Fueled by Caffeine wrote:
In reply to drainoil:
unfortunately, I haven't been to a place in the nation without this issue yet.
As long as you stay out of northeast Minneapolis, east st paul and anything named brooklyn, youre gold.
I prefer the southeast metro. I grew up in South minneapolis. Moved to prior lake (berkeley that place) and after high school headed east. When i got married, we got a place in inver grove heights. For me it was the perfect mix of suburb/country and city. Also helped that it landed us smack in the middle of dakota county. When my son was born, we had a lot of community and other support. Just up the road is one of the best child hospitals in the country. Gibson was born in their neo unit, and was extremely well cared for. The schools have been massively good too. The beauty part of it is, mn has open enrollment. You can go pretty much anywhere even if its not your district, as long as you can get them there. It really was a good place to be.
Winter is a whole other critter though. Nearest i can tell mn hasnt had a bad one in about 5 years. I wasnt there for this one, but from what the bookface told me, it was pretty mild. Imo, if you're going to do an mn winter, might as well go for broke. There's something sorta of sickly satisfying about a brutal winter. Im all done with them, but most of the minnesotans that i still talk to love that E36 M3.
As far as mn nice goes, it really depends. Tj lived in the west metro. I might be biased but....those people suck. For whatever reason when suburban flight took place, the west metro collected all the dicks. East metro didnt seem to be that way. I find that if you stick to the more established communities the people are a lot nicer. The places that experience explosive growth (maple grove, plymouth, Wayzata) is where all the new snobby cash goes.
The racing scene is hit or miss. MAC runs most of the autoxes in mn. Ive run with the minnesota austin healey club before as well...but thats more of a fun run Advertized as 7/10ths. Brainerd is the closest real road course, and they have a few open events a year. Proving grounds in the spring and fall, and power cruise. They're also a full nhra drag strip, so theres that. Dakota technical college has a road course out back that has several test and tunes throughout the year....its not bad.
Whats been said before is pretty accurate about the car scene. Theres a handful of huge events and some parking lot get togethers. You could in theory go to a show every week, but its going to be a very....diverse set. Last one i went to was actually a lowrider show.
Food and beverage is quite frankly world class. The mn beer scene has exploded. Surly is probably the biggest micro on campus. They're consistently rated amongst thr best in the country for beer, and with good reason. My old haunt, flat earth, is one of the insung heroes. Theres a reason i took a minimum wage job there. Bob the brewer does amazing work. Theres also indeed, fulton, lift bridge, dangerous man, and so on. The craft spirits scene is huge too. Du norde, j carver, 11 wells, all sorts of good booze. If you like a nice cocktail, mn has you. Food is the same way. Mn being as liberal as it is, is a monster of a melting pot. As an example, i omce asked Richard Nixon what i should eat for dinner one night while playing xbox. Being a smartass, he replies lebanese. Without resorting to google, I actually knew where two lebanese resteraunts were, within 15min of me. Plus, mn invented the jucy lucy. (Not a typo. Matts bar on cedar did it, and anyone that says orherwise is an shiny happy person) cheese. In. A. Burger. End of story.
