Maybe moving to Minneapolis (St. Paul, Plymouth: environment, equity, relocating)

[jenne03]

Hi guys,

I need some info. We maybe relocating from Maryland to Minneapolis. My husband would work downtown. Where are the good neighborhoods located? Meaning, low crime, great schools, nice people?

I am unhappy where i am now, because the people are just not friendly. All the houses are on top of each other here , but my neighborhood is very snooty. We lived out in Pittsburgh for awhile and the people were great. It was said they had a "midwestern attitude" Is Minneapolis like that?

What are the housing and taxes like? I need some towns that maybe what I am looking for so I can start looking up houses.

Honestly, how bad is the the winter there?? HOw long? I heard Minneapolis is a beautiful clean city...how is crime around the suburbs?

I really appreciate you guys telling me what you can. I am very nervous.

thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jeff4444]

I lived in the Twin Cities area for nearly 20 years and just loved it!! The Twin Cities, and especially the surrounding communities, have a huge number of people that are educated and have money to spend – this is not a poor area. It can get extremely cold in the winter (-25 degrees and lower) and the summers can be very humid. But all in all, Minnesota is one great place to live.

Look at Apple Valley, Burnsville, Lakeville and Eagan for great schools where education is a top priority for most parents. These four cities border each other and are just south of St. Paul.

I would recommend Minnesota and the Twin Cities area to anyone, any day!

[angelaf]

There certainly are educated, wealthy people around the TC area. But to say "this isn't a poor area" is too general a statement. Sure, Apple Valley, Burnsville, Lakeville and Eagan are "not poor areas" but these are just four suburbs. There is plenty of poverty in the Twin Cities. There are homeless people there, just as there are in any major metro area. I'm not saying it's a overall a bad area or that any of this should deter one from moving there--it's simply the truth.
As far as the friendliness of the people here, I personally think the "Minnesota nice" thing we've all heard is mostly myth. Especially in the city, where the more fast-paced life doesn't really allow for one to go out of their way to to be friendly to others. In the suburbs, there are endless seas of cookie-cutter houses and it's very easy to live in one of these neighborhoods for years and never meet your neighbors. However, it all depends on you-- the type of person you are. If you make the effort to get to know your neighbors and become a part of your community, I think you'll find that people will be quite nice and accepting. But I wouldn't expect them to come knocking on your door.
Winters here are hell. It's not so much the cold... Once the temp drops below a certain degree, it all feels pretty much the same. It's just a matter of how long you can be out before you die. Haha. Actually our winters have been fairly mild here, temp-wise, for the past few years, but it's the length and darkness of the winter that gets to me. Winter pretty much starts in October, that's when you have to crank up the furnace, and you'll have it on at least until April. This year in mid-March, it was sunny and 50* one day, and two days later, we got 3 feet of snow. Spring was way too short this year-- we had our furnace on one night last week and today it is 90*. No kidding. The weather here is the #1 reason I'm leaving. But it's the #1 reason some people love it-- mostly lunatics who love winter and things like skiing and other winter sports.

[Cableguy]

Minneapolis is great, don't worry about a thing. If hubby is working downtown it would depend on howmuch travel to work he is willing to do. I live in Corcoran Mn. which is west of Minneapolis. My children go to the Wayzata Schools, which is in the top 3 in the state, 1st many times. A large district with a newer HS of around 4,ooo kids. I beleive there's 3 middle schools and 4Elem. all great schools. Plymouth, Corcoran, Maple Grove, Minnetonka, Edina (snooty) are the ones I like. west suburbs. Corcoran is growing but alot of little hidden neighborhoods, no crime other than the neighbors horse got out! Housing is either new and on 1/2 acre to 1/4 acre lots or larger lots and a little older house, I feel in 5 to 7 years the developers will come knocking to buy up land as Minneapolis moves out wesy farther so equity grows fairly fast in this area. Medina is right next door and they are mostly million + dollar homes. Taxes are ok, I pay 3300.00/yr for a 5 BR home on 3.5 acres. Hope you find what your looking for.

Originally Posted by jenne03

Hi guys,

I need some info. We maybe relocating from Maryland to Minneapolis. My husband would work downtown. Where are the good neighborhoods located? Meaning, low crime, great schools, nice people?

I am unhappy where i am now, because the people are just not friendly. All the houses are on top of each other here , but my neighborhood is very snooty. We lived out in Pittsburgh for awhile and the people were great. It was said they had a "midwestern attitude" Is Minneapolis like that?

What are the housing and taxes like? I need some towns that maybe what I am looking for so I can start looking up houses.

