St. Anthony (Minneapolis, St. Paul, Roseville: apartment, homes, neighborhood)

[homiej]

So I'm going up for a meeting soon just as the girlfriend is going apartment hunting. She's found numerous in MSP and St. Paul but also a place in St. Anthony city near the St. Paul border. Is this a good area? We're both young and don't plan on having kids for a while. It looks bikeable to Minneapolis as it's near the Diagonal Trail (people would raise hell at the thought of such a beautiful invention here in Kentucky). Is this sprawlsville or does it have character? While I'm an urbanist all the way through I don't mind urban suburbs at all, especially if they are accessible! Basically: Tell me about St. Anthony? Is it possible to go car free there? The estimates I got from Google Maps put biking to downtown MSP from the apartment at 25 minutes (and I'm a FAST rider so I think I could do it in less).

Thank you all so much. You've been gracious and helpful as can be and I can't wait to be able to show my MN pride with reason, rather than the silliness it appears to be now as I've never even lived there

[StanleyVegas]

Originally Posted by homiej

So I'm going up for a meeting soon just as the girlfriend is going apartment hunting. She's found numerous in MSP and St. Paul but also a place in St. Anthony city near the St. Paul border. Is this a good area? We're both young and don't plan on having kids for a while. It looks bikeable to Minneapolis as it's near the Diagonal Trail (people would raise hell at the thought of such a beautiful invention here in Kentucky). Is this sprawlsville or does it have character? While I'm an urbanist all the way through I don't mind urban suburbs at all, especially if they are accessible! Basically: Tell me about St. Anthony? Is it possible to go car free there? The estimates I got from Google Maps put biking to downtown MSP from the apartment at 25 minutes (and I'm a FAST rider so I think I could do it in less).

Thank you all so much. You've been gracious and helpful as can be and I can't wait to be able to show my MN pride with reason, rather than the silliness it appears to be now as I've never even lived there

If your referring to the St. Anthony neighborhood in St. Paul (as opposed to St. Anthony n MPLS, which I can't really speak to), I would say you'd be fine without a car.

College Park is one of the nicest areas of St. Paul - I'd describe it as urban suburb. Pricey to buy, but because it's near UM St. Paul campus it has some apt housing. It also has it's own little retail district. Travel up to Larpenteur Ave. for more shopping. Take Como Ave west past the 280 into MPLS and through the Como (MPLS) neighborhood. From there you can get downtown a number of different ways depending on where you want to go.

East on Como Ave will take you past the State fairgrounds, Lake Como and eventually to the capitol area of St. Paul.

Travel down Raymond through southern St. Anthony (more industrial and urban) to University Ave.

There is also a transit way (buses & bikes only) that connects the two UM campuses.

[StanleyVegas]

Originally Posted by StanleyVegas

If your referring to the St. Anthony neighborhood in St. Paul (as opposed to St. Anthony n MPLS, which I can't really speak to), I would say you'd be fine without a car.

I just realized when looking at the diagonal trail you were probably referring to St. Anthony in NE MPLS... Oops

[uptown_urbanist]

Make sure you know which St. Anthony neighborhood you are talking about! (There was a recent thread about this that you can search for, too). The St. Anthony neighborhood in St. Paul (which is part of the city of St. Paul) is very nice. Tons of character, especially in the (small) central business area. Lots of nice historic homes. Not very bustling, but decent bus transit, very bikeable, and ultra-convenient for the U (besides biking yourself, there are formal campus connector shuttle buses running all the time between the Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses over that transit-way). I'd say it feels more like urban suburb. I think it would a very convenient place for a biker.

I haven't spent much time in St. Anthony the suburb lately, but I think you could also live there without a car. It's an older suburb with nice parks and some new-urbanist infill development. I don't think that's the place you're talking about, though, although it's not too far away from the St. Paul St. Anthony neighborhood. (ETA: oops, guess it is the St. Anthony you're talking about. That St. Anthony has more national chains, but still has really focused on being walkable. I haven't spent much time there in recent years, but I definitely think it's worth a look. I think you could go without a car there.)

