We Are Moving to Minn/St Paul in Jan.

First of all, if you haven't already, get a subscription to the following magazines linked below. All have printed copy and websites and all do a great job of giving you a feel of neighborhoods, schools, life in the metro and would be a great place for you to start. Mpls/St. Paul mag has a best doctors & hospitals issue, a best schools, best restaurants each year too:

Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine: http://www.mspmag.com/

Minneapolis City Pages: http://www.citypages.com/

Minnesota Monthly: http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/

Here's some information on neighborhoods. You don't say which city your husband will be working in and how close you want to be or what type of community you're interested in so I just list a few of the more popular "hoods" in both Minneapolis and St. Paul. I also list most of the first ring suburbs in both the West and East metro.

Most people work downtown Mpls, some of the more popular "west metro" neighborhoods in Mpls include, Bryn Mawr, Tangletown, Uptown, Kenwood, Lake of the Isles, Lake Calhoun, Minnehaha/Nokomis and more. West metro suburbs include Minnetonka, St. Louis Park, Hopkins, Eden Prairie, Plymouth, and Maple Grove, Golden Valley and more.

East metro or St. Paul neighborhoods include Summit Hill, Crocus Hill, Lake Como, Merriam Park, Highland Park, and Midway and more. Suburbs include Woodbury, Maplewood, Inver Grove Heights, Mendota Heights, Roseville, and more.

check out sites like this for more:

http://minneapolis.about.com/od/citiesneighborhoods/A_Gui...

http://minneapolis.about.com/od/suburbsofthetwincities/Su...

For a good idea of the "family scene" and the education scene in the metro check out Minnesota Parent Magazine's website. You can also get a subscription. Click on the special supplements button for the directory of all metro schools. The guide lists details on student size, and more for all area public, private, charter, and more.

http://www.mnparent.com/

Our two big newspapers in town are. Both cover metrowide news, but one is primarily focused on Mpls and the other St. Paul:

www.startribune.com
www.pioneerpress.com

www.mpr.org is our local public radio station and can be streamed if you want to hear our local news.

Our local t.v. stations are. Thought seeing our local coverage would be interesting and help you get a feel for the folks and what's news around here:

www.wcco.com
www.myfox9.com
www.kstp.com
www.kare11.com
www.ktca.org (PBS)

4 moms found this helpful

For neighborhoods I can recommend mine in SW Mpls. It is the Linden Hills/Fulton area. It is only about 15 min from DT Mpls and the neighborhood schools are fantastic. There are about 7 or 8 parks you can walk to, lots of great shopping (toystore, bakery, coffeeshop, bookstore, antiques, etc). There are many great Dr around here. I have a child with special needs so it was important for us to have ONE doctor we can get to know, instead of a large practice with rotating doctors. We found that with Pediatric Services in St. Louis Park which is about 10 min drive from our home. Welcome in advance to Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Welcome! :) In a removed post, you had a lot more detail which helps me to give you options. I live in Cottage Grove, an older community, but there is a lot of new development. CG borders Woodbury, which is a bit more upscale (higher property taxes) and has a great deal of the amenities and opportunities you mentioned you currently enjoy. My kids go to a Montessori-type public school in Woodbury...Valley Crossing Community School. My oldest is in Taekwondo, but there are also Karate businesses nearby as well. Pretty much everything you could want or need (if you were to live in Woodbury) would be about 5-10 minutes away.

There are a ton of community sports, activites, etc. If you were to move to Woodbury or CG, there are express buses that go to downtown Mpls and back...approx a 30-45 min commute one way (depending on time of day and weather). If you'd like, you can contact me personally, and I can get you other resources, as well.

Good luck, and bring WARM clothes!! :)

Welcome to the Twin Cities! It's too bad you're coming in January -- our winter is likely to shock you. But then when summer comes you'll appreciate it sooooo much!

Anyway, where you want to live has a lot to do with what kind of person you are. At the most basic level, do you want to live in a city, or do you want to live in the suburbs? Are you politically conservative, or liberal? If you are more conservative, you might be more comfortable in some of the suburbs. If liberal, you would love southwest Minneapolis, or several of the neighborhoods in St. Paul. Also, you'll want to think about your proximity to lakes or the Mississippi, or even Minnehaha Creek. (I live in Uptown, within two blocks of Lake Calhoun, and it's awesome. I love being able to walk to restaurants, parks, the lake, bookstores, cafes, and movie theatres.)

Then you need to think about schools. If you move to Minneapolis, you want to pick a neighborhood with a really good school. The same would go for St. Paul, although I don't know St. Paul schools at all.

In Minneapolis, some really good neighborhood schools are Kenwood, Kenny, Lake Harriet, Burroughs. For magnet schools, I recommend Barton and Whittier.

Let me know if you have further questions.

