Moving to Minneapolis-St Paul area this Summer!!! (St. Paul, South St. Paul: extended stay, 2009)

[landisfam]

We will be moving to the area this summer from Hawaii. We have received honest, helpful feedback and good resources from this site in the past. We are an interracial couple who are very excited about relocating to the MN area. I just wanted to get current information about areas to live, areas to steer clear of as far as living in the twin cites area. So far I have consistantly heard stay away from North Minneapolis and South St. Paul. I work at the airport and we have a lot of people vacationing here on the Big Island from MN. So I pick their brains as much as possible. My husband is tattoo artist networking through the internet and the only negative we hear is that it gets F'n cold in the winter. Which we don't mind being originally from Alaska, and he is from P.A. Are there any social support groups in the area for us, or on the internet? I will be working at MSP. (The last blog that I seen on this sight with a couple in our same situation, they were moving from Boston and it was in 2006!?!?)We made a bad decision moving to HI there is no way we are making that mistake again, and we are looking for as much info as possible on this next adventure we take! Thanks for the help.

[Camden Northsider]

Well my wife and I just vacationed in Hawaii last month- spent most of our time on Maui but we did make it to the Big Island- I'm thinking I'm probably not one of the Minnesotans that you ran into as we definitely would not have given you that advice about North Minneapolis, it's too bad as I'm assuming the majority of the people you spoke to were in or around retirement age whereas we could have given you a twentysomething perspective (and from your post you sound young). With the exception of the 3rd picture, above are some (grainy) pics I've taken on my cell phone while out on walks in my North Minneapolis/ Camden neighborhood- I would say that at least half if not 3/5 of our city neighborhood looks similar to the above....some very scary looking stuff as I'm sure you can tell. Some more pics:


Point being- don't believe everything you read. Although many of the (generally ignorant) persons that say "stay away from North" on here are probably only speaking of a select few neighborhoods (and/or blocks) to stay away from (but aren't familiar enough with which ones so decide to typecast an entire quadrant of the city), there are 11 different neighborhoods, each with a different feel, that make up the North Minneapolis geographic area.

If you can be a little more specific on what you are looking for in a neighborhood (urban, suburban; shops, parks, schools, walkability; preferred type of housing stock, etc.), what your needs are for a house/ apartment, and what your price points are, us regulars on this board would be able to help you out a lot more with specific information on what neighborhoods might be good ones to look at. So far all you've stated is that you'll be working at MSP.

[jessez]

Camden Northsider is right - there are neighborhoods on the north side that are totally worth looking at. If you are looking for an easy commute to the airport - I'd suggest south minneapolis, bloomington or richfield. I live in the kingfield neighborhood of south minneapolis and love it plus 15 min to the airport. You'll have to get out and explore the areas to really get a good idea of the neighborhoods.

[Slig]

What a minute, it was a bad decision to move to Hawaii? As a Minnesotan, I am perplexed by that statement. Could you please expand on that?

[Camden Northsider]

Originally Posted by Slig

What a minute, it was a bad decision to move to Hawaii? As a Minnesotan, I am perplexed by that statement. Could you please expand on that?

It's definitely a beautiful place, but as a Midwesterner, I don't know if I could handle the remote, isolated, almost claustrophobic feel of being on an island in the middle of the ocean for a long period of time (granted, remote and isolated could apply to most of the Midwest), as well as not having any change of seasons. But I sure would like to give it a try sometime just to make sure!

[uptown_urbanist]

In your specific case I'd stay away from north Minneapolis, but ONLY because you could cut commuting time by picking somewhere closer to the airport. I bet a lot of the people who gave you that advice have never actually set foot in most of those neighborhoods.

I strongly suggest at least starting your search by checking out the neighborhoods along the Hiawatha LRT line. Depending on your taste in neighborhood that could be anything from downtown to the suburbs. The train goes straight to the airport, and you could really save yourself a lot of hassles and possibly time and money by not driving. (I met a pilot recently who lives downtown and commutes that way - he loves it.) Even if you do drive it's nice to have the train option available.

