Joe Dog

I will be relocating from the last frontier of Alaska to the home office in Minneapolis this Spring. I have lived in Minneapolis before, so I know "The Cities" fairly well, but I am interested in getting some feedback from MPLS bike commuters about optimal commuting routes - I have been a regular bike commuter in AK and would like to continue commuting by bike in Minnesota (new office will be in the IDS tower, right downtown).

Any feedback on sweet routes to downtown from hip and/or afforable neighborhoods would be appreciated. I am contemplating Northeast, uptown, downtown or the Warehouse District, but I am open to all suggestions. If you have a sweet routes to the heart of Mini-Apple, I would love to hear about them.

Thanks!!

CastIron

PM Filtersweep and HereNT. Given the options presented, I'd suggest NE Mpls for it's up and comming status. Pity the commuter routes, though. Otherwise, Perhaps along the miss in the S.E. corner of Mpls, which would send you up/down Mississippi Rd. daily--a grand commute IMHO.

As to neighborhoods mentioned: Uptown seems to have reached full bloom and is a bit overpriced. DT is flat expensive, but thats not new. NE is enjoying a 'bohemian renaissance' and property values will likely climb for some time. Are you buying or renting? Family? Any preferences to steer you around with? Something wrong with Saint Paul? Sorry, couldn't resist the last part.

Joe Dog

ST PAUL?!? Isn't that on the other side of the river ?

Actually - I really like St. Paul but I don't know it as well. That's a good tip. I used to live in South MPLS and spent a lot of time in Highland Park, but I don't know downtown St. Paul or the other neighborhoods nearly as well as I know Minneapolis, so I guess I just gravitated to the familiar. I'll have to add that fair sister city to my search - thanks for pointing that out. I guess I would probably start my search around the Witches Tower (Prospect Park, I beleive?). Does that wise or foolish?

I agree the River Road ride from the souteast corner would be nice. I have a co-worker that rides from around Lake Street to DT. I also see what you mean about DT being spendy. I think I would get claustrophobic in up town and my clothes are not hip enough, alas... I am kind of drawn to the bohemian aspects of Nord East (my sister-in-law used to live next to a coffin factory there) and that's where I am probably going to start looking first.

I'll probably shoot HereNT and Filtersweep a PM and see what they say. Thanks for the information, CastIron, and happy riding!!

HereNT

Yeah, got your PMs, but figured I should post here too. Filtersweep might take a little longer to get back to you - he's living in Norway now

St. Paul is nice, but I've only really gone through there on late night rec rides, looking for hills. They have been re-doing a lot of their roads, new asphalt, bike lanes, etc, but I don't know the extent of it. They also don't have as much of a bike community, or at least it's not as visible.

NE has a ton of biker kids. When you're here, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for the drunken bike tours - they are nuts! Literally hundreds of bikers rolling from bar to bar to bar to bar... Behind Bars (new[er] shop up there) usually has the details. I'm not sure how it is for housing/whatever, and a lot of the roads are pretty much crap. They also don't have much for a trail system, at least not anything that you can use for transportation.

Uptown, well, it's uptown. It gets closer to my neighborhood in the ghetto every day. They're putting in condos a few blocks away now, and the army and navy recruiters pulled up stakes and left the first floor of my building. I figured that was a good sign that gentrification was on the way, though I do still get to see crack dealers get busted every now and again.

Chicago/Lake is also an area that's about to go the same way. They are putting the finishing touches on converting the old Sears Tower or whatever that place was into Condos and Offices. So a nice good stretch of Lake is all new asphalt as well.

But the thing is, it's kind of hard to really give advice without actually knowing what you consider hip. Pretty much anywhere in the city can give you a good commute, provided that you're not way out in the middle of nowhere. Even then it's do-able. I convinced a coworker to start commuting to downtown from Blaine or Richfeild or some suburb somewhere that's way out of my 20-30 mile circle that I actually ride in. She can ride to a park and ride, but put her bike on the bus, then get off at the MOA and catch the light rail all the way into downtown (again taking the bike.) So pretty much anywhere is at least partially doable.

As far as bike shops, the ones I usually go to are the Hub and Freewheel. I go to the hub if I need a part right away, but I don't think that I'd really trust them to work on my bikes. Freewheel has been getting more and more of my business lately. Part of that has to do with riding with a couple of the wrenches on the Sat night drunk ride (Dinkytown McDonalds parking lot 9-9:30pm Sat take off - no agenda, often fire) and getting good deals. But mostly I use LBSs for parts and tools that I don't own, not often for much else...

I hope that helps some.

Oh, and when you get here, remember that the cars are almost frustratingly nice, and almost always yeild. It kind of sucks sometimes...

Joe Dog

Good stuff. Thanks - I'll send you some love from Los Anchorge.

bkrownd

Yeah, that attractive town across the river. I envy your return to the land of red wing blackbirds, THE premire high school hockey tournament, and ice fishing. What's up with that Bucky, though?

