minneapolis/ st paul input?

[dijos]

Hey nerds, I need some help. It seems that minneapolis has a strong presence here, and I thought I'd throw up my bat signal. 

 

my wife and now 2 kids are looking to leave our home in search of greener pastures. We are primarily looking for a family friendly, active, outdoorsy place. We need to also be around liberal, educated folks. I work in finance (401(k) plan administration), and my wife will be returning to work in child welfare (sooner rather than later, I hope). My buddy syggested Minneapolis (whre she lives), and it looks great. what would it really be like for 2 40-year-olds with a 7 year old and an infant? is it fun? are you stuck inside due to the frozen tundra all fall/winter/spring? It is ranked as a grreat biking community, which has to beat my town (#1 in cyclist deaths!)

any help is appreciated. It seems that St. Paul may be more our scene, 

[Sloth the Enduring]

Welcome dijos.  I live and teach in South Minneapolis and really like it here.  Before I was married I lived in St. Paul and really liked that too.  They are both liberal enclaves - in South Mpls people take politics seriously, I've seen shoving matches over library board elections, really.  The character of both cities varies greatly neighborhood by neighborhood and so do the schools; research carefully before you move.  As far as family friendly, the cities are the kind of place where there are three different circus schools and there are good public parks within six blocks of just about any home.  Lots of museums and other cultural assets too.

 

What kinds of fun and outdoorsie things are you interested in?  Minneapolis is a better cycling city, but St. Paul has access to hills (NE Mpls has hills too).  If you want to mountain bike or trail run, most of the trails are in the south metro and S. Mpls. has reasonably easy access.  There is lake access just about everywhere.

 

The winters can be cruel and terrible.  Two years ago it never seemed to get above 20 below and everyone got cabin fever.  Last year the temperatures weren't terrible, but we had hardly any snow so there wasn't much to do with the kids outside.  I attached swings and a trapeze to the basement joists to help deal with it.  Sledding, skiing, fort building are big fun, but yes, even in a good winter, you spend a lot of time inside.

 

If you don't get much play here, you might want to cross post in Mpls/St. Paul Nerds.

[Raze]

I never lived in the city (either of them) myself, but I did grow up in the Twin City area. If you don't mind being out of the city a bit (about 30 min drive to downtown Mpls) and prefer a bit of a smaller community I would look into the Savage/Burnsville/Prior Lake area. I spent most of my childhood in this area and loved it! As far as the winters other than the '91 blizzard most of the winters were mild to moderate with the last few years I lived there around '99 were quite mild and little snowfall in the area I lived.