Buzz

The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s recent list of the most giving Fortune 500 companies includes Wells Fargo & Company and the Target Corporation, according to Minnpost.  

To get the results, the Chronicle examined last year’s charitable donations from many of the top Fortune 500 companies, the story states. 

Wells Fargo, which calls San Francisco home, but has strong ties to Minnesota, led with $316 million. “Meanwhile, Wells Fargo may be poised to add new Minnesota jobs, or at least, move existing employees to a new location,” the story reads.   

Target came in ninth place, having given away $147 million in cash and $77 million in products.

For the sixth year, Hastings-based Anytime Fitness has nabbed the title of "world's fastest-growing fitness club" from The International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA), an industry trade group.
 
The designation is based on the number of locations that Anytime Fitness added within the past year, as well as other factors like revenue and membership numbers.
 
The fitness behemoth opened 260 new locations in 2012, bringing its total to 2,035 clubs. It came in second in the IHRSA report for revenue growth, posting $484 million in 2012, a 33 percent increase over the previous year. The club was third on the list for number of members, reporting 1.5 million in 2012, coming in behind massive 24 Hour Fitness with 3.8 million members and Curves International, with 2 million members.
 
IHRSA President and CEO Joe Moore noted in a statement that the growth of Anytime Fitness indicates strong demand from consumers for "companies that meet their expectations."

Minneapolis landed at the no. 10 spot on Apartments.com's annual list of "Top 10 Best Cities for Recent College Graduates."
 
Now in its sixth year, the list examines 100 U.S. cities and determines rankings based on apartment availability, affordability, unemployment rates, median income, and the percentage of single people between the ages of 25 and 29.
 
According to the report, Minneapolis has a high number of people falling within that age range, as well as a low unemployment rate.
 
The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is just over $1,000, the report noted, which lands within the affordability range for recent college grads.
 
At the top of the list is Phoenix, with $708 as average rent for a one-bedroom apartment, and coming in at second and third place were Orlando and San Antonio.
 

Minneapolis/St. Paul recently nabbed a headline on Slate.com. Recent information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor shows that the Twin Cities is the “lowest-unemployment big city in America,” the website states.
 
“It has long been the position of this blog that you should move to Minneapolis based on the high wages and low cost of living, but until recently Oklahoma City had a lower joblessness rate,” the Slate.com post reads.
 
The writer encourages readers to get past Minnesota winters and to see that “Now Minneapolis is both a place with high wage jobs and a place with plentiful jobs.”
 

The Irish Fair of Minnesota is ncluded in a list from the Travel Channel of the top seven Celtic festivals in the country.  

The biggest free festival of its type in the country, the St. Paul fair “has the best of all Irish festivals--bands, beer and boiled beef--plus its own unique events: Irish Got Talent and Best Legs in a Kilt,” the website reads.

To showcase various aspects of Irish culture, games including hurling and Gaelic football take place, while vendors offer Jaffa cakes, Celtic crosses, and whiskey.

Nonprofit organization Social Science Research Council recently released a list of top states for "well-being," and Minnesota came in at number seven.
 
Called the American Human Development Index, the list measures three main aspects that contribute to overall well-being: access to education, standard of living, and life expectancy.
 
The study's authors base their data on responses from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
 
The top three states in the study were Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, while the bottom three were Mississippi, Arkansas, and West Virginia. 

When it comes to state economies, Minnesota is the fifth fastest growing, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Twin Cities Business magazine reports.

The rankings are based on states' gross domestic product (GDP) from 2012.  

Minnesota, which shares the ranking with California, has a GDP growth rate of 3.5 percent. The national average was 2.5 percent.

The state saw growth in the areas of manufacturing, construction, wholesale trade, finance, real estate development, and agriculture, the story states.

“Although North Dakota was described as the fastest-growing economy in 2012, its $39 billion “real GDP”--which is adjusted for inflation and incorporates a weighted average of prices for products produced within each state--was significantly smaller than Minnesota’s real GDP of $253 billion,” the story notes.

Popular local food trucks Chef Shack and Vellee Deli appeared on a recent list of the country's top food trucks, in a ranking dished up by food website The Daily Meal.
 
Chef Shack, a fixture on the food truck scene here and one of the first to kick off the trend, nabbed the no. 10 spot on the list while fusion cuisine purveyor Vellee Deli came in at no. 84.
 
The website looked at over 450 trucks from over 40 cities, and came up with the list by considering Twitter and Facebook popularity, as well as innovative menus, originality, and online reviews.
 
