How Do You Like Living In Minnesota? (Minneapolis, Plymouth: purchase, theatres) - (MN) - Page 2 - City-Data Forum

Sick_of_MN_LetMeOut! · 08-02-2006, 01:59 AM

First of all, I think it's really smart of you to ask for other people's opinions BEFORE moving here. The opinions may vary a bit, but at least they're from people who've actually experienced living here.
I've lived in Minnesota my whole life. I'm now 41 and I would LOVE to leave! In summer, it can get really hot & muggy, and the mosquitoes can be horrible! In winter, it's so frickin cold sometimes that it hurts to breathe, but that's not the thing that bothers me the most about winter; it's the lack of everything I love: warmth, sun, green grass, leaves on the trees, long days, short nights, having the windows open, listening to the birds sing, and COLOR! It's SO DEPRESSING when the only colors outside your window are gray, brown, & white - for SIX MONTHS OF THE YEAR! Yes, we have A LOT of lakes, rivers, streams, & ponds, but no ocean, & only one (barely) mountain way up in the northeast corner of the state.
I'm dying for a change but my husband says we shouldn't move until our kids are all the way through high school. I say let's move now while the kids are still with us instead of moving AWAY from them later on!

What do you guys think? Move to a better place now while they're young-ish (between the ages of 12 & 17) or wait until they've all graduated from high school?

blakeb99 · 08-02-2006, 02:46 AM

hmm nice info from all u guys. i live in louisiana by the way. and i want to get out for many reasons. basically, we hold the record for all the worst stuff a state can have...lowest education, most crime, poor and low class people, hurricanes rip thru the state each year and destroy stuff. and we basically have no winter here!! we were swimming at my friends house last christmas...i'll never forget that...lol. we might put long sleeves on for a few months out the year, and then yall would probably laugh and think the 40's arent bad at all. but, in the summer it gets too hot...the avg is like in the 90's all summer long. ive only seen snow once in my life, and it was maybe half an inch! i just think the midwest would be so much better. i've been thru missouri and illinois and loved it, and think iowa or minnesota would be even better.

blakeb99 · 08-02-2006, 02:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sick_of_MN_LetMeOut!

First of all, I think it's really smart of you to ask for other people's opinions BEFORE moving here. The opinions may vary a bit, but at least they're from people who've actually experienced living here.
I've lived in Minnesota my whole life. I'm now 41 and I would LOVE to leave! In summer, it can get really hot & muggy, and the mosquitoes can be horrible! In winter, it's so frickin cold sometimes that it hurts to breathe, but that's not the thing that bothers me the most about winter; it's the lack of everything I love: warmth, sun, green grass, leaves on the trees, long days, short nights, having the windows open, listening to the birds sing, and COLOR! It's SO DEPRESSING when the only colors outside your window are gray, brown, & white - for SIX MONTHS OF THE YEAR! Yes, we have A LOT of lakes, rivers, streams, & ponds, but no ocean, & only one (barely) mountain way up in the northeast corner of the state.
I'm dying for a change but my husband says we shouldn't move until our kids are all the way through high school. I say let's move now while the kids are still with us instead of moving AWAY from them later on!

What do you guys think? Move to a better place now while they're young-ish (between the ages of 12 & 17) or wait until they've all graduated from high school?

i know a lot of kids have problems moving to new places. they have to get accustomed to new schools and making new friends and leaving their old ones behind. i lived in massachussetts for a year, and when i got back home, things just weren't the same.

MSMCGirl · 08-02-2006, 06:11 PM

I moved to Minneapolis from L.A. a year ago and LOVE it here. I'm kinda opposite the other poster (who's 41 and wants out!). I could not wait to get out of L.A.!!! L.A. has mountains (nice) and "great" weather (I guess)...but it's SO overcrowded, overpriced, and the crime is out of control. I have to laugh when people here complain that crime is getting worse...I couldn't even watch the news in L.A. it was so depressing...too many murders to cover them all.

The cost of living here is awesome (in my opinion)...I LOVE LOVE LOVE the seasons. Yes it's hot now, but that will change in a month or so. L.A. will have heat waves through New Years. Yes, last winter was long...but tolerable. Was not as cold as I had been told it would be.

There's a lot of culture here...and I feel safe. Less traffic than other big cities...and it's clean. Minneapolis is a great place. The ONLY drawback is meeting people here...I think people tend to be very reserved...definitely not as outgoing as Californians. But I'll NEVER go back to L.A....and I don't see myself leaving Minneapolis any time soon either...

blakeb99 · 08-03-2006, 08:17 PM

i'm right up there with you. i moved out to cali one summer to see how i would like it. and a month later i was back home and said never again. it was so overcrowded...just a big traffic jam. and like you said the crime was running rampant. and it's the same here in louisiana. crime over here is terrible! and for the most part it's just a lower class of people. not everyone is like that of course, but the state's infested with them.

