Living in city vs suburbs in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis: apartments, renting)

[gambit2]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone could provide advice about living in the suburbs vs city in Minneapolis.

We're moving from Lexington, Kentucky. We're approaching 30, and I'm going back to school, probably at University of Minnesota. He's going to be working in Brooklyn Park.

I've made a list of apartments just based on Internet searching and looking at Google Maps, but I'd love to get some advice. We're not really into bars, but we love cooking at home and do go out to unique restaurants quite a bit. Our biggest drawback for living in Lexington has been having a 45 minute commute to work outside of the city, and not being able to really walk anywhere readily. We always have to drive to get to a park, a Starbucks, etc.

Here's the list we've come up with:

Red 20 Apartments - near Marcy Holmes / St. Anthony East
808 Berry Place - in St. Paul at edge with Minneapolis, on the green line
Stone Arch Apartments - right near Stone Arch Bridge
Excelsior & Grand - in the area of Lake Calhoun
Oaks Hiawatha -- off Hiawatha Ave
Just off Main in Maple Grove
Landings at Silver Lake in Northeast Minneapolis

The two apartments we're really interested in from this list is the 808 Berry Place and Just Off Main. I'm leaning more towards Berry, he's leaning more towards Just Off Main. I think I'm more the city type, and he's more the small-ish city/town type.

Any opinions about suburbs in Minneapolis? To us they seem rather nice - lots of shopping and cheaper than the city. But I'm drawn to the light rail, and the less chain-y restaurants. Is it worth living in the city proper? What has been your experience?

Thank you in advance!

[pete6032]

Are you going to be on the St. Paul campus or Minneapolis campus for school?

The suburbs in the Twin Cities are mostly non-descript cookie cutter post-WWII construction burbs with few unique dining and shopping establishments. I would definitely recommend living in the City given you wants/needs.

The first few neighborhoods you mentioned - Marcy Holmes, St. Anthony East, Prospect Park, Calhoun, and NE Minneapolis all offer what you want. I'm not sure about the Maple Grove or Hiawatha area.

[rzzzz]

Maple Grove is a solid choice if he works in Brooklyn Park. I wouldn't want to drive into the U from there, but there probably is a bus from the transit center.

Personally, I prefer living in the city proper, but mainly because all the stuff I do is in the city.

If you're looking at Red 20 and Stone Arch, you might also want to check out Sol Havn, Sol Tva, Mill and Main, Velo, Third North, The Copham, Else Warehouse, 222 Hennepin, Dock Street Flats and Heritage Landing.

There is also a new tower in Loring Park called LPM which looks nice. That would be easy access onto 94 to Brooklyn Park

All that said I think the real unique part of living in one of the cities is either living close to the river or the city lakes. The rest of it is not anything special IMO.

[gambit2]

Thank you. I will be going to the Minneapolis campus.

I'm starting to look at the choices already mentioned!

[MidwestRedux]

We looked at Just off Main before renting a condo near Arbor Lakes in Maple Grove. (JoM didn't have any three bedrooms available when we needed to move in.)

The Arbor Lakes area of MG is one of the few truly suburban areas in the Twin Cities that is walkable. However, there is still some pretty big give and take between Maple Grove and actually living in the city. We also moved from afar, so we liked the idea of moving to a nice safe suburb, rather than an unfamiliar urban neighborhood.

Despite the walkability in the immediate area, Maple Grove is decidedly suburban. If you are looking for big city or small TOWN, this isn't it. Maple Grove/Arbor Lakes is hardcore suburbia, for better or for worse. There probably aren't too many other places in the country where you can walk from home to Lowe's, Office Max, REI and TGI Friday's all within a few minutes... You can do that here. BUT, if you want to walk to unique restaurants, boutiques and independent bookstores, the other properties on your list will suit your needs much better.

[iNviNciBL3]

Originally Posted by gambit2

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone could provide advice about living in the suburbs vs city in Minneapolis.

We're moving from Lexington, Kentucky. We're approaching 30, and I'm going back to school, probably at University of Minnesota. He's going to be working in Brooklyn Park.

