Minneapolis is the largest
cityA city is a relatively large and permanent settlement, particularly a large urban settlement. Although there is no agreement on technical definitions distinguishing a city from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status...
in the
U.S. stateA U.S. state is any one of 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government . Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile...
of
MinnesotaMinnesota is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.2 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the...
and is the
county seatA county seat is a term for an administrative center for a county or civil parish, primarily used in the United States. In the Northeast United States, the statutory term often is shire town, but colloquially county seat is the term in use there...
of
Hennepin CountyHennepin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Minnesota, named in honor of the 17th-century French explorer Father Louis Hennepin. As of 2000 the population was 1,116,200; in 2008 the U.S. Census Bureau estimated its population to be 1,140,988. Its county seat is Minneapolis...
. The city lies on both banks of the
Mississippi RiverThe Mississippi River is the second longest river in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico....
, just north of the river's confluence with the
Minnesota RiverThe Minnesota River is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 332 miles long, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It drains a watershed of nearly 17,000 square miles , 14,751 square miles in Minnesota and about 2,000 sq mi in South Dakota and Iowa.It rises in southwestern...
, and adjoins
Saint PaulSaint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the north bank of the Mississippi River, downstream of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
, the state's capital. Known as the
Twin CitiesU.S. Census Bureau Areas|-! colspan="2" | |-! colspan="2" style="background:#d8d8e8;color:#000;" | Minneapolis-St. Paul-St. Cloud CSA, MN-WI
|-| Population || 3,502,891...
, these two form the core of Minneapolis-St. Paul, the sixteenth-largest
metropolitan areaA metropolitan area is a large population center consisting of a large metropolis and its adjacent zone of influence, or of more than one closely adjoining neighboring central cities and their zone of influence...
in the United States, with 3.5 million residents. The
Metropolitan CouncilThe Metropolitan Council is the regional governmental agency in Minnesota serving the Twin Cities seven-county metropolitan area . The Met Council is granted regional authority powers in state statutes by the Minnesota Legislature...
estimated the city's population was 390,131 in 2009.
The city is abundantly rich in water with over twenty lakes and wetlands, the Mississippi river, creeks and waterfalls, many connected by parkways in the
Chain of LakesThe Chain of Lakes is a district in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is one of seven districts that make up the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway, a greenspace circling through the city...
and the
Grand Rounds Scenic BywayThe Grand Rounds Scenic Byway is a linked series of park areas in Minneapolis, Minnesota that takes a roughly circular path through the city. The corridors include roads for automobile traffic plus paths for pedestrians and bicycles, and extend slightly into neighboring cities...
. Minneapolis was once the world's
flourFlour is a powder made of cereal grains or roots. It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many civilizations, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...
millingA grinding mill is a unit operation designed to break a solid material into smaller pieces. There are many different types of grinding mills and many types of materials processed in them. Historically mills were powered by hand , working animal, wind or water...
capital and a hub for
timberLumber or timber is wood that is used in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
, and today is the primary business center between
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
and Seattle. Named America's most literate city, Minneapolis has cultural organizations that draw creative people and audiences to the city for theater, visual art, writing, and music. The community's diverse population has a long tradition of charitable support through
progressiveProgressivism is a political and social term for ideologies and movements favoring or advocating changes or reform, usually in a statist or egalitarian direction for economic policies and liberal direction for social policies...
public social programs and through private and corporate
philanthropyPhilanthropy is the effort or inclination to increase the well-being of humankind, as by charitable aid or donations.- Definition :It is generally agreed that the word was coined 2500 years ago in ancient Greece, by the playwright Aeschylus, or whom ever else wrote Prometheus Bound...
.
The name
Minneapolis is attributed to the city's first schoolmaster, who combined
mni, the
DakotaSioux is a Siouan language spoken by over 33,000 Sioux in the United States and Canada, making it the fifth most spoken indigenous language in North America , behind Navajo, Cree, Inuit and Ojibwe. -Regional variation:...
word for
waterWater is an ubiquitous chemical substance that is composed of hydrogen and oxygen and is essential for all known forms of life.In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or state, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam. Water covers 71%...
, and
polis, the
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
word for city. Minneapolis is nicknamed the "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City".
History
Dakota
SiouxSioux are a Native American and First Nations people. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many dialects...
were the region's sole residents until French
explorerExploration is the act of searching or traveling a terrain for the purpose of discovery, e.g. of unknown people, including space , for oil, gas, coal, ores, caves, water, , or information.Although exploration has existed as long as human beings, its peak is seen as being during the Age of Discovery...
s arrived around 1680. Nearby
Fort SnellingFort Snelling, originally known as Fort St. Anthony, is a former military fortification located at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. It is part of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, a unit of the National Park Service...
, built in 1819 by the
United States ArmyThe United States Army is the branch of the United States Military responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military and is one of seven uniformed services...
, spurred growth in the area. The United States Government pressed the
MdewakantonMdewakantonwan are one of the sub-tribes of the Isanti Dakota . Their ancestral home is Mille Lacs Lake in central Minnesota, which in the Dakota language was called mde wakan .The Mdewakanton are no longer a single unified Tribe but all their successors inherent ensure their Mdewakanton...
band of the Dakota to sell their land, allowing people arriving from the east to settle there. The Minnesota Territorial Legislature authorized present day Minneapolis as a town on the Mississippi's west bank in 1856. Minneapolis incorporated as a city in 1867, the year rail service began between Minneapolis and Chicago. It later joined with the east bank city of St. Anthony in 1872.
Minneapolis grew up around
Saint Anthony FallsSaint Anthony Falls, or the Falls of Saint Anthony, located northeast of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, was the only natural major waterfall on the Upper Mississippi River. The natural falls was replaced by a concrete overflow spillway after it partially collapsed in 1869...
, the highest
waterfallA waterfall is a place where flowing water rapidly drops in elevation as it flows over a steep region or a cliff.-Formation :Typically, a river flows over a large step in the rocks that may have been formed by a fault line. As it increases its velocity at the edge of the waterfall, it plucks...
on the Mississippi. Millers have used
hydropowerHydropower, hydraulic power or water power is power that is derived from the force or energy of moving water, which may be harnessed for useful purposes....
since the 1st century B.C., but the results in Minneapolis between 1880 and 1930 were so remarkable the city has been described as "the greatest direct-drive waterpower center the world has ever seen." In early years,
forestA forest is an area with a high density of trees. There are many definitions of a forest, based on the various criteria. These plant communities presently cover approximately 9.4% of the Earth's surface in many different regions and function as habitats for organisms, hydrologic flow modulators,...
s in northern Minnesota were the source of a
lumberLumber or timber is wood that is used in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
industry that operated seventeen
sawmillA sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of 100 years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
s on power from the waterfall. By 1871, the west river bank had twenty-three businesses including flour mills, woolen mills, iron works, a railroad machine shop, and mills for cotton, paper, sashes, and planing wood. The farmers of the
Great PlainsThe Great Plains are the broad expanse of prairie and steppe which lie west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
grew
grainCereals, grains or cereal grains, {as a collective} are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their fruit seeds - the endocarp, germ and bran...
that was shipped by rail to the city's thirty-four
flour millsA gristmill or grist mill is a building in which grain is ground into flour, or the grinding mechanism itself. In many countries these are referred to as corn mills or flour mills.- Early history :...
where Pillsbury and
General MillsGeneral Mills is an American Fortune 500 corporation, mainly concerned with food products, which is headquartered in Golden Valley, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. The company markets several well-known brands, such as Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Colombo, Totinos, Jeno's, Pillsbury, Green Giant,...
became processors. By 1905, Minneapolis delivered almost 10% of the country's
flourFlour is a powder made of cereal grains or roots. It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many civilizations, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...
and
gristGrist is grain that has been separated from its chaff in preparation for grinding. It can also mean grain that has been ground at a grist mill. Its etymology derives from the verb grind....
. At peak production, a single mill at Washburn-Crosby made enough flour for twelve million loaves of bread each day.
Minneapolis made dramatic changes to rectify
discriminationDiscrimination is a sociological term refering to treatment taken toward or against a person of a certain group that is taken in consideration based on class or category. The United Nations explains: "Discriminatory behaviours take many forms, but they all involve some form of exclusion or...
as early as 1886 when
Martha RipleyMartha George Ripley of Lowell, Vermont was an American physician and founder of the Maternity Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Ripley was nominated director of public schools but not elected because she was female...
founded
Maternity HospitalMaternity Hospital, also known as Ripley Memorial Hospital and currently known as Ripley Gardens, is a former hospital building in the Harrison neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The hospital was established by Dr. Martha Ripley in 1886 in response to the exceptionally high mortality rates...
for both married and unmarried mothers. When the country's fortunes turned during the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, the violent
Teamsters Strike of 1934The Minneapolis General Strike of 1934 grew out of a strike by Teamsters against most of the trucking companies operating in Minneapolis, a major distribution center for the Upper Midwest. The strike began on May 16, 1934 in the Market District and ensuing violence lasted periodically throughout...
resulted in laws acknowledging workers' rights. A lifelong
civil rightsCivil and political rights are a class of rights and freedoms that protect individuals from unwarranted government action and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression....
activist and union supporter, mayor
Hubert HumphreyHubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
helped the city establish
fair employment practicesThe Fair Employment Practices Commission implemented US Executive Order 8802, requiring that companies with government contracts not to discriminate on the basis of race or religion. It was intended to help African Americans and other minorities obtain jobs in the homefront industry...
and a human relations council that interceded on behalf of
minoritiesA minority is a sociological group that does not constitute a politically dominant voting majority of the total population of a given society. A sociological minority is not necessarily a numerical minority — it may include any group that is subnormal with respect to a dominant group in terms of...
by 1946. Minneapolis contended with
white supremacyWhite supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds. The term is sometimes used specifically to describe a political ideology that advocates the social and political dominance of whites....
, participated in
desegregationDesegregation is the process of ending racial segregation, most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in Brown v...
and the African-American civil rights movement, and in 1968 was the birthplace of the
American Indian MovementThe American Indian Movement is a Native American activist organization in the United States. AIM gained international press when it seized of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 1972, and in 1973 had a standoff at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian...
.
During the 1950s and 1960s as part of
urban renewalUrban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of reconstruction...
, the city razed about two hundred buildings across twenty-five city blocks—roughly 40% of downtown, destroying the
Gateway DistrictThe Gateway District of Minneapolis is centered at the convergence of Hennepin Avenue, Nicollet Avenue, and Washington Avenue. Its borders are not officially designated or recognized, but are visible as the Mississippi River to the northeast, First Avenue North to the northwest, Fifth Avenue...
and many buildings with notable architecture including the
Metropolitan BuildingThe Metropolitan Building, originally known as the Northwestern Guaranty Loan Building, is considered to be one of the most architecturally significant structures in the history of Minneapolis, Minnesota...
. Efforts to save the building failed but are credited with jumpstarting interest in historic preservation in the state.
Geography and climate
The history and economic growth of Minneapolis history are tied to water, the city's defining physical characteristic, which was sent to the region during the last ice age. Fed by receding
glacierA glacier is a perennial mass of ice which moves over land. A glacier forms in locations where the mass accumulation of snow and ice exceeds ablation over many years...
s and
Lake AgassizLake Agassiz was an immense glacial lake located in the center of North America. Fed by glacial runoff at the end of the last glacial period, its area was larger than all of the modern Great Lakes combined, and it held more water than contained by all lakes in the world today.-Conception:First...
ten thousand years ago, torrents of water from a
glacial riverright|thumb|210px|The course of the Minnesota River follows the valley carved by Glacial River WarrenGlacial River Warren or River Warren was a prehistoric river that drained Lake Agassiz in central North America between 11,700 and 9,400 years ago...
undercut the Mississippi and Minnehaha riverbeds, creating waterfalls important to modern Minneapolis. Lying on an
artesian aquiferAn artesian aquifer is a confined aquifer containing groundwater that will flow upward through a well, called an artesian well, without the need for pumping...
and otherwise flat terrain, Minneapolis has a total area of and of this 6% is water. Water is managed by
watershedA drainage basin is an extent of land where water from rain or snow melt drains downhill into a body of water, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea or ocean...
districts that correspond to the Mississippi and the city's three
creeksA stream is a flowing body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, kill, lick, rill, river syke, bayou, rivulet, or run...
. Twelve lakes, three large ponds, and five unnamed wetlands are within Minneapolis.
