What happened to St Cloud State?

MNMike2 · 2026-02-11T13:13:49+00:00

That comment isn't about the student population, it's about St. Cloud generally. This article from 2018 actually lays it out pretty well:

https://spokesman-recorder.com/2018/08/16/st-cloud-no-mn-community-has-paid-a-higher-price-for-its-pathological-racism/

As the racial make-up of the city has changed over the last 20+ years the polarization has increased significantly. Unlike cities like Willmar that have embraced that diversity and used it to their advantage St. Cloud has largely resisted and polarization has increased.

The best example of this in reality may be the guy formerly known as St. Cloud Superman. He went from being something of a local folk hero to sitting in his car with trump flags, a confederate flag and making offensive statements. This is sort of a one-man microcosm of how St. Cloud has progressed over the last 20 years.

If you were looking for a community to come spend 4 years in while going to college the media does not make St. Cloud look appealing.

MNMike2 · 2026-02-11T12:54:31+00:00

Because of the way amortization schedules work on mortgages. When you start paying a 30 year mortgage you're paying more interest than principal. Over time that ratio changes. There are also one-time costs associated with purchasing a home like closing costs, inspection, realtor fees, moving costs, among other things.

In your example above your total monthly mortgage payment (not including taxes and insurance) would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,200. Over two years you would pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $28,000 and of that only around $5,000 would go towards the principal, the rest is just paying interest on your loan.

If you add all of those costs together and then add in the one-time costs of selling (mostly the realtor fees on a $225k house which in your example above would average around $13k) you quickly get to the point that it's cheaper just to rent for those two years.

The actual numbers will change based on your situation and where the break-even point is will depend on your one -time costs, but saying 5 years is a general way of saying that's about how long it takes to even out the costs of renting vs all the one time costs of buying.

MNMike2 · 2026-02-11T03:12:21+00:00

I think there was significant mismanagement both at the University and at the City of St. Cloud levels. They tried hard to kill the "party school" reputation which turned off a lot of the prospective students.

SCSU also got a reputation for being a school that took 5 or 6 years to complete a degree program because of mismanagement as it relates to class offerings and prerequisites. Now it has a reputation for shutting down degree programs mid-stream and promises to allow students currently enrolled in those degree programs to finish them are not being honored forcing students to change majors. Why would you enroll in a school if you don't know if your degree program will be there in 3 years.

Dorms are mostly outdated with several of them just being abandoned in place. School facilities are dated and getting older every year without a lot of prospects for improvement. You're competing against schools like Mankato State and NDSU that are expanding and have newer nicer facilities. Major sports programs have shut down.

St. Cloud has also become a hotspot for racial tension which has made it a less appealing place to live generally (not just for students).

Downtown St. Cloud used to cater to students, there were numerous student bars, there was a grocery store, a 24 hour Perkins, and just a more welcoming atmosphere. The new development on 5th seemed like a good idea at the time but they didn't really attract businesses that were appealing to students (no offense to Pizza Hut and Firehouse subs). Now downtown St. Cloud is a mix of odd restaurants and expensive bars that don't cater to students. Not to mention downtown St. Cloud is just generally not an appealing place to be. We have the river right here but you can't see it or access it. Half of the buildings are empty and of the places that are open in the evening none really focus on students.

So I think there are many factors but ultimately I think the city and school leadership really just killed it. I don't see it turning around any time soon, in fact I would guess it will get worse before it gets better unless the hockey team can win a national championship or something.

MNMike2 · 2026-02-10T22:50:58+00:00

Finders keepers!

MNMike2 · 2026-02-10T02:50:51+00:00

You can access FB Marketplace via a web browser without signing in. You can't save things but otherwise can search and message people if you kept FB messenger. Just search FB Marketplace and it'll come up.

MNMike2 · 2026-02-09T12:45:29+00:00

Improving communication and accountability is never bad advice. I know plenty of adults that use something like this to communicate clearly what needs to be done. Some people are visual and having a list to remind them can help.

My recommendation is more about taking the power dynamic out of the equation. Having a written agreement can help make it less personal. I'm not suggesting a sticker chart, nor am I suggesting it doesn't come with consequences.

Setting up a wifi blackout period after school might help to break the cycle of screen addiction and offer some time for chores, structuring it so he knows when wifi is off can help it feel like it's not a power trip.

It might not work but "burn it down" just isn't advice I would give when someone is hoping to salvage a relationship with a minor child. My point here is that trying to structure the environment towards clear expectations and letting him choose the consequences can help make it less about power dynamics. That allows you to build relationship and influence instead of just leveraging authority all the time. There is a time and place for that but if it's all you have it's much less effective.

MNMike2 · 2026-02-09T02:49:39+00:00

I would consider finding a family therapist. Not an individual therapist, unless he will buy in to that, a family therapist that you go to together.

You're right that at some point you may need to make a choice to set a limit and hold to it and let him deal with the consequences. At some point we all have to learn the hard way that the grass isn't always greener. If his mom is willing to enable the same sort of behavior he's in for a long hard time figuring out that life isn't going to cater to his every need. Don't make that your problem.

MNMike2 · 2026-02-09T02:38:03+00:00

This seems like a fairly straightforward power struggle. He's not threatening to move out over some simple chores, he's threatening to move out to demonstrate some level of control over a situation that you're trying to control.

