It’s my belief that most people who live in the Twin Cities area are, for the most part, happy to live here. Sure, they might hate the weather (freezing cold half the time, sweltering humidity the other half), and it might be nice to see mountains some of the time instead of just fields of corn and lakes. But overall, Minnesota is generally a good place to live.
We ranked the second most livable state in 2007. We’re number five for home ownership rates in the nation. As of 2005, nearly 92 percent of our residents were covered by health insurance. And according to the Star Tribune, a new public relations campaign is about to be launched, touting the many advantages of living in the Twin Cities (er, Minneapolis St. Paul, as we apparently “want” to be called now).
But wait. What about those abhorrent violent crime rates? What about reports that claim Minneapolis’s violent crime rate stands at six times the national average?
Attempting to quell concerns, some cite the fact that we’re still 30 percent below the violent crime rates of the mid-nineties, when the local and national media affectionately began referring to our little urban death pool as “Murderapolis.”
Curiously enough, Minneapolis just knocked Seattle out of the number-one spot for “most literate city” in the United States. That really casts a shadow of doubt on the tried-and-true rule-of-thumb that poverty and poor education are the main causes of crime.
Don’t misunderstand our intentions with this post. We’re not telling people, “Hey, Minneapolis is a death trap, get out while you can, and don’t even think about moving here!”
Quite the opposite. I personally love Minneapolis, and Minnesota, and even moved back from California — yes, California — to live here. We have an amazingly robust and diverse arts and entertainment scene, excellent health care, one of the best public education systems in the country, a per capita income seven percent higher than the national average, an abundance of natural beauties, and a well-balanced political constituency.
Just pointing out the paradoxical crime rates, which you can read more about here. On the other hand, you can read much more about why our great state is so dang great here.
So, if you live here, draw your own conclusions. And if you don’t live here, come and check it out. Just don’t go wandering the streets of North Minneapolis unless you’re strapped. Speaking of which, don’t forget to read about our conceal and carry gun laws — they might save your life (or end it — again, draw your own conclusions).
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