The city center is located just south of 45° N
latitudeLatitude, usually denoted by the Greek letter phi gives the location of a place on Earth north or south of the equator. Lines of Latitude are the imaginary horizontal lines shown running east-to-west on maps that run either north or south of the equator...
. The city's lowest elevation of is near where
Minnehaha CreekMinnehaha Creek is a tributary of the Mississippi River located in Hennepin County, Minnesota that extends from Lake Minnetonka in the west and flows east for 22 miles through several suburbs west of Minneapolis and then through south Minneapolis. Including Lake Minnetonka, the watershed for the...
meets the Mississippi River. The site of the
Prospect ParkProspect Park is a historic neighborhood within the University community of the U.S. city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The area is bounded by the Mississippi River to the south, the City of Saint Paul, Minnesota to the east, the Burlington Northern railroad yard to the north, and the Stadium Village...
Water Tower is often cited as the city's highest point and a placard in Deming Heights Park denotes the highest elevation, but a spot at in or near Waite Park in
Northeast MinneapolisNortheast is a defined community in the U.S. city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, composed of 13 smaller neighborhoods whose street addresses end in "NE". Unofficially it also includes the neighborhoods of the University community which have "NE" addresses, and the entirety of the Old Saint Anthony...
is corroborated by Google Earth as the highest ground.
Minneapolis has a
continental climateContinental climate is a climate that is characterized by winter temperatures cold enough to support a fixed period of snow cover each year, and relatively moderate precipitation occurring mostly in summer, although east coast areas may show an even distribution of precipitation.Regions containing...
typical of the
Upper MidwestThe Upper Midwest is a perceived region of the United States with no universally agreed-upon boundary, but it almost always lies within the US Census Bureau's definition of the Midwest and includes the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana...
. Winters can be cold and dry, while summer is comfortably warm although at times it can be hot and humid. On the
Köppen climate classificationThe Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by the Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself notably in 1918 and 1936...
, Minneapolis falls in the warm summer
humid continental climateThe humid continental climate is a climate found over large areas of landmasses in the temperate regions of the mid-latitudes where there is a zone of conflict between polar and tropical air masses. The humid continental climate is marked by variable weather patterns and a large seasonal...
zone (
Dfa); and has a USDA
plant hardinessA hardiness zone is a geographically-defined area in which a specific category of plant life is capable of growing, as defined by climatic conditions, including its ability to withstand the minimum temperatures of the zone...
of zone 5. The city experiences a full range of precipitation and related weather events, including
snowSnow is a type of precipitation in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by external pressure. Snowflakes...
,
sleetIce pellets are a form of precipitation consisting of small, translucent balls of ice. This form of precipitation is also known as sleet in the United States. Ice pellets are usually smaller than hailstones. They often bounce when they hit the ground, and generally do not freeze into a solid...
,
iceIce is a solid phase, usually crystalline, of a non-metallic substance that is liquid or gas at room temperature, such as carbon dioxide ice , ammonia ice, or methane ice. However, the predominant use of the term ice is for water ice, technically restricted to one of the 15 known crystalline phases...
,
rainRain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to other kinds of precipitation such as snow, hail and sleet. On Earth, it is the condensation of atmospheric water vapor into drops heavy enough to fall, often making it to the surface...
,
thunderstormA thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm, a lightning storm, a hailstorm, or simply a storm is a form of weather characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere known as thunder. The meteorologically-assigned cloud type associated with the...
s,
tornadoA tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air which is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud...
es, and
fogFog is a cloud that is in contact with the ground. A cloud may be considered partly fog; for example, the part of a cloud that is suspended in the air above the ground is not considered fog, whereas the part of the cloud that comes in contact with higher ground is considered fog...
. The warmest temperature ever recorded in Minneapolis was in July 1936, and the coldest temperature ever recorded was , in January 1888. The snowiest winter of record was 1983–84, when of snow fell.
Because of its northerly location in the United States and lack of large enough bodies of water in close proximity to moderate the air, Minneapolis is sometimes subjected to cold Arctic
air massIn meteorology, an air mass is a large volume of air defined by its temperature and water vapor content. Air masses cover many hundreds or thousands of square miles, and adopt the characteristics of the surface below them. They are classified according to latitude and their continental or...
es, especially during the months of January and February. The average annual temperature of gives the Minneapolis–St. Paul metropolitan area the coldest annual mean temperature of any major metropolitan area in the continental United States.
Demographics
DakotaSioux are a Native American and First Nations people. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many dialects...
tribes, mostly the
MdewakantonMdewakantonwan are one of the sub-tribes of the Isanti Dakota . Their ancestral home is Mille Lacs Lake in central Minnesota, which in the Dakota language was called mde wakan .The Mdewakanton are no longer a single unified Tribe but all their successors inherent ensure their Mdewakanton...
, as early as the 16th century were known as permanent settlers near their sacred site of St. Anthony Falls. New settlers arrived during the 1850s and 1860s in Minneapolis from
New EnglandNew England is a region of the United States. It is located at the northeastern corner of the US, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and the state of New York, consisting of the modern U.S...
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and during the mid-1860s,
ScandinavianScandinavia is a geographical region in northern Europe that includes, and is named after, the Scanian Province. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark...
s from
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
,
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
,
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
and
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
began to call the city home. Migrant workers from
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and
Latin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish, Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,501 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
also interspersed. Later, immigrants came from
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
,
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
,
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, and
SouthernThe term Southern Europe, at its most general definition, is used to mean "all countries in the south of Europe". However, the concept, at different times, has had different meanings, providing additional political, linguistic and cultural context to the definition in addition to the typical...
and
Eastern EuropeEastern Europe is a region lying in the Eastern part of Europe. The term is highly context-dependent and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
. These immigrants tended to settle in the Northeast neighborhood, which still retains an ethnic flavor and is particularly known for its Polish community.
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
s from
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and Eastern Europe settled primarily on the north side of the city before moving in large numbers to the western suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s. Asians came from
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, the
PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
,
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and
KoreaKorea is a civilization and formerly unified nation currently divided into two states. Located on the Korean Peninsula, it borders China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait....
. Two groups came for a short while during U.S. government relocations: Japanese during the 1940s, and
Native AmericansNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
during the 1950s. From 1970 onward, Asians arrived from
VietnamVietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east...
,
LaosLaos , officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and People's Republic of China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
,
CambodiaThe Kingdom of Cambodia , formerly known as Kampuchea , is a country in South East Asia with a population of over 14 million people. The kingdom's capital and largest city is Phnom Penh...
, and
ThailandThe Kingdom of Thailand is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia.It is bordered to the north by Laos and Burma, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and Burma...
. Beginning in the 1990s, a large Latino population arrived, along with immigrants from the
Horn of AfricaThe Horn of Africa is a peninsula in East Africa that juts for hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea, and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. It is the easternmost projection of the African continent...
, especially
SomaliaSomalia , officially the Republic of Somalia and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is a country located in the Horn of Africa...
(40,000 people). Into the 21st century, Minneapolis continues its tradition of welcoming newcomers. The metropolitan area is an immigrant gateway which had a 127% increase in foreign-born residents between 1990 and 2000.
U.S. Census Bureau estimates in the year 2007 show the population of Minneapolis to be 377,392, a 1.4% drop since the 2000 census. The population grew until 1950 when the census peaked at 521,718, and then declined as people moved to the suburbs until about 1990. Among U.S. cities as of 2006, Minneapolis has the fourth-highest percentage of gay, lesbian, or bisexual people in the adult population, with 12.5% (behind San Francisco, and slightly behind both Seattle and Atlanta).
Racial and ethnic minorities lag behind white counterparts in education, with 15.0% of African American and 13.0% of Hispanics holding bachelor's degrees compared to 42.0% of the Caucasian population. The standard of living is on the rise, with incomes among the highest in the
MidwestThe Midwestern United States is one of the four geographic regions within the United States of America that are officially recognized by the United States Census Bureau....
, but median household income among minorities is below that of whites by over $17,000. Regionally, home ownership among minority residents is half that of whites though Asian home ownership has doubled. In 2000, the poverty rates included whites at 4.2%, African Americans at 26.2%, Asians at 19.1%, American Indians at 23.2%, and Hispanics at 18.1%.
| U.S. Census Population Estimates |
| Year |
1860 |
1870 |
1880 |
1890 |
1900 |
1910 |
1920 |
1930 |
1940 |
1950 |
1960 |
1970 |
1980 |
1990 |
2000 |
2005 |
2007 |
| Population |
3,000 |
13,000 |
46,887 |
164,738 |
202,718 |
301,408 |
380,582 |
464,356 |
492,370 |
521,718 |
482,872 |
434,400 |
370,951 |
368,383 |
382,618 |
372,811 |
377,392 |
| U.S. Rank |
— |
— |
38 |
18 |
19 |
18 |
18 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
25 |
32 |
34 |
42 |
— |
— |
— |
Economy
The economy of Minneapolis today is based in commerce, finance, rail and trucking services, health care, and industry. Smaller components are in publishing, milling, food processing, graphic arts, insurance, education, and high technology. Industry produces metal and automotive products, chemical and agricultural products, electronics, computers, precision medical instruments and devices, plastics, and machinery.
Five
Fortune 500The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
headquarters are in Minneapolis proper:
Target CorporationTarget Corporation, usually known simply as Target, is an American retailing company that was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1902 as the Dayton Dry Goods Company. In 1962, the company opened its first Target store in nearby Roseville...
,
U.S. BancorpU.S. Bancorp is a financial services holding company, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the parent company of U.S. Bank, the sixth-largest bank in the United States as of June 30, 2008. U.S. Bank National Association is a nationally chartered bank, regulated by the Office of the...
,
Xcel EnergyXcel Energy, Inc. is a public utility company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, serving customers in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin. Primary services are electricity and natural gas...
,
Ameriprise FinancialAmeriprise Financial, Inc. is a company that offers financial advice and products. It is the successor to American Express Financial Advisors , which was a subsidiary of the American Express Company. In 2005, American Express launched the spin-off of AEFA as an independent company. The new name...
, and
Thrivent Financial for LutheransThrivent Financial for Lutherans is a Fortune 500 financial services organization with dual corporate headquarters based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Appleton, Wisconsin...
. With 18 in the Twin Cities Metropolitan area - the most per capita of any US City.
Fortune 1000Fortune 1000 is a reference to a list maintained by the American business magazine Fortune. The list is of the 1000 largest American companies, ranked on revenues alone...
companies in Minneapolis include
PepsiAmericasPepsiAmericas, Inc. is the world's second-largest bottler of Pepsi-Cola products, and also contracts to produce beverages for Dr Pepper Snapple Group and smaller regional brands. PepsiAmericas has 19 bottling plants in the United States and has presence in 11 countries in Central/Eastern Europe...
,
ValsparThe Valspar Corporation is an international manufacturer of paint and coatings based in the United States. It is the fifth largest paint and coating corporation in the world....
and Donaldson Company. Apart from government, the city's largest employers are Target,
Wells FargoWells Fargo & Co. is a diversified financial services company with operations around the world. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest bank in the US by assets and the third largest bank by market cap. Wells Fargo is the second largest bank in deposits, home mortgage servicing, and debit card...
, Ameriprise,
Star TribuneThe Star Tribune is the largest newspaper in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is published seven days each week in an edition for the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area. A statewide version is also available across Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota...
, U.S. Bancorp, Xcel Energy,
IBMInternational Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM, is a multinational computer technology and IT consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, Town of North Castle, New York, United States. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating...
,
Piper JaffrayPiper Jaffray & Co. , often shortened to just Piper Jaffray or PiperJaffray, is a U.S. middle-market investment banking firm based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and sells financial advice, investment products, and transaction execution within targeted sectors of the financial services marketplace...
,
RBC Dain RauscherThe Royal Bank of Canada is the largest financial institution in Canada, measured by deposits, revenues, and market capitalization. The bank serves seventeen million clients and has 80,000 employees worldwide...
,
ING GroupING Group N.V. is a financial institution of Dutch origin offering banking, insurance and asset management services. ING is an abbreviation of ' ....
, and
QwestQwest Communications International, Inc. is a large telecommunications carrier. Qwest provides local service in 14 western U.S...
.
Availability of
Wi-FiWi-Fi is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance for certified products based on the IEEE 802.11 standards. This certification warrants interoperability between different wireless devices....
