Minneapolis
This article is about the city in Minnesota.
For other uses, see Minneapolis (disambiguation).
| Minneapolis, Minnesota | |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| State | Minnesota |
| County | Hennepin |
| Incorporated | 1867 |
| Founded by | John H. Stevens and Franklin Steele |
| Government | |
| Type | Weak mayor–council |
| Body | Minneapolis City Council |
| Mayor | Jacob Frey (DFL) |
| Council President | Lisa Bender (DFL) |
| Area | |
| City | 57.49 sq mi (148.89 km) |
| Land | 54.00 sq mi (139.86 km) |
| Water | 3.49 sq mi (9.03 km) |
| Elevation | 830 ft (264 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| City | 382,578 |
| Estimate (2019) | 429,606 |
| Rank | US: 46th
MN: 1st |
| Density | 7,955.67/sq mi (3,071.72/km) |
| Metro | 3,629,190 (US: 16th) |
| CSA | 4,014,593 (US: 16th) |
| Demonym(s) | Minneapolitan |
| Time zone | UTC–6 (CST) |
| Summer (DST) | UTC–5 (CDT) |
| ZIP Codes | 55401–55488 (range includes some ZIP Codes for Minneapolis suburbs) |
| Area code(s) | 612 |
| FIPS code | 27-43000 |
| Major airport | Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport |
| Interstates | Interstate_94_in_Minnesota Interstate_35_in_Minnesota Interstate_394_in_Minnesota Interstate_35W_in_Minnesota |
| US Routes | US_Route_52_in_Minnesota US_Route_12_in_Minnesota |
| Public transportation | Metro Transit |
| Website | Q36091#P856 |
Minneapolis (/ˌmɪniˈæpəlɪs/ (listen)) is the largest and most-populous city in the US state of Minnesota and the seat of Hennepin County.
As of 2019, Minneapolis has an estimated population of 429,606.
It is the 46th-largest city in the US, the 8th-largest in the Midwestern United States, and the second-most densely populated large city in the region behind Chicago.
Minneapolis and its neighbor Saint Paul make up the Twin Cities and with their surrounding suburbs contain about 3.64 million people, making it the third-largest economic and population center in the Midwest and the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the US.
Minneapolis lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul, the state's capital.
The city is abundantly rich in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls; many connected by parkways in the Chain of Lakes and the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway.
The city has one of the best park systems in the US.
Minneapolis was once the world's flour milling capital and a hub for timber.
The city and surrounding region is the primary business center between Chicago and Seattle, as well as the largest urban population area between the two cities.
Minneapolis is home to five Fortune 500 companies, and the Twin Cities are the fifth-largest hub of major corporate headquarters in the US.
Anchoring strong music and performing arts scenes, Minneapolis is home to both the award-winning Guthrie Theater and the historic First Avenue nightclub.
Reflecting the region's status as a center of folk, funk, and alternative rock music, the city was the launching pad for several of the 20th century's most influential musicians, including Bob Dylan and Prince.
Hip-hop and rap scenes produced artists such as Lizzo, Brother Ali, Atmosphere, and Dessa.
Minneapolis is often ranked as one of the best cities in the US for biking.
Etymology
The city's Dakota name is Bdeóta Othúŋwe ('Many Lakes City').
Before incorporation, it was called All Saints, Lowell, Addiesville or Adasville, Winona, Brooklyn, and Albion.
The city's first schoolmaster, Charles Hoag was searching for indigenous syllables, when he stumbled on "Indianapolis".
He proposed "Minnehapolis," with a silent h, combining the Dakota word for "waterfall", Mníȟaȟa, and the Greek word for "city", polis.
Newspaperman George Bowman and Daniel Payne dropped the h, leaving out the hah, to create Minneapolis, meaning 'city of the falls'.
History
Main article: History of Minneapolis
Dakota natives, city founded
The Dakota Sioux were the region's sole residents when French explorers arrived in 1680.
Gradually, more European-American settlers arrived, competing for game and other resources with the Native Americans.
By the Treaty of Paris following the Revolutionary War, British land east of the Mississippi River became part of the United States.
In the early 19th century, the US acquired land to the west of the river from France in the Louisiana Purchase.
Fort Snelling was built in 1819 by the US Army at the southern edge of present-day Minneapolis and also bordering Saint Paul as the US military's most remote outpost, to direct Indian trade away from the French and English to the US, and to prevent the Dakota and Ojibwe in the north from fighting each other.
The fort attracted traders, settlers and merchants, spurring growth.
Agents of the St. Peters Indian Agency built at the fort enforced US policy of assimilating Native Americans into European-American society, asking them to give up hunting for subsistence and to learn to plow for cultivation.
The US government pressed the Dakota to sell their land which was ceded in a succession of treaties.
The US reneged on the treaties during the Civil War, resulting in hunger, war, internment, and exile of the Dakota from Minnesota.
Outwitting the fort's commandant, Franklin Steele laid his claim on the east bank of Saint Anthony Falls, and John H. Stevens built his home on the west bank.
The Minnesota Territorial Legislature authorized Minneapolis as a town in 1856, on the Mississippi's west bank.
Minneapolis incorporated as a city in 1867 and later joined with the east-bank city of St. Anthony in 1872.
Waterpower; lumber and flour milling
Minneapolis developed around Saint Anthony Falls, the highest waterfall on the Mississippi River and a source of power for its early industry.
Forests in northern Minnesota encouraged a lumber industry, which operated seventeen sawmills 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.
