Family relocating from Ky

[Cairn02]

Jerry - my wife and I haven't ruled out south Minneapolis, but which areas do you think we should consider? Right now I have a 5 minute drive to work, so trading that away isn't real appealing... An willing to do it for the family, but if we can find a good alternative, we are willing to consider it.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Cairn02

Jerry - my wife and I haven't ruled out south Minneapolis, but which areas do you think we should consider? Right now I have a 5 minute drive to work, so trading that away isn't real appealing... An willing to do it for the family, but if we can find a good alternative, we are willing to consider it.

Your kids won't have the activities they want if you live in Minneapolis, just keep that in mind...

[Mr. In-Between]

If I may ask, what specific part of Kentucky? The reason I'm curious is that I just moved from the Cities to the Harrodsburg area myself, so I might have a good feel for what kind of cultural adjustments you can expect. I might be able to help you with comparisons that you won't be able to make from looking at a map or asking people who don't know much about the area your family is accustomed to.

You haven't specifically asked about this area, but from reading your list of criteria, I would suggest you give some serious thought to the eastern suburbs of St. Paul - specifically the Woodbury/Lake Elmo area. It has an abundance of everything you seem to be looking for, has a quieter, much less "urban" feel, and is just minutes away from incredible parks and recreational areas like Afton State Park and the St. Croix River on the Wisconsin border.

The only downside is that your commute is going to be much longer than 20 minutes, but honestly, I don't know many suburban areas in the Twin Cities where you're going to be able to do that 20 minutes anymore and still feel good about where you're raising your children. Traffic and commutes in the metro area have gotten much worse over the last few years, and if you're driving your own vehicle, you can easily spend half of that 20 minutes (or more) just covering the distance from the freeway exit to the parking areas around the Dome.

As others have suggested, your best bet is to find a part of town that has rail or express bus service to the downtown core, and let them do the driving. There are several express bus routes from the East Metro to DT Minneapolis that will take you around 40 minutes, so that may be more than you want to invest on your daily commute, but you're going to love where you come home to. The schools are excellent, the infrastructure new and efficient, and the people generally good neighbors. It feels a lot more like Kentucky than anywhere you're going to find anywhere in the city itself.

Good luck with your move!

[Mr. In-Between]

Oh, and one other thing - no matter where you decide to move in the Cities, do some research on the public transit options in that area. Don't assume that just because there's good bus service in a certain neighborhood now, there will always be. The routes and schedules are regularly, re-evaluated, and the system is adjusted 4 times each year in response to increases or reductions in the ridership patterns. Most routes are seldom affected, and rarely impacted to a serious degree, but every year some routes are eliminated altogether because they're just not cost-effective. If you make a buying decision based on the presence of one or two bus routes, it's possible that in a year or two, those routes could be cancelled entirely and you'd have a much longer drive to the next closest park and ride.

Usually it's not that extreme - they just adjust a few schedule times, and instead of having 4 buses each rush hour you'll now have only 3 - but it's not unheard of. It's particularly more likely in areas that are going to be close to the new Southwest light rail line, because once that thing gets operational, they'll be focusing their resources more on the rail, and bus routes that even approximately duplicate the rail service will be deemed redundant.

Oh, and as long as I'm talking about public transit, I should say - don't entirely rule out the Eden Prairie area if that feels like a comfortable community to you. You're right, the commute is horrible if you're doing the driving, but they actually have surprisingly good weekday transit service out of the Southwest Transit Station, and the southwest corridor light rail line will make it even more accessible in a few years. Just something to keep in mind.

[northsub]

Maybe Centennial School District. Pretty good test scores. Has a clay target team. Close to a gun club and an archery range. Easy commute to the Metrodome via the 250 bus route: 22 minutes from 95th Ave Park and Ride to stop 2 blocks from the Metrodome. Bus leaves every 7 minutes or so during rush hour (don't plan on a specific time, just show up and take the next bus). It would be a bit more of a hassle to get back north because the route takes a different path out of downtown Minneapolis.

There are some huge trail systems in the district as well. Rice Creek Chain of Lakes is gigantic and you can canoe there and generally have a lake to yourself. Circle Pines also has maybe the best trail system in the metro per unit area. Tons of little trails there. It's probably impossible to get more than 2 blocks from a trail. There's also a trail system along Rice Creek between Lexington Ave and 35W that is pretty extensive.

35W is a bit of a mess now, but I would expect that to improve dramatically when the construction on 694 is finished in the fall (and U.S. 10 is no longer routed onto 35W at 694).