My Impressions of Minneapolis (Edina: sales, how much, hotel)
Minneapolis - St. PaulTwin Cities
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I visited your beautiful city for a week and was very impressed. First off I have to say Minneapolians (what is the correct term?) seem really nice folks. I posted on the retirement forum I was coming to check out the city and one of the other posters offered to meet me and take me around town which she did. I have made a new friend.
My intentions are to find a city in which I can semi-retire in a couple of years. I will always need to work to add to Social Security benefits which I will be collecting at that time. So I need a place where I can work but is also kind to Seniors.
I enjoyed everything I saw and spent time walking downtown and getting lost in the skyways a couple of times) and being taken to various neighborhoods. My new friend showed me a spot in Edina which was geared for Senior living. It had everything close by. I do not have a car and from what I have seen public transportation is good everywhere in the city and suburbs.
I spoke to people who were very nice but they all felt they should warn me about the severe winters. I think I can handle those. I prefer the cold to the heat. Everywhere I went I chatted with wait-staff, sales people, hotel workers, etc. They all seemed to be happy in Minneapolis.
I am hoping that if I choose Minneapolis to live that I will be able to find a part time job or if I move before I actually retire, a full time position. I don't know how high an unemployment rate Minneapolis has but I will research that.
There are a couple of other places I am going to check out. But Minneapolis will remain on my short list.
I posted once before asking about Minneapolis. Now that I have been there and seen if for myself I think the only question that remains is are there any negatives I may be missing? Opinions are most welcome.
Nice post - Mpls/Stpl are nice areas and the only thing I complain about are the long and sometimes severe winters - so, if you can take that, why not?!
You didn't visit Stpl but I'm thinking the cost of living might be a tad bit cheaper - maybe not - maybe someone from Stpl can chime in (Aylalou????????????????????????) Aylalou lives in Stpl so I DM'ed her and she is looking at Portland - you two really need to connect. I didn't think of contacting her til after you were gone (of course, I'm lucky I can find my but- with both hands these days), but she replied that she'd like to talk to you. You can share info about your cities.
Glad you like us As with everywhere, we have the good and the bad. I keep hearing on this board that MN people are hard to get to know - could be true. Then I read other boards and hear the same thing - who knows.
You were a delightful visitor - I wish I would have had more time. Good luck!
Glad you enjoyed your visit. I've traveled extensively and, while there are a few places I could see moving to, I am very content to live in Minneapolis and find it to offer a very high quality of life. The winter weather is the toughest attribute--actually I find March the toughest month as the winter just lasts about one month too long. Although today was unseasonably cold ( a high of 55), we've had a beautiful late spring and it reminds me how much I like it here--especially biking around the lakes or along the riverfront.
The other negatives are what we don't have: access to the ocean or mountains! Many people complain about our relatively high taxes, but I think its worth it with better public amenities and services (especially schools, parks and generally a high standard for politicians and public servants).
I visited your beautiful city for a week and was very impressed. First off I have to say Minneapolians (what is the correct term?) seem really nice folks. I posted on the retirement forum I was coming to check out the city and one of the other posters offered to meet me and take me around town which she did. I have made a new friend.
My intentions are to find a city in which I can semi-retire in a couple of years. I will always need to work to add to Social Security benefits which I will be collecting at that time. So I need a place where I can work but is also kind to Seniors.
I enjoyed everything I saw and spent time walking downtown and getting lost in the skyways a couple of times) and being taken to various neighborhoods. My new friend showed me a spot in Edina which was geared for Senior living. It had everything close by. I do not have a car and from what I have seen public transportation is good everywhere in the city and suburbs.
I spoke to people who were very nice but they all felt they should warn me about the severe winters. I think I can handle those. I prefer the cold to the heat. Everywhere I went I chatted with wait-staff, sales people, hotel workers, etc. They all seemed to be happy in Minneapolis.
I am hoping that if I choose Minneapolis to live that I will be able to find a part time job or if I move before I actually retire, a full time position. I don't know how high an unemployment rate Minneapolis has but I will research that.
There are a couple of other places I am going to check out. But Minneapolis will remain on my short list.
I posted once before asking about Minneapolis. Now that I have been there and seen if for myself I think the only question that remains is are there any negatives I may be missing? Opinions are most welcome.
Hi Minervah. Glad you enjoyed your visit. I'm just curious about your move. If you don't mind, can you tell us why you are moving from Portland to retire? I've visited there a couple times and thought it was a great city, one of my new favorites. Is it not a good place to live in retirement?
The other negatives are what we don't have: access to the ocean or mountains! Many people complain about our relatively high taxes, but I think its worth it with better public amenities and services (especially schools, parks and generally a high standard for politicians and public servants).
My city has mountains and an ocean and hour a couple of hours away but the cost of living near them is dear. We have no sales tax but our property and income taxes are pretty high. I do not have children but from what I hear from most people schools are bad. Our public transportation system is closing 15 bus lines and cutting service on 20 even though ridership has been at record numbers. 55% of public transportation is funded by payroll tax but businesses are either shutting down or moving out so that revenue has been drastically reduce. The rest of the operation funds comes from the state which seems not to be able to afford it.
