The Top Ten Neighborhoods in Minneapolis

Downtown West, Loring Park top our list of Minneapolis 'hoods

Theaters. bars. restaurants and pro sports: the riches of Downtown West.

Image credit: Photo by David Bowman

Recommended by the Editor

The Twin Cities' Best Neighborhoods

Minneapoils Neighborhoods: The Runners-Up

By: METRO staff |   September 2011   |  From the print edition

Editor's note: What follows is a listing of the top ten neighborhoods in Minneapolis, as ranked with the help of the University of Minnesota's Center for Urban and Regional Affairs.

For a full explanation of the way the neighborhoods were ranked, read our introduction to this series. We've ranked 20 additional neighborhoods in Minneapolis, as well as the top ten neighborhoods in St. Paul.

Think we missed the mark? Let us know what makes your neighborhood great on our Facebook page, or tweet us @metromag using the hashtag #tchoods.

1. Downtown West
Borders (N, S, E, W): Mississippi River, 12th Street, Portland and 5th Avenue S., 3rd Avenue N.

Mill City’s number one ’hood might surprise those who view quiet nooks like Longfellow and Linden Hills as model Minneapolis communities. Quiet it ain’t, but the city’s business hub offers plenty of perks to its adventurous residents: high- and low-brow retail (Neiman Marcus is a dildo’s throw from Sex World); myriad transit options (dig the light-rail and bike-sharing); world-class amusement (take me out to the ballgame or the symphony or the rock show); food trucks and special-occasion spots (hello, Manny’s); a first-rate library that looks like a rectangular pirate ship; and a simmering, big-city vibe you won’t find anywhere else in the metro. Its condos might be pricy, its streets unsafe after dark, but this is a downtown in a major metropolitan area we’re talking about. If you want Mayberry in the city, move to Bryn Mawr. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy the clown-show.

2. Loring Park
N, S, E, W: 12th Street and the I-394 downtown connector, I-94, I-35W, Lyndale/Hennepin Avenue corridor

What does it say about a neighborhood that ranks in the top 10 for schools and bars? In the case of Loring Park, quite a lot, actually. Giving a geographic piggyback ride to Downtown West, it’s as diverse a locale as any. L.P. has two hearts: 1.) Its eponymous green space, featuring a recently renovated bikeway and 2.) Harmon Place, its unofficial eat street (notable tenants include Café Lurcat, Nick and Eddie and Joe’s Garage). The Loring Theater, gorgeous, 100-year-old apartment buildings and the Emerson Spanish Immersion Learning Center, a celebrated K–8 public school, round out this quainter, quieter alternative to downtown.

3. Diamond Lake
N, S, E, W: 55th Street/Diamond Lake Road, Highway 62, Highway 77/Cedar Avenue, I-35W/2nd Avenue S.

Diamond Lake ranks high on this list despite middling results in lifestyle categories such as restaurants, retail and arts (this despite featuring the excellent Museum of Russian Art, the best of its kind in America). Where it compensates is with a very low crime rate, high-ranked schools (Hale School Elementary, technically over the border in the Hale neighborhood), and high marks for recreation (Pearl Park has a wading pool, ball fields, recreation center and wintertime skating; Diamond Lake Park boasts wetlands for canoeing and birding). Picturesque and kid friendly, Diamond Lake manages to shove a few sexier neighborhoods to the side with its amenities geared toward family life.

4. Marcy Holmes
N, S, E, W: 9th Street S.E., Mississippi River, 15th Avenue S.E., Central Avenue

This riverside hamlet is the birthplace of the city, and more than 150 years later it remains vital to the Twin Cities’ food, art and culture landscapes. It boasts St. Anthony Main’s cinema, retail and dining complex; Dinkytown establishments like the Varsity Theater; Alex Roberts’s critically acclaimed Brasa and Restaurant Alma; and housing styles ranging from modest, single-family homes to shiny condos and converted mansions. Marcy Holmes is ideal for just about any commuter: Downtown is within walking distance, I-35W is nearby, 5th Street S.E.’s bike path leads right into the heart of the U of M, while dozens of Metro Transit routes link it with the rest of the metro.

5. Cedar Riverside
N, S, E, W: Mississippi River, I-94, Mississippi River, I-35W

Cedar Riverside began as the center of Scandinavian life in Minneapolis and has since morphed into a global urban village where East African immigrants co-mingle with students co-mingle with hard-luck drunks, gutter punks and other salty characters. Come for the affordable housing—single-family, high-rise condos, you name it—stay for fantastic ethnic restaurants like Chai’s Thai and Tam Tam’s, and performing arts stalwarts such as Mixed Blood Theatre, the Southern and the Cedar. 

6. Howe
N, S, E, W: 34th Street, 40th Street, Mississippi River, Hiawatha Avenue

Named for native daughter Julia Ward Howe, author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” this leafy southeast Minneapolis district boasts well-built bungalows and easy access to West River Parkway’s biking and walking trails. Plus, it’s super safe relative to the rest of the city, making it a great place to raise a brood or walk your dog late at night.

7. Seward
N, S, E, W: I-94, 27th Street E./Midtown Greenway, Mississippi River, Hiawatha Avenue

Like Cedar Riverside, Seward’s diversity isn’t just reflected in its residents (college students, immigrants, aging hippies and everyone in between seem to call this neighborhood home). Apartment buildings sit alongside the Milwaukee Avenue Historic District’s stylized homes and bike- and pedestrian-friendly mall. Punk rock bowling alleys, vegan holes-in-the-wall and dive bars (Memory Lanes, Seward Café and the Hexagon Bar, specifically) coexist with the decidedly less lowbrow Birchwood Café, Playwrights’ Center and Seward Co-op. Riverside Park ties it all together with a family-friendly recreational area—complete with soccer field, tennis courts, wading pool and dog park—along the river.

8. Lowry Hill East
N, S, E, W: Hennepin and Lyndale, Lake Street, Lyndale Avenue, Hennepin Avenue

Also tagged by the glamorous sobriquet “the Wedge,” this Uptown sector is a well-known hub for shopping, dining, theater and art centers. Once you venture beyond Hennepin, Lyndale and Lake, the neighborhood’s interior boasts varied housing from Victorian single-family homes, rooming houses and apartment buildings for singles and up-and-comers. Lowry Hill East keeps evolving, from 1960s funk to 1990s gentrification to where it is now: a dense, lively and utterly varied neighborhood. Housing values are still high when weighted against the rest of the city, but this is what happens when you wedge (get it?) the Brave New Workshop, the Herkimer and Fifth Element into the same part of town.

9. Longfellow
N, S, E, W: 27th Street, 34th Street, 38th Avenue, Hiawatha Avenue   

Life in Longfellow is easy-peasy: Residents brag of LRT and Midtown Greenway access, eclectic commercial pockets on East Lake and Minnehaha, and Minneapolis’s highest neighborhood diversity ranking. And once they’ve had enough of all that culture, they need only head east to the River and all its recreational glory (bike trails, fishing, park land … ). 

10. CARAG
N, S, E, W: Lake Street, 36th Street, Lyndale Avenue, Hennepin Avenue

CARAG benefits from being at the crossroads of all sorts of goodies: the Uptown state of mind sneaks across its borders, Lake Calhoun is just a stroll away and it boasts high ratings in restaurants and retail (e.g., Lucia’s and Bull Run Coffee). CARAG also has the expanse of Bryant Square Park, with facilities for basketball and baseball, a wading pool, ice rink and free warm-weather concerts. The Uptown Neighborhood News serves as its chronicle of note.