Need some feedback on ST PAUL (Minneapolis, St. Paul: apartments, lofts, condos)

[Maduri]

Hi,

My husband and I are considering a move to St Paul,MN. I come from NJ and he comes from Cleveland. Here is what we want to know:

1. How is the IT market there and more specifically in Java/J2EE space? What are some of the big organizations there?
2. Weather is bad I know, but how bad? Compared to Cleveland or NJ?, Are winters very windy? How long does winter last?
3. Which are some of the nicer places(urban) to live in St Paul? my husband's prospective work place is on Energy Drive. We would like to preferably live in or close to downtown amongst lots of shops and theatres(basically want a busy and fun place).
4. How much is the Asian Indian population? Which are areas close to Indian grocery, Indian things etc..?
5. Which are the neighborhoods well connected with public transportation?

Thanks for your inputs!

Cheers

[Clifford63]

As a whole, the IT market is good here, but like most everywhere else, now is not a great time to find a job. Lot of Fortune 500 companies with HQ. 3M, Best Buy, Target, General Mills, Carlson Companies, US Bank, TCF, Wells Fargo has 30K people here even though HQ is in Cali. There are some large private firms like Cargill too.

As far as Java dev goes, not sure what your oportunities look like. I believe many are starting to feel it is highly over rated in terms of being platform independent, expensive to develop in, as well as bloated and slow. My opinion is there is much higher demand for .Net developers, and people with DB skills.

Energy Park Drive is easily accessed from either Minneapolis or St. Paul. due to it being on the very west edge of St. Paul.

There are substantial numbers of Indian people. Lot of them doing contract work in IT shops. Guessing many are H1 Visa. Woodbury in specific has some Indian population, so you might look there, but it is not going to match what you say you are looking for in #3.

Minneapolis and St. Paul have decent bus transportation. Minneapolis has Light Rail from airport to downtown, which might be of use if you live along that route. If you stay in the city, you should have pretty good transportation options, although you should realize that the routes are downtown centric. For example if you lived in Highland Park or Summit/Grand, you would likely need to transfer busses to get to Energy Park.

Winter is going to be tougher than NJ or Cleveland, but not incredibly so. It gets colder here and stays colder longer. YOu will get opinions that vary on how long winter is. I say roughly 12/1 to 4/1. That said we just got snow yesterday, but it melted already.

[Maduri]

Thank you Clifford.
I am not particular about living in Asian Indian populated areas. I want to be close enough to get groceries etc.
So which city do you recommend living in out of Minneapolis and St Paul?
Which are more of the urban areas in these cities?

[MplsTodd]

I don't know how much you can afford, but there are several urban areas of St Paul that are high on amenities (shops/restaurants), including:

Grand Avenue: This is one of the nicest retail streets in the twin Cities, especially between Dale Street and Lexington, but its also nice all the way to the west (there's a Whole Foods at Fairview)

Selby: There's a nice collection of restaurants with a few shops at Western Avenue. This is close to the historic Ramsey Hill/Cathedral Hill areas.

Ford Parkway & Cleveland: the Highland Park area, this area is quais-urban, being a mix of an old fashioned streetcar retail area and 1960s style suburban centers.

Downtown St. Paul: Look at the Lowertown Neighborhood--there's lots of apartments and condos in the blocks around Mears park. It's a historic area and has a great Farmers Market. It's an easy walk to the Ordway Theater and the Fitzgerald Theater (Home to Prairie Home Companion and lots of public radio special shows) plus several nice restaurants. DT St Paul tends to be much less active than Dt Mpls--it depends what you're looking for.

An area near Dt Mpls that might also work would be the Historic St Anthony district (not to be confused with St Paul's St Anthony Park, or the suburb known as St Anthony). The Historic St Anthony neighborhood is on the east side of the river across from DT Mpls, and is close to lots of restaurants and bars along East Hennepin, plus Lunds Grocery and the riverfront.

There's lots of ethnic grocery stores in both cities and many 1st ring suburbs. I don't know about Indian groceries specifically, but University Avenue in St Paul and Nicollet Avenue in South Mpls plus Central Avenue in NE Mpls tends to have high concentrations of ethnic food stores and restaurants.

Regarding the weather: Winter is longer and colder than Cleveland and New Jersey. I lived in NJ for 5 years and found it to be pretty mild, though occasionally noticed a real damp cold. My wife is from Southern Ohio. Generally she prefers winters of Mpls to Ohio, because we get a lot more sun and less snow and less freezing rain. Summers tend to be nicer and less humid than New Jersey or So Ohio (not sure about Cleveland though).

[Minnehahapolitan]

Originally Posted by Maduri

Hi,

My husband and I are considering a move to St Paul,MN. I come from NJ and he comes from Cleveland. Here is what we want to know:

1. How is the IT market there and more specifically in Java/J2EE space? What are some of the big organizations there?
2. Weather is bad I know, but how bad? Compared to Cleveland or NJ?, Are winters very windy? How long does winter last?
3. Which are some of the nicer places(urban) to live in St Paul? my husband's prospective work place is on Energy Drive. We would like to preferably live in or close to downtown amongst lots of shops and theatres(basically want a busy and fun place).
4. How much is the Asian Indian population? Which are areas close to Indian grocery, Indian things etc..?
5. Which are the neighborhoods well connected with public transportation?

Thanks for your inputs!

Cheers

1. Can't really help there.
2. It is significatly colder than New Jersey. Compared to Cleveland, it is colder, sunnier and less snowy.
3. Downtown is nice, but can be somewhat unexciting compared to Mpls.. The architecture is nice, there are quite a few cultural things (Ordway, Xcel Arena, et. cetera). It is really clean and safe. Lowertown has alot of lofts and artists, along with a good farmers' market. Around downtown, there is Cathedral Hill and West 7th. Neighborhoods like Highland Park, Mac-Groveland and Saint Anthony Park are very walkable and are highly sought after.
4. Saint Paul proper doen't have alot of South Asians in it, Central Avenue in Northeast Minneapolis does, however, and is pretty close to most of Saint Paul's neighborhoods. Patel Grocery is at about 22nd, which is the largest Indian grocer around here that I know of.
5. The cities proper of Mpls. and Saint Paul are well-served by buses, and a light rail is planned down University Avenue to connect both downtowns and the Univ. of Minn.. The further from the core cities that you go, public transit becomes increasingly more unreliable (except in the case of commuting into downtown.)