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Hi,
We are a young family looking to relocate to the Twin Cities from the East Coast. We saw a home today on Thomas Ave. between 42nd and 43rd and we really liked it and got a good feeling from the landlord (i.e. really takes care of the property and was willing to work with us on some issues; also they used to live there). My husband and I loved the house and the neighborhood, but then I saw a few of warnings in other threads on Victory about Thomas Ave being the sole undesirable street in the neighborhood and I got worried. The house itself is really nice, in our budget (i.e. would allow us to save up in the next year or two for a down payment on a home), and relatively close distance-wise from work. So... do I have anything to worry about given that the house is on Thomas Ave., which seems to have a not-as-great reputation as all the other streets in Victory? And, also, what exactly is undesirable about the street? Basically... what am I missing here?
Also, I'll be working in downtown Minneapolis and near Merriam Park in St. Paul and my husband may end up at the U of M ... how long will the commutes by car be during rush hour? Thanks a bunch!
Last edited by Ismene; 06-15-2011 at 12:13 PM..
Reason: typos
I'm not familiar with that neighborhood, but do live in N Mpls. The rule of thumb is always drive to see the neighborhood, get out of your car and walk around. Get the feel of the block. Talk to somebody on the street if you see them.
As for driving and commute, you'll probably be getting on Hwy 94 at 46th, Lowry or B'way. 94 tends to bunch up in the morning just before the Lowry tunnel, then is usually pretty smooth driving after that. University Ave is undergoing construction for light rail. The Lowry and Plymouth Ave bridges are closed for repair, and won't be open anytime soon, so B'way bridge is often clogged.
I only have a few minutes to post here (so hopefully can come back and say more or feel free to DM me), but I live just a few blocks from Thomas and am in the Victory Neighborhood. I really wouldn't worry, in general, about the warnings related to Thomas. It's not unsafe by any means, it just has the highest concentration of rental units/multi-family housing (most all of which are on the 3800-3900 blocks, which is closer to my house currently than it would be to you on the 42nd/43rd block of Thomas, and we've never viewed it as problematic) and there is some slight additional street noise from the bus line running down Thomas, which many would actually find to be a plus. Around the 3800-4000 block or so, things appears slightly rougher around the edges than some of the other streets in the neighborhood (in home/yard tidinesss, etc.), but this seems to be changing in recent years, and, for an urban neighborhood, the bar's set relatively high in this category for the Victory Neighborhood IMO.
Once you hit 4200 block of Thomas, it does seem that the street immediately becomes more tree-lined, well-kept, and more single family residential in nature (not that there aren't nice blocks with a majority of SFHs south of 42nd, it just feels like there's a bit of a delineation). The 42nd/43rd blocks are very nice in my opinion, and you'd have some really great and active neighbors on those blocks. I myself wouldn't hesitate to live there or recommend to others to do the same. You'd be insanely close to Loring Community School, a very well-regarded elementary serving the neighborhood (I have a number of friends with kids that attend there), tons of park space at Victory Park and the parkway, and restaurants/businesses on the 42nd/Thomas node (Papa's Pizza and Deli, Sisters of Sewing, etc.) and 44th/Penn (Victory 44 restaurant and coffee shop, Workhouse Theatre, neighborhood association office, massage therapist, Emily's Cafe, and a number of others). You'd actually be in one of the more walkable addresses in the neighborhood at this address really.
There are a LOT of young families in the neighborhood, it seems like the neighborhood has been exploding with young kids in recent years (on my block there are a number of elementary-aged kids, toddlers, and infants, with a few older kids interspersed here and there as well), a demographic that we will soon be a part of as we are expecting our first later this year. We've thought about "moving up" to a bigger house somewhere else in the neighborhood, but I think we've become too attached to our neighbors and yard and will be adding on in the next couple of years instead.
Look forward to hearing what you decide- feel free to DM me or post more questions here, and be sure to check out the neighborhood association's website: www.victoryneighborhood.org. Good luck with your decision!
I'm not familiar with that neighborhood, but do live in N Mpls. The rule of thumb is always drive to see the neighborhood, get out of your car and walk around. Get the feel of the block. Talk to somebody on the street if you see them.
As for driving and commute, you'll probably be getting on Hwy 94 at 46th, Lowry or B'way. 94 tends to bunch up in the morning just before the Lowry tunnel, then is usually pretty smooth driving after that. University Ave is undergoing construction for light rail. The Lowry and Plymouth Ave bridges are closed for repair, and won't be open anytime soon, so B'way bridge is often clogged.
