Regionalism : Featured Stories

The City of St. Paul and its partners are utilizing an innovative method of managing stormwater to restore natural water systems, incorporate green infrastructure into sustainable communities and improve the urban ecosystem. 

Having an auto-oriented city comes at a cost and leaves cities in precarious financial positions, with lots of commitments but with a reduced and devalued tax base.

During Artspace’s Breaking Ground “Idea Lab” October 14-15 in MSP, artists were identified as visionaries and leaders who bring the dark matter of communities--history, memory, relationships--to light through art and creative processes.

Writer and landscape architect Diane Hellekson outlines a dynamic model for thinking about cultivation of the arts in Minnesota; specifically, she makes the case for seeing the health of MSP's arts and artists in ecological rather than economic terms.

Artspace enjoys a long history of working with culturally distinct groups in the development of affordable artist live/work housing and community spaces. From El Barrio in NY to Honolulu, HI, these projects allow artists to celebrate themselves.

The arts real-estate nonprofit Artspace is re-scaling its work to take a more geographic approach that includes consulting with a cohort of art organizations in Detroit and developing creative districts in rural Colorado. 

Artspace’s residential projects fill a critical niche in a city’s ecosystem of affordable housing, particularly for artists. But making the case for public policies and resources to realize these transformative projects is challenging.

Downtown East could soon become the national face of MSP; quite a step up for a neighborhood that barely existed a decade ago.

In this essay, reprinted from MinnesotaPlaylist.com, Kevin Obsatz puts forward bold proposals for how filmmakers based in The North could create a body of signature, lasting work.

According to a recent panel discussion, we need to own our cold climate and our ingenuity in order to attract new talent, continue fueling the innovation at the heart of our economy, and create a new and authentic national identity. Shall we call ourselves the North?  

The message of this year's Rail~Volution conference in the Twin Cities was clear: To attract and retain top talent in the coming decades, cities must meet Millennials' preferences for effective transit options.

"What's next for your city?" That the question Urban Innovation Exchange (UIX) will explore at its first national convening this September 24-26, 2014 in Detroit.

While it's true that climate has an influence on the extent of nonmotorized transportation from place to place, it's probably not the way you assume. Across the nation, cold-weather locales like ours are nearly indistinguishable from the rest.

A roundup of stories across the Issue Media Group Network, including ridesharing, hot neighborhoods and the brewing boom.

Smart cities like Saint Paul are renovating their train stations (like the multi-modal hub Union Depot) into neighborhood and urban amenities.