I've made a list of apartments just based on Internet searching and looking at Google Maps, but I'd love to get some advice. We're not really into bars, but we love cooking at home and do go out to unique restaurants quite a bit. Our biggest drawback for living in Lexington has been having a 45 minute commute to work outside of the city, and not being able to really walk anywhere readily. We always have to drive to get to a park, a Starbucks, etc.

Here's the list we've come up with:

Red 20 Apartments - near Marcy Holmes / St. Anthony East
808 Berry Place - in St. Paul at edge with Minneapolis, on the green line
Stone Arch Apartments - right near Stone Arch Bridge
Excelsior & Grand - in the area of Lake Calhoun
Oaks Hiawatha -- off Hiawatha Ave
Just off Main in Maple Grove
Landings at Silver Lake in Northeast Minneapolis

The two apartments we're really interested in from this list is the 808 Berry Place and Just Off Main. I'm leaning more towards Berry, he's leaning more towards Just Off Main. I think I'm more the city type, and he's more the small-ish city/town type.

Any opinions about suburbs in Minneapolis? To us they seem rather nice - lots of shopping and cheaper than the city. But I'm drawn to the light rail, and the less chain-y restaurants. Is it worth living in the city proper? What has been your experience?

Thank you in advance!

You are gonna do a lot of driving when you move here to be honest, unless if you like walking in below freezing temps.
So you might as well just move to the burbs

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

What about a compromise, like an inner-ring suburb that has walkable neighborhoods, accessibility to major attractions and jobs, and affordability? Options could include (but are not limited to): St. Louis Park, Hopkins, New Hope, Crystal, Roseville, Fridley, Columbia Heights, Richfield or even parts of Edina or Bloomington. I'm a city buff and my wife doesn't trust places she's not familiar with, so we settled on Edina when we lived in the area and there are a few places where you kind of have a nice mix between semi-walkable and still somewhat quaint. We lived in Edina Towers, which I'm fairly sure is well within your price range.

Also, there are areas within the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul that have that nice small-town feel to them without being too urban: Highland Park in St. Paul, and Linden Hills in Minneapolis are two very popular options with most people.

[pete6032]

Originally Posted by Min-Chi-Cbus

What about a compromise like an inner-ring suburb, that has walkable neighborhoods, accessibility to major attractions and jobs, and affordability? Options could include (but are not limited to): St. Louis Park, Hopkins, New Hope, Crystal, Roseville, Fridley, Columbia Heights, Richfield or even parts of Edina or Bloomington. I'm a city buff and my wife doesn't trust places she's not familiar with, so we settled on Edina when we lived in the area and there are a few places where you kind of have a nice mix between semi-walkable and still somewhat quaint. We lived in Edina Towers, which I'm fairly sure is well within your price range.

Personally, and I know this changes from individual to individual, I don't consider many of those walkable. Portions of St. Louis Park, Portions of Richfield, and Portions of Edina are, but in general even the first ring suburbs in the Twin Cities are not nearly as walkable as suburbs that developed prior to WWII. Also I think there is a distinction between areas where you could walk and areas where it is actually more convenient and enjoyable to walk. I'd put much of the Twin Cities suburbs in the "could be walked" category, but very few areas of those suburbs actually fin in the "enjoyably to walk here and people who live here choose to walk instead of drive" category.

[pvoyd]

I think you may want to decide whether you want to walk to the UofM campus, ride the bike, take a bus, drive, or some combination of those. If you decide you are ok with driving to campus, this opens up most of the city and suburbs between campus and, say, Maple Grove, but you need to check on the costs of on-campus parking, and potential scarcity of spots. If you want walking to be an option, I probably would not live further than the Stone Arch area / Stadium Village. Try walking, biking, and riding the buses from NE Minneapolis / Marcy-Holmes / Como area - is the walk too long? Do you feel safe? Do buses run often enough?

I personally like the area around Kramarczuk's (Hennepin and University)- walkable, bikable, downtown is across the bridge, should not be too expensive; you are competing with fewer students than areas closer to campus.

[Glenfield]

City vs. suburbs? Walkability? If someone would just say something about Minnesota Nice we'd hit the trifecta.