Walkable suburbs near Minneapolis?

[rzzz]

In any case, I'm pretty familiar with Evanston. Evanston is high density compared to suburbs in the Twin Cities. I wouldn't be surprised if it's more dense than most of in-city Minneapolis. There aren't really any suburbs like Evanston. Edina sort of has the same "vibe" right at 50th and France but once you get out of that node, which is only a couple of blocks, it becomes much more spread out. I'm not sure what I would recommend to the OP. Probably to adjust expectations and just live in Edina, or somewhere near work.

[northsub]

I'd suggest pretty much ignoring walkscore numbers when comparing areas. I put in a location in St. Louis Park. The 4 closest "groceries" are: a "food broker", some business run out of someone's house, a manufacturer of supplements, some other online business.

I plugged in another address in St. Louis Park, and I'm guessing only 1 of the top 8 "groceries" is something someone would call a "grocery store". It might be the only one where you can buy milk or produce for instance. Strangely, the Byerly's (a full-service grocery store) is closer than many of those and it does not show up. There is a catering company affiliated with Byerly's that does show up. Target doesn't show up either.

I love the idea of walkscore, but the execution is absolutely terrible. It's probably useful for finding the commercial nodes in a given area, but pretty worthless for comparing two different areas.

[northsub]

Originally Posted by StilltheSame

OP - I live in St. Louis Park with a walkscore of 96. We find this to be accurate. From Wooddale to Joppa/North or South of Excelsior will be walkable. If you are interested in this area - for townhomes and condos depending on your budget you could look at Excelsior and Grand and the surrounding areas and off 36th street and Wooddale there are some nice townhomes. I agree that Edina and Linden Hills also are good choices - in the former you will find both condos and townhomes (Near Southdale and off France -between 44th and 50th) and in the latter ( right East of France) mostly duplexes.

Where are you getting a walkscore of 96 in St. Louis Park? I'm clicking along Excelsior and the highest score I've gotten is 74.

Well, now I can get 94 if I go off of Excelsior to a part that's further from the commerce!?! 5400 Auto Club Way gives the 94 (the AAA building). Of course, 5401 Auto Club Way gives a 66. Putting in 5400 Auto Club into maps.google makes me think the 94 is ridiculous. But, you can see for yourself: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=5400+...ota+55416&z=18

I'll also note that the Byerly's gets picked up with one of the address off Excelsior, but is missing with the address on Excelsior. So, the site is also buggy.

[rzzz]

Originally Posted by northsub

I love the idea of walkscore, but the execution is absolutely terrible. It's probably useful for finding the commercial nodes in a given area, but pretty worthless for comparing two different areas.

The execution may be terrible, but I'd argue the problem is the opposite. The overall walkscores are generally correct, and the commercial nodes throw things out of whack and often don't make sense. For instance, the SLP walkscore is 45 and Edina's overall walkscore is 34. This seems about right to me. There is a small walkable node in Edina, but people drive to it, and overall it's a car oriented place. It doesn't make sense to say a single intersection with some antique stores is 90% "walkable."

[MnMomma]

We moved to Minnesota after being at NU. There really isn't anything that compares to Evanston.

We moved to the Fulton neighborhood of Minneapolis and have loved it. Linden Hills would be more walkable than our specific location, but there are other parts of Fulton that are very walkable. Single-family homes greatly outnumber townhomes and condos--it's just a different housing stock (and neighborhood style) than most of Chicago.

I think that parts of St. Louis Park could be good..as well as parts of Edina. There is a lot of variation within those two communities.

Edina High School and Southwest High School (Minneapolis) are both very good.

Budget would be helpful since that could limit your choices.

[uptown_urbanist]

I agree that portions of SLP, Edina, or SW Minneapolis could work. Much of Uptown is zoned for Southwest and could also work well, and if you're looking for walkable, that is going to be your best option. Edina and SW are both excellent schools and very popular with local and relocating families. If you DO end up moving to Edina, I believe some areas are actually zoned for Richfield, which has nowhere near the reputation as SW or Edina. If you go the Edina route, I'd stay pretty close to the 50th and France area. In SLP, I'd also focus on that same general area: between Excelsior over to the Edina border, and just to the west of Minneapolis. All of these areas -- Linden Hills or Fulton (or Uptown, for that matter) in Minneapolis, Edina, and that part of SLP, can be expensive; I would guess that SLP is probably the most affordable of the three. If budget is no issue, then I'd just move into a neighborhood like East Isles (in Uptown) or a Linden Hills and call it a day.

