Minneapolis vs. Atlanta????? (St. Paul: real estate, 2014, crime)

[iNviNciBL3]

Hey all.

I was wondering which metro area you think is better to live in. Minneapolis or Atlanta??? Me and my wife have been comparing a bunch of cities to move to and we cant decide between Atlanta or Minneapolis

A little bit about us.
We are young social people who just graduated from College. We love the City Life with alot around and alot to do however we like a nice outdoorsy vacation area close by to escape home.

I know if you lived in Minneapolis you could just drive up to northern Minnesota and go boating on the lakes or go to Wisconsin Dells. However im not to sure about vacationing around Atlanta. All i know is the Smokey Mountains to the North and the Ocean to the east

[redpetticoat]

I would pick MSP. I've never been to Atlanta but I have not heard good things about it from Minnesotans who have gone there.

You don't even need to go outside of the cities to go to outdoorsy places. There are lots of parks and lakes right in the twin cities!

There are cute little towns outside of the cities that you can visit for vacays too - northfield, stillwater, etc.

msp has a few museums and a lot of theater that you can take advantage of too. As well as great concert venues, although the best acts tend to stay away during the winter months.

[uptown_urbanist]

Sounds like you'd like Minnesota. That said, with your wish list it sounds like you'd like Atlanta, too. Have you been to either city? I'd check it out in person first, if possible, otherwise try applying for jobs in both places and go with whatever you land first.

I find the states of Georgia and Minnesota to be very similar with many things as well as Minneapolis vs. Atlanta for cities.

Because of that, I think it really will come down to the weather. Do you prefer mild/warm/hot weather or colder weather? Atlanta has long hot summers and mostly mild winters. Minneapolis has an extreme 4 season climate with long very cold winters and warm but shorter summers than Atlanta. This to me is one of the only main difference between Georgia/Minnesota and Minneapolis/Atlanta.

Also Minneapolis seems slightly more progressive than Atlanta, more safe/lower crime rate.

Because of me not liking long and very cold winters I would pick Atlanta over Minneapolis and the weather is the deciding factor in this case.
But if I wasn't bothered by long and very cold winters , I would overall pick Minneapolis over Atlanta.

[iNviNciBL3]

I actually hate the cold weather but hey they made the skyway system for people like me

Currently im stuck here in Chicago, ive vacationed in Northern Minnesota, Shopped at the Mall of America and vacationed at Wisconsin dells so ive spoken to many Twin Cities residents and they seem really friendly but have many nice things to say about the area

My main concern right now is Public Transportation. Is there alot of Taxi Cabs in Minneapolis?

If i do move here i would plan on moving downtown MPLS so i could take the light rail down to the mall or take it over to St. Paul. Im not concerned about safety of the lightrail system (im good at defending myself) but is the train Cheap Comfortable or Get you to your location quick????

Originally Posted by BobMarley_1LOVE

I actually hate the cold weather but hey they made the skyway system for people like me

Currently im stuck here in Chicago, ive vacationed in Northern Minnesota, Shopped at the Mall of America and vacationed at Wisconsin dells so ive spoken to many Twin Cities residents and they seem really friendly but have many nice things to say about the area

My main concern right now is Public Transportation. Is there alot of Taxi Cabs in Minneapolis?

If i do move here i would plan on moving downtown MPLS so i could take the light rail down to the mall or take it over to St. Paul. Im not concerned about safety of the lightrail system (im good at defending myself) but is the train Cheap Comfortable or Get you to your location quick????

Well if you hate cold weather then that might be the deciding factor to pick Atlanta over Minneapolis.

Because Atlanta and Minneapolis are similar with plenty of things as well as the Minnesota and Georgia.

[cinnamon_toast]

I agree, I have heard that Minneapolis and Atlanta are similar in many ways... I have lived in Minneapolis and if you could just bottle up summer and keep it going for an extra couple months, I'd say Minneapolis hands down. But the Twin Cities are SO cold and SO dark for nearly 6 months out of the year.... I'd probably give Atlanta a try.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by cinnamon_toast

I agree, I have heard that Minneapolis and Atlanta are similar in many ways... I have lived in Minneapolis and if you could just bottle up summer and keep it going for an extra couple months, I'd say Minneapolis hands down. But the Twin Cities are SO cold and SO dark for nearly 6 months out of the year.... I'd probably give Atlanta a try.

The metros are similar in many ways, and different in many ways, some of them very surprising (at least to me).

The Twin Cities core cities combined are larger than the City of Atlanta, but the Atlanta metro is 33% larger in area and has roughly 2 million more people than do the Twin Cities. Strangely enough, though, the Twin Cities have almost twice as many F500 companies as Atlanta. Go figure.

Both metros are home to major Delta hubs (ATL is DL's home base and #1, and MSP is NW's former home base and #2). I have strong opinions about this, being former NW myself, but that's off topic for this thread.

The Twin Cities metro tends to lean left and favor regional projects, while Atlanta tends to lean right and the metro is far more politically fragmented (although a regional transportation initiative is finally starting to rear its head!).

The Twin Cities area has almost universally good public schools and also has open enrollment statewide, so someone who wants to go to a different school has at least some chance to do so. The Atlanta metro doesn't have such a thing, so school feeder patterns are very important from a real estate perspective, and subdivisions can be made or broken when a school district changes boundaries. Property values can be impacted quite a bit over time.

The Twin Cities has long cold winters and short but sometimes hot summers. Atlanta has short but sometimes nippy winters (I've measured 11 F at my house each of the last two years) and fairly hot but also fairly long summers. We had snow three times this past winter, which is a bit unusual, and the second of those was almost 5" at my house and over 8" in some parts of the northern metro, so it was "real snow".

Both metros are within driving distance of a LOT of activities, both natural and manmade. Both MN and GA are quite varied geographically from north to south.

Atlanta's economy has been slightly worse than the national average for roughly three years now and unemployment is still over 9%. The residential and retail construction market was a huge driver for the economy, and it's still struggling here. Minnesota's economy is apparently doing much better and is under 7%.

I lived in the Twin Cities for most of my first 40+ years, and I've been in an Atlanta suburb OTP (Outside The I-285 Perimeter) now for 6 1/2. I like both locations. Given a choice, I would choose the Twin Cities, but the choice would not be easy. There's something to be said for the weather in Atlanta, being able to drive to the ocean in a few hours, and having a few other cities within driving distance, but the attitude towards "government schools" held by some people down here and other factors make it a toss up in many respects. In my opinion, anyway. Especially with the down economy.

[xandrex]

Originally Posted by BobMarley_1LOVE

If i do move here i would plan on moving downtown MPLS so i could take the light rail down to the mall or take it over to St. Paul. Im not concerned about safety of the lightrail system (im good at defending myself) but is the train Cheap Comfortable or Get you to your location quick????

Downtown would give you good light rail access to the Mall of America, the airport, and a number of smaller attractions along the line. You won't be able to get to St. Paul or the University area by light rail until 2014, however, which is when the Central Corridor line opens.

I've rarely seen danger on the light rail. It's pretty safe in general. Only once did I feel mildly threatened, when a large, rude woman thought I was staring at her (she and her thug-esque friend were ganging up on a boy and play hitting him) so she said some nasty remarks and threatened to come over to me. Then again, she may not have even been saying it to me - there was about a half dozen other people standing next to me who were looking too.

[audadvnc]

I've been to the megamall 3 or 4 times in the past 20 years. It's okay, I guess, but I don't require light rail to get there.