Honestly, how bad is the the winter there?? HOw long? I heard Minneapolis is a beautiful clean city...how is crime around the suburbs?

I really appreciate you guys telling me what you can. I am very nervous.

thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!!

[newulm]

i hear north minneapolis is very quaint

[Shannon B]

Originally Posted by newulm

i hear north minneapolis is very quaint

Ha Ha..

Yeah, I agree w/you on that Newulm.. Pretty quaint of you enjoy waking up to gun shots, drug dealers and Pimps,hoes.

I live in Anoka,"the halloween capitol of the world," It's not as bad as it is made out to be. We arent a bunch of red necks w/confederate flags flying outside our front door. Well Im not anyhow.
My husband works DownTown Mpls. It is only about 20 miles from home, and the drive isn't always too bad.

No matter what anyone says, we all have our favorite places.. Maybe coming for a visit and just roam around like a tourist? Might help?

Good luck!!

[Martha7]

Originally Posted by Cableguy

Minneapolis is great, don't worry about a thing. If hubby is working downtown it would depend on howmuch travel to work he is willing to do. I live in Corcoran Mn. which is west of Minneapolis. My children go to the Wayzata Schools, which is in the top 3 in the state, 1st many times. A large district with a newer HS of around 4,ooo kids. I beleive there's 3 middle schools and 4Elem. all great schools. Plymouth, Corcoran, Maple Grove, Minnetonka, Edina (snooty) are the ones I like. west suburbs. Corcoran is growing but alot of little hidden neighborhoods, no crime other than the neighbors horse got out! Housing is either new and on 1/2 acre to 1/4 acre lots or larger lots and a little older house, I feel in 5 to 7 years the developers will come knocking to buy up land as Minneapolis moves out wesy farther so equity grows fairly fast in this area. Medina is right next door and they are mostly million + dollar homes. Taxes are ok, I pay 3300.00/yr for a 5 BR home on 3.5 acres. Hope you find what your looking for.

Hey, Cableguy~
We're relocating to the Minneapolis area, and found a house that we liked in Corcoran. We have a son who'll be in the eleventh grade in the Fall, and of course, he'd rather attend Wayzata High than Rockford Secondary school. Can you tell me how you managed to get into the Wayzata schools? If you'd rather PM me, that's fine too! TIA!

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Martha7

Hey, Cableguy~
We're relocating to the Minneapolis area, and found a house that we liked in Corcoran. We have a son who'll be in the eleventh grade in the Fall, and of course, he'd rather attend Wayzata High than Rockford Secondary school. Can you tell me how you managed to get into the Wayzata schools? If you'd rather PM me, that's fine too! TIA!

Minnesota has statewide open enrollment. You apply to a district in January or so and if they have openings, you can attend that school. Transportation is your responsibility though. It will be too late to get him in on open enrollment now. Your only hope would be to move to the district.

[Martha7]

Thanks, Golfgal! That's exactly what I needed to know. One of the counselors at Wayzata High School said that it could be done if we "got the principals of the schools involved", but I'm not sure how that'd work over the summer. I also don't know how likely it would be for the principal of the Rockford high school to agree to send our son over to Wayzata. Unfortunately, my husband really likes this house and is assuming that we could get our son admitted to WHS without a problem. We saw a lot of nice houses in the areas we investigated, but they're definitely more expensive than comparable houses here in the Ann Arbor area. Minnesota is gorgeous though!

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Martha7

Thanks, Golfgal! That's exactly what I needed to know. One of the counselors at Wayzata High School said that it could be done if we "got the principals of the schools involved", but I'm not sure how that'd work over the summer. I also don't know how likely it would be for the principal of the Rockford high school to agree to send our son over to Wayzata. Unfortunately, my husband really likes this house and is assuming that we could get our son admitted to WHS without a problem. We saw a lot of nice houses in the areas we investigated, but they're definitely more expensive than comparable houses here in the Ann Arbor area. Minnesota is gorgeous though!

One thing with open enrollment is that your child's funding goes with him to that new school which is good and bad. I think where your problem may lie is that Wayzeta might not have openings at this time of the year. I don't know how crowded their schools are. One nice thing about Minnesota is that for the most part, all the schools are good unless you are in the inner city schools and while the teachers, etc are fine, the environment isn't the best. I was looking for the state standardized testing results but they are in the process of switching to a new test and I can't find past results on the Minnesota Department of Education website. Those test results are a pretty good way to size up different districts. You could filter results to show what the average, every day student was scoring. You could compare those scores to other schools.

I know you from DIS, too!!!