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I don't know St. Cloud very well, except from passing through it. But from that I have to say I don't think it's very pretty. Division St. is a mess, full of parking lots, chain restaurants, and generally sprawl-style development. Plus, it's REALLY flat.
Well after living in Duluth, everywhere is flat... I have lived in Duluth.
Division is a mess, but have you driven through any suburb in the USA?
I have lived in St Cloud for 5 years. I could show you many, many, many places that are very pretty. And this is coming from someone who lived in Duluth as well.
I grew up in St Cloud, this place sucks balls point blank. Cops are a bunch of 120lb weaklings who think they're hulks, the schools are ****ty, the people are racist, everyone hates somalians, who are isolated into their own world anyway...(all the Somalians I met in the cities were always pretty friendly, I think they know the hatred that people up in St Cloud have for them).
The streetlights take forever to change, after 9PM the streets are DEAD. Theres really no decent parks (whitney is alright). The quarrys are pretty fun for biking an trail riding, even off trail hiking.. Warner Lake (not warren as someone said) is about 15 minutes away, the beach sucks you get maybe 20 feet of sand from the water to the tree line. The east side is scum but they cleaned it up over recent years. Theres nothing for under 21 yr olds to do...St. cloud state is meh. Theres no jobs since you have maybe 50,000 jobs and 100,000 people contending for them and most are low paying retail BS as people have said.
The surrounding "suburbs" Ie sartell, sauk rapids, waite park dont have anything noteworthy. Oh yeah sartell cops are the worst they will pull you over for spitting out your gum like we're in singapore or something.
Not much diversity or culture for that matter...the library is nice tho. The cops are about to turn st cloud into a martial law stronghold (2 cop shops, 1 brand new all within 2 blocks), but it still takes 10 minutes for them to make a 3 minute drive from downtown to your house.
Theres NO public swimming pools. They closed the best one (Municipal by tech highschool) years ago due to "lack of funds"...yeah but they can build up the bogus police force which takes forever if you ever call them.
Saw a lady take a dive off her scooter in front of the cop shop by the post office today. Cops were right on the scene, 20 minutes later on our way back she was still laying there no ambulance in sight. Wtf.
Positives? Well its the closest "big city" to Minneapolis. If anything just move to a burb of the cities, maybe Maple Grove or something which is St. Cloud x 100 and only 15 minutes from the skyline.
If Minneapolis was the acheiving sibling with charm an charisma and confidence, St. Cloud would be its infantile glue eating brother.
Well, a city is as great as you make it. If you don't like it, then try to find something to like about it. Get out and do different things. It is an isolated place in central Minnesota, but it's only an hour from the TC. I wouldnt say that Maple Grove is that great. Maybe it looks nice and pretty but it has no character whatsoever. It's just another generic suburb. At least in St. Cloud you have a central place in a downtown, and the Mississippi.
Well, a city is as great as you make it. If you don't like it, then try to find something to like about it. Get out and do different things. It is an isolated place in central Minnesota, but it's only an hour from the TC. I wouldnt say that Maple Grove is that great. Maybe it looks nice and pretty but it has no character whatsoever. It's just another generic suburb. At least in St. Cloud you have a central place in a downtown, and the Mississippi.
The fifth ave project is going to be amazing and first class.
They're moving lots of dirt. The plans look amazing. Are any of the lofts going to be residential? Or is it all student?
The lofts will be for any resident, college age or seniors. I assume there will be a nice mix of college kids, younger professionals and thirty somethings.
Ugh don't get me started on this retarded town. MrMinneapolis is right on pretty much every point. The roads suck, the lights suck, (traffic jam on 15 at 3am?!?!) and I will be so bold as to hit on a new topic... The PEOPLE SUCK!
