4 good reasons ? (Minneapolis, St. Paul: sales, motel, home)

[Atalanta]

Good
1. Lots of water.
2. Good weather for pastures
3. Candy Land in downtown St. Paul
4. The 4 seasons. Winter could be shorter, but they are all beautiful.

Bad
1. To much immigration in the past 5 years, taking away jobs and changing what used to be the environment here.
2. Crime has risen greatly
3. Drug use has risen greatly
4. I am thinking of moving to once was a peaceful neighborhood of 20 years.

[jccarey]

1-Rated the 2nd most liveable state for 2006
2-Rated the 3rd healthiest state for 2006
3-Rated 7th smartest state
4-Rated 16th safest.
Not to mention the art, museums, restaurants, concerts and shopping (the cities) and the beautiful lakes and countryside just outside the cities. My husband is from MN and we lived there together 16 years while we raised our kids. We moved to the Tampa Bay area last year, and are anxious to move back to MN, hopefully in a year or two.
What are 4 bad things? Can't think of 4. Sure, its cold there and the winters are long, but as someone else mentioned, it keeps the riff raff out. Learn to love the winter by snowmobiling, cross country skiing, snow shoeing, or...just staying inside by the fire. I despise this constant warm weather. Can't wait to get back..

[TornadoAlley]

Originally Posted by jccarey

1-Rated the 2nd most liveable state for 2006
2-Rated the 3rd healthiest state for 2006
3-Rated 7th smartest state
4-Rated 16th safest.
Not to mention the art, museums, restaurants, concerts and shopping (the cities) and the beautiful lakes and countryside just outside the cities. My husband is from MN and we lived there together 16 years while we raised our kids. We moved to the Tampa Bay area last year, and are anxious to move back to MN, hopefully in a year or two.
What are 4 bad things? Can't think of 4. Sure, its cold there and the winters are long, but as someone else mentioned, it keeps the riff raff out. Learn to love the winter by snowmobiling, cross country skiing, snow shoeing, or...just staying inside by the fire. I despise this constant warm weather. Can't wait to get back..

Good write up! Thanks.

[MidniteBreeze]

Originally Posted by jccarey

1-Rated the 2nd most liveable state for 2006
2-Rated the 3rd healthiest state for 2006
3-Rated 7th smartest state
4-Rated 16th safest.
Not to mention the art, museums, restaurants, concerts and shopping (the cities) and the beautiful lakes and countryside just outside the cities. My husband is from MN and we lived there together 16 years while we raised our kids. We moved to the Tampa Bay area last year, and are anxious to move back to MN, hopefully in a year or two.
What are 4 bad things? Can't think of 4. Sure, its cold there and the winters are long, but as someone else mentioned, it keeps the riff raff out. Learn to love the winter by snowmobiling, cross country skiing, snow shoeing, or...just staying inside by the fire. I despise this constant warm weather. Can't wait to get back..

One more to add to your "good" list:

Last school year, MN students had the highest average ACT scores in the nation

[politikally]

I have to back "solveg' here, there hasn't been much of a winter in the Twin Cities or Central Wisconsin since 96'... the winters have been pretty mild. Sorry "restlessinmn" the winters the last two years just haven't been that bad

Anyway my two cents:

1. Great place to raise kids.
2. Great schools
3. GORGEOUS summer and fall seaons
4. Small town feel with big city stuff to do

bad stuff:

1. weather can get bad.. though it's been a pretty mild decade.
2. Avoid Minneapolis and St. Paul proper... crime sucks, and it's far to urbanized in my opinion.
3. Traffic gets worse and worse every year (though it's still pretty good in comparision with most other metro areas)
4. Housing prices are HORRID!!

[cmartinez1]

Having been born and raised in Minnesota until the age of 19 when I moved to California I can truly say I choose Minnesota over California 10 to 1 hands down. In fact we recently bought a 20-acre hobby farm north west of Minneapolis and will be relocating from CA to MN this winter. We currently reside just outside of Los Angeles.

We have three children who have been born and raised here in CA and can honestly say if we had to do it over again we would definitely choose to raise children anywhere but CA.

The 4 primary reasons we choose MN are:

1. Quality of life specific to education, family values, pace of community life
2. Low crime rate
3. Highly affordable housing prices in comparison with CA
4. Traffic is horrible in CA

[breezey07]

I'm probably repeating what others have said but I'll put my two cents worth in anway (and I live in Saint Paul, so that gives you an idea of my experiences):

Sure the weather's unbearable at times from Jan. to mid March, but experiencing the seasons are worth it and some of the most beautiful days I have seen have been during the winter. You also have an excuse to sit inside and do 'inside' things that you would normally put off on a lovely day.

People here are very easy to get along with. They are accepting, intelligent and polite.

The lakes, The Lake, the rivers, and the landscapes.

Loons. The most beautiful sound you will ever hear.

Ah, the Mall of America, your one-stop shop for natives.

And an added bonus for being on the MN/WI border. Just a few staple liquids benefits: gas is cheap in MN and liquor and milk is cheap in WI.

[EricBrewer]

1. Christmas displays
2. nice summer
3. great fishing
4. good dirt

[Yorkie_Mom]

I have lived here for 40 some years, we live in Albert Lea a town with about 1900 people. It is smack in the middle just above the Iowa border.
We have a great school system, very low crime, beautiful lakes, friendly people and the town is growing. It is a nice and quiet little town with Austin to the east that is also a nice place to live.
We have low income on up to what ever you want to pay for housing, it is not over crowded, we have Wal-Mart, Shopko, and two malls and a lot of new stores moving in. We are at the cross roads of I90 and I35 and they will take you were ever you want to go. Mpls. is straight north about 100 miles, Rochester is about 60 miles north east of us.
You can always take a drive straight south to Mason City Iowa or Clear Lake Iowa, it is about 40 miles and find plenty of things to do, just more options.
Albert Lea is a very nice and quiet place to live. It is a beautiful town.

[Imissthefall]

Mall of America
4 awesome seasons
friendly neighbors (for the most psrt)
good job market, reasonable housing