Move back to MSP for family only to regret it?

[toobrown]

I moved out of MN and currently in TX. For me, it was weather and in-laws, which encouraged me to move out of MN

[Ghengis]

Originally Posted by toobrown

I moved out of MN and currently in TX. For me, it was weather and in-laws, which encouraged me to move out of MN

that's so sad

[rtloucks]

Well i can certainly understand the weather driving anyone out, and the in-laws can be a dramatic stresser for sure if y'all don't get along well. I understand that because I'm actually on the flip side now with my In-Laws. I started out on their caution side and it really created a lot of tension between all of us. Now they actually really like me. In fact they have told me that they like me better than some of their own kids. My wife's mother calls me first now for anything. And we actually live about 1.5 hours from them in Colorado. But it was a few years of proving myself before they warmed up to me.

I try not to let family impact our decisions anymore. I realize they are a wonderful perk of living somewhere but they don't pay the bills and they don't make the weather better. So I try to put our lifestyle, jobs, kids' future and the economics first. That's why if we decided to move to MN Again it would be a financial decision

[chessgeek]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

I won't disagree. My point, though, was that it really isn't different in any way simply due to its size.

There is more suburban sprawl in Atlanta. Plenty in the TC too, but less than Atlanta. The core urban area of Minneapolis/St. Paul is larger than Atlanta.

City/urban populations; population densities:

Atlanta 443,775; 3,199 per square mile.
Minneapolis/St. Paul 704,847 (Minneapolis: 407,207; 7,417 per square mile/ St. Paul: 297,640; 5,506 per square mile).

That is a population difference of 261,072 and the population density differences are significant.

Plus the modern towers and architecture prevalent in Minneapolis and the historic preservation prevalent in St. Paul complement each other and make it a more interesting area than if it were just one style in both cities IMO.

I recently had a brief four day visit to Minneapolis and was not panhandled once. (Closest was a "drummer" playing outside Target Field after a Twins game with a jar hoping for money/change. However, he never approached or asked us or anyone else for money).

In my longer 2005 visit of two weeks, I was only panhandled once. Granted, that trip was in several cities in the state and not just in the Twin Cities. That is a "perk" IMO, too.

From what I have heard, it happens much more frequently in Atlanta and many other cities.

The Atlanta Braves are moving out of their downtown/near downtown stadium soon and will be playing a good distance north of the city in a new stadium. In Minneapolis/St. Paul all the major pro sports teams have stayed in the downtown area where some of those fans will spend additional money before or after the game. Losing a baseball stadium from a downtown area hurts because of the 81 home games in a baseball season. Football has less effect with just 8 home games (OK, 10 if you include the two home exhibition games).

Minneapolitans are spoiled by numerous lakes both in the city limits and in the region. Atlanta has mountains to its north. Both areas are beautiful and blessed with several Fortune 500 companies, too. Both have large airports that can fly people to any major North American city and also have international flights.

[rtloucks]

I think the current/old location of the braces stadium is terrible though and a change was needed. And the new Falcons stadium will be great in the new location. I agree that downtown locations are great but sometimes it's a deterrent. Some cities are so congested and hard to navigate in and out of when there's 50-70k other people doing the same thing. I loved in DC and getting around the city was hard enough. Baseball games were a great time but hard to get home after. Redskins games were just outside DC in landover md, and even that took a couple of hours just to leave. I think it's all dependent on infrastructure and number of attendees.

[rtloucks]

Well we did it... We pulled from our job offers and decided not to move back to MN

I just think we all need to find happiness in life and we as a family decided what was important to us and there's no common ground for what we are looking for. Minnesota is a wonderful place and so are the people, but unfortunately we feel detached and too far removed from a life we once had there.

We hope others that find themselves in this position will find a way to get gainful solutions as well. Thank you all for the kind responses and not turning this post into banter