First off, I grew up in the Mpls subs then moved here 8 years ago. Ive worked in the ghettos of Mpls. To the snobbatorium of Saint Paul. Ive worked all around MN but only HERE do I run into what was described to me as the "retard recycle bin" when I got here.*
Boy was that proven to be true. I tell stories of the people here everywhere I go and no one can believe it, nor top it. (see: Saint Cloud Superman, John Fillah)
The biitchiest people I met either are born here or flock here from all over the US. There's some good people here but few and far between.*
People in STC are elitists. They think their shiit dont stink and are very arrogant. Doctors at the hospital almost always come from other areas and repeatedly confirm this. Nurses are known to biitch at Doctors over petty things (which in the trade is a big no-no), the hospital is good but not THAT good in comparison to the Twin Cities. Their favorite answers for your ailments? A condescending grin and "thats normal". The other hospitals have been known to dislike them for their misdiagnosises.*
Also I was told that STC is a city that still thinks its a small town. Then I moved to this God forsaken rock and saw first hand. The people here from the college students, to mill workers, to retail workers, to Police and Sheriffs workers are all huge on GOSSIP! Like, obsessively. Ive worked with them all and couldnt BELIEVE MY EARS some of the shiit they talk! All the rumors are like verbal crack to these idiots. These people are so two faced they will not hesitate to throw their best "friends" under the bus the moment they leave. I mean, who does that?? In Jr High or even Highschool sure but these are grown adults with kids and grand kids. I admit every city has this but Ive never seen it THIS bad regardless the town. Neither had many of my college friends who were from all over the state/country.*
I got here and in a week I wanted to puke and move back. But school kept me here and then the housing market crashed. So now Im imprisoned to this cesspool.*
My issues with ST Cloud are summed up in the following:
1. The elitist attitude of the majority of the people as stated above. Chips and shoulders here are like chips and dip.*
2. The social cliques that are everywhere... Dont talk to new people until they "earn" the privelage of your attention. Rediculous. Also when you start a new job no one wants to help you learn the job... More fun to sit by and watch you make a mistake so they can reem you for it publicly.*
*
3. The traffic. The traffic is bad because the lights are bad. I timed a red light once at 5 minutes, and the green at 10 seconds. Ive also seen traffic jams in the middle of the night several times because the lights JUST WOULDNT CHANGE.
*
4. The roads. Theres never a through street, and very little to accommodate peds outside of campus. The medians are also an over abundance. Division street is Uturn hell because theres never an outlet and every business seems to be "inbetween". Theres a couple little shortcuts to avoid parts of Division but only in one direction.
**
5. The communist mentality the city has. Got garbage? Only the city can pick up, no private companies. Bins? Maybe later, for now you get to deal with green bags for $20 a pop for 10 bags. Lots of garbage? Buy more bags, as they clearly state not to exceed 20 lbs. Per bag. (your garage has a scale, right??)*
-Recreational fire pit in your back yard? Sure for a fee. Need an annual permit to have one. Whats this? People are using portables to bypass that permit? No problem! Permit now required for a PORTABLE fire pit...
6. Resources or lack there of. So this town is reknown for attracting people from surrounding areas, aye? Could that be because the neighboring areas consist of little more than farms? They come here from all around because its the oasis containing retail, medical... Yeah thats all I could muster up. The hospital and stores is pretty much all this city has, and theyre all chains. (Except Vals, heard that place rocks but orders weird). And even THOSE are boarding up! See: Hooters, Bakers square, O'Haras, Circut City, Ultimate Electronics, Rock City Pizza, Cub Foods (both locations), Outback Steakhouse, Crossroads Theaters (now only 1 theater in town), etc. But you got one cool library! Eh??
-Only good thing about the resturaunts is that most are 24/7. Except the McDonalds Ice Cream machine likes to "break" after midnight for some reason.
-Parks. 1 sort of good one, water park near downtown on that puddle they call Lake George (no swimming). 1 way on the East side of the river (not paved), the quarries (meh, not that bad), and NO beaches for swimming. The only lakes are the one mentioned above, Little Rock Lake way up 10 towards Rice, Pleasant Lake out in Rockville, then the Horse Shoe Chain way out in Richmond. Not one beach worth swimming at (totalling 2 beaches in all). The River? Yuck! Ive never seen any activity on the river aside from the occasional fisherman. If you want to swim in that Mississippi mud go for it. **
-Bars? Sure but who doesnt have those. Its a college town, goes hand and hand. Theres nothing here that someone from Saint Paul or Minneapolis would travel for other than college or family.
7. The cops. Now, its well known that most people hate them for doing their job which means they get in trouble, that goes for any city. But here its different. It goes back to the elitist attitude of the area. Most cops have a chip like all the others in this town but this comes with authority to play petty games at others expense. Ive read many reports where a simple traffic stop turns into an arrest because the guy argued his point. One had a chew in and spit on the ground while his buddy was getting a field sobriety test. Arrested for disorderly conduct. One guy at the press saw his wife getting groped by a drunk guy, went to intervene and the guy attacked him. He got arrested for assault (not the attacker) despite witnesses on his behalf. I personally know they carry an "arrest now ask questions later" mentality, and its to look like theyre tough on crime.*
Then there was the police chase that ended with the suspects hitting a car and fleeing on foot. The driver of the car had kids in it and they pointed the guns at HIM...*
They even keep a watch list on vehicles. Lets say they cant pull you over but didnt like the way you looked at them. They can attach a notation onto the vehicles license plate instructing to "watch for" [Enter excuse here] and that means any other cop in the state will see that when they run your plate, and try to stop you as well. (Tassle hanging from the rear view mirror/GPS Navigator 'obstructing view' are common ones). While they may be tough on crime, they are unessecarily tough on the minor offenses also.
