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Old 08-07-2015, 12:25 PM
 
242 posts, read 431,986 times
Reputation: 283

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After living in the greater Minneapolis area for the pastseven years my family is now moving to another city in an entirely differentpart of the country. Oftentimes people leverage this website to understandaspects of other cities to help them make better informed moving decisions. Ithought I’d insert my views in case it might help someone else. Overall, Iabsolutely fell in love with Minnesota and would stay there for the rest of mylife if I could; however, aspects related to my employment are forcing me tomove elsewhere – at least for the time being.


What I loved

Caribou Coffee, Caribou Coffee, and CaribouCoffee. Did I mention Caribou Coffee? Best. Coffee. Shop. Ever. Feels like youare in a rustic cabin with free wifi and plenty of power outlets. My favoriteplace to chat or do some work. And they are EVERYWHERE given their Minnesota headquarters.

Target Field is the best ballpark I’ve evervisited. Wonderful design with a retro feel. I never visited the Target Centerbut understand it to be in need of updating. The new Vikings stadium is onlyhalf done but looks great as well. Never visited the Excel Energy Center as I’mnot a big hockey fan.

I absolutely loved the Mall of America and willdearly miss it. This was a wonderful place to visit and simply walk around withmy (then) baby who is now a young child. The mall is well-designed, hasoutstanding stores for all sorts of consumer types, and the rollercoasters/rides, aquarium, and mini golf is great! Now they are expanding themall even more and are looking to add a major waterpark and NHL sized iceskating rink. Color me green with envy since we won’t be able to enjoy itunless we end up moving back!

Most of the school districts, especially in thesuburbs, are absolutely outstanding.

In many of the nicer outer ring suburbs there isreally no crime and life is peaceful and quiet, yet a drive to downtown is onlyabout 20 minutes away.

I didn’t go downtown much but the skyways makeit easy to move from building to building without having to face the coldduring winter.

I learned to enjoy much of winter – my definitionof heaven is not lying on a beach in Hawaii; rather it’s sitting in my basementwatching football while it’s snowing outside and my dog is lying in front ofthe fireplace. I had no idea how much I took such moments for granted until now.

The size of the city (and surrounding area) wasperfect for me – larger than a place like Milwaukee but not as large as Chicago. That means tolerable housing prices, less crime, less traffic, lesssnootiness, etc. You get that metropolitan feel without the hassle that oftencomes with it.

There are somewhere around 20 Fortune 500 firmslocated in the Twin Cities area which provides plenty of jobs. Some of thosecompanies have fallen on hard times (notably Best Buy and Target) butemployment prospects are good overall.

In general there is just a sense of Minnesotabeing a perfect mix of “quaint” and a good sized metropolitan area with classypeople. I really, really enjoyed my time there.

What I didn’t like:

I was a bit surprised at how difficult it was tojoin social networks – the “Minnesota Nice” stereotype seems to be quite true(although perhaps not as harsh as some people make it sound). Most of thepeople I knew were from the large organization I worked with during my time inMinnesota. Everyone at work would be very kind to me and to others but I wouldonly consider a small handful “true” friends. When you’d want to connect withothers outside of work I was surprised at how many gave me (and others) thecold shoulder – even people I spent time with fairly regularly. This was alsotrue when you’ve fallen on hard times. Perhaps this is due to my personalitybut I’ve not experienced anything like this anywhere else. People seem moregenuine in other parts of the country.

Winters here start early and end late. The fallleaves start changing colors in mid-September and peak in mid-October. They areusually gone by Halloween which honestly feels more like a winter holiday thana fall holiday. It’s wonderful that kids can go trick-or-treating in shoppingmalls to escape the cold (and prevent wearing a winter jacket and hat overtheir costume) and doing so at the Mall of America is wonderful. That saidtrick-or-treating at Bath and Body Works doesn’t say “Halloween” like it should

Winters last a very long time. It fairlycommonly snows up until early May and it gets old quickly. And, it’s not thebeautiful snow like you might see in Colorado; rather, it’s the grey gloomyskies kind of snow.

