Minneapolitans vs Saint Paulites?

[trevobear]

One of my favorite stories about our cities rivalry dates back to the gangster era. Each summer in St. Paul there's something called the gangster tour groups can go on for super cheap and learn about a big crux in Minneapolis/St. Paul relation in the 1900's-30's. In that time, St. Paul had the richest police force in the country because city officials had a, um, understanding with organized crime which give mobsters amnesty in St. Paul while they were wanted in other cities. There was only one rule that was strictly enforced- any crimes or heists must be committed outside St. Paul city limits in order for the deal to continue. Well, since Minneapolis was then and still is the financial center of the state while St. Paul remains the center of government, the gangsters would simply cross the river and commit there crimes here. My great-grandfather worked on the Minneapolis police force from 1900's-1920's and my grandfather from the 1920's-1950's and we've heard a lot of stories from them. For a long time, whenever there was a bank heist or a speakeasy bust, the first rule of action was the cut off the Minneapolis city bridges because more often than not, the culprits belonged to members of organized crime hiding out in St. Paul. While they were there, mobsters really shaped the city's hystory. The fabled tunnel connecting the historic Governors Club to a local brothel was found while digging the new science museums foundations some years ago. The tunnel was largely intact and contained prohibition-era cases of alcohol as well. The real shining light in that ear was the St. Paul district attorney who, to the poor guy's chagrin, looked out his office window every day only to see Al Capone's St. Paul office staring back at him and he couldn't do anything about it.

It's really an interesting tour and I'd recommend it to anyone interest in our to cities histories.

PS.
Minneapolis is clearly better

[Laggard]

St. Paulites always seem a bit insecure about living in a suburb of Mpls.

[Judge, Jury, Executioner]

I've lived in mutiple neighborhoods in both cities and there is a distinct difference between people that live in each place. It's difficult to articulate this difference, but I would say the stereotypes previously listed are mostly true.

One interesting thing that I found was that the bums in St. Paul are A LOT more hardcore.

[GBCommenter]

Originally Posted by Aylalou

Yes. Saint Paul has old money - Minneapolis nouveau-riche, at least that is the rumor.

Saint Paul sweatshirts and beer.
Minneapolis - stylish and wine.

This seems somewhat true...even being more a Minneapolis guy, I would say St. Paulites seem less concerned with showing everyone how hip and trendy they are...then again, I'm not particularly hip or trendy so maybe that colors my thoughts...

Originally Posted by Ben Around

St paul right leaning? No, not by a long shot. Socially it is more conservative, but not politically. I don't think St Paul has ever had a Republican mayor, at least not in modern times. The demographic is younger in Mpls, that is true, but that's social, not political. From Crocus Hill and the River Blvd. to the East Side and Frogtown, Obama and Franken yard signs completely overshadowed McCain and Coleman signs last fall.

I would agree that St. Paul is not "right-leaning" in the sense of being Republican, though my guess would be St. Paul Democrats are probably relatively more conservative than Minneapolis Democrats. I would think of St. Paul Dems as somewhat "Blue Dog" Democrats? Maybe more "old-school" democrats?

Granted, these viewpoints are all predicated on the belief there are actually differences between the two parties and they're not just two sides of the same coin, but that's another discussion...

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by Judge, Jury, Executioner

One interesting thing that I found was that the bums in St. Paul are A LOT more hardcore.

What do you mean by this? Can you please explain?

[StevenE2]

Not sure about the Mpls side, but a lot of the families in STP and in the suburbs are generations deep, I feel a special kinship with St. Paul growing up there, and know and like it's neighborhoods. It's probably just what I'm used to but I don't like the Mpls side as much, the hipsters are all over, and downtown is a sess pool at night. Granted St. Paul has a few hipsters but they stay near Grand ave.

[Judge, Jury, Executioner]

Originally Posted by Slig

What do you mean by this? Can you please explain?

They are more aggressive panhandlers, are always much more intoxicated, and seem to have no issue getting into verbal/physical altercations with just about anybody they walk past on the street.

This is one of the reasons I hated living in downtown St. Paul the most. I was so sick of people demanding cigarettes, rides to the shelter, bus transfers, and change for a cup of coffee at Mickey's.

[west336]

I still say they should become ONE city so they can compete with the big boys. I think having less than 400K population in Minneapolis prevents it from funding MAJOR projects like stadiums and such, things that big cities can do. Maybe it doesn't matter at all, but I prefer Minneapolis and St. Paul were like two boroughs of one new bigger city "St. Minneapaulis".

[l12]

Originally Posted by Aylalou

Yes. Saint Paul has old money - Minneapolis nouveau-riche, at least that is the rumor.

Saint Paul sweatshirts and beer.
Minneapolis - stylish and wine.

That's kind of a self-conflicting statement.. old money = sweatshirts and beer not stylish & wine?

[l12]

Putting the 'hip/liberal' generality into statistical perspective, the basic fact and reason for these differences is that Minneapolis is a younger city.

It has significantly higher percentage of people 20-45 than St. Paul, and than any other age group, whereas St. Paul is more evenly distributed across ages, despite even the fact that it has many more Universities.
Minneapolis also has more immigrants/transplants from other states.

A big reason is probably because there are just a few more big corporations in Minneapolis city limits than in St. Paul. Especially in the city limits, whereas 3M for example is in a suburb not St. Paul itself.

They are both very liberal cities, as is St. Louis Park as a suburb, the rest of the suburbs are the problem...

Minneapolis definitely has the more vibrant downtown though St. Paul is working on that.

I think they both have quite a lot of 'old money' at this point, Minneapolis being a younger city is not all that significant anymore when we are talking 1850s vs. 1880s..

But it does have a history as more of a wild west 'boomtown' because of the St. Anthony falls.

Also I have noticed that although the distributions are fairly equal, Minneapolis is definitely considered to be the Lutheran/Scandinavian/German home whereas St. Paul is where more Catholics/Irish in the Cities come from.