We are second only to Detroit in unemployment. The cost of living is very high. After struggling here for 30 years to get by, the mountains and the ocean are not worth it. Although I admit I will miss them when I move. Mpls has beautiful lakes that could make me very happy.
My city has mountains and an ocean and hour a couple of hours away but the cost of living near them is dear. We have no sales tax but our property and income taxes are pretty high. I do not have children but from what I hear from most people schools are bad. Our public transportation system is closing 15 bus lines and cutting service on 20 even though ridership has been at record numbers. 55% of public transportation is funded by payroll tax but businesses are either shutting down or moving out so that revenue has been drastically reduce. The rest of the operation funds comes from the state which seems not to be able to afford it.
We are second only to Detroit in unemployment. The cost of living is very high. After struggling here for 30 years to get by, the mountains and the ocean are not worth it. Although I admit I will miss them when I move. Mpls has beautiful lakes that could make me very happy.
Glad you enjoyed the visit. Summers in MN are very nice. We have a lot of very nice parks and the climate is very good for gardening. We are not as dry as the west or as humid as the south, so this is a pretty good situation in spring, summer and fall.
The Edina area in paticular is setup for retirement living quite nicely. Everything you need for services and shopping is close and there are some nice communities for retirement living too.
Cost of living in Metro MN is not horrible, but not cheap either. Taxes are structured a bit different than many places. We tend to have lower property taxes and higher income taxes (depending on your bracket). This is somewhat progressive as it tends to allow people of lower incomes to own homes without being overburdened. Metro area property taxes are quite a bit higher than outstate areas in most cases. I would think for retirement living, a person could be in a situation where tax burden is not bad at all with modest home and income.
Correct term is Minneapolitans. Good luck sorting things out. Sounds like you have a good approach.
I am a ways out from retirement. I can't imaging not spending summers here. Not sure about splitting time with another location yet. We see a growing number of people that summer here, but spend 6 months or more in states without income tax like Florida and Arizona. My take on this is those people have fairly high income. High enough that they can maintain a second home or portion of those for the taxes they are avoiding. Arizona in paticular has some very affordable retirement living.
Hi Minervah. Glad you enjoyed your visit. I'm just curious about your move. If you don't mind, can you tell us why you are moving from Portland to retire? I've visited there a couple times and thought it was a great city, one of my new favorites. Is it not a good place to live in retirement?
Whoops, I missed your question but I kind of answered it in my last post. Here's a few more reasons: I need to work after retirement part-time. As I mentioned the unemployment rate is high here and add age-discrimination to the mix and it would be difficult to find work. I know age discrimination is everywhere but when jobs are so hard to come by for everyone it's even more difficult for older folks.
In general Portland is a young people's town. There is nothing for seniors like the area I saw in Edina or I have heard about elsewhere. It takes a good deal of money to live here with the high cost of living. We don't get a whole lot of anything for our high taxes.
There is a mystique about Portland that I don't believe lives up to the hype. But that's me.
The scenery is beautiful but one can't live on scenery. There are other towns in Oregon that people retire to and are great like Ashland but again it takes quite a bit of money to survive.
I think too that after 30 years of living here and seeing so many friends move elsewhere because of the economy I just want to move to a more suitable place.
Whoops, I missed your question but I kind of answered it in my last post. Here's a few more reasons: I need to work after retirement part-time. As I mentioned the unemployment rate is high here and add age-discrimination to the mix and it would be difficult to find work. I know age discrimination is everywhere but when jobs are so hard to come by for everyone it's even more difficult for older folks.
In general Portland is a young people's town. There is nothing for seniors like the area I saw in Edina or I have heard about elsewhere. It takes a good deal of money to live here with the high cost of living. We don't get a whole lot of anything for our high taxes.
There is a mystique about Portland that I don't believe lives up to the hype. But that's me.
The scenery is beautiful but one can't live on scenery. There are other towns in Oregon that people retire to and are great like Ashland but again it takes quite a bit of money to survive.
I think too that after 30 years of living here and seeing so many friends move elsewhere because of the economy I just want to move to a more suitable place.
We do have lots of services, organizations, groups for older people here. And I think MN may be among the least likely places where you will find age discrimination in the workplace. Not saying it doesn't happen, just that it probably happens less here than most other places in the US.
where near my age. I have friends that have as well
Age discrimination is very much alive here - I've personally experienced it and I don't look anywhere near my age. I've heard grumbling from many others as well. I don't know how MN compares to other places - I'm sure there are places that are worse, but it's here. I'm just cautioning Minervah so she doesn't move here thinking getting a job here will be a piece of cake.
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Opinions are most welcome.
As with everywhere, we have the good and the bad. I keep hearing on this board that MN people are hard to get to know - could be true. Then I read other boards and hear the same thing - who knows.
