Also, to MoonPie: I don’t yet live in North Mpls, though I do own a house there which I am about to list. As soon as it sells, I hope to buy one of those old victorians in Old Highland and rehab it to be my future home. Other MNSpeakers who live over north include RichG, Amber, and I believe Bixby too at the moment. I think there are a couple more as well, but I can’t remember who off the top of my head.

And Stargirl: the Old Highland neighborhood is basically right behind Heritage Park. Many of the houses there also have great views of the downtown skyline.

Thanks for the link to that website. I don’t know if you were saying it sarcastically or not, but it actually looks kind of neat!

I’m curious as to how many MNSpeak readers live in North Minneapolis? Do you like it? Are the stereotypes true?

Yeah that sounded weird. I meant people with time to work on properties. Not exluding women either.

When I grew up, I ended up in North several times for work, visiting people, to go to certain parks, or to get through to Robbinsdale. I realized the “ghetto North” that I’d always heard about in the media wasn’t really so bad. True, I might not want to be in all parts of it in the middle of the night, but it really just seemed like shops, schools, libraries, etc, and people moving from one place to the other or hanging out on their porches.

It seems like maybe a lot of what keeps North from prospering is some bad stereotypes. Maybe some of them have truth to them, but not all. Maybe it does need a new name and a new image. I’m not really sure what the ideal solution is, but as the Kare11 article stated, the neighborhood has changed before…so I think it could change again.

I don’t necessarily agree that I’d invest in a new condo type of property on Plymouth Ave at the moment, but driving past those Heritage Park buildings, I was thinking that they look really nice and have a GREAT view of the city skyline (at a lower price than what’d you pay elsewhere). I really would consider moving into Heritage Park if I had a family (it seemed like a family type of place).

Baker, are you a real estate agent or appraiser? Have you done a market analysis on any of those victorian homes in near north? If so, I’d love to see your data, which would seem to conflict with my own.

I personally think it’s is a great place to invest right now, particularly along Plymouth Ave, close to downtown. (For the right price, obviously.) Whatever one thinks of the Twins Stadium plan, I do believe that it’s going to have a positive effect on those property values, if and when construction gets underway.

But that’s just me…

In addition, neighbors do a lot of community stuff through the Peace Foundation, which also happens to be hosting a “lucky” Friday the 13th event tomorrow.

We just need more people to get involved!