Yes, you should probably move to Minneapolis.

That was easy, wasn’t it?

I hate to say this, because I don’t want everyone to find out how good we have it here and make our bad traffic even worse. But yes, it’s awesome, and yes, you should probably move here.

(Quick tip: If you’re planning a visit, I recommend checking out the Stone Arch Bridge, the many trails and parks along the Mississippi river near Fort Snelling, and Lake of the Isles. If it’s the dead of winter, aim for the Mall of America or catch a play at The Guthrie Theater.)

I see this “should I move to Minneapolis” question asked a lot on the Minneapolis and Minnesota subreddits. I’m just one guy, and my life is probably different from yours, but here’s my hot take on being a life-long Minneapolis resident.

The short answer: I love it!

The longer answer is a bit more nuanced. I could get into the pros and cons, but it would be a very biased perspective given my lifestyle and tastes. The big-picture attractions are a relatively low cost of living compared to other metro areas, a high education rate, great schools, and a low unemployment rate.

It’s not all wine and roses: we have higher taxes, a recent spike in violent crime, some pretty serious Canada wildfire smoke problems, and we tend to keep to ourselves; you’ll have to really work at breaking into new social circles.

What you want out of a city also matters. If you’re a young professional, you’re probably going to want to live near the nightlife, and that means Uptown or downtown. (Don’t ask me why we capitalize one and not the other.) If you’re raising kids, you’ll want a quieter, safer neighborhood near good schools. I’ll try to cover all the bases as best I can, but keep these things in mind.

Before I get into all that, I do want to point out that I’ve known more than a few people who have lived here, left because of the winters, and eventually returned. They all said the same thing: “We didn’t know how good we had it.”

OK so here are the bullet points in no particular order, and again take all of these with a Mall of America-sized grain of salt. I’m just one guy.

POLITICS

One of the things I love about Minneapolis is the liberal politics. Things get a little purple as you head into the inner-ring suburbs, and you’re pretty much in bright red territory beyond that. If you’re a die-hard libber, you’ll feel right at home within the city limits.

The Twin Cities is surrounded by a freeway circle with two names: 694 on the north side and 494 on the south. Once you cross that circle, you’re gonna find yourself smack-dab in the middle of MAGA country. I want to say they have less violent crime out there, but I’m also pretty sure they smack their kids around and use queer people for target practice. So pick your poison, I guess.

CRIME

Like most cities across the country, Minneapolis has seen a pretty scary spike in violent crime since 2020. We are the city where the George Floyd murder happened. We definitely have a ticklish police / minority relationship that goes back decades. The police started phoning it in after George Floyd was killed and a bunch of knuckleheads took this as a cue to get even extra stupid. The summers here have felt pretty unhinged in recent years, especially if you’re out after dark on the weekends. So watch your back and use good common sense.

Some neighborhoods are “safer” than others, but it’s a moving target. The City of Minneapolis has a crime map that you may or may not trust, based on your feelings about the police. But it’s a resource you can use if you’re curious.

The old adage “stick to water and avoid freeways” is mostly still true. Be prepared for a higher cost of living in neighborhoods with less crime.

If you want to avoid the neighborhoods with the most violent crime, that means downtown, North Minneapolis, and pretty much all of East Franklin Ave in Central Minneapolis. These areas and neighborhoods have plenty to offer, and I’ll never tell anyone to avoid them — heck I even lived near East Franklin for a spell — but based on some informal research, I believe they have the most reported cases of violent crime in recent years.

My personal favorite neighborhoods are East Isles, Kenwood, Lowry Hill, Lowry Hill East, Carag, Lyndale, Linden Hills, and just about all of NE Minneapolis. (Just remember: it’s Lowry Hill, not “Lorry” Hill. And Linden Hills is plural for some reason. We get excited about hills because it’s pretty flat around here.) Highland Park and Cathedral Hill are some nice little corners of St. Paul that sometimes get overlooked.

THE WINTERS

Yes, they suck. They really suck and they’re long and there’s not much you can do about it. Prince famously once said he liked the brutal winters because it “keeps out all but the most badass motherfuckers.” He wasn’t wrong.

The good news is the worst part of the winters are confined to just a few months. Late fall into the holidays is perfectly lovely; the cooler temps and snow are a refreshing change, the holiday lights makes everything feel super cheerful and twinkly, and it doesn’t really dip too far below freezing. It’s the January – March stretch that will break you. Plan your vacations accordingly.