8. The jobs. Well lets see, according to Indeed.com the hospital is the most likely candidate for a good high paying job (with education). The largest employer outside of government is Centracare. Next in line is the Paper Mill in Sartell. High paying but never hiring. Well, theres banking... Umm, you could work at the U if you attend, qualify, and impress better than the 1,000 also trying to get in. Then theres retail... The lowest paying Ive heard of anywhere. Theres virtually no room for big success here. Employment is mainly medical, manufacturing, retail, or government. Theres thousands of students travelling here for college in all sorts of fields, notice most of them dont stay?? Even the airport no longer has an airline service.
In any case, if people want to like and live in this town... Have at it, its all yours. I'm trying to escape. I commute to the TC for work and its SO worth the $20 trip each day. How I missed working with normal people again! On an interesting side note, the Vetrans Bridge averages 1 suicide attempt per month... What does that tell ya? *
Well, a city is as great as you make it. If you don't like it, then try to find something to like about it. Get out and do different things. It is an isolated place in central Minnesota, but it's only an hour from the TC. I wouldnt say that Maple Grove is that great. Maybe it looks nice and pretty but it has no character whatsoever. It's just another generic suburb. At least in St. Cloud you have a central place in a downtown, and the Mississippi.
If that is all this town can offer... A downtown and a river... FAIL! Maple grove is 100 times better, nicer, and at least has paved paths you can actually rollerblade on. And exactly what character does Maple Grove lack that Saint Cloud possesses? It has an abundance of resources, its not filling up with ghetto trash, and the neighborhoods are nicer. A city is NOT what any one person makes of it. STC has a few resources but not many for recreation and entertainment. Theres nothing here that you cant find in the Twin Cities. No history, no tourism, no camp grounds, no beaches, no pools, only 1 movie theater, no comedy clubs, no paved paths... And lets not forget no LAKES. You have to travel out of the STC area to find a decent fishing lake, which even those lack a beach.
In the Twin Cities theres always a beach nearby, several movie theaters to choose from, miles of paved walking trails, public pools galore, and its all close. You dont have to drive 20 miles out of town to find it. This town is growing but it acts like its shrinking the way everything is closing down.
If that is all this town can offer... A downtown and a river... FAIL! Maple grove is 100 times better, nicer, and at least has paved paths you can actually rollerblade on. And exactly what character does Maple Grove lack that Saint Cloud possesses? It has an abundance of resources, its not filling up with ghetto trash, and the neighborhoods are nicer. A city is NOT what any one person makes of it. STC has a few resources but not many for recreation and entertainment. Theres nothing here that you cant find in the Twin Cities. No history, no tourism, no camp grounds, no beaches, no pools, only 1 movie theater, no comedy clubs, no paved paths... And lets not forget no LAKES. You have to travel out of the STC area to find a decent fishing lake, which even those lack a beach.
In the Twin Cities theres always a beach nearby, several movie theaters to choose from, miles of paved walking trails, public pools galore, and its all close. You dont have to drive 20 miles out of town to find it. This town is growing but it acts like its shrinking the way everything is closing down.
Please keep comparing a McMansion Suburb developed in the past 30 years to an independent regional hub that has had a history since the 1850s. Maple Grove looks nice because people pay $300,000 for a 3 bdroom 3 bath generic McMansion that Maple Grove gets TONS of tax money for. Plus, Maple Grove is a retail hotbed, you know how that plays with the tax base?
St. Cloud is a city that has grown too fast to keep up. It went from a Central MN farming community to Regional Hub of Central MN. In 1980 it was a town of 30,000, and now it's nearly 70,000 strong and not to mention the giant growth of Sauk Rapids, Sartell, SCSU and SCTC.
It's got it's problems, but probably because it's population swells to over 10,000 people than it's feasible for when School is in session.
You're also comparing a 3.5 million metro (where STC is included) to a STC area with 100,000 people. Of Course there's going to be less trails, public pools. Plus it's a recession, plenty of retail centers have been biotch slapped, not just StC. You'r probably one of those people who complain about 15 and 23, but never venture off the main roads. I used to get from campus to the mall in 5 minutes and I never even touched 23.
It seems like you're just jealous of what the TC has to to offer, if you are then it's only an hour away. STC doesnt claim to be a historical, entertainment mecca. It doesnt try and compete with the TC. It knows it's place-a central MN regional hub college community. If you don't understand that and why it's like that then leave.
comparing Maple Grove to St Cloud is comparing apples to oranges.
( for all the reasons knke0204 gave)
St Cloud is a city by itself, the county seat of Stearns County, been in existance well over 100 years, has an established dowtown area ( St Germain) and is a regional hub.
It has residental dustricts with houses well over 100 years old.
Maple Grove is simply a suburb .( IMHO )
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