Minneapolis, Minnesota

Overall, Minneapolis is full of young individuals of all races. According to the U.S. Census Bureau 2006 survey, the number of African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics is growing in the city with non-whites making up about one third of the city's residents. Minneapolis also has a large gay, lesbian, and bisexual community. Many of the city’s families reside in any number of the neighborhoods south of downtown and near the Chain of Lakes region, popular among the residents for their beauty and recreational purposes. Minneapolis is also very popular for singletons, more so than its Twin City, St. Paul, mainly because of its young vibe, thriving arts scene, and bar and restaurant offerings.

Minneapolis has a strong social scene that thrives on music, the arts, and theatre. Numerous bands come out of Minnepaolis, mainly making alternative and rock music, and many continue to stay and play in any of the respected music clubs, including the Cabooze, Lee’s Liquor Lounge, Triple Rock, 7th Street Entry, and First Avenue. First Avenue is a major player, considered a milestone to perform in by bands around the country; it is also the filming location of Prince’s Purple Rain.

Restaurants run the gamut in the city from the popular chains found in Downtown’s “Block E” to many independent restaurants throughout the city neighborhoods. These independent restaurants can be quite kitschy and offer up many yummy delectable delights; such notable spots include, in Northeast Minneapolis, The Modern Café, Punch Pizza, Psycho Suzie Motor Lounge—a funky tiki bar/restaurant in an old converted A&W drive-thru—and Nye’s Polynesian room. Nye’s also has an adjoining bar where the World’s Most Dangerous Polka Band plays on the weekends. In Uptown restaurants worth mentioning include Victor’s Cuban Café, a teeny-tiny south Minneapolis restaurant with a bright, big atmosphere, and the Bryant Lake Bowl where one can enjoy a tasty beer, a super delicious meal, and a game of bowling!

To kickback with friends for drinks, the city has everything from lowbrow beer joints to super sexy and svelte lounges with low-lighting and velvet couches. The CeCe Club in south Minneapolis is an old standby for beers and possible band sightings; the bar has been around forever and is a favorite of residents from the old to the young. For dancing, go downtown as First and Hennepin Avenues are host to a plethora of clubs that welcome the scantily clad girls in the dead of winter looking for girly drinks and cute frat boys. For some serious dancing, when bands are not in town, First Avenue nightclub hosts Danceteria nights that go until 4:00 in the morning.

Rental rates vary from $500 for a studio to $3,000 for a three-bedroom luxury apartment. The wide range is obviously due to the wide range of area being covered. Some neighborhoods are more coveted by residents than others and will have higher rent. On average a one-bedroom apartment in a good neighborhood that offers safety, an eclectic-vibe, and convenience will run around $800.

The quality of living is extremely high. In fact Minneapolis was voted one of the five cleanest cities by Forbes magazine in 2007. The air is seriously clean here because it’s a smaller major metropolitan city. That said, what also makes the quality of living good is that while the city is small, the offerings in renowned art exhibits and great theater match that to any of the majors cities, thus keeping its residents up to speed on all the cultural happenings of the world. Minneapolis also offers many of its own special offerings that only this city’s residents get to enjoy.

Parking is relatively easy throughout the city as there are ramps, metered parking, and residential streets that do not require parking permits. Some neighborhoods can get a little more crowded than others, but finding parking will not take hours from one’s day like it can do it larger cities. One can usually find a close, free spot from 1 minute and not exceeding 25 minutes. If driving around gets too hectic, there is often a close ramp nearby.

While parking seems like a breeze in the city, it’s not always the case. The times parking can get difficult is in the winter when snow emergencies require cars to be off certain streets during certain hours and the city means business. For any car left on a snow emergency route, the car will be immediately impounded to the city lot.

Minneapolis also offers a public transit system consisting of a large number of buses with many varying routes and the new light rail that travels from downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul, the Mall of America, and to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport. Specific routes and schedules can be accessed at www.metrotransit.org.

Research the neighborhoods and city. Once you have chosen some neighborhoods to search for rentals, go to them, walk around, get a feel for the community on your own, and then look for posted "For Rent" signs! If you can't do that then definitely keep reading this site! Also look at the individual neighborhood listings within this site.

