Spanish guy moving to Minneapolis. Need help (Bloomington, Carlos: home, income) - Minneapolis - St. Paul - Minnesota (MN) -Twin Cities - City-Data Forum

CarlosBohse · 12-04-2011, 04:34 PM

Hi everybody !! My name is Carlos and i am from Spain. I will move in February to Minneapolis. Probably i´ll get a job as a waiter in the Mall of America. I would really need sugestions on where to live ... is Bloomington a good joice. I am 28 years old single guy. Also, if i live in Minneapolis, is it possible to work in Mall of America , i will not have a car. Thanks to all of you guys !!!

west336 · 12-04-2011, 08:11 PM

You can live in Minneapolis and work at MOA.....just live on or near the Hiawatha Rail Line, which is also Hiawatha Ave. You have plenty of choices. You can also get to MOA via bus from MANY other parts of town, so check out www.metrotransit.org and look into bus routes to/from MOA.

xandrex · 12-05-2011, 08:27 AM

As west said, you can easily get to the Mall of America from Minneapolis. The light rail will get you right there and there are a number of feeder buses throughout the city to get you to the light rail. Depending on what sort of living you're looking for, either Bloomington or Minneapolis would be a good choice. However, if you aren't going to have a car, life in Minneapolis will be easier. While Bloomington has bus service, it's going to be fairly infrequent most of the day.

CarlosBohse · 12-05-2011, 09:57 AM

Thanks a lot West and Xandrex ... apreciatte !!

Drewcifer · 12-05-2011, 04:03 PM

If you are working as a waiter you will quickly have enough money for a car. I work as a chef, waiters make good money in the Twin Cities, in the restaurant I work at they average $120 per dinner shift. On a busy saturday they might make $250, on a very slow monday maybe $30.

CarlosBohse · 12-05-2011, 04:12 PM

Thats good money Drewcifer, thats more than i did in Boston years ago. My friend works in Mall of AMerica and she is pretty happy with the money she is making. The good thing in the US is that you get either morning shift or dinner shift, so you can do other things instead of only working. I´ve heard that living by the Mall of America is pretty guetto, is that true ?? Maybe i should look Uptown. Like i said i am single, social life is important for me too ...

Drewcifer · 12-05-2011, 04:55 PM

If you lived in Uptown you could take the #6 bus downtown and then the light rail out to the mall. I wouldn't call Bloomington ghetto but there is a lot more for a single person to do in Uptown. In the summer you can walk to the beach too.

CarlosBohse · 12-06-2011, 01:49 AM

Thanks for the good info Drewcifer

xandrex · 12-06-2011, 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CarlosBohse

Thats good money Drewcifer, thats more than i did in Boston years ago. My friend works in Mall of AMerica and she is pretty happy with the money she is making. The good thing in the US is that you get either morning shift or dinner shift, so you can do other things instead of only working. I´ve heard that living by the Mall of America is pretty guetto, is that true ?? Maybe i should look Uptown. Like i said i am single, social life is important for me too ...

Assuming you won't have a car, you probably would be best to stay out of Bloomington, so you wouldn't need to worry about bad areas there. There is supposed to be some lower-income stuff near there because that whole area is a lot of highways and the airport, so those with more money don't exactly feel like living there.

Uptown wouldn't be a terrible place to live, though you'd have a longer commute than if you just lived along the light rail. But instead of taking the 6 bus like drewcifer said, there are a variety of buses that would get you to the light rail a lot quicker like the 21 and 23 (among others). The 6 is counterintuitive because you'd have to go AWAY from your location and then ride the light rail through downtown, which is slow. I'd imagine it would add at least 20-30 minutes to your commute over other bus routes.

Drewcifer · 12-10-2011, 12:07 AM

A packed 21 can take forever to get from uptown to the light rail. Also it can be a bit sketchy late at night when restaurant workers are going home while the 6 is always safe. The 23 doesn't run very often during the off hours. Whenever I go out to the Mall of America I always do the 6 to the light rail, it seems easier than the other options and you rarely have loud, annoying, crazy people on the bus like sometimes happens on the 21. The light rail is so much faster than the bus that it doesn't seem to matter much whether you get on it downtown or at lake st.