Joe Dog

Well.... I'm originally a Badger from the M'waukee area . It was both love and money that brought me to Minnesota - my wife is from the Gopher state (that would be the love part) and I got my first real job in MPLS (that would cover the money) .

CastIron

Yeah I joke about doing bad things on the bad side of the river (working in MPLS) and living on the good (ST.P). I commute through Prospect Park and it's a really nice patch. Wifey and I even looked at some townhouses there (overpriced by a fair margin). In any case it's a buyer's market for anything over $200k. If your condo minded a local glut should reach maturity in about 12-18 months. The Develpoment at Chi-Lake is nice (particularly from a cyclist standpoint) but something of a gamble. The city has been trying to gentrify these areas for decades.

Joe Dog

Prospect Park sounds like it's worth looking into. Glad you nudged me on St. Paul. Probably cross the River on Franklin and then head north on River Road... that would be a fine ride. Chi-Lake seems kind of dicey to me - I lived about 10 blocks south of Lake (off of Cedar) previously and I remember Lake as being pretty rough, in fact my wife had her purse snatched there once. I'll get on the web and look at Prospect Park listings and see what I can find. Getting good information here. Thanks to all for chiming in.

bkrownd

(Prospect Park is still in Minneapolis.) I would go through the U and cross the Washington Avenue bridge upper deck, personally. Coffee shops on the way, and lots of memories there....

squeakywheel

Now that's where you went wrong. Love your job, marry for money. Silly kids.

That avatar is going to have to go.

penanaut

Hey Los Anchorage,
I live in South Minneapolis and really like it. THe houses in my area are getting ridiculously expensive (I live on the creek and bought over adecade ago) but there are a lot of houses here that are comparable to the nice suggestions given above. I like my location because of the variety of routes I can choose to take from downtown. There are one way bike lanes (North on Park and South on Portland). Very convenient and safe. You do have to be watchful going through Lake and Chicago area (Phelps neighborhood) but it is getting better/safer. All of us need to be careful no matter where we go on bikes anyway. I take this to work. then, after work I can choose to go the same route back (shortest) or go long for a work out on safe dedicated and paved bike paths around the lakes to the West or the West River Parkway to the East. The Minnehaha Creek is a part of the chain that links the two for a great "Grand Round" for the weekends. The lakes and the river routes are gorgeous and change with the seasons. In the winter, the dedicated paths are shared with walkers (The Park Board only plows one route so pedestrians and bikers share in the winter) The bus system is available for any breakdowns and the buses all have bike racks. Other parts of town (I like Nordeast too) but the bike commuter routes aren't as nice yet for a downtown job. Good luck and welcome back to Minnesota!

trailwarrior

Twin Cities Bike Map and Commuter Guide

lxpatterson

just a quick question: I have noticed a big commuter blogging community from minneapolis, especially winter-related cycling stuff. Is there a tremendous number of bike commuters in the twin citis? and why is that? I'm in Toronto now, but I did grad work in Chicago and there was a huge dedicated following of bike activist, but it was never really accepted as mainstream. Like lots of fun critical mass things, fixies, green types and courier types in the scene, but not so many "average" types (I-dont-think-of-cycling-activism-cyclocross-24/7).

Joe Dog

HEY! I used to live in your neighborhood! I was a few blocks from Cedar and 38th, north of you a little bit. I've ridden Park and Port downtown and agree it's safe and convenient (watch out for the side street, as I recall). We sold our house about 5 or 6 years ago for adventures on the east coast and then in Anchorage, but it the old 'hood got so spendy after we sold that I was not sure I wanted to go back there. Cute houses and a nice area. Thanks for confirmming that it is still nice - this is going to be a good move .

robmcl

Well, there was a a bus strike a couple of years ago that lasted through out the spring, which may have gotten some people started. I never saw the bike shop so crowed the weekend before that started. It may have proved to people that it can be done, that it is actually faster than the bus, and that it is a good way to stay in shape.

Also, not counting the burbs, it is a fairly bicycle friendly city. Although it is not outstanding, there are cross city trails and bike paths.

Finally, it is a fairly pretty city . . . . as far as a city can be pretty. And it does not have the trafic intensity that Chicago has.

robmcl

I commuted for a couple of years across 38th street and up Cedar (well acturally Longfellow) to get to the U. I did this at night too and nobody really hassled me that much in the Phillips neighborhood.

I just moved last fall but if I was living there now St. Paul would be one of the places I would be looking to move to. I thought Uptown was overpriced. I also thought it was overrated as the trendy neighborhood/entertainment district it wants to be (compared to Bucktown/Wicker Park Chicago, Eastside Milwaukee, etc.), which is why you pay the premium price to live there. Northeast would be on my list too.