Due to the occupational hazards of milling, six local sources of artificial limbs were competing in the prosthetics business by the 1890s.
The farmers of the Great Plains grew grain that was shipped by rail to the city's thirty-four flour mills.
Millers have used hydropower elsewhere 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."
A father of modern milling in America and founder of what became General Mills, Cadwallader C. Washburn converted his business from gristmills to truly revolutionary technology, including "gradual reduction" processing by steel and porcelain roller mills capable of producing premium-quality pure white flour very quickly.
Some ideas were developed by William Dixon Gray and some say they were acquired through industrial espionage from Hungary by William de la Barre.
Charles A. Pillsbury and the C.A. Pillsbury Company across the river were barely a step behind, hiring Washburn employees to immediately use the new methods.
The hard red spring wheat that grows in Minnesota became valuable ($0.50 profit per barrel in 1871 increased to $4.50 in 1874), and Minnesota "patent" flour was recognized at the time as the best in the world.
Not until later did consumers discover the value in the bran (which contains wheat's vitamins, minerals and fiber) that "...Minneapolis flour millers routinely dumped" into the Mississippi.
After 1883, a Minneapolis miller virtually started a new industry when he began to sell bran byproduct as animal feed.
Millers cultivated relationships with academic scientists, especially at the University of Minnesota.
Those scientists backed them politically on many issues, such as in the early 20th century when health advocates in the nascent field of nutrition criticized the flour "bleaching" process.
At peak production, a single mill at Washburn-Crosby made enough flour for twelve million loaves of bread each day; by 1900, 14 percent of America's grain was milled in Minneapolis.
Further, by 1895, through the efforts of silent partner William Hood Dunwoody, Washburn-Crosby exported four million barrels of flour a year to the United Kingdom.
When exports reached their peak in 1900, about one third of all flour milled in Minneapolis was shipped overseas.
Social tensions
Known initially as a kindly physician, mayor Doc Ames made his brother police chief, ran the city into corruption, and tried to leave town in 1902.
Muckraker Lincoln Steffens published "The Shame of Minneapolis" in 1903, elevating Ames's story to national news.
The gangster Kid Cann was famous for bribery and intimidation from the 1920s until the 1940s.
The city made changes to rectify discrimination as early as 1886 when Martha Ripley founded Maternity Hospital for both married and unmarried mothers.
Different forms of bigotry played roles during the first half of the 20th century.
In 1910, a Minneapolis developer wrote restrictive covenants based on race and ethnicity into his deeds.
Copied by other developers, the practice prevented minorities from owning or leasing certain properties.
Though such language was prohibited by state law in 1953 and by the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968, restrictive covenants against minorities remained in many Minneapolis deeds as recently as 2017.
The Ku Klux Klan succeeded by entering family life, but effectively was a force in the city only from 1921 until 1923.
After Minnesota passed a eugenics law in 1925, the proprietors of Eitel Hospital sterilized about one thousand people at the Faribault State Hospital.
From the end of World War I until 1950, Minneapolis was a corrosive site of anti-semitism.
A hate group called the Silver Legion of America held meetings in the city around 1936 to 1938.
Answering bigotry against Jewish doctors, Mount Sinai Hospital opened in 1948 as the first hospital in the community to accept members of minority races and religions on its medical staff.
When the country's fortunes turned during the Great Depression, the violent Teamsters Strike of 1934 resulted in laws acknowledging workers' rights.
A lifelong civil rights activist and union supporter, mayor Hubert Humphrey helped the city establish fair employment practices and a human relations council that interceded on behalf of minorities by 1946.
In the 1950s, less than 2 percent of the population was nonwhite.
Bottled-up anger in the black population was released in two disturbances on Plymouth Avenue in 1966–1967 when turmoil occurred across the US.
A new Urban Coalition was able to reach a peaceful outcome but ultimately failed to solve black poverty and unemployment, and a law and order candidate became mayor.
Minneapolis contended with white supremacy, participated in desegregation and the civil rights movement, and in 1968 was the birthplace of the American Indian Movement.
Between 1958 and 1963, as part of urban renewal, the city razed roughly 40 percent of downtown, destroying the Gateway District and many buildings with remarkable architecture, including the Metropolitan Building.
Efforts to save the building failed but are credited with sparking interest in historic preservation in the state.
Main articles: Killing of George Floyd and George Floyd protests
On May 25, 2020, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was seen on video kneeling on George Floyd's neck for eight minutes, resulting in his death.
This incident sparked national unrest, riots, and mass protests.
The Twin Cities experienced prolonged unrest in 2020 as part of an ongoing culture war focusing on racial issues.
Geography and climate
Main articles: Climate of Minnesota, Climate of Minneapolis–Saint Paul, and Geography of Minneapolis
The history and economic growth of Minneapolis are tied to water, the city's defining physical characteristic.
Long periods of glaciation and interglacial melt carved several riverbeds through what is now Minneapolis.
During the last glacial period around ten thousand years ago, ice buried in these ancient river channels melted, resulting in basins that would fill with water to become the lakes of Minneapolis.
The glacial River Warren, fed by the meltwater of Lake Agassiz, created a large waterfall in what is now Saint Paul that eroded upriver to the confluence of the Mississippi River, where it left a 75-foot (23 m) drop that became Saint Anthony Falls, which in turn eroded up the Mississippi about 8 miles (13 km) to its present location; Minnehaha Falls also developed during this period.