The city is rich with recreational opportunities, from sports and outdoor activities to theater and the arts scene.

Often touted for its thriving theater scene, Minneapolis has more theater seats per capita than any U.S. city outside New York. Such renowned theaters that have done consistently successful work over the years include The Jungle Theatre, Theatre de la Juene Lune, Illusion, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, the Children's Theatre Company, Mixed Blood, Penumbra, Bedlam Theatre, and the Brave New Workshop. And this is to name only a few, the city has a number of community theaters that are often being sited for their stellar works. Annually the city is also host to the Minnesota Fringe Festival, a festival of theatrical productions. The theater that gets the most recognition though is certainly the Guthrie. The Guthrie has been around since 1963 and has had a number of well-respected actors grace its old and new stage—the theatre recently relocated to a beautiful three stage complex built just for them on the banks of the Mississippi. Aside from theaters companies, Minneapolis also has three major buildings in renovated historic buildings that host touring shows, and concerts.

For art, The Walker Art Center on the south side of downtown is the premier place to go. This internationally recognized institution is always pushing the envelope and offering its patrons a modern view of art of the past and to the future.

In the summer, residents of the city enjoy biking, walking, running, or just lazing about at any of the many city parks. The city's Chain of Lakes Park, to name one, is connected by paths and is usually packed with happy residents enjoying the weather.

For sports fans, the Metrodome is located downtown and is home of the Minnesota Vikings, the NFL football team and the Minnesota Twins, the Major League Baseball team. The Twins however will be moving to their new stadium currently being built in the Minneapolis Warehouse District.

Minneapolis is also full of special events and fairs, such as the popular art fairs in various neighborhoods, the most popular being the Uptown Art. The Minneapolis Aquatennial is also a major annual summer festival.

Minneapolis encompasses 81 neighborhoods and each are seriously unique in their own way. The most vibrant neighborhoods to live include Uptown, Lyndale, East Calhoun, East Harriet, Lowry, Northeast, and the Warehouse District. Other neighborhoods, such as Whittier and Seward are also becoming new hot spots.

Since Minneapolis is a major metropolitan city, you will find your majors here in banks, gyms, and grocers. For groceries think Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and a discount supermart as well as many smaller specialty grocers.

The job market in Minneapolis is relatively good with five Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the whole of the Twin Cities area. These include the Target Corporation, U.S. Bancorp, Xcel Energy, Ameriprise Financial, and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.

The city's largest employers are Target, Wells Fargo, Ameriprise, Star Tribune, U.S. Bancorp, Xcel Energy, IBM, Piper Jaffray, RBC Dain Rauscher, ING Group, and Qwest.

The main campus of the University of Minnesota can be found on the west bank of the Mississippi in Minneapolis. A big 10 school, the University is home of the Golden Gophers, and it educates more than 50,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students.

Other higher education schools include Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis Community and Technical College, the private Dunwoody College of Technology, Globe University/Minnesota School of Business, and Augsburg College.

For grade, middle, and senior high shools, Minneapolis has a large public school system with schools located throughout the city, convenient to all major neighborhoods.

Beautiful homes of varying styles can be found throughout the city and range in price. Some homes are small and comfy—bungalow style—and some, found in the Kenwood neighborhood, are old beautiful mansions that rarely go up for sale. The best neighborhoods to house hunt in are anywhere in South Minneapolis, and some parts of northeast. This city website offers more in-depth information on real estate in the city: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/residents/housing.asp.

It’s no secret Minnesota encompasses cold winter months, and Minneapolis is no exception—it gets cold here December thru March. Low temperatures can be 11 degrees below windshield and this is often coupled with snow. Of course all this snow and cold weather is ideal of skiing, sledding, and making cool winter forts!

While you may still be fearing the cold temps, the city is ripe for going through all the seasonal changes so you will get a nice fall, spring and summer. And the constant change of seasons offers up many wonderful activities throughout the year, not to mention a mad appreciation for the days from May 1 to Oct.