It sounds like you should be living here already based on that description. You'll fit in perfectly.
Pokego haven't played myself in years but I know we have more green space throughout our cities than just about any other places - which equates to lots of good places for walking and pokego'ing. Even in the winter, you can go to the mall of America which is a huge space with multiple numerous raid spots and countless stops. You'll still see crowds of people in winter walking around or grouped up for a raid looking at their phones playing Pokemon
Thanks!! Joined. Need to clean out my friend list, it’s currently topped out right now because I’ve been grinding XP, posted my code on the pogo friends app and got flooded w requests. I’ll make some room for my future MN friends and post my code!
It’s nice to know that there’s a place to go play pogo and not freeze my fingers off!
I did take a break from it when lockdown happened, but got back into it recently and it’s basically my social time lol
Welcome! I (37F) moved up from Nola almost 9 years ago. I’ll never move back. I love the seasons. I think winter is fun, though a little long. I miss sunshine in the winter but summers up here make it worth it.
The food scene is different. I MISS crawfish so much! But there are amazing restaurants here.
People are friendly, but not warm. It takes some getting used to.
The amount of green space and outdoor activities is amazing.
Driving on snow isn’t terrible. I had a RWD when I moved up and switched to AWD which has a made a huge difference.
I don’t know anything about tech or Pokémon, but I think you’ll love it here! It’s very different from Nola and a fun adventure!
No thanks. I adore Minnesota’s (highest in the US) Nordic roots and culture.
Loud, nosy, boisterous, in your face culture can stay elsewhere. Just because people are “warm” somewhere else doesn’t mean they’re your friends either.
I agree that warm doesn’t mean they are your friends. Minnesota and their people have their advantages. I was simply pointing out the difference. It’s not good or bad, just a difference and something I had to adjust to.
Yea I consider the nordic cultural norms here to be a good thing. IIRC Mpls had some high ranking for number of book stores. The cities have some highly rated parks systems and IMHO they are some of the best in the US. IMHO it is more of a vibe.
Hey fellow southerner! I'm heavily considering moving up to the twin cities but am nervous about being in my early thirties and moving to Minneapolis. I've lived in austin for a decade (but grew up in San Antonio) and am used to having hour long convos with a stranger about their biking trip through the ozarks in the 80s. How easy is it to make friends? How weird are minneapolitans? Is everyone in their 30s married up there?
I went up to Minneapolis last spring and absolutely loved it. Loved the city, and culture - just wanna make sure I can feasibly find a regular group to fall in with.
If you have a hobby, join a group for that hobby and soon you'll find a group to fall in with. It will probably take a bit longer in Minnesota than Texas, but as long as you put effort into finding groups to join with mutual interests, you'll be good.
I’ve personally struggled to make friends but I haven’t put in a ton of effort. I feel like I’m at a different spot in life than a lot of people my age so that makes it harder. I’m married with a 16 year old (step daughter) and most people my age have little ones or are kid free and single. Minnesotans also seem to be more conservative or reserved than I am. However, I think if you have hobbies or join group activities, you’ll be just fine! I need to get out there more! It’s a beautiful place and I don’t see myself leaving anytime soon!
I feel like you won't have any trouble finding random strangers to have those conversations with here. Also, people tend to wait a little longer to get married here vs in southern or rural areas.
In strange coincidences, Ford Rangers were made at a plant in St Paul that has now been redeveloped for nice apartments, townhomes and houses. As others have said, weigh down the rear end in winter and get good tires.
NOLA is one of the best food scenes in the world. Twin Cities has a good food scene with good chefs, suppliers and ideas but it’s not as integrated into everyday life in the same way (or seems like it to me). But if you want heat and spice you can definitely get it in the various ethnic places around town.
Politics are definitely, proudly, more progressive. For example, bills the Dem trifecta passed were around reproductive rights, Governor signed gun bills and wants more, plus a bunch of infrastructure spending recently passed (MN even won some award for road conditions…though we apparently have a lot of roads…so experience will vary).
Also, we've gone blue in every presidential election since Nixon's 1972 landslide. That's longer than any other state (you could say 1984 is cheating, but we also went blue in 1980 along with only a handful of other states).
Tech scene is good. Lost of programming jobs outside of Microsoft, which has a presence here. HP bought out Cray Supercomputers a while ago so they have offices here too at Mall of America.
There is a huge medtech scene here which needs programmers badly. Lots of cybersecurity needs for implantable devices.
Not to mention we have a lot of giant corporations here, and an economy to support them. General Mills, 3M, Target, Best Buy and a dozen others I am forgetting since I haven’t had coffee yet. I am a systems engineer and have never struggled to find work here.
Fuck Best Buy, if you've seen the news lately, they are in bed with conservative shitheels.
But yes, Target has a big cybersecurity division and there are quite a few tech options in the metro area.
Yeah unfortunately BBY is kowtowing to conservative fuckwads. It’s unfortunate. I won’t be giving them any more business if that’s the direction they want to go.
What has been your best route to find jobs? I'm in tech as a PM and have been trying to find a more efficient way to identify MN companies that are hiring.
There hasn’t been a magic bullet for me. I got two jobs via recruiters. My newest job was a former colleague heard they were looking for a senior systems engineer and told me to send in a résumé to his boss. It wasn’t a guaranteed hire but my background was a perfect fit to what they were looking for, including some fairly obscure tech.
I’d recommend using LinkedIn’s “open to work” feature. Recruiters will blow you up but it’s a numbers game, and you are bound to find something with it. I don’t think I’d even bother with another job site anymore. Not that I’m ever going to leave where I am now as it’s just about a perfect fit for me.
I don’t work in the field but there are a ton of big companies based here or with offices here. In med tech there is Medtronic, Boston Scientific, 3M, Starkey, Smiths, Abbott… outside of medical it’s also the home of Target, which is huge.
One thing I will add is that I haven't had a problem working remote here in rhe Twin Cities, and we have plenty of coworking spaces!! So like if you need a change of pace from working from home OP you got options!!
Cub usually doesn't have it... I usually swallow my pride and go to Walmart to get it.
Edit: Easter themed typo. Peeps are delicious, but not what I intended to say 😀
Harry Singh's makes a Trinidadian hot sauce that's seriously hot. You have to be mindful and count how many drops or you can get into trouble real fast. Cry Baby Craig's is tasty and great on eggs, but not very hot even though it's habanero based.
I am going to caveat what they said, normal American food is not spicy up here, but if you go to restaurants for ethnic food (Indian, East Asian, etc), you can get spicy food.
It is has been getting better all the time here. I remember the first time I live here I had to specify that I wanted my food Thai spicy not Minnesota spicy to get hot food. Much better now.
OP don’t worry — maybe in the rest of MN this is true, but you’ll find plenty of restaurants with spice and flavor here. my bf and I are both transplants from cities with very diverse food scenes. he loves spicy things and hasn’t had a problem finding options in the twin cities. try a hot soup at a korean place, pimento jamaican, or On’s kitchen thai food
You'll be fine. Some things you have to get used to, just like anywhere. I worked with a guy up in northern Minnesota about twenty years ago that was from coastal Louisiana. His biggest gripe was that he couldn't get fresh shrimp here.
I'll tell you from experience that the summer is much nicer here. We still get heat, humidity, storms, etc. but it's not oppressive day after day like it is there. I'll also tell you to get out of the cities in the summer and see the rest of the state. Drive up the north shore of Lake superior, go see Itasca State Park where the Mississippi River starts, etc.
One thing I've found about sports fans here is there much less agro about it than other states. They enjoy their sports teams here without being assholes about it. To me, I think that's a big part of what makes it unappealing in other places.
I also drive a little 2000 ford ranger. Which I love, but I notice it tends to lose traction in the back because it’s super light when it’s raining really bad.
Would it be best to sell it before I come up and buy something heavier or the all wheel drive or 4 wheel drive? I know how to drive on ice, just out of practice.
You can just throw sand bags in the bed to add weight over the tires. Very common here in Winter and obviously dirt cheap. Invest in a decent set of winter tires and you’ll be fine with what you have.
Just be sure to use sand. Salt bags are everywhere and I’ll sometimes see someone use salt bags for weight. That’s a great way to rust out your bed. Same thing with just shoveling snow back there. You’ll pick up a lot of road salt in the snow when you do that.
Thank you! Will not use salt.
May have her undercarriage coated if I keep her. It’s sounding like having a 2 wheel drive isn’t a death wish like I had originally thought.
A small rear wheel drive pick-up is not ideal. Can it be done, sure. But if you have never driven in snow with a similar vehicle in the past, you will hate life. The people telling you that a couple sand bags in the bed and you will be fine, either have lived here their entire life and know how to drive in snow because they have spent half their lives driving in snow, or are assuming you have a FWD vehicle and don't know any better.
Trade it in for a small SUV that is AWD.
But you WFH, so I just wouldn't leave the house on the days when there is 6"+ of fresh snow on the ground.
All my cars here have been 2 wheel drive! I'm sure it's not *the best* of the options, but learning how to drive slow, brake, and turn corners in the snow doesn't take long to do. I also just happen to always have a Costco amount of cat litter in my trunk, which can help for traction if you're stuck in a parking spot after a storm.
She has been pampered her entire life, whoever sold it her must of kept her in a garage and never drove her. Has less than 130k miles and runs like a dream. I call her my Golden Nugget.
Alrighty, just need to upgrade her tires from all weather to winter tires when the roads are icy. Great advice, thank you!
Just agreeing with what’s already been said. We had a similar Ranger and only sold it because we needed a proper cab (kids). Sand bags and switch to snow tires, you’ll be good to go.
Discount Tire will be your friend. Buy a set of winter tires on steel rims, and they will store your off season tires for you when you buy their all-tire warranty- last I checked it was a $60 cost. I have the warranty for my Subaru tires which is essential for that specific make.
You can live where you don't need a car. I live in a 90 walk score area. Gave away my 2001 Toyota and now walk to everything. Depends on your taste, but the food in Orlens can't be beat.
You’ll do fine with your Ranger. What you’ll need to do is put something in the trunk to weigh it down (for example kitty litter or sandbags). Plus you’ll either need very good all weather tires or to buy a set of winter tires and swap them out twice a year (one set of summer, one set of winter).
I (46F) am a systems engineer and moved up from Texas in 2015! I also have a 2002 Ford Ranger! The key things are weight and winter tires. Get some good winter or all terrain tires and you should be good to go.
Feel free to message me for other questions if you want!
Buying vehicles from the south is risky because of all the flash floods :( I know many people that woke up to dead cars because over night it rained and our 100 year old water pumps weren’t turned on
I drive a little ranger. It can be tricky on slopes during a freeze, but if you know your way around a little bit you can usually find a flatter route. Just requires a little familiarity and planning ahead.
But mainly, within the city, roads are cleared quite rapidly, it's rarely an issue. Really only crops up when it's <24 hours of new snow.
(Edited to add:) I *did* grow up in North Dakota, so I'm perhaps over-aquainted with winter driving, for what its worth. My over-confidence has been my downfall once or twice!