Lying on an artesian aquifer and flat terrain, Minneapolis has a total area of 58.4 square miles (151.3 km) and of this 6 percent is water.
Water supply is managed by four watershed districts that correspond to the Mississippi and the city's three creeks.
Twelve lakes, three large ponds, and five unnamed wetlands are within Minneapolis.
The city's lowest elevation of 686 feet (209 m) is near where Minnehaha Creek meets the Mississippi River.
A spot at 974 feet (297 m) in or near Waite Park in Northeast Minneapolis is corroborated by Google Earth as the highest ground.
Neighborhoods
Main article: Neighborhoods of Minneapolis
Minneapolis is divided into eleven communities, each containing several neighborhoods, of which there are eighty-three.
In some cases two or more neighborhoods act together under one organization.
Some areas are known by nicknames of business associations.
In 2018, the Minneapolis City Council voted to end single-family zoning citywide.
At the time, 70 percent of residential land was zoned for detached single-family homes, however many of those areas had "nonconforming" buildings with more housing units.
City leaders sought to increase the supply of housing so that more neighborhoods would be affordable, and decrease the effects that single family zoning had caused on racial disparites and segregation.
The Brookings Institution called it "a relatively rare example of success for the YIMBY agenda."
Cityscape
Climate
Minneapolis experiences a hot-summer humid continental climate (Dfa in the Köppen climate classification), typical of southern parts of the Upper Midwest, and is situated in USDA plant hardiness zone 4b, with small enclaves of Minneapolis classified as being zone 5a.
Minneapolis has cold, snowy winters and hot, humid summers.
As is typical in a continental climate, the difference between average temperatures in the coldest winter month and the warmest summer month is great: 60.1 °F (33.4 °C).
According to the NOAA, the annual average for sunshine duration is 58%.
Minneapolis experiences a full range of precipitation and related weather events, including snow, sleet, ice, rain, thunderstorms, and fog.
The highest recorded temperature was 108 °F (42 °C) in July 1936 while the lowest was −41 °F (−41 °C) in January 1888.
The snowiest winter on record was 1983–84, when 98.6 inches (250 cm) of snow fell, and the least snowy winter was 1890–91, when only 11.1 inches (28 cm) fell.
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of Minneapolis
| Racial composition | 2019 | 2010 | 1990 | 1970 | 1950 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White | 63.8% | 63.8% | 78.4% | 93.6% | 98.4% |
| —Non-Hispanic | 59.8% | 60.3% | 77.5% | 92.8% | n/a |
| Black or African American | 19.4% | 18.6% | 13% | 4.4% | 1.3% |
| Hispanic or Latino (of any race) | 9.6% | 10.5% | 2.1% | 0.9% | n/a |
| Asian | 6.1% | 5.6% | 4.3% | 0.4% | 0.2% |
| Other race | 4.7% | 5.6% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Two or more races | 4.6% | 4.4% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Dakota tribes, mostly the Mdewakanton, were permanent settlers near their sacred site St. Anthony Falls.
New settlers arrived during the 1850s and 1860s from New England, New York, Bohemia and Canada, and, during the mid-1860s, immigrants from Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark began to call Minneapolis home.
Migrant workers from Mexico and Latin America interspersed.
Other immigrants came from Germany, Poland, Italy, and Greece.
Central European immigrants settled in the Northeast neighborhood, which is still diverse and known for its Czech and Polish cultural heritage.
Jews from Central and Eastern Europe, and Russia began arriving in the 1880s and settled primarily on the north side before moving in large numbers to the western suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s.
Asians came from China, the Philippines, Japan, and Korea.
Two groups came for a short while during US government relocations: Japanese during the 1940s, and Native Americans during the 1950s.
From 1970 onward, Asians arrived from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand.
After the Rust Belt economy declined during the early 1980s, Minnesota's black population nearly tripled in less than two decades, a large fraction hailing from cities such as Chicago and Gary, Indiana.
Beginning in the 1990s, a sizable Latino population arrived, along with immigrants from the Horn of Africa, especially Somalia.
In 2015, Brookings characterized Minneapolis as a re-emerging immigrant gateway with about 10 percent foreign-born residents.
As of 2019, African Americans make up about one fifth of the city's population.
The US Census Bureau estimates the population of Minneapolis to be 429,606 as of 2019, a 12.3 percent increase since the 2010 census.
The population grew until 1950, when the census peaked at 521,718, and then declined until about 1990 as people moved to the suburbs.
As of 2015, Minneapolis had 4 percent adult LGBT residents, roughly the same as the national average.
Along with about 88 of 500 cities, Human Rights Campaign gave Minneapolis its highest possible score in 2019.
Racial and ethnic minorities in the city lag behind white counterparts in education, with 15 percent of blacks and 13 percent of Hispanics holding bachelor's degrees compared to 42 percent of the white population.
The standard of living is rising, with incomes among the highest in the Midwest, however, median household income among minorities is below that of whites by over $17,000.
As of 2015, the poverty rate gap between blacks and whites was the highest in the US.
Religion
The Dakota people, the original inhabitants of the area where Minneapolis now stands, believed in the Great Spirit and were surprised that not all European settlers were religious.
More than 50 denominations and religions are established with a Christian majority.
Those who arrived from New England were for the most part Protestants, Quakers, and Universalists.
The oldest continuously used church in the city, Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, was built in 1856 by Universalists and soon afterward was acquired by a French Catholic congregation.
The first Jewish congregation in Minneapolis was formed in 1878 as Shaarai Tov, and built Temple Israel in 1928.
