universities, school districts, and local/state governments. I hadn't thought about looking into smaller nonprofits. I just assumed they wouldn't have any use for my field.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

I lived within the area I defined as having higher crime in South Mpls from 2008-2014. We didn't feel unsafe there or anything, but our block had a rash of breakins, the occasional drug/prostitution issue, at times loud obnoxious neighbors, poverty, etc. We recently moved into Southwest Mpls and in all honesty there is very little I miss from the old neighborhood. Southwest Mpls is expensive but you really get what you pay for IMHO.

[Camden Northsider]

Originally Posted by lepoisson

I wasn't wanting to offend anyone, just making sure I wouldn't end up in a very unsafe area. The Twin Cities in general seems very safe. Even the "unsafe" neighborhoods are probably safer than "unsafe" areas in other cities.

Anyways, there were certain places when I lived in New Orleans that I did not feel comfortable stopping my car during broad daylight. No way I'd live there as my personal safety and life would be at risk.

Because my field is educational technology and tech support, my job search will probably be limited to larger entities like universities, school districts, and local/state governments. I hadn't thought about looking into smaller nonprofits. I just assumed they wouldn't have any use for my field.

Oh, I thought you had specifically asked about the nonprofit sector and its local job potential. There are small, midsized, and very large (i.e. $50M+ annual operating) nonprofits located in the Cities, and, besides having their own tech/IT departments, many of them do a lot of contract work for local government in the educational arena. Actually, right now the local workforce investment board is gearing up for a new federal funding stream focused on tech/IT education in underrepresented communities.

[Grizzly Addams]

Originally Posted by Cruz Azul Guy

I'll give the OP what they want as everyone else is obviously dancing around the question. If you're in the city the "high crime" areas are as follows:

North Mpls - north of Olson memorial highway, west of the mississippi river, east of the parkway. If you go far enough north it gets more tame (think the Victory area).

South Mpls - east of 35W, west of Hiawatha, south of 94 until maybe 38th st.

Eastside St. Paul

Frogtown St. Paul

Since I've never lived in St. Paul I cant give you exact borders.

Suburbs to avoid - Hilltop, Brooklyn Center, Some areas of Brooklyn Park (although it's nice near the golf course and river)

There, I said it. Are you happy now

St. Paul in terms of crime can be split in half. North of 94 tends to be high crime (Midway, Frogtown, Northend, Eastside) while South of 94 tends to be safer (Highland, Grand, Battle Creek, Summit).

This is a generalization as both have their good and bad parts, but I think overall 94 is the divider.

[Hockeygirl063]

Originally Posted by ellysbelly

Without sounding like a broken record-- the above posters are dead-on; any "best" or "worst" list will be extraordinarily subjective-- are you looking for: walkability, good schools, a small town or big city feel, commute time, housing affordability, access to public transportation, etc-- all of that and more will play into which areas will make your personal best/worst list.

While I'm at heart a city-dweller, having three school aged kids, two big dogs and a husband with a need for both indoor and outdoor space has made me a somewhat reluctant suburbanite. Oh, and not all of us suburbanites have a hankering for Olive Garden and Home Depot-- there are a surprising number of us who still can appreciate and patronize locally owned stores and restaurants and, even more surprisingly, there ARE some fantastic non-big box/non-chain options even way out here in the dreaded 'burbs (gasp!)

Unlike many other locales, the greater MSP area has almost universally excellent schools-- both within the cities and in most suburbs. You almost have to go out of your way to find a "bad" school district-- and, even then, "bad" by MN standards would likely be considered quite excellent by most other standards.

Let us know what you're looking for: price, where you're working-- how much of a commute you're comfortable with, whether or not you have children and what kinds of activities they're interested in, etc-- and I'm certain that we can suggest some areas that will work best for your individual situation

The schools are one reason I want to relocate. Where we live now the schools are good at least on elementary level but I am not looking forward to middle school with thousands of kids and the same with the local high school, although they are building a new high school to relieve some of the pressure. It will be done shortly before she is in high school.

I just read an article about traffic a list of 50 worst cities Minneapolis was 23thrd tied with a couple others. Portland was 12th. I generally don't deal with the traffic though since I am a stay home mom right now, so if I do drive I always go in between rush hours but even then it can be heavy traffic. But looking to get back into the work force. So another reason to go is lower cost of living, Minneapolis is a lot less expensive than Portland, As far as work I an studying Sterile processing and i have read that healthcare jobs are some what abundant in the Twin Cities.

[ellysbelly]

Originally Posted by Hockeygirl063

The schools are one reason I want to relocate. Where we live now the schools are good at least on elementary level but I am not looking forward to middle school with thousands of kids and the same with the local high school, although they are building a new high school to relieve some of the pressure. It will be done shortly before she is in high school.

I just read an article about traffic a list of 50 worst cities Minneapolis was 23thrd tied with a couple others. Portland was 12th. I generally don't deal with the traffic though since I am a stay home mom right now, so if I do drive I always go in between rush hours but even then it can be heavy traffic. But looking to get back into the work force. So another reason to go is lower cost of living, Minneapolis is a lot less expensive than Portland, As far as work I an studying Sterile processing and i have read that healthcare jobs are some what abundant in the Twin Cities.

The schools here are truly excellent-- I have three kids, one is well above grade level-- one is a bit above grade level-- and the third has some significant learning challenges-- and the schools are able to accommodate, support and challenge all three of my (very differently abled) kids.

As far as traffic goes, I work from home, so I might not be best able to give you a true depiction of the traffic/commute (but we are a hockey family and often have games around the metro that put us into rush hour traffic, so I'm not completely out of the loop); but as compared to Atlanta, NYC, LA, Chicago, Toronto, etc-- the traffic here doesn't seem to be all *that* bad, especially if you don't have to cross the entire metro-- and even then it's doable, just painful. Rush hour is seemingly fairly predictable (other than when there's a snowstorm, then all bets are off) and I've yet to see a traffic jam outside of rush hour (unlike LA or NYC, where I've been stuck in traffic at all hours of the day or night: 9PM, 1AM, 5AM, etc)