Featured Stories

A Line or Two: A Civic Blog for Saint Paul

Jon Spayde Wednesday, June 05, 2013

This week: Mayor Coleman's office launches a blog for the City of Saint Paul that's more about the city as a scene than as a simple civic entity.

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Leadership

A charging station at Saint Paul's RiverCentre

Where to charge your car: Electric-car "refueling" stations in the Twin Cities

Anna Pratt Wednesday, June 05, 2013

Charging stations for electric cars are popping up here and there in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. In fact, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is working to install up to 76 electric car-charging stations throughout the metro area, adding to an already expanding network. Here's our guide (a work in progress) to our towns' car-charging infrastructure.

Coordination/Collaboration, Emerging Technologies, Emerging Technology, Strong Local Economy, Sustainability, Transit Oriented Development, Transportation

A Line or Two: Love is the Law in Minnesota

Jon Spayde Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Governor Mark Dayton signed Minnesota's law legalizing gay marriage on a bright, clear day that broke temperature records. The theme of the outdoor signing ceremony was love, just as love had been a major theme of the campaign to get the law passed. Where else might we use this big word?

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Leadership, diversity

Downtown/Lowertown

The May Day Parade: A Slide Show

Bill Kelley Wednesday, May 08, 2013

The May Day Parade and Festival is our Mardi Gras--a heartfelt explosion of color, music, art, fun, and earth-friendliness after the weariness of long winters. Bill Kelley caught the parade action last Sunday in the Powderhorn neighborhood as Minneapolitans dressed up and rocked out to say goodbye to the cold.

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Design, diversity, Sustainability

Powderhorn

Katherine Loflin, Tane Danger, and Susan Brower

A Line or Two: Downstairs at Honey

Jon Spayde Wednesday, May 08, 2013

Monday night I joined urbanist Katherine Loflin, The Line publisher Dena Alspach, colleagues from the Citizens' League, an old magazine-biz pal, and a lively audience for some informal urbanism: an improv comedian emceeing a discussion about why people love/don't love the Twin Cities--and why they stay or go. Craft beer and Asian appetizers were in the mix.

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

Downtown

Coworking for Fashionistas: Two designers open "Showroom"

Anna Pratt Wednesday, May 01, 2013

Jen Chilstrom and Kimberly Jurek have just opened (May 1) a new kind of fashion boutique. The Showroom is a combination retail shop/workshop/coworking space where local designers can come, work, exhibit, share ideas, and grow creatively.

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

Lake Street, Uptown/Lyn Lake, Longfellow

The Big Picture: Laura Zabel on Art's New Roles in the Community

Jon Spayde Wednesday, May 01, 2013

The nonprofit Springboard for the Arts used to concentrate solely on career development for artists. Now, under the leadership of Laura Zabel, it's become a powerful force in redefining the whole relationship between artists and the communities they live in--and in marshaling artistic creativity to improve those communities.

Arts and Culture, Central Corridor, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Healthcare, Strong Local Economy, Transit Oriented Development

Downtown/Lowertown

Nirmala Rajasekar, David Jordan Harris, and Maryam Yusefzadeh

Embracing the Beloved at Our Hindu Temple: A Slide Show

Bill Kelley Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Images from a concert of ecstatic music in three traditions: Hindu Indian, Islamic and Christian Persian, and Sephardic Jewish, played and sung by some of our most accomplished local world musicians. The setting? Minnesota's Hindu temple. The purpose? To bring hearts and minds together. The result? Joyful catharsis after a terrible week.

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, diversity

A Line or Two: Urbanist Katherine Loflin Coming to town to talk placemaking and "talent magnetism"

Jon Spayde Wednesday, April 24, 2013

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.

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Philanthropy, Regionalism, Strong Local Economy

Meet the new face of STEM: Shefali Mehta

Julie Kendrick Wednesday, April 17, 2013

A proud "geek girl" from childhood, this globe-trotting scientist-businesswoman founded a local STEM-education program for elementary-school kids, moved away, then returned to find it still going strong. Now she's more committed than ever to strengthening science-and-technology training in our towns.

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Leadership, Emerging Technology, High Technology, Higher Education, Talent Dividend

The Rise of the Rest: Tech Hubs Bloom Far from Silicon Valley

Eric Peterson Wednesday, April 17, 2013

From Greenville, North Carolina to Baltimore, from Tampa to Denver to Cleveland to the Twin Cities, tech savvy, entrepreneurship, and investment are coming together to create bright clusters of digital innovation.

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Emerging Technology, Entrepreneurship, High Technology, Strong Local Economy

Nick Rosener and Jackie Menne cowork in Joule's Atrium conference room

Joule: The Little Coworking Space that Could

Holly Dolezalek Wednesday, April 10, 2013

While the dynamic CoCo garners the headlines, a quiet coworking space at the edge of downtown Minneapolis welcomes solo entrepreneurs in search of a more serene scene. Owner Jackie Menne understands the needs of one-person, payroll-less microbusinesses--after all, Joule is a microbusiness itself.

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Emerging Technology, Entrepreneurship

Downtown

At the U of M, a confab for designers who want to change the world

Camille LeFevre Wednesday, April 03, 2013

Consolidating its position as a laboratory for cutting-edge design thinking, the University of Minnesota's College of Design hosted the first Public Interest Design Week. Its climax was an awards show that displayed ingenious design-driven solutions to the dilemmas of poverty and ill health in America and around the world.

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Design, diversity, Emerging Technology, Higher Education, Philanthropy, Sustainability

University

The Building Sustainable Communities Program: Art for Everybody's Neighborhood

Jay Walljasper Wednesday, April 03, 2013

Art lives in the Twin Cities--and not just in the tonier parts of town. Thanks to initiatives like Twin Cities LISC's Building Sustainable Communities program, art and artists are taking major roles in helping some of our most challenged inner-city communities thrive.

Arts and Culture, Central Corridor, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Design, diversity, Philanthropy, Reuse / Rebuild, Talent Dividend, Transit Oriented Development

Phillips, North Side, Thomas - Dale/Frogtown, Powderhorn, Summit - University

Mike Hatzis, owner of the Best Steak House on University Avenue

Relief--and optimism--as light rail construction winds down

Dan Heilman Wednesday, March 27, 2013

As the building phase of the Central Corridor line finishes up, it's becoming clear that--thankfully--the direst predictions of business disruption didn't materialize. Now enterprises up and down the corridor are getting used to the new normal.

Central Corridor, Coordination/Collaboration, Entrepreneurship, Strong Local Economy, Transit Oriented Development

Midway, Thomas - Dale/Frogtown, Summit - University