Buzz

A stomach-churning homegrown commercial has garnered a national award from the Association of Independent Commercial Producers.

David Phelps' Star Tribune article reveals everything you'd want to know (and then some) about ad agency Preston Kelly's local, low-budget commercial for the YMCA of Greater St. Paul and Metropolitan Minneapolis, in which a woman eats a stick of butter while watching television.

The commercial shared the spotlight with more larger-company spots for Old Spice, Volkswagen, and Allstate.

When it comes to global warming, the Twin Cities is more resilient than other U.S. cities.

In response to the Resilient Cities 2011 Conference and Grist.org's list of the 10 most "climate-ready" cities, Nature Conservancy blogger Jeff Opperman compiled his own ranking of cities and climate change that addresses "how vulnerable or resilient a city is to climate change based on the city's environmental context," writes Opperman.

While Minneapolis did not appear on the Grist list, we were number five in terms of the "most resilient/least vulnerable" to climate change, behind Cleveland, Milwaukee, Detroit, and Chicago.

"Rust Belt" cities rank high for their sustainable water supply (like the Great Lakes), low heat-stress rankings, and low vulnerability to natural disasters, he writes. 

The New York Times gave some ink to two recent digital conferences in Minneapolis that were on opposite sides politically.

"It is no secret that much of the blogosphere is sharply, often loudly, divided by politics," the story starts out by saying.

Netroots Nation is liberal, while Right Online has a conservative bent, the Times reports.

The groups scheduled their gatherings simultaneously in the city, mere blocks away from each other, the story notes.

Looking at some of the cultural and ideological differences between the two groups, the story shows how the vibrant politicking in Minneapolis is demonstrative of the national political climate.

The Republic, a newspaper in Columbus, Indiana, recently published an Associated Press story about a celebratory bike ride from Minneapolis and St. Paul mayors R.T. Rybak and Chris Coleman.

The two mayors jointly participated in their cities' Nice Ride public bike-sharing program.

Along with a number of other local bicyclists, the mayors started pedaling at the Seward Coop in Minneapolis and ended at a St. Paul Dunn Bros coffee shop.

Their ride was a nod to the program's expansion, which involves adding another 43 bike stations to its 73 in Minneapolis last year. This time around, the bike stations are popping up in both cities. 

Proponents of such bike-sharing programs say that they can "help cut down on obesity, traffic jams and auto emissions," the story states.

The StarTribune newspaper last week released the findings of its second annual survey of Minnesota employees on which are the best places to work.

Pennsylvania research firm WorkplaceDynamics conducted the survey, in which 278 companies participated and 60,538 employees responded.

"Employees ranked pay and benefits below concerns about conditions at the company, execution and their company's strategic direction," writes John J. Oslund of the survey and selection process.

In the end, the top 100 companies were chosen from three categories: large, mid-size and small employers.

You can view the top ten in each category and find links to much more here. 

Hey, look over here. No, here. That's right.

3M has fine-tuned its tool to track just where your eyes went--and where they go--when you visit a website.
 
In a June 9 Fast Company article, Austin Carr takes a detailed look at 3M's visual impact scanner (VIS), which uses an algorithm called visual attention service.

William Smith, business manager at 3M's graphics division, tells Carr that the tools "predicts visual impact" � something of interest to advertisers and designers alike, Carr notes.

The article includes a video and several visual examples of the VIS at work.

Travel and Leisure magazines gives the Twin Cities high marks for cleanliness. The Twin Cities come in second nationwide, just after Salt Lake City, Utah and before Portland, Ore., out of a handful of U.S. cities. 

New York City is on the opposite end of things, according to the magazine's survey, which separately looks at various quality of life factors. 

City Pages has a piece about the distinction that mentions that Travel and Leisure's readership determined the rankings.

How much trash a city seems to have had a lot to do with the results, it states.

Phyllis Goldin, a columnist for the River Falls Journal, was so impressed with the Twin Cities' recent Northern Spark arts festival, that she says in a recent piece that she'd like to see a similar event happen closer to home.

Northern Spark (see the feature about it in this week's issue) was "a marvelous example of possibilities that emerge when a dedicated group of people collaborate to maximize local creativity," she reflects.

