Rogers Named Best Place To Raise Kids
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A small town in Hennepin County has been named the best place to raise kids in the state.
Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg Rankings picked Rogers, Minn., because of its public school performance, housing costs and its number of households with children.
Rogers – the last city in the county as one drives west on Interstate 94 -- has become the place to be for growing families.
"The Rogers area has great schools. We have great park and recreational activities for young families," said Steve Stahmer, the city administrator.
The town's activity center is at the center of it all.
Youth and high school hockey games are played there, skating is also open to the public, and space is available for community meetings and for kids to get help with homework.
"We feel we have a very strong mix of housing stock...a good mix of commercial industrial; we have quite a few jobs in town," Stahmer said.
With more than 11,000 people, Rogers has more than 8,500 job opportunities.
"[Rogers is] pretty much a mecca of everything," Zeanna Amundson said. "There is a lot of things happening."
Amundson and her husband moved to Rogers eight years ago when they were expecting their first child. Now she's a first grader and has a sister, who attends Kids of Peace pre-school, where Amundson works.
She says the after school activities, churches and overall feeling of community are what keep her family here.
"It does kind of have that hometown feeling, but yet it is growing and it is something that is a treasure," Amundson said.
According to the Metropolitan Council, Rogers' population could grow to more than 25,000 people in the next 15 years.