St. Mary's Orthodox Cathedral was founded in 1887, opened a missionary school, and created the first Russian Orthodox seminary in the US.
Edwin Hawley Hewitt designed both St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral and Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church just south of downtown.
The first basilica in the US, and co-cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, the Basilica of Saint Mary was named by Pope Pius XI in 1926.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association was headquartered in Minneapolis from the late 1940s into the early 2000s.
Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye met while attending the Pentecostal North Central University and began a television ministry that by the 1980s reached 13.5 million households.
As of 2012, Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in southwest Minneapolis was the nation's second-largest Lutheran congregation, with about 6,000 attendees.
Christ Church Lutheran in the Longfellow neighborhood, designed by Eliel Saarinen with an education building by his son Eero Saarinen, is a National Historic Landmark.
During the 1950s, members of the Nation of Islam created a temple in north Minneapolis, and the first Muslim mosque was built in 1967.
In 1972 a relief agency resettled the first Shi'a Muslim family from Uganda.
By 2004, between 20,000 and 30,000 Somali Muslims made the city their home.
The city has about 20 Buddhist and meditation centers.
Atheists For Human Rights has its headquarters in the Shingle Creek neighborhood in a geodesic dome.
Minneapolis has a body of Ordo Templi Orientis.
The first Hindu temple in the city was built in 1978, and North America's largest, the Hindu Temple of Minnesota, is in Maple Grove.
Economy
See also: Economy of Minnesota
The Minneapolis–St. Paul area is the third largest economic center in the Midwest, behind Chicago and Detroit.
During the city's formative years, millers had to pay cash for wheat during the growing season and then hold it until it was needed for flour.
This required large amounts of capital, which stimulated the local banking industry and made Minneapolis a major financial center.
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.
The Twin Cities metropolitan area has the fifth highest concentration of major corporate headquarters in the country, with five Fortune 500 corporations headquartered within the city limits of Minneapolis.
Foreign companies with US offices in Minneapolis include Accenture, Bellisio Foods (now part of Charoen Pokphand Foods), Canadian Pacific, Coloplast, RBC and Voya Financial.
In its 2018 survey for expatriate executives, The Economist ranked Minneapolis the third-most expensive city in North America and 26th in the world.
The Twin Cities contribute 63.8% of the gross state product of Minnesota.
Measured by gross metropolitan product per resident ($62,054), as of 2015, Minneapolis is the fifteenth richest city in the US The area's $199.6 billion gross metropolitan product and its per capita personal income ranked thirteenth in the US in 2011.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis serves Minnesota, Montana, North and South Dakota, and parts of Wisconsin and Michigan.
The smallest of the twelve regional banks in the Federal Reserve System, it operates a nationwide payments system, oversees member banks and bank holding companies, and serves as a banker for the US Treasury.
The Minneapolis Grain Exchange, founded in 1881, is still located near the riverfront and is the only exchange for hard red spring wheat futures and options.
Culture
Visual arts
Main article: Arts in Minneapolis
The Walker Art Center, one of the five largest modern art museums in the US, sits atop Lowry Hill, near the downtown area.
The size of the center was doubled with an addition in 2005 by Herzog & de Meuron, and expanded with a 15-acre (6.1 ha) park designed by Michel Desvigne, located across the street from the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
Known as Mia since its 100th anniversary, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, designed by McKim, Mead & White in 1915 in south central Minneapolis, is the largest art museum in the city, with 100,000 pieces in its permanent collection.
New wings, designed by Kenzo Tange and Michael Graves, opened in 1974 and 2006, respectively, for contemporary and modern works, as well as more gallery space.
The Weisman Art Museum, designed by Frank Gehry for the University of Minnesota, opened in 1993 and offers free admission.
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An 2011 addition, also designed by Gehry, doubled the size of the galleries.
The Museum of Russian Art opened in a restored church in 2005 and hosts a collection of 20th-century Russian art as well as special events.
The Northeast Minneapolis Arts District has 400 independent artists, a center at the Northrup-King Building, and recurring annual events.
Theater and performing arts
Main article: List of theaters in Minnesota
Minneapolis has been a cultural center for theatrical performances since the mid 1800s.
Early theaters included the Pence Opera House, the Academy of Music, the Grand Opera House, the Lyceum, and later the Metropolitan Opera House, which opened in 1894.
Today Minneapolis is home to dozens of theater companies.
The Guthrie Theater, the area's largest theater company, occupies a three-stage complex overlooking the Mississippi, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel.
The company was founded in 1963 by Sir Tyrone Guthrie as a prototype alternative to Broadway, and it produces a wide variety of shows throughout the year.
Minneapolis purchased and renovated the Orpheum, State, and Pantages Theatres vaudeville and film houses on Hennepin Avenue, which are now used for concerts and plays.
A fourth renovated theater, the former Shubert, joined with the Hennepin Center for the Arts to become the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts, home to more than one dozen performing arts groups.
The Minnesota Fringe Festival is held every summer.
Music
The Minnesota Orchestra plays classical and popular music at the city's Orchestra Hall under music director Osmo Vänskä—a critic writing for The New Yorker in 2010 described it as "the greatest orchestra in the world."
The orchestra was nominated in 2013 for its recording of "Sibelius: Symphonies Nos.
2 & 5," and it won a Grammy Award in 2014 for "Sibelius: Symphonies Nos 1 & 4."
According to DownBeat, for 25 years the Dakota Jazz Club has been one of the world's best jazz venues.