Woodsman · 08-04-2006, 10:12 AM

But nobody discusses the traffic. It sucks.

angelaf · 08-05-2006, 10:29 AM

Sick of MN, if I were you I'd move now! I totally agree with you about the winters here, it's so depressing. I've been trying to convince my fiancé to move to North Carolina or Tennessee since last spring, but at this point, we're kind of at a stalemate--he thinks he would hate living in the South and he doesn't want to move that far away from all of his family. Right now, I'm not too stressed about things but I know by November I'm going to be miserable, aching for some sunshine, green grass and trees with leaves, etc. Winters up here are just too long, and if you aren't into skiing or snowmobiling or ice fishing, it truly sucks. I've lived in MN an WI all of my 23 years, and I can't imagine living the rest of my life here. I can't wait to get out, too.

MidniteBreeze · 08-05-2006, 11:50 AM

I left Minnesota for 5 years due to many of the reasons cited above (mostly the weather). But once I was gone I really started to appreciate what I had here and have since moved back. I moved out west and while the weather was better and the mountains were beautiful, I really missed the water. It was also just getting too crowded for my tastes.

Overall, Minnesota enjoys a pretty good quality of living. We have good healthcare, relatively low crime and decent schools (they're not as good as they used to be and the quality of individual districts varies, but compared to the rest of the country they're still in the top teir.) Most Minnesotans value education and hard work.

The people do tend to be reserved and it might take a while to get to know people, but once you make friends here they'll usually do anything to help you out. I found that people out west were intially friendlier, but not as "real"...just kind of more "fair weather" friends...not sure if that makes sense? A lot of the "standoffish-ness" you might experience here is the fact that Minnesotans tend to value privacy and they don't want to get "in your business." The concept of Minnesota Nice is still alive and well, especially outside the metro area. Sometimes during snowstorms people with pickup trucks will drive around and help people who are stuck in the ditch and don't want any money in return. Where I live, people actually take the time to return their shopping carts to the cart corrals...that sort of thing. Of course there are jerks everywehre you go, but in general, people tend to be polite and courteous (with the exception of twin cities drivers!)

I've never lived in southern Minnesota so I can't speak specifically to that area, but can tell you that the scenery isn't as good but the economy is generally better. Compared to other Midwestern states, the great lakes states (MN, WI, IL, MI) tend to be less conservative than say, Iowa, Nebraska or the Dakotas. We also have a lot more trees!

If you can find a way to cope with the winters up here, I'd say we probably have a lot of what you're looking for. Good luck with your search for a new home!

ihatefonddulac · 08-07-2006, 08:25 AM

I agree with the last post. We left for five years so my husband could gain the job experience he needed to get a decent job, and we missed MN very much. We lived in three different places (IN, SC and WI) and we missed the friendly people, the high quality of life, and the beauty of the area (southeastern MN). Fortunately, my husband was just offered a job in our hometown, so we will be going home now. Rochester is a great city, but expensive. The public schools have budget problems, and I've heard they have some gang issues, but other than that, I would love to live there if it wasn't so expensive. I grew up an hour away from there, so we visited Rochester frequently for shopping, etc. Top notch health care. My oldest son was born at Rochester Methodist Hospital. That's my opinion, though. The cold weather/long winters really bothers a lot of people. It can be tough to find a decent paying job, but it depends on the field you're in and the amount of experience you have. My husband had a lot of trouble getting a decent paying job until we left for a little while to get experience. Now, he got a good paying job.

WItoMN · 08-07-2006, 10:08 AM

I have noticed a lot of comments on the mosquitoes. Most years they are pretty nasty, but has anyone noticed the lack of mosquitoes in the Twin Cities this year? It's August, we have had the rain and the heat, but I have yet to be all bitten up. I heard that the state/county/some governing body has this spray that is supposedly harmless to other creatures but kills 99%+ of the mosquitoe population. They have been spraying heavily with helicopters, my friends have seen it. I hear that there is an articule written by some university professors about this, and if anyone finds it and can post a link, that would be fantastic. It does make you wonder about that 1% of mosquitoes that are surviving this pesticide. We can't completely get rid of the species, the ecosystem depends on them. So is MN creating super mosquitoes? I guess we will find out in 2 years or so.

As far as living in Minnesota goes, I am surprised that no one has mentioned our great outdoor actvities. The Twin Cities has a multitude of parks, lakes, bike trails, etc. Great camping up north, and everyone seems to go up to their cabins come summer. Minnesotans really know how to make the most out of summer; 6 months of winter makes you apperciate the sun more. My big pet peeve here is the drivers, does anyone here know how to use their blinker?