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I was in Minnesota one year when it snowed in May! I am not kidding. Perosnally I think MN winters are more brutal than Chicago as a whole. It isn't called the land of 10,000 lakes for nothing, you know. Illinois is just as humid, but when you get in the middle of the state the winters ae not as burtal and they don't last as long..
I was in Minnesota one year when it snowed in May! I am not kidding. Perosnally I think MN winters are more brutal than Chicago as a whole. It isn't called the land of 10,000 lakes for nothing, you know. Illinois is just as humid, but when you get in the middle of the state the winters ae not as burtal and they don't last as long..
Of course as a whole Illinois tends to be warmer than Minnesota. It's further south. Chicago definitely has a better climate than Duluth, I'll tell you that much.
I have had the good and sometimes bad fortune of living in a lot of major cities in the US. And you know in the grand scope of thing Minneapolis/St Paul is still the top. So I wouldn't be too terribly gung ho about leaving the state, Sure the winters are brutal. Minneapolis is a clean, and relatively cheap city as far as cost of living. Although the taxes are a bit high. For a major metropolis I would still say Minneapolis is safe. Been to Baltimore? So I kind of chuckle when people call Minneapolis "Murderapolis". There are plenty of more dangerous cities you could find yourself in. Mpls is rich with entertainment. Whether you want to dine at a fine restaurant, go to a concert, see a play, or hit a nightclub. Plus there is plenty to do for the more intellectual pursuits. Like the Walker Art Center, MCAD, or Orchestral Hall. Plus there are always gatherings and other smaller fringe festivals. Chech the City Pages for the Twin Cities happeningg. If sports are your thing, then you've got the Twins in the spring/summer. The Vikings and Timberwolves in the winter. And you can always make the 15 minute drive to St Paul to catch a Wild hockey game. Plus there is still the St Paul Vulcans(hockey) and the St Paul Saints(baseball) if you are more on a budget. If you say you are bored in Minneapolis, then you are not looking hard enough.
Really the only major drawback is the weather. Granted what is bitter cold is very relative. For me I'm fine as long as the mercury is on the positive side of zero. The only city I've ever spent any significant time in I've enjoyed more than the Twin Cities is Seattle. The weather is much more moderate. It is also a town that there is always fun to be had. Plus having mountains within driving distance is a huge benefit. I'm a snowboarder/mountain hiker, not a fish/huntsman. But Seattle, and really the whole King County region is just stupid expensive. So to the OP, Minneapolis may not be utopic to you, but there are definitely worse places to find yourself in. It kind of the grass is alway greener syndrome.
May I ask why Salt Lake is off the list? I'm a former MNer and am currently living in Salt Lake. While it doesn't meet all of your criteria, it isn't a half bad place to live. Crime is really low here. I live in a very quiet neighborhood and have never felt that I was unsafe. Sure, we have some "bad" areas but even our worse areas have nothing on some ares of Minneapolis and other major cities.
Just imagine the 4th of July. You're sitting outside enjoying a bbq with friends and family and there are no mosquitoes! I still can't get over it. No mosquitoes at all. Plus the mountains aren't half bad to look at and there's a ton of recreation opportunities to go with it. Yes we get cold in the winter, but I don't think I've ever seen it below 10 degrees, and if it does it isn't very often. The summers do get hot, over 100 degrees but the dry heat really makes a difference. Plus it cools down at night and you can enjoy yourself.
Culturally, compared to Minneapolis/St. Paul I find Salt Lake to be a snooze fest. We have a basketball team if you happen to be a fan. They have the Grizzlies for hockey but they are rotten compared to the Wild and I find that the Gophers play better hockey. No football, but I think there's an AFL team. No major league baseball, but we have the Bees and they've been doing well in the last few years.
I find the Twin Cities area has a ton of fun museums, aquariums, zoos, and other fun activities that the Salt Lake area really seems to be lacking. The Hogle Zoo is quaint, but isn't spectacular. I think in comparing the two cities, Minneapolis/St. Paul wins hands down as far as cultural actives go, just because it is a bigger area and there is more to do.
However, Salt Lake is a great place to raise a family. The city and surrounding area is very family oriented and it appears to me that there are plenty of activities for children to be involved in. Don't take my word for it as I don't have any kids but have observed this from friends and acquaintances.
I've lived in Utah for over 2.5 years now and am ready to leave. Once spring rolls around and the snow melts away I will return to Minnesota and hope to settle into the Minneapolis area. I can handle the cold, I can't handle the never ending boredom. Like with any area, you have to decide which issues are the most important to you. It seems to me that the cold is your number one concern. I think you should choose a new place based on weather and then fill in the rest of what you want. You'll have to give up on some of your lesser issues but you should be able to find a happy medium.