I grew up in the area and still spend significant amounts of time as a walker in all of these general areas -- the walkable portions of Edina, SW Minneapolis, Uptown, and SLP -- and would say that the walkscores are fairly accurate. Not perfect, but if you plug in an address it will give you a general sense of the location. It's not going to replace seeing it person, but it's a start. When we've moved to other cities in the past I've coupled that with walking around via google's streetview and have found that to be useful.

[pete6032]

I have lived in bot the Twin Cities and Chicago areas and rzzz is right. There are no Oak Parks or Evanstons in the Twin Cities. Twin Cities suburbs just don't have the density that many other major metropolitan suburbs have.

That being said there are a few suburbs with small walkable areas that you might like. Downtown St. Louis Park - Excelsior & Grand is a new walkable friendly development. The area south of excelsior blvd is a lot of single family homes and has sidewalks throughout with lots of active people. That area is walkable all the way east to Lake Calhoun before entering Minneapolis proper. That is the Minikahda Vista neighborhood. You may also want to check out Minikahda Oaks.

You might also check out the area around downtown Hopkins. The center of downtown is near Main Street and 12th Ave South.

As mention before, within Minneapolis - Linden Hills, Fulton, and many of the neighborhoods surrounding Lake Calhoun (young hip crowd), Lake of the Isles (family oriented young people), or Lake of the Isles (Rich, quiet).

[StilltheSame]

Originally Posted by northsub

Where are you getting a walkscore of 96 in St. Louis Park? I'm clicking along Excelsior and the highest score I've gotten is 74.

Well, now I can get 94 if I go off of Excelsior to a part that's further from the commerce!?! 5400 Auto Club Way gives the 94 (the AAA building). Of course, 5401 Auto Club Way gives a 66. Putting in 5400 Auto Club into maps.google makes me think the 94 is ridiculous. But, you can see for yourself: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=5400+...ota+55416&z=18

I'll also note that the Byerly's gets picked up with one of the address off Excelsior, but is missing with the address on Excelsior. So, the site is also buggy.

You are right. I was referring to the rating last time I checked walkscore. The numbers have decreased. Our number is now in the low 70's - and I assure you - you do not need a car to get to 3 grocers, the movies, numerous restaurants - at least 2 bars, liquor stores, etc.

[aus1ander]

I know the OP was looking at suburbs, but I'll put a plug in for Highland in St Paul. Its a quick trip on 62 to Edina, but obviously the traffic can stink during rush hour. I have a walk score in the low 80s and rarely have to drive to do any routine shopping in Highland Village, which pretty much has everything you would want in a neighborhood. Plus, we're close to the Mississippi river trails. I would say its closer to Skokie and Morton Grove when comparing neighborhoods to Chicagoland, but more walkable.

[xandrex]

Originally Posted by northsub

I'd suggest pretty much ignoring walkscore numbers when comparing areas. I put in a location in St. Louis Park. The 4 closest "groceries" are: a "food broker", some business run out of someone's house, a manufacturer of supplements, some other online business.

I plugged in another address in St. Louis Park, and I'm guessing only 1 of the top 8 "groceries" is something someone would call a "grocery store". It might be the only one where you can buy milk or produce for instance. Strangely, the Byerly's (a full-service grocery store) is closer than many of those and it does not show up. There is a catering company affiliated with Byerly's that does show up. Target doesn't show up either.

I love the idea of walkscore, but the execution is absolutely terrible. It's probably useful for finding the commercial nodes in a given area, but pretty worthless for comparing two different areas.

I think WalkScore tends to be more useful for cities than suburbs, as generally people checking out that site are specifically looking for the walkability of a neighborhood (generally more closely associated with urban rather than suburban areas, regardless of how you define the issue). Because of that, you're going to find some places likely fall through the cracks, especially in third-tier or exurban areas. What's confusing is that if we have people who know where these missing grocery stores and coffee shops are, why aren't they adding them? We're all clearly invested in informing people about housing and other issues in our metro area (and the related boosterism that comes with it), so why not make your city/suburb/exurb look that much better?

I think we often put too much value on a specific location's WalkScore (I fall into this trap sometimes too). It's really better as a general indicator and single data point. When I plug in an address, I'm just looking to see what is nearby. Does it list any real coffee shops? How about a grocery? Or a bank, bars, etc? From there, you can weed out some stuff (a corner store might show up as a grocery, which is good to note, but lets me know I might need to look further out for where I'll buy the bulk of my food). Generally, it's much easier to use walk score to find what's nearby rather than typing in the address into Google and then searching for nearby grocery stores, banks, bars, etc. one at a time.

Back a little more on topic, it's true that the OP is going to have issues finding Chicago-style suburban areas. But you can likely get a similar quality of life in a different housing style, perhaps even closer to the "core".