Family friendly neighborhoods in Minneapolis (Crystal, Robbinsdale: fit in, sales, foreclosures)

[hamr0032]

For the last 9 years, my husband and I have been renting in the Whittier/Uptown area. Our daughter has attended a neighborhood school, but the area hasn't exactly been brimming with children which has posed its share of struggles. She was recently accepted into FAIR school for this school year and so we have the ability to live anywhere in the city for transportation purposes. Additionally, we are now searching for a home around $200,000 or less. We've been looking at neighborhoods such as Longfellow, Standish and Victory, but I am worried they may not be family friendly and/or we will all go into shock over being in such residential areas with little access to the things we have enjoyed while living where we do now. Any input on neighborhoods or thoughts from those who live/ have lived in any of these neighborhoods with children? Thanks so much!

[Camden Northsider]

Wow- I guess everyone must have been expecting me to pipe in on this one so decided to leave it alone! All of the neighborhoods you are looking at are pretty safe- the Longfellow/ Seward neighborhood areas would have the higher amount of crime of the 3 which still isn't much, and in my opinion all are nice neighborhoods.

You will have no worries about family-friendliness if you move to the Victory Neighborhood. There are many activities/events that occur regularly here geared towards families- on a couple of occassions we've asked our friends if we can borrow their kids in order to fit in better. Some of the bigger ones: Holiday on 44th, Victory Ice Cream Social, outdoor movies on the parkway, "Live on the Drive" concert series, the Victory garage sales (has massive participation and is a great way to get out and meet your neighbors), Loring Community Schoolyard garden/Kids Cook events (fall harvest, banquets, etc.), Camden Farmers' Market, and ongoing family-oriented activities at Webber Park in the next-door neighborhood of Webber-Camden (Folwell Park also has some nice events like Shakespeare in the Park and Dog Daze). Most of the Victory n'hood events mentioned above are organized by the ViNA (neighborhood association- Victory Neighborhood: the official website of the Minneapolis neighborhood) which is highly active and a great place to get involved and meet the neighbors.

Other family-oriented amenities in the area: Victory Park (next to Loring School) has tennis courts, wading pool, basketball court, and an area that is currently being converted to a soccer field. Webber Park has a library, community center with organized youth activities throughout the year, an olympic-sized swimming pool, pond (and waterfalls) turned ice skating rink w/warming house in the winter, freshly resurfaced tennis courts, and trails that connect to Victory Memorial Pkwy to the west and North Mississippi Regional Park to the east. Kitty-corner to Webber Park they will be building a new $15M Webber library shortly. Victory Memorial Parkway offers tons of green space where kids and neighbors regularly organize games and is great for walking/biking, and we were happy to find when we moved here that there are a few lakes w/in walking distance albeit on a smaller scale than the more well-known lakes (Ryan Lake here in the n'hood, Crystal Lake in Robbinsdale, Cedar Lake & Theo Wirth Park areas are a short bike ride on the parkways).

Many neighbors/ blocks organize events here throughout the year- there seems to be a trend in people opening up their houses to neighbors lately for concert series, plays/puppet shows, etc. There are a massive amount of block clubs in the neighborhood which is a good way to meet neighbors and find excuses to get together- Nat'l Night Out is huge here, I would guess at least every other block if not more have well-attended celebrations, and I've even seen a block on Xerxes (parkway) that regularly rents bouncy castles and puts them on the parkway for events like these.

Regarding other kids in the neighborhood- we know some people who have older kids attending FAIR here and I've seen several other homes with signs supporting FAIR in their front yards. I believe there is a higher per capita rate of kids in Victory vs. the Minneapolis average, but you will find that some blocks literally have kids in just about every house and others won't have many if any (my block has a few infants, a preschooler, and a few high school kids). However, Victory is going through some big change right now with many longtime residents aging out (e.g. going to condos, retirement homes, becoming snowbirds, etc.) while very young singles, couples, and families are moving in- in just the past couple of years it feels like I've seen an explosion of people with strollers around which includes a very visible stay at home moms group (which I have to admit seems a little out of place). On our block we're friends with about 5 other homeowner couples in their 20s/early 30s without kids (yet). Another regular on here (kebinmn) is a parent and lives just across the parkway in Robbinsdale and has mentioned that in her area there does seem to be a good amount of starter families with young children but that many families leave and move out to bigger homes in the suburbs as their families grow (I tend to see a lot more infants/toddlers and elementary-aged kids in this n'hood vs. middle/high school aged kids as well). Hopefully a Victory parent will find this and give their experiences.

