The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

I could be wrong, but it seems there is a stronger hispanic population in south Minneapolis than there is in St. Paul.

I read in your letter that you say traffic is bad in la. Having never been there i couldn't say but i think drivers in the tc, though probably not as numerous as in so cal, are complete idiots! So fair warning.

For your kids sake, stay out of east saint paul.

The Latino population in MN has roots dating back a hundred years or more, but the recent emigrants and immigrants have their own cultural gap to close with the more established population, let alone the majority culture. Whatever, it's moving. If you took a midwestern white person and plopped them in CA or GA or NY the results would be similar strife. Midwesterners are socialized differently, and you will learn that. I'd say that pushy, self-assertive and argumentative people are not trusted here. It was a steeplearning curve for me when I lived in NY! People will tell you the inconvenient truth there. Here folks will shadow puppet it for you. If you lack the ability to read between the lines, good luck to you!

I'm a transplanted northern Californian living in MN for 20 years. The diversity here is far greater than you might expect. Since your child is young, You'll have time to get settled in the right school district if you are renting for now. When you do, stay away from both St. Paul and Mpls public schools. Both do a lousy job of educating non-white students and any students who don't have thier own family resources. Most of the first ring suburbs will be a good choice - you'll find better diversitiy than the further out burbs, excellent schools and easy commutes.

As for driivng, minnesotans don't know how to megre, but the DO know how to use turn signals (unlike Californians).

It's good you have family here. The saying goes "Minnesotans are very friendly. They're always happy to stop and give you directions to somebody elses' house." That said, I've found that a little bit of effort does go a long way when building community in your neighborhood. We often have neighborood barbques in our diverse suburban neighborhood. All it takes is moving a grill out to the driveway, putting out some chairs and inviting folks.