Personally I spent the better part of a decade building my life around winter survival. I went into a career that favors working from home and I moved into an apartment building with a workout room and attached garage. I don’t shovel a single flake of snow in the winters, and I don’t drive anywhere unless I absolutely have to. Plus I live in a super walk-able neighborhood loaded with grocery stores, restaurants, and shops. (I’m currently across the river from downtown.) All of this was by design because I detest cold weather and snow. Now the winters feel like a breeze.

Not everyone wants that lifestyle, so if you favor home ownership in a more residential neighborhood stuffed with young families, you’re going to be doing (or paying for) a lot of shoveling. I mean a lot of shoveling. Add that to summer lawn care, and you’re going to be cut out of wood after about a year. This is good, because we like our butter here.

On the flip side, the summers here are absolutely gorgeous. They’re hot and sunny and humid and lush and full of life and we have all of the parks. You’ll completely forget the pain of winter life May through October, and honestly it does get a little hot towards the end of September, even for summer lovers like me. Our autumns are incredible, filled with welcome sweater weather and eye-popping fall colors. Prime autumn is the middle two weeks of October. Plan your leaf-peeping accordingly.

PARKS

Gosh, we have some nice parks here. The infrastructure is fantastic, and mostly everything is super clean and beautiful. It’s not always practical to live close to parks, but you don’t have to drive more than a few minutes to find one.

I’ve already mentioned the Stone Arch Bridge and the parks and trails along the Mississippi near Fort Snelling, which are some of my favorite spots in the area. Other jewels in our park system are Loring Park near downtown Minneapolis (where our Gay Pride festivities happen), Minnehaha Regional Park in South Minneapolis, and the famous Chain of Lakes near Uptown. Oh, and plan a weekend trip to charming Stillwater, just a short drive north of the Cities. It’s an antique lover’s dream and honestly feels like a little slice of New England.

THE ARTS

Gosh, we have some good arts here. We have the Guthrie Theater (mentioned above), the Walker Art Center, the Art-a-Whirl art crawl, and countless other cultural venues and attractions. If you have a niche interest, we probably cater to it.

For example, I love classic horror movies, so I attend regular events at Cinema of the Macabre in Plymouth and Tape Freaks in South Minneapolis. We love our arts and support the holy crapola out of them. Oh and we have loads of indie breweries here. Like loads.

If you love the arts and breweries, aim for Northeast Minneapolis or the Longfellow neighborhood in South Minneapolis. You little hipster, you.

AIRPLANE NOISE

Like any busy metropolitan area we have an international airport, and that means some pretty intense airplane noise. Google “Minneapolis airplane noise map” to get an idea of which neighborhoods are most heavily affected. I once attended an outdoor wedding near Lake Harriet where the officiant had to pause the ceremony every 5 minutes to wait for a plane to fly over. You couldn’t even hear yourself speak. Now imagine this all day every day for the rest of your life. It’s hell, but some people somehow people get used to it. (I never did.)

If you want to avoid airplane noise, aim for St. Paul or Northeast Minneapolis. If you want to live in Uptown, stay north of Lake Street to avoid the worst of it.

TRAFFIC

Brace yourself for a world of pain if you have a long commute. Our traffic can be intolerable, especially in the summer months when road construction kicks into high gear. One hack that I’ve used is working a 6am – 3pm shift. A lot of us like to wake up super early around here, and it’s probably for this exact reason.

It’s hard to plan for it, but try to find a job near your home or work remote if you can. May the little baby Jesus have mercy upon your soul if you have to commute from one side of the Twin Cities to the other on a daily basis. Like the long winters, this will break you.

If you really hate traffic snarls, avoid the southwest metro area and that 694 / 494 freeway loop that I mentioned earlier. Always check Google Maps for the drive time to your job from a perspective home, and change the travel time to a weekday rush hour.

HISTORY

Gosh, we have some nice history here. We’re not as fancytown as Chicago or New York, with all their glitzy architecture, but we’ve got some pretty neat-o things to look at and visit.

Take a trip to the Mill City Museum in downtown Minneapolis or the James J. Hill House in St. Paul to get a good sense of the city’s history. You can also see a heck ton of old warehouses and factories almost anywhere the Mississippi River or near any old train track. I have to call out Northeast Minneapolis here again; it’s chock full of amazing historical warehouses and train yards and such. It’s even more breathtaking (and a tad heartbreaking?) in the fall.

We’re also huge antique freaks here in the Twin Cities. You can’t fling a hatbox without hitting an antiquery. Or if you’re on a budget, there are lots of nifty thrift stores to check out in almost every corner of the metro area. You never know what you might find.

Thanks for checking out my post. Good luck on your next move!