| City of Minneapolis |
|
Downtown Minneapolis in July 2008 |
|
|
| Nickname(s): City of Lakes, Mill City, Mini-Apple, Twin Cities (with St. Paul, MN) |
| Motto: En Avant (French: 'Forward') |
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Location in Hennepin County and the state of Minnesota |
| Coordinates: 44°58„48.36“N 93°15„6.72“W- / -44.9801, -93.2518667 |
| Country |
United States |
| State |
Minnesota |
| County |
Hennepin |
| Incorporated |
1867 |
| Founder |
John H. Stevens and Franklin Steele |
| Named for |
Minnesota Territory with Greek word "polis" for city |
| Government |
| - Mayor |
R. T. Rybak (DFL) |
| Area |
| - City |
58.4 sq mi (151.3 km²) |
| - Land |
54.9 sq mi (142.2 km²) |
| - Water |
3.5 sq mi (9.1 km²) |
| Elevation |
830 ft (264 m) |
| Population (2006)[1][2] |
| - City |
372,833 |
| - Density |
6,722/sq mi (2,595/km²) |
| - Metro |
3,175,041 |
| - Demonym |
Minneapolitan |
| Time zone |
CST (UTC-6) |
| - Summer (DST) |
CDT (UTC-5) |
| ZIP codes |
55401 - 55487 |
| Area code(s) |
612 |
| Twin Cities |
| - Saint Paul, Minnesota |
United States |
| FIPS code |
27-43000[3] |
| GNIS feature ID |
0655030[4] |
| Website: www.minneapolismn.gov |
Minneapolis (pronounced /„m-ni-æp-l“s/) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat[5] of Hennepin County. The city lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul, the state's capital. Known as the Twin Cities, these two form the core of Minneapolis-St. Paul, the sixteenth-largest metropolitan area in the United States, with 3.5 million residents [6]. The United States Census Bureau estimated the city's population at 372,833 people in 2006.[7] Minneapolis and Minnesota celebrate their sesquicentennials in 2008. The city's celebration coincides with the 150th anniversary of its first town council meeting thought to have been held July 20, 1858.[8]
The city is abundantly rich in water with over twenty lakes and wetlands, the Mississippi riverfront, creeks and waterfalls, many connected by parkways in the Chain of Lakes and the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway. Minneapolis was once the world's flour milling capital and a hub for timber, and today is the primary business center between Chicago, Illinois, and Seattle, Washington.[9] Among America's most literate cities,[10] Minneapolis has cultural organizations that draw creative people and audiences to the city for theater, visual art, writing, and music. The community's diverse population has a long tradition of charitable support through progressive public social programs and through private and corporate philanthropy.[11]
The name Minneapolis is attributed to the city's first schoolmaster, who combined mni, the Dakota word for water, and polis, the Greek word for city.[12] Minneapolis is nicknamed the "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City".[9]
History
-
Taoyateduta was among the 121 Sioux leaders who from 1837 to 1851 ceded what is now Minneapolis. [13]
Dakota Sioux were the region's sole residents until explorers arrived from France in about 1680. Nearby Fort Snelling, built in 1819 by the United States Army, spurred growth in the area. Circumstances pressed the Mdewakanton band of the Dakota to sell their land, allowing people arriving from the east to settle there. The Minnesota Territorial Legislature authorized present day Minneapolis as a town on the Mississippi's west bank in 1856. Minneapolis incorporated as a city in 1867, the year rail service began between Minneapolis and Chicago, and joined with the east bank city of St. Anthony in 1872.[14]
Minneapolis grew up around Saint Anthony Falls, the only waterfall on the Mississippi. Millers have used hydropower since the 1st century B.C.,[15] but the results in Minneapolis between 1880 and 1930 were so remarkable the city has been described as "the greatest direct-drive waterpower center the world has ever seen."[16] In early years, forests in northern Minnesota were the source of a lumber industry that operated seventeen sawmills on power from the waterfall. By 1871, the west river bank had twenty-three businesses including flour mills, woolen mills, iron works, a railroad machine shop, and mills for cotton, paper, sashes, and planing wood.[17] The farmers of the Great Plains grew grain that was shipped by rail to the city's thirty-four flour mills where Pillsbury and General Mills became processors. By 1905, Minneapolis delivered almost 10% of the country's flour and grist.[18] At peak production, a single mill at Washburn-Crosby made enough flour for twelve million loaves of bread each day.[19]