Newer, Crooners in northeast Minneapolis also won world's best in 2020.
Singer and multi-instrumentalist Prince was born in Minneapolis and lived in the area most of his life.
After Jimmy Jam and his 11-piece Mind & Matter broke through discrimination that had created a race barrier downtown, Prince reached a global multiracial audience with his combination of indecency and religion.
An authentic musical prodigy enriched by a music program at The Way Community Center, Prince learned to operate a Polymoog at Sound 80 for his first album that became a sonic element of the Minneapolis sound.
With fellow local musicians, many of whom recorded at Twin/Tone Records, Prince helped make First Avenue and the 7th Street Entry prominent venues for both artists and audiences.
Hüsker Dü and The Replacements were pivotal in the US alternative rock boom during the 1980s.
Their respective frontmen Bob Mould and Paul Westerberg developed successful solo careers.
The MN Spoken Word Association and independent hip hop label Rhymesayers Entertainment have garnered attention for rap, hip hop and spoken word.
Underground Minnesota hip hop acts such as Atmosphere and Manny Phesto comment about the city and Minnesota in song lyrics.
Tom Waits released two songs about the city, "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" (Blue Valentine, 1978) and "9th & Hennepin" (Rain Dogs, 1985), and Lucinda Williams recorded "Minneapolis" (World Without Tears, 2003).
In 2008, the century-old MacPhail Center for Music opened a new facility designed by James Dayton.
Electronic dance music artists include Woody McBride, Freddy Fresh and DVS1.
Minneapolis is home to three opera companies: Minnesota Opera, Mill City Summer Opera and Really Spicy Opera.
Literature
Minneapolis is the fourth-most literate city in the US as of 2018, and hosted the founding of Open Book which consists of the Loft Literary Center, the Minnesota Center for Book Arts and Milkweed Editions, a large independent nonprofit literary publisher.
Publishers located in Minneapolis include Coffee House Press and the University of Minnesota Press.
Charity
Philanthropy and charitable giving are part of the community.
According to AmeriCorps in 2017, Utah is the most generous state but Minneapolis–Saint Paul ranked first among cities with 46.3% of the population volunteering.
The Minneapolis Foundation invests and administers over 1,000 charitable funds.
Alight helps 2.5 million refugees and displaced persons each year in Asili-Democratic Republic of Congo, Jordan, Myanmar, Pakistan, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Thailand and Uganda.
In 2011, Target Corporation was listed 42nd in a list of the best 100 corporate citizens in CR magazine for corporate responsibility officers.
Catholic Charities USA is one of the largest providers of social services locally.
Cuisine
See also: Cuisine of the Midwestern United States § Minneapolis and Saint Paul
The non-profit Appetite for Change (AFC) administers 10 gardens, sells produce at the West Broadway Farmers Market in summertime, supplies its restaurants, and gives away boxes of fresh produce.
AFC's goal is to improve the local diet against the influx of fast-food stores.
West Broadway Avenue was a cultural epicenter during the early 20th century but by the 1950s, flight to the suburbs began, and streetcars closed down.
One of the largest urban food deserts in the US was in North Minneapolis, where, as of mid-2017, 70,000 people had only two grocery stores.
Wirth Co-op since opened in 2017 but closed within a year.
North Market opened in 2017.
As of 2019, Minneapolis-based chefs have won James Beard Foundation Awards: Ann Kim, chef at Young Joni, Pizza Lola and Hello Pizza, won in 2019.
Founder of the Sioux Chef, Sean Sherman won two James Beard prizes in 2019 — the leadership award and best cookbook.
Steve Hoffman won the James Beard distinguished writing award for "What Is Northern Food?."
Other winners were 2008 rising star chef Gavin Kaysen who won again in 2018 at Spoon & Stable; Alexander Roberts at Restaurant Alma; and Isaac Becker at 112 Eatery.
Also in venues that have closed, Tim McKee won at La Belle Vie, and Paul Berglund at Bachelor Farmer.
Andrew Zimmern won in 2010, 2013 and 2017 for Outstanding Personality/Host on Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern and for his television program On Location in 2012.
When thirteen chefs and restaurants were nominated for James Beard awards in 2017, The Wall Street Journal named Minneapolis one of the ten best places to visit in the world.
Julia Moskin, in The New York Times, and Bon Appétit wrote about New Nordic cuisine and the Scandinavian heritage of Minneapolis in 2012.
East African cuisine arrived with a wave of Somali immigration which started in the 1990s.
As of 2019, chefs and bakers at eight of nine Kim Bartmann Minneapolis restaurants used heritage grains from Sunrise Four Mill.
In 2018, Food & Wine named Spoon and Stable one of the 40 most important restaurants of the past 40 years.
Young Joni was selected one of the GQ top ten new restaurants and one of Eater's twelve best new restaurants of 2017.
Esquire put Hai Hai on its list of America's best restaurants in 2018.
Racial conflicts
One author described racial disparities as the most significant challenge facing Minneapolis in the first decades of the 21st century, claiming that the city's Indigenous population and people of color had fared worse than the city's white population for many measures of well being, such as health outcomes, academic achievement, income, and home ownership.
Several other commentators and observers have also written about historic racism and socioeconomic disparities in the city.
