north minneapolis (St. Paul, Shoreview, White Bear Lake: wood floors, construction, landlord)

[James_Carmona]

North Minneapolis isn't as bad as people really think it is, I'm from Chicago, but Ive been to and lived in Minneapolis on the North Side. Its not really ghetto, its not dirty, there isn't gone shots every night like I heard growing up in Chicago. The time I lived there I can tell you I heard only 1 gone shot. Some areas areas of North Side are extremely nice. The worst area probably would be around Penn. and Plymouth. Yet North Minneapolis is far from ghetto, its a nice community that has some poor areas, but a much much larger middle class population.

[audadvnc]

I live in Jordan neighborhood of North Mpls. Ain't been shot yet...

One of the biggest problems we have nowadays are those snooty suburban folk coming in and snatching up all the nice old rooming house properties for a song, converting them to single family castles. Why won't they just stay out in vinylville and spend their days commuting, rather than getting all "urban pioneer" on us?

[west336]

In regards to places like North Minneapolis and the "Brooklyns", I personally don't find them very ominous or dangerous for the most part. It's the people that I've met who live in these areas that tell me they hate the crime there and/or think it's too "ghetto" and want to move out. I've even been told from a former Chicagoan that the neighborhood she lives in here is worse than where she was in Chicago, which she fled because of the crime. I think that's an exaggeration personally, but the point remains that if people are telling me they don't feel safe in area X, Y or Z, I take that information (with a grain of salt) at face value. Obviously, some people are not bothered by it one bit. What is the ratio of people who love it, accept it, or hate it -- I don't know. That may be the better question though: what percentage of residents in a given area feel that their safety is in jeopardy? I may have a bad sample of data to work with...

That being said, on Saturday I drove through North Minneapolis via Fremont Ave from Lowry Ave to Broadway and it really looked fine for the most part. On the surface at least, I don't see what would make that area unsafe. Compared to many Midwestern cities, it looks down-right nice!

[James_Carmona]

No like I said before I lived in North Minneapolis on Penn. for a few years and I'm originally from Chicago, and the part of Chicago I grew up in on the West Side, is many many times worser. North Minneapolis is really nice, yes it has some rough areas but atleast 80 percent of it is not bad for raising a family. I lived on Penn and the years I lived there I only heard 1 gun shot, throughout all those years.

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by audadvnc

I live in Jordan neighborhood of North Mpls. Ain't been shot yet...

One of the biggest problems we have nowadays are those snooty suburban folk coming in and snatching up all the nice old rooming house properties for a song, converting them to single family castles. Why won't they just stay out in vinylville and spend their days commuting, rather than getting all "urban pioneer" on us?

Because they don't WANT vinyl. And they don't want to spend their days commuting. They aren't bulldozing the buildings and putting up suburban-style McMansions. Were these rooming houses always rooming houses, or are they being converted back into single-family houses? This is a pattern we see a lot: people flee the city, but their grandchildren come back.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by audadvnc

One of the biggest problems we have nowadays are those snooty suburban folk coming in and snatching up all the nice old rooming house properties for a song, converting them to single family castles. Why won't they just stay out in vinylville and spend their days commuting, rather than getting all "urban pioneer" on us?

Hmm, I guess you could consider us to be 50% contributing to that problem when we bought our home on the southside (me, snooty white suburban guy, she, humble Mexican national)...although in our case we bought one of the smaller homes in the neighborhood. Anyways, sorry?

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by Slig

Hmm, I guess you could consider us to be 50% contributing to that problem when we bought our home on the southside (me, snooty white suburban guy, she, humble Mexican national)...although in our case we bought one of the smaller homes in the neighborhood. Anyways, sorry?

Consider the terrible things that happen: boarded up storefronts start opening up for business, vacant lots getting developed. I've driven by Portland and Franklin, and three of the corners were vacant lots. Now they are getting developed. That's just awful. I feel personally guilty that the Midtown Global Market opened up in the old Sears Building.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by audadvnc

I live in Jordan neighborhood of North Mpls. Ain't been shot yet...

One of the biggest problems we have nowadays are those snooty suburban folk coming in and snatching up all the nice old rooming house properties for a song, converting them to single family castles. Why won't they just stay out in vinylville and spend their days commuting, rather than getting all "urban pioneer" on us?

Wow. Some city people complain that too many people are living out in the suburbs and say that more folks should move "back" to the city. Like most of us EVER lived there.

Now, when people start moving to the city, I see someone in the city complaining about HOW they're doing it.

Is this a complaint others share?

If people don't spend money in the city, how to you expect positive change to happen??

[FamousBlueRaincoat]

Wow. Some city people complain that too many people are living out in the suburbs and say that more folks should move "back" to the city. Like most of us EVER lived there.

Now, when people start moving to the city, I see someone in the city complaining about HOW they're doing it.

I get the complaints (although the two sets of complaints you mention are obviously coming from different people. And in my case I actually did move back to the city after having spent part of my childhood in the city - although I moved to a different city.)- some of the people moving into the city legitimately don't know how to act as part of a society. And the anger is from the fact that they ever left the city in the first place (even though it probably wasn't even their decision, but parents or grandparents). Meanwhile, the people who lived there all along, and who view it as their home and community, are worried about being priced out. It would be nice if people moving back into the city could go through a re-education programs about stuff like picking up after their dog, raising children with manners, not throwing artsy-freaky-yuppie-house parties and the like.

I don't agree with the complaints though - cities need successful people. Minneapolis can probably get away with the complaints more than other places, because they don't have dilapidated neighborhoods so much. And in reality, much of the city is probably well to do enough that the small part of North that isn't going well probably isn't really that much of a burden to the city.

Gentrification needs to happen in cities all over the country, and it is happening. It needs to be done right, but it's probably not going to be in most cases. Racial tensions in gentrifying areas tend to bring out both the best and worth on both sides. Everyone would have been a lot better off if there never would have been such an exodus, because we're going to see a lot of the same stupid stuff happen all over again.

[Camden Northsider]

I think audadvnc's post was tongue-in-cheek (he's mentioned that his spouse used to live in Chaska), although I have run into the occassional "snootiness" at times (but I wouldn't make the jump to thinking this is tied or singular to suburban transplants at all).

...Kind of funny that it's brought up the whole redevelopment vs. gentrification vs. maintaining affordable housing and socioeconomic diversity arguments- I think a new thread should be started for this topic- minneapolis hasn't really had to worry about this as much as other cities over the years, but there's something to be said about the balance of maintaining affordable housing and longtime residents while working to redevelop areas/create healthy neighborhoods. And this issue- and fears related to it, whether part reality or mostly perceived- isn't singular to the northside.