, transportation solutions, medical trials, university research and development expenditures, advanced degrees held by the work force, and energy conservation are so far above the national average that in 2005,
Popular SciencePopular Science is an American monthly magazine founded in 1872 carrying articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. Popular Science has won over 58 awards, including the ASME awards for its journalistic excellence in both 2003 and 2004...
named Minneapolis the "Top Tech City" in the U.S. The Twin Cities ranked the country's second best city in a 2006
Kiplinger'sKiplinger's Personal Finance is a magazine that has been continuously published, on a monthly basis, from 1947 to the present day. It was the nation's first personal finance magazine, and prides itself on delivering "sound, unbiased advice in clear, concise language"...
poll of
Smart Places to Live and Minneapolis was one of the
Seven Cool Cities for young professionals.
The Twin Cities contribute 63.8% of the
gross state productGross state product is a measurement of the economic output of a state or province. It is the sum of all value added by industries within the state and serves as a counterpart to the gross domestic product or GDP....
of Minnesota. The area's $145.8 billion
gross metropolitan productGross Metropolitan Product or Gross Regional Product is one of several measures of the size of the economy of a metropolitan area...
and its per capita personal income rank fourteenth in the U.S. Recovering from the nation's recession in 2000,
personal incomePersonal income is a measure of individual income used by the United States government, particularly the Department of Commerce. It is most often only applied to those who are either above the age of 15, 18, or 25 and are considered to be members of the labor force...
grew 3.8% in 2005, though it was behind the national average of 5%. The city returned to peak employment during the fourth quarter of that year.
The
Federal Reserve Bank of MinneapolisThe Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States, covers the 9th District of the Federal Reserve, including Minnesota, Montana, North and South Dakota, northwestern Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan...
, with one branch in
Helena, MontanaHelena is the capital city of the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. The population was 25,780 at the 2000 census, and had been estimated to rise to 29,351 by 2008. The local daily newspaper is the Independent Record. The local weekly newspaper is the Queen City...
, serves Minnesota,
MontanaMontana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of the state contains numerous mountain ranges; other 'island' ranges are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
,
NorthNorth Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America; on the Canadian border halfway between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. North Dakota is the 19th largest state by area in the U.S.; it is the 3
rd least populous, with just over 641,481 residents as...
and
South DakotaSouth Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. South Dakota was carved out of the southern half of the Dakota Territory and admitted to the Union on November 2, 1889...
, and parts of
WisconsinWisconsin is one of the fifty U.S. states. Located in the north-central United States, Wisconsin is considered part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the...
and
MichiganMichigan is a Midwestern state of the United States of America. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe term mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. The smallest of the twelve regional banks in the
Federal Reserve SystemThe Federal Reserve System is the central banking system of the United States. It was created in 1913 by the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, largely as a response to a series of financial panics or bank runs, particularly a severe panic in 1907...
, it operates a nationwide payments system, oversees member banks and bank holding companies, and serves as a banker for the U.S. Treasury. The
Minneapolis Grain ExchangeThe Minneapolis Grain Exchange was formed in 1881 as a regional cash marketplace to promote fair trade and to prevent trade abuses in wheat, oats and corn....
founded in 1881 is still located near the riverfront and is the only exchange for hard red spring
wheatWheat is a worldwide cultivated grass from the Fertile Crescent region of the Near East. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
futuresA futures exchange or derivatives exchange is a central financial exchange where people can trade standardized futures contracts; that is, a contract to buy specific quantities of a commodity or financial instrument at a specified price with delivery set at a specified time in the future.-History...
and
optionIn finance, an option is a contract between a buyer and a seller that gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy or to sell a particular asset on or before the option's expiration time, at an agreed price, the strike price. In return for granting the option, the seller collects a...
s.
Arts
The region is second only to New York City in live theater per capita and is the third-largest theater market in the U.S. after New York and Chicago, supporting the Illusion, Jungle,
Mixed BloodThe Mixed Blood Theatre Company was founded in 1976 in Minneapolis, Minnesota by artistic director Jack Reuler and is a professional multiracial theatre company. Its core stated values are promoting cultural pluralism, individual equality, and artistic excellence.Its plays range from intimate...
, Penumbra,
Mu Performing Arts-Overview:Mu Performing Arts is a Minneapolis based theater group formed in 1992 by Rick Shiomi, Dong-il Lee, Diane Espaldon, and Martha Johnson. It is comprised of Theater Mu, which features stage performances and Mu Daiko, a taiko drumming ensemble...
, Bedlam Theatre, the
Brave New WorkshopThe Brave New Workshop Comedy Theatre , located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been writing, performing and producing live sketch comedy and improvisation performances for 50 years – longer than any other theatre in the nation...
, the
Minnesota Dance TheatreThe Minnesota Dance Theatre dance company and school in Minneapolis, Minnesota was founded by Loyce Houlton in 1962 as the Contemporary Dance Theatre. Lise Houlton succeeded her mother as artistic director in 1995. Each holiday season MDT presents the ballet Loyce Houlton's Nutcracker Fantasy...
, Red Eye,
Skewed VisionsSkewed Visions is an arts company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota which produces site-specific performances and other multimedia works. Formed in 1996 by the artists Charles Campbell, Gülgün Kayim and Sean Kelley-Pegg, the group produces site-specific works that have sometimes been seen as...
, Theater Latté Da,
In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask TheatreIn the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre is a puppet company from Minneapolis, Minnesota. HOBT began in 1973 as Powderhorn Puppet Theatre, named for a neighborhood park and lake in Minneapolis, and changed their name in 1979...
, Lundstrum Center for the Performing Arts, and the
Children's Theatre CompanyThe Children's Theatre Company is a regional theatre established in 1965 in Minneapolis Minnesota specializing in plays for families and young audiences and the recipient of a 2003 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre...
. The city is home to
Minnesota Fringe FestivalThe Minnesota Fringe Festival is a performing arts festival held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, every summer, usually during the first two weeks in August. The eleven-day event, which features performing artists of many genres and disciplines, is one many Fringe Festivals in North America...
, the United States' largest nonjuried performing arts festival. French architect
Jean NouvelJean Nouvel is a French architect. Nouvel studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was a founding member of Mars 1976 and Syndicat de l'Architecture...
designed a new three stage complex for the
Guthrie TheaterThe Guthrie Theater is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the result of the desire of Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Oliver Rea, and Peter Zeisler to create a resident acting company that would produce and perform the classics in...
, the prototype alternative to
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
founded in Minneapolis in 1965. Minneapolis purchased and renovated the Orpheum, State, and
Pantages TheatresThe Pantages Theatre is a historic theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The original building was a Beaux-Arts style twelve-story complex on Hennepin Avenue, designed by Kees & Colburn and operated by Alexander Pantages, a Greek immigrant who opened 500 theatres.The building was reduced...
vaudevilleVaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
and film houses on
Hennepin AvenueHennepin Avenue is a major street in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It runs from Lakewood Cemetery , north through the Uptown District of Southwest Minneapolis, through the former "Bottleneck" area west of Loring Park, through the North Loop in the city center, to Northeast Minneapolis and...
now used for concerts and plays. Eventually, a fourth renovated theater joined the
Hennepin Center for the ArtsThe Hennepin Center for the Arts was built in 1888 as a Masonic Temple. The structure was built by Long and Kees in the Richardsonian Romanesque architectural style. In 1978, it was purchased and underwent a renovation to become the HCA. It is located at 528 Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis,...
to become the
Minnesota Shubert Performing Arts and Education CenterThe Minnesota Shubert Performing Arts and Education Center is a planned development for Minneapolis, Minnesota as an incubation project by Artspace Projects, Inc. The center is expected as a three building complex holding historical buildings such as the Shubert Theater and the Hennepin Center for...
, a home to twenty performing arts groups and a provider of Web-based art education.
The
Minneapolis Institute of ArtsThe Minneapolis Institute of Arts is a fine art museum located in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota on a campus that covers nearly 8 acres , formerly Morrison Park...
, built in 1915 in south central Minneapolis is the largest art museum in the city with 100,000 pieces in its permanent collection. A new wing designed by
Michael GravesMichael Graves is an American architect. Identified as one of The New York Five, Graves has become a household name with his designs for domestic products sold at Target stores in the United States....
was completed in 2006 for contemporary and modern works and more gallery space. The
Walker Art CenterThe Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
sits atop Lowry Hill, near downtown, and doubled its size with an addition in 2005 by
Herzog & de MeuronHerzog & de Meuron Architekten, BSA/SIA/ETH is a Swiss architecture firm, founded and headquartered in Basel, Switzerland in 1978. The careers of founders and senior partners Jacques Herzog , and Pierre de Meuron , closely paralleled one another, with both attending the Swiss Federal Institute of...
and is continuing its expansion to with a park designed by Michel Desvigne across the street from the
Minneapolis Sculpture GardenThe Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is an 11 acre park in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the United States. It is located near the Walker Art Center, which operates it in coordination with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board...
. The
Weisman Art MuseumThe Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum located on the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus in Minneapolis, Minnesota has been a teaching museum for the university since 1934. The museum's current building, designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, was completed in 1993. The stainless steel...
, designed by
Frank GehryFrank Owen Gehry, CC is a Canadian Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...
for the
University of MinnesotaThe University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States...
, opened in 1993. An addition, also designed by Gehry, is expected to open in 2009.
The son of a jazz musician and a singer,
PrincePrince Rogers Nelson is an American singer, songwriter, musician and actor. He performs under the mononym Prince but has also been known by various other names, most notably the unpronounceable symbol which he used as his stage name between 1993 and 2000...
is Minneapolis' most famous musical progeny. With fellow local musicians, many of whom recorded at
Twin/Tone RecordsTwin/Tone Records was a record label based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota that operated from 1977 until 1994 and helped several local groups receive national attention. The label was born from the Minneapolis punk rock music scene, which included venues like Jay's Longhorn Bar...
, he helped make
First AvenueFirst Avenue and 7th Street Entry are two music venues housed in the same building in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The names are derived from the building's location: the corner of First Avenue and 7th Street in downtown Minneapolis. They are considered to be a cornerstone of the Midwest music scene,...
and the
7th Street EntryThe 7th Street Entry is a smaller venue attached to the side of the historic First Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota. "The Entry", as it is called, is a venue where smaller and lesser known bands will play . The 7th Street Entry was originally a coat room...
venues of choice for both artists and audiences. Other prominent artists from Minneapolis include
Soul AsylumSoul Asylum is an American alternative rock band that formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1983.The band formed in 1981 under the name Loud Fast Rules, with the original line-up consisting of Dan Murphy, Dave Pirner, Karl Mueller and Pat Morley. The latter was replaced by Grant Young in 1984...
and The Replacements, whose frontman
Paul WesterbergPaul Westerberg is an American musician, best known as the former lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and songwriter of The Replacements, one of the seminal alternative rock bands of the 1980s. He launched a solo career after the dissolution of that band...
went on to a successful solo career, and whose bassist
Tommy StinsonThomas "Tommy" Eugene Stinson is an American musician best known for his work as the bassist for The Replacements and Guns N' Roses....
plays in
Guns N' RosesGuns N' Roses is an American rock band that was formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985. The band, led by frontman and co-founder Axl Rose, has gone through numerous line-up changes and controversies since its formation...
.
The
Minnesota OrchestraThe Minnesota Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Emil Oberhoffer founded the orchestra in 1903 as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, which gave its first performance on November 5 of that year...
plays classical and popular music at
Orchestra HallOrchestra Hall , located at Nicollet Mall and 12th Street in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, is home to the Minnesota Orchestra. The Hall was built in 1974 and opened for the 1974 concert season...
under music director
Osmo VänskäOsmo Antero Vänskä is a Finnish orchestra conductor, clarinetist and composer. He started his musical career as an orchestral clarinetist with the Turku Philharmonic . He then became the principal clarinet of the Helsinki Philharmonic from 1977 to 1982...
who has set about making it the best in the country. In 2008, the century-old
MacPhail Center for MusicMacPhail Center for Music is a non-profit music school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is currently located in the Mills District of Downtown East in a recently opened building...
opened a new facility designed by James Dayton.
Tom WaitsThomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
released two songs about the city,
Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis (
Blue ValentineBlue Valentine is an album by Tom Waits, first released in 1978 on Elektra Entertainment. The woman pictured with Waits on the back cover is Rickie Lee Jones, another singer/songwriter with whom he was having a relationship at the time....
1978) and
9th & Hennepin (
Rain DogsRain Dogs is the 9th album by American singer-songwriter Tom Waits, released in August 1985 on Island Records. A loose concept album about "the urban dispossessed" of New York City, Rain Dogs is generally considered the middle album of the trilogy that includes Swordfishtrombones and Franks Wild...
