Minneapolis
Living space search goes on
It’s a bloody pain in the ass, is what it is.
Craigslist has been taken over by spammers (I’m looking at you, fucking Roomster), padmapper is useless to find roommates and the market is getting more expensive all the time since all the new housing excitedly approved by the city is luxury housing.
Yeah… most people in this city do not have a grand to drop in rent monthly. And that’s without taking into account the security deposit (usually a month’s rent) and the rental application. So if you’re looking to live in one of those hot new apartment buildings you’re looking at at least $2500 USD, give or take a few hundred dollars.
The entire structure is setup to screw renters. Same goes if you actually try to buy a house.
I’m just annoyed because I’ve looked at a few places and they all suck.
How about Uptown?
At the moment I am looking for a new living space. This means looking at a lot of posts in Craigslist, Zillow, ApartmentSearch, PadMapper, etc. This goes for both places that I would rent on my own and for roommate situations.
My frustration comes from landlords playing fast and loose with the wordings they use in their posts, specially when they don’t bother to put in an address for the place or even the cross-streets. They usually use phrases like “close to Uptown” or “in the Uptown area” to hide the true location of the place.
If you drive a car for everything sure, anywhere in Minneapolis or Saint Louis Park is “close” to Uptown. But the nature of the neighborhood is to be able to walk from home to a place and back. You can’t say it’s close when you’d have to walk 30 minutes to get to one of the neighborhood’s borders. Neighborhoods have borders and names for a reason.
If you search for “Uptown Minneapolis”, even Google Maps suggests the actual neighborhood and its boundaries
So… landlords, please save everyone a lot of work and just put in the address of your property.
Most Cyclists Are Working-Class Immigrants, Not Hipsters
Misidentifying who, exactly, rides bikes is hardly a new problem, Longhurst said. Historically, every generation has created a new idea of who rides a bike, but the older associations have stuck around, too.That creates a situation in which cyclists are simultaneously associated with elites displaying conspicuous consumption, those sacrificing for the good of society, competitive athletes, children, and sometimes those who are coming home from their job washing dishes at 2 a.m. because other options aren’t available.
Source: Most Cyclists Are Working-Class Immigrants, Not Hipsters
I’m one of those people. Since I’m usually at work it is extremely hard for me to participate in initiatives to extend biking infrastructure here in Minneapolis. Same goes for most of the people who work in the service industry, regarless of their race or country of origin.
We bike because it’s cheap and convenient. And when you’re going home anytime after midnight, usually the only option you have to get home since taxis are relatively expensive and mass transit cuts service.