Top 10 Reasons Why Eden Prairie IS NOT A Good Place to Live

Namely, Eden Prairie.

I honestly hope that some spider picks up this blog and makes it very public.  Eden Prairie, MN is one of the worst places in which to live.  Money Magazine is WRONG. Why?

1.  Airports- plural
Eden Prairie has their own airport and in an effort to be "a big city" has continued to extend the runways.  In addition, the FAA has lowered the flight ceiling, so you CONSTANTLY here airplanes.  And they fly ALL NIGHT.  The airport is supposed to be closed between 10pm and 6am, but they won't enforce the law because that would make the pilots mad and they might (heaven forbid) go somewhere else.

In addition, the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, in their infinite wisdom, has rerouted all of their jet traffic over 494, which means that they ALL come over Eden Prairie.

2.  The Traffic.
Eden Prairie used to be a little town on the edge of 494 (a major freeway).  It was so nestled among the hills of the city that you wouldn't even know that you were passing through it.  But now, Eden Prairie has 4 major highways going through it.  And they didn't increase the other roads that feed the freeways to accommodate the traffic.  So, from 7 to 9 in the morning, 11:30 to 2pm, and 3:30 to 6 in the evening, the city is so gridlocked, you can't travel in it.

And, no, the traffic isn't any better on the weekends. The streets are so full of cars that you'd think that it was a parking lot between going to the one undersized mall and the mega-churches on every corner.  (The top 3 largest churches in the Twin Cities are found in Eden Prairie)

3.  School Buses
If you HAVE to be on the road during one of these times, 9 times out of 10, you'll be stuck behind a school bus.  Their routes overlap- you can watch the buses pull out of the same school and then stop at every corner of every block- And they won't let you around.

4.  Southwest Station

It was a great idea to put a city bus station in Eden Prairie.  They even built a parking ramp so that you could find parking there.  However, Southwest Station is the HUB for the entire Southwestern Metro bus system...and they obviously didn't count the number of bus riders of the line before putting up the parking structure because they can't even get 1/2 the cars into the structure before it's full.  So, they make you park a mile down -at a church- and walk a mile to the bus.  It's a great challenge in work clothes on raining and snowing days.  Thanks, Southwest Metro.

6.  New train!
Oh, yes.  As if it weren't enough that you can't get away from the air traffic or car traffic or bus traffic, Eden Prairie is going to add a train station!  Isn't that fantastic?  And they're not going to increase the city infrastructure to handle this, either.  The plans are just to add the train station and a little parking area (maybe 50 cars).  It'll be the only train station for miles...So, if the city is only hoping for 50 people or less to ride the train, great!  Otherwise, you morons, you didn't plan for the parking or the access to the station.

7.  City voting in churches
Evidently, the city hasn't heard of the separation of church and state.  The polling places are in churches.  Now, some religions forbid their believers from entering other religious buildings.  So, this is specifically designed to keep the voting population Christian and to prevent other peoples from having a fair say.

8.  Forced Ethnic "Desegregation" of schools.

In an effort to equalize the ethnicity of the schools in Eden Prairie, the city is enforcing a busing schedule.  Did they learn nothing from Watts, California??

9. Spanish immersion schools.
We live in the United States of America.  There was a vote during the Continental Congress for a national language and English was selected.  But if they wanted to offer one Spanish immersion school, that would be fine.  But we live less than 300 miles from Canada- French, Canada.  So, why don't they offer French immersion schools?  Because, generally, people who speak French also learn English, so there's no need to learn their language.  People who learn Spanish (granted, this is Mexican Spanish, not Spain Spanish), don't learn English.  I want my child to learn German and Gaelic.  That's my heritage.  Or, I want her to learn Japanese or Chinese, because that is actually meaningful in the world of business.

10. The Best of all:  The "Amenities" of Eden Prairie are discriminatory against people of lesser income.
Specially, the Eden Prairie Art Center.  One of the instructors made a comment that she refused treat non-class members of the Art Center equal with respect to letting us use the facilities.  (You can be a member of the Art Center to use the facilities without having to take one of the over-priced classes).  The City of Eden Prairie Recreation Department has now supported this decision and stated that those people who pay more (i.e. are rich enough to afford the over-priced classes) should be treated with more consideration and should be allowed to use facility more often and with priority over those members who cannot afford the luxury of an Art Class.



So, in summary, if you're a rich Christian, have your own plane, or just don't have to work, Eden Prairie will match up with you just fine.  If you're in the working class, don't go to a Christian church, or just want to be treated as an equal, then I highly recommend moving elsewhere.  Minnetonka, for instance.

Eden Prairie is one of the worst places to live in.
Eden Prairie is one of the worst places to live in.
Eden Prairie is one of the worst places to live in.
Eden Prairie is one of the worst places to live in.
Eden Prairie is one of the worst places to live in.
Eden Prairie is one of the worst places to live in.
Eden Prairie is one of the worst places to live in.
Eden Prairie is one of the worst places to live in.
Eden Prairie is one of the worst places to live in.
Eden Prairie is one of the worst places to live in.
Eden Prairie is one of the worst places to live in.
Eden Prairie is one of the worst places to live in.
Eden Prairie is one of the worst places to live in.
Eden Prairie is one of the worst places to live in.
Pick that up spiders.