1985) and
Lucinda WilliamsLucinda Williams is an American rock, folk, and country music singer and songwriter. She recorded her first albums in 1978 and 1980 in a traditional country and blues style and received very little attention from radio, the media, or the public. In 1988, she released her self-titled album,...
recorded
Minneapolis (
World Without TearsWorld Without Tears is Lucinda Williams' seventh album. It was released in 2003 . It debuted at number 18 on the Billboard 200, selling about 54,000 copies in its first week...
2003). Home to the
MN Spoken Word AssociationThe MN Spoken Word Association is a spoken word organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, cofounded in 2000 by spoken word artists, E. G. Bailey and Shá Cage, and choreographer Leah Nelson...
and independent hip-hop label
Rhymesayers EntertainmentRhymesayers Entertainment is an independent hip hop record label based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, co-founded in 1995 by Sean Daley, Anthony Davis, Brent Sayers, Musab S'ad Ali and Derek Turner....
, the city has garnered notice for rap and
hip hopHip hop music is a musical genre which developed alongside hip hop culture, and is commonly based on concepts of loop, rapping, freestyle, DJing, scratching, sampling and beatboxing. The music is used to express concerns of political, social, and personal issues...
and its
spoken wordSpoken word is a form of literary art or artistic performance in which lyrics, poetry, or stories are spoken rather than sung. The category of spoken-word that is often done with a musical background is performance poetry...
community. The underground hip-hop group
AtmosphereAtmosphere is an American hip hop group. The members are rapper Slug and DJ/producer Ant , former member and Co-founder Spawn , who left the group after the release of "Overcast!"...
(natives of Minnesota) frequently comments in song lyrics on the city and Minnesota.
Minneapolis and Seattle are tied as America's most literate city. A center for printing and publishing, Minneapolis was a natural place for artists to build Open Book, the largest literary and book arts center in the U.S., made up of the Loft Literary Center, the
Minnesota Center for Book ArtsMinnesota Center for Book Arts is the largest and most comprehensive independent non-profit book arts center in the United States. Located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, MCBA is a nationally recognized leader in the celebration and preservation of traditional crafts including hand papermaking,...
and
Milkweed EditionsMilkweed Editions is an independent, non-profit publishing company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Milkweed's goal is to make a positive impact on society through the transformative art of literature. Milkweed is sometimes called the largest independent, non-profit literary publisher in the United...
, sometimes called the country's largest independent nonprofit literary publisher. The center exhibits and teaches both contemporary art and traditional crafts of writing, papermaking, letterpress printing and bookbinding.
Sports
Professional sports are well-established in Minneapolis. First playing in 1884, the
Minneapolis MillersThe Minneapolis Millers were an American professional minor league baseball team that played in Minneapolis, Minnesota until 1960. In the 19th century a different Minneapolis Millers were part of the Western League.The team played first in Athletic Park and later Nicollet Park.The name Minneapolis...
baseball team produced the best won-lost record in their league at the time and contributed fifteen players to the
Baseball Hall of FameThe National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is an American museum and hall of fame, located at 25 Main Street in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests serving as the central point for the study of the history of baseball in the United States and beyond, the display of...
. During the 1940s and 1950s the
Minneapolis LakersThe Los Angeles Lakers are a National Basketball Association team based in Los Angeles, California. The Lakers play their home games at Staples Center, which they share with their fellow NBA rival, the Los Angeles Clippers, and their sister team, the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA...
basketball team, the city's first in the major leagues in any sport, won six basketball championships in three leagues before moving to Los Angeles. The
American Wrestling AssociationThe American Wrestling Association ' was an American professional wrestling promotion based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that ran from 1960 to 1991. It was owned and founded by Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo...
, formerly the
NWAThe National Wrestling Alliance is a governing body for a group of independent professional wrestling promotions and sanctions various NWA championships in the United States. The NWA has been in operation since 1948...
Minneapolis Boxing & Wrestling Club, operated in Minneapolis from 1960 until the 1990s.
The
Minnesota VikingsThe Minnesota Vikings are a professional football team based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings compete in the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . Prior to divisional realignment in 2002, they had been a member of the Central Division, also...
and the
Minnesota TwinsThe Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and play in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The team is named after the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. They have played in the Hubert H...
arrived in the state in 1961. The Vikings were an
NFLThe National Football League is the largest professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing its name to the National Football League in 1922. The league currently consists of...
expansion teamAn expansion team is a term used for a brand new team in a sports league. The term is most commonly used in reference to the North American major professional sports leagues, but is applied to sports leagues worldwide that use a closed franchise system of league membership. The term comes from the...
and the Twins were formed when the
Washington SenatorsThe Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and play in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The team is named after the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. They have played in the Hubert H...
relocated to Minnesota. Both teams played outdoors in the open air
Metropolitan StadiumMetropolitan Stadium was a sports stadium that once stood in Bloomington, Minnesota, just outside Minneapolis...
in the suburb of
BloomingtonBloomington is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota in Hennepin County, and the third core city of the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI MSA. Located on the north bank of the Minnesota River above its confluence with the Mississippi River, Bloomington lies at the heart of the...
for twenty years before moving to the
Hubert H. Humphrey MetrodomeThe Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, often simply called The Metrodome, is a domed sports stadium in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. The field was renamed Mall of America Field at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in October 2009...
, where the Twins won the
World SeriesThe World Series has been the annual championship series of the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada since 1903, concluding the postseason of Major League Baseball...
in
1987The 1987 World Series, in which the Minnesota Twins defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, was the first World Series in which the home team won all seven games. This also happened in 1991 and 2001. The World Series victory by the Twins was the first for the franchise since 1924, when the team was...
and
1991The 1991 World Series was played between the Minnesota Twins of the American League and the Atlanta Braves of the National League between October 19 and October 27, 1991. The Series was, in some respects, similar to the 1987 World Series also played by the Minnesota Twins , most notably in that...
. The
Minnesota TimberwolvesThe Minnesota Timberwolves are a professional basketball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Their organization is a member of the National Basketball Association .-Early struggles:...
brought NBA basketball back to Minneapolis in 1989, followed by the
Minnesota LynxThe Minnesota Lynx are a Women's National Basketball Association team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and play their home games at the Target Center. They are currently coached by Jennifer Gillom, who began coaching on June 3, 2009....
WNBAThe Women's National Basketball Association is a women's professional basketball league in the United States. It currently is composed of thirteen teams. The league was founded in 1996 as the women's counterpart to the NBA...
team in 1999. They play in the
Target CenterThe Target Center is an arena in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is sponsored by Target Corporation. The center is home to the National Basketball Association's Minnesota Timberwolves....
. The
NHLThe National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league as a joint venture for its self perpetuating membership of 30 franchised member clubs located in the United States and Canada...
ice hockey team
Minnesota WildThe Minnesota Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League ....
and the
National Lacrosse LeagueThe National Lacrosse League is the league of men's indoor lacrosse in North America. It currently has 11 teams; three in Canada and eight in the United States. Unlike other lacrosse leagues which play in the summer, the NLL plays its games in the winter...
team
Minnesota SwarmMinnesota Swarm are a box lacrosse team in the National Lacrosse League. The team plays at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, MinnesotaThe teams previous owners who also own the NHL's Minnesota Wild purchased the rights to the inactive Montreal Express team on August 10, 2004...
play at the
Xcel Energy CenterXcel Energy Center is a multi-purpose arena located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, sponsored by Xcel Energy. It is home of the Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League and the Minnesota Swarm of the National Lacrosse League. It is owned by the city of Saint Paul and operated by Minnesota Sports &...
. The
USL-1The United Soccer Leagues First Division is a professional men's soccer league in North America. It is the second tier of soccer in the United States and Canada league pyramid behind Major League Soccer. It is managed by the United Soccer Leagues...
soccer team
Minnesota ThunderMinnesota Thunder is an American professional soccer team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1990, the team plays in the USL First Division , the second tier of the American Soccer Pyramid....
plays in
Blaine-Places:In the United States:*Blaine, California*Blaine, Indiana*Blaine, Kentucky*Blaine, Maine*Blaine, Minnesota*Blaine, North Dakota, former name of Menoken*Blaine, Ohio*Blaine, Washington*Blaine , Wisconsin*Blaine Township, Michigan...
, a suburb of Minneapolis.
The downtown Metrodome, opened in 1982, is the largest sports stadium in Minnesota. The three major tenants are the Vikings, the Twins, and the university's
Golden GophersThe Minnesota Golden Gophers are the college sports team for the University of Minnesota. The university fields both men's and women's teams in basketball, cross country, gymnastics, golf, ice hockey, swimming, tennis, and track and field. Men's-specific sports include baseball, football, and...
baseball team. The Metrodome is the only stadium in the country to have hosted a
Major League Baseball All-Star GameThe Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also popularly known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual baseball game between players from the National League and the American League, currently selected by a combination of fans, players, coaches, and managers...
, the
Super BowlThe Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League, the premier association of professional American football. In most years, the Super Bowl is the most-watched American television broadcast. Many popular singers and musicians have performed during the event’s pre-game and...
, the
World SeriesThe World Series has been the annual championship series of the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada since 1903, concluding the postseason of Major League Baseball...
, and
NCAA Basketball Men's Final FourThe NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single elimination tournament held each spring featuring 65 college basketball teams. college basketball teams in the United States...
.
RunnersRunning is a means for an animal to move on foot. It is defined in sporting terms as a gait in which at some point all feet are off the ground at the same time. This is in contrast to walking, where one foot is always in contact with the ground, the legs are kept mostly straight and the center of...
, walkers, inline skaters, coed
volleyball Volleyball is an Olympic team sport in which two teams of 6 players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules...
teams, and touch football teams all have access to "The Dome". Events from sports to concerts, community activities, religious activities, and trade shows are held more than three hundred days per year, making the facility one of the most versatile stadiums in the world.
The state of Minnesota authorized replacement of the Metrodome with three separate stadiums that estimates in 2007 totaled at about $1.7 billion. Six
spectator sportA spectator sport is a sport that is characterized by the presence of spectators, or watchers, at its matches. For instance, baseball, basketball, cricket, football , and ice hockey are spectator sports, while hunting or underwater hockey typically are not. Spectator sports may be professional...
stadiums will be in a 1.2-mile (2 km) radius centered downtown, counting the existing facilities at Target Center and the university's
Williams ArenaWilliams Arena, located on the Twin Cities main campus of the University of Minnesota is the home of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers men's and women's basketball teams...
and
Mariucci ArenaMariucci Arena is the home arena for the Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey team of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. The arena is located on the Minneapolis campus and seats approximately 10,000 fans...
. The new
Target FieldTarget Field is the future home ballpark for the Minnesota Twins, currently under construction in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is on schedule to open in April 2010. It will be the franchise's sixth ballpark and third in Minnesota, replacing their ballpark of 28 years, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome...
is funded by the Twins and 75% by Hennepin County sales tax, about $25 per year by each taxpayer. The Gopher football program's new
TCF Bank StadiumTCF Bank Stadium is the football stadium for the Minnesota Golden Gophers college football team at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The 50,805 seat on-campus "horseshoe" style stadium opened with a game against the Air Force Falcons on September 12, 2009, with the Gophers...
is being built by the university and the state's general fund. The
Vikings StadiumThe Vikings Stadium is the working title of the proposed stadium for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It would be the franchise's third, replacing their current domed stadium, the Hubert H...
plan for
Blaine, MinnesotaBlaine is a city in Anoka and Ramsey counties in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The population was 44,942 at the 2000 census. The city is located mainly in Anoka County, and is part of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul urban area.Interstate Highway 35W, U.S...
changed and as of 2007 was estimated at $954 million for rebuilding on the Metrodome site. Feasibility studies for
Dallas, TexasDallas , with a population of 1,279,910, is the third-largest city in Texas and the 8th-largest in the United States. The city is the main economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area that according to the March 2009 U.S. Census Bureau release, had a population of...
-based design and local construction (Mortenson Construction of Minneapolis) of a new stadium are expected in early 2009.
Major sporting events hosted by the city include
Super Bowl XXVISuper Bowl XXVI was an American football game played on January 26, 1992 at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota to decide the National Football League champion following the 1991 regular season...
, the 1992 NCAA Men's Division I Final Four, the 2001 NCAA Men's Division 1 Final Four and the 1998
World Figure Skating ChampionshipsThe World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion...
.
Gifted amateur athletes have played in Minneapolis schools, notably starting in the 1920s and 1930s at Central,
De La SalleDe La Salle High School may refer to:* DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota* De La Salle Collegiate High School in Warren, Michigan* De La Salle High School...