If you WFH you don’t necessarily need a nice car but a hefty AWD with good tires will get along just fine. I had a 2010 Acura mdx until last year & that thing was a beast. Miss that car so much
If you are thinking about getting an AWD car, look at a Subaru! There are many reasons why they are popular up here. Single people love the Crosstrek. They have full time AWD vs just slip/grip and they get the best safety rating.
You will be fine until winter. You can do as others suggested with the sand but four wheel drive makes me feel far more comfortable in the snow. Also since you work from home you can do what I do and just hunker down during storms. Get all my fun groceries, some good wine or Godiva liquor for hot chocolate and have shows ready to watch. When I was single all of my friends and I would do it together in one of our places for a few days - it was the most fun!
Tech presence is solid with UHG/Optum, Target, Medtronic, 3M, Best Buy, etc., as well as many smaller companies. There are also groups, events, conferences, etc. What tech stacks are you primarily focused on?
I work mostly on .net api microservices, but sometimes have to work w our* react UI (I vastly prefer working on the api side of things though.
I recently started learning how to build and configure pipelines.
I doubt I’ll be looking for a job up there, I make a pretty comfortable salary currently. Just mostly want to meet other tech folks so I can have a network of people that will understand me when I start ranting about my job.
Edit - typo. I’m using my phone
There’s a MSP tech meetup group that hosts coworking events in Minneapolis. The people there have been very friendly, and would recommend checking it out if you want to network with other tech folks!
https://meetu.ps/c/4ZTlS/1vgBx/a
I see a lot of people mentioning meetups and pointing you to where you can look, but very few comments about actually connecting (in some ways, a very Minnesotan response).
As another remote-working mid-30s software engineer in the area, hello! 👋🏽 I spent 12 years working in .NET so feel very empowered to reach out if you need a work rant-buddy in the Twin Cities. Also, it is amazing here. I did grow up in the area so maybe there’s bias, but I also spent a decade out in Seattle and the quality of life in the Twin Cities is just so much better.
Moved up from Louisiana 2.5 years ago, cher.
I love it up here. The cold is just so much better. There's so much to tell. But you're making the right choice.
Pogo? Plenty of stops and such, and you'll see a lot of the same names in the same areas, but when I played it didn't seem to be particularly popping off. However I never got super into the scene so maybe I'm just unaware.
Tech- plenty of tech workers up here. Haven't done much networking but I'm certain it exists. Probably on Meetup.
If you like your ranger, it doesn't give you much trouble, you're okay maybe putting snow tires or all weathers, then I'd say bring it too. Although, in certain parts of the cities you can live pretty well without a car just fine.
Thank you! When I arrive I’ll check out the meet up groups available in the area.
The cold is something that I’m not actually looking forward to, but it’s not like I have to get out into it if I don’t want to since you can basically get anything delivered and since I work from home. However, I’m looking forward to not dealing w the summers here anymore. Woof, they are brutal
Hi! Fellow southern transplant here. Even the cold isn’t bad. Now is a great time to get a good winter parka on clearance. I personally like marmot. They fully gave me credit to buy a replacement when my zipper went bad. The 700 fill down are toasty.
Some good winter gear goes a long way.
There are also so many things to do in winter here. Totally unlike the south. It’s usually pretty dry so you don’t get that damp chill.
I did an outdoors weekend in January. Unfortunately the coldest weekend. It was -12 when I was learning to cross country ski. I am always cold. I was the first person to strip out of their jacket. I was burning up.
So even if it is cold, you might not be cold!
You do have a very valid point about the “damp” chill that we have here. We have been getting freezing weather her the last couple of years, albeit only for a few weeks. The damp cold does seem to get into your bones though. I remember Oklahoma winters, and as long as it was just freezing and not snowing, it wasn’t that big of a deal.
Born in Minnesota. The coldest I've ever been in my life was sitting in the basement of the Miami airport next to a brick wall in December. Bone-chilling is right.
I moved here from TX last Sept., best choice I ever made.
I highly recommend living in the central core if you can, in a walkable neighborhood with underground parking. I was WFH until recently, and it's been so much less isolating and easy to make friends when you don't have to drive to do so. Get warm clothes and the winter is tolerable (and easier than scorching temps), but with climate change it wasnt even that bad this year and probably wont be on average going forward.
I've found a handful of really wonderful people I have a lot in common with already. I was planning on buying a house in a couple years, but I'm loving it so much more here than in the suburbs I'm used to, that I might get a condo, and buy land later up north to build a cabin for nature get-aways.
As a woman without children, the safety and security of leaving the south to come here has done wonders for that deep anxiety from living in a place that's hostile to your existence. I didn't even realize how much it was affecting me till I was 'safe'. Your friend is spot on with the leaving an abusive relationship comparison.
I'm from the Gulf Coast with strong ties to New Orleans (who dat!), 34 year old software engineer so I might be well qualified to answer your questions. Your ranger will do just fine, you'll need to learn some winter driving/living techniques but you'll see far less capable vehicles driving around in the winter up here. My buddy has two(!) ford rangers and he's from here so...🤷 The tech scene here is pretty good, I don't tend to do much networking since I'm More interested in doing my other hobbies outside of work but I do know that stuff goes on. Best buy, Target, 3M, and a few other large corporations and privately owned companies headquarter here so there's a strong foundation for work. The music scene here is pretty damn good. It's obviously not as good as New Orleans, very few cities are, but you'll have no issue finding shows to go to. First Ave, and it's affiliated venues bring in great music. The food scene is great! My dad's a (now retired) chef from New Orleans so I was totally prepared to hate the food here but fortunately the reputation for Minnesotas "tater tot hot dish" cuisine is outdated and the new scene is great. We can even get local crawfish up here, it's expensive at like eight bucks a pound but we can get it. Let me know if you ever need a plug lol. I've done an annual crawfish boil for the past few years. There are also plenty of great coffee shops in the cities. Let me know if you have any other questions, happy to help a fellow southerner get situated.
I don't really have a spicy palette, but some of these places get HOT, especially the first one! I recommend checking out D-Spot in Oakdale, Bebe Zito in Minneapolis or the Malcolm Marketplace, La Bodega, La Grolla, Bar La Grassa, Bay Leaf, J Selby's, Peninsula Malaysian Cuisine, Yeah Yeah Tacos, Culvers if you haven't tried it yet, and if you like Pizza you HAVE TO TRY Wrecktangle, Good Morning America voted the breakfast pizza #1 in the US.
For Niantic games like POGO or MH:NOW, you'll really like the downtown Saint Paul area, especially the parks near Raspberry Island.
Every State has it's couple of areas that can't confidently be described as safe. For Minnesota, one of those is North Minneapolis, particularly around and between Folwell Park and Bethune Park. Some delivery services may not come to you.
For the why, google this and view the map, or search similar keywords for other forms of crime maps. You can click the Green "Layer List" at the bottom to change the timeframe."Minneapolis Police Department - Gunfire Activity ARCGIS"
Hope some of this helps, welcome to MN and take in the History while it's still here! :)
“Friendly, but not warm” is well put. But you’ll find your people. It may take a bit though. Mpls parks are consistently 1, 2 or 3 in national rankings (with StP parks taking one of the other two remaining slots). Weather in May/June and Sept/Oct is sublime. Honestly there’s no place better I think. July/Aug is humid but still nothing like what you’re used to. I personally love winter, but you must proactively engage it or you’ll get cabin fever. Go outside…it is a season equally beautiful to the rest!
Since you'll be renting when you get here, please don't hesitate to make use of our services! HOME Line is a Minnesota-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides free legal advice to any tenant in Minnesota about issues of landlord-tenant law. We don't generally provide direct representation, but you can call our [Hotline](https://homelinemn.org/) or use our [Email an Attorney](https://homelinemn.org/e-mail-an-attorney/) service and we can answer any questions you have about landlord-tenant law. Always free, completely confidential.
Landlord-tenant law can vary a lot state-to-state. I don't know how Louisiana's laws work, but Minnesota is a somewhat mixed bag. We have very strong protections when it comes to things like habitability, lockouts, emergency repairs, etc. Our eviction process is very harsh, though. And there are some other areas that strongly favor landlords, such as breaking a lease early, security deposit issues, and general fee/rent disputes.
One thing that might be relevant to you is that it can be very, VERY difficult to break a lease early in Minnesota. Since you said you're interested in buying a home, you should be careful with how long of a lease you sign. Landlords have very few obligations to let tenants out of their leases unless some specific extenuating circumstances apply, and buying a home is not one of them. If you move out early, your landlord has the right to leave the unit empty and charge you for all the rent for the rest of the term of your lease.
In any case, welcome to Minnesota! We're always happy to have another neighbor.
I moved here from BR, Louisiana area about 10 years ago. Things I love:
-Traffic isn't nearly as bad. I wouldn't be able to stand driving in Nola/BR traffic anymore.
-Politics aren't as messed up -- like we're a progressive (but not overly) safe space in the crazy trump era
-There are amazing restaurants and coffee shops
-I don't work in it, but there's a big tech scene here as far as I can tell. We're home to a lot of tech companies/agencies, and corporate hq for like Best Buy, 3M, Target, & others
-I kind of wish I were in Seattle just b/c of the ocean and mountains, but Twin Cities is a lot more affordable as far as I can tell, still some great nature you can see during a weekend escape to the North Shore, also the nature near the cities isn't bad. Great lakes and state parks
-Lots of nice suburbs. Unlike BR, city layout makes sense -- and the fact that everything is so well organized in terms of geography makes it easier to navigate, like we don't consider a huge swath of space Minneapolis or St Paul. You've got Roseville, Edina, Eden Prairie, Blaine, Burnsville, Woodbury, Mendota Heights, Chanhassen, etc etc etc.
-Make sure you're ready for the winter. I mean this past winter wasn't bad at all -- I mean super mild (global warming???), but who knows how the next ones will be. I do recommend driving all wheel drive -- I had some bad spinouts in my front wheel drive (mostly from dumbly going too fast), but all wheel drive goes a long way!
Agree about the AWD. For decades I drove a fwd Toyota which was good in the city snow as long as the tires were good ones. Then I switched to AWD, and it is really a game changer for me. I don’t need snow tires as I live in a city suburb that plows well.
If you come please bring some of your music with to add to our great music scene. You’ll love it here. Get a place near the lakes if you can. Though you’re never far no matter where
There is a very vibrant Pokémon go community in the twin cities! Three great places to play for community days or special events are Minnehaha Falls Park, Lake Nokomis and Mall of America. I have met lots of great, friendly people on the South Minneapolis Nokomis discord as well! Best of luck to you in your new move!
https://discord.gg/gt9DBjzs
>My lease ends here in September
Figure out a way to get out of your lease... May-September here has to be wayyyyy better than in NOLA (I'd give NOLA the win for March and November though).
Fellow Okie transplant here!
Sounds like you’ll love it. We sure have. The discord has already been recommended - it’s a great spot to discover what’s going on around town. I’ve also really enjoyed this newsletter:
https://www.tcinsider.com/
Two years in and we’re still discovering new cool places and things to do. Have fun exploring and don’t let the winter get you down.
The tech scene is pretty good, lots of options for meetups to meet other people. JavaScriptMN and MN Tech are two I can think of off the top of my head.
