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Oh, brother.

I think you missed South Mpls on the list then (and I assume that's different from South Metro). Otherwise Uptown would be way too all-encompassing per yesterday's debate.

Will Uptown be everything, say, northwest of 35th and Lyndale, east of the lake and south of downtown?

I thought everyone agreed that Uptown doesn't exist? Or maybe that was wishful thinking. Anyway, I figure the mark of a neighborhood worth living in is the impossibility of delineating its boundaries on a map.

It's tough.
Within the different pockets of Minneapolis there are many different neighborhoods; in NE for example, the neighborhood of 27th & Ulysses is much different from that of 13th & University. I know, I know. This opens up a crazy ball of wax. But it is true.
Perhaps it may be better & more accurate to refrain from using the term "neighborhood" & use "community" instead.
Growing up on 27th & Ulysses St NE, I would never have said that someone who grew up on 13th & University grew up in my neighborhood, but I would agree that we grew up in the same community.

I will from here on out call the KMart/ 1st/ Lake area "dirty Uptown".

Just call everything "somewhere in the Upper Midwest."

I guess I just assumed that people knew what Minneapolis neighborhood they lived in, but after reading the open thread I guess that's not the case. Simon had it right, technically speaking, about the number of neighborhoods and the street sign designations. But anyone who lives near the border of a neighborhood knows that specific geographic boundaries aren't what constitute a "neighborhood." That's why people get their panties in a bunch when you lump them into a neighborhood they think has a not-so-hip reputation. But they need to suck it up and realize that the official neighborhood distinctions were made for a reason: Each one has at its own park, usually named the same as the neighborhood.

I like the idea of neighborhood-specific news, but I think you should branch it out to broader communities, like what Dahli said. Pick what you think they should be, and then provide a map so people can see which one they fall in. Or you could just use the 11 official "communities" as stated by the city of Minneapolis, which I think makes the most sense.

Simon: Agreed, Tangletown goes in South, not Southwest - my mistake.

Sings are no help. Evidence: the hype machine known as "Eat Street."

Doh! St. Paul is all lumped together??

Rex, have you considered working for Gannett? They'd love you!

Signed,
Ross, resident of Lowertown

Sarah: you should visit the always excellent craigslist. There's all sorts of listings in the apartment section.

Everyone keeps saying I ignored St. Paul, but all of these from my original post were intended to include St. Paul in some way: South Metro, Midway, North St. Paul Metro, and, duh, St. Paul.

North Mpls can be divided into Near North and Camden. There is actually a map that shows the division of the neighborhoods in the city. I haven't seen it online, but it is definitely hanging up in the office where I work.

Hello? There is a whole neighborhood called Linden Hills? Lots and lots of people live there.

Regarding lakes: I think if you are going to associate lake names with a neighborhood, it ought be only the immediate area surrounding the lake. For example, say you live just west of Hennepin Ave and south 27th. Technically, you live in East Isles, but I think most would be hard pressed to say you live by the lake the same way that the folks with the million dollar houses live by the lake.

Regarding Uptown: I live at 26th and Hennepin and I consider it Uptown. I think of Uptown as a vibrant, active, always moving kind of neighborhood. With that in mind, I think of Uptown as the immediate stretch a block or two east and west of Hennepin Ave from 36th street up to Franklin Ave. Outside this area to the west you get the big lake homes and east you are mostly quiet residentials. As I said in another thread, I don't really consider Lyndale part of Uptown, it's just not the same. I think of it more as just "Lyndale."

If you don't believe me, come stay with me on Hennepin for a few days and then spend a few days living on Lyndale, I think you'll see what I mean.

Apparently the MN Speak folks are in favor of far away cities, but not the west (St Louis Park to Maple Grove) or east (Oakdale to Woodbury) metro cities.

if you go by neighborhood associations (in Southwest MPLS at least) you get...this it seems.

The point being missed here is that Rex is trying to create categories for posting neighborhood-specific news. For such purposes, not only is it completely unnecessary to distiguish between, say, the Logan Park and Sheridan neighborhoods, but it would be a complete pain in the ass. For Rex and for the reader, most likely.

Based upon all of this, I think this is what I've come up with:

• Downtown Minneapolis
• Downtown St. Paul
• South Minneapolis
• Northeast Minneapolis
• North Minneapolis
• Uptown
• North St. Paul
• South St. Paul
• East St. Paul
• Mac Groveland
• Midway
• University

To answer some questions: Warehouse is in Downtown Minneapolis. Calhoun and Eat Street are Uptown. Lowertown is Downtown St. Paul. The North Loop is Northeast Minneapolis. Westside is South St. Paul. Como is Midway. Summit is Mac Groveland. Stevens, Phillips, Nokomis, Linden Hills, and Powerhorn are all South Minneapolis. And I suddenly live in Uptown again.

I'm sure this infuriates someone, but keep in mind I'm trying to keep my list small. And besides, none of this matters, because I still have to write the code that actually breaks up this site's stories by neighborhood anyway.

Um, seems like it's Rex's site, and he can break it down however he chooses. Some may feel it's idiosyncratic (St. Cloud as a neighborhood? I lived there for 4 years and it was more like a cemetery), but ultimately it's up to Rex how he wants to define the boundaries.

Also, too, keep in mind that he probably doesn't want to have to provide news for every postage-stamp parcel of land that has a unique name and a population of 223. I would think that about 8-10 total areas would be fine. Any more than that and CJ gets confused.

I'll keep reading whether you break it down by "neighborhood," zip code, block or not at all.

Rex always has something up his sleave that you're not anticipating. You should try dating me. (Wait, no you shouldn't.) All I'm really planning is to tag stories by category and geography. The best reason for this is archiving, so you can quickly look up all the stories written about, say, Uptown. MNspeak is good at being up-to-date, but I'd also like to extend it into being a bit more of a resource to look up things.

And frankly, I don't know where St. Louis Park would fit in, but we never write about it anyway. :)

Oh, and thanks to everyone for contributing your thoughts. This thread was really, really fun.

Simon, when we worked together in St. Paul a kjillion years ago, what neighborhood was that?

We should just go by these categories.

Dang Ben that was funny

Perhaps start a wiki and allow us readers to define the neighborhood the way that makes sense to us.

We're playing with something like that over in the MNteractive Directory

Kevin -- I liked your analogy at first, but I think the problem with it is that Minneapolis geography is indeed all relative to downtown like it or not, whereas US geography obviously does not revolve around Minnesota.

Eat Street is soooo not Uptown. Please!

Grouping Lyndale and Whittier with Powderhorn makes no sense. These neighborhoods are firmly divided from Powderhorn via 35w. They should be considered part of the Calhoun/Isles community.