, and Marshall high schools. Since the 1930s, the Golden Gophers have won national championships in men's baseball, boxing, football, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, indoor and outdoor track, swimming, and wrestling.
| Professional Sports in Minneapolis |
| Club | Sport | League | Venue | Championships |
|---|
Minnesota LynxThe Minnesota Lynx are a Women's National Basketball Association team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and play their home games at the Target Center. They are currently coached by Jennifer Gillom, who began coaching on June 3, 2009....
|
BasketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of 5 players try to score points against one another by placing a ball through a 10 foot high hoop under organized rules...
|
Women's National Basketball AssociationThe Women's National Basketball Association is a women's professional basketball league in the United States. It currently is composed of thirteen teams. The league was founded in 1996 as the women's counterpart to the NBA...
, Western Conference |
Target CenterThe Target Center is an arena in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is sponsored by Target Corporation. The center is home to the National Basketball Association's Minnesota Timberwolves....
|
|
| Minnesota Timberwolves The Minnesota Timberwolves are a professional basketball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Their organization is a member of the National Basketball Association .-Early struggles:...
|
BasketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of 5 players try to score points against one another by placing a ball through a 10 foot high hoop under organized rules...
|
National Basketball AssociationThe National Basketball Association is a professional basketball league, composed of thirty teams in North America . It is an active member of USA Basketball , which is recognized by the International Basketball Federation as the National Governing Body for basketball in the United States...
, Western ConferenceThe Western Conference of the National Basketball Association is made up of fifteen teams, and organized in three divisions of five teams each....
, Northwest DivisionThe Northwest Division is a division in the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association. The division was created at the start of the 2004–05 season. The Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Utah Jazz came from the now-defunct Midwest Division and the Portland Trail Blazers...
|
Target CenterThe Target Center is an arena in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is sponsored by Target Corporation. The center is home to the National Basketball Association's Minnesota Timberwolves....
|
|
Minnesota TwinsThe Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and play in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The team is named after the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. They have played in the Hubert H...
|
BaseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond...
|
Major League BaseballMajor League Baseball is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. Specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the organization that operates the National League and the American League, by means of a joint organizational structure that has developed gradually between...
, American LeagueThe American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League , is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, that eventually aspired to major league...
, Central DivisionThe American League Central is one of three divisions in Major League Baseball's American League. The division was formed in the 1994 realignment. Its teams are all located in the Midwestern United States...
|
Metrodome The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, often simply called The Metrodome, is a domed sports stadium in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. The field was renamed Mall of America Field at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in October 2009...
|
World SeriesThe World Series has been the annual championship series of the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada since 1903, concluding the postseason of Major League Baseball...
1987The 1987 World Series, in which the Minnesota Twins defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, was the first World Series in which the home team won all seven games. This also happened in 1991 and 2001. The World Series victory by the Twins was the first for the franchise since 1924, when the team was...
and 1991The 1991 World Series was played between the Minnesota Twins of the American League and the Atlanta Braves of the National League between October 19 and October 27, 1991. The Series was, in some respects, similar to the 1987 World Series also played by the Minnesota Twins , most notably in that...
|
Minnesota VikingsThe Minnesota Vikings are a professional football team based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings compete in the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . Prior to divisional realignment in 2002, they had been a member of the Central Division, also...
|
American FootballAmerican football, known in the United States and Canada simply as football, and often as Gridiron or Tackle football outside North America, is a competitive team sport known for combining strategy with physical play. The objective of the game is to score points by advancing the ball into the...
|
National Football LeagueThe National Football League is the largest professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing its name to the National Football League in 1922. The league currently consists of...
, National Football ConferenceThe National Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . The NFC was created after the league merged with the American Football League in 1970. The NFC had 13 teams that year, all of which played in the NFL before the merger...
, North Division |
Metrodome The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, often simply called The Metrodome, is a domed sports stadium in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. The field was renamed Mall of America Field at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in October 2009...
|
NFL Championship 1969 The 1969 NFL Championship Game was the 37th and final championship game played prior to the AFL-NFL Merger. The winner of the game would go on to play in Super Bowl IV against the champion of the American Football League...
|
Parks and recreation
The Minneapolis park system has been called the best-designed, best-financed, and best-maintained in America. Foresight, donations and effort by community leaders enabled
Horace ClevelandHorace William Shaler Cleveland was a noted American landscape architect, sometimes considered second only to Frederick Law Olmsted...
to create his finest
landscape architectureLandscape architecture is a the design of outdoor and public spaces to achieve socio-behavioural, environmental, and/or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic investigation of existing social, ecological, and geological conditions and processes in the landscape, and the careful design of...
, preserving geographical landmarks and linking them with
boulevardBoulevard has several generally accepted meanings. It was first introduced in the French language in 1435 as boloard and has since been altered into boulevard....
s and
parkwayIn the United States, Parkways are defined as follows:#A type of road##A broad landscaped thoroughfare; especially : one from which trucks and other heavy vehicles are excluded.##A roadway in a park : a landscaped thoroughfare connecting parks...
s. The city's
Chain of LakesThe Chain of Lakes is a district in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is one of seven districts that make up the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway, a greenspace circling through the city...
is connected by bike, running, and walking paths and used for swimming, fishing, picnics, boating, and ice skating. A
parkwayIn the United States, Parkways are defined as follows:#A type of road##A broad landscaped thoroughfare; especially : one from which trucks and other heavy vehicles are excluded.##A roadway in a park : a landscaped thoroughfare connecting parks...
for cars, a
bikewaySegregated cycle facilities are roads, tracks, paths or marked lanes designated for use by cyclists from which motorised traffic is generally excluded.- Terminology :...
for riders, and a walkway for pedestrians runs parallel along the route of the
Grand Rounds Scenic BywayThe Grand Rounds Scenic Byway is a linked series of park areas in Minneapolis, Minnesota that takes a roughly circular path through the city. The corridors include roads for automobile traffic plus paths for pedestrians and bicycles, and extend slightly into neighboring cities...
. Residents brave the cold weather in December to watch the nightly
Holidazzle ParadeThe Target Holidazzle Parades are a series of parades located on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. The parades are held from the day after Thanksgiving until a couple days before Christmas...
.
Theodore WirthTheodore Wirth was instrumental in designing the Minneapolis system of parks. Swiss-born, he was widely regarded as the dean of the local parks movement in America. The various titles he was given included administrator of parks, horticulturalist, and park planner...
is credited with the development of the parks system. Today, 16.6% of the city is parks and there are of parkland for each resident, ranked in 2008 as the most parkland per resident within cities of similar population densities.
Parks are interlinked in many places and the
Mississippi National River and Recreation AreaThe Mississippi National River and Recreation Area protects a 72 mile and 54,000 acres corridor along the Mississippi River from the cities of Dayton and Ramsey, Minnesota to just downstream of Hastings, Minnesota. This includes the stretch of Mississippi River which flows through Minneapolis and...
connects regional parks and visitor centers. The country's oldest public wildflower garden, the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary located within
Theodore Wirth ParkTheodore Wirth Park is the largest park managed by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. The park land is shared by Minneapolis and the neighboring suburb of Golden Valley. The park includes two golf courses , Wirth Lake, Birch Pond, and other amenities...
which is shared with
Golden ValleyGolden Valley is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. It is a western suburb of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and is the main corporate headquarters of General Mills and Pentair. Golden Valley is also the home of NBC affiliate KARE, the Perpich Center for Arts Education and Breck...
and is about 60% the size of Central Park in New York City. Site of the 53-foot (16 m)
Minnehaha FallsMinnehaha Creek is a tributary of the Mississippi River located in Hennepin County, Minnesota that extends from Lake Minnetonka in the west and flows east for 22 miles through several suburbs west of Minneapolis and then through south Minneapolis. Including Lake Minnetonka, the watershed for the...
, Minnehaha Park is one of the city's oldest and most popular parks, receiving over 500,000 visitors each year.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowHenry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American educator and poet whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and "Evangeline"...
named Hiawatha's wife Minnehaha for the Minneapolis waterfall in
The Song of HiawathaThe Song of Hiawatha is an 1855 epic poem, in trochaic tetrameter, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, featuring an Indian hero and loosely based on legends and ethnography of the Ojibwe and other Native American peoples contained in Algic Researches and additional writings of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft...
, a bestselling and often-parodied 19th century poem.
Runner's World ranks the Twin Cities as America's sixth best city for runners. Team Ortho sponsors the Minneapolis Marathon, Half Marathon and 5K which began in May 2009 with more than 1,500 starters. The
Twin Cities MarathonThe Twin Cities Marathon is an annual marathon in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area. The race is often dubbed "The Most Beautiful Urban Marathon in America." The TCM was first run in 1982, and typically takes place during the first weekend in October. In 2006 the Marathon agreed to its first...
run in Minneapolis and St. Paul every October draws 250,000 spectators. The race is a
BostonThe Boston Marathon is an annual marathon hosted by the city of Boston, Massachusetts, on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897 and inspired by the success of the first modern-day marathon competition in the 1896 Summer Olympics, the Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual...
and
USA OlympicThe United States has sent athletes to every celebration of the modern Olympic Games, except the 1980 Summer Olympics, which it boycotted.The United States Olympic Committee is the National Olympic Committee for the United States....
Trials qualifier. The organizers sponsor three more races: a Kids Marathon, a , and a . Minneapolis is home to more
golfGolf is a precision club-and-ball sport, in which competing players , using many types of clubs, attempt to hit balls into each hole on a golf course while employing the fewest number of strokes. Golf is one of the few ball games that does not require a standardized playing area...
ers per capita than any major U.S. city.
In other sports, five
golf courseA golf course consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
s are located within the city, with nationally ranked
Hazeltine National Golf ClubHazeltine National Golf Club is a golf club located in Chaska, Minnesota. It is a private club and therefore closed to guests not accompanied by a member. The course opened in 1962 with Robert Trent Jones as the course architect. The current president of the club is Tim Rainey.Hazeltine also hosts...
, and
Interlachen Country ClubThe Interlachen Country Club is a private country club in Edina, Minnesota which has hosted several national golf tournaments, including the 1930 U.S. Open , the 2002 Solheim Cup, and the 2008 U.S...
in nearby suburbs. The state of Minnesota has the nation's highest number of
bicyclistsCycling is an activity most commonly performed on a bicycle - when it is it is also referred to as bicycling or simply biking. It is the use of the bicycle, unicycle , tricycles , quadracycles , and other similar wheeled human-powered vehicles for the purpose of transport, as a form of...
,
sport fishermenRecreational fishing, also called sport fishing, is fishing for pleasure or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is fishing for profit, or subsistence fishing, which is fishing for survival....
, and
snow skiersSkiing is a group of sports using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....
per capita. Hennepin County has the second-highest number of
horseThe horse is a hoofed mammal, a subspecies of one of seven extant species of the family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s per capita in the U.S. While living in Minneapolis, Scott and Brennan Olson founded (and later sold)
RollerbladeRollerblade is a type of inline skate. The name is a registered trademark owned by Nordica, part of the Tecnica Group of Trevignano, Treviso, Italy. Scott and Brennan Olson sold their Minneapolis company and it became Rollerblade, Inc. which has changed hands over time between Nordica, Benetton...
, the company that popularized the sport of
inline skating'Inline skates' are a type of roller skate used for inline skating. Unlike quad skates, which are configured with two front and two rear wheels, inline skates have two, three, four or five wheels arranged in a single line...
.
Government
Minneapolis is a stronghold for the
Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor PartyThe Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party is a major political party in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was created on April 15, 1944 when the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Farmer-Labor Party merged. Hubert Humphrey was instrumental in this merger. The party is affiliated with the national...
(DFL), an affiliate of the
Democratic PartyThe Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world. In the U.S...
. The
Minneapolis City CouncilThe Minneapolis City Council is the governing body of the City of Minneapolis. The City Council is composed of 13 single member districts, called wards. Barbara Johnson is president of the council. The council is dominated by members of the DFL Party with 12 members. The Green Party has one member...
holds the most power and represents the city's thirteen districts called
wardsIn the United States, a ward is an optional division of a city or town, especially an electoral district, for administrative and representative purposes...
. The council has twelve DFL members and one from the
Green PartyThe Green Party of Minnesota is the fourth largest political party in Minnesota and was founded in 1994 on the Four Pillars of the Green Party: Ecological Wisdom, Social and Economic Justice, Grassroots Democracy, and Nonviolence and Peace...