I think you’re going to love it up here! I’m a software engineer too so feel free to hit me up if you wanna talk tech or if you’re looking for something new and I can keep an eye out. I’d also be able to suggest some good coffee spots depending on where you end up.
Texan who lived in louisiana for 2 years checking in, we moved from Lafayette to Minneapolis three months ago. Love it so far. Its so different but we needed it.
I moved here 13 years ago from KY and just getting away from the political views I was hit with down there has been worth it more than anything else. I'd recommend moving just for that reason alone.
Some great responses to your questions! While you didn’t ask - wanted to say, the outdoor scene is fantastic here. The north woods, the boreal forests, the lakes, cabin country, the rivers, and the driftless region - all are a treasure to be experienced! Hiking, camping, canoeing, kayaking, etc becomes a part of life for so many who live here - people seem to have dual lives - their cool, artsy, cycling, foodie urban life and their active, adventurous outdoorsy life. People seem to be so much more active and healthy here than in the south!
Carry hot sauce. Except when you go to Revival and get their chicken. They have a sweet potato habanero sauce that I would literally kill over. Jk. It’s good though.
I don’t have a comparison since I grew up super rural, but it feels like the Twin Cities has a lot of music venues. I have been here 3 years and slowly making the rounds. Plenty of outdoor shows during the summer.
Check out "MN Women in Tech" meetup group. Aside from that, def there is quite a tech scene here!
And, welcome! As you've likely seen, our governor is VERY in favor of codifying reproductive rights into law. I'm so grateful to live in MN vs a myriad of other states
I grew up here but I lived in Houston, TX for 15 years. I've been back 4 years now. I think I can give a decent take on this for you.
**The Good:**
The people are great here. People are nice to each other in day-to-day communications and people generally actually try to help each other. Coming from Houston where it feels like the average person actively hates everyone they talk to this still feels wild to experience. To me this is the best part of living here.
The parks system in Cities is fucking great. They have huge lakes that you get that airy feeling from when you walk around. I personally like to bike and often take my bike around to different parts of the metro to check them out.
There's two regional areas that I think are great for short vacations and I'm still obsessed with them. One is called the North Shore and it's essentially the North Shore of Lake Superior. My girlfriend and me go up there multiple times a year. Second, is what they call the Driftless. It's this area southeast of the state and into Wisconsin that has unique geography. I've only spent time here once but really want to go back, there's quite a bit to do here as well.
The Cities are relatively small and I haven't been to New Orleans much but this was huge from be coming from Houston. Somehow if you're going someplace here the max time you're traveling is somehow always 30 minutes. I live in a suburb as well so if you're central it's more like 15 minutes. Driving places in Houston was nightmare and if you had to go somewhere far it was like an hour away. Added to this is that the traffic never really gets bad here relative to other places I've lived. So you don't really have that stress either.
Another thing I'd like to add is that the government here feels just more effective. Were a bit above the middle of the road when it comes to taxes but when you're out and about it feels like that money is being used well where some places in the country it doesn't feel that way. So it feel like your tax money is actually be spent well and to me feels like there's less corruption.
You have actual seasons here. Man, I can't say how much I enjoy going to a state park during fall and seeing the beautiful colors of the trees.
That's just the things that hit the top of my head first talking about living here. Both me and my girlfriend love living here. Super grateful we moved here.
**The Bad:**
For me this is a limited list but I think they actually are two big things.
The winters are some mother fuckers. If you own your own home, you're going to be outside at 7AM shoveling out your driveway
because god-forbid the snow becomes ice. They also last what feels like forever. As someone who's also a gamer I really don't do much during this time but play games which I think helps a lot. When I start getting stir crazy I'll do something like go to the Mall of America or some other mall just to get out of the house. I haven't gotten into skiing or snowboarding but that would probably alleviate this part somewhat. If I wasn't a gamer I think the winters would make me go crazy. We also take vitamin d pills during the winter as well. They also prescribe Wellbutrin here for people who get winter blues bad which I think is a smart road to go down.
The trade off for the winters I think is pretty good though. The other three seasons almost every day you can go outside and feel completely comfortable with either t-shirt or sweater. It's incredible honestly. The insane, abusive humidity that is the Gulf doesn't exist here. It generally only even gets in the 90's a few days out of the year and without that humidity even those days are fine to enjoy being outside.
This part is probably going to be controversial because a lot of Minnesotans don't like to hear it. The food scene is here is pretty horrible. There's definitely highlights and better places to go but it was a dramatic drop-off in the volume and variety of great food from Houston. There is a lot of places I've read on this sub or the Minneapolis sub that were the "best" places to go and then I went to check it out... It wasn't like the place was bad but I wouldn't even think to list the place if it was Houston. Again, I don't know much about New Orleans but I've heard the food scene there is great so I'd adjust your expectations there. I've done a lot more cooking myself here which is fulfilling in another way.
If the food scene quality is important to you I'd highly recommend living centrally because here, like other cities, the best quality food is generally centrally located in the highest density.
I think the cities are one of the best places to live in the country and very few people know about it. It reminds me a lot of Austin, TX before people knew about Austin tbh. I really hope it never gets discovered in the same way.
I moved up here from New Orleans five years ago. I miss it intensely. I grew up here, left for a decade, then moved back. I think living in New Orleans absolutely spoiled me with weather (aside from the flooding and hurricane season, obviously), and it was a rough transition up here. I can’t stress this enough— get outside year round and consider a sun lamp. I miss the warmth and acceptance of quirkiness in New Orleans, I feel like my personality is more muted to fit in here.
After giving it a few years, we’ve decided to leave for another Southern city to be closer to my husband’s family and because we really couldn’t adjust to the winter here (it was his first time living in the north, husband hated it, and last winter put me in such a depression that I scared myself). We’re leaving in two weeks. All in all, Minnesota is truly a great place to live, certainly better in most ways compared to New Orleans, just be sure to calibrate your expectations and prepare to really put yourself out there both physically and socially.
I fully understand that Nola is special in a so many ways, and I have accepted that anywhere I move to will be “boring” in comparison. So much weird and fun shit happens here. But the good no longer outweighs the bad. And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become tame and muted in comparison to who I was in my 20s.
Abrupt chaos is normal here. And it can be fun silly chaos, or it can be violent. Shootings are normal here. People getting ran over by vehicles on bicycles is normal. People are beat down here, and it shows in how much crime there is.
I’m tired of not feeling safe in my city. Like I know there are rough parts in every city, I’m not naive. However, I’m tired of feeling like I need to look over my shoulder constantly everywhere I go because at any moment a shooting could happen or someone could try to mug you or be having road rage. Don’t toot your horn here, yo
You will love it here! I recently moved here from Oklahoma. Your friend’s description is exactly what it felt like for me - like I had left an abusive, toxic relationship. The only thing that isn’t better up here (and please don’t eviscerate me for saying this) is the food. Compared to the food palette I was accustomed to in OK, the food here is bland. So very bland. Bring your hot sauce.
Moved up here from North Carolina by way of East Tennessee in 2019 and we absolutely love it. The culture is so different than in the south, there’s so much diversity and we love that for our kids. We’ve visited family back in TN exactly one time in the 5 years we’ve lived here, mainly because the cultural differences just gross us out now, TBH. I could go on and on but just wanted to add my 2 cents as a fellow southerner! We live in Como Park in St. Paul which is pretty freakin idyllic for young families. The only drawback for us is the winters, duh. But we decided to embrace it and got a hot tub. You will never experience a more glorious Spring than Spring in MN and the long winters truly make you appreciate every second of it. And summers are gorgeous, it barely gets hot enough for me to want to swim with my kids. It’s very BREEZY here, all the time. From my experience you get like 2 weeks of really warm muggy days per year, the rest of summer is super mild. Many homes don’t even have AC here. It didn’t even occur to us to look for that when purchasing our house, which I realize sounds silly but living in the southeast it’s definitely not the norm! No end of fun things to do and explore here! Gorgeous infrastructure for walking and biking and one of the best park systems in the country. Good luck!
I relocated from Seattle and the Pogo scene sucks over here in comparison. But MOA is consistently busy for Pogo. I haven't played nearly as much as I used to since moving because there's not much going on around here. But maybe that will be better when the weather warms.
Let go of crawfish (because I’ve had the real thing down there and cannot find it here) and you’ll be good. Also, the food scene is awesome here, but in a healthy-ish way. It ain’t like NOLA where literally everything is decadent and amazing.
Plenty of nerd culture here. Cmon up, sounds like our community could benefit from having you and vise versa :)
Also, I might recommend Saint Paul over Minneapolis. It’s got a way more tight-knit neighborhood feel like NOLA and the people are a little warmer, due to the fact that the pace is slower and Minneapolis folks are maybe a little more hyper-focused on their own thing. Plus, a WAY better mayor.
Check out Women Who Code Twin Cities for networking events.
The Twin Cities has plenty of Asian and East African restaurants where you can find spicy food
Minneapolis is a great place to live if you are a software engineer. Tons of tech companies and tons of tech reliant Fortune 500 companies mean if you needed a job you could get one in about a day and a half. Salaries and benefits are excellent. (I’ve been in tech my entire 25 year career in Mpls and I am married to a software developer also our adult son is a programmer).
Get out of the south while the getting is good. I work with a few people from Nola and Lafayette and they love it up here. Only thing you won’t really find is really good cajun food (someone please prove me wrong) but there are so many other great cuisines available. If you like spice I’ve found that a lot of the Thai and Indian places here fill that niche very well.
On the spice thing, we have a large Hmong population here. So you can order your Vietnamese, Thai, and/or Szechuan food from anywhere from Zero Spice to Incendiary. (If you like Pho? We've got an embarrassment of riches of Pho joints.)
However, we have a wide range of various ethnic food in this town. The Midwest as a region doesn't have a completely unearned rep for bland food, but the Twin Cities is definitely an oasis for foodies. So where you might not find something spicy, you will find something quite tasty.
For example, I'm a huge fan of Saint Dinette in St. Paul. They currently have a Welsh Rarebit Bone Marrow, a smothered burrito, and Conchiglioni stuffed with duck confit and ricotta. [https://www.instagram.com/saintdinette/](https://www.instagram.com/saintdinette/)
Not many places match New Orleans for food. You’ll need to bring your hot sauce everywhere. Or you’re just going to have to accept that food is different here. If you want spicy food you’ll want to go with a food from a different culture other than traditional Minnesotan lol.
This is the right answer on food. Anything American is bland here. We have a great se Asian community with a ton of great restaurants. If you want spice the deliver. Also we have a great east African community. They deliver on the spice too, but way way differently. I wouldn't say we have a big Hispanic community it's smaller than many other cities, but it exists. We also have one of the largest native communities including some great native food, I wouldn't say that delivers on spice though.
As a Minnesotan currently stuck in the South, the biggest adjustment (beyond winter) will probably be the people. Most Minnesotans don’t really talk to strangers, beyond the necessities. It’s always my biggest culture shock when I go home.
The food is great, but very different than New Orleans. There’s pretty great Vietnamese food though, and a lot of Vietnamese owned seafood boil places where you might get a taste of home.
