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Hello all. I'm a single woman in my early 30's (no children) who is considering a job with Medtronic in Mounds View. I have never been to Minnesota but grew up in the snowbelt of Upstate NY so I am comfortable with long snowy winters.
For someone of my demographics, I was wondering if you guys could recommend to me some areas where I can start looking at apartments and are within a practical commute to Mounds View.
I'd ideally like to rent a 1-2 bedroom apartment in either a nice victorian-style house (wood floors, fireplace), loft-type setting, or perhaps even a townhouse. Something within walking distance to coffee shops, cosy restaurants...
Hello all. I'm a single woman in my early 30's (no children) who is considering a job with Medtronic in Mounds View. I have never been to Minnesota but grew up in the snowbelt of Upstate NY so I am comfortable with long snowy winters.
For someone of my demographics, I was wondering if you guys could recommend to me some areas where I can start looking at apartments and are within a practical commute to Mounds View.
I'd ideally like to rent a 1-2 bedroom apartment in either a nice victorian-style house (wood floors, fireplace), loft-type setting, or perhaps even a townhouse. Something within walking distance to coffee shops, cosy restaurants...
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
For the Victorian style house, you will probably need to live in Minneapolis. There are many, many houses with character in Mpls. There are lots of TH in the suburbs, however they won't be close to cool coffee shops or restaurants. There are some TH in Northeast Mpls + many lofts around that area and downtown Mpls.
The drive up 35W from Mpls to Mounds View shouldn't be too bad.
For the Victorian style house, you will probably need to live in Minneapolis. There are many, many houses with character in Mpls. There are lots of TH in the suburbs, however they won't be close to cool coffee shops or restaurants. There are some TH in Northeast Mpls + many lofts around that area and downtown Mpls.
The drive up 35W from Mpls to Mounds View shouldn't be too bad.
Hey - thanks for your advice. Quick question for you: Are the Fridley and Mounds View areas considered to be in Mpls's "north suburbs" or "NW suburbs"? On apartment rental websites I see that people often refer to "north Mpls"... how far north exactly do they mean and would this include the Mounds View area?
Hey - thanks for your advice. Quick question for you: Are the Fridley and Mounds View areas considered to be in Mpls's "north suburbs" or "NW suburbs"? On apartment rental websites I see that people often refer to "north Mpls"... how far north exactly do they mean and would this include the Mounds View area?
Thanks again!
Mounds View is a straight shot north of downtown Mpls, therefore it is a north suburb. Fridley is a little bit off to the west of a straight shot, but still considered a northern suburb. An example of a NW suburb is Plymouth. The NW suburbs are much more affluent and white collar than the north suburbs such as Mounds View. Mounds View and Fridley are more working class. Safe and decent if you don't care about cultural type of activities.
On another note, I hope that you are not considering living in the north suburbs if you like Victorian homes, coffee shops etc.
Hey - thanks for your advice. Quick question for you: Are the Fridley and Mounds View areas considered to be in Mpls's "north suburbs" or "NW suburbs"? On apartment rental websites I see that people often refer to "north Mpls"... how far north exactly do they mean and would this include the Mounds View area?
Thanks again!
I guess I didn't read your post that carefully. North Minneapolis is just north of downtown and not an area you would want to move to. There are good parts such as the Camden and Victory neighborhoods, however you absolutely want to stay out of the Jordan neighborhood.
If the rental website say north Mpls, then they probably are not referring to the suburbs. They probably mean North Mpls.
Mounds View is a very bland area. It would be like living in a field with houses around. Absolutely no character whatsoever. Sure, get a job at Medtronic ( great company), but don't live up there. As a single person, you would feel isolated IMO. Live down in Minneapolis or close to it so you can be close to stuff in your free time.
The closest Victorian-style homes to Mounds View likely would be in North Minneapolis, with an ocassional oddball sporadically in-between (not sure if there are Victorians in NE as I don't recall seeing many). On the Northside there is the Old Highland area of the Near North neighborhood- although this general vicinity is considered a somewhat rough-around-the-edges/ transitional neighborhood, there are a number of yuppies that have moved in and rehabbed big victorians there, and there is a fair representation of middle class folks in Old Highland (includes a state and US senator if you're into politics)- hawthorne and Harrison would likely have Victorians as well, but in all of the North neighborhoods I'm not sure how likely it is to find really well-maintained Victorians cut up into apts unless the owner lives in the other half, and if you do, it may or may not be close to shops (folks that don't live/work in the area often are unaware of the fact that there are some very nice businesses on W. Broadway), but sit-down restaurants are very few and far between in the Near North area. However- N. Minneapolis is not nearly as 'scary' as you will sometimes see it made out to be, in fact many thousands of people live up here every day without any incident whatsoever and love and take great pride in the area. Oh, and one exception to my comments above might be the area of the Harrison neighborhood bordering Bryn Mawr (or Bryn Mawr itself although it would be spendier and possibly hard to find rentals)- Bryn Mawr does have a nice little downtown area off of Penn with some more upscale shops/restaurants (I think there's restaurants there anyways).
A couple areas where you are more likely to find Victorian homes cut up into nice apartments include the Uptown area (Lowry Hill East would be a good one with proximity to lots of shops/restaurants, etc.)- rent's somewhat higher here but you can sometimes find deals; and the Dayton's Bluff neighborhood in St. Paul- also considered somewhat transitional, and quite a bit bigger commute, but you can find some nice victorian apts there that are very affordable (had some friends that once lived in this neighborhood and loved it there).