This is helpful - thank you! Just driving around the TC area I did notice that patch of the 94 being slow and I was concerned that it might make my commute too long for my liking... not that it is long by Minnesota standards, but I'm coming from a place where I have a door to door commute by public transportation of 25-35 mins max or 20 mins by car.
Thanks, Camden Northsider! From having seen you post (and promote) on the Victory neighborhood in other threads, I was hoping you might weigh in with some of your wisdom!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Camden Northsider
I only have a few minutes to post here (so hopefully can come back and say more or feel free to DM me), but I live just a few blocks from Thomas and am in the Victory Neighborhood. I really wouldn't worry, in general, about the warnings related to Thomas. It's not unsafe by any means, it just has the highest concentration of rental units/multi-family housing (most all of which are on the 3800-3900 blocks, which is closer to my house currently than it would be to you on the 42nd/43rd block of Thomas, and we've never viewed it as problematic) and there is some slight additional street noise from the bus line running down Thomas, which many would actually find to be a plus. Around the 3800-4000 block or so, things appears slightly rougher around the edges than some of the other streets in the neighborhood (in home/yard tidinesss, etc.), but this seems to be changing in recent years, and, for an urban neighborhood, the bar's set relatively high in this category for the Victory Neighborhood IMO.
I had a hunch the issue might be the higher concentration of rentals vs. owner-occupied homes, since I had seen the negative remarks regarding Thomas Ave. being raised in the context of buying a home in the neighborhood. Looking and driving around a bit, I thought Thomas Ave. looked pretty good, but I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything important.
Thanks for all the tips about the neighborhood - I have taken a look at the neighborhood association's website, but I will look more closely once we make our final decision.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Camden Northsider
Look forward to hearing what you decide- feel free to DM me or post more questions here, and be sure to check out the neighborhood association's website: www.victoryneighborhood.org. Good luck with your decision!
I will definitely let you know our final decision, but for now, it looks like we will likely end up renting this property. I may DM you in the next day or so to see if you have any wisdom to offer about child care in the area (in particular, in-home daycares).
Thanks again for taking the time to write all of this. Perhaps most importantly, congratulations on the upcoming arrival of your first! That is wonderful!
Hey, thanks for the congrats (to you and others that messaged!). A couple of things I forgot to add- I get the crime maps every week, and the blocks you're looking at are pretty quiet. The 3800-3900 block of Thomas seems to have a higher incidence of nuisance/other crimes, but it is still pretty low for city standards and doesn't seem to impact blocks north of there on Thomas at all (although you'll see larcenies happen at 42nd/Thomas businesses, which is normal for all Mpls neighborhoods).
Also, for years (and up until very recently) I commuted from Victory to the West Bank (just SE of Downtown close to the U of M), with frequent commutes to a DT location as well. Although I tried to hit the tail ends of rush hours, I did experience commutes at all hours of rush hours and getting to work hardly ever took more than 15 minutes by car. Sometimes a few minutes less (I think my record, not during rush hour, was 8 minutes), and sometimes closer to 20-25 minutes if there was unusually high traffic or an accident. Getting onto 94E from Dowling it is smooth sailing usually all the way to the Lowry Tunnel (around the Uptown area), at which point things usually back up and become bumper-to-bumper for anywhere from 2-8 minutes (w/o an accident) before the highway opens up and resumes speed pretty shortly after the Lowry Tunnel (I would always take the 35W North to Washington Ave/U of M West Bank exit which is pretty convenient). Getting home (from the U of M area especially) can be a little hairier as the onramps to 94 tend to collide with some of the most congested stretches of 94 during afternoon rush hour, but things will again open up for you (basically without fail) after you pass through the Lowry Tunnel and start heading in a more northerly direction (so commute home is still in the 15-25 min range). You can take backroads to get to the Northside through downtown via 7th Street to Emerson Ave N (or to an onramp to 94 from DT), but sometimes the difference is negligible/worse and you might run into Twins traffic. Downtown commutes are easier than the West Bank, however, as you can take the 4th Street/7th Street exits prior to the Lowry Tunnel congestion which takes you right into DT areas, and take these home at night as well (the off-ramps are hardly ever congested in the morning, and onramps seem to be only ocassionally congested in the afternoons).