It gets extremely cold in winter but I considerit tolerable due to the relative lack of wind (i.e. it is usually colder thanit “feels”). In a given year the Twin Cities area has about 20 days where thetemperature gets below zero. Two winters ago we had 50 days below zero and itwas very, very hard to tolerate. That is the kind of cold when you leave themall and head to your car your face is in so much pain you literally want tocry! It’s gotten so cold that when driving to work (with my car parked in thegarage all night) the condensation from my breath would freeze on my rearviewmirror in seconds!

The summer can get extremely hot and humid inJuly and (especially) August with mosquitos the size of small cars. It’s notintolerable but then the weather begins to cool down quite a bit very quickly.It’s not uncommon for 100+ degree weather in the summer (with the heat index)and then 40’s and 50’s in September.

I don’t like the freeway on and off ramps atall. For those unfamiliar the same right hand lane is used for those enteringand exiting the freeway in a fairly short stretch of roadway. You have driverstrying to get on the freeway in the exact same space as people are trying toget off. You get used to it but it’s quite odd.

The taxes here are quite high and homes areaffordable yet still a bit more expensive than what you might normally expectfor the Midwest.

There are no donut shops anywhere in thesouthwest suburbs. I have no idea why this is.

Overall we loved our time there and I could see us moving back there in the relative near term - but things would need to work out professionally for me in order for that to happen. I hope this information is helpful to others!

Last edited by mkdude_08; 08-07-2015 at 12:36 PM..
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Old 08-07-2015, 01:00 PM
 
371 posts, read 554,026 times
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Quote:
That said trick-or-treating at Bath and Body Works doesn’t say “Halloween” like it should
Nice comments. That one is funny. Good luck in your new state!
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Old 08-07-2015, 08:17 PM
 
29 posts, read 35,332 times
Reputation: 51
I lived there for 13 years and echo everything you said except the summers were particularly mild and enjoyable (depends what you were comparing it to) and I don't know about the donut shops. I would also put some of the winter comments in the positive. I did find it odd that the social aspect was so hard to penetrate until we had kids.

For anyone looking for an honest look at MN I think MKDude nailed it.
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Old 08-08-2015, 06:51 AM
 
Location: Twin Cities
5,833 posts, read 7,681,567 times
Reputation: 8867
It's important to look outside of work for a social circle. Many people intentionally do not hang out with co-workers. Plus you don't want to have to get all new friends every time you change jobs. Better to base friendships on common interests.
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Old 08-13-2015, 10:24 PM
 
55 posts, read 79,341 times
Reputation: 36
I've heard this about making friends here too from friends, and I think its probably true in general. However, I haven't experienced it personally, and I've found some of my best friends here (after coming as an adult and no growing up here). But it takes time, and it takes effort. I hear this is an issue for a lot of my friends in their 30s wherever they are in the world though - once you are out of college / school whatever you just don't have those close social interactions at your fingertips and you have to get out and join a sport or clubs or something to make it happen. But it will happen. Odd as it may be, most of my friends here are not originally from here, but plenty are. People, I think, know of this stereotype and are working to counteract it, and transplants are as accepting as you probably are. Anyway, cool retrospective, good luck on the new everything.
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Old 09-16-2015, 11:16 AM
 
Location: Prior Lake, MN
18 posts, read 18,007 times
Reputation: 31
You nailed it.

MN is absolutely beautiful
Schools are impressive
On/Off ramps are engineered and layout very wrong
People are stereotypical MN nice (shinny happy people on the outside, but wont let anyone into their circles)
We are in the SW burbs too and you are correct, no doughnut shops (one in Burnsville I think)
Caribou kicks Starbucks butt!
Suburbs are really nice here
Home prices are high
land of 10,000 taxes!
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