St. Paul, Minnesota is an interesting city that many people have not heard about, but many people are choosing to move there. However, should you move there? Here are 17 reasons why you should not move to St. Paul, Minnesota.
1. Seasonal Affective Disorder and Vitamin D Deficiency
SAD
(Seasonal Affective Disorder) is a type of depression that is caused by the changing of the seasons. Typically for most people, it will start in the middle of autumn and go until early to mid-spring. However, because St. Paul experiences such long winters and during those winter periods it is dark, it is very easy to get SAD. Most commonly, people who get SAD will experience oversleeping, appetite changes, weight gain, and low energy, however, depending on the person it can result in other symptoms like anxiety and irritability.
Along with SAD, you have to worry about vitamin D deficiencies. As stated earlier, during the winter months it can seem like you never see the sun for months, and if you don’t take vitamin supplements or have lights that help produce vitamin D, then you will likely suffer deficiencies. This can lead to depression, SAD, muscle weakness, pain, and fatigue.
2. The Freezing Winters and Snowstorms
It should come as no surprise that the city of St. Paul experiences lots of snow and is freezing cold during the winter. In the months between November and April, the low temperature doesn’t get above freezing. In fact, the average temperature during the month of April is only 47 degrees Fahrenheit. In both January and February, the weather is classified as frigid until about noon every day.
The second part of the difficult St. Paul winters is the amount of snow that you will get to experience from November to April. Each month, the city gets around 20 inches of snow. It also doesn’t help that the snow builds up quickly and the roads are plowed inconsistently. The snow also doesn’t melt until late April to mid-May. Some snow may even still be on the ground at the beginning of June, which simply shouldn’t be the case during a summer month.
3. Constant Road Construction and Bad Roads
It is likely due to the amount of snow and moisture that many of the roads throughout the city are in poor condition and experiencing plenty of damage. According to one St. Paul resident, “Roads: winter takes a big toll. Horrible surface and lots of construction jammed into a short time. Transit is great on main arteries, but get too far from downtowns and throw in a big snow, and a car is almost certainly required.”
The complaints about the poor road conditions are widespread, and the city has noticed this so they are trying to take steps to improve the roads. However, this has led to constant construction. This can cause more traffic and often only solves the problem for a short time before the weather starts to damage the road again.
4. Awful Drivers
Between the cold weather, snow and ice that form on the road, and the damaged state of roads, the drivers in St. Paul are considered by locals to be very bad. Part of this is due to the standard swerving, driving far too slow, or the inability to merge or exit while on the highway. However, there is another driver-related aspect many complain about, and that is 4-way stops.
“My biggest pet peeve is at four-way stops when it’s me and one other person. The other person clearly got there first, it was their turn to go, so I wait for them. Instead, they try to let me go first, and I get confused about why they’re not moving, and it turns into one of those games when each person starts moving and then stops when they see the other move.”
St. Paul Resident
There were many who stated that this was an all too common problem for them as well.
5. Poor Public Transportation
If people want to avoid having to drive altogether, public transportation isn’t too much of an option for them. The Metro Transit is an option that works great for those who are near the downtown area, and it can get you a bit through the city, but it doesn’t extend far enough through the city, so many find it to be highly ineffective.
The transit doesn’t get anywhere near the suburban areas, so those who live there are going to be out of luck if they don’t have a car and need to get to work biking is great during the summer but nearly impossible during the winter months.
6. Traffic
The last of the car-related problems that locals found to be a problem is the high amount of traffic. This is likely due to many factors, but key factors amongst them are likely the poor driving skills of these in the city, the snow and ice-covered roads, and the amount of road construction that is constantly going on. Another major reason for this is the fact the highways in St. PAul have left-hand entrances and exits, which can throw the vast majority of drivers off and lead to accidents.
7. The High Tax Rates
St. Paul residents get to pay more than average for both their sales tax and their property taxes. First, the state average for sales tax is 6.875%, which is one of the higher state averages. Meanwhile, the sales tax that they have to pay in St. Paul is 7.88%, and while it is not anywhere close to the high sales tax of Tacoma, Washington at 10.3%, it still can lead to residents paying hundreds in sales tax each year.
8. Hard to Find Good Education
You would hope that with such high taxes the education within the school systems would be extremely good. For some of the schools, this is very true. However, that is one of the main problems.