St. Paul gets a little more annoying (coming from a guy who abhors the prospect of having to drive to, say, Bloomington), especially in the afternoons as it feels like a double-commute with congestion to cross over the bridge opening up just in time to hit the Minneapolis congestion. But it's still not a bad or overly long commute, and also seems to be a lot easier in the morning hours (especially the 8:20am-9:20am range).
Public transportation is another story- and the difference in amount of time it takes to drive (and work requirements) and commute by bus has prevented me from committing whole-heartedly to take the bus to/from work. From Victory to West Bank it's somewhere between 35-45 min one way in general, downtown isn't as bad but not sure of the exact time (would assume it's still 20-30 minutes depending where at in DT and timing of your ride).
I'll try and get some inside info on in-home daycares in the area (which is something we should probably be researching right about now as well so that will be handy) for you and respond to any DMs when I get a chance- am working some insane hours lately as a result of various natural (tornado) and human (state shutdown) disasters (the local nonprofit sector has been a lot of fun lately), but am hoping to get some down time this weekend!
That is some good info re: crime - and comforting to know.
Thanks also for the info about commutes and driving shortcuts. I'm wondering... what about the commute to the U of M on the east bank? Will that be horrendous given the light rail construction and road closures?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Camden Northsider
am working some insane hours lately as a result of various natural (tornado) and human (state shutdown) disasters (the local nonprofit sector has been a lot of fun lately), but am hoping to get some down time this weekend!
That is some good info re: crime - and comforting to know.
Thanks also for the info about commutes and driving shortcuts. I'm wondering... what about the commute to the U of M on the east bank? Will that be horrendous given the light rail construction and road closures?
Good luck with all of that!
Camden will give you the detailed scoop, but I believe that you should have no problems getting to the east bank; you should be able to completely avoid all of the light rail construction. I don't drive and don't live in Victory so don't take this as advice on fastest route, but it would be a very simple thing to just head up University (or 4th St.) from Dinkytown heading NE and up to Broadway, then cross the river there. That part of University is not the section getting light rail, so (as far as I know) you should be able to avoid it completely.
Camden will give you the detailed scoop, but I believe that you should have no problems getting to the east bank; you should be able to completely avoid all of the light rail construction. I don't drive and don't live in Victory so don't take this as advice on fastest route, but it would be a very simple thing to just head up University (or 4th St.) from Dinkytown heading NE and up to Broadway, then cross the river there. That part of University is not the section getting light rail, so (as far as I know) you should be able to avoid it completely.
Good suggestion- I've never actually thought to try that route myself (possibly due to the fact that I have a habit of getting turned around anytime i venture east of the river, and thus usually avoid doing so), but come to think of it I have a coworker that lives in Near North with a child at Marcy who uses that route and swears by it (and has suggested I give it a try in the past). You could still get to the east bank with the routes I mentioned and crossing over the river via Washington Ave SE (right now anyways), but the left turn to cross the bridge can get a little backed up at times and I honestly don't know what all is going to be impacted by the LRT construction (they just recently started on the West Bank and so far it hasn't been much of a disruption, but not sure if they're already working on the east bank side and/or what all closures there are currently and/or pending). But Uptown's suggestion would be a good one to test out for drive times. Something to note: parking is a very hot commodity anywhere in the vicinity of the University, so if your husband's working at the U public transit might be a better option depending on what's available for employees re: parking, which I'm not familiar with, and there could be better options nowadays (and/or on the horizon) than the 35-45 minute commute times I referenced- your best best would be to go to www.metrotransit.org and/or call one of their reps to see what the quickest available routes/times would be via bus or combination bus/LRT (when the central corridor opens I guess).
But I've been impressed by all of your local knowledge, Ismene- do you have ties to the area or are you just a good remote researcher?
My friend lives on the 4200 block of Thomas Ave N. and the worst problem he's ever had was a couple idiots who used to drag race down the block in their cars (right by the school, brilliant right?), but the cops put an end to that and those folks moved out long ago.
You get a lot of bang for your buck because it's on the much maligned Northside, but for that very reason many young buyers/young families are moving in & those with their ears to the ground know it's been on the uptick for a while now, even being named best neighborhood by the City Pages staff (or was it the readers?).
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. We've thought about "moving up" to a bigger house somewhere else in the neighborhood, but I think we've become too attached to our neighbors and yard and will be adding on in the next couple of years instead.
