An Outsiders Observations of The Cities (Minneapolis, St. Paul: living, moving to, rankings)

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by cdubs3201

Minnesotans tend to lock themselves into marriage pretty early.

Not if they're sane, IMO. (I was 41).

[Ben Around]

Originally Posted by Slig

Yeah but there is no chance the plant will turn into urban decay as is the case in Detroit, Pontiac, Flint, etc. The St. Paul Ford plant is situated on one of the richest pieces of real estate in the Twin Cities.

True. No way will this land sit idle like the abandoned auto plants in Detroit. But I hope the site's re-use isn't second-ring suburb style. With the Ford plant in operation, we have a nice, convenient, peaceful, walkable, neighborhood now. I'd hate to see it turn into another traffic-choked Maple Grove or Eagan. (Nothing aginst those burbs, it's just that the TC has an overabundance of them now, but very few neighborhoods left like Highland Pk.)

[StPaulEastSider]

Originally Posted by cdubs3201

He means all of the beautiful MARRIED people....

Minnesotans tend to lock themselves into marriage pretty early.

I wouldn't agree with this... I personally married young, but I married a Georgian while living in Georgia, and down there, yeah - they marry young.

But I was the first in my group of friends from Minnesota to get married, and it was years before others in my group of friends started to walk down the aisle.

I was a first-time mother at 22, which I discovered is a pretty strange age to be a new mom... at my childbirth preparations, all the new moms were either in their thirties or teenagers.

Yes, this was in Minnesota, we moved back to MN as soon as we discovered we were pregnant.

[scolls]

In Michigan no one marries young. You get more welfare being a single parent. It seems only the bible belt states would marry young.

[uptown_urbanist]

Marrying young doesn't automatically relate to either parenthood or welfare - what a bunch of stereotypical assumptions. I married young (21), didn't have a kid until my late 20s (in other words did not marry because a baby was on the way), and am not (and have never been) a single parent, on welfare, or religious, for that matter.

I got married much before most of my MN friends of the same age, by the way. I don't think of MN as being a particularly young-to-marry kind of state.

[DannyBanany]

No plans to marry any time soon here! I hope moving to Minnesota doesn't change that either!!! Maybe the cold temperatures make relationships stronger in Minnesota -just a theory.

[Highpointer]

According to a survey by the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends project, only 16 percent of respondents said they would like to live in the Minneapolis / St.Paul metropolitan area. Only Kansas City, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Detroit ranked lower in the study. Here is an article which describes the results of the study:

Twin Cities rank low in preferred places to live - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal

What can the Twin Cities do to improve their national reputation and popularity?

[mrconfusion87]

Originally Posted by Highpointer

According to a survey by the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends project, only 16 percent of respondents said they would like to live in the Minneapolis / St.Paul metropolitan area. Only Kansas City, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Detroit ranked lower in the study. Here is an article which describes the results of the study:

Twin Cities rank low in preferred places to live - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal

What can the Twin Cities do to improve their national reputation and popularity?

It can't because of the VERY COLD weather! But its nice... Keeps the riffraff away!

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Highpointer

What can the Twin Cities do to improve their national reputation and popularity?

Is having more transplants in the Twin Cities a desirable goal?

[MNBill]

Originally Posted by DannyBanany

No plans to marry any time soon here! I hope moving to Minnesota doesn't change that either!!! Maybe the cold temperatures make relationships stronger in Minnesota -just a theory.

You have a point here. I've noticed a LOT of friends and co-workers have birthdays in October, November and December (including my wife), which of course, means they were conceived in January, February and March, the 3 most miserable weather months of the year here. I was born in Feb., but I am not a MN native.