Well I was raised in Brainerd, our family moved out to Seattle when I was 15 and then I moved back to Mn when in my 20's and moved away again. Lived in Ariz, Oklahoma, Virginia, Calif I have loved something about all of them. Seattle has a mild climate, more rain than I care to live in sometimes, not near as much people assume we have (less than Helio, Hawaii)but that has become our reputation other than coffee freaks. I dream of Mn, live in Seattle and when our weather is trying to match Mn cold and snow like it is right now, I'm glad I don't live in Mn as much as I love to visit there. You would be surprised how many people here in Washington state came from Mn, I feel like old home week at times, just about one out of five people were born in Mn live here. Seattle culture is right up there with Mn, in fact in most Forbes 10 most cultural places to live, or healthiest, educated etc Minneapolis and Seattle are right together and I love the culture of both cities, I feel at home in both places. But winters really are too harsh for me as I get older, and it takes an extreme winter blizzard here in Seattle to make me realise it. No place is perfect and that is for sure, there is always something negative and positive about anywhere!
Location: Mableton, GA USA (NW Atlanta suburb, 4 miles OTP)
11,334 posts, read 26,089,277 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tnlover
We would highly recommend eastern Tennessee to anyone who enjoys the outdoors with only a month or two of "cooler" weather in December in January. Let's see, as I write this. it is 62 in Knoxville and 18 here in Minnesota. Gee, what am I doing here??
Happy Holidays to All!
Northern Georgia is quite similar, I suspect. We even seen lows in the teens in the Atlanta area, which I think is wonderful -- a little snap in the air recharges my batteries.
Looking at all the comments here....does anyone else see a common theme ? Pretty much all of them have the subject of weather in there somewhere....and it's generally a negative comment about winter and the extream cold.
I think Minnesota is a great place to live EXCEPT for the extream winter weather. For some, that may be just a slight inconvenience......for me it's a deal breaker. There are few things in life that affect your daily affairs more than weather. Someone mentioned that there are many things you can do year round....warm or cold. Ya, that's true but most of them can be done in spite of cold rather than because of cold. There are exceptions like Skiing, Snowmobiling, Snowshoeing, making a snowman, ice fishing etc..., but the list of things you can only reasonably enjoyably do during the summer would be a list of hundreds of items long.....but to each their own.
I remember the second or third time my wife and I went to Phoenix in late April....back in 1986 probably. I was in an office building downtown going up in the elevator with a couple other businessmen that I didn't know. Being the typical Minnesotan, I said "Hi" and said some offhand comment about it being a nice day outside. I'll never forget the look they gave me. They both looked at me like I was from Mars or something. I remember the one stammered something about it always being nice from one day to the next.
I'll never forget the feeling I got right after that elevator ride....that if it's always nice the weather ceases to be something you comment about incessantly....like we do in Minnesota. I told my wife that someday we're going to live somewhere where we don't talk about the weather every 15 minutes due to it changing or someone else (or me) bringing up how cold it is out.
It's kind of like your health. When you're healthy and feeling fine you don't talk about it much. But as soon as you get sick or have some horrible disease it's all you can talk or think about since it affects every waking moment in a negative way.
Looking at all the comments here....does anyone else see a common theme ? Pretty much all of them have the subject of weather in there somewhere....and it's generally a negative comment about winter and the extream cold.
I think Minnesota is a great place to live EXCEPT for the extream winter weather. For some, that may be just a slight inconvenience......for me it's a deal breaker. There are few things in life that affect your daily affairs more than weather. Someone mentioned that there are many things you can do year round....warm or cold. Ya, that's true but most of them can be done in spite of cold rather than because of cold. There are exceptions like Skiing, Snowmobiling, Snowshoeing, making a snowman, ice fishing etc..., but the list of things you can only reasonably enjoyably do during the summer would be a list of hundreds of items long.....but to each their own.
I remember the second or third time my wife and I went to Phoenix in late April....back in 1986 probably. I was in an office building downtown going up in the elevator with a couple other businessmen that I didn't know. Being the typical Minnesotan, I said "Hi" and said some offhand comment about it being a nice day outside. I'll never forget the look they gave me. They both looked at me like I was from Mars or something. I remember the one stammered something about it always being nice from one day to the next.
I'll never forget the feeling I got right after that elevator ride....that if it's always nice the weather ceases to be something you comment about incessantly....like we do in Minnesota. I told my wife that someday we're going to live somewhere where we don't talk about the weather every 15 minutes due to it changing or someone else (or me) bringing up how cold it is out.
It's kind of like your health. When you're healthy and feeling fine you don't talk about it much. But as soon as you get sick or have some horrible disease it's all you can talk or think about since it affects every waking moment in a negative way.
speaking of weather------I'll make a feeble attempt of injecting some humor this morning by repeating something I read in a retirement magazine.
They stated there was so many "snowbirds" ,in one town in Florida, who hailed from the same town in Vermont. It was stated that Vermont town could hold its city council winter meetings from that Florida town.
The "original snowbird" was asked how he found that Florida town. He stated he was fed up with the winters in Vermont, so he bought a brand new snow shovel and strapped it on his luggage carrier on the trunk of his car.
As he made his way down the eastern seaboard heading south, the gas station attendants would ask why he had a snow shovel strapped on his trunk everytime he stopped for gas.
He kept heading south as each asked why.
After filling his car at a town in Florida, the young attendent pointed to his snow shovel and asked----"What's that strapped on your car?"
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