3 ms·

I'm from MN and my family still lives in and around Minneapolis. It's a great area, if you can handle the winter. The main con for a hacker is that the tech sc

by rdouble 16y ago

I'm from MN and my family still lives in and around Minneapolis. It's a great area, if you can handle the winter. The main con for a hacker is that the tech scene is grim. The jobs are very boring and the salaries in general are pretty bad. In addition, the jobs that do exist are usually really out in the burbs. Every so often I go through the motions of creating a cost of living spreadsheet and even with the cheaper cost of housing, when I factor in car ownership and utilities I still seem to come out behind with the lower salaries. On the other hand, the bar seems to be pretty low for getting a home loan. I have a college friend who is an unemployed music instructor who "owns" a home in Powderhorn, and the person who cuts my hair in Brooklyn actually lives in Northeast and makes enough to money cutting hair 5 days a month in Brooklyn to cover her mortgage. I don't agree that MPLS has great nightlife but there is a much better local music scene than any other place I've ever lived. The reason is that you can afford to rent a house with a basement in which to practice your drum kit on a drummer's salary. I also would not say there is great public transportation. The bike friendliness is awesome, though. It's a little odd to put the whole north midwest into one group, each of those towns are hundreds of miles apart from each other. The culture can be quite different. I never felt MPLS had much in common with Chicago, for example.

yellowbkpk 16y ago
The tech scene isn't grim, I would say it's bad but getting better. I recently got a job at a fairly young company doing pretty exciting and interesting stuff. It's not quite as fresh as a startup but is much better than Target or 3M or any other behemoth. You're right though, the commutes are tricky since the metro area is pretty big and the jobs are spread out everywhere. Nitelife, music scene, etc. are all criteria I pulled from Joe's article. I'm not particularly into the "bar scene", but I do know that entertainment (theater, music, etc.) is top notch. I agree that bunching all of these cities together is kind of dodgy, but I get the feeling that most everyone that writes posts like Joe's are from the edges of the country and I personally would love to see the middle of the country represented more here. So I grouped the entire middle together. :)
aaronbrethorst 16y ago
This is exactly why I left Minneapolis for Seattle as soon as I had my degree. That, and the sushi is generally bad.

by rdouble 16y ago

yellowbkpk 16y ago

The tech scene isn't grim, I would say it's bad but getting better. I recently got a job at a fairly young company doing pretty exciting and interesting stuff. It's not quite as fresh as a startup but is much better than Target or 3M or any other behemoth. You're right though, the commutes are tricky since the metro area is pretty big and the jobs are spread out everywhere. Nitelife, music scene, etc. are all criteria I pulled from Joe's article. I'm not particularly into the "bar scene", but I do know that entertainment (theater, music, etc.) is top notch. I agree that bunching all of these cities together is kind of dodgy, but I get the feeling that most everyone that writes posts like Joe's are from the edges of the country and I personally would love to see the middle of the country represented more here. So I grouped the entire middle together. :)

aaronbrethorst 16y ago

This is exactly why I left Minneapolis for Seattle as soon as I had my degree. That, and the sushi is generally bad.