What’s Better: Living In the Cities or the Suburbs?

There’s a certain sex appeal to living downtown. The proximity to restaurants, businesses and museums brings a New York City feel to those settling into their renovated lofts in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

But a recent push to develop more housing and add new restaurants to cities on the outskirts of Minneapolis begs the question:

Do Minnesotans favor suburbia over city life?

Ten minutes from downtown, Golden Valley is one Twin Cities community that is looking to grow, and hoping to take with it those that favor downtown living.

Golden Valley city officials are reviewing plans that would bring 750 new apartments to the community. Apartment developers say that single residents who work downtown would find it appealing to live outside of the city.

Fifteen minutes north on Highway 169, eight new housing developments are currently underway in Maple Grove. The developments carry the potential to bring more than 500 homeowners to the community.

Developers may be onto something.  In a recent New York Times article, writer Alex Williams says that “hipsters” are moving to suburban neighborhoods and taking their city life with them.

Williams writes that many New York suburbs are luring city dwellers with new and improved restaurants, yoga studios and grocery stores. Aren’t suburbs in Minnesota doing the same thing?

The restaurant industry in communities surrounding Minneapolis continues to grow. Gourmet burger joints like Plymouth's Lucky's 13 and trendy cupcake shops like Nadia Cakes make the suburbs feel hip. Yoga studios and organic grocery stores mirror what Williams calls “cosmopolitan bohemia.”

So, what do you think? Do you think momentum is shifting to cause Minnesotans to settle down in suburban neighborhoods, rather than a condo in the city?

Tell us in the comments.