5 Arbitrarily Ranked Nice Neighborhoods in the Metro

[at40man]

http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/media/M ... etro-Area/

Glad to see Lowertown tops the list! It was a great place to live and sometimes I still miss it.
2. North Loop
3. West End
4. 50th & France
5. Linden Hills

[mattaudio]

West End is a neighborhood?

[LakeCharles]

50th and France is a neighborhood? I mean it's more than West End, but it still doesn't feel like a neighborhood so much as a shopping district.

[mattaudio]

50th and France is a neighborhood?

That brings up two good points.

1. They obviously meant Fulton + part of Edina. But our natural definition of a neighborhood seems to rest more with proximity to a point than presence within a boundary. Look how "Uptown" gets used, or how people say they are close to a lake or a shopping node like 48th/Chicago. The boundaries that divide neighborhoods are rather arbitrary.

2. Many of our best neighborhood nodes are actually split between different neighborhood, or even municipal boundaries. This is the case at 50th/France, and we've seen some spats around parking and assessments in that node. But even in Mpls, I'd say most nodes are split by neighborhood boundaries. I've recently been working with another neighborhood group on a node in my neighborhood (well, half in my neighborhood, technically) to explore "joint custody" of business nodes for the sake of improvement and marketing. It only makes sense.

[QuietBlue]

"Top" meaning what, exactly? I like all of these neighborhoods (though I agree that calling the West End a neighborhood is strange), but this sort of thing is very subjective.

[mullen]

this list is silly. if west end is a neighborhood then i suppose so are southdale and the mall of america. true neighborhoods that make my top five:

linden hills
longfellow
highland park
st anthony park
bottineau

[LakeCharles]

this list is silly. if west end is a neighborhood then i suppose so are southdale and the mall of america. true neighborhoods that make my top five:

linden hills
longfellow
highland park
st anthony park
bottineau

Interesting. Why Bottineau? All the rest would certainly be in my top 10, but Bottineau is tiny and doesn't have many amenities. Under 2,000 people live there (compared to about 25,000 for Highland) and it's split by the railroad. But obviously you have reasons.

[twincitizen]

Some things are subjective and others are not, but this was clearly a ranking of "urban" neighborhoods, West End excepted. The other 4 are two "major" streetcar nodes (L.H. & 50th/France) and two CBD-adjacent warehouse districts (Lowertown, N.Loop).

As for things that are not subjective, any ranking of walkable, urban districts in MSP is a total fail without including some variant of "Uptown" (choices include Uptown proper, LynLake, The Wedge, etc.) There simply isn't a local substitute for the walkability and amenity-density of greater Uptown. If it was "Top 5 neighborhoods for kids/families", then fine, leave Uptown off for whatever justification you want, but otherwise it's a glaring oversight. If you disagree, consider this: Do any of the ranked neighborhoods offer multiple grocery store choices? Multiples of anything (other than boutiques)?

[mattaudio]

West End has Rainbow and Costco! How nice of a neighborhood!
50th/France has Lunds and LH Coop 6 blocks north (though LH is also on the list, but likely further distance-wise from the LH coop)

[David Greene]

My preferences lie more along the lines of twincitizen's. With that in mind, my ranking would be:

- Wedge (there's a reason I live there!)
- Prospect Park
- North Loop
- Whittier
- Corcoran/East Phillips

If you combined Whittier/Wedge I'd squeeze in Marcy Holmes or East Bank.

These just barely miss the cut, mostly because there's just not *quite* enough stuff around them to walk to:
- Lowertown
- Summit-U
- Old Highland (I just can't resist great old houses!)

This is all with the caveat that I hardly know most of the neighborhoods.

[Wedgeguy]

I'll take it David that you are very unfamiliar with St. Paul. What I've basically seen is West of the River on most lists.

Lowertown does not have enough stuff to walk to. Lets talk about the:
Farmer's Market
New Baseball field
Mears Park with it's surrounding restaurants
LRT station/transit hub
Main Library, Science Museum, Ordway, Xcel Center, Landmark Center and Rice Park
Lund's Grocery

Summit-U
You have a mile long retail/restaurant street with Grand Ave that is shared with Crocus Hill.
Selby and Western
Farther along Selby is Dale with the Mississippi Market and other shops, and the corner with Snelling where we will have a new Whole Foods as well as hopefully a few more shops to add to the list of stores already in the area.