Minneapolis made dramatic changes to rectify discrimination as early as 1886 when Martha Ripley founded Maternity Hospital for both married and unmarried mothers.[20] When the country's fortunes turned during the Great Depression, the violent Teamsters Strike of 1934 resulted in laws acknowledging workers' rights.[21] A lifelong civil rights activist and union supporter, mayor Hubert Humphrey helped the city establish fair employment practices and a human relations council that interceded on behalf of minorities by 1946.[22] Minneapolis contended with white supremacy, participated in desegregation and the African-American civil rights movement, and in 1968 was the birthplace of the American Indian Movement.[23]
During the 1950s and 1960s as part of urban renewal, the city razed about two hundred buildings across twenty-five city blocks-roughly 40% of downtown, destroying the Gateway District and many buildings with notable architecture including the Metropolitan Building. Efforts to save the building failed but are credited with jumpstarting interest in historic preservation in the state.[24]
Geography and climate
-
The history and economic growth of Minneapolis history are tied to water, the city's defining physical characteristic, which was sent to the region during the last ice age. Fed by receding glaciers and Lake Agassiz ten thousand years ago, torrents of water from a glacial river undercut the Mississippi and Minnehaha riverbeds, creating waterfalls important to modern Minneapolis.[26] Lying on an artesian aquifer[9] and otherwise flat terrain, Minneapolis has a total area of 58.4 square miles (151.3 km2) and of this 6% is water.[27] Water is managed by watershed districts that correspond to the Mississippi and the city's three creeks.[28] Twelve lakes, three large ponds, and five unnamed wetlands are within Minneapolis.[29]
Lake Harriet frozen in winter. Ice blocks deposited in valleys by retreating glaciers created the lakes of Minneapolis. [30]
The city center is located just south of 45° N latitude.[31] The city's lowest elevation of 686 feet (209 m) is near where Minnehaha Creek meets the Mississippi River. The site of the Prospect Park Water Tower is often cited as the city's highest point[32] and a placard in Deming Heights Park denotes the highest elevation, but a spot at 974 feet (296.88 m) in or near Waite Park in Northeast Minneapolis is corroborated by Google Earth as the highest ground.
Minneapolis has a continental climate typical of the Upper Midwest. Winters can be cold and dry, while summer is comfortably warm although at times it can be hot and humid. On the Köppen climate classification, Minneapolis falls in the warm summer humid continental climate zone (Dfa). The city experiences a full range of precipitation and related weather events, including snow, sleet, ice, rain, thunderstorms, tornadoes, and fog. The warmest temperature ever recorded in Minneapolis was 108 °F (42.2 °C) in July 1936, and the coldest temperature ever recorded was -41 °F (-40.6 °C), in January 1888. The snowiest winter of record was 1983-84, when 98.4 inches (2.5 m) of snow fell.[33]
Because of its northerly location in the United States and lack of large bodies of water to moderate the air, Minneapolis is sometimes subjected to cold Arctic air masses, especially during late December, January, & February. The average annual temperature of 45.4 °F (7 °C) gives the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area the coldest annual mean temperature of any major metropolitan area in the continental United States[34]
 Weather averages for Minneapolis, Minnesota  |
| Month |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
| Record high °F (°C) |
59
(15) |
64
(18) |
83
(28) |
95
(35) |
106
(41) |
104
(40) |
108
(42) |
103
(39) |
104
(40) |
90
(32) |
77
(25) |
68
(20) |
| Average high °F (°C) |
22
(-6) |
29
(-2) |
41
(5) |
57
(14) |
70
(21) |
79
(26) |
83
(28) |
80
(27) |
71
(22) |
58
(14) |
40
(4) |
26
(-3) |
| Average low °F (°C) |
4
(-16) |
12
(-11) |
23
(-5) |
36
(2) |
48
(9) |
58
(14) |
63
(17) |
61
(16) |
51
(11) |
39
(4) |
25
(-4) |
11
(-12) |
| Record low °F (°C) |
-41
(-41) |
-40
(-40) |
-32
(-36) |
2
(-17) |
18
(-8) |
34
(1) |
43
(6) |
39
(4) |
26
(-3) |
10
(-12) |
-25
(-32) |
-39
(-39) |
| Precipitation inches (mm) |