If you are looking for an in-between; e.g. something closer to Mounds View but still in the city, with older homes but not quite the Victorian area, and with a couple handfuls of nice shops and restaurants but not the proliferation like you would find in Uptown or some areas of So and NE Mpls- you could check out the NW corner of Minneapolis in which case I would recommend the area comprised of Victory neighborhood (Mpls) and the suburb of Robbinsdale (borders Victory just across Mpls border)- if you pick somewhere close to the parkway areas, you can be walking and/or biking distance to restaurants and shops in both areas, as well as a vast amount of parks/ trails, several lakes, etc. up here. There's not a big rental market in either area, and the limited amt of apt. complexes that are up here tend not to be the greatest (but are safe and probably pretty quiet), but you will see the ocassional duplex or home for rent in which case you could find a really nice place to live albiet in a lot quieter and more residential area than the action you find in many other parts of Mpls w/much higher concentrations of rentals, restaurants, and shops. This is also of course the n'hood that I live in, so if you have specific questions about it feel free to DM me. I'm not too familiar with too many of the areas in the NE sections of town, but you might find some good options there as well and this would be another area that's shorter on the commute times (and possibly, depending on location, give you more of an urban feel). Good luck with your search-
I would suggest looking at St. Anthony Village. The area where the old apache mall used to be is now called silver lake I believe. It has some appartments and condos in a very walkable environment. Very easy commute to medtonic. As mentioned by other posters the victorian stuff is not plentiful mostly due to when the city boomed and grew. Much more common to find older homes in craftsman style which mostly featuer hardwood floors, many with fireplaces. Kenwood neighborhood is pretty much where lot of the high dollar homes were built early in the day. There are a lot of these that have been converted to 4 plex with two units up and two units down. Often there is a porch on upper units. It is an expensive area in general, but it sounds like something you might be interested in.
Last edited by Clifford63; 08-06-2009 at 09:23 AM..
Reason: .
To Mounds View, living in NE Minneapolis would be your best bet. There are older homes, it's walkable, especially closer to Dowtown (Hennepin Ave and Central Ave are great streets) and the commute up 35-W would be pretty easy. It's also the emerging area for artists and yuppies, as it hasn't lost its "soul" like Uptown has.
Mounds View is decent and safe, but very family-oriented. Not quite your cup of tea. T
The closest Victorian-style homes to Mounds View likely would be in North Minneapolis, with an ocassional oddball sporadically in-between (not sure if there are Victorians in NE as I don't recall seeing many). On the Northside there is the Old Highland area of the Near North neighborhood- although this general vicinity is considered a somewhat rough-around-the-edges/ transitional neighborhood, there are a number of yuppies that have moved in and rehabbed big victorians there, and there is a fair representation of middle class folks in Old Highland (includes a state and US senator if you're into politics)- hawthorne and Harrison would likely have Victorians as well, but in all of the North neighborhoods I'm not sure how likely it is to find really well-maintained Victorians cut up into apts unless the owner lives in the other half, and if you do, it may or may not be close to shops (folks that don't live/work in the area often are unaware of the fact that there are some very nice businesses on W. Broadway), but sit-down restaurants are very few and far between in the Near North area. However- N. Minneapolis is not nearly as 'scary' as you will sometimes see it made out to be, in fact many thousands of people live up here every day without any incident whatsoever and love and take great pride in the area. Oh, and one exception to my comments above might be the area of the Harrison neighborhood bordering Bryn Mawr (or Bryn Mawr itself although it would be spendier and possibly hard to find rentals)- Bryn Mawr does have a nice little downtown area off of Penn with some more upscale shops/restaurants (I think there's restaurants there anyways).
A couple areas where you are more likely to find Victorian homes cut up into nice apartments include the Uptown area (Lowry Hill East would be a good one with proximity to lots of shops/restaurants, etc.)- rent's somewhat higher here but you can sometimes find deals; and the Dayton's Bluff neighborhood in St. Paul- also considered somewhat transitional, and quite a bit bigger commute, but you can find some nice victorian apts there that are very affordable (had some friends that once lived in this neighborhood and loved it there).
If you are looking for an in-between; e.g. something closer to Mounds View but still in the city, with older homes but not quite the Victorian area, and with a couple handfuls of nice shops and restaurants but not the proliferation like you would find in Uptown or some areas of So and NE Mpls- you could check out the NW corner of Minneapolis in which case I would recommend the area comprised of Victory neighborhood (Mpls) and the suburb of Robbinsdale (borders Victory just across Mpls border)- if you pick somewhere close to the parkway areas, you can be walking and/or biking distance to restaurants and shops in both areas, as well as a vast amount of parks/ trails, several lakes, etc. up here. There's not a big rental market in either area, and the limited amt of apt. complexes that are up here tend not to be the greatest (but are safe and probably pretty quiet), but you will see the ocassional duplex or home for rent in which case you could find a really nice place to live albiet in a lot quieter and more residential area than the action you find in many other parts of Mpls w/much higher concentrations of rentals, restaurants, and shops. This is also of course the n'hood that I live in, so if you have specific questions about it feel free to DM me. I'm not too familiar with too many of the areas in the NE sections of town, but you might find some good options there as well and this would be another area that's shorter on the commute times (and possibly, depending on location, give you more of an urban feel). Good luck with your search-
Commuting from areas closer to Robbinsdale = potentially more traffic as well. Mounds View is a borderline Mpls/ St. Paul suburb, so it's very north central.
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