Like the Twin Cities, River Falls and Hudson are arts- and river-oriented communities, suggesting that, "a remarkable happening here is worth considering." 

The western Wisconsin area has the talent and resources to duplicate the 24-hour-long show: "Since it occurred just across the border and included some of our western Wisconsin artists and musicians, it surely demonstrated that what we need is here," she says.

Touching on some of the artistic expressions that caught her eye, she says that "I only hope the festival will continue in years to come" in the Twin Cities.

In a recent New York Times FiveThirtyEight blog post, writer Nate Silver ranks downtown Minneapolis' Target Field as the fourth-best major league ballpark, overall.

Pittsburgh's PNC Park, Boston's Fenway Park and San Francisco's AT&T Park top the list of 30 ballparks, while Toronto's Rogers Centre comes in at the bottom, according to his calculations.  

Silver gleaned these findings through a simple Yelp.com search, he writes.

Each of the 30 major league stadiums had received between one and five stars, according to Yelp's rating system, which is a more holistic way to look at it than from a single reviewer's perspective or the technical-type fan review sites, he explains.

The popular review site is helpful because it uses dozens, if not hundreds of fan reviews to score the stadiums, he states. This way, readers get a greater sense of the user experience at each ballpark.  

A June 7 Gather.com story marks the 53rd birthday of Prince, the iconic Minneapolis rocker.

"It's a safe bet he can look down from his royal throne and enjoy the fact that he's as popular today as he was two decades ago," the story states.   

Gather.com cites the artist's recent run of 21 sold-out shows in Los Angeles, "sending fans and critics into a frenzy with his stellar performances of songs from his ever-growing catalog," it states. 

Describing Prince as an icon and "ultimate showman," the post makes the case that he rivals younger performers, especially with his impressive guitar skills.

Real estate development companies Artspace Projects and United Properties are steering two developments in the city of Loveland, Colorado, writes Tom Hacker in the Reporter Herald.

Artspace will redevelop an historic feed and grain mill site as a mixed-used, arts-related development, while United Properties "will handle the immense task of making the Agilent Technologies Inc. campus ready for the ACE technology manufacturing park," writes Hacker.

Artpsace has had a presence in Loveland since 2009, he notes. United is a newcomer to the area.

Minnesota ranks seventh among all 50 states in the area of clean energy, according to Clean Edge's clean energy leadership index.

States are ranked based on a number of factors falling into three major categories: technology, policy, and capital, according to a summary of the index online.

Minnesota's score of 57 ties it with New Mexico for seventh place. The number one state is California; the last is West Virginia.

The Bell Museum of Natural History at the University of Minnesota made the the Washington Post with its upcoming exhibit on Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

An Associated Press article notes the exhibit, called "Arctic Sanctuary: Our Collective Refuge," which opens June 25 and runs through Sept. 4.

The exhibit features large-format photographs and text by wilderness landscape photographer Jeff Jones and writer Laurie Hoyle, according to the article.

Their book, "Arctic Sanctuary: Images of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," commemorates the 50th anniversary of the creation of the refuge.
 

The $1.65 million "city automation project" (which includes $150,000 from the city) would "cut across several areas of municipal responsibility, including transportation, public safety, and planning for public events," writes Alexander.

An example is the possibility of people using smartphone apps to interact with city departments, or centralizing the city's monitoring of parking lot, security, and traffic video cameras to save money.

IBM has worked on "smarter cities" projects with about 2,000 municipalities around the world, according to the article.

The work of Minneapolis-based Artspace is featured in a recent Nola.com story about the rise of artist live/work spaces in New Orleans and elsewhere. 

Artspace is a nonprofit organization that develops affordable space for artists and arts organizations all over the country.

The group plans to convert the Andrew J. Bell Junior High School Property in New Orleans into a $40 million home for artists--one of a number of similar developments taking place across the city, the story states.  

These kinds of developments are appealing to many artists because they're often affordable and offer gallery space, built-in community, and other professional opportunities, it explains.

Wendy Holmes, senior vice president of consulting for Artspace, is quoted in the article, saying that it makes sense because "Artists bring a lot to the table."

A strong artist community can improve a city's tax base and turn around struggling neighborhoods. "Artist communities re-energize neighborhoods. And even though we're all businesspeople it's not always about the bottom line. It's about community engagement," she says.