Top 5 Pros & Cons of Minneapolis area (St. Paul, Eagan: real estate, low crime)

[freeopinions]

Pros:
1. Arts and theater, both cities.
2. Parks and recreation, both cities; chain of lakes, Minneapolis.
3. Well educated population.
4. Cost of living, housing generally moderate.
5. Home to many international corps. e.g. 3M, General Mills, et al.
5 (a) Minneapolis is major advertising market.

Cons:

1. Long, cold, miserable winters
2. Reliance on freeways for transportation, lack of support for light rail, commuter rail.
3. Worst, rudest drivers in the nation, maybe in the world.
4. Too many sports venues built with tax money without allowing taxpayers to vote.
5. Constant road construction trying to fix roads that were initially poorly designed to accommodate politicians.

[skibumm26]

likes...
weather
wilderness
lakes
overall climate
music scene


dislikes...
drivers
suburban sprawl
hospitals
treatments
know it all doctors

[Downtown]

Top 5 things.

Summer
Mississippi River
Lakes/ Parks
Diversity/ Culture (Mostly Minneapolis and Saint Paul)
The Arts

Bottom 5 things.

SNOW
Cold Weather
Long Winters
Darkness during the winter
Cost of living is high considering the Twin Cities areas is not on or near the coast

[MomsTn]

Pros
Good Schools
Good Health Care
Clean Air
(really can't think of five.... sorry...


Cons
Weather- winter 1/2 of the year
Too many taxes- even though they don't tax food and clothing, they tax everything else.
Road Construction- it's never ending
Too many people
Road Rage

[JenLee]

PROS

1. Good educational systems from pre-school through Masters' programs
2. Health Care (INCLUDING hospitals! -and I am a healthcare professional!)
3. Arts and Theaters
4. Weather - I love how the seasons change
5. Lakes, rivers, park and recreation systems

CONS

1. How the rest of the country considers us just a "fly over" area
2. Traffic, "Gawkers slowdowns", especially at accidents
3. Suburban sprawl
4. Increasing crime rate (still not as high as other similar-sized cities in USA)
5. Road Construction. (Maybe someday they will finish??)

[saucemoney]

likes of mn

-restaurants
-good college systems here (carleton, university of minnesota, macalaster, hamlin law school...)
-pretty good beach scene (lake calhoun, big lake...)
-mall of america
-nightlife on the weekends

dislikes of mn

-people (i consider people here rude and incredibly fake)
-construction (its never ending especically on highway 494 and downtown)
-weather (mn basically gets 3-4 months of tolerable weather and the winters are dreadful)
-driving (people here cant drive worth )
-economy (not enough jobs for certain fields and wages are kind of low)

[DemonKittie]

Likes:
1. There is always your fave store near you.
2. The downtown area(s) are expanding and getting more interesting.
3. The arts and music scenes are excellent.
4. A fairly nice bus system that covers a lot of ground.
5. High number of WiFi Hotspots for technology lovers.

Dislikes:
1. Neverending construction on roads that are still falling apart.
2. The crime that is killing fairly nice areas.
3. The fact that before the bridge collapse (and after) no one seems to know where the city (or even state) are.
4. High Taxes (they tax you to death here, then they tax you because you died... LOL)
5. THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. Take if from someone who skipped the equivalent of a school year over her high school career and STILL managed to graduate with 8 extra credits (need 61, I graduated with 69). I also never got anything about truency, and they didn't seem to mind much. The worse fact is that I learned more from watching the history channel than I did in school...

[chilaili]

PROS
1. Fantastic cultural scene: theatres, festivals, music, galore
2. Tax-free shopping on clothes
3. The Minneapolis Institute of Art
4. The Lakes & the Mississippi
5. The many many cinemas and ability to see movies of all kinds, especially Indies in Mpls or St Paul

CONS
1. Winter
2. Winter
3. Winter
4. The way people drive
5. Northwest Airlines


Darn it! Why did I move away? Oh yeah, Winter.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by chilaili

PROS
1. Fantastic cultural scene: theatres, festivals, music, galore
2. Tax-free shopping on clothes
3. The Minneapolis Institute of Art
4. The Lakes & the Mississippi
5. The many many cinemas and ability to see movies of all kinds, especially Indies in Mpls or St Paul

CONS
1. Winter
2. Winter
3. Winter
4. The way people drive
5. Northwest Airlines


Darn it! Why did I move away? Oh yeah, Winter.

Yep, the MPLS winter definitely filters out the weak.

[Jaxx99]

Pros:
1. Nature. We have lots of it, both within our cities but also within an hour or two drive. Lakes, trees, rivers, waterfalls, etc.
2. Recreation. I've lived in other places, and you Minnesotans totally take your bike paths and regional parks for granted. Go to Baker Park or Lowry Nature Preserve - many cities would love to have just one place like that, you have 30-40.
3. Summer and Fall. Splendid.
4. The Arts.
5. Civic pride. Highest voter turnout in the country, and people give a $&)% about local politics here.

Cons
1. Taxes. They are high, and lots of our politicos want them even higher.
2. March. Notice I didn't say "winter". I actually enjoy most of winter. Just hate March, when you are ready for winter to be gone but it still storms.
3. Sprawl. Granted, places like Denver and Vegas have the problem 10x as bad as we do, but i still hate to see it.
4. The accents. Sounds like someone hitting a flat note every time I hear the nasal "oooh"
5. Short springs. I wish we had another month of bloom. It goes from winter slop to fully green here in about 3 weeks.