[Camden Northsider]

Agreed - you should definitely look in neighborhoods on the light rail, check out some city maps and focus on areas in and around the hiawatha line. And the closer you are to MSP the better as traffic tends to get pretty messy on the way to the airport (seemingly no matter which direction you are coming from).

[landisfam]

Ok.... I will be a little more specific as far as types of places to live. We will be renting until we become more familiar with the areas around the twin cites. I would like to be able to take the light rail in the beginning to the airport, or get a bus ride to the light rail, this is just a temp idea. We have a toddler, so areas as far a a park/safe/ clean area to walk the neiborghood in the evening would be great. Im use to upper middle/ middle class living, my husband also, but he is a more "whatever" to a point then I am. I want to buy a home ASAP, but I cant get to ahead of myself until we are there for a bit. And Camden Northsider you are absolutly right with the retiree folks opnion, I have spoken to very few late 20 late 30's and its been two so far. One lady lived in a city way north in MN, right outside of the Canadian Boarder? And the other single female was very helpful and she lived in the Twin City burbs area. She had raised two daughters( mixed children/ her ex husband was african american) and she said it is a great place to raise kids. I was a teacher for 8 yrs, so great schools is very important to me. I want to enroll my little one as soon as we get there. I only loking into NAEYC accredited preschools, and there is one on the Airforce base that is on the top of my list so far. We have also considered a extended stay hotel for a few weeks until we get settled, but it seems a little pricey. A rent to own home might be a good consideration, which brings me back to great areas to live with things for the kids to do. Also areas with great adult entertainment, we are very social and want to take full advantage of what the city has to offer. Im 35 and my husband is 47 we have one toddler together, and he has a bonus child who is 10 so we want an area we will all have alot to do. We have lived on an island for close to two years now with very, very, limited things to do. The mall on this island is 2hrs. away, and compared to the malls I have been to around the U.S. it can be referred to a a strip mall. So we are hungry for things we have been missing out on. We do not want to return to 1 hr long( or more) comute times to work like we had to when we lived in CA. I hope this helps to give a better perspective on what we want.

[DaPerpKazoo]

I would look at the Seward/Bracket Park area. Middle class, mostly single family homes with some apartments mixed in. While not on the light rail, it's very close- a short bus or bike ride. Bracket Park is also a VERY nice park. If being on the light rail is important, I would suggest really anything within a couple blocks of it, with the exception being the Cedar-Riverside area.

Alternatively, you could look anywhere in south Minneapolis within a couple blocks of an east-west bus line which would take you straight to the LRT.

[landisfam]

What cites does the LRT run through? What cites are within walking distance to LRT pick up? As far as the mistake of moving here. It is really expensive to live here. If We want to go to shopping, we have to buy a ticket to Oahu, which depending on the season the tickets can be expensive or on days that just dont work out for us. The school districts suck! I think that HI is ranked 47th!??! The health care/ Hospital is a joke. FACT: Its eaiser to pay malpractice suite to try to care for people in certain situations, because they know they dont have adequate staff or equipment to help. I pray everyday nothing major happens to us. They cant keep sugerons or speacalist here. Through work I have pretty good insurance. For example I have to get an MRI, and no where on this island can I get one. Im being flown to Oahu to the Queens hospital to get it. My insurance pays for my ticket, at no additional cost to me..They are providing me with a shuttle to and from the hospital. Mind you this isn't an emergency..this is standard operating procedure because ITS THE ISLSND OF HAWAII!?!?, and that is with my insurance. Not to mention the ass backwards ways of thinking or doing business here. Im use to hearing "your in Hawaii, what do you expect" I cant stand the thinking alot of time form the peole here. My hands are getting tired from the negative typing I agree with the points that Camden Northside brought up. I just think that HI is a third world state in the US. Its a great place to vist on vacation, but a totally different ball game living here. Unless you are planning to retire here or were born and raised here, most peole either love it or hate it there is NO in between. We have marked it off our life list and are moving on. I know that MN isnt going to be perfect but there is no way there are these many factors that are this bad there.