Sports
Main articles: Sports in Minneapolis–Saint Paul and Sports in Minnesota
| Team | Sport | League | Since | Venue (capacity) | Championships |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minnesota Lynx | Basketball | Women's National Basketball Association | 1999 | Target Center (18,798) | 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017 |
| Minnesota Timberwolves | Basketball | National Basketball Association | 1989 | Target Center (18,798) | |
| Minnesota Twins | Baseball | Major League Baseball | 1961 | Target Field (39,500) | 1987, 1991 |
| Minnesota Vikings | American Football | National Football League | 1961 | U.S. Bank Stadium (66,655) | 1969 (NFL) |
Minneapolis is home to four professional sports teams.
The Minnesota Vikings football team and the Minnesota Twins baseball team have played in the state since 1961.
The Vikings were an NFL expansion team, and the Twins were formed when the Washington Senators relocated to Minnesota.
The Twins won the World Series in 1987 and 1991 and have played at Target Field since 2010.
The Vikings played in the Super Bowl following the 1969, 1973, 1974, and 1976 seasons, losing all four games.
The Minnesota Timberwolves brought NBA basketball back to Minneapolis in 1989, followed by the Minnesota Lynx in 1999.
Both basketball teams play in the Target Center.
In recent years, the Lynx have been the most successful sports team in the city and a dominant force in the WNBA, reaching the WNBA Finals in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2017 and winning in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017.
The 1,750,000-square-foot (163,000 m) U.S. Bank Stadium was built for the Vikings for about $1.122 billion, with $348 million coming from the state of Minnesota and $150 million coming from the city of Minneapolis.
Called "Minnesota's biggest-ever public works project," the stadium opened in 2016 with 66,000 seats, expandable to 70,000 for the 2018 Super Bowl.
U.S. Bank Stadium also hosts indoor running and rollerblading nights, as well as concerts and events.
Major sporting events hosted by the city include baseball All-Star Games, World Series, Super Bowls, NCAA Division 1 men's and women's basketball Final Four, the AMA Motocross Championship, the X Games and the WNBA All-Star Game.
The Gophers women's ice hockey team is a six-time NCAA champion and seven-time national champion winning in 2000, 2004, 2005, 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2016.
The Minnesota Wild of the NHL play in Saint Paul at the Xcel Energy Center.
The MLS soccer team Minnesota United FC play at Allianz Field in Saint Paul.
In other sports, six golf courses are located within city limits.
While living in Minneapolis, Scott and Brennan Olson founded (and later sold) Rollerblade, the company that popularized the sport of inline skating.
Parks and recreation
Main article: Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board
The Minneapolis park system has been called the best-designed, best-financed, and best-maintained in America.
More than a century after they were designed, in its 2020 ParkScore ranking, The Trust for Public Land reported that Minneapolis had the best park system among the 100 most populous US cities.
The parks are governed and operated by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, an independent park district.
Foresight, donations and effort by community leaders enabled Horace Cleveland to create his finest landscape architecture, preserving geographical landmarks and linking them with boulevards and parkways.
The city's Chain of Lakes, consisting of seven lakes and Minnehaha Creek, is connected by bike, running, and walking paths and used for swimming, fishing, picnics, boating, and ice skating.
A parkway for cars, a bikeway for riders, and a walkway for pedestrians runs parallel along the 52 miles (84 km) route of the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway.
Theodore Wirth is credited with developing the parks system.
His goal was to establish a park within walking distance of every child in the city.
Today, 16.6% of the city is parks and there are 770 square feet (72 m) of parkland for each resident.
Parks are interlinked in many places and the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area connects regional parks and visitor centers.
The country's oldest public wildflower garden, the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary, is located within Theodore Wirth Park.
Wirth Park is shared with Golden Valley and is about 90% the size of Central Park in New York City.
Site of the 53-foot (16 m) Minnehaha Falls, Minnehaha Park is one of the city's oldest and most popular parks, receiving over 500,000 visitors each year.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow named Hiawatha's wife Minnehaha for the Minneapolis waterfall in The Song of Hiawatha, a bestselling and often-parodied 19th century poem.
The five-mile, hiking-only Winchell Trail along the Mississippi River, with its gorge views and access, offers a rustic hiking experience.
The Twin Cities Marathon run in Minneapolis and Saint Paul every October draws 250,000 spectators.
The 26.2-mile (42.2 km) race is a Boston and USA Olympic Trials qualifier.
The organizers sponsor three more races: a Kids Marathon, a 1-mile (1.6 km), and a 10-mile (16 km).
The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) ranked Minneapolis and its metropolitan area the nation's first, second, or third "fittest city" every year from 2008 to 2016, and first from 2011 to 2013.
The ACSM American Fitness Index ranks the city third in 2020.
Government
Main articles: Minneapolis City Council and Law and government of Minneapolis
Minneapolis is a stronghold for the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), an affiliate of the Democratic Party.
The Minneapolis City Council holds the most power and represents the city's thirteen districts called wards.
The city adopted instant-runoff voting in 2006, first using it in the 2009 elections.
The council has 12 DFL members and one from the Green Party.
Election issues in 2013 included funding for a new Vikings stadium over which some incumbents lost their positions.
Jacob Frey of the DFL was elected mayor of Minneapolis in 2017.
The office of mayor is relatively weak but has some power to appoint individuals such as the chief of police.
Parks, taxation, and public housing are semi-independent boards and levy their own taxes and fees subject to Board of Estimate and Taxation limits.
Elected in 2013, Lisa Bender serves as president of the City Council and does not plan to seek reelection.
In December 2020, the city worked through input from hundreds of residents, an upturn in the crime rate, COVID-19, and the threat of a mayoral veto, to reach agreement on a 2021 budget.
