Featured Stories

2011: The year of "coopetition"

Jon Spayde Wednesday, December 21, 2011

"Coopetition"--cooperation among competitors or potential competitors--was a force to be reckoned with in the Twin Cities during 2011. Our politics may be gridlocked in partisanship, but the smartest entrepreneurs and civic officials locally are embracing a wider vision than the zero-sum game.

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

Revisiting Holidazzle: Making a holiday tradition happen

Susan Klemond Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Downtown Minneapolis' Holidazzle parade runs for its final four nights starting this Thursday, and as a reminder not to miss what is now a twenty-year-old holiday tradition, we're re-running Susan Klemond's behind-the-scenes look at the parade from last year--with updated schedule information.

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Leadership

Downtown

The Big Picture 10: Craig and Patricia Neal on Transformative Conversations

Jon Spayde Wednesday, November 16, 2011

What's the purpose of meetings, meetups, networking? New ideas, new opportunities, certainly. But for Craig and Patricia Neal, face-to-face gatherings can have a deeper purpose: the transformation of consciousness and, ultimately, of the way we live and do business. Their Heartland company was founded to prove the point.

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

A City Camp session on social media - Bill Kelley

The City Camp "Unconference": Rewiring the system for change

Julie Kendrick Wednesday, November 16, 2011

With no agenda, no speaker list, and a very relaxed schedule, Minnesota's first City Camp "unconference" brought geeks and government-heads together for a radically democratic exploration of how we might design Democracy 2.0.

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Philanthropy

Cedar - Riverside/West Bank

RangerOnCall: a high-tech tour of the mighty Mississippi

Anna Pratt Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Did you know that there's a National Park right in the middle of the Twin Cities metro? It's long and narrow, and it's called the Mississippi River. The National Park Service and its local ally, the Mississippi River Fund, want you to know more about our stretch of the river. Get your cell phones, tablets, and laptops out.

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Emerging Technology, Energy, Regionalism, Strong Local Economy, Sustainability

Vikas Narula probing the networks - Bill Kelley

Who really runs your company? Keyhubs can help you find out

Elizabeth Millard Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Vikas Narula learned early that informal networks of power and influence may be more important to a business than its official org chart. So he started a consultancy to help companies identify their unofficial movers and shakers.

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

Southwest

Bruce Corrie Talks with Jon Spayde - Bill Kelley

The Big Picture 9: Bruce Corrie on the power of "ethnic capital"

Jon Spayde Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Often, says Concordia University economist and biz-school dean Bruce Corrie, our minority and immigrant communities are seen solely through the "problem" lens. Their struggles are real, but their contributions to our prosperity and potential for growth are greater than most majority Minnesotans realize. And Corrie's got the figures to prove it.

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, diversity, Entrepreneurship, Higher Education, Strong Local Economy, Talent Dividend

North End, Greater East Side, Dayton's Bluff, Central Avenue, Phillips, Midway, Cedar - Riverside/West Bank, West Side, Lake Street, North Side, Seward, Thomas - Dale/Frogtown, Payne - Phalen, Powderhorn, Summit - University

The New Philanthropy: Corporate-style savvy to make altruism sustainable

Dan Heilman Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Tough times and public deficits are forcing nonprofits to step up to the plate in new ways. At Social Venture Partners' national convention in Minneapolis, two keynoters let our reporter in on some of the things that smart do-gooders are learning from the pinstripe crowd.

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Philanthropy

Downtown

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

Riverfront/Mill District, Phillips, University, Macalester - Groveland, Cedar - Riverside/West Bank, Downtown, Lake Street, Southwest, North Side, Uptown/Lyn Lake, Seward, Nokomis, Longfellow, Calhoun - Isles, Powderhorn, Warehouse/North Loop, Northeast

Videoline: Celebrating the Midtown Greenway

Streetfilms Wednesday, October 19, 2011

To accompany Jay Walljasper's take on bike policy and bike culture in the Twin Cities, here's a video by Streetfilms that shows just how valuable one of the crown jewels in our bikeway system is--the Midtown Greenway, running more or less parallel to Lake Street from Chowen Avenue to the Mississippi River.

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

Riverfront/Mill District, Phillips, University, Macalester - Groveland, Cedar - Riverside/West Bank, Downtown, Lake Street, Southwest, North Side, Uptown/Lyn Lake, Seward, Nokomis, Longfellow, Calhoun - Isles, Powderhorn, Warehouse/North Loop, Northeast

What's Working in Cities: Placemaking

Michelle Bruch Wednesday, September 14, 2011

The second in our series about good urban ideas around the country focuses on the placemaking concept--the increasingly popular proposition that the best city spaces are built from the ground up rather than planned from the top down--by asking users and stakeholders what they really want.

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Leadership, Design, Transportation

Rocco Landesman & R.T. Rybak at placemaking event

Placemaking/Minneapolis: The Arts Take the Lead on Hennepin

Camille LeFevre Wednesday, September 14, 2011

There's always something happening on Hennepin Avenue. The wide, lively downtown Minneapolis boulevard has long specialized in entertainment, from the funky to the family-friendly to the high-cultural. Camille LeFevre reports on the kickoff event of an ambitious project that will transform it. The method? Placemaking, with an accent on the arts.

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

Downtown

The Big Picture 7: "The Achievement Gap is an Equity Gap"

Jon Spayde Wednesday, August 17, 2011

A conversation with Julia Freeman and Hillary Rodgers of the Organizing Apprenticeship Program. Through its Education Equity Organizing Collaborative, the OAP has entered into a pathbreaking partnership with the State of Minnesota. Its goal: close the widely publicized "achievement gap" by making sure equal treatment of all students is state policy.

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Leadership, diversity, Regionalism

Seward

The Big Picture 6: Peter Musty on our neighborhoods and ourselves

Jon Spayde Wednesday, July 20, 2011

For urban designer Peter Musty, who's collaborating on plans for the Loring neighborhood in Minneapolis and the Ford site in St, Paul, walkable, transit-focused neighborhoods are non-negotiable. We need them for our health and prosperity--and to help our culture calm down.

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

Riverfront/Mill District, Downtown, Longfellow, Highland Park, Downtown/Lowertown, Northeast

Symphonies are playing a new tune to lure younger audiences

Don Lee Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The classical-music audience is graying, and the executives of the League of American Orchestras, who met here in early June, are nervously sharing ways to reverse the trend. Can Facebook, DJ dance nights, and Ben Folds save Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms?

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

Coordination/Collaboration : Featured Stories