Buzz

A recent feature in The New York Times centers on the Minnesota Opera’s premiere of “Doubt,” which opens January 26 and runs through Feb. 3. 

According to the article, playwright John Patrick Shanley was initially skeptical of the idea of rewriting the show, which had been a play and an award-winning movie, into an opera libretto.  

But it turned out to be a rewarding experience, Shanley says. “There’s a lot of feelings that could not be expressed in the play because of its austerity,” he says, adding, “But opera, even when it is austere, is as rich as chocolate cake. So that allowed me to go back and express a lot of things that I could not before and still tell the story"--a story which centers on the nature of the relationship between a Catholic proest and a young African-American boy.

Preparing for production, the Minnesota Opera hosted a number of workshops for composer Douglas J. Cuomo, Shanley, and stage director Kevin Newbury, the story states.

Newbury says of the resulting show, “It isn’t just about doubt, it’s doubt brought to life onstage. And it’s a particularly American play with all the questions about class and race and religion rolled up into one.”

Several Minneapolis and St. Paul neighborhoods made ArtPlace America’s list for 2013 of the country’s top art destinations.

Every year, ArtPlace, a consortium of national arts groups, puts together a report that pinpoints the top “art places” in 33 of the country’s largest metro areas.  

Art places are those that have a “backbone of creative culture,” the ArtPlace website reads. Small local businesses and shops define these areas, which are often walkable. These are “neighborhoods where the arts are central to creating the kinds of places where people want to be.”

ArtPlace uses indicators such as the percentage of independent and arts-related businesses and organizations, walkability, and the number of people in creative professions.

In Minneapolis, Downtown West and Loring Park are on the list, while across the Mississippi River the Lowertown neighborhood is included.

Business Insider, a site covering finance, strategy, tech, and other topics, recognized CoCo as one of 17 "coolest co-working spaces in America."
 
The site focused on CoCo's Minneapolis space, housed on the historic trading floor of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. The space's 20,000 square feet, unique meeting rooms, and game rooms all garnered praise, as well as CoCo's in-room beverage service and catering options.
 
Other co-working spaces that got a nod for coolness include Citizen Space in California, CoLab in Nashville and Orlando, The Coop in Chicago, and Jellyfish Cartel in Los Angeles.

Minneapolis is one of the top five cities for advancing in one’s career in 2013, according to Monster.com.

For those moving into a new city, a post from the website states, “it might be smart to factor wage and employment potential into your city choice.”

Monster looked at the online salary database to pull that kind of information for cities across the country.

It found that Minneapolis, rated fourth, is seeing 3.2 percent wage growth. The city “enjoys an economy that thrives on manufacturing, including electronics, medical equipment, and machinery,” while popular jobs are actuary, senior business manager, project manager, and marketing and category manager, according to Monster.

Houston topped the list, with 3.9 percent in wage growth.



 

The Minnesota Office of the Secretary of State reported that new business filings in 2012 represented an 18 percent increase over the previous year, and constituted the second highest number of new filings in the state's history.
 
Over 60,000 new businesses were filed last year. As noted by Twin Cities Business, the record was set in 2009, when the state had over 63,000 new filings. However, that increase is largely attributed to a shift in filing practices implemented by the Minnesota Department of Commerce.
 
"New business filings reflect Minnesota's great business climate," said Secretary Mark Ritchie in a statement. "As our economy continues to improve in 2013, new business filings will remain strong."  

Minneapolis is included in a list from BillMoyers.com of a dozen cities that are “leading the way in sustainability.”

For example, the city has put a lot of effort into becoming more bike-friendly: “With over 160 miles of bikeways, 85 miles of which don’t run alongside a road, Minneapolis is among America’s greener large cities,” it reads.

But that’s not the only area where Minneapolis is getting attention for its green initiatives.

It has also worked to promote the importance of tap water as opposed to bottled water. Also, Mayor R.T. Rybak has “recently become a major advocate for his city’s tap water, arguing that it is less expensive and better for the environment than bottled water,” the article states.

Pizzeria Lola in Minneapolis recently got props from Food and Wine magazine as one of the best pizza joints in the country.

On its website, Food and Wine quotes TV star and chef Andrew Zimmern, who says,

“Yes, it’s true, Minnesota has the best pizza in America,” adding, “Better than New York City and Chicago put together.”

Although the piece acknowledges that Zimmern, a Minnesotan, could be biased, “his favorite order makes a case for thinking outside those major pizzaiola hubs: The Sunnyside is topped with guanciale and leeks that have been caramelized in the cured pork fat and finished with a hint of cream. A sprinkle of Pecorino Romano cheese and two fresh sunny-side up eggs complete the recipe,” it reads.

Thanks to Scandinavian-inspired cuisine, Minneapolis has landed on Travel + Leisure's list of the Hottest Travel Destinations of 2013.
 
The magazine highlighted the "foraging-and-farming ethos" of Copenhagen's famed Noma restaurant as represented at Bachelor Farmer, which has the city's first-ever rooftop garden.
 
Also given a nod was Fika, the American Swedish Institute's new cafe, which opened in June. One to watch, the magazine notes, will be Union, run by Noma alum Jim Christiansen.
 