In singling out Chef Shack, the site noted that ingredients are organic when possible, and from family farms and co-ops in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Vellee Deli, meanwhile, won a spot for its blend of Asian and Mexican dishes.

Minneapolis ranked third in a recent study that looked at which cities in the country are most appealing for those who work for small businesses.
 
Coming in behind Denver and Boston, Minneapolis has the least amount of job competition among the 30 cities considered by the study's developer, a credit card research site called Card Hub.
 
Cities were ranked based on job growth, average monthly earnings for new hires, cost of living in the area, average unemployment rate, and other factors.
 
Companies with fewer than 50 employees comprise about half of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce's membership, the study noted, and "its workforce spends relatively little time on the job...the city ranks in the top 10 nationally in terms of small business vitality, industry variety, and stress."

Detroit is adding a streetcar line and it’s looking to Twin Cities developers for insights about minimizing the impact of construction on local businesses, the Pioneer Press reports.

For example, St. Paul’s Neighborhood Development Center, which provides support to minority-owned businesses in the city, is pitching in. Isabel Chanslor, a project manager with the organization, is quoted in the story, saying, "We've shared what we learned, what we did and what we could have done better.”

The organization “has been exporting its model to Detroit on a number of levels,” the story states.

Plans in Detroit include a “marketing campaign intended to remind locals that businesses along Woodward Avenue are indeed still open, much like the 'On The Green Line' campaign launched in the Twin Cities,” the story reads.

The Brooklyn Brewery, a craft brewery in New York, “is paying the Twin Cities a little visit in a big way,” a City Pages article states.  

This week, the brewery is coming to the area as a part of its national MASH tour, a series of beer and food-related events plus film showings and music.

The Twin Cities is one of 11 stops in the festival that includes a “series of parties, concerts, and private diners in honor of Slow Food USA, an organization the promotes "the pleasure of food by linking it to the community and the environment."”

While in town, MASH will make its home St. Paul’s The Happy Gnome, while also visiting with a number of local restaurateurs.

Online reservation website Urbanspoon released its ranking of the country's 100 most popular family-friendly eateries, and three Twin Cities restaurants made the list.
 
All three are located in Minneapolis: Fogo de Chao, Pizzeria Lola, and The Anchor Fish & Chips.
 
Restaurants were ranked according to positive reviews from food bloggers, critics, and Urbanspoon users. The site noted that the list boasts a variety of restaurant types, from fast-casual burger joints to fine dining.
 
Although the restaurants on the list are kid-friendly, Urbanspoon also evaluated the needs of other family members, such as grandparents, parents, and a diner's "foodie sister and her boyfriend." Restaurants that were too noisy, ultra-fancy, and with a limited kids' menu were ruled out in favor of those with nice atmosphere, a diverse menu, and friendly service.

"If you're a lover of outdoor urban activity, might we suggest a move to Minneapolis?" begins the story on U.S. city park systems from Grist.
 
The online news site cited rankings from the Trust for Public Land in its second-annual ParkScore Index. Although Minneapolis didn't appear on last year's list, the survey results were tweaked this year to include more metropolitan locations, and the city zoomed to the top, beating out larger cities like San Francisco and New York City.
 
In calculating the rankings, ParkScore looked at acreage of city parks, services and investment, and access. Minneapolis parks boast 15 percent of the city's overall area, with over 5,000 acres of parkland.  

The New York Times featured local artist Chris Larson’s art installation that was a part of the recent Northern Spark.

For the St. Paul dusk-to-dawn art festival, Larson created a replica of Bauhaus architect Marcel Breuer’s St. Paul house. Before an audience at the festival, Larson proceeded to burn down the house. It was the festival’s main attraction.    

Although Larson worked from 1961 blueprints of the house, he “made the walls and roof out of cardboard and two-by-four studs,” the story states.

Of the original, which is still standing, the story states, “Despite its heritage, the house has been neglected in books on Breuer.”

As for the burning of the replica, it may have been a statement about the architect, the design, or putting too much emphasis on one’s house--several people in the story weigh in on the significance of the pyrotechnics.  

Recently, Intuit put together a list of the top U.S. cities for female entrepreneurs. By its calculations, Minneapolis comes in fourth place. San Francisco tops the list. It's followed by Seattle and Washington D.C., in second and third place.

In a blog post about its results, Inuit underscores that while more women are enrolled in higher education, “they still struggle to find their place in many career fields, including business and entrepreneurship.”  

At the same time, a study shows that 81 percent of female entrepreneurs are “showing optimism about their business ventures,” it states.

To come up with its rankings, Intuit looked at median education levels, unemployment rates, income, population, and the percentage of women-owned businesses for 48 cities across the country.