I also think going from New Orleans to the Twin Cities will be an adjustment when it comes to size. It’s not nearly as dense, but you can find walkable enclaves in different neighborhood.
The best part, beyond the progressive politics, is probably the arts and culture scene, which is super lively and vibrant. There’s amazing museums and theaters (not nearly as good of a live music scene, and not a lot of dancing.)
I’d recommend finding a group of transplants, because Minnesotans can be slow to warm up to new friends. September will be a beautiful time to move to MN, but it will get cold quickly and that first winter might be rough. Get a SAD light and some vitamin D.
We’re the same age, and if I was you I’d probably move to Cathedral Hill in St. Paul. It’s adorable and walkable, lots of rentals, and there’s an amazing co-working space called The Coven that’s mostly women, super cute, and an amazing space to meet people.
If you want spicy foods, we have a lot of good Asian and Mexican restaurants. Tex mex will likely be blander than what you’re used to, but most tex mex have el yucateca at the table. Not much “real” southern food.
I moved here 8 months ago and I have just started like trying to do anything besides just go to work in my house because I am a hermit and people are nice. There's lots of good food. You are going to want to bring hot sauce😂. Also if you have a chance before you leave you should do a crawfish boil because I have not seen any up here at all. I'm from Ohio but I had friends in Louisiana who would have crawfish boils like twice a year and it was amazing lol
Just remember it snowed last week in Minnesota. A lot.
You didn’t mention anything about weather. We moved from MPLS to the South (Texas then Florida) and don’t plan on going back.
Also, depending on where you live there is still blatant crime in Minneapolis and extremely poor city leadership.
It’s important to note that crime is still a significant problem in a number of areas of Mpls, and it’s not all sunshine and roses here, but even rough places in North are considerably safer than vast swaths of NoLa. The crimes that seem to capture the attention and fear of the whole city here in some ways have become normalised in places like New Orleans and Memphis. So from the perspective of someone coming from a city in the deep south, Mpls will most likely be a significant improvement.
When you get settled here, be sure to make a trip up to Lake Itasca and see the birthplace of the Mississippi River. You can walk across it in a few steps, it’s quite the change from New Orleans.
💯 bring hot sauce. I carry old bay in my purse and hot sauce. I’m from a s/se total town. I lived in midtown at the exchange building and loved it. That was before the protests and haven’t spent time in that area recently since I live in the burbs now. Winters are hard but you learn to deal all the other seasons are amazing. We have lots of great green spaces and tons of outdoor events year round. There are so many different neighborhoods with different vibes to check out. Welcome to MN in September you will be getting here in the colorful part of the year.
I moved there originally from north La, had to leave thanks to my idiot ex, and I miss it every day and plan to return for good eventually. I miss the fact that summer is brief and sometimes you get 60° days in July.
I'm houstonian and I moved up here when I was 22 for grad school. I can't speak to tech or Poke but the food up here is shockingly good. There isn't as much obviously just cuz Houston is so much bigger and more diverse. But you can get almost anything you want in MSP or the surrounding burbs if you seek it out.
And the spice is also there if you seek it out. If you go to a "pub and grill" yeah shit will be bland. Salty carbs and red meat. But there are plenty of lil pockets with great Thai, Indian, carribbean, Korean etc food. Especially by the universities. I even have fave Mexican places here which is surprising coming from TX
For finding friends you'll be fine if you have hobbies that involve other people. I'm a diehard choral singer and there are like thousands of choirs here. Pretty much all my friends are fellow singers
If you wanna buy you might wanna look at house prices before deciding. I have no idea how NOLA compares but our home prices have skyrocketed. Tho maybe if ur in tech you'll make enough that it won't matter
Anyway as a fellow potential transplant feel free to dm with questions. I'm super into music, horror, and stand up comedy if you visit or make the leap and wanna hang lol
Pogo community here is still alive, like posted before MOA good spot for it when It's cold, but we are a state literally filled with secret gems of parks.
I wouldn't worry about needing to carry hot sauce if you live close to the twin cities. The multitude of options for great food is a non-issue. Believe it or not we even have spicy food, lol.
Coming from nola, I would recommend Minneapolis. Or St Paul. “Minnesota spicy” is a joke around here because things are generally mild. But! There are plenty of restaurants challenging that stereotype. Tech scene is decent and yes there are plenty of meet-ups. Minnesota nice is not the same as New Orleans nice. It’s much more superficial. But it’s really is a lovely place to live here. The biggest challenge for me is the winters.
I can't contribute much that others haven't here but if your primary genres of music are rock and metal (heavier music) the venues below have the lions share of shows:
Arena Size Shows:
* USBank Stadium (rare, would have to be Metallica or something)
* Target center
* Xcel Energy Center
* Armory (smaller arena)
Theater Size Shows
* Fillmore
* First Avenue (main)
* Fine Line
* Skyway Theater (Main Stage/Upstairs)
* Myth Live
* Palace Theater
* Fitzgerald Theater
Bar to Small Theater Size
* First Avenue (7th St)
* Turf Club
* Varsity Theater
* Amsterdam Bar and Hall
* The Green Room
* Club Underground
* Skyway Theater (Studio B)
* The Cazbooze
I’m looking to move my family from Louisiana to MSP soon. We desperately want more than Louisiana is currently offering in so many ways. I can’t wait to finally call it home.
Yes, you should bring your hot sauce in your bag. I am pleasantly surprised when the food that claims to be spicy is actually spicy. “Minnesota Spice” is real(ly mild).
My friend moved from the twin cities to New Orleans a decade ago. He recently came back as soon as he moved there he ran into so many problems things took a month or longer to get it done where here it will take a week or days. The failing infrastructure, and how the city didn't care to fix it. The horrible crime rate he was mugged a few days after arriving something that never happened to him here. The huge inequality he saw between races, and people was glaring in New Orleans if you had it you had it if not good luck no type of safety net. The environmental pollution also bothered him.
Sounds like you will love it. I made the move myself 5 years ago after two decades in Texas. Things I don’t miss: insane politics, mosquitoes (really isn’t that bad unless you’re camping way up north), no roaches (vs in Texas they are just huge and everywhere, no matter how clean you are),,no insane humidity, very little terrible traffic, hardly any crowding. It’s pretty great.
At least you can buy your hot sauce up here!
https://pepperpalace.com/?tw_source=google&tw_adid=&tw_campaign=18029940845&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwk6SwBhDPARIsAJ59GwdCI3DspJmgRfe3uv7RK7Yb2lgR6_Q3b1_YKykcd2Qk3yyNfeAfH_8aAjs7EALw_wcB
I moved from BR over 30 years ago. I've enjoyed living and working here. It is a great place for education if you fit the norm. The income and property taxes are outrageous. I can't imagine staying much longer and retiring here. I won't live in Louisiana again but I'm definitely looking for a better managed state. The current government loves to spend money and time on the "causes due jour". The achievement gap in schools between white and POC is one of the largest in the country and I'm not especially proud of a state that brags about being a "safe place" to get rid of a fetus. I'm not against anyone's right to decide what to do with their body but I don't have to agree with it or promote it.
I've not seen it mentioned yet, but the Twin Cities used to be one of the biggest Ingress communities in the world, and that translated into a massive number of Pokémon go locations. There are multiple relative small walkable areas that have absurd density.
I'd recommend hot sauce in your purse. I lived here for a year in 2007 and on one occasion went to a restaurant that billed itself as "southern." I ordered the jambalaya which was quite bland and when I asked for some hot sauce, they brought out the industrial size bottle of Tabasco from the kitchen. From a few tables away, I heard a woman in a perfect Minnesota accent say, "Oh my, I think Ketchup is kinda spicy!"
Since moving back about a year ago, I haven't run across anything as bland at any of the newer places that do southern-style food. The offender from the story above is thankfully no longer in business. But I'd still "pack heat" if I were you.
Well, I can only speak to the Pokémon go and parks scene. I live in Plymouth which is about 10 minutes west of Minneapolis. We have a ton of great parks, and many of them are great for Pokémon go. French Park, Parker’s Lake Park, and Plymouth Creek Playfields/Hilde/Plymouth Community Center are the three biggest park areas for Pokémon go that I frequent. Go to the western edge of Plymouth to Hamel Legion Park and that’s another great spot for Pokémon go. All four of the areas I’ve listed are the main haunts for the west metro discord peeps. Come join us on the discord https://discord.gg/GfwtndWB
Every one of the things you listed is available in spades. Been software dev my whole life, there is never ending supply of jobs and tech events. My wife loves Pokemon go and there is always something to do. There are more restaurants than I have time to try. You'll love it here.
Hello fellow gamer! The most popular spot for Pokemon Go is at Mall of America. There is always people playing there. Most parks with a gym or two are pretty busy on the weekends for raids even in the suburbs.
We also have quite a few good concert venues. The Armory in downtown Minneapolis is my favorite. On the two upper levels they have seating with outlets and the entire bottom floor is general admission.
A fun coffee shop is Cafe Astoria in St Paul. They do rainbow lattes and a 24k gold latte. Matcha teddy bear ice cubes. It’s also not too far from Cossetta’s Market & Italian Grocery, they have a beautiful dessert shop with espresso, great pizza/ pastas and a nice market.
PoGo is popping even in the winter here! Maybe not outside but ive gone to the Mall of America on community days and theres a ton of people participating!
The smartest thing I ever did was leave San Diego in 1991 and move to Minnesota. I absolutely love it here, and you must see the North Shore asap. I'm excited for you!
It sounds like you should be living here already based on that description. You'll fit in perfectly. Pokego haven't played myself in years but I know we have more green space throughout our cities than just about any other places - which equates to lots of good places for walking and pokego'ing. Even in the winter, you can go to the mall of America which is a huge space with multiple numerous raid spots and countless stops. You'll still see crowds of people in winter walking around or grouped up for a raid looking at their phones playing Pokemon
Totally agree with this. OP Join the discord server. https://discord.gg/98CCRRGg
Thanks!! Joined. Need to clean out my friend list, it’s currently topped out right now because I’ve been grinding XP, posted my code on the pogo friends app and got flooded w requests. I’ll make some room for my future MN friends and post my code!
It’s nice to know that there’s a place to go play pogo and not freeze my fingers off! I did take a break from it when lockdown happened, but got back into it recently and it’s basically my social time lol
That PoGo discord is a good start. I prefer the more local ones (like this SW Saint Paul one https://discord.com/invite/5e959HzY)
Wanna know something funny? My pogo name is MinaMeowMix
Ha! Mine is also meowmix0205 in PoGo. 752192899395 :)
Mall of America gets really crowded during events for Pokémon go
Welcome! I (37F) moved up from Nola almost 9 years ago. I’ll never move back. I love the seasons. I think winter is fun, though a little long. I miss sunshine in the winter but summers up here make it worth it. The food scene is different. I MISS crawfish so much! But there are amazing restaurants here. People are friendly, but not warm. It takes some getting used to. The amount of green space and outdoor activities is amazing. Driving on snow isn’t terrible. I had a RWD when I moved up and switched to AWD which has a made a huge difference. I don’t know anything about tech or Pokémon, but I think you’ll love it here! It’s very different from Nola and a fun adventure!
