Opinions of Cottage Grove?

[Govie]

Yeah at least at a drive in you are far less likely to be caged in and shot to death like a small black theater, eh. Anyway, if I was still with my girlfriend it would be cool but eventually I'll get over that way for one or two.

[DannyBanany]

Cottage Grove is kind of that "final suburb" before you finally see the occasioal farm. My friend grew up in Cottage Grove, so we go see her parents every now and then. The town is kind of "blah". Most houses are ranch style homes from the 50s-80s. It's a blue collar town by far. Not much as far as shopping or nightlife, but Las Margaritas is my FAVORITE Mexican restaurant in the Twin Cities.

I would rather live in Woodbury or even out in Hastings over Cottage Grove. Hey, at least it's not Newport.

[HKB]

I've worked in Cottage Grove for many years, and lived there for a short time. If you want my honest opinion, I would avoid it. The housing stock is old. There's nothing wrong with that, but for the most part they are shabby looking and not kept up very well. The street names are maddening. Entire neighborhoods will all have street names starting with a specific letter (doing a quick Google map search, I found these consecutive streets: Ideal, Iden, Imperial, Indahl, Ingerstoll, Ingleside, Inman, Inwood, Ira, Ironwood... need I go on?). Highway 61 is the only way in or out, and you get to drive past lovely areas like Newport and St. Paul Park. There are also railroad tracks that cut through the city parallel to Hwy 61.

Worst of all, CG just suffers from a serious lack of city planning. The shopping areas are scattered all around the city instead of being clustered together. They just cram anything wherever there is open space, instead of having a vision of how they want the city to look.

I used to live near 80th Street and Hinton, and that area was pretty sketchy when I lived there in the early 2000's. I can't imagine it has improved since then.

As others have said, CG just doesn't have anything to offer that would give me a reason to live there. Ok... Las Margaritas is a good restaurant. That's about the only redeeming quality as far as I can see.

[Tblue]

My husband and I bought a home in cottage grove 3 years ago and love it. The schools are awesome and you can start your child at age 2. All shops and food are close with good service and anywhere else you want to go is about 15-20 min away (woodbury,south st.paul, st.paul, maplewood, afton,hastings etc.). It has a small community feel with all of the city convenience and we find ourselves taking back roads often which is nice. I feel we couldn't ask for a better place to raise our children.

[ocsid]

Originally Posted by HKB

The street names are maddening. Entire neighborhoods will all have street names starting with a specific letter (doing a quick Google map search, I found these consecutive streets: Ideal, Iden, Imperial, Indahl, Ingerstoll, Ingleside, Inman, Inwood, Ira, Ironwood... need I go on?).

That's not a Cottage Grove thing. That's a Washington County thing. All the North-South streets in the county are named that way. It's kind of odd.

[Missourian11]

I have been to Cottage Grove numerous times. It's the last suburb before you see the farms. It's mainly working class to blue collar area. It also has Twin Cities' last drive-in movie theater.

I personally wouldn't live there. I don't like the way the city itself is set up and some parts can be shady.

Rents are very affordable but I heard commute is bad if you work in St. Paul because of 10/61.

I am not aware of stereotypes associated with Cottage Grove but I did hear about one. For Twin Cities, rednecks are usually found living in Burnsville, Farmington, and Cottage Grove.