So when drawing metro districts I think the important thing to keep in mind is that people in the north and south metros usually don't think of themselves as living in a "Minneapolis suburb" or "St. Paul suburb" unless they live in Hennepin/Ramsey County or one of the cities with "St. Paul" in the name, especially as the highway system setup means commuting to each one is about the same time. (East and West metro is different for obvious reasons.) However they do associate those areas together as a community. So keeping the Twin Cities separate from a community of interest perspective is important, but not the areas immediately to their north or south. But you also don't want to draw districts that wrap around one of the Twin Cities and combines both north and south metro areas because those are considered seperate CoIs.
For the record the 2011 map that DFL legislative leaders proposed actually did contain a south metro district of a string of first ring suburbs both south of Minneapolis and St. Paul. This was the easiest way to draw a strongly DFL suburban district pre-Trump. But I can't see them drawing a district that combines north and south metro areas unless it's an attempt at a pack seat, and I can't see a supposedly neutral court doing it, period.
What are the differences between the north and soth metro burbs?