1.04
(26.4) |
0.79
(20.1) |
1.86
(47.2) |
2.31
(58.7) |
3.24
(82.3) |
4.34
(110.2) |
4.04
(102.6) |
4.05
(102.9) |
2.69
(68.3) |
2.11
(53.6) |
1.94
(49.3) |
1.00
(25.4) |
| Source: [35] October 2007 |
Demographics
-
Dakota tribes, mostly the Mdewakanton, as early as the 16th century were known as permanent settlers near their sacred site of St. Anthony Falls.[14] New settlers arrived during the 1850s and 1860s in Minneapolis from New England, New York, and Canada, and during the mid-1860s, Scandinavians from Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark began to call the city home. Migrant workers from Mexico and Latin America also interspersed.[36] Later, immigrants came from Germany, Italy, Greece, Poland, and Southern and Eastern Europe. These immigrants tended to settle in the Northeast neighborhood, which still retains an ethnic flavor and is particularly known for its Polish community. Jews from Russia and Eastern Europe settled primarily on the north side of the city before moving in large numbers to the western suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s.[37] Asians came from China, the Philippines, Japan, and Korea. Two groups came for a short while during U.S. government relocations: Japanese during the 1940s, and Native Americans during the 1950s. From 1970 onward, Asians arrived from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. Beginning in the 1990s, a large Latino population arrived, along with refugees from East Africa, especially Somalia.[38] Into the 21st century, Minneapolis continues its tradition of welcoming newcomers. The metropolitan area is an immigrant gateway with a 127% increase in foreign-born residents between 1990 and 2000.[39]
U.S. Census Bureau estimates in 2006 show the population of Minneapolis to be 369,051, a 3.5% drop since the 2000 census.[7] The population grew until 1950 when the census peaked at 521,718, and then declined as people moved to the suburbs until about 1990. The number of African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics is growing. Non-whites are now about one third of the city's residents.[40] Compared to the U.S. national average in 2005, the city has fewer white, Hispanic, senior, and unemployed people, while it has more people aged over 18 and more with a college degree.[40] Among U.S. cities, Minneapolis has the fourth-highest percent of gay, lesbian, or bisexual people in the adult population, with 12.5%.[41]
Compared to a peer group of metropolitan areas in 2000, Minneapolis-Saint Paul is decentralizing, with individuals moving in and out frequently and a large young and white population and low unemployment. Racial and ethnic minorities lag behind white counterparts in education, with 15% of black and 13% of Hispanic people holding bachelor's degrees compared to 42% of the white population. The standard of living is on the rise, with incomes among the highest in the Midwest, but median household income among black people is below that of white by over $17,000. Regionally, home ownership among black and Hispanic residents is half that of white though Asian homeownership doubled. In 2000, the poverty rates included whites at 4.2%, blacks at 26.2%, Asians at 19.1%, American Indians at 23.2%, and Hispanics or Latinos at 18.1%.[39][42][43]
| U.S. Census Population Estimates |
| Year |
1860 |
1870 |
1880 |
1890 |
1900 |
1910 |
1920 |
1930 |
1940 |
1950 |
1960 |
1970 |
1980 |
1990 |
2000 |
2005 |
2006 |
| Population |
3,000 |
13,000 |
46,887 |
164,738 |
202,718 |
301,408 |
380,582 |
464,356 |
492,370 |
521,718 |
482,872 |
434,400 |
370,951 |
368,383 |
382,618 |
372,811 |
369,051 |
| U.S. Rank[44] |
- |
- |
38 |
18 |
19 |
18 |
18 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
25 |
32 |
34 |
42 |
- |
- |
- |
Economy
- See also: Economy of Minnesota
The economy of Minneapolis today is based in commerce, finance, rail and trucking services, health care, and industry. Smaller components are in publishing, milling, food processing, graphic arts, insurance, and high technology. Industry produces metal and automotive products, chemical and agricultural products, electronics, computers, precision medical instruments and devices, plastics, and machinery.[46]