I'll even add St. Anthony with it's great retail node on Como that beat Linden Hills any day. There are a lot of great homes in that area that rivals Prospect Park.

[xandrex]

"Top" meaning what, exactly? I like all of these neighborhoods (though I agree that calling the West End a neighborhood is strange), but this sort of thing is very subjective.

These lists are literally made in editorial meetings meant to cause people to click the link and discuss.

So the list has done its job. It doesn't matter what's on it. We've all clicked the link and are posting our opinions. The sales reps at Minnesota Monthly thank you.

[David Greene]

I'll take it David that you are very unfamiliar with St. Paul.

That's true, though I do work in Lowertown.

I thought about Summit-U for a long time (it's a huge neighborhood), but the things you mention are pretty spread out, aren't they? The Mississippi market is a fairly long haul from the main shopping district on Grand while in the Wedge I literally walk at most four blocks to almost everything.

In Lowertown, I wouldn't consider the 7th/Kellogg area to be in the same "walkable" category as, say everything around Lake & Hennepin. Again, it's a fairly long haul from Mears to those places.

When I think about "walkable" I think about places I can get to in 10 minutes or less. Thus even though I'll probably use the SWLRT West Lake station a lot, I wouldn't consider it "walkable" from my house even though I've done that walk many times.

I had forgot about St. Anthony Park. That is indeed a great area but it lacks a grocery store, doesn't it?

In the Wedge I have super-easy walking access to:

- Four grocery stores (including one international one)
- A library
- Several bike shops
- Several theaters
- Numerous eating and drinking establishments
- Boutique and chain retail
- Lakes and parks (Bryant Square is super underrated)
- The Midtown Greenway
- Bowling (!)
- Some of the best transit in the metro

I mean, it's really, really hard to beat the Uptown area for convenient access to lots of things. I can't think of anywhere in the metro that has the same concentration of stuff.

[mullen]

that wedge co-op parking lot is awesome isn't it. i don't how many near car accidents i've witnessed there arriving and departing onto lyndale.
franklin/lyndale is a wreck of an intersection.

linden hills has it all.

historic mix of housing stock, mix of apartment stock, you're right on the best lake in the cities, great transit (even a vintage trolley for kiddies) the business node is a little slice of heaven. edina residents want to claim linden hills as their own. sorry edina. great historic library, legendary retail/restaurant venues. the list goes on. yes it's the best neighborhood in the cities. and i grew up in diamond lake...

suffice to say i wish i could afford to own a home there.

i look at lowertown and north loop similarly. if you walk a couple blocks in any directon in these places you're brought back to downtown bland, though.

[David Greene]

that wedge co-op parking lot is awesome isn't it. i don't how many near car accidents i've witnessed there arriving and departing onto lyndale.
franklin/lyndale is a wreck of an intersection.

That's why I'm in the southern Wedge.

[David Greene]

suffice to say i wish i could afford to own a home there.

I've long thought Fulton could be a good, affordable place to go to get decent (not great) access to Linden Hills stuff.

[Nick]

wow ok your all wrong

1.) whatever neighborhood the Plymouth Chili's is in
2.) whatever neighborhood the Bloomington Chili's is in
3.) whatever neighborhood the Airport Chili's is in
4.) whatever neighborhood the Burnsville Chili's is in
5.) whatever neighborhood the Roseville Chili's is in

[FISHMANPET]

Honorable mentions (in no particular order)
whatever neighborhood the Maplewood Pizza Ranch is in
whatever neighborhood the Lakeville Pizza Ranch is in
whatever neighborhood the Apple Valley Pizza Ranch is in

I'm also kind of saddened that the Roseville Chilis is only #5 on Nick's list.

[Nick]

tbh Roseville Ruby Tuesday's had more to do with their high ranking

[FISHMANPET]

Well being within a single commercial node but being separated by a major street, they're clearly in different neighborhoods.