We moved here from Uptown/ Whittier area ourselves (wife lived in Lowry Hill East for several years, I was in Whittier). I'd say the only shock we went into after having moved here was not being able to sleep the first week as it was too quiet (we were very accustomed to buses running at all hours of the day outside our windows), and being borderline creeped out by how friendly, outgoing, and talkative the people in the neighborhood are to everyone they meet (we've since managed to become those people ourselves)- on many levels it does almost feel like a small town in the city here. As for restaurants, there's not a ton but the n'hood holds its own and seems to be on an uptick- we have Victory 44, Papa's Restaurant/Deli, Emily's Cafe, and Steamworks Coffee which are all great neighborhood/locally-owned establishments that draw people from around the area, and we similarly have easy access (sometimes walkable) to some good eateries/restaurants in Robbinsdale and greater Camden area. There are plans for a major redevelopment of the 44th Ave/ Osseo Road business node in the future, and you can see some great community theatre (Workhouse) at this intersection as well. If the n'hood offerings don't do the trick, Uptown is pretty easy to get to via 94 or a scenic parkway drive from here.

Despite big recent drops (like everywhere)- housing values tend to hold pretty well here so don't let some of the pre-bidding war foreclosure prices fool you (if you have two exact houses, one a foreclosure and one a non-foreclosure, the non-foreclosure will often list and sell for $100K more than the foreclosure, and the foreclosure will generally sell for a fair amount more than its original listing price); however, even the foreclosures seem to be raising back up a little in value nowadays and are seemingly much fewer and farther between than they were the past couple of years (and those seemingly brought a lot of new young people to the n'hood).

Although your kids can live anywhere in Mpls and get transportation back and forth to FAIR, one thing I would keep in mind is that you as parents will still be making many trips back and forth to the school for events, parent-teacher conferences, etc. throughout the year. Victory by far will be the easiest on your commute times and actually pretty convenient to getting there, esp. in comparison to the two other neighborhoods you are looking at. And, although the 3 areas likely have fairly comparable prices per square foot, your best chance of finding a little more house for the money is likely in Victory right now- which definitely wouldn't have been the case just a few years ago.

My last piece of advice woudl be to take your family to eat at Victory 44 or Papa's and then walk over to Loring School/Victory Park area and then on to the parkway- my two favorite streets in victory are xerxes and washburn south of 44th Ave if you're looking for a longer walk, and if you go on a Thursday between 3p-7pm you could check out the Camden Farmers' Market on 44th/Osseo Road. Don't be afraid to stop and ask the people you see if they live in the n'hood and what they like about it. Good luck with your decision & feel free to direct message me with any Victory-related questions.

Wow- this post got a lot longer than I intended (I tend to be long-winded, esp. on this subject).

[Slig]

Crime was not asked about by the OP so I'm not sure why you brought it up, but according to your 2008 analysis Seward has the lowest crime of the three neighborhoods when Larceny is not considered and is essentially identical to Victory when you consider larceny.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/minne...-analysis.html

With that being said I feel it is inaccurate to make the claim that Victory has the lowest crime of the three areas. Yes, we all have read in every other one of your posts that Victory is a pleasant neighborhood but in all honesty there probably isn't a whole lot about it that you wouldn't be able to find in the Seward/Longfellow or several other areas in the city in the OP's price range. Neighborhoods like Corcoran, Standish as well as some parts of Nokomis and Northeast have homes in the 200k or less range and are more family oriented than Whittier. I wouldn't limit the search to just Longfellow, Seward and Victory.

[Camden Northsider]

Originally Posted by Slig

Crime was not asked about by the OP so I'm not sure why you brought it up, but according to your 2008 analysis Seward has the lowest crime of the three neighborhoods when Larceny is not considered and is essentially identical to Victory when you consider larceny.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/minne...-analysis.html

With that being said I feel it is inaccurate to make the claim that Victory has the lowest crime of the three areas. Yes, we all have read in every other one of your posts that Victory is a pleasant neighborhood but in all honesty there probably isn't a whole lot about it that you wouldn't be able to find in the Seward/Longfellow or several other areas in the city in the OP's price range. Neighborhoods like Corcoran, Standish as well as some parts of Nokomis and Northeast have homes in the 200k or less range and are more family oriented than Whittier. I wouldn't limit the search to just Longfellow, Seward and Victory.

Hey Slig, I actually didn't say that Victory was the lowest crime- I said that Longfellow/Seward would have higher crime (Longfellow being the highest of the bunch) of the 3, which I stated after looking at both my analysis from last year and Jan- July of this current year. Standish is actually the lowest crime of the group, but again- they are all nice safe areas. You're right that I may have been reading into the "family-friendliness" thing a little bit by talking about crime, but in the past when people use this phrase they are often getting at wanting to know about crime rates as well.

I agree that the search shouldn't be limited- I do get a little long-winded about Victory and obviously have my biases toward it- it would be the closest neighborhood to FAIR in the under $200K price range in Minneapolis however.

[Camden Northsider]

Correction to my last post- Victory is the closest of any Minneapolis neighborhood to the FAIR school (app. 2.5 mi drive).