I will throw in a vote for Hamline-Midway in St. Paul. I know, I know, Minneapolis people think St. Paul is boring. My younger SIL once told me St. Paul is where "people go to die" LOL. Well, I'm still alive so PHEW.
In particular I like being a 10 minute walk from the Green Line, which is a 15 minute ride to ~either~ downtown, no fuss no muss. I went to a Twins game and it was 30 minutes door to door and cost me $3.50 round trip. You can't beat that for convenience. If there's construction on 35E, I can easily use 35W and not lose time (or vice versa) because I'm basically equidistant to both. But honestly, there will probably be construction on both so it makes no difference HA. I'm a 10-15 minute drive to the airport (which is a super cheap cab if you so choose). I'm always driving ~against~ the flow of traffic for rush hour, since everyone else lives in the burbs and commutes in. I'm 30 minutes to Stillwater, 30 minutes to Hastings and less than an hour to awesome tubing at Welch. I can visit my family in southern suburbs, my SO's family in northern suburbs and friends in eastern suburbs all in under a 30 minute drive because I'm in the middle of everything (notice we don't cross the river much :P)! Also, I'm close-ish to the State Fair, if that's your thing. If anything, you can take advantage of free fireworks or auto-show entertainment by posting up a lawn chair along Snelling Avenue during events.
I was told by a realtor once that Hamline-Midway is a step up from NE. I have no idea if that's true, since I've never lived in NE, but if you're going to look at NE as an option you may want to look at Hamline-Midway as well. I've heard there are similarities. We don't have as many cool bars, but we do have the Turf Club! Eh?! Ok, not as cool haha.
As far as housing goes, these are older homes (early 1900s), many of which have been remodeled. You'll hear the term "good bones" which means, they'll probably stand 100 years longer than the crap they're building in outer-ring suburbs, but it also means don't ever open a wall (plaster, not drywall) unless you want to gasp in horror at all the work to get it up to code. Just close that wall back up and back away slowly...
They've been dumping development money into the University-94 corridor, with a soccer stadium planned in the next few years. That's leading to a bit of gentrification the closer you get to that area, but homes this spring/summer are getting snatched up within a day of being on market. I haven't seen anything like it in years.
Anyway... hope that's enough info to get a St. Paul location on the list, even though that's where PEOPLE GO TO DIE haha :)
Edit: I forgot the best part. I know this isn't unique to St. Paul, as you'll find this in many Minneapolis neighborhoods too, but there are so many mini-homestead situations cropping up. Neighbors are getting chickens. People are building vegetable gardens in their front yards. There are at least 3 community gardens I can think of in the general vicinity. More and more I see people ditching the pristine lawn concept for food growing, and I'm loving the trend. I kind of love the city for that, as it's not something I tend to see in the suburbs.