A Tale of Twin Cities

The 1992 Ice Palace (via)

This Saturday, [Львица] and I went to the St. Paul Winter Carnival's opening parade, officially the King Boreas Grande Day Parade, which was a long time coming, because it was something I suggested we do last fall, but, because I am not a very good planner, it didn't happen last year. Anyways, we went this year, and it was fun. The parade was better than I expected and, while it was cold, it wasn't the unbearably bitter cold that tends to occur around this time in January, so it was possible to sit outside for two hours and only have numb toes (which is a success in Minnesota in January). Add some food and cannolis, and it was an altogether pleasant afternoon. I'd never been to one of  the Winter Carnival parades before, so it was cool to see all of the groups associated with it: the winds, the Klondike Kates, the Vulcans (sadly not of the Spock variety), the Royal Guard, and others that I don't recall at the moment and am too lazy to look up.

I feel like I don't really know all that much about the Carnival, given that I grew up practically in St. Paul (yes, I know that Falcon Hts. is not technically St. Paul, but it's in a St. Paul ZIP code, the border is half a block from my house, and it's much more like St. Paul than the other neighboring city of Roseville, which is much more suburban, so I'm going to round up), but then I try to talk about it with people from other parts of the Twin Cities, or Minneapolis, and they have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, so I guess knowing anything about it makes me a real St. Paulite (St. Pauler? St. Paulian? St. Pauliot? Why are there so many options?!?). My family never really got into the Carnival, but I had a couple of the buttons, and when the Ice Palace was in Como Park, we got to watch it's construction, and then went to it when it opened, and I went medallion hunting one year with [Not a Hipster?]. I think that it's a shame that they stopped building the Ice Palaces, even if they were destroying the planet, because they were so unique to St. Paul, the festival as a whole is as well, but the castles were the most visible part of it, which is so often overshadowed by Minneapolis.

I love both cities, for very different reasons, but I have often found myself caught between the two, because I grew up in St. Paul (adjacent), but went to school in Minneapolis. I grew up going to Como Park and being traumatized at the Como Zoo, got on family outing to Grand Avenue, and driving down Summit looking at all the cool mansions. While my neighborhood was smack dab between the two down towns, we went into St. Paul much more often than Minneapolis, although that was mostly because of the Science Museum in down town St. Paul (which is still awesome).

I went to high school in Minneapolis, right between down town and Northeast (the hipster, trendy neighborhood), and my school mostly drew people from Minneapolis, so I spent a lot more time there, and got to know the city a lot better. I also got really defensive about St. Paul, because while I love Minneapolis, I got really sick of people saying that it was better, complaining about confusing street names, a lack of nightlife, and it being generally small and boring. The first two are true, although I don't think your ability to navigate should end at the river (seriously people, maps are a thing, you can even get them on your phone now, it's not hard, besides, there are only about 4 major cross streets in St. Paul). The third is something I don't think people from Minneapolis really grasp. St. Paul is indeed smaller than Minneapolis, with about 100,000 fewer people, but Minneapolis itself really isn't that big by anything other than Upper Midwestern standards, with only about 385,000 people if Wikipedia is to be believed. It's the 48th biggest city in the US. 48th.

What I'm trying to say here, is that Minneapolis needs to get over itself. It's an awesome city, I love it and I loving living in it and going to school in it, but I have met far too many people from Southwest Minneapolis who are such snobs about it (well, snobs in general), who seem to think that nothing and nobody interesting comes from anywhere except Southwest, and nothing cool every happens anywhere except Uptown. They wouldn't dare to set foot in St. Paul lest they be contaminated. Granted, there are people in St. Paul who think that if they cross the river they'll instantly be murdered, but I haven't met as many who are so vocal about it.

Take that Minneapolis! (via)

I love both cities, having lived in (or near) both, and both have their merits, although they are very different. More like fraternal twins than identical. St. Paul is older, more stately, quieter, and more residential. Minneapolis is trendier, bigger, with more business and nightlife. There are parts of both I wouldn't want to go, and parts of both that are positively stunning, albeit in different ways. The best way I've heard it put is that Minneapolis is where you spend your twenties and St. Paul is where you settle down and raise your kids. That seems to sum it up fairly well, I think.