Rogers the best place to raise kids? (Minneapolis, Brooklyn Park: 2013, hotels)

[hair100]

I heard this on the news last night...I don't know much about Rogers except I thought it was an exburb/urban sprawl of the nothern suburbs. Maybe I was all wrong. I would hate to think of the traffic on 94 in rush hour though! Anybody have any insight on Rogers? Is it a truly great place to raise a family?

The Best Places to Raise Kids 2013 - Finding the Best in Small Towns - Businessweek

[knke0204]

It's a typical exurb Community, similar to Otsego, St. Michael and Albertville. Relatively low population, not very dense, has a rural feel, good schools, affordable homes.

That's about it. The traffic on 94 is a pain, but seriously, where isn't traffic awful?

[1stpontiac]

Yeah, I'm sure its a fine place to raise kids, but I bet there are 50 other communities in MN that offer basically the same experience.

However, putting things in list form, and especially making that list a slideshow, generates lots of clicks.

[mn55110]

Rogers , zip code 55374 , was a rural, remote exurb with a lot of space beween each home back in 1989-1990. Since then however Rogers has become a nearly fully developed suburb with only a few homesites available, and they are starting to build in Rogers again. The joke since about 1996 or 1997 is that Rogers is Maple Grove West!

Nearly all the homes in the housing subdivisions are right next to each other with normal sized yards, sidewalks right in front, bike trails everywhere, and I don't think you can walk more than a couple blocks from anywhere without there being a park with new, modern playground equipment and numerous athletic fields which are continously busy throughout the daylight hours. All of Rogers is filled with families with elementary through high school aged children.

As someone who's cousins have grown-up, played sports in the area had their children grow-up playing youth sports in Rogers later lettering in three sports while playing for Rogers High School and making All-State (Go Royals) then playing collegiate athletics all while their parents have coached, I can say that Rogers is a great place to raise a family.

Now I'm not qualified to varify whether or not Rogers is the very best place to raise a family in the state of Minnesota and 23rd-or 24th best place in the entire United States as the Business Week Magazine article says or not. Having a median family income of $99,000 a year is certainly a plus. Having all the big box shopping at Interstate 94 and Minnesota Highway 101 (exit #207) helps along with every sit down fast food restaurant and family resaurant chain too. Cabela's Sporting Goods is a plus. Having four hotels at that same freeway interchange: Hampton Inn; Sleep Inn; Super 8 Motel; and Americinn Hotel is also a positive. Being 5-miles northwest of all the retail and hopitailty offerrings at Arbor Lakes in Maple Grove along with being 5-miles southeast of the Premium Outlet Malls in Albertville works in Rogers' favor.

The 25-mile drive to Downtown Minneapolis from Rogers has been improved with the expansion of Interstate 694 and Interstate 494 to three lanes in each direction have greatly redused rush hour commute times along with Minnesota Highway 610 being extended further into Maple Grove has also really helped. Maple Grove Transit has increased express bus service from Maple Grove to Downtown, and there are more corporate business campuses in Maple Grove and Plymouth. The new Target Stores Corporate campus in Brooklyn Park will really benefit Rogers. In Rogers itself, they continue to build more warehouse disribution centers and manufactoring facilities like Graco as well. Residents of Rogers also have an easier drive up north on weekends to their lakeshore cabins in northern Minnesota.

[Pisces69]

Yep #1 place in the world just drop em off in the Cabelas