Featured Stories

A Line or Two: Urbanist Katherine Loflin Coming to town to talk placemaking and "talent magnetism"

Jon Spayde Wednesday, April 24, 2013

She was the key consultant on the Knight Foundation/Gallup Soul of the Community project, which looked at why people love where they live and how that attachment can drive economic development. The in-demand placemaker is the star attraction at a weeklong series of discussions next week, cosponsored by The Line.

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Philanthropy, Regionalism, Strong Local Economy

Change comes to car country: Biking, walking on the rise in the suburbs

Jay Walljasper Wednesday, February 27, 2013

From "road diets" to "advisory bike lanes" to Complete Streets programs, Twin Cities suburbs are beginning to create infrastructure and policy to turn their familiar auto-only paradigm into a new vision of walkable, bikeable streets.

Creative Leadership, Regionalism, Sustainability, Transportation

Central Corridor Success: The Green Line is Already Earning Greenbacks

Conrad DeFiebre Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The Central Corridor light rail line (aka the Green Line) won't be finished till 2014, but it's already earning its keep, writes Conrad LeFiebre of MN 2020, as development advances, once-disrupted business stabilizes, and observers add up the unique advantages of a line that connects two downtowns.

Central Corridor, Coordination/Collaboration, Regionalism, Strong Local Economy, Transit Oriented Development, Transportation

The New Green Job Scene

Holly Dolezalek Wednesday, November 07, 2012

While the concept of the green job is a nice fusion of much-needed employment growth and environmental responsibility, it's been hard to get a handle on the size and even the definition of this part of the job market. But according to Matt Entenza and other experts, the picture in Minnesota is getting clearer as more jobs fit the category. In fact, this small but growing sector may be the IT of the future.

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Leadership, Emerging Technology, Green Jobs, Regionalism, Strong Local Economy, Sustainability

Wanted: More Minnesota-Made Movies

Michelle Bruch Wednesday, July 25, 2012

How are Minnesota and the Twin Cities doing as film production centers and locations? There have been some major disappointments recently, but new moves give us reason to hope we can lure Hollywood back.

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Design, Regionalism, Strong Local Economy

The Broadband Challenge

Julie Kendrick Wednesday, July 18, 2012

What can the Twin Cities learn from other communities' success with municipal broadband? For one thing, that "bright cable" has a bright future. For another, that every city's situation is different.

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Design, Emerging Technology, High Technology, Regionalism, Strong Local Economy

Grassroots and Groundwork: Escaping poverty by blending tech and tradition

Julie Kendrick Wednesday, June 13, 2012

At the Grassroots and Groundwork anti-poverty conference--held at Mystic Lake Casino, of all places--attendees heard about ingenious ways to build wealth in struggling communities by adapting old-school immigrant self-help tactics to the digital age.

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Leadership, diversity, Philanthropy, Regionalism, Strong Local Economy

A Line or Two: Hikes and History

Jon Spayde Wednesday, April 11, 2012

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: A web site that makes hiking through our towns an exercise in historical imagination.

Arts and Culture, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Regionalism

Dayton's Bluff, Downtown, West Seventh

Karen Washington tells local urban gardeners: to go permanent, get political

Susan Klemond Wednesday, April 04, 2012

What do you do when the urban garden you've struggled to create gets sold out from under you? At the recent Community Garden Spring Resource Fair, New York gardening advocate Karen Washington told local growers that if they want their gardens to be really sustainable--i.e., permanent--they'd better get savvy about the political system.

Coordination/Collaboration, diversity, Entrepreneurship, Green Jobs, Regionalism, Sustainability

West Side

A Conversation with Katie Eggers: Chronicling the New Twin Cities with a Global Eye

Jon Spayde Wednesday, March 28, 2012

German-born Katharina (Katie) Eggers has studied politics in Paris, taught in Thailand, and worked as a UN-EU liaison in Brussels. Now this young, internationally connected overachiever is preparing to launch a print magazine that will highlight the Twin Cities' connections to the nation and the world. And she has some pointed things to say about what it's like to be a newcomer in our towns.

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Design, Entrepreneurship, Regionalism

Videoline: The Muslim Experience in Minnesota

Islamic Resource Group of Minnesota Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Muslim Minnesotans range from immigrants to American-born men and women with Mideastern, African, or Asian ancestry to converts with a "Lake Wobegon" background. This film, produced by the Islamic Resource Group of Minnesota, puts very human and very recognizable faces on Minnesota's diverse and growing Muslim community.

Arts and Culture, diversity, Regionalism

Verdict: The "Buy Local" Campaign Helped Central Corridor Businesses Stay Healthy

Dan Heilman Wednesday, February 01, 2012

An aggressive, and unconventional, marketing campaign to keep people coming to Central Corridor businesses during light rail construction in 2011 appears to have paid off in less business decline than expected--and a mood of cautious optimism about the future.

Arts and Culture, Central Corridor, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Leadership, Design, Entrepreneurship, Philanthropy, Regionalism, Strong Local Economy, Transit Oriented Development, Transportation

Midway, Downtown, Saint Anthony Park, Thomas - Dale/Frogtown, Summit - University

2011: The year of "coopetition"

Jon Spayde Wednesday, December 21, 2011

"Coopetition"--cooperation among competitors or potential competitors--was a force to be reckoned with in the Twin Cities during 2011. Our politics may be gridlocked in partisanship, but the smartest entrepreneurs and civic officials locally are embracing a wider vision than the zero-sum game.

Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Emerging Technology, Entrepreneurship, Philanthropy, Regionalism

RangerOnCall: a high-tech tour of the mighty Mississippi

Anna Pratt Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Did you know that there's a National Park right in the middle of the Twin Cities metro? It's long and narrow, and it's called the Mississippi River. The National Park Service and its local ally, the Mississippi River Fund, want you to know more about our stretch of the river. Get your cell phones, tablets, and laptops out.

Arts and Culture, Coordination/Collaboration, Creative Economy, Creative Leadership, Emerging Technology, Energy, Regionalism, Strong Local Economy, Sustainability

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

Regionalism : Featured Stories