Minneapolis - tell me what to do

Would love to see the ILX list of Twin Cities boondoggles of the year, actually. Too preoccupied with Uptown remodeling to consider what else is out there.

incidentally adamrl, why do you ask?

Oh yeah I should mention, I guess - I may have a job opportunity that could bring me to Minneapolis. Still in the early stages of possibility, but I can't say it isn't tempting. I probably shouldn't say much more about it for now but am trying to get a feel.

Obv the visual arts are important to me and yr comments above are a little worrisome. That said I am as much into working my own stuff as consuming other people's product, so maybe this is the sort of place where one can hole up for the winter and create, have studio space? Finally be able to pay my bills?

What is the housing situation like there for people with decent full-time employment who are not looking to live like yuppies OR to hole up in suburbia? Having a decent house/apartment (preferably house) is important to us, I guess.

I don't really have much of a feel for the weather as I'm sure the winters I experienced growing up in London are like paradise compared to whatever subzero hell one endures there. But my wife is from Northern Indiana and knows a little about cold. That said, 6 years in SoCal may have made us a little soft...

House prices are low but rising, and the inventory is sparse.

i think you'll be fine re: housing, given your criteria. TCILX can give neighborhood rec's if/when the time comes.

not east st. paul, not frogtown, no western suburbs

admr1 there's lot of of neighborhoods in south mpls that you would like

dont count out mpls scrappy cousin st paul imo

maybe i spoke too soon about the art here. i go to openings with some regularity but i'm not deep into the scene at all. i feel like it's been a long time since i've been to a good one. maybe that's how it is even in cities where things are more high-powered and popping? idk

again i'm no expert but the regnant style looks like a juxtapoz-y skewed illustration kind of mode, it's been that way forever, and i don't like it!

another way to look at it is that there is a ton of visual art going on and lots and lots of art events/openings/wacky gallery hijinks, but yeah im not about to say most of it is good per se. that also is kind of how art works tho

From what I can tell, I would probably have to live on the North/West side of town, though I've never lived in a city this size, so maybe things work differently? Also how are jobs in general? My wife would be looking for work in tech/marketing/media.

our unemployment is crazy low (5.4?) but glutted in some areas. theres a pretty accessible network of tech marketing types up here tho.

i just went to an opening where all the art looked like it was out of a dentist's office and all the people there looked like 45 year olds about to get on a school bus to burning man. so maybe i have a bad taste in my mouth.

wrt living location, if you have a car and live in either city proper or the close suburbs, yer looking at idk a max 30-45 minute commute to go from one end to the other.

public transportation blows in most cases tho, do not believe the hype

can you name some neighborhoods you are looking at? there are some maddeningly imprecise directional signifiers at play and "north west" would get you some glazed looks if said aloud

also, minneapolis is extremely de facto segregated. north minneapolis is ahem rougher but i know plenty of folks who live there.

Northwest = Maple Grove = don't go there girlfriend

^^^ truthbomb. Most of our suburbs, like suburbs everywhere, are soulless, but MG is some ninth circle of hell imo.

i will stan, mildly, for richfield

roseville is a sack of crap otoh

Northwest = box store hell. Maple Grove is full of meatheads and those awful 'townhouses' where they sleep are more expensive than city accommodation. My sister lived there for two years and she's fairly 'Applebees diner' but even she though it was a soulless pastiche of a small town full of bad chain shops. I could not imagine the kind of mindset it would take to settle there, procreate, and send your spawn to its horrible schools.

St Louis Park is the only decent inner suburb that's not completely up itself - but I would say that, I'm from there. So I will also say FUCK EDINA as per contractual obligation. Love south Minneapolis bordering Edina/St Louis Park but the whole of the south side has tons of beautiful housing stock and people opening up little restaurants. Lots of indie coffee owing to all the rich rehabbers who stayed on to open cafés from the '80s onward.

It's the fake Maple Grove downtown that skeeves me most.

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/.element/img/1.0/sections/mag/moneymag/bplive/2008/snapshot/maplegrove_mn.jpg

*******FLASHBACKS*******

why are you posting pics of robert zemeckis' sets

HA! It is so Disney Main Street USA, it's just bizarre.

Yeah I should clarify - I don't know any neighborhoods, but this job would actually be outside of Minneapolis proper in the general NW direction, I just assumed I would be looking to live in the city.

where are you now, LA? i was about to repeat the truism that a good commute is a major boon to happiness. but by california standards you could probably live in wisconsin and see an improvement

yes I am in LA. An hour commute is considered perfectly acceptable here. I listen to a lot of podcasts.

there are some really nice pockets in north mpls

My current commute is 32 miles

xp

admrl, the reason there is so much art for goole to complain about is because everyone can do it. Studio space is affordable, standard of living is good, and there are hella grants and $$$ flowing out of sucker's hands into artist pockets. There's a lot of great stuff. goole also keeps going out to art-a-whirl which is a city-wide open studio festival. This is a mistake. Everyone with a set of water colors or some junk to nail together will have a table out somewhere. If you go to art-a-whirl, go band-hopping and get drunk, but for god's sake don't go to see art unless you know exactly what you're going to check out and where it is.

so wait, if I put paint on my ass and then sit on some canvases, I could display that at Art-A-Whirl?

Fine art or eine fart?

my current commute is 3.2 miles

another thing that my not from here friends mention all the time is the public school system in MN - idk if you have/think you'll have kids, but private school is def not seen as a necessity here like it is in many places.

^^^^This. Apparently they offer International Baccalaureate at my old high school, which is best in state on the reg, but it replaced a more difficult set of AP courses they offered when I was a student. The best public high schools in the state are in South Minneapolis and the near western suburbs.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/local-man-knows-he-moved-to-minneapolis-for-someth,32034/

http://stuffaboutminneapolis.tumblr.com/post/47928051541/i-left-minneapolis-last-july-and-i-still-miss-it-every

I sincerely hope the Uptown remodel job wins this year's City Pages "best of" award for Boondoggle of the Year.
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lol tough year for that (xp re boondoggles)

http://www.citypages.com/bestof/2013/award/best-boondoggle-2779552/

brb going to St. Paul to do crimes

i don't get how that's a 'boondoggle'

Ditto, imo.

Why is the Uptown Theater remodel a boondoggle?

iirc some public money went into it

damn St Paul

yeah that was a huge story. i laughed like a motherfucker when i heard it the first time (drive time MPR iirc)

i'd need to look at the original stories again but i think defense attorneys happened upon this basically by accident?

http://judgmentalmaps.com/image/48615076593

My inlaws-to-be are "hairdressers" apparently.

Proud resident of nothing interesting whatsoever

i want to cunt punt that map

did they call you a hipster?