St Paul - Good nearby places to buy! (Little Canada, Mahtomedi: house, water heater)

[Ben Around]

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[Ben Around]

Originally Posted by mazzer

The crimes not too good where we are living. We were shocked at the level and seriousness of the crime.

The costs are simply over the top here too so we can't wait to move.

The schools are dreadful.

We can't even let the kids play in the street for fear of strangers, there's too many stories of kids getting snatched.

Now in the UK we could play anywhere, of course these days that's also not the case. I'm not sure what happened, but my Mum and Dad were hands off parents. We could generally go anywhere we liked as kids. I remember my Dad leaving me in the car while he went buying fish for his aquariums. I'd be on my own waiting for ages. My wife remembers her Mum and Dad leaving her and her siblings while they went for a meal! Too poor to pay for 4 kids!

Now we are totally hands on parents, pretty much like everyone else but now we can't let our kids get out of sight, have to accompany them to the park, arrange play dates (a thing unheard of in my childhood). It was a case of calling for friends with the typical "can xyz come out to play?".

Regarding Scotland, great people the Scots. The best of them is Billy Connolly, a Scottish welder gone comedian gone hollywood star. The one thing I do like about LA is the fact that he's playing there in March. The only highlight of our year!!

mazzer, sounds like where you are is pretty dreadful. I think you'll be pleasnatly surprised by the Twin Cities (execpt for maybe the weather!). Your attraction to St. Paul (old world flavor, Victorian architecture) should lead you to consider a city neighborhood, regardless of what my suburban neighbor says about it.

[golfgal]

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[Mumof3]

Originally Posted by golfgal

Most of the renovated Victorian's in Stillwater were done right, keeping the original features, etc. Personally I wouldn't look in the St. Paul area unless you like the real urban setting. The nice thing about Stillwater is your kids can ride their bikes to their friends houses and you won't have to worry about them, very safe town. You couldn't pay me enough to live in Minneapolis.

I would stay away from Roseville, Little Canada, Woodbury, Cottage Grove, etc. Any of the towns in the Stillwater district are fine (Afton, Marine, etc.). You could go over to West St. Paul/Mendota Heights and have a nice easy commute since you will be going against traffic. You could probably find an older home, maybe 1920's there but probably not a Victorian.

The northern, southern and western suburbs are going to be a longer commute and even though I love the south suburbs, working where you will, Stillwater and Mahtomedi are your best choice and I would give Mahtomedi a SLIGHT edge because of the soccer program but the town of Stillwater has a better hometown feel. I grew up in Stillwater, too.

Hey Golfgal - just wondering why Woodbury features as one of the places to avoid - is it traffic problems or something else.....you see, I have found some good things mentioned about this area previously...so any more detailed info good or bad would be great....thanks so much.... -Mumof3

[Ben Around]

golfgal, sounds like he lives on the West Side. Yes, there are some spotty neighborhoods over there and personally I wouldn't live there if I had kids. But I know Highland and I cannot think of anywhere where the neighborhood is "not fine" (I assume you mean potentially dangerous for kids). You have a very skewed perception of St. Paul!

Have you ever lived in the city? Or is it just a place where you roll up your windows and lock your doors as you cruise through on 35E? I would love to show you some of our beuatiful neighborhoods with great schools, unique shops and restuarants, frienly walkable neighborhoods and complete freedom for children to play without any more danger of harm than your suburb! I think you'd be pleasantly surprised. Come on over next summer when we have our block party and we'll show you around.

(And yeah, as Mumof3 asked, what's your beef with Woodbury? I figured you'd like that suburb!)

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Ben Around

golfgal, sounds like he lives on the West Side. Yes, there are some spotty neighborhoods over there and personally I wouldn't live there if I had kids. But I know Highland and I cannot think of anywhere where the neighborhood is "not fine" (I assume you mean potentially dangerous for kids). You have a very skewed perception of St. Paul!

Have you ever lived in the city? Or is it just a place where you roll up your windows and lock your doors as you cruise through on 35E? I would love to show you some of our beuatiful neighborhoods with great schools, unique shops and restuarants, frienly walkable neighborhoods and complete freedom for children to play without any more danger of harm than your suburb! I think you'd be pleasantly surprised. Come on over next summer when we have our block party and we'll show you around.

(And yeah, as Mumof3 asked, what's your beef with Woodbury? I figured you'd like that suburb!)

I have spent quite a bit of time in St. Paul, have relatives that live all over the city, East Side, Highland, West Side, Summit Ave area, etc. I just don't like it there. I don't feel comfortable letting my kids ride bikes around the neighborhoods there, etc. Like I said earlier, it is a comfort level thing plain and simple.

Highland Park is lovely, the homes along Highland Golf Course, Edgecome, etc are beautiful. I still wouldn't want to live there with kids.

As for Woodbury, most of the time when people have asked for recommendations about Woodbury they have children and the South Washington County Schools are just not as good as other districts in the area. If you are single and work at 3M, Woodbury would be one of my first recommendations but not if you have kids, Mahtomedi and Stillwater are better choices on that side of the cities.

[Minnehahapolitan]

I agree that the city itself is in sync with what you are looking for, the trick is finding a good neighborhood (which is not at all hard) If you choose to look at suburbs (with the character you want) look into Stillwater or White Bear Lake. Also, there are a few towns along the Saint Croix River that are pretty old. (and pretty small, ranging from a couple hundred people to a couple thousand)

[Mumof3]

http://www.stillwatergazette.com/articles/2007/02/20/news/news420.txt (broken link)

Well, I was disheartened to read just now, about Stillwater schools losing $3.5 million in budget funds for 07-08 - so I think it is Mahtomedi for my family and I!! It's a shame this kind of thing has to happen; budget cutting is very prevalent in California - (where we are now) and as a consequence the children of course suffer through very high class sizes (in my daughters' former school a second grade class was 40:1), limited activities and crumbling facilities.


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[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Mumof3

http://www.stillwatergazette.com/articles/2007/02/20/news/news420.txt (broken link)

Well, I was disheartened to read just now, about Stillwater schools losing $3.5 million in budget funds for 07-08 - so I think it is Mahtomedi for my family and I!! It's a shame this kind of thing has to happen; budget cutting is very prevalent in California - (where we are now) and as a consequence the children of course suffer through very high class sizes (in my daughters' former school a second grade class was 40:1), limited activities and crumbling facilities.


.

Keep in mind that while this is a large budget cut for any district and there will be some fallout, the offerings in Stillwater are plentiful and the buildings are in good shape with newer schools and others that have been well maintained. The high school in Stillwater is beautiful. Also, class sizes may be going from 23 kids to 25 or something to that effect. I wouldn't let this budget cut be the sole decision for your picking one town over another. I know that Lakeville had to cut 10 million out of their budget and it resulted in the loss of I think 23 teachers, which sounds like a lot but that works out to about 1 or 2 a building. There are about 8 or 9 elementary schools, 2 jr high's and an enormous high school in Stillwater and cuts in the 3 million range might equate to the loss of one teacher/building, MAYBE.

[mazzer]

Golfgirl,

If I was to commute from Mahtomedi to Little Canada, (my work place is just off the 35E) and if it was say the worst time of the year, snowy, windy the whole works, how long would the commute be? How long would it be in summer in good driving conditions?

Being a Brit we really can't handle snow very well. A couple of inches and we're all staying off. I heard from a colleague that the snows aren't as fierce as they once were. You still get some though!! Say we had a heavy fall of snow in Mahtomedi how long would it take for the roads to get cleared.

How much would you say your heating bills cost on average in a month like February??

Sorry for the interrogation!
Maz-