Relocating to St. Paul
Hi,
My dh is currently job hunting and it looks likely he may be getting offers in several cities including Detroit Mi, Cincinnati, Oh and St. Paul MN. I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about your area. We love to be outdoors so being near a nice downtown area is important to us, one with nice cafes, shops, parks etc. Would downtown St. Paul be a good place to start looking? I am a SAHM with two ds's (26mo and 6mo). I don't like to drive too much, would rather walk everywhere with them so being near good amenities is very important to us. Do you think we would be better off looking for an apt in the 'burbs or a townhome maybe in the downtown area? Is it a nice safe downtown area? Is it expensive? I would really appreciate as much information as you can give me about this city as we are pretty clueless about this place and have no one there to guide us in the right direction. We would not be buying but renting instead. tia
Re: Relocating to St. Paul
I'd rent somewhere in DT Minneapolis. Depending on what you're looking to spend, you can get a nice apartment/condo downtown mpls and get just about anywhere you need to without leaving the skyway system (key in winter!)
If you don't like to drive I would avoid the burbs for sure. Most of them (especially the first tier ones around the cities) are really developed and nice, but a car is essential.
There are really nice places to rent (we rented a duplex) in the Macalester/Groveland area of St. Paul. Very convenient to highways and interstates, good shopping and restaurants.
We live right by downtown St. Paul and love it. St. Paul has a lot to offer and we used to live downtown and a really nice apartment that was not too expensive, they have a lot of parks in downtown St. Paul as well, downtown is really well connected to a lot of the parks trail system and in a few years light rail will be comming to downtown St. Paul making it really well connected. There is a great farmers market downtown in the summer and rummors of a large grocery store comming soon. The science musseum and childrens musseum are in downtown St. Paul making them great places to have kids around. I grew up here so I am clearly biased but I think it is a great place to grow up and raise kids, it was very important for me to come back here when we started having children.
Good luck on making the decision!
The Uptown area of Minneapolis is very active, lakes (Calhoun & Harriet & Isles) nearby with walking trails, walking friendly, lots of shops & resturants in walking distance. My Dad has lived in the area for years and often walks vs. driving for many things. Supposedly some compare it to NYC. Only been there to visit once so no clue on that part. Lots of rentals in the area.
Similarly Linden Hills is a smaller neighborhood not too far from there more laid back main neighborhood grocery there (walkable) is a good sized co-op. Have other shops like bakery, ice cream shop, etc... Not sure how many rentals are in that area. Also near lakes (Harriet).
I would agree with previous post about Highland Park Village and Grand Ave. areas. Again not sure how much rentals are available in Highland Park but there are a quite a few in Grand Ave area.
Only draw back is these areas are all fairly pricey. Not sure how they are for rental but home costs are high in these areas for sure.