Featured Stories

CoCo's co-working space in the Grain Exchange

The Sharing Economy: Sharing Isn't Just Nice To Do, It's Changing How We Do Business

Allyson Jacob Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Higher Education, Strong Local Economy, Transportation

Downtown, Uptown/Lyn Lake, Downtown/Lowertown

Made in Minnesota: The Makers Coalition and the Renewal of Our Industrial Sewing Heritage

Anna Pratt Wednesday, October 23, 2013

The Makers Coalition is supporting a new generation of industrial sewers and the local makers movement. The coalition brings together 60 businesses, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and service providers to fulfill its mission: To bring back industrial sewing skills, which largely disappeared in America decades ago.

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

Downtown, Uptown/Lyn Lake, West Seventh, Downtown/Lowertown, Northeast

David Graham at Gold Medal Park and Zenith Condos

Q+A: David Graham, the city building architect, and his ecosystem approach to density

Camille LeFevre Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Affordable Housing, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Design, Reuse / Rebuild, Strong Local Economy, Sustainability, Transit Oriented Development, Transportation

Riverfront/Mill District, Downtown, Uptown/Lyn Lake, Northeast

Croissants from (clockwise from left) Patisserie 46, Rustica, Trung Nam, and Chez Arnaud

The Line's Great Twin Cities Croissant Taste-Off

Jon Spayde Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Croissant-loving editor compares four of the finest products of local artisanship.

Arts and Culture, Creative Economy, Shopping

Southwest, Uptown/Lyn Lake, Summit Hill and Crocus Hill, Thomas - Dale/Frogtown

The Board onstage. From left, Molly Chase, Nels Lennes, Jill Bernard, and Butch Roy

Minnesota's funniest nonprofit board

Julie Kendrick Wednesday, June 12, 2013

If you're on the board of directors of HUGE Theater in Minneapolis, you have to improvise. That is, you have to actually go onstage and do improv in a three-evening run that is also an official series of board meetings.

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

Uptown/Lyn Lake

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

Videoline: Tane Danger on Public Policy Comedy

Tom Niemisto, MN 2020 Wednesday, December 05, 2012

The Theater of Public Policy, cofounded by the improbably named improv guy Tane Danger, uses comedy to probe public issues. Call it improvisational democracy, with real situations, serious intentions, and plenty of laughs.

Arts and Culture, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership

Uptown/Lyn Lake

Coffee with your Tattoos? Tattoos with Your Coffee? A Slide Show

Bill Kelley Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Shops that pair high-end coffee with edgy, adrenaline-boosting activities are becoming a Twin Cities hallmark. We've got coffee and motorcycles (Bob's Java Hut), coffee and serious biking (Angry Catfish), and now coffee and that artistic test of pain-endurance called getting serious tattoos.

Arts and Culture, Creative Economy, Design, Entrepreneurship, Strong Local Economy

Lake Street, Uptown/Lyn Lake

A Tale of Three Kickstarts

Michelle Bruch Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Crowdfunding powerhouse Kickstarter is becoming the go-to support system for a wider and wider variety of business ventures locally and nationally. Here are three Twin Cities success stories: a wallet, a home-security device, a restaurant--that illustrate how Kickstarter fuses funding, marketing, R and D, and even a kind of before-the-fact customer support.

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

Uptown/Lyn Lake

A Line or Two: Of Cold Ramen and Rice Balls

Jon Spayde Wednesday, August 08, 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 lunchtime celebration of local Japanese food.

Arts and Culture, Creative Economy, Entrepreneurship, Nightlife, Strong Local Economy

Riverfront/Mill District, University, Lake Street, Uptown/Lyn Lake, Downtown/Lowertown, Summit Hill and Crocus Hill, Warehouse/North Loop

Great Street Art: A Slide Show

Bill Kelley Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Managing Photographer Bill Kelley talked to some friends, checked in with some experts, and wandered the city a bit on his own to find the local street art that appealed to him the most. Herewith, his images of art meant to make you stop, look, have a startle reaction, and then continue on your way, energized.

Arts and Culture, Creative Economy, Design, diversity

North Side, Uptown/Lyn Lake, Longfellow, Powderhorn, Northeast

"Cheap laughs for tough times"

Julie Kendrick Wednesday, May 09, 2012

The masterminds behind an ambitious--and nonprofit--little Lyndale Avenue venue called HUGE are taking the Twin Cities improv comedy scene to a new level.

Arts and Culture, Creative Economy, Nightlife

Uptown/Lyn Lake

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

Gordon Bellaver, co-owner of Bull Run Roasting Co

Serious Java: The Twin Cities' new generation of artisan coffee shops

Elizabeth Millard Wednesday, February 22, 2012

A handful of local coffee shops are redefining the coffee experience as an art form. From sourcing to roasting, grinding to "latte art," their watchword is quality. If you're looking for quick joe to grab and go, you may need to adjust your expectations upward.

Arts and Culture, Creative Economy, Entrepreneurship, Strong Local Economy

Phillips, Union Park, Uptown/Lyn Lake, Longfellow, Highland Park, Calhoun - Isles, Powderhorn

Behind the Bicycle Boom

Jay Walljasper Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Most of us in the Twin Cities are aware that we've become a great town for bicycling in recent years, but urbanist and author Jay Walljasper--an avid biker for decades--has been digging into the trend to find out the what and the why behind it. In this adaptation of an article he wrote for Bikes Belong, he fills in the story and gives us some impressive facts about the sheer scale and promise of our new two-wheel era.

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Leadership, diversity, Strong Local Economy, Sustainability, Transportation