Hi K.
Well welcome to our area-- I was transferred once to your area long ago.
It would be helpful if you would let us know what your and your husband prefer- suburb, inner city, downtown, public vs private or charter or immersion schools, where he/you work so commute could be taken into account, do you like metro/arts feel or more small town feel like St. Paul.
The city is vast like Dallas.
Feel free to reply privately-- bet you'll get more replies that will tailor to your desires/needs if you get more specific?
Love to help you with opinions-- it's a beautiful area. I've lived here most of my life.

About me: 49 yo perfusionist, wellness coach helping with a new online biggest loser for $ nationwide, wife, mom to 8 yo twin girls in private school for now.

B. J

Hi K.,
I'm sorry that you will be moving to MN in January! That will be a tough month to get started! But if you can make it through the winter months, the summers here are great! St. Louis Park has already been mentioned, and that is a great suburb, no more than 10 minutes west of downtown Minneapolis. I used to live there and I loved it. St. Louis Park has a lot of smaller homes, but is charming and close to the lakes (as is Edina, which is a little more $$). Eden Prarie is a larger suburb a little bit further southwest of Minneapolis. It has larger homes and schools. Wooddale Church in Eden Prarie is a great church in that area. I think they have a men's BSF group there currently, but I'm not sure about a women's BSF group. It has lots of programs for men, women and children though. It was my church home until I moved to the other side of Minneapolis. Now I live in Falcon Heights, which is just b/t Minneapolis and St. Paul and about 10 minutes to either downtown. It is very close to the U of MN campus and although it has mostly smaller homes, it is very charming and the residents really like it here. It has a great neighborhood feel to it and a nice mix of younger families and retired residents. If you need more space, Roseville is a slightly larger suburb just next door that is equally as close to both Minneapolis and St. Paul. And we have lots of options for churches, both little and small. No matter where you land, you are going to find lots of parks nearby, many within walking distance. Good luck with your search - and welcome to Minnesota!

Welcome! My husband lived in Dallas for about a year and it is a wonderful town. We love it here in MN, though. While Minneapolis/St. Paul are much closer than Dallas/Ft. Worth, living in Minneapolis or in a Minneapolis suburb would probably make the most sense. I really like Shoreview - which is a little to the north - good schools and wonderful parks/biking, but the other moms are right - there are a lot of super choices depending on if you like to live right in the city - or close in, or prefer a newer development...I think you will find a lot to chose from!

I bet you'll get tons of responses.
I have lived in both the St. Paul side and now the Minneapolis side. I much prefer the Minneapolis side. We live in St. Louis Park, which is the first suburb west of DT Minneapolis. Very close to commute. St. Louis Park has top notch schools, too. Check out our website to see for yourself. One is for the city, the other is for the info. on our award winning schools.

http://www.rschooltoday.com/se3bin/clientgenie.cgi?school...

http://www.stlouispark.org/

Good luck! You'll like it in MN.

K.--
It depends on what you are looking for when you move. What area of Dallas do you live in currently, and what type of a community are you looking for. Woodbury is a nice suburb (east of the cities), but the traffic is really bad for getting into downtown (my in-laws live in Woodbury). The northwest suburbs might be easier to get into downtown in, as long as you stay fairly close to I-94--like the Maple Grove area (they have good schools as well) although If you go much further out (St. Michael, etc), the traffic can be really bad, too. The Plymouth, Minnetonka, and Wayzata areas are nice as well, with good schools, but more expensive areas to live in. And as mentioned, Shoreview and Eagan might be nice places as well, with fairly good commutes to the downtown area.

Most suburbs are great. Are they're any in particular your looking at? Where exactly is your husband working like downtown or in one of the suburbs? We could probaly help a little more with more info.

Woodbury is a very nice area to live in. Close to parks, libraries, shopping areas, restaurants, great school districts, growing bigger everyday with lots of young families.

Stillwater is a nice area, more quaint, parts are very old, historical, and then there are new areas. Good school district as well. Close to St. Croix river, shopping, restaurants, parks as well.

Those would be my two choices.

I lived in Eagan (a southern suburb of St. Paul, but just as close to Minneapolis) for 20 years. The schools are fantastic and there is a park within 1 mile of every home. It's a very nice community to live in. It's also convenient to the airport, if your family travels, and close to the Mall of America. But there are several great areas here, so I would recommend doing some research about what is important to you! You've been sent some good resources here.

It all depends on what you want. I love the Seward neighborhood in Minneapolis. We moved here in December. It's an active neighborhood, easy to get involved. Nice parks and playgrounds. The neighborhood public school is Montessori, so if that interests you it would be nice to be close. There's a large natural food co-op here too. The business/civic association organizes neighborhood events about five times per year--art festival, etc. I think of the overall personality of the neighborhood as "educated people who wear jeans." If this feels like a fit, keep in touch and I'll be happy to show you around.
Have either of you lived where the winter is cold? If not, keep in mind that many, many people love the winters here and find numerous ways to have a good time. Keep on using Mamasource as the questions come up.