Featured Stories

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

Marc Barmuthi Joseph talking with Camille LeFevre

Sustainability, Community, Art: A Conversation with Marc Bamuthi Joseph

Camille LeFevre Wednesday, August 31, 2011

In town to work on a show for the Walker Art Center, the California slam poet, theater artist, and activist met local artists, explored our unique "ecosystem" of arts and community organizations, and shared with contributor Camille LeFevre his broad view of how the arts can further a people-centered sustainability.

Editor's Picks: art and jazz during our hiatus (no issue next week)

Jon Spayde Wednesday, August 31, 2011

The Line will take a post-Labor Day break next week--we'll see you again on September 14. In the interim, by all means check out a couple of very different, unhyped, bound-to-be-great cultural events between now and then: A Bloomington Art Center exhibition of artworks by local painters trained in the classical manner and a beloved jazz festival on Selby Avenue in Saint Paul.

Working Together: How Cooperation is changing the Twin Cities entrepreneurial scene

Elizabeth Millard Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Competition may be the fuel of capitalism, but in the Twin Cities, cooperation is nourishing entrepreneurship as current or potential competitors, especially in tech fields, share expertise and encouragement via several innovative organizations. Is it the Midwestern mutual-aid mindset or just good business?

Matthew Dornquast in the future space of Code 42

The Lessons of Code 42: Software innovator Matthew Dornquast's tech-biz wisdom

Jeremy Stratton Wednesday, August 24, 2011

CrashPlan, the backup software from Minneapolis-based Code 42, is a major local tech success. Matthew Dornquast, cofounder of the company, has learned some serious lessons about how to do tech startups--like spending a little more time on details and letting your passion show.

Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Emerging Technology

Riverfront/Mill District

Xia Vang with green beans from her plot in the Phalen Village Community Garden

Revisiting Community Gardens: A slide show

Bill Kelley Wednesday, August 24, 2011

With winter nipping at our heels, we thought it would be appropriate to take a lingering second look at the beautiful Twin Cities community gardens that Managing Photographer Bill Kelley shot back in August--eight little paradises in Saint Paul and Minneapolis where community spirit is cultivated along with the flowers and vegetables.

Dayton's Bluff, Midway, Cedar - Riverside/West Bank, Saint Anthony Park, North Side, Payne - Phalen

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

Editor's note: A Half-Issue This Week

Jon Spayde Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Clear skies and a little under eighty degrees: Minnesota's San Diego-like weather has prompted another half-issue so your editors can enjoy some sunny hours of the waning summer. Back with a full complement of new stories next week.

Just how "hipster" is Minnesota?

Jon Spayde Wednesday, August 10, 2011

A web site's judgment that Minnesota is "the most hipster state" set me wondering about our homegrown sources of cool. Have we become hip by simply being ourselves?

Arts and Culture, Creative Economy, Design, Green Jobs

Target Center's Tom Reller giving Meleah Maynard a rooftop tour

Target Center's green roof: a prairie in the sky

Meleah Maynard Wednesday, August 10, 2011

It's been two years since the green roof on downtown Minneapolis' massive auditorium and sports venue was installed. The Line took a tour to see how things are going and growing.

Design, Emerging Technology, Energy, Green Jobs, Sustainability

Downtown

Design makes the difference at Kick

Meleah Maynard Wednesday, August 03, 2011

The hot design-and-marketing shop helps clients win over today's fickle, informed consumers by going way beyond advertising to create product designs and whole new brands that are too cool to ignore.

Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Design

Downtown

Editor's Note: A "half-issue" this week

Jon Spayde Wednesday, August 03, 2011

This week's slimmed-down issue of The Line allows the editors to enjoy a semi-vacation and get out into the unseasonable Minnesota heat. We'll offer a regular-length issue next week, and another half-issue on August 17.

Kerrik Wessel wants to plug your car into the sun

Camille LeFevre Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Inspired by his kids' toy building set, he designed a colorful modular carport that incorporates solar panels--and may soon become nothing but solar panels. Is this how we'll recharge the electric vehicles of the future?

Design, Emerging Technology, Energy, Entrepreneurship, Green Jobs, Sustainability, Transportation

What's Working in Cities 1: CreateHere Helps Chattanooga Thrive, Artfully

John Davidson Wednesday, July 27, 2011

What's Working in Cities is a new series in which we take a close look at people and organizations around the country that are driving urban change. This month: the inventive Chattanooga nonprofit CreateHere, which has spurred art-oriented growth in the core city--and will "go supernova" (that is, go out of existence with a bang) at the end of the year.