Phillips : Featured Stories

On the frontier of urban development today are some big players: major medical, educational, and other institutions with a stake in the growth and well-being of their communities. They're not just building new buildings--they're revitalizing neighborhoods in partnership with government, nonprofits, and citizens.

On December 7 and 8, Minneapolis' Midtown Global Market turned hyper-crafty as 96 hand-makers of beautiful, funny, and freaky objects gathered to sell their wares. It was more than a holiday craft fair--it was a celebration of the Twin Cities as a leader in the new crafts movement. Our photographer, Bill Kelley, was there.

In A Line or Two, I share some of my enthusiasms and discoveries as I make my way around the Twin Cities. Call it an editor's note as blog entry. This week: An evening at the JoyFace Poetry and Arts Collective's pop-up celebration, the Full Blast Bliss Reading and Art Show.

In A Line or Two, I share some of my enthusiasms and discoveries as I make my way around the Twin Cities. Call it an editor's note as blog entry. This week: a venturesome group of artists and poets have created a pop-up gallery in a vacant storefront at 38th and Chicago. This weekend, you're invited to join the Joyface Poetry and Arts Collective as they fill the space with experimental beauty--and plan the future of their project.

From Bill Lindeke's always-worthwhile street-level urban design blog, Twin City Sidewalks: Want to make an experiment to see if reducing the number of lanes of traffic makes street life more vital? Then go to  Chicago and Franklin avenues in Minneapolis, where you can compare two street-treatments and decide for yourself.

The largest hospital-connected integrative-medicine clinic in the United States is in Minneapolis. The Penny George Institute, run by Courtney Baechler, MD, adds aromatherapy, acupuncture, and other once-fringe healing arts to hospital patients' treatments--and the results are earning respect in the medical mainstream.

The founder and artistic director of Youth Performance Company reflects on what she's learned from the kids she works with about the real source of the "bullying epidemic" in our schools--and why she commissioned a musical theater piece to deal with it.

The Dakota War of 1862, the survival of Native languages, Minneapolis' urban Indian heartland--these were the challenging themes that a group of young Native filmmakers took up this summer at an innovative media institute dedicated to reconnecting them with their roots.

In A Line or Two, I share some of my discoveries and enthusiasms as I make my way around the Twin Cities. Call it an editor's note as blog entry. This week: The sublimely glittery Peace House mural is headed for destruction--and a kind of resurrection.

A handful of local coffee shops are redefining the coffee experience as an art form. From sourcing to roasting, grinding to "latte art," their watchword is quality. If you're looking for quick joe to grab and go, you may need to adjust your expectations upward.

In A Line or Two, I share some of my discoveries and enthusiasms as I make my way around the Twin Cities--call it an editor's-note-as-blog-entry. This week: the first five of my Top Ten Reasons to Visit (and Love) the Twin Cities. It's a list of offbeat but worthy places and happenings that you might miss if you only visit our big-ticket attractions.

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.

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.

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.

Following our selection of some favorite public artworks in Saint Paul two weeks ago, here is our take on the beautiful and the quirky in Minneapolis outdoor art--minus the Spoonbridge and Cherry, which is terrific but a little overexposed. It's just a taste of the richness available, designed to get you outside looking at art before the snow flies.