The $1.5 billion compromise maintained the number of police officers, set aside $8 million for community safety measures, cut funding in all major city departments, and included a 5.75 percent property tax increase.
At the federal level, Minneapolis proper sits within Minnesota's 5th congressional district, which has been represented since 2018 by Democrat Ilhan Omar, one of the first two practicing Muslim women and the first Somali-American in Congress.
Both of Minnesota's US Senators, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, were elected or appointed while living in Minneapolis and are also Democrats.
The Republican Party of Minnesota in 2014 moved its state headquarters from Saint Paul to the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis.
The City Council passed a resolution in 2015 making fossil fuel divestment city policy, joining seventeen cities worldwide in the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance.
The city's climate plan is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.
Police
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.
Minneapolis has an ordinance that directs local law enforcement officers not to 'take any law enforcement action' for the sole purpose of finding undocumented immigrants, nor ask an individual about his or her immigration status.
From 2006 to 2012, under chief Tim Dolan, the crime rate steadily dropped, and the police benefited from new video and gunfire locator resources, although Dolan was criticized for expensive city settlements for police misconduct.
While violent crime dropped (from 6,374 in 2006 to 3,720 in 2011), homicides rose by 105% and rape was at the highest rate among large cities.
U.S. News & World Report said in 2011 that Minneapolis tied with Cleveland, Ohio as the 10th most dangerous city in the US.
Killings of citizens — most often Black — by police have dominated the city's news for a decade.
In 2010, a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into the back of David Smith who was in handcuffs and died a week later.
In the $3 million settlement police agreed to do new training on positional asphyxiation however it is unclear as of 2020 if that training takes place.
Mayor Betsy Hodges underwent severe criticism after the police shooting of Jamar Clark who died in 2015.
Philando Castile was shot by a police officer in neighboring Falcon Heights in 2016.
Facing new criticism when an Australian woman was murdered by a police officer in July 2017, the resignation of chief Janeé Harteau was secured, and 28-year veteran Medaria Arradondo was appointed chief of police.
After George Floyd was killed in 2020, the city and many entities distanced themselves from the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD).
President of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis since 2015, Bob Kroll characterized Floyd as a violent criminal.
Kroll called the protests against his killing a terrorist movement, which brought calls for his resignation from labor groups and former police chief Harteau.
Minneapolis City Council president Lisa Bender announced that the city should dismantle its police department and replace it with a "transformative new model of public safety."
Two days later, on June 7, a veto-proof majority of the city council pledged to begin the process of dismantling the MPD.
But after review the Charter Commission formally rejected the proposal.
In December, the City Council voted unanimously to move $8 million from the police to mental health crisis teams, dispatcher training, and to report handling, in addition to an earlier $14 million move proposed by Frey.
More narrowly, they voted 7-6 to maintain the level of police staffing at 888 for the next year.
After the summer of 2020, the department lost 166 officers either to retirement or to temporary leave, many with PTSD, and a crime wave resulted in more than 500 shootings.
In November, narrowly aligning with Arradondo and Frey, the council had voted 7–6 to pay for additional policing support from Hennepin County Sheriff deputies and Metro Transit police.
Education
Main articles: Hennepin County Library, Minneapolis Public Schools, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System, and University of Minnesota
Primary and secondary education
Minneapolis Public Schools enroll over 35,000 students in public primary and secondary schools.
The district administers about one hundred public schools including forty-five elementary schools, seven middle schools, seven high schools, eight special education schools, eight alternative schools, nineteen contract alternative schools, and five charter schools.
With authority granted by the state legislature, the school board makes policy, selects the superintendent, and oversees the district's budget, curriculum, personnel, and facilities.
In 2017, the graduation rate was 66 percent.
Students speak over one hundred different languages at home and most school communications are printed in English, Hmong, Spanish, and Somali.
Some students attend public schools in other school districts chosen by their families under Minnesota's open enrollment statute.
Besides public schools, the city is home to more than twenty private schools and academies and about twenty additional charter schools.
Colleges and universities
Minneapolis's collegiate scene is dominated by the main campus of the University of Minnesota where more than 50,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students attend twenty colleges, schools, and institutes.
The graduate school programs with exceptional national rankings in 2020 (top five) were health care management, nursing: midwifery, pharmacy and clinical psychology.
Augsburg University, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and North Central University are private four-year colleges.
Over the past 15 years, Augsburg actively sought new students among immigrants to Minneapolis.
In fall 2019, 65 percent of its first-year students were persons of color, and, reversing a state-wide trend, Augsburg enrollment was up 11 percent compared to 2014.
Minneapolis Community and Technical College and the private Dunwoody College of Technology provide career training.
St. Mary's University of Minnesota has a Twin Cities campus for its graduate and professional programs.
Two large principally online universities, Capella University and Walden University, are both headquartered in the city.
The public four-year Metropolitan State University and the private four-year University of St. Thomas are among postsecondary institutions based elsewhere with additional campuses in Minneapolis.
Libraries
The Hennepin County Library system began to operate the city's public libraries in 2008.
The Minneapolis Public Library, founded by T. B. Walker in 1885, faced a severe budget shortfall for 2007, and was forced to temporarily close three of its neighborhood libraries.
The new downtown Central Library designed by César Pelli opened in 2006.
Ten special collections hold over 25,000 books and resources for researchers, including the Minneapolis Collection and the Minneapolis Photo Collection.
About 845,000 people have free library cards..