.
R. T. RybakRaymond Thomas Rybak, Jr. , known as R.T. Rybak, is the current mayor of the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. In 2001, Rybak defeated Sharon Sayles Belton, the first African-American and first female mayor of the city...
also of the DFL is the current
mayor of Minneapolis. The office of mayor is relatively weak but has some power to appoint individuals such as the chief of
policeA police service is a public force empowered to enforce the law and provide security through the legitimized use of force.The term is most commonly associated with police services of a state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of...
. Parks, taxation, and public housing are semi-independent boards and levy their own taxes and fees subject to Board of Estimate and Taxation limits.
Citizens have a unique and powerful influence in
neighborhoodA neighbourhood or neighborhood is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town or suburb. Neighbourhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members....
government. Neighborhoods coordinate activities under the Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP), funded in the 1990s by the city and state who appropriated $400 million for it over twenty years. Minneapolis is divided into communities, each containing neighborhoods. In some cases two or more neighborhoods act together under one organization. Some areas are commonly known by nicknames of business associations.
The organizers of
Earth DayEarth Day is celebrated in the US on April 22 and is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment. It was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in in 1970, and is celebrated in many countries every year...
scored Minneapolis ninth best overall and second among mid-sized cities in their 2007
Urban Environment Report, a study based on indicators of environmental health and their effect on people.
Early Minneapolis experienced a period of corruption in local government and crime was common until an economic downturn in the mid 1900s. Since 1950 the population decreased and much of downtown was lost to urban renewal and highway construction. The result was a "moribund and peaceful" environment until the 1990s. Along with economic recovery the
murderMurder, as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent , and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
rate climbed. The
Minneapolis Police DepartmentThe Minneapolis Police Department is the police department for the city of Minneapolis in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Centrally headquartered at City Hall in Downtown Minneapolis since 1867, it is the first and oldest police department in the state. MPD's history is linked closely to twin city...
imported a computer system from
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
that sent officers to high crime areas despite accusations of
racial profilingRacial profiling is the inclusion of racial or ethnic characteristics in determining whether a person is considered likely to commit a particular type of crime or an illegal act or to behave in a "predictable" manner. It is often confused with the more comprehensive Offender Profiling and has been...
; the result was a drop in major crime. Since 1999 the number of homicides increased during four years, and to its highest in recent history in 2006, and then as of 2008, went down 22% from 2007 and down 39% from 2006. Politicians debate the causes and solutions, including increasing the number of police officers, providing youths with alternatives to gangs and drugs, and helping families in poverty. For 2007, the city invested in public safety infrastructure, hired over forty new officers, and has a new police chief, Tim Dolan.
Education
Minneapolis Public SchoolsMinneapolis Public Schools or Special School District Number 1 is a school district that covers all of the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minneapolis Public Schools enroll 36,370 students in public primary and secondary schools...
enroll 36,370 students in public
primaryA primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational,...
and
secondarySecondary education is the stage of education following primary school. Secondary education is generally the final stage of compulsory education. However, secondary education in some countries includes a period of compulsory and a period of non-compulsory education. The next stage of education is...
schools. The district administers about one hundred public schools including forty-five
elementary schoolAn elementary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America...
s, seven
middle schoolMiddle school or junior high school serves as a "bridge" between elementary school and high school. The terms can be used in different ways in different countries, sometimes interchangeably...
s, seven
high schoolHigh school is the name used in some parts of the world, particularly in Scotland, Northern America and Oceania, to describe an institution that provides all or part of secondary education...
s, eight
special educationSpecial education is the education of students with special needs in a way that addresses the students' individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials,...
schools, eight
alternative schoolAlternative school , is the name used in some parts of the world to describe an institution which provides part of alternative education. It is an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional...
s, nineteen contract alternative schools, and five
charter schoolCharter schools are elementary or secondary schools in the United States that receive public money but have been freed from some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth...
s. With authority granted by the state legislature, the
school boardSchool Board may refer to the education arrangements in different parts of the United Kingdom:* School board * School board...
makes policy, selects the superintendent, and oversees the district's budget, curriculum, personnel, and facilities. Students speak ninety different languages at home and most school communications are printed in
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
,
HmongHmong or Mong is the common name for a group of dialects of the West Hmongic branch of the Hmong-Mien/Miao-Yao language family spoken by the Hmong people of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, northern Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos...
,
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
, and
SomaliThe Somali language is a member of the East Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Its nearest relatives are Afar and Oromo. Somali is the best documented of the Cushitic languages, with academic studies of it from before 1900....
. About 44% of students in the Minneapolis Public School system graduate, which ranks the city the 6th worst out of the nation's 50 largest cities. Besides public schools, the city is home to more than twenty private schools and academies and about twenty additional charter schools.
Minneapolis' collegiate scene is dominated by the main campus of the
University of MinnesotaThe University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States...
where more than 50,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students attend twenty colleges, schools, and institutes. The graduate school programs ranked highest in 2007 were counseling and personnel services, chemical engineering, psychology, macroeconomics, applied mathematics and non-profit management. A
Big TenThe Big Ten Conference is the United States' oldest Division I college athletic conference. Its eleven member institutions are located primarily in the Midwestern United States, stretching from Iowa and Minnesota in the west to Pennsylvania in the east...
school and home of the Golden Gophers, the U of M is the sixth
largest campus in the U.S. in terms of enrollment.
Minneapolis Community and Technical CollegeMinneapolis Community and Technical College is a community and technical college located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The college is located near Loring Park and serves over 12,000 students annually...
, the private
Dunwoody College of TechnologyDunwoody College of Technology is a private, non-profit vocational college in of Minneapolis, Minnesota.In addition to associate 2-year college programs Associate of Applied Science , Dunwoody also offers a Bachelor of Science in Applied Management for students with an associate degree.Dunwoody...
,
Globe University/Minnesota School of BusinessGlobe University and Minnesota School of Business are private, for-profit schools providing specialized career training programs in business, medical, legal,information technology and creative media fields. They are located on campuses in Minnesota, Wisconsin and South Dakota, USA...
, and
Art Institutes International MinnesotaThe Art Institutes International Minnesota is a for-profit school operated by EDMC located in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota on the corner of Hennepin Ave. and 9th Street...
provide career training.
Augsburg CollegeAugsburg College is a selective, liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was founded in 1869 in Marshall, Wisconsin as Augsburg Seminary and moved to Minneapolis in 1872...
,
Minneapolis College of Art and DesignMinneapolis College of Art and Design is a private, non-profit four-year and post-graduate college specializing in the visual arts. Located in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis, MCAD enrolls roughly 750 fine art and design students to engage in areas such as illustration, graphic design,...
, and
North Central UniversityNorth Central University is a coeducational, undergraduate, primarily residential college owned and operated by 11 Assemblies of God districts of the upper Midwest. It is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA...
are private four-year colleges.
Capella UniversityCapella University is a minimum residency, for-profit online university based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The school is owned by the publicly traded Capella Education Company. Capella University offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in business, information technology, education,...
,
Minnesota School of Professional PsychologyArgosy University is a private for-profit university, with 19 locations in 12 U.S. states and online. The university offers numerous programs at various levels, including certification; associates, bachelors, masters, specialist, and doctoral degrees, postdoctoral respecialization, postgraduate...
, and Walden University are headquartered in Minneapolis and some others including the public four-year
Metropolitan State UniversityMetropolitan State University is a four-year public university located in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, United States. It is a member of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities .Founded in 1971, with David E...
and the private four-year
University of St. ThomasThe University of St. Thomas is a coeducational archdiocesan Roman Catholic institution of higher learning based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1885 as a Catholic seminary, it is named after St. Thomas Aquinas, a medieval Catholic theologian and philosopher who is the patron saint of...
have campuses there.
The
Hennepin County LibraryHennepin County Library is a library system serving the entire population of Hennepin County, Minnesota. A separate system for Minneapolis existed until January 2008. The system currently has 41 libraries, the Children's Readmobile, deposit collections at nursing homes and correctional facilities,...
system operates the city's public libraries. The
Minneapolis Public LibraryThe Minneapolis Public Library and Information Center was a library system serving the residents of Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States. It was founded as the ' in 1860. The library at the time of its merger with Hennepin County Library in 2008 included a central facility downtown and...
faced a severe budget shortfall for 2007, and was forced to close three of its neighborhood libraries. The new downtown Central Library designed by
César PelliCésar Pelli is an Argentine architect known for designing some of the world's tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks. His designs are known for their curved facades and metallic elements....
opened in 2006. Ten special collections hold over 25,000 books and resources for researchers, including the Minneapolis Collection and the Minneapolis Photo Collection. At recent count 1,696,453 items in the system are used annually and the library answers over 500,000 research and fact-finding questions each year.
In 2007, Minneapolis was named America's most literate city. The study, conducted by Live Science, surveyed 69 U.S. cities with a population over 250,000. They focused on six key factors: Number of book stores, newspaper circulation, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources. In second place was
Seattle, WashingtonSeattle is located in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Situated in the western part of Washington State on an isthmus between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, about south of the Canada – United States border, it is named after Chief Sealth, of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes...
and third was Minneapolis' neighbor,
St. PaulSaint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the north bank of the Mississippi River, downstream of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
, followed by
Denver, ColoradoThe City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the state of Colorado, in the United States. Denver is a consolidated city-county located in the South Platte River Valley on the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
and
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
Transportation
Half of Minneapolis-Saint Paul residents work in the city where they live. Most residents drive
carAn automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
s but 60% of the 160,000 people working downtown commute by means other than a single person per auto. Alternative transportation is encouraged. The
Metropolitan CouncilThe Metropolitan Council is the regional governmental agency in Minnesota serving the Twin Cities seven-county metropolitan area . The Met Council is granted regional authority powers in state statutes by the Minnesota Legislature...
's
Metro TransitMetro Transit is the transit division of the Metropolitan Council, a regional governmental agency in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Metro Transit is the largest operator of bus services in the seven-county region surrounding Minneapolis and St...
, which operates the
light railLight rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
system and most of the city's buses, provides free travel vouchers through the
Guaranteed Ride Home program to allay fears that commuters might otherwise be occasionally stranded if, for example, they work late hours.
The Minneapolis metro system consists of one light rail line. The
Hiawatha LineThe Hiawatha Line is a light rail corridor in Hennepin County, Minnesota that extends from downtown Minneapolis to the southern suburb of Bloomington, connecting to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the Mall of America, among other destinations.Hiawatha is operated by Metro...
LRT serves 34,000 riders daily and connects the Minneapolis-St. Paul International
airportMinneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport is the largest and busiest airport in the five-state upper Midwestern region of Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin....
and
Mall of AmericaMall of America is a super-regional shopping mall located in the Twin Cities suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. The mall is located southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway 77, north of the Minnesota River and is across the interstate from the Minneapolis-St. Paul...
to downtown. Most of the line runs at surface level, although parts of the line run on elevated tracks (including the Franklin Ave. and Lake St./Midtown stations) and approximately of the line runs underground, including the Lindbergh terminal subway station at the airport. By the end of 2009, the line will be extended a quarter mile west, with a new terminal at
Target FieldTarget Field is the future home ballpark for the Minnesota Twins, currently under construction in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is on schedule to open in April 2010. It will be the franchise's sixth ballpark and third in Minnesota, replacing their ballpark of 28 years, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome...
, the upcoming home of the Minnesota Twins. The planned second line, the
Central CorridorThe Central Corridor is a planned light rail line covering the stretch between the downtown regions of Minneapolis and Saint Paul in Minnesota. The line is expected to follow the path of the current Metro Transit bus routes 16 and 50 along the combination of University Avenue and Washington Avenue...
will share stations with the Hiawatha line in downtown Minneapolis, and then at the Downtown East/Metrodome station, travel east through the University of Minnesota, and then along University Ave. into downtown St. Paul. Construction will begin in 2010 and expected completion is in 2014. The third line, the Southwest line, will connect downtown Minneapolis with the southwestern suburb of Eden Prairie. Completion is expected in 2015.
The 40-mile Northstar Commuter rail line, which will run from
Big LakeBig Lake is a city in Sherburne County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 6,063 at the 2000 census.U.S. Route 10 and Minnesota State Highway 25 are two of the main arterial routes in the city.-Geography:...
through the northern suburbs and terminate at the multi-modal transit station at Target Field will open on November 16, 2009.
