Commuting to Stillwater from Minneapolis (St. Paul, Oak Park Heights: renting, neighborhoods, living in)

[buckhunter22]

I'm currently looking at renting a place on the northern part of Uptown and was wondering if that could be a huge mistake since my job will be located in Oak Park Heights/Stillwater? I really enjoy the urban living (relocating back from Chicago) so I'm trying to determine what I should do since I previously lived in Mpls and don't know much about Saint Paul. Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Citykid3785]

I'd venture to say that would be a 35 - 50 minute commute most days? A lot will depend on your flexibility of working hours. To me, this is a very doable commute, and I wouldn't think you are silly for doing so. For all that people say about trying to live where you work, unfortunately the working world is just too volatile nowadays that you would potentially end up moving every 2 years if that was your strategy, something I learned myself the hard way. I know many people who commute in from Stillwater.

I find that commute tolerance is highly subjective though, but if you are moving back from Chicago, I'd venture to guess the above commute times won't scare you. Both St. Paul and MPLS can offer urban living, but MPLS is going to be moreso, I wouldn't let an extra ~15min commute force me to live in St. Paul when I really desired MPLS.

[Glenfield]

Why spend all that time in traffic? It will be at least an hour each way since Uptown has its own traffic problems. Traffic maps show a 45 minutes travel time between Stillwater and Uptown right now at 2:30 pm with no traffic. Rush hour traffic is going to add a lot to that. Check google maps at 8am and 5 pm to see for yourself.

That’s at least 10 hours a week in traffic (unless it snows in which case it will be longer, possibly much longer) for a 40 hour a week job.

As the previous poster said, commute time is highly subjective but this is a huge waste of time IMO. Who cares what commute times in Chicago are like? Get away from that, don’t bring it with you unnecessarily.

You are moving to an area with outstanding recreational opportunities. Do you want to miss them in order to sit in a car? And think about the cost of gas! Save yourself some headaches and move to the east side of town.

[Izzie1213]

Uptown area is a cool trendy area but why would you not live closer to Stillwater, that is a beautiful and great area. If you have friends in the uptown area they will be wanting to come visit you if you are in Stillwater, it is actually getting to be a trendy area on its own, great vibe. Unless you have housing already available for you in uptown. I would love to get out of the cities and live in the Stillwater area. You can always commute to cities for entertainment

[RC01]

The evening commute would be absolutely terrible having to go through the 94-35w area every day after already driving all the way back from Stillwater. Plus, depending on what time you get back and where you’d be in updtown, you might have a rough time finding street parking. I’d look into St. Paul more or maybe even NE Minneapolis, so you can cut out the 94-35W commons, if you really feel a need to be in Minneapolis.

[WoodburyWoody]

With the new bridge now opened over the St. Croix into Wisconsin and the widening of 36 east of 694, it is likey to get worse. That area between 694 and Stillwater is fairly empty now, but housing developments are all ready filling in south of it in a hurry and will creep north along with needed retail and commercial along 36 to support it.

Many of those folks will be driving into MSP opposite of you, but not everyone.

[Justabitoff]

I would live in St. Paul if you want urban living. There are a lot of really nice areas around Grand, Selby / Dale, etc. and the commute would be a lot easier because you'd be avoiding the tunnel.

[pvoyd]

Originally Posted by Justabitoff

I would live in St. Paul if you want urban living. There are a lot of really nice areas around Grand, Selby / Dale, etc. and the commute would be a lot easier because you'd be avoiding the tunnel.

Agree with the St. Paul neighborhoods recommendations, but I do not believe one needs to go through the tunnel to commute between Uptown and Stillwater - the tunnel is a factor if one lives in the western suburbs.

[Justabitoff]

Originally Posted by pvoyd

Agree with the St. Paul neighborhoods recommendations, but I do not believe one needs to go through the tunnel to commute between Uptown and Stillwater - the tunnel is a factor if one lives in the western suburbs.

The exit for Hennepin Ave is the last exit before you go under the tunnel, so you're still pretty affected by tunnel traffic. You'd have to get off earlier and take side streets in order to avoid it. Which is doable but not necessarily faster / more convenient.

[cgy1]

If you're set on living in Minneapolis, you might want to consider living in Downtown East/Mill District instead of Uptown. I find that the traffic on 94W in the evenings is usually really bad past the 7th street exit that you would take if you lived in that area. Otherwise, if you want to have urban living, I would suggest perhaps living in Lowertown in St. Paul. It'll really cut down on your commute while allowing you to live in a dense urban area rather than out in the suburbs or in Stillwater.