Featured Stories

A Line or Two: Artful Science, and Vice-Versa

Jon Spayde Wednesday, April 04, 2012

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:The Science Museum of Minnesota kicks off its 2012 Beaker and Brush discussion series--a chance to explore the still-mysterious zone where science and art intersect.

Arts and Culture, Creative Economy

Downtown/Lowertown

A Conversation with Katie Eggers: Chronicling the New Twin Cities with a Global Eye

Jon Spayde Wednesday, March 28, 2012

German-born Katharina (Katie) Eggers has studied politics in Paris, taught in Thailand, and worked as a UN-EU liaison in Brussels. Now this young, internationally connected overachiever is preparing to launch a print magazine that will highlight the Twin Cities' connections to the nation and the world. And she has some pointed things to say about what it's like to be a newcomer in our towns.

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Design, Entrepreneurship, Regionalism

Videoline: Dinkytown: Food, Music, and Books

Izak Leon and Adam Jacobs Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Izak Leon and Adam Jacobs' video "Dinkytown: Food Music Books" is a a lively look at the semi-legendary neighborhood of cafes, bars, clubs, and bookstores adjacent to the University of Minnesota campus. The two Perpich Center for Arts Education students portray a neighborhood that's moving toward the mainstream while still holding on to many of the values of its countercultural past.

Arts and Culture, diversity, Entrepreneurship, Higher Education, Shopping, Strong Local Economy

University

A Line or Two: Tell Us About Your Microneighborhood

Jon Spayde Wednesday, March 28, 2012

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: Do you live in, or know about, a great microneighborhood in Minneapolis or Saint Paul? A block, an alley, a corner where people come together regularly to have fun and share their lives? Tell us about it.

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership

Southwest

The Block That Rocks

Julie Kendrick Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Don't talk to the residents of the 5300 block of Emerson Avenue South in Minneapolis about urban alienation, "bowling-alone" isolation, or being too busy to build next-door friendships. Led by a few creative souls, the multi-generational microneighborhood has found more ways to connect, celebrate, and hang out together than any urbanologist would dare predict.

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Leadership

Southwest

A Recipe for Real Change

Michelle Vigen Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Adapted from Bush Fellow Michelle Vigen's blog, Common Spark: a simple (if not easy) process to help organizations turn the good ideas and information with which we're inundated--why we should recycle, bike, eat better, revive citizenship, you name it--into real changes of habit and life.

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Leadership, Energy, Green Jobs, Sustainability

A Line or Two: Performance Extravaganza at Patrick's

Jon Spayde Wednesday, March 21, 2012

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 cabaret showcase that will bring together some of the city's A-list avant-garde performers in what promise to be gorgeously twisted takes on our politico-sexual status quo.

Arts and Culture, Creative Leadership, diversity, Nightlife

Longfellow

Where the U of M and the Northside Meet

Dan Heilman Wednesday, March 14, 2012

When the economic downturn derailed plans for a U of M North Minneapolis campus, university and civic visionaries created a unique alternative: a Northside research and outreach center that's the hub for a whole galaxy of town-gown partnerships in economic development and social betterment.

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Leadership, diversity, Entrepreneurship, Higher Education, Philanthropy, Strong Local Economy, Talent Dividend

North Side

Hennepin's History and Hennepin's Future

Camille LeFevre Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Native American trail, gaudy entertainment district, forge of gay consciousness, showcase of the arts: Minneapolis' Hennepin Avenue has been all of these and more. Recently, historians, urbanists, and the public gathered to explore the avenue's colorful history as part of the city's initiative to shape its future.

Affordable Housing, Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Design, diversity, Nightlife, Strong Local Economy, Transit Oriented Development, Transportation

Downtown

A Line or Two: Spanish Steps

Jon Spayde Wednesday, March 14, 2012

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 visit from an old friend, a lunch on Mears Park, and a film about an ancient pilgrim route produce a Spanish-accented take on Twin Cities cosmopolitanism.

Arts and Culture, Creative Economy

Summit Hill and Crocus Hill

A "Facebook for the neighborhood" expands in Saint Paul

Julie Kendrick Wednesday, March 07, 2012

BeNeighbors.org, is an online forum that connects people who live near each other to build community and tackle real issues. With a brand-new grant, it's adding Saint Paul neighborhoods to its ambitious goal of getting everybody talking. Can the city become a national leader in "digital inclusion?"

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Leadership, Philanthropy

Cedar - Riverside/West Bank, Thomas - Dale/Frogtown

Klecko and Vanessa Hyenne of the St. Paul Bread Club

A Line or Two: The Poets, Saint Agnes, and the Bread Club

Jon Spayde Wednesday, March 07, 2012

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, I note the unusual Facebook alert I received the other day: In Saint Paul on Saturday, March 10, there's going to be a poetry reading in a wholesale bakery.

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy

Downtown/Lowertown

Got Ideas? The Minnesota Idea Open Wants Them

Holly Dolezalek Wednesday, March 07, 2012

This concept-contest, with a deadline later this month, not only rewards great ideas for a better Minnesota--it helps make them happen. This year's theme: connecting across cultures and faiths as the state becomes less white, less Lutheran, less Lake Wobegon.

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Philanthropy

Thinking big--and delicious--at 38th and Chicago

Anna Pratt Wednesday, February 29, 2012

A far-seeing developer and an innovative culinary artist are turning a hard-luck Minneapolis intersection around with present and future projects that are "artisan, local, sustainable."

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Strong Local Economy, Sustainability

Powderhorn

VideoLine: A Slightly Frantic Google Street View Tour of Minneapolis

eluko79 Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Capturing hundreds of sequential Street View images from Google Maps using ScreenHunter software, then stitching them together and time-lapsing them in Windows Movie Maker, the peripatetic highway videographer who goes by the YouTube handle eluko79 has created a real-but-virtual photographic journey into the heart of the city.

Riverfront/Mill District, Downtown, Lake Street, Uptown/Lyn Lake, Calhoun - Isles