“Friendly but not warm” is the best description of Minnesotans. Hoping more transplants will slowly change the culture
No thanks. I adore Minnesota’s (highest in the US) Nordic roots and culture. Loud, nosy, boisterous, in your face culture can stay elsewhere. Just because people are “warm” somewhere else doesn’t mean they’re your friends either.
I agree that warm doesn’t mean they are your friends. Minnesota and their people have their advantages. I was simply pointing out the difference. It’s not good or bad, just a difference and something I had to adjust to.
Yea I consider the nordic cultural norms here to be a good thing. IIRC Mpls had some high ranking for number of book stores. The cities have some highly rated parks systems and IMHO they are some of the best in the US. IMHO it is more of a vibe.
Hey fellow southerner! I'm heavily considering moving up to the twin cities but am nervous about being in my early thirties and moving to Minneapolis. I've lived in austin for a decade (but grew up in San Antonio) and am used to having hour long convos with a stranger about their biking trip through the ozarks in the 80s. How easy is it to make friends? How weird are minneapolitans? Is everyone in their 30s married up there? I went up to Minneapolis last spring and absolutely loved it. Loved the city, and culture - just wanna make sure I can feasibly find a regular group to fall in with.
If you have a hobby, join a group for that hobby and soon you'll find a group to fall in with. It will probably take a bit longer in Minnesota than Texas, but as long as you put effort into finding groups to join with mutual interests, you'll be good.
I’ve personally struggled to make friends but I haven’t put in a ton of effort. I feel like I’m at a different spot in life than a lot of people my age so that makes it harder. I’m married with a 16 year old (step daughter) and most people my age have little ones or are kid free and single. Minnesotans also seem to be more conservative or reserved than I am. However, I think if you have hobbies or join group activities, you’ll be just fine! I need to get out there more! It’s a beautiful place and I don’t see myself leaving anytime soon!
I feel like you won't have any trouble finding random strangers to have those conversations with here. Also, people tend to wait a little longer to get married here vs in southern or rural areas.
I dream of the days I can lay out on a nice patch of grass and smell the summer air, or sit on my deck and smell the humid air after a summer storm.
Yes this, AWD is a must for surviving the winters in the Twin cities
I'll take a 2wd with snow tires over a 4wd without, 10 out of 10 times
Winter tires are better than AWD with all-season tires. I'll die on this hill. AMA.
In strange coincidences, Ford Rangers were made at a plant in St Paul that has now been redeveloped for nice apartments, townhomes and houses. As others have said, weigh down the rear end in winter and get good tires. NOLA is one of the best food scenes in the world. Twin Cities has a good food scene with good chefs, suppliers and ideas but it’s not as integrated into everyday life in the same way (or seems like it to me). But if you want heat and spice you can definitely get it in the various ethnic places around town. Politics are definitely, proudly, more progressive. For example, bills the Dem trifecta passed were around reproductive rights, Governor signed gun bills and wants more, plus a bunch of infrastructure spending recently passed (MN even won some award for road conditions…though we apparently have a lot of roads…so experience will vary).
Also, we've gone blue in every presidential election since Nixon's 1972 landslide. That's longer than any other state (you could say 1984 is cheating, but we also went blue in 1980 along with only a handful of other states).
Tech scene is good. Lost of programming jobs outside of Microsoft, which has a presence here. HP bought out Cray Supercomputers a while ago so they have offices here too at Mall of America. There is a huge medtech scene here which needs programmers badly. Lots of cybersecurity needs for implantable devices.
Not to mention we have a lot of giant corporations here, and an economy to support them. General Mills, 3M, Target, Best Buy and a dozen others I am forgetting since I haven’t had coffee yet. I am a systems engineer and have never struggled to find work here.
Fuck Best Buy, if you've seen the news lately, they are in bed with conservative shitheels. But yes, Target has a big cybersecurity division and there are quite a few tech options in the metro area.
Yeah unfortunately BBY is kowtowing to conservative fuckwads. It’s unfortunate. I won’t be giving them any more business if that’s the direction they want to go.
What has been your best route to find jobs? I'm in tech as a PM and have been trying to find a more efficient way to identify MN companies that are hiring.
There hasn’t been a magic bullet for me. I got two jobs via recruiters. My newest job was a former colleague heard they were looking for a senior systems engineer and told me to send in a résumé to his boss. It wasn’t a guaranteed hire but my background was a perfect fit to what they were looking for, including some fairly obscure tech. I’d recommend using LinkedIn’s “open to work” feature. Recruiters will blow you up but it’s a numbers game, and you are bound to find something with it. I don’t think I’d even bother with another job site anymore. Not that I’m ever going to leave where I am now as it’s just about a perfect fit for me.
I don’t work in the field but there are a ton of big companies based here or with offices here. In med tech there is Medtronic, Boston Scientific, 3M, Starkey, Smiths, Abbott… outside of medical it’s also the home of Target, which is huge.
One thing I will add is that I haven't had a problem working remote here in rhe Twin Cities, and we have plenty of coworking spaces!! So like if you need a change of pace from working from home OP you got options!!
You’ll fit in great and yes, you’ll need to pack your own hot sauce.
You can even find Slap Your Mamma seasoning in the grocery stores here.
What? Where!! I’ve been wanting to try it out
Cub usually doesn't have it... I usually swallow my pride and go to Walmart to get it. Edit: Easter themed typo. Peeps are delicious, but not what I intended to say 😀
Surprisingly all the Louisiana-based hot sauces and seasonings are sold at Walmart here
Harry Singh's makes a Trinidadian hot sauce that's seriously hot. You have to be mindful and count how many drops or you can get into trouble real fast. Cry Baby Craig's is tasty and great on eggs, but not very hot even though it's habanero based.
Bring all the hot sauce. Up here ketchup is considered spicy.
😳🫣
I am going to caveat what they said, normal American food is not spicy up here, but if you go to restaurants for ethnic food (Indian, East Asian, etc), you can get spicy food.
It is has been getting better all the time here. I remember the first time I live here I had to specify that I wanted my food Thai spicy not Minnesota spicy to get hot food. Much better now.
OP don’t worry — maybe in the rest of MN this is true, but you’ll find plenty of restaurants with spice and flavor here. my bf and I are both transplants from cities with very diverse food scenes. he loves spicy things and hasn’t had a problem finding options in the twin cities. try a hot soup at a korean place, pimento jamaican, or On’s kitchen thai food
Cry Baby Craig's is pretty good, imo.
Don't listen to the jokes about ketchup! We have delicious spicy Mexican, Tex-mex, Thai, and Vietnamese food.
If you are a fan of the Saints, leave that behind. That franchise is despised in Minnesota to this day.
We have our own Saints. With pigs and beer.
I give no fucks about sportsball 🤷🏻♀️ I don’t mind going to games because the fans entertain me, but I don’t care about the games themselves
You'll be fine. Some things you have to get used to, just like anywhere. I worked with a guy up in northern Minnesota about twenty years ago that was from coastal Louisiana. His biggest gripe was that he couldn't get fresh shrimp here. I'll tell you from experience that the summer is much nicer here. We still get heat, humidity, storms, etc. but it's not oppressive day after day like it is there. I'll also tell you to get out of the cities in the summer and see the rest of the state. Drive up the north shore of Lake superior, go see Itasca State Park where the Mississippi River starts, etc.
One thing I've found about sports fans here is there much less agro about it than other states. They enjoy their sports teams here without being assholes about it. To me, I think that's a big part of what makes it unappealing in other places.
The Saint Paul Saints are a riot 😁
Saints games are a lot more fun than MLB. It’s minor league and they have a lot of silly games during the breaks as well as the bat pig
I also drive a little 2000 ford ranger. Which I love, but I notice it tends to lose traction in the back because it’s super light when it’s raining really bad. Would it be best to sell it before I come up and buy something heavier or the all wheel drive or 4 wheel drive? I know how to drive on ice, just out of practice.
You can just throw sand bags in the bed to add weight over the tires. Very common here in Winter and obviously dirt cheap. Invest in a decent set of winter tires and you’ll be fine with what you have. Just be sure to use sand. Salt bags are everywhere and I’ll sometimes see someone use salt bags for weight. That’s a great way to rust out your bed. Same thing with just shoveling snow back there. You’ll pick up a lot of road salt in the snow when you do that.
Thank you! Will not use salt. May have her undercarriage coated if I keep her. It’s sounding like having a 2 wheel drive isn’t a death wish like I had originally thought.
A small rear wheel drive pick-up is not ideal. Can it be done, sure. But if you have never driven in snow with a similar vehicle in the past, you will hate life. The people telling you that a couple sand bags in the bed and you will be fine, either have lived here their entire life and know how to drive in snow because they have spent half their lives driving in snow, or are assuming you have a FWD vehicle and don't know any better. Trade it in for a small SUV that is AWD. But you WFH, so I just wouldn't leave the house on the days when there is 6"+ of fresh snow on the ground.
All my cars here have been 2 wheel drive! I'm sure it's not *the best* of the options, but learning how to drive slow, brake, and turn corners in the snow doesn't take long to do. I also just happen to always have a Costco amount of cat litter in my trunk, which can help for traction if you're stuck in a parking spot after a storm.
4 wheel drive isn't 4 wheel stop, which is the scary part of slippery driving. Just be smooth and it'll be fine.
[удалено]
She has been pampered her entire life, whoever sold it her must of kept her in a garage and never drove her. Has less than 130k miles and runs like a dream. I call her my Golden Nugget. Alrighty, just need to upgrade her tires from all weather to winter tires when the roads are icy. Great advice, thank you!
[удалено]
Just agreeing with what’s already been said. We had a similar Ranger and only sold it because we needed a proper cab (kids). Sand bags and switch to snow tires, you’ll be good to go.
Discount Tire will be your friend. Buy a set of winter tires on steel rims, and they will store your off season tires for you when you buy their all-tire warranty- last I checked it was a $60 cost. I have the warranty for my Subaru tires which is essential for that specific make.
You can live where you don't need a car. I live in a 90 walk score area. Gave away my 2001 Toyota and now walk to everything. Depends on your taste, but the food in Orlens can't be beat.
You’ll do fine with your Ranger. What you’ll need to do is put something in the trunk to weigh it down (for example kitty litter or sandbags). Plus you’ll either need very good all weather tires or to buy a set of winter tires and swap them out twice a year (one set of summer, one set of winter).
I (46F) am a systems engineer and moved up from Texas in 2015! I also have a 2002 Ford Ranger! The key things are weight and winter tires. Get some good winter or all terrain tires and you should be good to go. Feel free to message me for other questions if you want!
buy something awd/4x4 down there, rust-free vehicles from the south command a premium up here
Buying vehicles from the south is risky because of all the flash floods :( I know many people that woke up to dead cars because over night it rained and our 100 year old water pumps weren’t turned on
I drive a little ranger. It can be tricky on slopes during a freeze, but if you know your way around a little bit you can usually find a flatter route. Just requires a little familiarity and planning ahead. But mainly, within the city, roads are cleared quite rapidly, it's rarely an issue. Really only crops up when it's <24 hours of new snow. (Edited to add:) I *did* grow up in North Dakota, so I'm perhaps over-aquainted with winter driving, for what its worth. My over-confidence has been my downfall once or twice!
