Finding a new suburb... (St. Paul, Brooklyn Park: for sale, affordable house, neighborhood)
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Thanks, Hammy5, I'm glad to hear of experience in the district. It's kind of a bummer, considering the schools around that neighborhood look so exciting...but it is definitely something to think about. Thanks again!
New Brighton is a good town and within the Mounds View school district. I'm drawing a blank on the elementary schools there, however. We have friends whose kids went to school in the Mounds view schools, Turtle Lake and Snail lake elementary schools were good and our friends kids graduated from Iron Dale and Mounds View and did just fine.
The southern end of Shoreview (maybe 5-10 blocks?) is within the Roseville school district; and my kids attended the Roseville school district and did well there.
As far as "family friendly" areas, I've found that if there are sidewalks in the neighborhoods it's a much more neighborly place to be. At least that has been MY personal experience. Good Luck!
I graduated from Mounds View- a while back- and it was good school.
My son graduated from cooper robbinsdale 2 years ago and he made it...
There were a few problems, like when he was a sophmore and he took out $ from his wallet- about 5 ones and was approached by some unsavory kid who tried to take it until a senior football player stepped in and saved him...
There was one other situation like that- and this happened right in the school hallways--
The final straw was when he got off the bus his sophmore year- and was attacked by 4 thugs walking home from the bus stop.. They said "run your pockets" and he said NO- I have no money... then some gorilla hit him from the side (sucker punched) and broke 7 teeth as his teeth slid across each other as his jaw reacted to the blow! Again a neighbor (senior) ran out into the street and saved him- this time too late to avoid huge dental bills-none to which any of the thugs parents could afford to contribute any of their welfare checks to help pay...
We prompty moved from the area-- He did continue to drive to Cooper to finish school at the same location- (not all the kids were thugs and he made friends) but his friends and he formed a group to protect each other- as he got older and became a senior he never had those problems-- but I think those experiences made him grow up in ways that he shouldn't have had to..
He spoke alot of seeing girl fights there too- girls punching each other fights.... appalling to me but as a teenager he thought they were funny.
Now remember he graduated 2 years ago... and this stuff happened in 10th grade-- 4 years ago.. I bet it's worse now.... Robinsdale Cooper HS
I graduated from Mounds View- a while back- and it was good school.
My son graduated from cooper robbinsdale 2 years ago and he made it...
There were a few problems, like when he was a sophmore and he took out $ from his wallet- about 5 ones and was approached by some unsavory kid who tried to take it until a senior football player stepped in and saved him...
There was one other situation like that- and this happened right in the school hallways--
The final straw was when he got off the bus his sophmore year- and was attacked by 4 thugs walking home from the bus stop.. They said "run your pockets" and he said NO- I have no money... then some gorilla hit him from the side (sucker punched) and broke 7 teeth as his teeth slid across each other as his jaw reacted to the blow! Again a neighbor (senior) ran out into the street and saved him- this time too late to avoid huge dental bills-none to which any of the thugs parents could afford to contribute any of their welfare checks to help pay...
We prompty moved from the area-- He did continue to drive to Cooper to finish school at the same location- (not all the kids were thugs and he made friends) but his friends and he formed a group to protect each other- as he got older and became a senior he never had those problems-- but I think those experiences made him grow up in ways that he shouldn't have had to..
He spoke alot of seeing girl fights there too- girls punching each other fights.... appalling to me but as a teenager he thought they were funny.
Now remember he graduated 2 years ago... and this stuff happened in 10th grade-- 4 years ago.. I bet it's worse now.... Robinsdale Cooper HS
Wow! I'm sorry that those things happened to your son. I really appreciate your post, gives us something to think about.
We are actually looking at areas that fall in the Robbinsdale Armstrong HS attendance boundaries...do you know if that is much different?
Any opinion on the overall perception of southern New Hope area? When we went to look at the house it looked like it was situated in a nice neighborhood...
East Bloomington would bring your dh a little closer to work..
Selling points about East Bloomington:
[SIZE=2]* In March 2007, a new natural, organic grocery store opened just walking distance from us (in the same strip mall as a drug store, and a liquor store)
* New in 2007: Saturday Farmers' Market , July - October
* Many of the lots are around 1/3 acres, and we can legally have fire pits
* Mature trees
* Reasonably-priced homes
* Walking distance to 2 libraries, restaurants, grocery stores, parks, video stores, outdoor water park, coffee place, other stores
* On the bus route
* Short drive to Richardson Nature Center and Hyland Park Reserve, the Mall of America, the airport (though I rarely hear airplanes), Bloomington Art Center, Southdale and Southtown Malls, Bloomington Ice Gardens, Edinborough Park, Centennial Lakes Park, Edina/Richfield/South Minneapolis
* Bloomington Central Station for the Light Rail is in progress
* Great home/unschooling group of 20-plus families.
[/SIZE]
knock off this ridiculous East Bloomington nonsense and just say Bloomington.
Though any area of Bloomington is NOT as rough or dangerous as various neighborhoods throughout the city, East Bloomington is certainly worse off than West (and it's getting worse, just like the area north of it--Richfield--is hitting the fan). There IS a difference. Enough of one that if you are a sheltered suburbanite person like I am, you'd be uncomfortable in many Eastern Bloomington pockets, alone, late at night. Plus, there is a MAJOR difference between the schools west of France/Xerxes and east of there!
Thank you for posting 4bythelake, never the less, I do know of areas considered "East Bloomington" that are lovely and worth consideration...we'd just be creative which schools we would open into..we've thought about those areas in our search, so I appreciate your post.
I would also like to eat some of my words from a previous post (might have been on a different thread)...well, technically I meant everything I wrote, but I will say that after some more consideration, chatting with our realtor and spending some time in the area, my husband and I are considering the Victory neighborhood of Mpls. It looks like a great family neighborhood (I saw SO many people out and about, kids playing, people chatting or working outdoors). Our main concerns are about schools. I have been to their site and searched for neighborhood schools...their ratings online are not super high (though the district overall scores higher than Richfield<~the district I grew up in). Can anyone shed some light on schools near the Victory neighborhood that people would honestly recommend?
Also, and this may be a dumb question given how wonderful the neighborhood looked, but are there really any pockets of bad spots in that neighborhood? Our realtor said the general rule of thumb has been staying above Lowry is good but above Dowling is even better. Looks to me like Victory is above Dowling, south of the Industrial area and west of Penn. So is anything within those boundaries fair game? How close to the parkway do you have to be or is that not really important?
How about areas in general...Mahtomedi sounds like a winner overall. Rosemount, obviously. Mounds View, New Brighton, Shoreview...are they good places to live?
What's there to do around the eastern suburbs?
Yeah, they're good too. Mounds View is kinda low rent though. Shoreview is more expensive. New Brighton is nice.
Oh yeah, Mounds View school is different from Mounds View the city. Mounds View high school is actually in Arden Hills.
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I really appreciate your post, gives us something to think about. 
