What are the biggest flaws about Minneapolis that don't have to do with the weather? (Wells: neighborhood, quality of life)

[Citykid3785]

I want to make a clear distinction between expecting my host to assimilate to me, vs expecting my host to be welcoming to me. I would never expect my neighbors to change the fabric of who they are for me.

But I also think it's so backwards to expect the outsider to knock and their neighbors doors and say "even though you noticed I'm new, I wanted to drop off brownies to tell you I'm here and all moved in."

I think the on us should be on the host to reach out, because they are the ones still in their comfort zone. That's not a transplant expectation, being a welcoming host is a human being expectation.

[InnovativeAmerican]

Originally Posted by treemoni

The only reason for this is a lack of critical mass. Milwaukee and Chicago both have a much larger percentage and deeper history with blacks. There is no comparison. The Twin Cities isn't integrated because it chooses to be. It's integrated because not enough black people haven moved there. I actually hope black people start moving to the Twin Cities in droves. It will be amusing to sit back and watch the fireworks.

I disagree. You do not know what you're talkong about. Both Minneapolis and St. Paul have actually gotten more integrated over the past two Census cycles, and the black population has grown A TON since then.

You must really loathe the cities, don't you? I am black and feel there is LESS racial tension in this city than other U.S. cities despite the pronounced racial disparities.

[Thedosius]

Originally Posted by InnovativeAmerican

However, a few people on this thread did bring up the racial segregation factor.

I'm willing to accept this point and say that in my own post I should have said something to the effect that Minneapolis has one of the highest racial disparities in income and education, which is abundantly documented from many statistical models. I can find no statistical modeling that puts Minneapolis near the top of geographic segregation relative to other cities.

[daboywonder2002]

Originally Posted by TheTimidBlueBars

It seems like such a "perfect" city - good economy, reasonably fast population growth, educated populace, progressive, diverse, decent public transportation, not too crowded, no serious "hood" areas - and I'm suspicious.

The positives outweigh the negatives. The best parks, best shopping(even our thrift stores are amazing) But flaws I would name are



Isolated- closest major city is Chicago 7 hour drive. Nothing against North and South Dakota but not exactly a city I wanna drive to for a weekend.



Lack of black professionals- I'm not talking about a barber or mechanic. Your black teachers, doctors, lawyers.



Lack of a real downtown- Downtown Minneapolis should be a gold mine 7 days a week. Not just Friday and Saturday. But the lack of retail shopping and I guess other reasons hurt it. If you go downtown on weekends, it's amazing. Sunday- Thursday- GHOST TOWN except for the people that work there.

[daboywonder2002]

Originally Posted by Justabitoff

I would say my biggest complaint is the walkability of the suburbs. Very few have "quaint downtowns" and most of them are just several shopping plazas amongst homes and schools.

And I agree with the previous comment that Minneapolis's physical distance from other cities is a drawback. I find myself getting cabin fever.

Where are you from? Because a lot of suburbs are car dependent. Especially down south. Personally I think our suburbs than a lot of other cities. I know Boston has a lot of walkable suburbs.

[treemoni]

Originally Posted by Thedosius

Minneapolis has one of the highest racial disparities in income and education, which is abundantly documented from many statistical models.

Two of the major areas that greatly affect your lot in life. Facts are facts.

[daboywonder2002]

Originally Posted by Citykid3785

Agreed that we lack suburbs with quaint walkable downtowns. We have a few, but they are not as prevalent as they are in some older metro areas.

Hand in hand with that, the suburbs lack mom and pop restaurants as well. It's almost exclusively chains here, which I know many associate with the burbs, but that's not necessarily the case in some other cities like Atlanta, or New York for instance. In my childhood, many of the best local restaurants we're run by immigrant families working a hole in the wall operation. No one got pizza at pizza hut or dominos, you went to the local pizza joint run by Italians. Likewise, going to a Jimmy John's would have been blasphemy, you went to the deli run by the Lebanese woman.

You can't compare Minneapolis to Atlanta, LA, Houston, Chicago, Philly, New York. Totally different tiers. I would use Seattle, Denver, Portland. cities like that.

[InnovativeAmerican]

Originally Posted by Thedosius

I'm willing to accept this point and say that in my own post I should have said something to the effect that Minneapolis has one of the highest racial disparities in income and education, which is abundantly documented from many statistical models. I can find no statistical modeling that puts Minneapolis near the top of geographic segregation relative to other cities.

That's fair, and it does. I just wanted to point out that residential segregation isn't much of a problem here, but, yes, we are very much segregated in every other metric along racial lines, and there's a whole different thread about it on here. This is definitely one of the Twin Cities' foremost flaws.

[ArcLyte]

Originally Posted by daboywonder2002

Lack of a real downtown- Downtown Minneapolis should be a gold mine 7 days a week. Not just Friday and Saturday. But the lack of retail shopping and I guess other reasons hurt it. If you go downtown on weekends, it's amazing. Sunday- Thursday- GHOST TOWN except for the people that work there.

I agree with this statement when taken at face value (especially re: Downtown core MSP). I also think that Minneapolis has had such a sprawl that folks hang out in the different districts during the work week.

South/Uptown districts of Minneapolis on weekdays are filled with plenty of people - especially during the summer. Northeast Minneapolis is also rapidly changing and is often chock full of people. I was out eating in Northeast on a Tuesday night at around 9:30 pm and I was amazed at the number of people out and about. The restaurant that I was in was absolutely packed. I think that while core downtown Minneapolis is lacking retail and shopping, the rest of Minneapolis has the items people are looking for.

I agree that it would be wonderful if we had a greater amount of restaurants and retail in the downtown core, but with current land and rent values, I don't see that happening any time soon. The nice thing about Minneapolis is that no matter where you live in MSP, you can get to a mall with any/all of the retail you need in a just a few minutes. (South MSP = Edina, Northeast = Rosedale, West MSP/Bryn Mawr = (St Louis Park Mall or Ridgedale... North Minneapolis = Brooklyn Center -- * no mall anymore, but a plethora of retail options)

[Citykid3785]

Originally Posted by daboywonder2002

You can't compare Minneapolis to Atlanta, LA, Houston, Chicago, Philly, New York. Totally different tiers. I would use Seattle, Denver, Portland. cities like that.

I think in terms of walkability, it's less about size (tier), and more about city planning and the age of city, which generally (not always) speaking the older cities are on the east coast, and you get newer as you move west.

But Denver is a great comparison example in this instance, you've got suburbs with quaint downtowns like Boulder, Golden, Longmont, Louisville, etc.