Seven miles (11 km) of enclosed pedestrian bridges called
skywayIn an urban setting, a skyway, catwalk, sky bridge, or skywalk is a type of pedway consisting of an enclosed or covered bridge between two buildings. This protects pedestrians from the weather. These skyways are usually owned by businesses, and are therefore not public spaces...
s, the
Minneapolis Skyway SystemThe Minneapolis Skyway System is a pedestrian skywalk system that connects various buildings in Downtown Minneapolis enabling people to walk in a climate controlled environment...
, link eighty city blocks downtown. Second floor
restaurantA restaurant prepares and serves food and drink to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
s and
retailerRetailing consists of the sale of goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be individuals...
s connected to these passageways are open on weekdays.
The taxicab ordinance requires 10% wheelchair accessibility by 2009 and some use of alternative fuel or fuel efficient vehicles. Starting in 2011 the city's limit of 343 taxis will be lifted.
Minneapolis ranks second in the nation for the highest percentage of commuters by bicycle. Ten thousand cyclists use the bike lanes in the city each day, and many ride in the winter. The Public Works Department expanded the
bicycleA bicycle, also known as a bike, push bike or cycle, is a pedal-driven, human-powered vehicle with two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist or a bicyclist....
trail system from the
Grand RoundsThe Grand Rounds Scenic Byway is a linked series of park areas in Minneapolis, Minnesota that takes a roughly circular path through the city. The corridors include roads for automobile traffic plus paths for pedestrians and bicycles, and extend slightly into neighboring cities...
to 56 miles (90 km) of off-street commuter trails including the
Midtown GreenwayThe Midtown Greenway is a rail trail in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is considered under segregated cycle facilities.Used both recreationally and for commuting, the partially below-grade Greenway runs east-west about one block north of Lake Street...
, the Light Rail Trail, Kenilworth Trail,
Cedar Lake TrailThe Cedar Lake Trail is America's first bike freeway. It is a rail trail located on the west side of Minneapolis, Minnesota and was inaugurated on February 17, 1995....
and the West River Parkway Trail along the Mississippi. Minneapolis also has 34 miles (54 km) of dedicated bike lanes on city streets and encourages cycling by equipping transit buses with bike racks and by providing online bicycle maps. Many of these trails and bridges, such as the Stone Arch Bridge, were former railroad lines that have now been converted for bicycles and pedestrians. In 2007 citing the city's bicycle lanes, buses and LRT,
ForbesForbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, Forbes magazine, is published fortnightly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published fortnightly, and Business Week...
identified Minneapolis the world's fifth cleanest city.
Minneapolis-Saint Paul International AirportMinneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport is the largest and busiest airport in the five-state upper Midwestern region of Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin....
(MSP) sits on on the southeast border of the city between
Minnesota State Highway 5Minnesota State Highway 5 is a highway in Minnesota, which runs from its intersection with State Highways 19 and 22 in Gaylord and continues east and northeast to its eastern terminus at its interchange with State Highway 36 and Washington County Road 5 in Stillwater...
,
Interstate 494Interstate 494 is a loop route making up part of a beltway of Interstate 94, circling through the southern and western portions of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area in Minnesota. The 43-mile road is coupled with Interstate 694 at each end, and composes more than half of the major...
,
Minnesota State Highway 77Minnesota State Highway 77 is a highway in Minnesota, which runs from its intersection with 138th Street in Apple Valley and continues north to its northern terminus at its interchange with State Highway 62 in Minneapolis. The route is in length...
, and
Minnesota State Highway 62For the highway in southwestern Minnesota numbered 62 between Windom and Fulda, see Minnesota State Highway 62 .Minnesota State Highway 62 is a 12 mile long state highway in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota. The route was part of Hennepin County Road 62 until 1988, when a portion of the...
. The airport serves three international, twelve domestic, seven charter and four regional carriers and is a hub and home base for
Northwest AirlinesNorthwest Airlines, Inc. , a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, Inc., is a major United States airline headquartered in Eagan, Minnesota, near Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport...
,
Mesaba AirlinesMesaba Airlines is an American regional airline based in Eagan, Minnesota. The airline operates under Mesaba Aviation, Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines...
, and
Sun Country AirlinesMN Airlines, LLC, operating as Sun Country Airlines, is an American low-cost airline headquartered in the Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb of Mendota Heights, Minnesota...
.
AmtrakThe National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971 to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a blend of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union Station...
's
Empire BuilderThe Empire Builder is a passenger train route operated by Amtrak in the Midwestern and Northwestern United States. Before Amtrak, the Empire Builder was operated by the Great Northern Railway. The train was Great Northern's flagship. The current route runs from Chicago, Illinois to the Pacific...
between Chicago and Seattle stops once daily in each direction at nearby
Midway StationMidway Station is the Amtrak train station in Saint Paul, Minnesota, so named after the Midway area which is roughly halfway between the downtowns of St. Paul and neighboring Minneapolis. Its Amtrak station code is MSP and serves as the only station for the Minneapolis-Saint Paul 7-county area...
in St. Paul. Expected to open in 2009, a commuter rail line, the Northstar Corridor between downtown and
Big Lake, MinnesotaBig Lake is a city in Sherburne County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 6,063 at the 2000 census.U.S. Route 10 and Minnesota State Highway 25 are two of the main arterial routes in the city.-Geography:...
has been funded. It will utilize existing railroad tracks and will serve a projected 5,000 daily commuters.
Media
Five major newspapers are published in Minneapolis:
Star TribuneThe Star Tribune is the largest newspaper in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is published seven days each week in an edition for the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area. A statewide version is also available across Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota...
,
Finance and Commerce"Finance and Commerce" is the only daily newspaper devoted exclusively to business in the Twin Cities Minnesota. Founded in 1887, it provides extensive coverage of Twin Cities business news in the areas of real estate, construction, technology, banking, energy, health care and advertising...
,
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, the university's
The Minnesota DailyThe Minnesota Daily is the campus newspaper of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, published Monday-Thursday while school is in session, and published weekly on Wednesdays during summer sessions. Published since 1900, the paper is one of the largest student-run and student-written newspapers...
and
MinnPost.comMinnPost.com also known as MinnPost is a non-profit news website in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with a focus on investigative journalism and Minnesota news. The paper offers "front page" news stories and interactive "posts" by reporters and readers based on the paper's original reporting...
. Other publications are the
City PagesCity Pages is an alternative weekly newspaper serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. It features news, film, theatre and restaurant reviews, and music criticism. It is printed in a tabloid format, and is available free every Wednesday...
weekly, the
Mpls.St.Paul and
Minnesota Monthly monthlies, and
Utne magazine. In 2008 readers of online news also used
Minnesota IndependentThe Minnesota Independent, formerly Minnesota Monitor, and sometimes known as MnIndy, is an independent online newsmagazine. It launched in August 2006, with a focus on coverage of political issues. The newsmagazine is funded by the Center for Independent Media, a 501 non-profit that supports...
,
Twin Cities Daily PlanetThe Twin Cities Daily Planet is an independent website specializing in news events in the Minneapolis – Saint Paul metropolitan area. It is a non-automated news aggregator, which edits and reprints news items submitted to it by online stringers or published by affiliated local and neighborhood blogs...
,
Downtown JournalDowntown Journal, founded during the 1970s as a print newspaper, is an online and print newspaper serving Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States...
,
Cursor,
MNSpeak and about fifteen other sites.
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded in 1851 and published in New York City. The largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, "The Gray Lady"—named for its staid appearance and style—is regarded as a national newspaper of record...
said in 1996, "Now there are T-shirts that read, 'Murderapolis,'" a name for the city that members of the local media have mistakenly attributed to the paper.
Minneapolis has a mix of radio stations and healthy listener support for public radio but in the commercial market, a single organization
Clear Channel CommunicationsClear Channel Communications is an American media conglomerate company headquartered at 200 East Basse Road in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, who wields considerable influence in radio broadcasting, concert promotion and hosting, and fixed advertising in...
operates seven stations. Listeners support three
Minnesota Public RadioMinnesota Public Radio , a 501 non-profit organization, is one of the premier public radio stations producing programming for radio, Internet and face-to-face audiences in the United States...
non-profit stations, the Minneapolis Public Schools and the University of Minnesota each operate a station, the networks broadcast on affiliate stations, and religious organizations run two stations.
The city's first television was broadcast by the St. Paul station and
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. It first broadcast on television in 1948...
affiliate
KSTP-TVKSTP-TV, channel 5, is the ABC affiliate for the Twin Cities. Its transmitter is located in Shoreview, Minnesota. It is the flagship station of Hubbard Broadcasting Corporation, which also owns several other TV stations across the United States and some other properties.KSTP is licensed in St...
. The first to broadcast in color was
WCCO-TVWCCO-TV, is the CBS owned and operated television station that serves the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota. It broadcasts a digital television signal on channel 32 . It also operates two full-powered semi-satellites--KCCO-TV in Alexandria and KCCW in Walker . KCCO-TV simulcasts WCCO-TV, but...
, the
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American television network, one of television's original "big three", which also include NBC and ABC. Like NBC, CBS started out as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System...
affiliate which is located in downtown Minneapolis. The city also receives
FOXThe Fox Broadcasting Company , commonly referred to as Fox , is an American television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, from 2004 to 2009 Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the 18–49 demographic...
,
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
,
PBSThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television service with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. However, its operations are largely funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting...
,
MyNetworkTVMyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
, and
The CWThe CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
through their affiliates and one independent station. Twins Brandon and Brenda Walsh were from Minneapolis on the TV series
Beverly Hills, 90210Beverly Hills, 90210 is a prime time television drama series that aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on Fox in the United States, and subsequently on various networks around the world. It is the first series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise...
.
American IdolAmerican Idol is a reality competition to find new solo musical talent, created by Simon Fuller. It debuted on June 11, 2002 on the Fox network, and has since become one of the most popular shows on American television...
held auditions for its sixth season in Minneapolis in 2006 and
Last Comic StandingLast Comic Standing was an American reality television talent show that aired from 2003 to 2008. The objective of the program was to select a comedian from a group, who will receive a development contract with the NBC television network and a special first to air on the cable-TV network Comedy...
held auditions for its fifth season in Minneapolis in 2007.
A statue of
Mary Tyler MooreMary Tyler Moore is an American actress, primarily known for her roles in television sitcoms.Moore is best known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show , in which she starred as Mary Richards, a 30-something single woman who worked as a local news producer in Minneapolis, and for her earlier role as Dick...
downtown on the Nicollet Mall commemorates the legendary 1970s
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American television network, one of television's original "big three", which also include NBC and ABC. Like NBC, CBS started out as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System...
television situation comedy fictionally based in Minneapolis,
The Mary Tyler Moore ShowThe Mary Tyler Moore Show is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns that aired on CBS from September 19, 1970 to March 19, 1977...
. It marks the site where part of the series' iconic opening sequence was shot.
The show was awarded three
Golden GlobeThe Golden Globe Awards are presented annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to recognize outstanding achievements in the entertainment industry, both domestic and foreign, and to focus wide public attention upon the best in motion pictures and television...
s and thirty-one
Emmy AwardThe Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards , Grammy Awards and Tony Awards .They are presented in various...
s.
Religion and charity
The Dakota people, the original inhabitants of the area where Minneapolis now stands, believed in the
Great SpiritThe Great Spirit, also called Wakan Tanka among the Sioux, The Creator, or The Great Maker in English and Gitchi Manitou in Algonquian, is a conception of a supreme being prevalent among some Native American and First Nations cultures....
and were surprised that not all European settlers were religious. Over fifty denominations and religions and some well known churches have since been established in Minneapolis. Those who arrived from
New EnglandNew England is a region of the United States. It is located at the northeastern corner of the US, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and the state of New York, consisting of the modern U.S...
were for the most part Christian Protestants, Quakers, and Universalists. The oldest continuously used church in the city,
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic ChurchOur Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church is a Roman Catholic parish church of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis located in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States. It was built on the east bank of the Mississippi River in today's Nicollet Island/East Bank neighborhood; it is the oldest...
in the
Nicollet Island/East BankNicollet Island/East Bank is a neighborhood within the larger University community in Minneapolis. It is situated just across the Mississippi River from downtown Minneapolis. The "East Bank" portion of the neighborhood is commonly referred to as a part of Nordeast or Old St. Anthony, as this area...
neighborhood was built in 1856 by Universalists and soon afterward was acquired by a French Catholic congregation. Formed in 1878 as Shaarai Tov, in 1902 the first
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish congregation in Minneapolis built the synagogue in
East IslesEast Isles is a neighborhood within the larger Calhoun-Isles community in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It lies between Hennepin Avenue to the east, Lake of the Isles to the west, West Lake Street to the south, and West 22nd Street to the north...
known since 1920 as Temple Israel. St. Mary's Orthodox Cathedral was founded in 1887, opened a missionary school in 1897 and in 1905 created the first Russian Orthodox seminary in the U.S. The first basilica in the U.S., the Roman Catholic Basilica of Saint Mary near
Loring ParkLoring Park is the largest park in the Central Community of Minneapolis, Minnesota on the southwest corner of downtown Minneapolis. It also lends its name to the surrounding neighborhood.- Park :...
was named by
Pope Pius XIPope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...