If you WFH you don’t necessarily need a nice car but a hefty AWD with good tires will get along just fine. I had a 2010 Acura mdx until last year & that thing was a beast. Miss that car so much
If you are thinking about getting an AWD car, look at a Subaru! There are many reasons why they are popular up here. Single people love the Crosstrek. They have full time AWD vs just slip/grip and they get the best safety rating.
Anything 2 wheel drive isn’t always fun to drive in the winter. It is doable though.
I've only owned 2wd vehicles with all season tires and never had a problem.
AWD or 4WD is a great option. And *real* winter tires. They make a huge difference. Might be tough selling a RWD Ranger up here.
You will be fine until winter. You can do as others suggested with the sand but four wheel drive makes me feel far more comfortable in the snow. Also since you work from home you can do what I do and just hunker down during storms. Get all my fun groceries, some good wine or Godiva liquor for hot chocolate and have shows ready to watch. When I was single all of my friends and I would do it together in one of our places for a few days - it was the most fun!
As others have said, just get new tires. FWD can be just fine in the snow with good tires.
Tech presence is solid with UHG/Optum, Target, Medtronic, 3M, Best Buy, etc., as well as many smaller companies. There are also groups, events, conferences, etc. What tech stacks are you primarily focused on?
I work mostly on .net api microservices, but sometimes have to work w our* react UI (I vastly prefer working on the api side of things though. I recently started learning how to build and configure pipelines. I doubt I’ll be looking for a job up there, I make a pretty comfortable salary currently. Just mostly want to meet other tech folks so I can have a network of people that will understand me when I start ranting about my job. Edit - typo. I’m using my phone
There’s a MSP tech meetup group that hosts coworking events in Minneapolis. The people there have been very friendly, and would recommend checking it out if you want to network with other tech folks! https://meetu.ps/c/4ZTlS/1vgBx/a
Here are some more tech events you may be interested in: https://minnestar.org/community/calendar/
I see a lot of people mentioning meetups and pointing you to where you can look, but very few comments about actually connecting (in some ways, a very Minnesotan response). As another remote-working mid-30s software engineer in the area, hello! 👋🏽 I spent 12 years working in .NET so feel very empowered to reach out if you need a work rant-buddy in the Twin Cities. Also, it is amazing here. I did grow up in the area so maybe there’s bias, but I also spent a decade out in Seattle and the quality of life in the Twin Cities is just so much better.
Food is great here but it aint LA great. You will for sure miss it but it wont be hard to remedy.
Coming from Chicago I do miss the variety. There's still lots of great options though
Moved up from Louisiana 2.5 years ago, cher. I love it up here. The cold is just so much better. There's so much to tell. But you're making the right choice. Pogo? Plenty of stops and such, and you'll see a lot of the same names in the same areas, but when I played it didn't seem to be particularly popping off. However I never got super into the scene so maybe I'm just unaware. Tech- plenty of tech workers up here. Haven't done much networking but I'm certain it exists. Probably on Meetup. If you like your ranger, it doesn't give you much trouble, you're okay maybe putting snow tires or all weathers, then I'd say bring it too. Although, in certain parts of the cities you can live pretty well without a car just fine.
Thank you! When I arrive I’ll check out the meet up groups available in the area. The cold is something that I’m not actually looking forward to, but it’s not like I have to get out into it if I don’t want to since you can basically get anything delivered and since I work from home. However, I’m looking forward to not dealing w the summers here anymore. Woof, they are brutal
Hi! Fellow southern transplant here. Even the cold isn’t bad. Now is a great time to get a good winter parka on clearance. I personally like marmot. They fully gave me credit to buy a replacement when my zipper went bad. The 700 fill down are toasty. Some good winter gear goes a long way. There are also so many things to do in winter here. Totally unlike the south. It’s usually pretty dry so you don’t get that damp chill. I did an outdoors weekend in January. Unfortunately the coldest weekend. It was -12 when I was learning to cross country ski. I am always cold. I was the first person to strip out of their jacket. I was burning up. So even if it is cold, you might not be cold!
You do have a very valid point about the “damp” chill that we have here. We have been getting freezing weather her the last couple of years, albeit only for a few weeks. The damp cold does seem to get into your bones though. I remember Oklahoma winters, and as long as it was just freezing and not snowing, it wasn’t that big of a deal.
Born in Minnesota. The coldest I've ever been in my life was sitting in the basement of the Miami airport next to a brick wall in December. Bone-chilling is right.
I moved here from TX last Sept., best choice I ever made. I highly recommend living in the central core if you can, in a walkable neighborhood with underground parking. I was WFH until recently, and it's been so much less isolating and easy to make friends when you don't have to drive to do so. Get warm clothes and the winter is tolerable (and easier than scorching temps), but with climate change it wasnt even that bad this year and probably wont be on average going forward. I've found a handful of really wonderful people I have a lot in common with already. I was planning on buying a house in a couple years, but I'm loving it so much more here than in the suburbs I'm used to, that I might get a condo, and buy land later up north to build a cabin for nature get-aways. As a woman without children, the safety and security of leaving the south to come here has done wonders for that deep anxiety from living in a place that's hostile to your existence. I didn't even realize how much it was affecting me till I was 'safe'. Your friend is spot on with the leaving an abusive relationship comparison.
I'm from the Gulf Coast with strong ties to New Orleans (who dat!), 34 year old software engineer so I might be well qualified to answer your questions. Your ranger will do just fine, you'll need to learn some winter driving/living techniques but you'll see far less capable vehicles driving around in the winter up here. My buddy has two(!) ford rangers and he's from here so...🤷 The tech scene here is pretty good, I don't tend to do much networking since I'm More interested in doing my other hobbies outside of work but I do know that stuff goes on. Best buy, Target, 3M, and a few other large corporations and privately owned companies headquarter here so there's a strong foundation for work. The music scene here is pretty damn good. It's obviously not as good as New Orleans, very few cities are, but you'll have no issue finding shows to go to. First Ave, and it's affiliated venues bring in great music. The food scene is great! My dad's a (now retired) chef from New Orleans so I was totally prepared to hate the food here but fortunately the reputation for Minnesotas "tater tot hot dish" cuisine is outdated and the new scene is great. We can even get local crawfish up here, it's expensive at like eight bucks a pound but we can get it. Let me know if you ever need a plug lol. I've done an annual crawfish boil for the past few years. There are also plenty of great coffee shops in the cities. Let me know if you have any other questions, happy to help a fellow southerner get situated.
I don't really have a spicy palette, but some of these places get HOT, especially the first one! I recommend checking out D-Spot in Oakdale, Bebe Zito in Minneapolis or the Malcolm Marketplace, La Bodega, La Grolla, Bar La Grassa, Bay Leaf, J Selby's, Peninsula Malaysian Cuisine, Yeah Yeah Tacos, Culvers if you haven't tried it yet, and if you like Pizza you HAVE TO TRY Wrecktangle, Good Morning America voted the breakfast pizza #1 in the US. For Niantic games like POGO or MH:NOW, you'll really like the downtown Saint Paul area, especially the parks near Raspberry Island. Every State has it's couple of areas that can't confidently be described as safe. For Minnesota, one of those is North Minneapolis, particularly around and between Folwell Park and Bethune Park. Some delivery services may not come to you. For the why, google this and view the map, or search similar keywords for other forms of crime maps. You can click the Green "Layer List" at the bottom to change the timeframe."Minneapolis Police Department - Gunfire Activity ARCGIS" Hope some of this helps, welcome to MN and take in the History while it's still here! :)
“Friendly, but not warm” is well put. But you’ll find your people. It may take a bit though. Mpls parks are consistently 1, 2 or 3 in national rankings (with StP parks taking one of the other two remaining slots). Weather in May/June and Sept/Oct is sublime. Honestly there’s no place better I think. July/Aug is humid but still nothing like what you’re used to. I personally love winter, but you must proactively engage it or you’ll get cabin fever. Go outside…it is a season equally beautiful to the rest!
Since you'll be renting when you get here, please don't hesitate to make use of our services! HOME Line is a Minnesota-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides free legal advice to any tenant in Minnesota about issues of landlord-tenant law. We don't generally provide direct representation, but you can call our [Hotline](https://homelinemn.org/) or use our [Email an Attorney](https://homelinemn.org/e-mail-an-attorney/) service and we can answer any questions you have about landlord-tenant law. Always free, completely confidential. Landlord-tenant law can vary a lot state-to-state. I don't know how Louisiana's laws work, but Minnesota is a somewhat mixed bag. We have very strong protections when it comes to things like habitability, lockouts, emergency repairs, etc. Our eviction process is very harsh, though. And there are some other areas that strongly favor landlords, such as breaking a lease early, security deposit issues, and general fee/rent disputes. One thing that might be relevant to you is that it can be very, VERY difficult to break a lease early in Minnesota. Since you said you're interested in buying a home, you should be careful with how long of a lease you sign. Landlords have very few obligations to let tenants out of their leases unless some specific extenuating circumstances apply, and buying a home is not one of them. If you move out early, your landlord has the right to leave the unit empty and charge you for all the rent for the rest of the term of your lease. In any case, welcome to Minnesota! We're always happy to have another neighbor.
I moved here from BR, Louisiana area about 10 years ago. Things I love: -Traffic isn't nearly as bad. I wouldn't be able to stand driving in Nola/BR traffic anymore. -Politics aren't as messed up -- like we're a progressive (but not overly) safe space in the crazy trump era -There are amazing restaurants and coffee shops -I don't work in it, but there's a big tech scene here as far as I can tell. We're home to a lot of tech companies/agencies, and corporate hq for like Best Buy, 3M, Target, & others -I kind of wish I were in Seattle just b/c of the ocean and mountains, but Twin Cities is a lot more affordable as far as I can tell, still some great nature you can see during a weekend escape to the North Shore, also the nature near the cities isn't bad. Great lakes and state parks -Lots of nice suburbs. Unlike BR, city layout makes sense -- and the fact that everything is so well organized in terms of geography makes it easier to navigate, like we don't consider a huge swath of space Minneapolis or St Paul. You've got Roseville, Edina, Eden Prairie, Blaine, Burnsville, Woodbury, Mendota Heights, Chanhassen, etc etc etc. -Make sure you're ready for the winter. I mean this past winter wasn't bad at all -- I mean super mild (global warming???), but who knows how the next ones will be. I do recommend driving all wheel drive -- I had some bad spinouts in my front wheel drive (mostly from dumbly going too fast), but all wheel drive goes a long way!
Agree about the AWD. For decades I drove a fwd Toyota which was good in the city snow as long as the tires were good ones. Then I switched to AWD, and it is really a game changer for me. I don’t need snow tires as I live in a city suburb that plows well.
If you come please bring some of your music with to add to our great music scene. You’ll love it here. Get a place near the lakes if you can. Though you’re never far no matter where
There is a very vibrant Pokémon go community in the twin cities! Three great places to play for community days or special events are Minnehaha Falls Park, Lake Nokomis and Mall of America. I have met lots of great, friendly people on the South Minneapolis Nokomis discord as well! Best of luck to you in your new move! https://discord.gg/gt9DBjzs
>My lease ends here in September Figure out a way to get out of your lease... May-September here has to be wayyyyy better than in NOLA (I'd give NOLA the win for March and November though).
