COMMENT BY
Reggie from Duluth, MN
COMMENT ABOUT PLACE
Duluth, MN
COMMENT
It’s probably you not them
Having read the negative reviews of Minneapolis residents, I can say the poster’s should take a good long look at themselves....
I lived in the twin cities area for a few years before moving to the mountains of Montana to ski, fish and hunt. I’ve visited almost every major American city and hundreds of midsize cities on both coasts, The West, Midwest, Southwest and New England. I lived in Chicago (mixed views on Chi-town), Phoenix (blast oven strip mall hell where everything looks the same, every day is the same, people are either retirees from all over the country and can’t drive or they’re made of plastic and leather), Michigan (sad economic decline but I still love Michigan...I’m rootin’ for ya Detroit!.... you looked great last summer and happy to see you’re growing again!!) and currently live in and love Duluth (Outside Magazines #1 city to work and play).
Duluthians travel regularly to Minneapolis to do city and non-city stuff.... concerts, Vikings games, mountain biking, foodie adventures, theatre, comedy shows, golfing,etc...
If you read the statistics, you already know that the Twin Cities area ranks towards the top of almost every category.
If you read the negative comments you’ll expect the locals to be fake, white trash, passive aggressive, smug and/or afraid of their own shadows.
The truth is....
Twin City residents are among the best educated in the country, they are friendly, they are family oriented, they stay close to their long time friends and they love to show off their city and state to new people. Anyone who claims they can’t make friends or think the locals are weird need to find a hobby. Minneapolis and Minnesota residents like to do things. They are mountain bikers, runners, kayakers, foodies, theater lovers, urban explorers, busy small business owners, corporate money focused workaholics, sports fans, classic car club members, rock climbers, fisherman, cabin owners, community volunteers, etc..... and many belong to a club related to their hobby.
If you arrive from the corn fields of Iowa you probably won’t have anything in common with the locals.
If you come from Denver with your typical mountain person “I’m better than you because it’s not flat where I’m from” attitude, you’ll most certainly encounter passive aggressiveness.
If you encounter the things the negative comments have stated... the truth is.....Minnesotan’s think you’re weird, boring or rude. They’re just too nice to tell you.
They’ve probably been to where you’re from and thought the people sucked (I’m looking at you Philly)
But....
If you come with an open mind, don’t talk about how great it is where you’re from (they don’t care) and are willing to learn a new sport or hobbie, you’ll fit right in.
Pros:
-Endless job / small business startup opportunity
-Endless 4 season recreation
-4 seasons
-Paved bike trails that wind throughout the cities, around lakes, waterfalls and nature preserves
-Mountain bike trails
-Beaches
-The arts
-economy
-light rail system
-two distinct downtowns (Minneapolis and St.Paul) that both offer great nightlife and Uptown Minneapolis
-Psycho Susie’s motor lounge
-Minnesota State fair
-Mall of America / downtown skyway systems for when it’s raining, too hot or too cold outside
-close to nature
-reletively close to Chicago, Madison, Milwaukee, Duluth and Kansas City for weekend trips
-xc ski trials, downhill skiing, neighborhood hockey rinks
-Architecture
-golf courses
-Valleyfair
-reletively close to Wisconsin Dells
-4 hours to Lutsen ski resort (1000 vert, 95 runs, 4 Mountains, tree skiing, 8 person gondola on Lake Superior)
-summer festivals
-unique city lifestyle that combines the attributes of New York and smaller outdoorsy cities like Duluth, Asheville and Portland
-amazing restaurants
-microbreweries
-Twins Baseball!
-green spaces
-rooftop bars and restaurants
-First Ave concerts!
-lots of trees
-beautiful towns dot the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers from Stillwater to Lacrosse,WI
-close to the beautiful driftless area mountains and their blue ribbon trout streams
-2 1/2 hours to gold level mountain bike trails in Duluth
-2 hours to bronze level mountain bike trails in Cuyuna
-1000 miles of single track mountain bike trails are within a 5 hour drive
-2 1/2 hours to surfing on Lake Superior
-4 hours to surfing on Lake Michigan
Cons:
-cold bleak days in the winter (go skiing or fat tire biking)
-Sauna hot humid days in the summer (but they have beaches unlike most other humid cities)
-bottleneck freeway system designed for 2 million residents (3.5 million currently live there)
-no mountains (1000 foot tall mountains line the north shore of Lake Superior, 2 1/2 hours away)
-Vikings will break your heart repeatedly, year after year, till you stop feeling feelings
-you’ll have pail skin
-city water tastes like most city water
-packer fans
-Mosquitos
-potholes (not as bad as New York)
-telling your family you ate Lutefisk
-NHL Wild will break your heart, year after year, till you stop feeling feelings (unless you became a Vikings fan first, in which case your feelings are already dead)
-heating bills January-March
I dislike living in big cities, but if I had to choose one, Minneapolis would be it.
Sidenote*
My favorite cities to visit are Minneapolis, St.Paul, Miami, Las Vegas (for no more than 2 days at a time), San Diago, Portland, Denver, Ithaca, Seattle, Indianapolis(downtown), Detroit(downtown) and Chicago(downtown).