Interracial Couple Considering Minneappolis (Minneapolis, St. Paul: crime, houses, neighborhoods)

[Hatless Wonder]

Hi! I'm Black, my husband is White. We live in Boston, but we want to leave when I finish my degree (in 2 years). We don't mind cold weather, and we both have relatives in the midwest (including a few in Minnesota).

How diverse is Minneappolis? How are the school? Any neighborhoods to avoid? How's the public transit?

[Robert P Stewart]

I think you'll love it here. I've worked with many relocating couples of differing ethnic background. I've seen moves work and I've seen them fail.

A racially diverse couple will feel most comfortable in (in order):

1. Twin Cities area (including suburbs)
2. Duluth
3. Rochester

Other than that, you're going to wind up in a town with a bunch of Norweigans. But if you can stand it, the lefse isn't bad. The moves that I've seen fail were in Faribault, New Prague, and Pine City. I'm not saying those places are non-tolerant; I'm just saying that I've helped racially diverse couples buy homes there, and my follow-ups concluded that they weren't comfortable.

On the other side, I've had dozens of couples buy in the areas I just mentioned. I usually follow up with them every 6 months to a year or so, and things are moving right along with nothing adverse to report.

My $0.02.

Robert

[BLaw]

Hatless,

I'm half of an interracial couple that lives in Minneapolis. My better half has also lived in Boston. I don't think there is any question that Minneapolis is a much EASIER city to live in than Boston. It is a pretty progressive town.

I would avoid Minneapolis North (b/c of crime) and Northeast (b/c it has a lot of the same element as South Boston, albeit tamer). Northeast has been gentrifying in the past few years, but only in pockets. Your best bets would be the Uptown area, Southwest, or Powderhorn/Nokomis. Which one is more of a budget issue.

The primary schools will be fine. The secondary schools are a little rockier in Minneapolis. If you get to that point, moving a bit west to the Edina/Hopkins/Minnetonka suburbs might be an idea; their schools are excellent.

I wouldn't recommend living further out into the suburbs. While people will claim that they are progressive, it seems like it's only because they don't encounter anyone who isn't white. That is to say, who knows how they would respond when a interracial couple buys a house next door.

On the other hand, I would happily recommend Minneapolis.

B

[golfgal]

Well, not that I can speak for everyone but I find your comments about suburban families not being accepting very offensive. I think there are plenty of communities that are very progressive and accepting. I wouldn't care one way or another who moved in next door as long as they were good neighbors. Granted, the suburbs aren't quite as racially diverse as Minneapolis or St. Paul but they are more diverse then BLaw tends to think.

I don't think you would have issues living anywhere in the metro area.

[Robert P Stewart]

Hogwash.

I am captain suburbs. My job is finding people homes in the suburbs. I've worked with DOZENS of inter-racial couples and helped them buy a home in Lakeville, Farmington, Apple Valley, etc... Because they are clients and past clients I regularly check up on them and make sure that life is good. It is. I specifically ask my interracial couples about the acceptance they feel in their particular area. It has ALWAYS been fantastic - which is to say - not an issue.

I know in other areas of the country in can be bad - but it seems that we Minnesotans just don't care - 'tis a non-issue.

My $0.02

Yea sure, ya betcha.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

I grew up in the Northern suburbs, including Blaine, Coon Rapids and Ramsey. I don't think you'd have many problems with neighbors in the first ring suburbs but once you start to get to the outskirts of the 3rd ring suburbs you could be putting yourself at risk of conflict. Although the VAST majority of residents are kind and open-minded, you will encounter a few ignorant people who will make you feel uncomfortable. I graduated from Anoka High School in 2000 and witnessed a few race related fights, bigotry and racism. There was a racist gang there in the mid to late 90's called the AAB (All-American Boys) who all wore matching t-shirts and flew confederate flags in their car windows, etc. Things are far more calm there now and I haven't heard anything that severe in recent years but some members of the black community including an ex-coworker of mine are still well aware of the past issues in Anoka and tend to avoid it when possible.

I am not in any way discouraging you from moving to the Twin Cities. It is a beautiful area with great people and an overall EXCELLENT place to live and raise a family. I believe this problem of ignorance on the outskirts is attributed to a historical lack of diversity.

