Isn't Whittier your hood, BRTD? Probably not for me per your descriptions. What is Como like? ND is out. Mankato if Como is a bit too gritty for the old man.
All of these are everywhere I've lived.
Whittier is not gentrifying despite what memphis said and despite what the wiki article might imply, it's more like an example of urban renewal done right. But it's not pricing people out (my rent hasn't gone up since I've moved here.) BTW the wiki article is obviously written by one of those annoying "community activist" types and probably a neighborhood alliance member, with all the spiel about how that big bad evil K-Mart is responsible for all the problems but as tough as it was the neighborhood alliance fought to overcome it, wouldn't put much stock in that bit.
Como is a neighborhood in what's geographically Northeast (but SE on the street signs, Minneapolis geographic designations on signs rarely make sense) that sits near the U but isn't quite a university neighborhood as memphis said, it has a lot of students but moreso like ex-students or grad students (Marcy-Holmes aka Dinkytown is the annoying student neighborhood), and also lots of university employees or just middle class people who enjoy the easy commute to downtown. Not particularly "gritty" at all. Mankato is a standard college town.