regionalism : Featured Stories

Finalists have been selected for the second annual Creative City Challenge. The winning, interdisciplinary, public-art installation--selected by popular vote this winter--will be open all summer on the Minneapolis Convention Center plaza.

Heather and John McDougall, who are siblings, have designed the bamboo Bogobrush, a "buy one, give one" product that provides toothbrushes to people in need.

Public art has evolved into an essential element of urban placemaking and social engagement. From murals on vacant buidlings to art in laundormats to temporary art installations that invite public participation, we take a look at public art and how it's changing cities.

With new ventures in greater Minnesota, plans for "inspansion" in the Twin Cities, and a bicycle that makes ice cream, the bikeshare program is both growing fast and becoming a (sometimes quirky) part of Minnesota culture. Nice Ride's marketing director fills us in.

Get ready for some changes in our already-stellar park system that will expand your ideas about recreation, ecology, and economic development.

With Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) a possible future option for areas of Minneapolis and Saint Paul where light rail isn't feasible, I decided to take ride on Apple Valley's newly opened BRT route (the Red Line) to check it out. And why not? I'd already checked into a suburban hotel after the power went out at home.

She was the key consultant on the Knight Foundation/Gallup Soul of the Community project, which looked at why people love where they live and how that attachment can drive economic development. The in-demand placemaker is the star attraction at a weeklong series of discussions next week, cosponsored by The Line.

From "road diets" to "advisory bike lanes" to Complete Streets programs, Twin Cities suburbs are beginning to create infrastructure and policy to turn their familiar auto-only paradigm into a new vision of walkable, bikeable streets.

The Central Corridor light rail line (aka the Green Line) won't be finished till 2014, but it's already earning its keep, writes Conrad LeFiebre of MN 2020, as development advances, once-disrupted business stabilizes, and observers add up the unique advantages of a line that connects two downtowns.

While the concept of the green job is a nice fusion of much-needed employment growth and environmental responsibility, it's been hard to get a handle on the size and even the definition of this part of the job market. But according to Matt Entenza and other experts, the picture in Minnesota is getting clearer as more jobs fit the category. In fact, this small but growing sector may be the IT of the future.

How are Minnesota and the Twin Cities doing as film production centers and locations? There have been some major disappointments recently, but new moves give us reason to hope we can lure Hollywood back.

What can the Twin Cities learn from other communities' success with municipal broadband? For one thing, that "bright cable" has a bright future. For another, that every city's situation is different.

At the Grassroots and Groundwork anti-poverty conference--held at Mystic Lake Casino, of all places--attendees heard about ingenious ways to build wealth in struggling communities by adapting old-school immigrant self-help tactics to the digital age.

In A Line or Two, I share some of my discoveries and enthusiasms as I make my way around the Twin Cities--call it an editor's-note-as-blog-entry. This week: A web site that makes hiking through our towns an exercise in historical imagination.

What do you do when the urban garden you've struggled to create gets sold out from under you? At the recent Community Garden Spring Resource Fair, New York gardening advocate Karen Washington told local growers that if they want their gardens to be really sustainable--i.e., permanent--they'd better get savvy about the political system.