In regards to diversity, I would consider Minneapolis/St. Paul and all first ring suburbs to be relatively diverse but outside of that you are going to be dealing with 85% or greater white population. Most communities are steadily becoming more diverse, especially in the Hispanic population but outer suburbs and small towns outside of the Twin Cities have a long way to go before I would consider them racially and culturally diverse.

Diversity seems to be an important factor for you in choosing a place to live, so my best advice to you about moving into the Twin Cities is to check the demographic data of the areas where you're looking for houses and to get commentaries from people who live and work in the respected community. Poeple on this forum seem to be pretty helpful as well so keep the questions coming

[Cruz Azul Guy]

This was taken from wikipedia.org, I believe the data is from the 2000 U.S. census.

Minneapolis
White 65.1%
African American 18.0%
Hispanic or Latino of any race 7.6%
Asian 6.1%
from two or more races 4.4%
Native American 2.29%
Pacific Islander 0.1%

St. Paul
White 67.02%
Asian 12.36%
African American 11.71%
Hispanic 7.91%
Native American 1.13%
Pacific Islander 0.07%
from other races, 3.84%
from two or more races. 3.87%

One thing I might add about Minneapolis is that unlike large cities like Chicago where there are neighborhoods almost completely based on race (black neighborhoods, Irish neighborhoods, Hispanic neighborhoods, etc.) Minneapolis is fairly mixed throughout which I think benefits the area in many ways and makes it a far more tolerant place than alot of cities.

[kurls]

My wife is african american and I am white. We live in Brooklyn Park which is a 3rd ring suburb. As far as MN goes this is a diverse city. We enjoy living here and would suggest Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis, St Paul, Crystal, Robbinsdale, New Hope, Richfield, and Bloomington as suitable cities. The twin cities has the highest amount of biracial and multicultural children in the USA outside of Hawaii and the West Coast. Outside of North Mpls, the crime in the area is not really that bad. I won't paint a picture that it is all sweet here, but for the most part if you are not involved with the streets you don't have much to worry about.

Brooklyn Park--
As of the census² of 2000, there were 67,388 people, 24,432 households, and 17,346 families residing in the city. The population density was 998.4/km² (2,586.1/mi²). There were 24,846 housing units at an average density of 368.1/km² (953.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 71.44% White, 14.33% African American, 0.57% Native American, 9.22% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 1.49% from other races, and 2.88% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.88% of the population.

Brooklyn Center--
As of the census² of 2000, there were 29,172 people, 11,430 households, and 7,383 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,418.6/km² (3,672.0/mi²). There were 11,598 housing units at an average density of 564.0/km² (1,459.9/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 71.39% White, 14.09% African American, 0.87% Native American, 8.79% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 1.49% from other races, and 3.36% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.82% of the population.

[kurls]

To answer your questions about transit, if you live in the city or on the busline it is not horrible. We have a pretty decent Bus system that has a lot of Park and Rides. However, this is the Midwest and we are an automobile dominated city. We recently added a light rail line and there is talk about adding more lines. Overall I have heard that Metro Transit is one of the best in the nation, but I can't back it up.

I think the schools are great. Compared to other states we have very high educational achievement levels and also like your Boston we have a high percentage of adults with Bachelor degrees or higher.

[BLaw]

Just a couple of comments:

I'm sorry if anyone thought I was "very offensive." I should have been clear that I considered "further out" as beyond Minnetonka/Edina/Hopkins, i.e. third-ring suburbs. Even then, I'm sure that a lot of people in those places consider themselves progressive. I only wanted to relay that that has not always been our experience.

Second, I think it is interesting that kurls describes Brooklyn Park as a third-ring suburb. I would have described it as a first-ring suburb. Looking at a map, maybe it should be a second-ring suburb, since it is wedged between Brooklyn Center and outer suburbs. A google search of <Brooklyn Park ring suburb> reveals that different sources descirbe it as a first, second and third-ring suburb. I'm not saying I'm right, or kurls is wrong, just that it's interesting that when people use "ring" as shorthand it is interpreted in a lot of different ways.

B