Five Fortune 500 headquarters are in Minneapolis proper: Target Corporation, U.S. Bancorp, Xcel Energy, Ameriprise Financial, and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. Fortune 1000 companies in Minneapolis include PepsiAmericas, Valspar and Donaldson Company.[47] Apart from government, the city's largest employers are Target, Wells Fargo, Ameriprise, Star Tribune, U.S. Bancorp, Xcel Energy, IBM, Piper Jaffray, RBC Dain Rauscher, ING Group, and Qwest.[48]
Availability of Wi-Fi, transportation solutions, medical trials, university research and development expenditures, advanced degrees held by the work force, and energy conservation are so far above the national average that in 2005, Popular Science named Minneapolis the "Top Tech City" in the U.S.[49] The Twin Cities ranked the country's second best city in a 2006 Kiplinger's poll of Smart Places to Live and Minneapolis was one of the Seven Cool Cities for young professionals.[50]
The Twin Cities contribute 63.8% of the gross state product of Minnesota. The area's $145.8 billion gross metropolitan product and its per capita personal income rank fourteenth in the U.S. Recovering from the nation's recession in 2000, personal income grew 3.8% in 2005, though it was behind the national average of 5%. The city returned to peak employment during the fourth quarter of that year.[51]
The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, with one branch in Helena, Montana, serves Minnesota, Montana, North and South Dakota, and parts of Wisconsin and Michigan. The smallest of the twelve regional banks in the Federal Reserve System, it operates a nationwide payments system, oversees member banks and bank holding companies, and serves as a banker for the U.S. Treasury.[52] The Minneapolis Grain Exchange founded in 1881 is still located near the riverfront and is the only exchange for hard red spring wheat futures and options.[53]
Arts
-
The region is second only to New York City in live theater per capita[55] and is the third-largest theater market in the U.S., supporting the Illusion, Jungle, Mixed Blood, Penumbra, Bedlam Theatre, the Brave New Workshop, the Minnesota Dance Theatre, Skewed Visions, Theater Latté Da, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, and the Children's Theatre Company.[56] The city is home to Minnesota Fringe Festival, the United States' largest nonjuried performing arts festival.[57] French architect Jean Nouvel designed a new three stage complex[58] for the Guthrie Theater, the prototype alternative to Broadway founded in Minneapolis in 1965.[59] Minneapolis purchased and renovated the Orpheum, State, and Pantages Theatre vaudeville and film houses on Hennepin Avenue now used for concerts and plays.[60] Eventually, a fourth renovated theater will join the Hennepin Center for the Arts to become the Minnesota Shubert Performing Arts and Education Center, a home to twenty performing arts groups and a provider of Web-based art education.[61][dead link]
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, built in 1915 in south central Minneapolis is the largest art museum in the city with 100,000 pieces in its permanent collection. A new wing designed by Michael Graves was completed in 2006 for contemporary and modern works and more gallery space.[58] The Walker Art Center sits atop Lowry Hill, near downtown, and doubled its size with an addition in 2005 by Herzog & de Meuron and is continuing its expansion to 15 acres (6.1 ha) with a park designed by Michel Desvigne across the street from the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.[62] The Weisman Art Museum, designed by Frank Gehry for the University of Minnesota, opened in 1993. An addition, also designed by Gehry, is expected to open in 2009.[63]
The son of a jazz musician and a singer, Prince is Minneapolis' most famous musical progeny.[65] With fellow local musicians, many of whom recorded at Twin/Tone Records,[66] he helped make First Avenue and the 7th Street Entry venues of choice for both artists and audiences.[67] The Minnesota Orchestra plays classical and popular music at Orchestra Hall under music director Osmo Vänskä who has set about making it the best in the country.[68] The Minnesota Opera produces both classic and new operas.[69] In 2008, the century-old MacPhail Center for Music opened a new facility designed by James Dayton.[70]
Tom Waits released two songs about the city, Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis (Blue Valentine 1978) and 9th & Hennepin (Rain Dogs 1985) and Lucinda Williams recorded Minneapolis (World Without Tears 2003). Home to the MN Spoken Word Association, the city has garnered notice for rap and hip hop and its spoken word community.[71] The underground hip-hop group Atmosphere (natives of Minnesota) frequently comments in song lyrics on the city and Minnesota.[72]
