urbanMSP

Maybe if these micro-suburbs don't have enough of a tax base to stay afloat without resorting to aggressive traffic enforcement, they should be folded into the bigger cities that can? Not that it would necessarily help the policing situation.

Saint Paul would be glad to have them.

St Paul here, we'll gladly take both Falcon Heights and Saint Anthony. Another 13.5k people towards being larger than Minneapolis again.

Naw, we don't want St. Anthony. It would also be an island, Roseville gets in the way.

St Paul here, we'll gladly take both Falcon Heights and Saint Anthony. Another 13.5k people towards being larger than Minneapolis again.

St. Paul can have Falcon Heights and Lauderdale. You should claim that weird southern stretch of Maplewood while you're at it.

Saint Anthony belongs in Minneapolis along with the rest of Saint Anthony that Minneapolis claimed a long time ago.

Minneapolitan here, I'd be fine with giving St. Paul everything east of the river.

It's ok because St Paul can defacto absorb Ramsey County by merging our county and municipal governments. We do make up a majority of Ramsey county (300k/500k), and that would put St Paul at 500k today.

Ok then St. Paulites, we were trying to be reasonable here but you went straight for the nuclear option. MPLS will take Richfield, SLP, Golden Valley and Crystal and still beat all of Ramsey county without even having to merge with the rest. Boom.

Minneapolitan here, I'd be fine with giving St. Paul everything east of the river.

RIP tax base.

How would we distinguish between the two UMN campuses if they were both in St. Paul?

How would we distinguish between the two UMN campuses if they were both in St. Paul?

Shhhhhh! Details....

Ok then St. Paulites, we were trying to be reasonable here but you went straight for the nuclear option. MPLS will take Richfield, SLP, Golden Valley and Crystal and still beat all of Ramsey county without even having to merge with the rest. Boom.

You don't have a political path towards doing that. We just need a county-wide referendum.

Also I think there's a thread that's more appropriate for talk of municipal boundaries (idr where) if the mods want to move discussion.

How would we distinguish between the two UMN campuses if they were both in St. Paul?

Like everybody else, you forget that many of us on the UMN Twin Cities campus are *west* of the river...

Good article if you're interested in city-county consolidations and whatnot: http://www.governing.com/columns/eco-en ... nance.html

Somewhat relevant to this thread, Nick posted this on twitter a few months ago and I had reason to dig it up and since it's an open tab you all get to look at:
http://hclib.tumblr.com/post/5366939924 ... -worked-on

A map of when each part of Minneapolis was annexed.

At the time, the Mpls-Richfield border was at 54th St. The compromise solution was that Minneapolis annexed down to 62nd, and the rest remained Richfield (which was still almost entirely farmland). If I'm not mistaken, there was also a failed effort to annex down to 66th Street. If that would have happened, I'd guess Richfield probably would not exist today, as Minneapolis would have later annexed down to 78th Street to finish the job.

Not to get too off on a tangent, but it's interesting that starting in the 1990s in Europe, you see all this reorganization of smaller cities that results in a lot of mergers and such, yet we've resisted a similar movement around here. I imagine a lot of this has to do with the willingness of the central government to impose such a regime from the top rather than it emerging organically, because it's a lot harder to convince Lauderdale that it's in its own best interests to no longer be independent.

Yes, the US is truly federalist while most European countries are centralized. Even most provinces in Canada are more centralized, which has made it possible for provinces to pull off similar mergers, with mixed results. Toronto - success. Montréal - failure. And a mixed bag elsewhere.

Illuminating article on many small towns in Minnesota failing to find a single candidate for open elected positions.

http://strib.mn/2edbn8w

Such as Minnetonka Beach, wealthy enclave of execs, doctors, lawyers, and a population of under 600 have zero candidates for city treasurer. And it seems there are state requirements cities must have treasurers.

Maybe Minnetonka Beach should dissolve and merge with a neighboring town if they can't put together a government? Merging obviously isn't exactly a solution for distant rural towns but microsuburbs in the Twin Cities it should be looked at.

What effect would the end of LGA have on these little suburbs?

Also, would St. Paul taking over Ramsey County turn it into Indianapolis? Or more like Portland, OR?
St. Paul: 56 sqmi, 301k population
Ramsey County: 170 sqmi, 538k
Indianapolis: 372 sqmi, 853k
Portland, OR: 145 sqmi, 632k
Minneapolis: 58 sqmi, 411k