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The Twin Cities are not isolated. Within a 2 hour drive, you could be in some decent-sized towns like Eau Claire, Winona, Mankato, St. Cloud, Brainerd. If you want major cities, Chicago is only 6 hours away, as is Kansas City. Detroit, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Milwaukee and Cleveland are all within a day's drive. A two-hour flight gets you to Seattle, Atlanta, New York or Dallas.
I live in outstate Minnesota. Where I live IS isolated, and you know what, I like it. I love being able to go outside at night and see nothing but prairie and stars. I love seeing the fall colors on the trees in the river valleys. I enjoy seeing the horizon. I like not having to sit in traffic. I enjoy being able to drive on roads with ZERO traffic, even during rush hour. I have everything I need in my town, and if I feel like I need to get out, The Cities are less than an hour away.
Location: Cleveland bound with MPLS in the rear-view
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Minneapolis' isolation is overplayed IMO. Denver and Salt Lake are the worst, and you could say Atlanta or Miami are isolated too if you think about it. Chicago is 7 hours (max) away and it's HUGE, and I've done that drive at least 50 times in my life and it's super easy.....can't say the same for the drive to KC, which is a half hour closer or equal.
Location: Cleveland bound with MPLS in the rear-view
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kazoopilot
The Twin Cities are not isolated. Within a 2 hour drive, you could be in some decent-sized towns like Eau Claire, Winona, Mankato, St. Cloud, Brainerd. If you want major cities, Chicago is only 6 hours away, as is Kansas City. Detroit, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Milwaukee and Cleveland are all within a day's drive. A two-hour flight gets you to Seattle, Atlanta, New York or Dallas.
I live in outstate Minnesota. Where I live IS isolated, and you know what, I like it. I love being able to go outside at night and see nothing but prairie and stars. I love seeing the fall colors on the trees in the river valleys. I enjoy seeing the horizon. I like not having to sit in traffic. I enjoy being able to drive on roads with ZERO traffic, even during rush hour. I have everything I need in my town, and if I feel like I need to get out, The Cities are less than an hour away.
Ah....a very negative to the TC is the TRAFFIC. It's not Atlanta, Chicago or LA, but it's pretty $hitty. I'm not sure there is a day of the week or a time of the day I don't sit in traffic in my waking life.
The Twin Cities are not isolated. Within a 2 hour drive, you could be in some decent-sized towns like Eau Claire, Winona, Mankato, St. Cloud, Brainerd. If you want major cities, Chicago is only 6 hours away, as is Kansas City. Detroit, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Milwaukee and Cleveland are all within a day's drive. A two-hour flight gets you to Seattle, Atlanta, New York or Dallas.
This goes right along with your claim in other threads that Bloomington, Indiana and Cincinnati, Ohio are "southern cities". The fact that you would mention BRAINERD as a "decent-sized" town just shows how off-base you are. Let's look at the facts, shall we?
We are comparing Kansas City to Minneapolis. I said one of the things Kansas City has over Minneapolis is that Kansas City is not as isolated. That is a fact. Since the Minnesota people have objected to this (predictable), I am now forced to provide proof. Here is the proof.
If you are going to suggest that having Brainerd, St. Cloud, Eau Claire, Mankato, and Winona within 2 hours of Minneapolis means Minneapolis is not isolated, I have to do the same for Kansas City if for no other reason than to show how absurd this notion is. "Decent-sized towns" within 2 hours of Kansas City: Topeka, St. Joseph, Columbia, Lawrence, Manhattan, Warrensburg, Emporia, Leavenworth, Jefferson City, Sedalia, Atchison. See how absurd this is? Every city has towns like that within 2 hours.
When I'm talking about Minneapolis being isolated, I'm talking about proximity to metropolitan areas with population OVER 500,000. The closest such city to Minneapolis is Des Moines, which is 4 hours away. The next closest such city is Madison, which is 4.5 hours away. I checked the time/mileage with Google maps. Those are the only two cities over 500,000 within 5 hours of Minneapolis.
By contrast, Kansas City has 3 cities with populations over 500,000 within 3 hours: Omaha, Des Moines, and Wichita.
The closest metropolitan area to Minneapolis that has a population over 1 million is Milwaukee, which is 5.5 hours away.
By contrast, the closest metropolitan area to Kansas City that has a population over 1 million is St. Louis, which is only 4 hours away.
Oklahoma City (population over 1 million) is also only 5.5 hours from Kansas City, the same time it takes to go from Minneapolis to Milwaukee.
So, Kansas City has two major metropolitan areas with populations over 1 million within 5.5 hours, while Minneapolis only has one. Kansas City has three metropolitan areas with populations over 500,000 within 3 hours, Minneapolis has none.
