Minneapolis? No! (St. Paul: food, office, company)

[pete6032]

Another thing to add, our public schools are some of the top in the nation consistently. There are many lower tax areas you could live in but you wouldn't want to send your kids to a public school in many of those places.

[icicles]

Originally Posted by pete6032

Another thing to add, our public schools are some of the top in the nation consistently. There are many lower tax areas you could live in but you wouldn't want to send your kids to a public school in many of those places.

The public schools are not the top, its the families that raise the kids. The schools have nothing to do with it. I went to Hopkins high school a while back and we had really high scores because of the kids and families we came from. Now we have a ton of inner city kids going there and the scores dropped like a rock. school teachers the same, kids different, outcome different.


It's like stanford or any "good" school. They are good because they let in the "smart" kids, swap stanfords kids with a community college and see what happens.

[rzzz]

MN public schools are not ranked top in the country. In the last US News HS rankings, Minnesota came in at #32.

[Mason3000]

I find that St Paul-ites do tend to have a bit of a chip on their shoulder. I also find that the vast majority of people in Mpls taking shots at St Paul are transplants who've never even stepped foot in St Paul, they're just trying to fit in and act like what they think locals are like.

[chessgeek]

Originally Posted by rzzz

MN public schools are not ranked top in the country. In the last US News HS rankings, Minnesota came in at #32.

I have rarely seen Minnesota below the top ten on any educational ranking. Nice try.

[rzzz]

It's right there on the US News rankings:

How States Compare in the 2013 Best High Schools Rankings - US News and World Report

Maybe elementary schools are good? Public high schools aren't particularly amazing in Minnesota. Most outstate schools are mediocre to poor, and there are a handful of really bad ones in the metro. There's a few good ones, but the highest rated ones only hit the national list somewhere in the 200s. Even if you just use HS graduation rates, Minnesota's is like 77%, which is somewhere around #28.

[thefallensrvnge]

Originally Posted by trip_shakespeare

I used to live just off of Grand on Fairview, near the Lake Street Marshall Bridge. It amazes me the people who persist in believing Minneapolis, rather than St. Paul, is where they should locate - as if Minneapolis is a big city and St. Paul isn't.

The reality is, Minneapolis isn't a big city, no more than St. Paul is. It seems, having lived other places, that Minneapolitans have an inferiority complex, wanting disparately to present their city as something it isn't. It's not Boston or even Seattle. It's just a mid-sized Midwestern city, replete with suburban style neighborhoods, low density and all the culture of Kansas City. It's not New York, regardless of the number of theatre seats.

What it is is a flat, boring city, lacking any charm.

The culture of Kansas City?

So Minneapolis has a vibrant history of jazz, blues, and bbq?

[chessgeek]

Originally Posted by rzzz

It's right there on the US News rankings:

How States Compare in the 2013 Best High Schools Rankings - US News and World Report

Maybe elementary schools are good? Public high schools aren't particularly amazing in Minnesota. Most outstate schools are mediocre to poor, and there are a handful of really bad ones in the metro. There's a few good ones, but the highest rated ones only hit the national list somewhere in the 200s. Even if you just use HS graduation rates, Minnesota's is like 77%, which is somewhere around #28.

The real measure of school performance is graduation rate and test scores such as ACT which puts MN in the top ten. Any survey that puts California at the top was influenced and is very dubious. I live in CA and we are nowhere near the top. Our schools are middle of the road at best. This list was influenced (by the usual "who do you know" rather than integrity and merit) and obviously only measures a few top schools. I am shocked that US News would not include test scores and achievement as indicators. MN is always near the top on those. This is not one of their better efforts for sure. They really should be ashamed.

Nebraska, North Dakota and Minnesota are always near the top year after year. This list has them lower and no way they plummet this much in just a year or two.

[chessgeek]

Originally Posted by thefallensrvnge

The culture of Kansas City?

So Minneapolis has a vibrant history of jazz, blues, and bbq?

Minneapolis is a vibrant city full of a variety of music and cuisine. Just saying that a town has great BBQ pretty much dooms it to simplicity and boredom. Minneapolis has so much more than just that. Nice try.

[SPonteKC]

Originally Posted by chessgeek

Minneapolis is a vibrant city full of a variety of music and cuisine.

Minneapolis has a lot of things on KC: density, transit usage, more walkable zones, safety, better schools, more people, etc., but in just as many ways, its kind of like a higher functioning KC, so be careful about casting aspersions on Kansas City if your goal is to defend Mineapolis. One of the areas MPLS isn't really better than KC is "big c" Culture (or "little c" for that matter), music and cuisine included. In fact, KC's cuisine and food scene is pretty competitive. KC has many, many flaws, but lacking Culture or culture isn't one of them.