Prospective Move from San Diego...young family, please help!

[Grizzly Addams]

I think going Northeast would be better, specifically Arden Hills (I guess it's technically North, but the good North). It's an easier commute than from the SW, and from what I hear the Mounds View school district is very good.

[Ursicinus]

Originally Posted by Grizzly Addams

I think going Northeast would be better, specifically Arden Hills (I guess it's technically North, but the good North). It's an easier commute than from the SW, and from what I hear the Mounds View school district is very good.

Yeah, "north" is generally okay as long as you're east of the river.

[mn55110]

Arden Hills and Shoreview are both wonderful suburbs which feed into one of the best high schools in Minnesota, Mounds View High School, which The website schooldigger.com ranks as being better than 97.8% of Minnesota high schools. Even look into Vadnais Heights and White Bear Lake. Easy access to Brooklyn Park via the Mississippi River crossing on Minnesota Highway 610, also called the Northtown Crosstown Freeway.

Blaine has some great neighborhoods to fit your family's needs such as: "The Lakes", "Club West", "Deacons Walk"," Wagamon Ranch", "Quail Creek" and others. Being able to access the Minnesota Highway 610 river crossing to Brooklyn Park is key.

Maple Grove has several great subdivisions in and Around the "Arbor Lakes" area. Plymouth is great as well. Check out some of the developments in Champlin like: "Reserve at Elm Creek", "Rush Creek Trail", " Oxbow Creek West", and others in Champlin and the northern part of Brooklyn Park.

Rogers, St. Michael and Albertville will continue to grow especially one Sony Corporation begins construction on their destination mega destination Entertainment complex in Albertville. In less than a year, Minnesota Highway 610 Will be fully connected to Interstate 94 in northern Maple Grove, greatly improving access for Rogers, Albertville, an St Michael

[denise1622]

Thank you all so much for all of your responses and details of the exact neighborhoods by name mn55110! Super helpful! We will be flying out there in a few weeks to checkout the areas and hopefully pinpoint just 1! Your advice has all been super helpful and we are looking forward to seeing these places in person!

In the meantime if you have any additional input please feel free to add on! I recently found the Orono area and school district, any thoughts on those?

[mnnysocalmn]

I'm in the same boat and totally overwhelmed and I'm from MN! The metro has changed soo much since I've been gone the past 15 years in California. We are relocating back to MN. The north metro like Shoreview etc. and Blaine used to be more blue collar and "podunk" but I've seen a few Porsches and Mercedes here. It's beautiful land. North Oaks is considered "rich" it's a community with a guard gate and expensive homes. Personally, I find the thick trees claustrophobic. The western suburbs are where many transplants go and people from other states. Northern burbs feel a bit more like small town. The main problem with Shoreview and WBL and Mahtomedi (great schools) is it feels insular and the shopping kind of sucks. Rosedale and Roseville is just really meh and blah bordering on dumpy imho. So you trade shopping for beautiful landscapes. Medina is beautiful but I went to Orono today and it seemed REALLY country and really far away but maybe that was my impression. Shoreview, however, is a great location to the entire metro.

Maple Grove reminds me so much of all the strip mall shopping in Cali so I'm kind of used to it! I also really love the more bungalow/cottage/city feel of some of the Mpls neighborhoods. It's hard to make a decision.