Moving to Minneapolis- Would Appreciate Some Advice! (St. Paul, Plymouth: cul-de-sac, rentals)

[mkz]

We are relocating to the Minneapolis area very soon and don't have much time to look for a place to live, I was hoping to maybe get some advice in order to streamline our search.

We are pretty open as far as location, though my spouse will need to go to the office in Minneapolis about once a week, and we would like to live reasonably close to the city- within 15 miles I would say. We will be renting, and our budget is up to $1900. Most importantly we will be looking for a safe area with a good school district where our 3 year old will be able to continue receiving speech therapy. Any advice on how to research this?

Thanks!

[uptown_urbanist]

If you can be more detailed -- the more details the better, in terms of getting useful advice -- we can give you some more targeted suggestions. What size place do you want? What kind of neighborhood do you like? Me, for example, I need a neighborhood where we can walk to stores and non-chain restaurants and a library on sidewalks, and I prefer older houses and want decent access to public transportation. Others don't care about sidewalks, or prefer modern houses, or want a cul-de-sac, or don't care about about being able to walk places, or want to live within walking distance of the school, or want to feel like they're living in the woods. Your budget gives you a lot of options, so you can start to be a little more picky.

[Atalanta]

I have worked in a school district for 20 years, not Minneapolis.

My advice, do NOT put your children in their public schools.
There are good pockets, but overall the district has been suffering for years.
At the end of this school year, they are doing major teacher cuts AGAIN to help with budget problems.

[BryaninMSP]

I would do some searches on rental sites for single-family rentals in the suburbs. A quick search on the MLS for me, for example, pulled up a 4 bed, 3 bath in Woodbury (excellent schools) for $1,995/month rent. There's also a nice 2 bed/2 bath townhome in Plymouth (Osseo schools, also excellent) for $1,550. Both are slightly further than 15 miles from downtown Minneapolis, but the schools are exponentially better, and the places you'd be renting are newer and bigger than you'd find closer to the city.

[uptown_urbanist]

We're very happy with our Minneapolis Public School. These days, you certainly can't make sweeping statements like "choose a suburban district" or "avoid all city schools," given that it varies so much by location (and many, many of my teaching friends have chosen to send their kids through MPS; the parents of my kid's classmates include plenty of teachers and administrators who work in local suburban schools yet have chosen our local option). No one can make a valid argument that the schools in the 'burbs are "exponentially better" than our school; there's just not the data to back that up. Even in many of the suburbs, looking at the district as a whole doesn't give you useful information as a parent looking for a school for your child. (and as an aside, I just did a random search for one of the osseo district schools; Great schools gave it a ranking of a 2, far lower than the majority of the schools in our part of Minneapolis. Just goes to show that looking at district as a whole doesn't tell you much.)

I would hesitate to give suggestions to the op yet without knowing more about her preferences; I would absolutely hate living in the suburbs listed (Plymouth or Woodbury); others, obviously, enjoy such locations, but until we know what the OP wants, we have no idea what she would think (and new would be a big negative, not a plus -- give me a vintage place with some character and solid construction any day). Likewise, I didn't recommend that local family-favorite of Linden Hills, because if her idea of utopia is a modern american suburb, than the old fashioned charm of Linden Hills may not be her cup of tea. Until we know more, we're all just throwing out our own personal favorites, which isn't much help.

[Atalanta]

uptown I do enjoy your posts and you appear to have good points.
Although, so many times you are so defensive of where you live, that it obscures other areas and what they offer.

[uptown_urbanist]

The difference is, I'm not recommending people entirely write off broad swaths of the metro area for reasons that don't seem to be based on actual facts (i.e. writing off all city neighborhoods across the board). As I fully acknowledge, plenty of people love areas that I hate, and I respect that. But it's pretty silly to assume that everyone has the same tastes, and yes, it offends me when people write off my entire school district without any personal experience.

I'm not "defensive' about where I live -- it's one of the most popular areas in the metro area, and unfortunately the prices reflect that (although the OP, if she shares my tastes in neighborhoods, could afford it) -- but do think that we owe it to new arrivals to give them information targeted to THEIR tastes, not our own. We don't know enough about the op's preferences to point her anywhere yet.

Location has the potential to make or break an experience. It's important to get it right, and because the OP has a decent budget, she has lots of options. Let's help her get it right, whatever that means to her family.

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

Originally Posted by Atalanta

I have worked in a school district for 20 years, not Minneapolis.

My advice, do NOT put your children in their public schools.
There are good pockets, but overall the district has been suffering for years.
At the end of this school year, they are doing major teacher cuts AGAIN to help with budget problems.

That is NOT good advice. Like all inner-city public school systems, Minneapolis has some problems. But compared to 95% of the rest of the country's big inner-city schools, Mpls is MILES ahead! Take advice from UptownUrbanist about Minneapolis public schools, and stay away from the naysayers. Minneapolis is one of the very few large U.S. cities where you absolutely can put your children through public school and not have to worry about what college they could get accepted to. But it does come down to which school district you live in (even after considering that in Minneapolis there is open enrollment, meaning you can apply anywhere, but where you live takes precedent to the others).

*Note: My sister and I spent time in Minneapolis public schools, and if we moved back to the TC's, I would not hesitate to put my two children into public schools in some of the districts in Minneapolis.

[mkz]

Thanks for all of your replies! I'm sorry I wasn't more specific, but that is probably because we are so flexible! Our preference is a single family home in a walkable, established neighborhood, but the priority now is a good school and kid-friendly amenities such as playgrounds and parks nearby. We like to go into the city for museums and other cultural events, so we would like to be within a reasonable drive to the city for that.

[Glenfield]

Minneapolis is a huge school district that has some great schools, some terrible schools, and some in between. As one would suspect, the quality of the school is basically correlated with the income level of the population it serves.

While it might be reasonable to generalize about some suburban district where everyone is basically the same income level, it is very unfair to generalize about the Minneapolis School District. The same applies to St. Paul schools.

The Twin Cities are somewhat unique in that you can find everything on your list -- including good schools-- within the city limits. I would encourage you to start your search in Minneapolis.