.
The
Billy Graham Evangelistic AssociationThe Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is an organization started by the Rev. Billy Graham in 1950. The main focus of the BGEA is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible...
,
Decision magazine, and
World Wide PicturesWorld Wide Pictures is a film distributor and production company established as a subsidiary of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in 1951...
film and television distribution were headquartered in Minneapolis for about forty of the years between the late 1940s into the 2000s.
Jim BakkerJames Orsen Bakker is an American televangelist, a former Assemblies of God minister, and a former host of The PTL Club, a popular evangelical Christian television program. A sex scandal led to his resignation from the ministry...
and
Tammy FayeTamara "Tammy" Faye Bakker Messner was an American Christian singer, evangelist, entrepreneur, author, talk show host, and television personality. She was the former wife of televangelist, and later convicted felon, Jim Bakker, and she co-hosted with him on The PTL Club from 1976 to 1987...
met while attending the Pentecostal
North Central UniversityNorth Central University is a coeducational, undergraduate, primarily residential college owned and operated by 11 Assemblies of God districts of the upper Midwest. It is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA...
and began a television ministry that by the 1980s reached 13.5 million households. Today, Mount Olivet
Lutheran ChurchThe Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is a mainline Protestant denomination headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA officially came into existence on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three churches and currently has about 4,633,887 baptized members...
in southwest Minneapolis has 6,000 active members and is the world's largest Lutheran congregation.
Christ Church LutheranChrist Church Lutheran is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America located at 3244 34th Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota...
in the
LongfellowLongfellow is a neighborhood within the larger Longfellow community in Minneapolis. It is bounded by Seward to the North, Cooper to the East, Howe to the South, and Corcoran and East Phillips to the West. It was named after Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who wrote The Song of Hiawatha. It is...
neighborhood is among the finest work by architect
Eliel SaarinenGottlieb Eliel Saarinen was a Finnish architect who became famous for his art nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century....
. The congregation later added an education building designed by his son
Eero SaarinenEero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and product designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project : simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.- Biography :Eero Saarinen, who was born in Hvitträsk,...
.
Philanthropy and charitable giving are part of the community. More than 40% of adults in Minneapolis-St. Paul give time to volunteer work, the highest percent in the U.S.
Catholic CharitiesCatholic Charities is a worldwide network of charities whose aim is to "reduce poverty, support families, and empower communities." It is one of the largest and most respected charities...
is one of the largest providers of social services locally. The
American Refugee CommitteeThe American Refugee Committee is a major international non-profit, non-sectarian organization focused on helping refugees and displaced people regain control of their lives. The group was initially founded in 1979 to provide aid to Cambodians on the Thai-Cambodian border. They've since worked...
helps one million refugees and displaced persons in ten countries in Africa, the
BalkansThe Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
and Asia each year. Although no Minneapolis businesses are top corporate citizens,
Business Ethics was based in Minneapolis and was the predecessor of
CRO magazine for corporate responsibility officers. The oldest foundation in Minnesota, the Minneapolis Foundation invests and administers over nine hundred charitable funds and connects donors to nonprofit organizations. The metropolitan area gives 13% of its total charitable donations to the arts and culture. The majority of the estimated $1 billion recent expansion of arts facilities was contributed privately.
Health and utilities
Minneapolis has seven hospitals, four ranked among America's best by
U.S. News & World Report—
Abbott Northwestern HospitalAbbott Northwestern Hospital is a 627 bed teaching and specialty hospital based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the largest not-for-profit hospital in the Twin Cities and a part of the Allina network of hospitals and clinics...
(part of
AllinaAllina Hospitals & Clinics is network of health care providers based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Allina owns or operates 11 hospitals and more than 65 clinics throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin...
),
Children's Hospitals and ClinicsChildren’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota is the seventh-largest children’s health care organization in the U.S., with 326 staffed beds at its two hospital campuses in St. Paul and Minneapolis...
,
Hennepin County Medical CenterHennepin County Medical Center is a Level I trauma center based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the county seat of Hennepin County. The primary 422-bed facility is located on five city blocks across the street from the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, with satellite clinics in Minneapolis, Brooklyn...
(HCMC) and the
University of Minnesota Medical Center, FairviewThe University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview is the main university hospital for the University of Minnesota Medical School. There are two campuses: one located on the East Bank of the Mississippi River, known as the University Campus, and the other on the West Bank of the Mississippi...
.
Minneapolis VA Medical Center,
Shriners Hospitals for ChildrenShriners Hospitals for Children is a network of 22 pediatric non-profit hospitals across North America that provide specialty care at no charge to the patients and their families....
and Allina's
Phillips Eye InstitutePhillips Eye Institute consists of two specialty eye hospitals in the Minnesota, United States. Phillips Eye Institute’s location, in Minneapolis, Minnesota opened in 1987. Phillip’s newest location, in Buffalo, Minnesota opened in 2008. Phillips Eye Institute specializes in the diagnosis,...
also serve the city. The
Mayo ClinicMayo Clinic is a non-profit organization and internationally renowned group medical practice headquartered in Rochester, Minnesota. Its headquarters consist of the Mayo Medical School, the Mayo Graduate School, the Mayo College of Graduate Medical Education, and several other health science schools...
in
Rochester, MinnesotaRochester is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Olmsted County. Located on both banks of the Zumbro River, it is perhaps best known as the home of Mayo Clinic and is also home to the largest IBM facility under one roof in the world...
is a 75-minute drive away.
Cardiac surgeryCardiac surgery is surgery on the heart and/or great vessels performed by a cardiac surgeon. Frequently, it is done to treat complications of ischemic heart disease , correct congenital heart disease, or treat valvular heart disease created by various causes including endocarditis...
was developed at the university's Variety Club Hospital, where by 1957, more than two hundred patients had survived open-heart operations, many of them children. Working with surgeon
C. Walton LilleheiClarence Walton Lillehei , was an American surgeon who pioneered open-heart surgery, as well as numerous techniques, equipment and prostheses for cardiothoracic surgery.-Biography:...
,
MedtronicMedtronic, Inc. , based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the world's largest medical technology company. Listed among Fortune 500 companies, Medtronic is a publicly traded company and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MDT...
began to build portable and implantable
cardiac pacemakerThe contractions of the heart are controlled by chemical impulses. The rate these impulses fire controls the heart rate.The cells that create these rhythmical impulses are called pacemaker cells, and they directly control the heart rate...
s about this time.
HCMC opened in 1887 as City Hospital and was also known as General Hospital. A public teaching hospital and Level I trauma center, the HCMC safety net sees 325,000 clinic visits and 100,000 emergency room visits each year and in 2008 provided about 18% of the uncompensated care given in Minnesota.
Utility providers are
regulatedRegulation is "controlling human or societal behaviour by rules or restrictions." Regulation can take many forms: legal restrictions promulgated by a government authority, self-regulation, social regulation , co-regulation and market regulation. One can consider regulation as actions of conduct...
monopoliesIn economics, a monopoly exists when a specific individual or an enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it...
:
Xcel EnergyXcel Energy, Inc. is a public utility company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, serving customers in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin. Primary services are electricity and natural gas...
supplies electricity,
CenterPoint EnergyCenterPoint Energy is a Fortune 500 electric and natural gas utility serving several markets in the U.S. states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas. It was formerly known as Reliant Energy , NorAm Energy, Houston Industries, and HL&P...
supplies gas,
QwestQwest Communications International, Inc. is a large telecommunications carrier. Qwest provides local service in 14 western U.S...
is the landline telephone provider, and
ComcastComcast Corporation , founded in 1963, is the largest cable operator in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers. Comcast is headquartered in the One Comcast Center in Center City, Philadelphia,...
is the cable service. In 2007 city-wide wireless internet coverage began, provided for 10 years by US Internet of Minnetonka to residents for about $20 per month and to businesses for $30. Minneapolis is one of the first cities to implement city-wide, public
Wi-FiWi-Fi is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance for certified products based on the IEEE 802.11 standards. This certification warrants interoperability between different wireless devices....
, and as of July, 2008, much of the city was covered, although spots lacking coveage persisted on the East- and West-Central sections of the city. The city treats and distributes water and requires payment of a monthly solid waste fee for trash removal, recycling, and drop off for large items. Residents who recycle receive a credit. Hazardous waste is handled by Hennepin County drop off sites. After each significant snowfall, called a
snow emergencyA snow emergency is the term used in the United States and Canada to declared when a major winter storm severely impacts a city or county. In a snow emergency, schools, universities, government offices and other public buildings may close...
, the Minneapolis Public Works Street Division plows over one thousand miles (1609 km) of streets and four hundred miles (643.7 km) of alleys—counting both sides, the distance between Minneapolis and Seattle and back. Ordinances govern parking on the plowing routes during these emergencies as well as snow shoveling throughout the city.
Sister cities
As shown below Minneapolis has 10
sister citiesSister cities, also known as town twinning, is an agreement between towns, cities and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties...
:
NajafNajaf is a city in Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2008 is 900,600 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate...
(
IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
) since 2009
CuernavacaCuernavaca is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. It is also a municipality. It is located about south of Mexico City on the D-95 freeway....
(
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
) since 2008
UppsalaUppsala is the capital of Uppsala County and the fourth largest city of Sweden with 144,839 inhabitants....
(
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
) since 2000
EldoretEldoret is a town in western Kenya and the administrative centre of Uasin Gishu District of Rift Valley Province. Lying south of the Cherangani Hills, the local elevation varies from about 2100 metres above sea level at the airport to more than 2700 metres in nearby areas...
(
KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
) since 2000
Harbin' , is a sub-provincial city and the capital of the Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China. It lies on the southern bank of the Songhua River...
(
P.R. ChinaThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
) since 1992
ToursTours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...
(
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
) since 1991
NovosibirskNovosibirsk is Russia's third-largest city, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and the largest city of Siberia. It is the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast as well as of the Siberian Federal District...
(
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
) since 1988
Ibarakiis a city located in Osaka, Japan. It is a suburban city of Osaka city and a part of Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe metropolitan area. Literally Ibaraki in English means Wild Trees or Thorny trees....
(
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
) since 1980 Kuopio (
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
) since 1972
SantiagoSantiago , is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the centre of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of 520 m AMSL...
(
ChileChile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
) since 1961
And informal connections with:
Hiroshimais the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshū, the largest island of Japan. It became the first city in history assaulted by nuclear armament when the United States of America dropped an atomic bomb on it on August 6, 1945, near the culmination...
(
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
)
KampalaKampala is the largest city and capital of Uganda. The city is divided into five boroughs that oversee local planning: Kampala Central, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division and Lubaga Division...
(
UgandaThe Republic of Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania...
)
Minneapolis used to be sister cities with Canada
WinnipegWinnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, in south central Canada, near the eastern edge of the Canadian Prairies, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers...
(
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
).
See also
- Northeast Minneapolis
- Nicollet Mall
Nicollet Mall is a portion of Nicollet Avenue running through downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Working as a pedestrian and transit mall, it is also an upscale shopping and dining district...
- Mall of America
Mall of America is a super-regional shopping mall located in the Twin Cities suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. The mall is located southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway 77, north of the Minnesota River and is across the interstate from the Minneapolis-St. Paul...
- Hennepin Avenue
Hennepin Avenue is a major street in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It runs from Lakewood Cemetery , north through the Uptown District of Southwest Minneapolis, through the former "Bottleneck" area west of Loring Park, through the North Loop in the city center, to Northeast Minneapolis and...
- Companies based in Minneapolis-St. Paul
The Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area is the 15th-largest agglomeration in the United States, and is home to many corporations, companies, and divisions. The core cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul host many companies, but a number are in suburban cities....
- List of events and attractions in Minneapolis
- List of Minneapolitans
- List of tallest buildings in Minneapolis
- Minneapolis-Saint Paul
External links
Visitors