Media
Five major newspapers are published in Minneapolis: Star Tribune, Finance and Commerce, Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, the university's The Minnesota Daily, and MinnPost.com.
Located in the North Loop, MSP Communications publishes Mpls.St.Paul and Twin Cities Business magazines.
Other publications are Minnesota Monthly and the Southwest Journal.
Minneapolis has a mix of radio stations and healthy listener support for public radio.
In the commercial market three radio broadcasting companies iHeartMedia (formerly Clear Channel), Entercom, and Cumulus Media operate the majority of the radio stations in the market.
Listeners support three Minnesota Public Radio non-profit stations and two community non-profit stations, the Minneapolis Public Schools and the University of Minnesota each operate a station, and religious organizations run four stations.
The city's first television was broadcast in 1948 by the Saint Paul station and ABC affiliate KSTP-TV 5, an NBC affiliate at the time.
The first to broadcast in color was WCCO-TV 4, the CBS owned-and-operated station which is located in downtown Minneapolis.
WCCO-TV, FOX affiliate KMSP-TV 9 and MyNetworkTV affiliate WFTC 29 operate as owned-and-operated stations of their affiliated networks.
The city and suburbs are also home to independently owned affiliates of NBC (KARE 11), PBS (KTCA-TV/KTCI-TV 2), The CW (WUCW 23) and one independent station (KSTC-TV 45).
Infrastructure
Transportation
Main articles: Transportation in Minnesota and Metro (Minnesota)
Minneapolis has two light rail lines and one commuter rail line.
The Metro Blue Line connects the Mall of America and Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport in Bloomington to downtown, running mostly at surface level with some sections elevated or in a tunnel.
The Metro Green Line opened in 2014 and shares stations with the Blue Line in downtown Minneapolis, and then at the Downtown East station, travels east through the University of Minnesota, and then along University Avenue into downtown Saint Paul.
An extension of the Green Line will connect downtown Minneapolis with the southwestern suburb of Eden Prairie.
Completion is expected sometime in 2023.
A northwest LRT is planned along Bottineau Boulevard (Blue Line extension) from downtown to Brooklyn Park.
The 40-mile Northstar Commuter rail, opened in 2009, runs from Big Lake through the northern suburbs and terminates at the multi-modal transit station at Target Field using existing railroad tracks.
Public transit ridership in the Twin Cities was 91.6 million in 2019, a 3 percent decline over the previous year which is part of a national trend in lower local bus ridership.
Ridership on the Metro system remained steady or grew slightly.
Ranked among the best, Bicycling named Minneapolis the 4th best bicycling city in 2018.
Off-street facilities include the Grand Rounds, Midtown Greenway, Little Earth Trail, Hiawatha LRT Trail, Kenilworth Trail, and Cedar Lake Trail.
Bicycle sharing provider Nice Ride Minnesota planned expanded capacity in 2019.
Walk Score rated Minneapolis as having the 13th highest Walk Score and the highest Bike Score among cities with more than 200,000 people in the US.
The Minneapolis Skyway System, 9.5 miles (15.3 km) of enclosed pedestrian bridges called skyways, link eighty city blocks downtown with second floor restaurants and retailers open weekdays.
Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) sits on 3,400 acres (1,400 ha) on the southeast border of the city between interstate 494 and state highways 5, 77, and 62.
The airport serves international, domestic, charter and regional carriers and is home base for Sun Country Airlines.
It is also the third-largest hub for Delta Air Lines, who operate more flights out of MSP than any other airline.
For terminals serving 25 to 40 million passengers, MSP was named the world's best airport for customer experience in North America in 2020 for the fourth consecutive year.
Forbes named MSP the No.
2 Best Airport in North America, behind Detroit in 2019.
Health and utilities
Minneapolis has eight hospitals, four ranked among America's best by U.S. News & World Report in 2020-21 — Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Children's Hospitals and Clinics, University of Minnesota Medical Center, and University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital.
Hennepin Healthcare, Minneapolis VA Medical Center, Shriners Hospitals for Children and Phillips Eye Institute also serve the city.
The Mayo Clinic in Rochester is a 75-minute drive away.
Cardiac surgery 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 Lillehei, Medtronic began to build portable and implantable cardiac pacemakers about this time.
Hennepin Healthcare opened in 1887 as City Hospital, and also has been known as Minneapolis General Hospital, Hennepin County General Hospital, and HCMC.
A public teaching hospital and Level I trauma center, the Hennepin Healthcare safety net counted 643,739 clinic visits and 111,307 emergency and urgent care visits in 2019.
Ambassadors of the Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District (DID) work on 120 blocks of downtown to improve its cleanliness, friendliness and acceptability of behavior.
They are employees of Block by Block, a company in Nashville, Tennessee that serves forty-six US cities.
Xcel Energy supplies electricity, CenterPoint Energy supplies gas, CenturyLink provides landline telephone service, and Comcast provides cable service.
The city treats and distributes water and charges a monthly solid waste fee for trash removal.
After each significant snowfall, called a snow emergency, the Minneapolis Public Works Street Division plows over 1,000 mi (1,610 km) of streets and 400 mi (640 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.
Notable people
Main article: List of people from Minneapolis
Twin towns – sister cities
Minneapolis' sister cities are:
See also
- List of events and attractions in Minneapolis
- List of shared-use paths in Minneapolis
- List of tallest buildings in Minneapolis
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Hennepin County, Minnesota
Credits to the contents of this page go to the authors of the corresponding Wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minneapolis.