How Do You Like Living In Minnesota? (Minneapolis, St. Paul: low income, sale)

[cavewoman]

Mark how did you get your reputation??? all those zeros and what does that mean. Do you know?

[slamont61]

I'll go through this once again in this thread. Minnesota is SO under rated it's hard to beleive. One really has to live here to get that, but visits do bring clues. How do I know? The state is littered with Lakes. Lakes provide the best of all natures gifts to us. The Glaciers really were kind to Minnesota. The plains with the Glacieral Drummlins make for Great landskapes. The lakes are just wonderful and they are EVERYWHERE. There are resorts all over the place, and so THIS is where the city folk come to escape the Rat Race each year. Some of the resorts as so very special mostly due to the wonderful folks that run them. Take the Evergreen family resort and golf corase for instance. Karl and Kaye Dyre have owned and operated this Resort on Big Sand Lake for over 50 years. They have guests that are third generation! The resort is a throw back to the past. 18 beautiful housekeeping cabins all with lakefront exposures. Docks if you wish to bring your boat or simply rent the ones they have. Bonfire pits line the lake side for beautiful evenings. Don't expect a flat screen TV there, as they have never added that to the amenities. They don't want someone to come there to sit inside and watch TV. And the smell of the Pine Forrest is simply intoxicating. There are resorts like this everywhere, the Evergreen is no exception.

There is really no where else I'd rather LIVE than here in Minnesota. It's just too beautiful. I never get enough of the Nature here.

[mardybum]

I think it is very beautiful here. If you love nature, then this place is perfect. The crime-rate is much lower than any other place that I have lived, and I love that too. However, the 'MN nice' thing is a load of mod cut, and it is very hard to make friends if you are not from here. That is my opinion of living here. Honestly I cannot wait to leave this state.

[knke0402]

Minnesotans are very pride filled people. We like where we are from, we like knowing the area. Ever run into this situation?

"Oh, so where are you from?"
"I'm from Prior Lake"
"Oh yah, my cousin is from Prior Lake"
"Oh really,?"
"yah. right off of 169 there, by the new Sams Club"

[Haver]

I do have to admit that when the Superbowl was in Minneapolis and there were a lot of out-of-towners downtown where I used to work, I made more than one joke about all the "foreigners" who were here ... and that joke got a very good reception. It just felt, well, "different". Waaaaayy too many English/Scottish or something, and it was not necessarily in a bad sense, but just something you really noticed, like the city had been taken over by extras from TV programs.

[icequeen2008]

Minnesota is a great place to live. Especially in Bloomington where I reside. Very very low crime. A bit spendy. We really havent had a bad winter for a long time not like we are used to. Quality of life is great and the schools are great and the list goes on. I have lived in other states and nothing else can even come close.

[jkc1970]

Minnesota is a really great place to live. I just moved here and I love it. The people are really nice and the Twin Cities are pretty low stress compared to other big cities I have lived in and I have lived in quite a few places.

Someone in another post mentioned that Minnesota is very underrated and I would agree with that.

[4Gayle]

I was born and raised in MN. Like my former wife Gayle, born in Fergus Falls, MN at Lake Region Hospital. That is also where my wife died at age 47 on Dec. 24, 2007. It was a premature death that could have been prevented had a number of professionals erred on the side of safety. I learned that many times when in college. Patients are the reason a hospital function's.
My question is: There is a right to life for babies and people march for those rights, so, what about the constitution rights and patient rights? A hospital covers any mistakes by attacking you in court and the focus is lost! Should that happen, the answer is no!! The sheriff's dept. says they did not help look in your house along side you to look for meds that they could of helped find, because they might get sued. The professional that saw her 2 times and knew she was suffering from depression and with that was having trouble understanding, gave her the max, 450mg of wellbutrin, when she had been taking 300mg from another physician for three years already. Confused as she was she took the meds that both people had prescribed. Why didn't the error of safety include just adding 150mg on top of what she had been taking?
The effects of overdose range from blackout, hallucinations, and seizures. I watched as my wife of ten years and very best friend, had seizurers until she could funtion no longer.
The autopsy done at the same place should have allowed for the drugs and their effectsbut, did not (is that to error on the hospital side?). The prescriptions were filled within three days of each other, one for 300mg and one for 450mg, at the same drug store.
I know Gayle believed in living a simple truthful long life together. The question is they cover up this? Who's son, daughter, wife, or husband is next? That knowing is worth putting this on a site to help others!
Thank You.................Dennis

[DoleWhipMom]

I am finding this thread very interesting.

Here are my insights from reading the whole thread…

I am from Central NJ in a more rural/suburban area. I have lived most of my life here but am considering a move to MN in the next year or two because my husband’s main office is in the Minneapolis area and I would like to be able to live in a nice area with good schools and have the ability to take a break from working for a bit. I’ve been in IT for over 20 years and I’m a little crispy and I would like to find a way to survive on DH's income and not impact the kid’s education and not live in a shack.