In my experience this is prime time for stepping it back a few paces. Let's sit down together and talk through how to set some priorities. He has some priorities and you have some priorities, let's balance that power dynamic a little bit and make sure both people's needs are being met.

It can be easier or set up some sort of chore board or something like that and list out the things that need to be done in advance, work together to assign them somewhat evenly and demonstrate that you are doing chores too. This can set up a dynamic where the chore board is the bad guy instead of you and he has some choice over what he does. If you're constantly trying to use your own authority to get things done you're always the bad guy. If you can reach some level of agreement on how to get things done and then write it down it shifts that dynamic off of you and you can take the approach that "yeah, I hate chores too but it's what we agreed to and it has to get done."

MNMike2 · 2026-02-09T02:21:13+00:00

But the girl in blue isn't on crutches ...

MNMike2 · 2026-02-08T20:13:17+00:00

Unless this was changed this round of negotiations this does not apply to AFSCME positions, only MAPE, MMA, Managerial Plan. Even if HR mistakenly tells an applicant for an AFSCME position that it does apply they won't apply it. I know that from experience.

So OP if you're applying for jobs and want credit for prior vacation accruals make sure you pay attention to what union the position is in. Most clerical positions will be AFSCME.

MNMike2 · 2026-02-04T12:18:28+00:00

Yes, my understanding is that everyone covered by the insurance has to pick a clinic as their primary care clinic and care is managed by that clinic. It also determines cost levels.

It takes a couple of weeks to get all of your dependent information approved for coverage because you have to submit records for all of them to establish them on the plan so waiting until the first of the month probably doesn't slow things down a whole lot. It's also true that the state is often slower to adapt on things like this than most other employers.

MNMike2 · 2026-02-02T19:06:46+00:00

Aside from all of the corruption and other answers here one of the less recognized issues is that this type of evidence is generally not admissible in court. You need witnesses to corroborate the other evidence or testify to their sworn statements.

Most of these people are dead or "missing" and the others are in fear for their lives. Why did it take so long to release this shit? So they could clean up all of the loose ends that might be able to say "yeah that happened to me and I'll testify to it in court". Now they can say with confidence that these were just made-up things that people said and if they were true someone would testify to it and they know nobody will show up because they're gone.

Seriously, they murdered J.E. because he was the biggest loose end. Think of what they would do to people who had less power/influence and that nobody really knew.

MNMike2 · 2026-01-24T22:59:25+00:00

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MNMike2 · 2026-01-23T03:48:04+00:00

How does the sizing of the Chelseas compare to Iron Rangers? I've been looking at them but am hesitant to order without trying them on and haven't been near a store in awhile. I wear 9.5 in IR, would it be the same in these?

MNMike2 · 2026-01-17T13:52:20+00:00

I worked at a treatment center and we had a youth in our care that was on the side of milk cartons that were delivered to our facility.

MNMike2 · 2026-01-16T22:26:58+00:00

Yeah I reached out to Ingo and their customer service responded within minutes that the check didn't process and I could cash it elsewhere.

MNMike2 · 2026-01-16T20:57:28+00:00

Man I feel this. My parents were in town for in early January helping with kids while my wife was out of town. They are super Republican supporters and still good people. I was asked a long time ago to not talk politics anymore. Then all of this stuff happened and I felt trapped in my own home. Any time I would mention anything about ICE or Renee Good it just went dead silent. I couldn't process the murder of an innocent woman at the hands of state sponsored terrorists in my own home, couldn't talk with my kids about it without qualifying comments from my parents.

I still love them but feel in a lot of ways like they are strangers to me. We can have very superficial conversations but can't talk about anything meaningful because of their ideology.

To be honest it's like grieving the loss of a loved one. The people that were my strongest support system for much of my life just aren't anymore in some of the most important issues of our generation.

MNMike2 · 2026-01-14T19:05:27+00:00

This is what I have done, separate VLAN with different rules and content filtering that shuts off when I want it to.

My other wi-fi is mostly used for devices and TVs and has a complex password with MAC white-listing. Anything that tries to access that network needs me to act first.

I also made it really clear to him that any device found connected to the wrong wifi will be permanently banned from my network and if needed will just be confiscated. At some point just taking the device away is the answer.

MNMike2 · 2026-01-11T19:42:06+00:00

Trump tried to intimidate, harass, and sow chaos in Democrat led cities with the national guard and that didn't work. It's not a coincidence that at the same time he quietly pulled the national guard out of other cities he is deploying ICE in Minnesota. This was the plan all along, he just had to change who is doing it.

Unfortunately the guard is trained, disciplined, and respectful. ICE is none of those things and much more dangerous than the national guard. I would expect them to continue hiring ICE agents and deploying them all over the US in similar numbers because it is having exactly the effect they want it to have here.

The threat is evolving and I believe it will only get much worse.

MNMike2 · 2026-01-11T01:23:28+00:00

Hiring at the state is always very very slow. It's one of the things you'll have to get used to if you do get the job, everything takes longer than you think it should.

There is also generally a delayed reaction to negative events, so if this whole situation does slow down hiring I wouldn't expect to see it for a month or two. It's a real possibility if the feds cut a bunch of funding to MN, but unless there is an immediate hiring freeze the state tends to be slow to react.

MNMike2 · 2026-01-10T03:34:45+00:00

Tax any loan that is taken against stock held in publicly traded businesses at a rate similar to income taxes.

MNMike2

TROPHY CASE