People in Minnesota/moving there (Minneapolis, St. Cloud: neighborhood, voucher, live)

[Vagabond Vistas]

Originally Posted by Omaha Rocks

Because of decades-long business & family connections, I am very familiar with Worthington.

Basically, Worthington is a declining rural town of 10,000 people, that has seen a major racial & cultural shift over the past 20 years. It is not something they've done willingly. The town used to be 99.99% white. It is now 30-35% Hispanic, and the school system is over 50% Hispanic.

While there are some of the whites in Worthington that are more or less fine with the "new folks in town," there is also some deeply seated racism and hatred there. There are some people who honestly believe that anybody with black hair and dark brown eyes has to be an Illegal.

It is not a town I'd encourage anybody to move to - white or non-white - unless you have to move there for a job.

I'm finding the people in your Omaha in Nebraska to be similar. I moving out in a month - back to the Southwest. People here are not very nice - the whites. And, if you are from Worthington, you probably fit in nicely with the Omaha culture.

All I have to do is open my mouth, their hear an accent that is a little more pronounced than the flat ones of the Midwest, and I get hostility. Besides, people in this part of the country really have problems engaging in conversation, usually can't even respond to a question, and can only talk about their weather and their football. Not very cultured or worldly.

[Vagabond Vistas]

Originally Posted by marmac

St Cloud should be considered.

Smaller than the twin cities but larger than most others mentioned.
SCSU is there along with St Johns and St Bens close by.

Very good schools and there even is a Somalian community where they ( legal immigrants) have started stores and restaurants.

St. Cloud. Yeah. This is know to be a very passive-aggressive environment. The Somalian community has not been well received at this place. The college their had some real issues with racism during this decade.

Have you ever heard of the St. Cloud Syndrome?

[Vagabond Vistas]

Originally Posted by jasper1372

I think I can speak from experience here and maybe provide an opinion that may help you. I grew up in rural northern Minnesota and still live in Minnesota about 75 miles from where I grew up. You are right in your observations that many Minnesotians live very close to where they were born. My Uncle's kids all live within just a few miles of his house...while my own family is very spread out. I have four siblings who all "few the coup" and never returned to Minnesota. All are on the west coast from Los Angeles California to Vancouver Washington and points inbetween. I am in Minnesota primarily due to being the youngest (by 15 years)......taking care of my aging parents kind of fell on my shoulders.

My wife and I intend to "fly the coup" ourselves when my mother passes on (father is already deceased). All of my siblings have ended up in more multi-cultural places with much more diversity than you'll ever find in rural Minnesota. Rural Minnesota can be a wonderful place to grow up. The society is very homogeneous and therefore there isn't much "trouble" or race problems and life just kind of goes on at an even pace. However as I get older I realize that the benefit of that is also it's largest weakness. We're not very open to change, we're a very closed society and we just kind of tend to block out the larger world in general and feel removed from society as a whole.

I was just out visiting my brother in Los Angeles a couple weeks ago and he told me how when he was in his 20's and drove into Los Angeles for the first time (1972 if memory serves me right) he said he just knew he had found his home base....and he's never left and still loves the area in spite of the normal big city problems that LA has. He specificially said he thrives on the living amongst all the various cultures present and thrives on the diversity and excitement that he's found in LA for all these years. I have two sisters in Eugene Oregon. Eugene is a college town with much more progressive values than you'll ever find in Minnesota and to them they again have no intention of moving away from the area. They have both lived there since their mid to late twenties. Another sister in Vancouver Washington (near Portland Oregon) again....a college town area and the same sentiments experssed.

I guess it all depends on what you're looking for. My wife and I travel quite a lot to various areas of the US as well as the normal travel destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean etc... I'm always shocked how many of my friends and neighbors don't really travel outside of Minnesota. Some do....but so many don't. I just always wonder how you can really know you love Minnesota (as they say they do) if you've never been anywhere else. How do you know what you really like....if you've never experienced anything else ? It boggles my mind....but again, that backs up my point that so many people just aren't open minded enough to really challenge their way of living....they are just content to plod on one day at a time doing the same thing that their father did....and his father did etc...

I, like the rest of my family aparantly, just have always felt this need to explore and find my own nitch where I fit in....and although as I mentioned before, Minnesota is a nice peaceful place to live, I just feel this isn't the final chapter in my life (at least I hope not ;-) and I'm looking forward to finally getting somewhere where I too can say "hey....I think we've found home".

