Hinckley, MN What's it like? (Duluth, St. Cloud: college, casinos, live in)

[ozzie679]

Originally Posted by Chandellia

Pine City is a drug hole. The only thing it has to offer is drugs. The only jobs appear to be drug dealers since I can video the drug deals going on from all 4 sides of my redneck/white trash trlr.The manager gets complaints about the drug dealers and just looks the other way. There is no way I would ever suggest anyone ever live in Pine City. Or anyplace around here. They have nothing to offer and your sure to be robbed by your drug addicts so they can support their drug habit. Can I state facts? YES I can. Go sit in the park and watch the drunks sleeping it off. While your there you can also watch the drug deals happening in the gazebo. Oh and if the gazebo is full then the drug deals will happen over by the porta potty. How good can a town be that dosnt celebrate Independance day?? Want to buy drugs. Hey just around the corner from the holiday gas station, across the street from the nursery/greenhouse. Its a rental, white one story house. That house has been busted many many times for drugs. The landlord must be ignorant because he just moves more drug dealers in. You dont have to go there though. There are 3 trlr in the A row of the trlr park that are known drug houses. There are 2 in the very first section of the D row. Then there is one trlr that gets raided often in G row. First trlr. Oh and lets not forget the newest tennat in the E row. I personally told the mngr that she was dealing drugs out of there because a kid told me about his experience. The manager knowing she is dealing drugs told me that the gal is a convicted felon so she wouldnt be staying. She is staying and still dealing. Goes to show the quality of the management. Makes me wonder about the quality of the owner of the place. Yea this is a great town for the drug dealers and the drug addicts. The one and only good thing I can say about this town is the flea market is a great attraction. You dont have to live here to go to it though.

Your perception of Pine City is based on the trailer park THAT YOU LIVE IN! Drugs in a trailer park...what a shocker

[CrystalIce]

I grew up close to Hinckley and am afraid to say that there really isn't much to pick from. All small towns with two bars and two churchs really. One thing about Hinckley is that it does have a very big American Indian population because the reservation is right next to the casino. If your daughter makes friends easily she may have no problem, but if she doesn't there aren't many clubs and no gyms or YMCA's that she would be able to join to meet people. The best bet would be through a church if she is a church-goer. If she is able to make friends easily then she could just live somewhere near or in Hinckley and just drive to the Cities for a fun night out. I also have to agree with the Pine City bit. Growing up near there, it always had a reputation as a drug town. I think North Branch would be a good option if she wants to be away from Hinckley, but not too far. You should probably look at housing options in both areas as a big factor. With Hinckley being so small there probably isn't much available. I personally would move closer to the Cities than closer to Duluth. The Cities has WAY better night life, shows, sports, concerts, etc., you can go on and on.

[aluminumpork]

As far as Pine City and a drug/alcohol perception go, I'm not from there and actually have only passed by it on I35 but I have many friends that moved North to Duluth for school that do not leave a good impression of the town. They always tell me the only thing to do there was drink and... drink. I know a few of them never lived in a trailer park either. But meh, every town's got bad raps.

[jen2651]

I live in the Pine City/Rush City area and could love nothing more. I think one of the big differences is I have chosen to live in the country instead of in town. I have never been one to like living in town and i don't think either of them would be for me. I know it seems silly, but i live right inbetween them. I think it's wonderful. I drive to Cambridge for work everyday and as much as the commute is not my favorite; I'm not willing to move any closer to Cambridge. The people that I have met have been nothing but fantastic. They are true people with good values. From my experience, there is no 'keeping up with the Jones' or 'my kid is better than your kid'. To me, this is the best thing ever. I am only 27 years old so it's not that I'm super old. We are close to 35 and can be in the cities in an hour or in Duluth in an hour. There is a super Walmart 5 miles away in Pine city...i have it all (maybe i'm the white trash that everyone is talking about!). If you ask me...i would highly recommend it...just let me know if you are coming and we will welcome you with open arms!

[Clifford63]

Hinkley is not that far from the north metro area. Look at Forest Lake or North Branch. They are reasonable close to Minneapolis/St.Paul and the commute would be on I-35 which would be a lot better than coming in from St. Cloud.

[tvdxer]

Originally Posted by warmweather!

If you would like to live in the city, Hinkley would not be a good place to live. If you did work in Hinkley and live in a "nearby" city, it would not be that good. Duluth is very pretty, but also rundown, and the weather is one of the worst in the U.S. (the winters are extremely cold (the same as St. Cloud and the the Twin Cities) but the difference is Duluth's "summers" are usually just in the low 70's. I absolutey hate St. Cloud, and I don't consider it a city- I always refer to it as a small town with 50,000 people. The twin cities are nice, but the traffic would be extremely bad in her commute. All of those places are very far from Hinkley! The winters here are absolutely horrible- a big downfall of living here. A long time ago, there was a HUGE forest fire surrounding Hinkley, and I think the flames were like 4 miles high and could be seen from Iowa! Tobies ( a restauraunt)has become sort of famous in Minnesota. I don't like Hinkley, because it's a small town.

Hinckley is a small town probably most famous for being a common place to stop when doing the Duluth - Minneapolis (or Minneapolis - Duluth) route along I-35. Distances to both cities are similar - about an hour's driving time to Duluth, a little over an hour to the Twin Cities. The city is small (1,291, looking at Hinckley, Minnesota - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ), but manages to have its own little downtown area as well as a White Castle (something Duluth doesn't even have) and a great bakery (Toby's). While both Duluth and Minneapolis are accessible, there isn't much in the immediate vicinity; Mora and Pine City are the only nearby towns of any size I can think of. One interesting consequence of Hinckley's location is that both Minneapolis and Duluth FM radio stations can be heard in the city.

[pine city guy]

Originally Posted by roneb

Ah, now despite your negative tone, I do not have a problem with this post as you are citing specific examples of your experience! I think hearing an account such as this is much more helpful to jmcowling in gathering info about Hinckley.

There is a lot of misinformation being floated around about Pine City in this forum. The GLBT Pride that's held annually is growing by leaps and bounds. That's because the Pine City business community and the townspeople are heavily supporting it. 500 people came to the event for its 5th anniversary in 2009. The fact that this community even has such an annual event should speak VOLUMES for it! -Not to mention an active arts culture exists here, as well as a great community theatre group. Oh, and did I mention it's a college town with a high tech campus that has elements not even offered at Harvard?!

The opposition that was referenced earlier was a small group of people (from outside of Pine City in nearby Grasston, Minn.) that met disguised as "Pro-Family". They weren't even Pine Citians.

[mintygreen]

Hinckley is a small town. The only reason its really on the map is because of Grand Casino which I love, but there's really no where decent to live.

[Tisambas]

I lived in Hinckley for 4 years in one of the nicer homes in town. I have a Master's Degree and had school age kids at that time. I found the town to be extremely unfriendly to outsiders. Despite my efforts to be involved in church, coaching soccer, school and hockey activities, I only had one person who made an effort to be-friend us. We left due to the lack of tolerance for others, and the lack of educated people to socialize with. I was a single parent with out a date for 4 years due to lack of men that I could be interested in. Lots of people were on disability and most of the single men seemed to be unemployed with drug or alcohol problems. I loved living in the Twin Cities, and would still be there if it were not for the cold!

[Ferrari77]

I am moving to Hinckley this coming January to live with my new wife who has already lived there for about 18 years. I have visted several times now and like it very much. However she lives in the country there and has a nice little place with a pond. I am excited to move and can't wait to live there and enjoy our life together. My assessment is probably not too fair since I am moving there more for the love of my life as opposed to the small town.