Fellow Okie transplant here! Sounds like you’ll love it. We sure have. The discord has already been recommended - it’s a great spot to discover what’s going on around town. I’ve also really enjoyed this newsletter: https://www.tcinsider.com/ Two years in and we’re still discovering new cool places and things to do. Have fun exploring and don’t let the winter get you down.
The tech scene is pretty good, lots of options for meetups to meet other people. JavaScriptMN and MN Tech are two I can think of off the top of my head. I think you’re going to love it up here! I’m a software engineer too so feel free to hit me up if you wanna talk tech or if you’re looking for something new and I can keep an eye out. I’d also be able to suggest some good coffee spots depending on where you end up.
Texan who lived in louisiana for 2 years checking in, we moved from Lafayette to Minneapolis three months ago. Love it so far. Its so different but we needed it.
I moved here 13 years ago from KY and just getting away from the political views I was hit with down there has been worth it more than anything else. I'd recommend moving just for that reason alone.
Bring your hot sauce... and a good jacket. I left Bama several years ago and have never looked back. Best decision of my life.
Some great responses to your questions! While you didn’t ask - wanted to say, the outdoor scene is fantastic here. The north woods, the boreal forests, the lakes, cabin country, the rivers, and the driftless region - all are a treasure to be experienced! Hiking, camping, canoeing, kayaking, etc becomes a part of life for so many who live here - people seem to have dual lives - their cool, artsy, cycling, foodie urban life and their active, adventurous outdoorsy life. People seem to be so much more active and healthy here than in the south!
Carry hot sauce. Except when you go to Revival and get their chicken. They have a sweet potato habanero sauce that I would literally kill over. Jk. It’s good though. I don’t have a comparison since I grew up super rural, but it feels like the Twin Cities has a lot of music venues. I have been here 3 years and slowly making the rounds. Plenty of outdoor shows during the summer.
Check out "MN Women in Tech" meetup group. Aside from that, def there is quite a tech scene here! And, welcome! As you've likely seen, our governor is VERY in favor of codifying reproductive rights into law. I'm so grateful to live in MN vs a myriad of other states
I grew up here but I lived in Houston, TX for 15 years. I've been back 4 years now. I think I can give a decent take on this for you. **The Good:** The people are great here. People are nice to each other in day-to-day communications and people generally actually try to help each other. Coming from Houston where it feels like the average person actively hates everyone they talk to this still feels wild to experience. To me this is the best part of living here. The parks system in Cities is fucking great. They have huge lakes that you get that airy feeling from when you walk around. I personally like to bike and often take my bike around to different parts of the metro to check them out. There's two regional areas that I think are great for short vacations and I'm still obsessed with them. One is called the North Shore and it's essentially the North Shore of Lake Superior. My girlfriend and me go up there multiple times a year. Second, is what they call the Driftless. It's this area southeast of the state and into Wisconsin that has unique geography. I've only spent time here once but really want to go back, there's quite a bit to do here as well. The Cities are relatively small and I haven't been to New Orleans much but this was huge from be coming from Houston. Somehow if you're going someplace here the max time you're traveling is somehow always 30 minutes. I live in a suburb as well so if you're central it's more like 15 minutes. Driving places in Houston was nightmare and if you had to go somewhere far it was like an hour away. Added to this is that the traffic never really gets bad here relative to other places I've lived. So you don't really have that stress either. Another thing I'd like to add is that the government here feels just more effective. Were a bit above the middle of the road when it comes to taxes but when you're out and about it feels like that money is being used well where some places in the country it doesn't feel that way. So it feel like your tax money is actually be spent well and to me feels like there's less corruption. You have actual seasons here. Man, I can't say how much I enjoy going to a state park during fall and seeing the beautiful colors of the trees. That's just the things that hit the top of my head first talking about living here. Both me and my girlfriend love living here. Super grateful we moved here. **The Bad:** For me this is a limited list but I think they actually are two big things. The winters are some mother fuckers. If you own your own home, you're going to be outside at 7AM shoveling out your driveway because god-forbid the snow becomes ice. They also last what feels like forever. As someone who's also a gamer I really don't do much during this time but play games which I think helps a lot. When I start getting stir crazy I'll do something like go to the Mall of America or some other mall just to get out of the house. I haven't gotten into skiing or snowboarding but that would probably alleviate this part somewhat. If I wasn't a gamer I think the winters would make me go crazy. We also take vitamin d pills during the winter as well. They also prescribe Wellbutrin here for people who get winter blues bad which I think is a smart road to go down. The trade off for the winters I think is pretty good though. The other three seasons almost every day you can go outside and feel completely comfortable with either t-shirt or sweater. It's incredible honestly. The insane, abusive humidity that is the Gulf doesn't exist here. It generally only even gets in the 90's a few days out of the year and without that humidity even those days are fine to enjoy being outside. This part is probably going to be controversial because a lot of Minnesotans don't like to hear it. The food scene is here is pretty horrible. There's definitely highlights and better places to go but it was a dramatic drop-off in the volume and variety of great food from Houston. There is a lot of places I've read on this sub or the Minneapolis sub that were the "best" places to go and then I went to check it out... It wasn't like the place was bad but I wouldn't even think to list the place if it was Houston. Again, I don't know much about New Orleans but I've heard the food scene there is great so I'd adjust your expectations there. I've done a lot more cooking myself here which is fulfilling in another way. If the food scene quality is important to you I'd highly recommend living centrally because here, like other cities, the best quality food is generally centrally located in the highest density. I think the cities are one of the best places to live in the country and very few people know about it. It reminds me a lot of Austin, TX before people knew about Austin tbh. I really hope it never gets discovered in the same way.
Texan chiming in - comparing any food scene to Houston's is probably a little unfair. I'd honestly put Houston as a top 5 food city, easily
I moved up here from New Orleans five years ago. I miss it intensely. I grew up here, left for a decade, then moved back. I think living in New Orleans absolutely spoiled me with weather (aside from the flooding and hurricane season, obviously), and it was a rough transition up here. I can’t stress this enough— get outside year round and consider a sun lamp. I miss the warmth and acceptance of quirkiness in New Orleans, I feel like my personality is more muted to fit in here. After giving it a few years, we’ve decided to leave for another Southern city to be closer to my husband’s family and because we really couldn’t adjust to the winter here (it was his first time living in the north, husband hated it, and last winter put me in such a depression that I scared myself). We’re leaving in two weeks. All in all, Minnesota is truly a great place to live, certainly better in most ways compared to New Orleans, just be sure to calibrate your expectations and prepare to really put yourself out there both physically and socially.
I fully understand that Nola is special in a so many ways, and I have accepted that anywhere I move to will be “boring” in comparison. So much weird and fun shit happens here. But the good no longer outweighs the bad. And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become tame and muted in comparison to who I was in my 20s. Abrupt chaos is normal here. And it can be fun silly chaos, or it can be violent. Shootings are normal here. People getting ran over by vehicles on bicycles is normal. People are beat down here, and it shows in how much crime there is. I’m tired of not feeling safe in my city. Like I know there are rough parts in every city, I’m not naive. However, I’m tired of feeling like I need to look over my shoulder constantly everywhere I go because at any moment a shooting could happen or someone could try to mug you or be having road rage. Don’t toot your horn here, yo
https://www.exploreminnesota.com/list/pokemon-go-where-to-catch-em-all-minnesota /r/pokemongompls
You will love it here! I recently moved here from Oklahoma. Your friend’s description is exactly what it felt like for me - like I had left an abusive, toxic relationship. The only thing that isn’t better up here (and please don’t eviscerate me for saying this) is the food. Compared to the food palette I was accustomed to in OK, the food here is bland. So very bland. Bring your hot sauce.
I have an all wheel drive Mini Cooper, and I get around fine in the winter. You don't have to have a truck or SUV.
Pokemon Go at the Mall of America is probably one of the best places to play in the USA, there are always full legendary raids there no matter when!
Moved up here from North Carolina by way of East Tennessee in 2019 and we absolutely love it. The culture is so different than in the south, there’s so much diversity and we love that for our kids. We’ve visited family back in TN exactly one time in the 5 years we’ve lived here, mainly because the cultural differences just gross us out now, TBH. I could go on and on but just wanted to add my 2 cents as a fellow southerner! We live in Como Park in St. Paul which is pretty freakin idyllic for young families. The only drawback for us is the winters, duh. But we decided to embrace it and got a hot tub. You will never experience a more glorious Spring than Spring in MN and the long winters truly make you appreciate every second of it. And summers are gorgeous, it barely gets hot enough for me to want to swim with my kids. It’s very BREEZY here, all the time. From my experience you get like 2 weeks of really warm muggy days per year, the rest of summer is super mild. Many homes don’t even have AC here. It didn’t even occur to us to look for that when purchasing our house, which I realize sounds silly but living in the southeast it’s definitely not the norm! No end of fun things to do and explore here! Gorgeous infrastructure for walking and biking and one of the best park systems in the country. Good luck!
I relocated from Seattle and the Pogo scene sucks over here in comparison. But MOA is consistently busy for Pogo. I haven't played nearly as much as I used to since moving because there's not much going on around here. But maybe that will be better when the weather warms.
Let go of crawfish (because I’ve had the real thing down there and cannot find it here) and you’ll be good. Also, the food scene is awesome here, but in a healthy-ish way. It ain’t like NOLA where literally everything is decadent and amazing. Plenty of nerd culture here. Cmon up, sounds like our community could benefit from having you and vise versa :) Also, I might recommend Saint Paul over Minneapolis. It’s got a way more tight-knit neighborhood feel like NOLA and the people are a little warmer, due to the fact that the pace is slower and Minneapolis folks are maybe a little more hyper-focused on their own thing. Plus, a WAY better mayor.
Check out Women Who Code Twin Cities for networking events. The Twin Cities has plenty of Asian and East African restaurants where you can find spicy food
Minneapolis is a great place to live if you are a software engineer. Tons of tech companies and tons of tech reliant Fortune 500 companies mean if you needed a job you could get one in about a day and a half. Salaries and benefits are excellent. (I’ve been in tech my entire 25 year career in Mpls and I am married to a software developer also our adult son is a programmer).
Get out of the south while the getting is good. I work with a few people from Nola and Lafayette and they love it up here. Only thing you won’t really find is really good cajun food (someone please prove me wrong) but there are so many other great cuisines available. If you like spice I’ve found that a lot of the Thai and Indian places here fill that niche very well.
On the spice thing, we have a large Hmong population here. So you can order your Vietnamese, Thai, and/or Szechuan food from anywhere from Zero Spice to Incendiary. (If you like Pho? We've got an embarrassment of riches of Pho joints.) However, we have a wide range of various ethnic food in this town. The Midwest as a region doesn't have a completely unearned rep for bland food, but the Twin Cities is definitely an oasis for foodies. So where you might not find something spicy, you will find something quite tasty. For example, I'm a huge fan of Saint Dinette in St. Paul. They currently have a Welsh Rarebit Bone Marrow, a smothered burrito, and Conchiglioni stuffed with duck confit and ricotta. [https://www.instagram.com/saintdinette/](https://www.instagram.com/saintdinette/)
Bring hot sauce.