Minneapolis is ranked America's most literate city[10] and is a center for printing and publishing.[73] It was a natural place for artists to build Open Book, the largest literary and book arts center in the U.S., made up of the Loft Literary Center, the Minnesota Center for Book Arts and Milkweed Editions, sometimes called the country's largest independent nonprofit literary publisher.[74] The center exhibits and teaches both contemporary art and traditional crafts of writing, papermaking, letterpress printing and bookbinding.[74]
Sports
-
Professional sports are well-established in Minneapolis. First playing in 1884, the Minneapolis Millers baseball team produced the best won-lost record in their league at the time and contributed fifteen players to the Baseball Hall of Fame. During the 1940s and 1950s the Minneapolis Lakers basketball team, the city's first in the major leagues in any sport, won six basketball championships in three leagues before moving to Los Angeles.[75] The American Wrestling Association, formerly the NWA Minneapolis Boxing & Wrestling Club, operated in Minneapolis from 1960 until the 1990s.[76]
The Minnesota Vikings and the Minnesota Twins arrived in the state in 1961. The Vikings were an NFL expansion team and the Twins were formed when the Washington Senators relocated to Minnesota. Both teams played outdoors in the open air Metropolitan Stadium in the suburb of Bloomington for twenty years before moving to the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, where the Twins won the World Series in 1987 and 1991. The Minnesota Timberwolves brought NBA basketball back to Minneapolis in 1989, followed by the Minnesota Lynx WNBA team in 1999. They play in the Target Center. The NHL ice hockey team Minnesota Wild, National Lacrosse League team Minnesota Swarm, and USL-1 soccer team Minnesota Thunder play in St. Paul.[75]
The downtown Metrodome, opened in 1982, is the largest sports stadium in Minnesota. The three major tenants are the Vikings, the Twins, and the university's Golden Gophers football and baseball teams. The Metrodome is the only stadium in the country to have hosted a Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the Super Bowl, the World Series, and NCAA Basketball Men's Final Four. Runners, walkers, inline skaters, coed volleyball teams, and touch football teams all have access to "The Dome". Events from sports to concerts, community activities, religious activities, and trade shows are held more than three hundred days per year, making the facility one of the most versatile stadiums in the world.[77]
The state of Minnesota authorized replacement of the Metrodome with three separate stadiums that estimates in 2007 totaled at about $1.7 billion. Six spectator sport stadiums will be in a 1.2-mile (2 km) radius centered downtown, counting the existing facilities at Target Center and the university's Williams Arena and Mariucci Arena. The new Target Field is funded by the Twins and 75% by Hennepin County sales tax, about $25 per year by each taxpayer.[78] The Gopher football program's new TCF Bank Stadium is being built by the university and the state's general fund.[78] The Vikings Stadium plan for Blaine, Minnesota changed and as of 2007 was estimated at $954 million[79] for rebuilding on the Metrodome site. Feasibility studies for Dallas, Texas-based design and local construction (Mortenson Construction of Minneapolis) of a new stadium are expected in early 2009.[80]
Major sporting events hosted by the city include Super Bowl XXVI, the 1992 NCAA Men's Division I Final Four, and the 1998 World Figure Skating Championships.[81][82][83]
Gifted amateur athletes have played in Minneapolis schools, notably starting in the 1920s and 1930s at Central, De La Salle, and Marshall high schools. Since the 1930s, the Golden Gophers have won national championships in men's baseball, boxing, football, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, indoor and outdoor track, swimming, and wrestling.[75][84]
Parks and recreation
