[kaitai]

But that's the nice thing about Minneapolis: with only a modicum of planning where you'll live, you can bike or take public transit year-round, and it's not that expensive. I can walk/bike to two neighborhood grocery stores and a Whole Foods (all within a mile or so), three coffeeshops (blue-collar/hipster/coffee snob), etc. I only drive a few days a week because I work evenings and just want to get home at 9 pm instead of waiting for a bus transfer, and the high-frequency buses are concentrated around rush hours. (We can take a direct bus to the opera and delicious cocktails, fortunately.) Our house was not cheap but not expensive and the utility prices are not high because it's reasonably insulated, even though 90 years old.

My friends in Ann Arbor have the two cars and the high utility costs, but here in MSP we've got the one ancient car, non-expensive house in the heart of the city, and unremarkable utility costs (and we cover our year's electricity with solar panels).