Only 13 destinations worldwide were chosen for the list, and Minneapolis was the only U.S. city to nab a spot. Other locales that got a nod include Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Marseilles, and Nepal.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis brought some economic sunshine to January, forecasting strong growth for the Midwest in the coming year.
 
The most growth is expected in North Dakota, where oil drilling continues to drive prosperity. But other states will see some robust activity as well, the Fed predicts.
 
The housing sector is showing signs of recovery and despite drought in many areas, agriculture is holding steady. Although there are some concerns lingering over national fiscal issues and governmental wrangles, personal income and employment are expected to grow in 2013, according to the Fed. That could drive more consumer spending.
 
The Fed's forecasting models show that employment will grow moderately in 2013, with stronger growth in North Dakota and Minnesota. 

According to the Volunteering and Civic Life in America report, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the residents of Minneapolis and St. Paul have the highest rate of volunteerism.
 
The report compared volunteer rates in the country's 51 largest metro areas, and found that 37 percent of Twin Cities residents volunteered in 2011.
 
As a state, Minnesota ranked fourth in the report, with 38 percent of residents volunteering. The top three states were Utah, Idaho, and Iowa.
 
In determining volunteer stats, researchers looked at the hours of contributed service, but noted that those numbers only included volunteering done through organizations. When residents were asked about doing favors for their neighbors, the rate shot up to nearly 73 percent in the Twin Cities.

Overall, the report noted that in 2011, the number of volunteers across the nation reached its highest level in five years, as 64.3 million Americans volunteered.

The Capital Grille and Restaurant Alma, both located in Minneapolis, won rave reviews from the users of the OpenTable restaurant reservation system recently, landing both eateries on the site's "Top 100 Best Restaurants of 2012" list.
 
OpenTable notes that the list is based on over five million reviews from the diners who use the site. Reviews for more than 15,000 restaurants were considered in compiling the list.
 
Although both Minneapolis restaurants lean toward fine dining, the two local favorites chosen certainly have very different approaches. The Capital Grille is part of a nationwide chain of upscale steak-and-seafood restaurants, while Restaurant Alma derives its charm from the inventiveness of its owner/chef, Alex Roberts.
 
As for the rest of the list, California was the big winner, with 24 restaurants represented, followed by New York.

A recent story from the Minnesota Daily highlights a Minneapolis-specific annual variety show called, “I AM MPLS,” including its future plans.

Sarah Edwards, a marketing director at the Pixel Farm creative agency, initiated the show several years ago as way to “bring together all of the different types of talent the Twin Cities offers, from rockabilly to the sophistication of the MIA,” it reads.

“It’s hard to explain what people should expect,” Edwards is quoted saying, adding, “It’s not a fashion show, and it’s not a comedy show and it’s not a music show; it’s all of those things together telling a story.”

She hopes this collaboration will happen more frequently and become “more of a hub for innovators and artistic enthusiasts to have easier access to one another,” it reads.

Already, the ”revolution-esque intent of the collaboration has the foundation to become more than just a Minneapolis project, insofar as creatives from Denver will be flying in for the production.”

A video from the Vital BMX website features bicyclists in Minneapolis.

“Insiders Eric Holley and Nick Anderson invite outsider Seamus McKeon to Minneapolis, Minnesota to hang out and ride bikes for a couple of days,” a post that accompanies the video reads.

The video features several local riders, who take the viewer on a sort of virtual city tour, via bicycle.

Bicyclists ride through downtown Minneapolis, the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus, and the historic Stone Arch Bridge area.  

A new group called Public Interest Design has released its first “Public Interest Design 100,” an infographic list of national design leaders--trained designers and others--who deal with public policy issues. And it includes a couple of local notables in the field.

Eric Muschler, a program officer at the locally based McKnight Foundation, has made big strides in affordable housing, while Thomas Fischer, dean of the University of Minnesota College of Design, is “one of the foremost writers and thinkers in architecture and design,” it states.  

On its web site Public Interest Design describes the attention the list has already garnered: “We watched our inbox explode; literally hundreds of people have alternately described it as a “milestone” for the movement or a 'resource' or 'reference' for those in the field and working to support it,” the piece states. “But we are most heartened to have had the opportunity to recognize so many amazing people (in the U.S. alone, as a global edition will follow), doing such important work in the world.”

In a recent blog post at OnEarth.org, Andrea Northrup, who has won awards for her work to improve school lunches nationwide, talks about a strategic career move: coming to the Minneapolis Public Schools.   

She works for the district, “to source local food for school meals and coordinate food, nutrition, and agricultural education for the District’s 32,000 students,” the post states.

She credits Bertrand Weber, who leads the school district’s nutrition program, with making it possible for her to do this work. “He was hired at the start of 2012 to transform MPS’s school meal program, and knew that farm-to-school had to be a part of it,” she states.

The NRDC Growing Green Young Food Leader award, which she was given last May, “is one success that helped catapult me into this next exciting chapter of my career,” she says, adding, “Things are just getting started at MPS, but do look for news and updates about the exciting changes we’re making!”