The Minneapolis park system has been called the best-designed, best-financed, and best-maintained in America.[85] Foresight, donations and effort by community leaders enabled Horace Cleveland to create his finest landscape architecture, preserving geographical landmarks and linking them with boulevards and parkways.[86] The city's Chain of Lakes is connected by bike, running, and walking paths and used for swimming, fishing, picnics, boating, and ice skating. A parkway for cars, a bikeway for riders, and a walkway for pedestrians runs parallel along the 52 miles (84 km) route of the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway.[87] Residents brave the cold weather in December to watch the nightly Holidazzle Parade.[88]
Theodore Wirth is credited with the development of the parks system.[89] Today, 16.6% of the city is parks and there are 770 square feet (72 m2) of parkland for each resident, ranked in 2008 as the most parkland per resident within cities of similar population densities.[90][91]
Parks are interlinked in many places and the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area connects regional parks and visitor centers. The country's oldest public wildflower garden, the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary located within Theodore Wirth Park which is shared with Golden Valley and is about 60% the size of Central Park in New York City.[94] Site of the 53-foot (16 m) Minnehaha Falls, Minnehaha Park is one of the city's oldest and most popular parks, receiving over 500,000 visitors each year.[93] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow named Hiawatha's wife Minnehaha for the Minneapolis waterfall in The Song of Hiawatha, a bestselling and often-parodied 19th century poem.[95]
Runner's World ranks the Twin Cities as America's sixth best city for runners.[96] The Twin Cities Marathon run in Minneapolis and St. Paul every October draws 250,000 spectators. The 26.2-mile (42.2 km) race is a Boston and USA Olympic Trials qualifier. The organizers sponsor three more races: a Kids Marathon, a 1 mile (1.6 km), and a 10 miles (16 km).[97] Minneapolis is home to more golfers per capita than any major U.S. city.[98] Five golf courses are located within the city, with nationally ranked Hazeltine National Golf Club, and Interlachen Country Club in nearby suburbs.[99] The state of Minnesota has the nation's highest number of bicyclists, sport fishermen, and snow skiers per capita. Hennepin County has the second-highest number of horses per capita in the U.S.[55] While living in Minneapolis, Scott and Brennan Olson founded (and later sold) Rollerblade, the company that popularized the sport of inline skating.[100]
Government
-
Minneapolis is a stronghold for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), an affiliate of the Democratic Party. The Minneapolis City Council holds the most power and represents the city's thirteen districts called wards. The council has twelve DFL members and one from the Green Party. R. T. Rybak also of the DFL is the current mayor of Minneapolis. The office of mayor is relatively weak but has some power to appoint individuals such as the chief of police. Parks, taxation, and public housing are semi-independent boards and levy their own taxes and fees subject to Board of Estimate and Taxation limits.[101]
Citizens have a unique and powerful influence in neighborhood government. Neighborhoods coordinate activities under the Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP), funded in the 1990s by the city and state who appropriated $400 million for it over twenty years.[102] Minneapolis is divided into communities, each containing neighborhoods. In some cases two or more neighborhoods act together under one organization. Some areas are commonly known by nicknames of business associations.[103]
The organizers of Earth Day scored Minneapolis ninth best overall and second among mid-sized cities in their 2007 Urban Environment Report, a study based on indicators of environmental health and their effect on people.[104]
Early Minneapolis experienced a period of corruption in local government and crime was common until an economic downturn in the mid 1900s. Since 1950 the population decreased and much of downtown was lost to urban renewal and highway construction. The result was a "moribund and peaceful" environment until the 1990s.[105] Along with economic recovery the murder rate climbed. The Minneapolis Police Department imported a computer system from New York City that sent officers to high crime areas despite accusations of racial profiling; the result was a drop in major crime. Since 1999 the number of homicides increased |