[StanleyVegas]

Originally Posted by uptown_urbanist

Make sure you know which St. Anthony neighborhood you are talking about! (There was a recent thread about this that you can search for, too). The St. Anthony neighborhood in St. Paul (which is part of the city of St. Paul) is very nice. Tons of character, especially in the (small) central business area. Lots of nice historic homes. Not very bustling, but decent bus transit, very bikeable, and ultra-convenient for the U (besides biking yourself, there are formal campus connector shuttle buses running all the time between the Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses over that transit-way). I'd say it feels more like urban suburb. I think it would a very convenient place for a biker.

I haven't spent much time in St. Anthony the suburb lately, but I think you could also live there without a car. It's an older suburb with nice parks and some new-urbanist infill development. I don't think that's the place you're talking about, though, although it's not too far away from the St. Paul St. Anthony neighborhood. (ETA: oops, guess it is the St. Anthony you're talking about. That St. Anthony has more national chains, but still has really focused on being walkable. I haven't spent much time there in recent years, but I definitely think it's worth a look. I think you could go without a car there.)

I also assumed St. Paul. I also mixed up the St. Anthony suburb with the St. Anthony MPLS neighborhood (where exactly is that?)

Let's talk about the two Comos!

[1stpontiac]

Here's the forum where I attempted to figure out where the different St. Anthonys are, and wound up more confused than before:

https://www.city-data.com/forum/minne...t-anthony.html

Obviously the OP will come back to clarify, but I'm betting he meant St. Anthony the suburb, since he specifically mentioned being an urban guy, but not minding the suburbs. Also, I think the suburb would be right for the 25 min bike ride to downtown Minneapolis.

homiej, one other minor point is that its a little confusing when you say "Downtown MSP", since "Downtown M" and "Downtown SP" are several miles apart.

[homiej]

Originally Posted by 1stpontiac

Here's the forum where I attempted to figure out where the different St. Anthonys are, and wound up more confused than before:

https://www.city-data.com/forum/minne...t-anthony.html

Obviously the OP will come back to clarify, but I'm betting he meant St. Anthony the suburb, since he specifically mentioned being an urban guy, but not minding the suburbs. Also, I think the suburb would be right for the 25 min bike ride to downtown Minneapolis.

homiej, one other minor point is that its a little confusing when you say "Downtown MSP", since "Downtown M" and "Downtown SP" are several miles apart.

Whoops! If you look at the post time and consider I'm an hour ahead of you guys, you can guess I was likely tired :P I do most of my posting here at late hours and check back throughout the day whenever I'm at the office or have downtime....

I'm talking about St. Anthony the suburb, but what look to be accessible parts of it. She says the area is no more than 20 minutes downtown by bus and near where county rd. C and New Brighton intersect, just a block or two north of that. From what I see it's no further than Minneapolis than some areas of south Minneapolis and actually just 3 miles north of where I'll be working, 4.5 miles from where I'm hoping to continue my education (by comparison, I used to ride 8 miles when I was staying in Seward, drinking myself to a stupor 2 semesters ago, just to get to a friend's place in eastern St. Paul to watch the Timberwolves.

[katmu]

St. Anthony the suburb is very central to downtown. I could bike to downtown in about 20-25 minutes (I'm not a fast biker either), and the bus service is extremely good so your friend's estimate is accurate (there is an express 141 route to downtown in addition to the 25 and 4 routes). It is also easy to get to St. Paul going down 280.

[homiej]

Good to hear :3 Any other words?

Thanks all!

[katmu]

St. Anthony is small (maybe 8000-9000 people), housing stock is mostly sf from the 50s-70s (lots of mid-century type ramblers). A mix of ages though probably not a lot of young singles although it's still fairly close the to nightlife in NE Mpls.

Retail is centered around one of those new urbanist type shopping centers with a grocery store (Cub Foods), a somewhat odd looking Wal-Mart (brick outside, was a lot of controversy when that went in), a Caribou, Chipotle, bank, medical offices, etc. The complex is called Silver Lake Village. There is also a lot of shopping in nearby Roseville (1 bus route runs from Silver Lake Village to Roseville) but it's also bikeable. For nightlife, you are likely looking to go to NE Mpls (the area near Hennepin) or Downtown.