Now, I am not a big fan of winter but it’s not like I’m out and about in NJ during the winter months anyway. And, I was in Minneapolis on business trip in the middle of January for a week years ago. It was in the early 90’s and it was cold, to the point I thought that people must be crazy to live there but my biggest problem was back then is that I smoked and had to go outside to do so – not a problem now since I lost that bad habit. And, I do remember the clear tubes between buildings… after a week I truly appreciated them. I also did the obligatory trip to the Mall of America. I did like the amusement park. Did I mention I’m a summer person?

Pros/No Difference
- Lower taxes – seriously from what I’ve been reading taxes are a walk in the park compared to what we are used to – no offense but I have half the house and property and pay at least twice as much in taxes. The economy stinks all over and all taxes are crazy.
- Good schools – we live in a town with a good school system (1260 average SAT scores) and I wouldn’t want to change the quality of education.
- People are people – it’s not like the East Coast is known for its friendliness although in Central NJ, before the onslaught of transplants, was a rural farming community which no offense to anyone in the city, had it’s own charm and I do miss it. Not to be mistaken for being close minded though because we are not.
- My husband’s parents are transplants from the N. Europe and most of his relatives are still live there so and I’m kind of used to the like. It’s an open closedness that is hard to describe but sounds similar to MN.
- We have nasty mosquitoes in NJ with West Nile disease. If you go out at night in the summer without spray with Deet you more than likely will be eaten alive. We also have a lot of ticks with lime disease. Do you have that in MN?
- Traffic? Okay, I do respect all of your pain but the only people who I think have it worse then my area are the LA’ers and DC’ers. My husband commutes to the NYC area. I do not live off an ‘exit’ but my husband works off of one and has to pay to travel on the highway both ways
- It is cold in MN but if you don’t like winter does it really matter if it’s 25 or 0 outside? Wet snow stinks worse then dry snow.
- I am from New Jersey and when I speak you really can’t tell right away I’m from New Jersey because most people from New Jersey don’t sound like the cast of Sopranos so perhaps we won’t stick out like sore thumbs.
- Minnesota has a lot of lake and recreation areas. We’d love to have a boat someday.
- Minnesota has the International Wolf Center in which my kids have an interest in. We adopt wolves for Christmas from there.
- Everyone thinks that everyone else’s driving stinks. Nothing is worse then city driving. Everyone should be more courteous and use their blinkers.
- Nice neighbors who help you with snow and pull you out of the ditch sounds delightful. If it takes awhile before they invite me over for dinner and I become their BFF, that’s okay. I’m patient. I’ll offer to cook for them first.
- We are between NYC and Philadelphia and we rarely go there. I am not a big city person. Feel like I need to bath after I am there.
- There are direct flights to Orlando – I am a big Disney fan.

Cons
- Dag it’s cold. But that’s why there is LL Bean and Lands End right and hey, everyone seems to have a finished basement in MN.
- No Jersey shore - I do love the beach and the smell of the ocean but we don’t get to really visit it much because I’m always working. It is cheaper for us to go Walt Disney World for a week than it is to rent a house down the shore for a week. For those of you not from the East Coast, the shore is the beach.
- Kids will be transplanted and will blame us for many ills in therapy in their adult years. Okay, no matter what this will probably happen.
- Dear Lord, are there any houses that don’t have golden oak kitchen cabinets in MN?
- How can you sell a house with a walk out kitchen to the outside with a walk out basement without a deck? There are sliding glass doors to no where.
- Lutefisk. I am not a fish eater and YUK.
- No real pizza or bagels. Pizza Hut or Pizzeria Uno is not pizza. Never ever will be in a million years.
- I am a Mets fan. But the Twins aren’t the Yankees so I could learn to like them – not love like the Mets but at least there is baseball.
- Any Indian food? Not really that big of a deal because I can send away for the spices and make my own - Speaking of which, we are really used to getting all kinds of food – what’s the variety like and how available are the ingredients. Don’t mean to be a snot, but being from NJ you get to have a big melting pot of places to either buy it prepared or but the ingredients to make it on our own.

Hope you all have enjoyed my pros and cons. And maybe laughed a little. Any additional insights would be appreciated. I’m looking in the Eden Prarie area but the Lakeville area looks very nice too. In NJ, our commutes are so bad, 30 to 45 minutes is not unreasonable. I’d also be open to a more rural area with promise and a good school system. Cows and farms are fine. If I’m within a ½ hour of major shopping, that would be fine.

[Jeanie Hoholik]

It's not dag...it's dang. At least in this part of town. Best wishes.