Kansas City is closer than Minneapolis to Indianapolis, Louisville, Cincinnati, Columbus, Denver, Dallas, Houston, and every major southern city (Atlanta, New Orleans, Charlotte, Memphis, Nashville, etc.).
The only thing I can say for Minneapolis is that it is closer than Kansas City to Chicago.
Other than that, Kansas City is more centrally-located and is closer than Minneapolis to most of the major cities in America. I didn't even mention how Kansas City is closer to the beaches on the Gulf, Florida, and California and how Kansas City is closer to the Rockies. Kansas City is closer to the Sun Belt.
The fact is that Minneapolis is more isolated than Kansas City, and that is a net plus for Kansas City over Minneapolis. It is a fact. I have just proven it. All the mileage numbers come from Google maps.
Quote:
I live in outstate Minnesota. Where I live IS isolated, and you know what, I like it. I love being able to go outside at night and see nothing but prairie and stars. I love seeing the fall colors on the trees in the river valleys. I enjoy seeing the horizon. I like not having to sit in traffic. I enjoy being able to drive on roads with ZERO traffic, even during rush hour. I have everything I need in my town, and if I feel like I need to get out, The Cities are less than an hour away.
There are plenty of areas like that around Kansas City. Head west into central and western Kansas, it is more isolated than anywhere in Minnesota. That's the thing about Kansas City. Not only is it closer than Minneapolis to more large cities, but it is closer than Minneapolis to the prairies where you can truly be isolated.
Location: Cleveland bound with MPLS in the rear-view
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All I said was that it's overplayed, West coast cities and Mountain West cities (and I think Miami and Atlanta) are more isolated in some ways, like proximity to the next big/major city, proximity to ANY next population, or just completely away from most American population (Denver and Salt Lake....and personally I think Portland and Seattle are tucked way into a corner and to me Vancouver, CA doesn't count so much).
For Example, San Francisco never gets mentioned but it's as far from LA as Minneapolis is to Chicago, but does have Sacramento nearby. Seattle has Portland and Vancouver, CA nearby (kinda), but then NOTHING for 1000 miles (that thing being SF). The Twin Cities, KC, OKC, and Dallas are the Western Frontier and everything on it or to the East is not isolated to me. Just my opinion...
...By contrast, Kansas City has 3 cities with populations over 500,000 within 3 hours: Omaha, Des Moines, and Wichita... the closest metropolitan area to Kansas City that has a population over 1 million is St. Louis, which is only 4 hours away.
Oklahoma City (population over 1 million) is also only 5.5 hours from Kansas City...
Kansas City is closer than Minneapolis to Indianapolis, Louisville, Cincinnati, Columbus, Denver, Dallas, Houston, and every major southern city (Atlanta, New Orleans, Charlotte, Memphis, Nashville, etc.)...
I didn't even mention how Kansas City is closer to the beaches on the Gulf, Florida, and California and how Kansas City is closer to the Rockies. Kansas City is closer to the Sun Belt....
The fact is that Minneapolis is more isolated than Kansas City, and that is a net plus for Kansas City over Minneapolis....
Evidently your major infatuation with Kanasa City over Minneaapolis, is that it's easier to get to somewhere else more desireable. Simply a matter of geography and has no actual reflection on the merits of the city. Doesn't sound like a compelling reason to set roots there in the first place if you're looking for somewhere else to be.
Evidently your major infatuation with Kanasa City over Minneaapolis, is that it's easier to get to somewhere else more desireable. Simply a matter of geography and has no actual reflection on the merits of the city. Doesn't sound like a compelling reason to set roots there in the first place if you're looking for somewhere else to be.
No matter what city you live in, no matter what part of the world, no matter what goodies that city has to offer,you're going to reach those points of boredom, restlessness, from time to time,
thinking: I've gotta get out of here! Where can I go this weekend for different change of environment, where the traveling time isn't going to consume a big part of my weekend?
Freestater: I live in Mpls. for 21 years and I used to escape to the places you mentioned, and the time references, and I was never able to reach those destinations in that time period, particularly Des Moines. But, perhaps it's because I take more potty breaks along the way or stop and take too many photo's of the wondrous, inspiring landscape!
I would rather be six hours from Chicago than one hour from Wichita. Wichita is a nice little town, but it's not even worth a weekend trip from KC. Having St Louis 3-4 hours away is nice though.
KC is a fine city, it's just not on the level of Minneapolis/St Paul and it has nothing to do with their size differences. The cultures of the cities are just very different. KC is a very suburbanized and rather inactive town. There is plenty to do in KC to keep you busy, but when it comes to going out and just enjoying the "city" with others doing the same, I think KC really suffers. You can only visit the plaza so many times while the rest of the city is extremely hit or miss with activity. And again, there is zero urban recreation, that's a huge issue for me and something that nearly every decent sized city offers, let alone a city with over 2 million people.
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