While some of the schools are doing extremely well in preparing their students for college, the other half is struggling immensely to do so. Schools like Humboldt and Harding are at the lowest with just 1% and 3% of their students being ready for college. Also, when it comes to testing the School district’s average ACT score is a whole 2 points below the national average.
9. High Crime Rates
Unfortunately, the crime rates in St. Paul are also quite bad. St. Paul currently only has a crime index of 4 out of 100, 100 being the safest city in the United States. I don’t know about you, but that is not at all comforting to me.
The first reason for this is that the number of violent crimes that occur in St. Paul is three times higher than the national average, and the number of property crimes is twice as high as the national average. While the murder rate is the same as the national average, both rape and robbery occurrences are far higher. Just about every form of property crime occurs more often than it does in many other parts of the country.
10. The Price of Housing and Renting
Despite the many other problems, there are lots of positives about St. Paul as well, so in recent years, the cost of houses and renting has skyrocketed in the city. 10 years ago, the average price of a home was $146K, but the average price of a home has nearly doubled, as it now costs $296K. It hasn’t helped much that just in the past year it has increased by nearly 9% and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
11. The Cost of Living
If you plan on moving to St. Paul, Minnesota, don’t plan on saving any money, as you will have to spend most of the money you earn on living expenses, as it is extremely expensive to live in St. Paul. This is mostly because of housing costs, but the cost of groceries and travel are also quite high. If you enjoy saving money, you will have to find a high-paying job in order to pay for your lifestyle, or you may end up being frustrated with how little money you have when you retire.
12. The Minnesota “Nice” Attitude
Overall, when describing themselves, natives of Minnesota and St. Paul describe themselves as very nice people. However, most people find that this statement is only partially true when they get here. In an article written by MPRnews, they found that people are nice in the fact that they will give you a hand or help you out when you need it. But, it will be nearly impossible to make any close friends, as they typically only stay with people that they have been friends with for most of their lives.
13. There is a Major Lack of Diversity
To some, this might not be a reason to avoid moving here. But when it comes to St. Paul, there isn’t much diversity, as the vast majority of the population is white. Besides the fact that there is a high amount of white people in St. Paul, there is also an extremely high Asian population here, three times above the national average. The National average of Asians within the United States is just 6.1%, however, within St. Paul, it is at a massive 19.9%. Though, after the white and Asian populations, there isn’t another group that comes anywhere close to them in population size.
14. Lack of Food Variety
One of the major reasons that many find the number of food options in St. Paul to be bland is likely because there is a lack of diversity, which causes a lack of variety in cuisine. There is plenty of great Asian cuisine options throughout the city, as well as good burgers and craft beers, however, outside of these food genres, you may struggle to find much more variety. If you like Mexican food, you will be out of luck, as any Mexican restaurant that you will find won’t be very good.
15. The Lack of Nightlife
“The nightlife doesn’t exist. It is embarrassing to bring out-of-state friends here if it’s not for a concert/game. Maybe we can spend all night at a fish cafe?”
St. Paul Resident
This perfectly sums up how the nightlife is in St. Paul. Since many of the people in the downtown area work with the government, when 6 pm rolls around, most of the people in the downtown area leave. This leaves the center of the city mostly empty and they typically stay empty for the whole of the night. So, anyone hoping for a fun night out on the town will likely be disappointed.
16. The Summer Mosquitos
By the time it finally gets warm and you are able to go out and enjoy the beautiful nature of Minnesota, the mosquitos will also be coming out and enjoying spending time with you as you are going about your day.
It is such a problem throughout late spring and summer that MPRnews wrote a summer survival guide about mosquitos. So whether you are just visiting during the summer or are moving there, you are going to want to have plenty of bug spray on hand at all times.
17. The Constant Failure of Sport Teams
Minnesota has plenty of sports options, which is great if you are just interested in watching sports. The Twins, Timberwolves, Vikings, Minnesota United, Minnesota Wild, and Lynx are all sports teams that are based in Minnesota. This provides baseball, basketball, football, and soccer are all available to anyone who is interested in sports and will enjoy them.
However, those who are hoping to support their team as they win will be out of luck, as the last time one of these teams won any type of championship was the Minnesota Lynx in 2017. Before that, the Twins won back in 1991. In fact, it has only been the Twins and the Lynx that have ever won championships, while the other teams are still looking to win their first.