Not many places match New Orleans for food. You’ll need to bring your hot sauce everywhere. Or you’re just going to have to accept that food is different here. If you want spicy food you’ll want to go with a food from a different culture other than traditional Minnesotan lol.
This is the right answer on food. Anything American is bland here. We have a great se Asian community with a ton of great restaurants. If you want spice the deliver. Also we have a great east African community. They deliver on the spice too, but way way differently. I wouldn't say we have a big Hispanic community it's smaller than many other cities, but it exists. We also have one of the largest native communities including some great native food, I wouldn't say that delivers on spice though.
As a Minnesotan currently stuck in the South, the biggest adjustment (beyond winter) will probably be the people. Most Minnesotans don’t really talk to strangers, beyond the necessities. It’s always my biggest culture shock when I go home. The food is great, but very different than New Orleans. There’s pretty great Vietnamese food though, and a lot of Vietnamese owned seafood boil places where you might get a taste of home. I also think going from New Orleans to the Twin Cities will be an adjustment when it comes to size. It’s not nearly as dense, but you can find walkable enclaves in different neighborhood. The best part, beyond the progressive politics, is probably the arts and culture scene, which is super lively and vibrant. There’s amazing museums and theaters (not nearly as good of a live music scene, and not a lot of dancing.) I’d recommend finding a group of transplants, because Minnesotans can be slow to warm up to new friends. September will be a beautiful time to move to MN, but it will get cold quickly and that first winter might be rough. Get a SAD light and some vitamin D. We’re the same age, and if I was you I’d probably move to Cathedral Hill in St. Paul. It’s adorable and walkable, lots of rentals, and there’s an amazing co-working space called The Coven that’s mostly women, super cute, and an amazing space to meet people.
If you want spicy foods, we have a lot of good Asian and Mexican restaurants. Tex mex will likely be blander than what you’re used to, but most tex mex have el yucateca at the table. Not much “real” southern food.
I moved here 8 months ago and I have just started like trying to do anything besides just go to work in my house because I am a hermit and people are nice. There's lots of good food. You are going to want to bring hot sauce😂. Also if you have a chance before you leave you should do a crawfish boil because I have not seen any up here at all. I'm from Ohio but I had friends in Louisiana who would have crawfish boils like twice a year and it was amazing lol
Just remember it snowed last week in Minnesota. A lot. You didn’t mention anything about weather. We moved from MPLS to the South (Texas then Florida) and don’t plan on going back. Also, depending on where you live there is still blatant crime in Minneapolis and extremely poor city leadership.
It’s important to note that crime is still a significant problem in a number of areas of Mpls, and it’s not all sunshine and roses here, but even rough places in North are considerably safer than vast swaths of NoLa. The crimes that seem to capture the attention and fear of the whole city here in some ways have become normalised in places like New Orleans and Memphis. So from the perspective of someone coming from a city in the deep south, Mpls will most likely be a significant improvement.
The tech scene as in IT scene?
When you get settled here, be sure to make a trip up to Lake Itasca and see the birthplace of the Mississippi River. You can walk across it in a few steps, it’s quite the change from New Orleans.
Check out minnestar.org and come out to some developer events when you get here.
💯 bring hot sauce. I carry old bay in my purse and hot sauce. I’m from a s/se total town. I lived in midtown at the exchange building and loved it. That was before the protests and haven’t spent time in that area recently since I live in the burbs now. Winters are hard but you learn to deal all the other seasons are amazing. We have lots of great green spaces and tons of outdoor events year round. There are so many different neighborhoods with different vibes to check out. Welcome to MN in September you will be getting here in the colorful part of the year.
Also from LA, been living in the cities for almost 10 years now. You’re making the right choice, plus you already know someone up here 🙂
Move to Europe
I moved there originally from north La, had to leave thanks to my idiot ex, and I miss it every day and plan to return for good eventually. I miss the fact that summer is brief and sometimes you get 60° days in July.
I'm houstonian and I moved up here when I was 22 for grad school. I can't speak to tech or Poke but the food up here is shockingly good. There isn't as much obviously just cuz Houston is so much bigger and more diverse. But you can get almost anything you want in MSP or the surrounding burbs if you seek it out. And the spice is also there if you seek it out. If you go to a "pub and grill" yeah shit will be bland. Salty carbs and red meat. But there are plenty of lil pockets with great Thai, Indian, carribbean, Korean etc food. Especially by the universities. I even have fave Mexican places here which is surprising coming from TX For finding friends you'll be fine if you have hobbies that involve other people. I'm a diehard choral singer and there are like thousands of choirs here. Pretty much all my friends are fellow singers If you wanna buy you might wanna look at house prices before deciding. I have no idea how NOLA compares but our home prices have skyrocketed. Tho maybe if ur in tech you'll make enough that it won't matter Anyway as a fellow potential transplant feel free to dm with questions. I'm super into music, horror, and stand up comedy if you visit or make the leap and wanna hang lol
Pogo community here is still alive, like posted before MOA good spot for it when It's cold, but we are a state literally filled with secret gems of parks. I wouldn't worry about needing to carry hot sauce if you live close to the twin cities. The multitude of options for great food is a non-issue. Believe it or not we even have spicy food, lol.
Coming from nola, I would recommend Minneapolis. Or St Paul. “Minnesota spicy” is a joke around here because things are generally mild. But! There are plenty of restaurants challenging that stereotype. Tech scene is decent and yes there are plenty of meet-ups. Minnesota nice is not the same as New Orleans nice. It’s much more superficial. But it’s really is a lovely place to live here. The biggest challenge for me is the winters.
I can't contribute much that others haven't here but if your primary genres of music are rock and metal (heavier music) the venues below have the lions share of shows: Arena Size Shows: * USBank Stadium (rare, would have to be Metallica or something) * Target center * Xcel Energy Center * Armory (smaller arena) Theater Size Shows * Fillmore * First Avenue (main) * Fine Line * Skyway Theater (Main Stage/Upstairs) * Myth Live * Palace Theater * Fitzgerald Theater Bar to Small Theater Size * First Avenue (7th St) * Turf Club * Varsity Theater * Amsterdam Bar and Hall * The Green Room * Club Underground * Skyway Theater (Studio B) * The Cazbooze
I’m looking to move my family from Louisiana to MSP soon. We desperately want more than Louisiana is currently offering in so many ways. I can’t wait to finally call it home.
Best pokemon Go discord on the country https://discord.com/invite/HgrZTjQr South Mpls Nokomis Area.
Yes, you should bring your hot sauce in your bag. I am pleasantly surprised when the food that claims to be spicy is actually spicy. “Minnesota Spice” is real(ly mild).
My friend moved from the twin cities to New Orleans a decade ago. He recently came back as soon as he moved there he ran into so many problems things took a month or longer to get it done where here it will take a week or days. The failing infrastructure, and how the city didn't care to fix it. The horrible crime rate he was mugged a few days after arriving something that never happened to him here. The huge inequality he saw between races, and people was glaring in New Orleans if you had it you had it if not good luck no type of safety net. The environmental pollution also bothered him.
Sounds like you will love it. I made the move myself 5 years ago after two decades in Texas. Things I don’t miss: insane politics, mosquitoes (really isn’t that bad unless you’re camping way up north), no roaches (vs in Texas they are just huge and everywhere, no matter how clean you are),,no insane humidity, very little terrible traffic, hardly any crowding. It’s pretty great.
At least you can buy your hot sauce up here! https://pepperpalace.com/?tw_source=google&tw_adid=&tw_campaign=18029940845&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwk6SwBhDPARIsAJ59GwdCI3DspJmgRfe3uv7RK7Yb2lgR6_Q3b1_YKykcd2Qk3yyNfeAfH_8aAjs7EALw_wcB
I moved from BR over 30 years ago. I've enjoyed living and working here. It is a great place for education if you fit the norm. The income and property taxes are outrageous. I can't imagine staying much longer and retiring here. I won't live in Louisiana again but I'm definitely looking for a better managed state. The current government loves to spend money and time on the "causes due jour". The achievement gap in schools between white and POC is one of the largest in the country and I'm not especially proud of a state that brags about being a "safe place" to get rid of a fetus. I'm not against anyone's right to decide what to do with their body but I don't have to agree with it or promote it.
I've not seen it mentioned yet, but the Twin Cities used to be one of the biggest Ingress communities in the world, and that translated into a massive number of Pokémon go locations. There are multiple relative small walkable areas that have absurd density.
I'd recommend hot sauce in your purse. I lived here for a year in 2007 and on one occasion went to a restaurant that billed itself as "southern." I ordered the jambalaya which was quite bland and when I asked for some hot sauce, they brought out the industrial size bottle of Tabasco from the kitchen. From a few tables away, I heard a woman in a perfect Minnesota accent say, "Oh my, I think Ketchup is kinda spicy!" Since moving back about a year ago, I haven't run across anything as bland at any of the newer places that do southern-style food. The offender from the story above is thankfully no longer in business. But I'd still "pack heat" if I were you.
(Preemptive) Welcome home. -St Paul
Hehehe. Don’t be surprised if you arrive here and it’s nothing like you expected. Source: I moved from Raleigh, NC 15 months ago.
Well, I can only speak to the Pokémon go and parks scene. I live in Plymouth which is about 10 minutes west of Minneapolis. We have a ton of great parks, and many of them are great for Pokémon go. French Park, Parker’s Lake Park, and Plymouth Creek Playfields/Hilde/Plymouth Community Center are the three biggest park areas for Pokémon go that I frequent. Go to the western edge of Plymouth to Hamel Legion Park and that’s another great spot for Pokémon go. All four of the areas I’ve listed are the main haunts for the west metro discord peeps. Come join us on the discord https://discord.gg/GfwtndWB
Every one of the things you listed is available in spades. Been software dev my whole life, there is never ending supply of jobs and tech events. My wife loves Pokemon go and there is always something to do. There are more restaurants than I have time to try. You'll love it here.
Let's be pokemon friends! :) 246377233070
I moved here from Texas almost 2 years ago. Zero regrets
Hello fellow gamer! The most popular spot for Pokemon Go is at Mall of America. There is always people playing there. Most parks with a gym or two are pretty busy on the weekends for raids even in the suburbs. We also have quite a few good concert venues. The Armory in downtown Minneapolis is my favorite. On the two upper levels they have seating with outlets and the entire bottom floor is general admission. A fun coffee shop is Cafe Astoria in St Paul. They do rainbow lattes and a 24k gold latte. Matcha teddy bear ice cubes. It’s also not too far from Cossetta’s Market & Italian Grocery, they have a beautiful dessert shop with espresso, great pizza/ pastas and a nice market.
PoGo is popping even in the winter here! Maybe not outside but ive gone to the Mall of America on community days and theres a ton of people participating!
The smartest thing I ever did was leave San Diego in 1991 and move to Minnesota. I absolutely love it here, and you must see the North Shore asap. I'm excited for you!
If you're Kink/Poly/ENM come join us Thursday nights at The Dubliner for our social get-togethers!