Shot in the Dark, Spitbull, the Nihilist in Golf Pants, among others, have been debating the merits of living in the city vs. living in the ‘burbs. As someone who’s lived in the country, lived in the suburbs, lived inside the city limits of both Minneapolis and St. Paul, and who currently lives in an inner-ring suburb, I have to say I like it where I am now.
When I was in high school the small-town life didn’t offer me a lot: there wasn’t much to do, everyone seemed to know your business, and I was related to just about everyone in town in some way (not bad in terms of having a built-in social network; on the other hand, family reunions aren’t a great place for meeting women). I later bounced around in a few rental places in South Minneapolis chosen more for convenience and affordability than anything else. They were close to my job and had other conveniences ideal for a single guy: the last apartment I rented had a White Castle across the street, a drive-through ATM behind it, a grocery store kitty-corner from it and a great little pizza place with live bluegrass music just a few blocks away. The neighborhood definitely lacked cachet, however, and in most of my memories of these days the weather is always gray.
When I bought my first home I had to venture out to where the pavement ended (or so it seemed) to find a place I could afford. Coon Rapids was quiet and nowhere near as built up then as it is now, which made it a lot like living in my old home town except no one had gunracks in their pickup trucks in Coon Rapids. It took awhile to get anywhere from there, and it was always slightly embarrassing to tell people where I lived.
Later I sold that place and my wife and I and our budding family moved into a cozy rambler near Wheelock Parkway in Norm Coleman’s St. Paul. It was a tidy neighborhood of older but well-maintained homes but one thing that tended to drive me crazy was that it seemed as if there was some kind of siren – police, fire, ambulance – every fifteen minutes. City life was interesting (see post above) but we eventually moved to South St. Paul to be closer to church and the private school where we had enrolled the girls.
I like South St. Paul. It’s really a small town right next to a big city. We have our own “downtown”, the only franchise in the vicinity is Dairy Queen, and it takes all of 10 minutes to go from one side of town to the other. Our neighborhood is quiet, the people help each other out and the streets are laid out in a quirky enough way that it pays to be a “local”. Aside from having to maintain constant vigilance lest the school board sneak another levy in during an off-year election the city politics, while DFL-dominated, are mostly harmless. And if you’ve just got to have a Big Mac or other taste of civilization and convenience, Robert Street is just a mile away. Life is good!