They act the same way in Nebraska - plodding one day at at time, doing the same thing their father did. For one more month, I've lived in the home of a person who has lived here for 57 years. He's had the same neighbors for all those years. (My father of 82 may have been in the same home since 1958, but the neighbors certainly are different, and have been since about the late 80s. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware.)

These people here in Omaha may be nice on the surface, but they will never invite you over. Much like in Minnesota. I lived in Minnesota for 13 years. I know.

I was in Albuquerque for 20 months before here (returning to ABQ in one month) and was welcomed in people's homes. Sure, it has its problems, but people are nice for the most part; and genuinely nice. Probably due to the number of transplants and diversity.

I have found people in this city and area just far worse. They can't change for anything. Frankly, I don't need to live with people who use the same damn aluminum cooking pots from the 1950s, don't update their kitchens once in a while, or just try something different.

[Omaha Rocks]

Originally Posted by Vagabond Vistas

I'm finding the people in your Omaha in Nebraska to be similar. I moving out in a month - back to the Southwest. People here are not very nice - the whites. And, if you are from Worthington, you probably fit in nicely with the Omaha culture.

All I have to do is open my mouth, their hear an accent that is a little more pronounced than the flat ones of the Midwest, and I get hostility. Besides, people in this part of the country really have problems engaging in conversation, usually can't even respond to a question, and can only talk about their weather and their football. Not very cultured or worldly.

Did I say I was from Worthington?

And judging from this, and other posts of yours, I can say with complete certainty that the problem you have conversing with people is YOUR problem.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

[knke0204]

Originally Posted by marmac

Did the Smithsonian mention the investigative reporting KSTP TV did?

They were doing a report if the state of Minnesota was doing an accurate job when they issued state ID cards.

They discovered there were 16 people issued ID cards in the small city of Worthinton who had the same Hispanic name and the same date of birth and all had different addresses.

When KSTP checked those addresses, the people living there never heard of that name.

Did the Smithsonian,also, mention this in their praise of the--diversity--in Worthington ?

I used to work in St. Cloud at a gas station during college. I would see LARGE amount of Somali customers during any given shift. A LOT.

I would naturally have to ask for an ID when they purchased cigarettes, lighters, or purchases w/ debit cards....

EVERY single one of the men had 1-1-1980 as their date of birth. and women had 10-10-19xx. Very weird.

[marmac]

Originally Posted by knke0204

I used to work in St. Cloud at a gas station during college. I would see LARGE amount of Somali customers during any given shift. A LOT.

I would naturally have to ask for an ID when they purchased cigarettes, lighters, or purchases w/ debit cards....

EVERY single one of the men had 1-1-1980 as their date of birth. and women had 10-10-19xx. Very weird.

You get an " F" for your feeble attempt at being sarcastic .

[City Data Guy]

Originally Posted by Omaha Rocks

Maybe you should get out of you cookie-cutter, white, upper-middle class suburb and experience what is going on in other places before you post stuff like this.

Burnsville is not a cookie-cutter suburb, and I would not consider it an upper-middle class area either. Also, Burnsville is racially diverse for Minnesota's standards.

I just wanted to throw that out there.

My apologies for posting ignorantly. I just get "out of hand" sometimes.
I do not know much about Worthington, so I should not have posted that comment.

[Omaha Rocks]

Originally Posted by knke0204

I used to work in St. Cloud at a gas station during college. I would see LARGE amount of Somali customers during any given shift. A LOT.

I would naturally have to ask for an ID when they purchased cigarettes, lighters, or purchases w/ debit cards....

EVERY single one of the men had 1-1-1980 as their date of birth. and women had 10-10-19xx. Very weird.

That is because they do not know their actual birth dates.

I worked with a lot of Southern Sudanese Refugees - mostly about 5 years ago. They did the same thing.

[Dopefish]

I'm not from Minnesota, but I've noticed a lot of people in this thread who have a negative attitude about living there seem to have approached their circumstances with negativity to begin with. If you greet new people with an attitude of superiority, of course no one is going to like you and you will get a hostile response. Minnesota and my home state of North Dakota may not be very diverse, but I've rarely greeted someone who responded to me in a hostile way, and I work in retail.

You get what you give, and I believe that wholeheartedly.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Dopefish

I'm not from Minnesota, but I've noticed a lot of people in this thread who have a negative attitude about living there seem to have approached their circumstances with negativity to begin with. If you greet new people with an attitude of superiority, of course no one is going to like you and you will get a hostile response. Minnesota and my home state of North Dakota may not be very diverse, but I've rarely greeted someone who responded to me in a hostile way, and I work in retail.

You get what you give, and I believe that wholeheartedly.