Creative Economy : Buzz

In a recent piece, Midwest Living features Minneapolis as an ideal destination town for a two-day getaway.
 
“No matter what your mood, Minneapolis offers something to suit: beautiful lakes nestled among hip art communities, tree-lined trails behind modern museums, vibrant nightlife blocks from high-class cultural attractions,” the story reads.
 
For starters, the extensive art collections housed at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts make the museum worth a trip. “The Department of Contemporary Art shows works by living artists, and the institute’s collection of paintings spans more than five centuries,” it states.  
 
Also, Nicollet Mall’s pedestrian-level shops, restaurants, and farmers market, and scenic Lake Calhoun are just some of the city’s many attractions, the article adds.  
 

 

 

PedalMn.com has a short video that shows off the state’s extensive bike trails.  

It goes through a number of bike paths both in urban areas and in greater Minnesota. In Minneapolis, bicyclists are followed as they careen past the scenic Chain of Lakes, the St. Anthony Main historic area, and Nicollet Mall.  

Bike-friendly infrastructure, such as bike racks on buses, helps flesh out some of the reasons why the state has gotten so many props lately in this area.

The video will “will remind you why you love to get out and pedal in Minnesota,” the website states.  

Golden Valley-based General Mills recently took a step into the arena of "branded content," assisted by popular news site Huffington Post, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.
 
The site, LiveBetterAmerica, is aimed at giving visitors information on healthy living, with a focus on eating more nutritious foods, and it's built on the Huffington Post technology platform. Although the site isn't directly linked to the news source, articles from Huffington's writers will appear on LiveBetterAmerica.
 
The move is part of a growing shift in online content that pairs publishers like Huffington with advertisers like General Mills, creating journalistic-style articles that tie to brand awareness and online advertising.

Minneapolis and St. Paul made Sherman's Travel’s recent list of the country’s top 10 places for bicycling.

“The Twin Cities emergence as a bike-friendly superstar coincided with a general plan to make the area more livable,” the story states.

The story points to the Nice Ride bike-sharing program, and to bike-themed events that happen frequently here.

Just last year, the city of Minneapolis added 37 miles of bikeways, installed hundreds of bike-specific street signs, and created a citywide bike map for the first time, the story states.

Bill Dossett, who heads Nice Ride, is quoted saying,  “All of these things are happening at the same time that we’ve made this great investment in the last five years,” adding, “You bring all of that together and I think our future is very bright.”
 

The Anchor Fish & Chips restaurant in Minneapolis is featured in a Yahoo! Travel piece about the best seafood spots in the country.
 
“Crisp Alaskan cod and hand-cut fries steal the show at this traditional Irish chipper,” the piece reads. “Request a side of tangy curry sauce to layer on your fries and you're sure to tantalize your taste buds.”
 
The Anchor’s seafood isn’t the only thing drawing people to the small hole-in-the-wall pub, the piece points out. It also has a solid beer selection, well-executed Shepherd’s Pie, and a trendy ambience.  
 
For those on the go, the restaurant’s food truck is a good option, adds Yahoo!
 

The Bachelor Farmer restaurant in Minneapolis was recently featured in the New York Times.

The modern, chic restaurant “playfully blends Scandinavian design and tradition with a handmade-food ethos and the friendly unpretentiousness of the Midwest,” the story reads.

With its unique offerings, such as roasted rutabagas and reinterpreted cinnamon rolls, the place “has given Scandinavian food a much-needed shot of adrenaline.”

Although the state hasn’t always garnered a lot of attention for its food ideas, “this Scandinavian surge is intersecting with the most avant-garde movement in food today: New Nordic cuisine,” it states.

Eric Dayton, who co-owns the restaurant, told the newspaper that the restaurant fell into the trend. “Our goal was something that was authentic to Minnesota, not necessarily authentic to Scandinavia.”

In a recent piece from Fox News, Minneapolis is recognized as a top “revival city.”

Fox explored a handful of cities that might seem under the radar or “once balanced on the economic precipice only to sustain as a stronghold for independent artists, forward-thinking entrepreneurs and corporate backers"--and looked at "how they're being transformed into unique vacation destinations,” the story states.

Minneapolis leads the nation in bicycling; it has award-winning restaurants and music venues and striking hotels, and plenty of art, the story states.

It mentions a laundry list of area destinations, including a 44-mile network of bike paths, the hard-to-get-into Marvel Bar, Eat Street Social, the Art Deco-style W Minneapolis, ArtCrank bike-inspired art and more.

The Hyatt Regency in downtown Minneapolis has been re-imagined as a “hotel for locavores,” according to a recent New York Times story.

Part of the hotel’s recent $25 million renovation used area manufacturers, artisans, and artists. Its new décor “pays tribute to the city’s heritage and industry,” it states.

While the hotel is internationally known, architect Mike Suomi of Stonehill & Taylor says in the story, “We also wanted to craft a narrative that is specific to the location.”

Design touches reference timber and woolen mills while an oversized map of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers is tied together with Post-Its, which the city is also known for.

Bon Appetit magazine recently pulled together a list of the top five soda fountains around the country.

“A band of bartender converts are stepping up to the seltzer tap, returning us to the era of phosphates and egg creams,” the story states. Eat Street Social in Minneapolis made the list.  

“Sodas go toe-to-toe with craft cocktails at this lively bar,” it reads, adding that the Raspberry Rickey is a must-order.

A recent analysis from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality shows that Minnesota boasts the best healthcare system in the country, according to the Star Tribune.

The state’s high marks came in the areas of medical clinics, hospitals, and nursing homes.

“Overall, Minnesota ranks third for care of patients with acute conditions, seventh for chronic care and 11th for preventive care,” the Star Tribune story states.

Jennifer Lundblad, president of the nonprofit organization Stratis Health, is quoted saying, “For more than five years we've had an intense collaboration among providers, health plans, state officials and others to tackle both quality and cost issues," adding, "That's hard work ... and this report confirms where we're doing well and where we still need to improve.”

The Pioneer Press reports that a local fashion designer will appear on the next season of Lifetime’s popular reality TV show, “Project Runway.”

The 27-year-old Raul Osorio describes himself as self-taught, according to the story. He’s “known for his attention to tailoring and striking a balance between feminine and masculine designs,” the story states, adding that his combination of hats, rolled-up pants and ankle boots make him a striking sight at fashion events all over town.

Four other Minnesotans have made it onto the TV show. The show’s 10th season starts on July 19.

A story in The Atlantic titled, “The Right to Experience Art,” discusses the “community supported art” program from St. Paul’s Springboard for the Arts.
 
Through the program, people can buy “shares” in local art, the same way they would buy food from local farmers through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).  
 
The story highlights comments from Laura Zabel, who leads Springboard.  
 
Zabel is quoted as saying, "The art is wonderful and it's always beautiful, but the purpose of the program is to build tight relationships between artists and the community," adding, "We found this incredible audience for this project of people who care about their local economy and community but aren't necessarily from the art community."
 

 

In a recent story, Slate.com profiled a Texas library that occupies a building that had once been a Wal-Mart.

The Minneapolis-based architecture firm Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd., “breathed fresh life into the warehouse, about as big as two-and-a-half football fields, late last year, when they repurposed it as the country’s largest single-story public library,” it reads.  

Interesting signage, reading nooks, and special spaces, such as a quiet room, several computer labs, and a bookstore and café, have redefined the place.

So much so that the McAllen Public Library won The International Interior Design Association’s 2012 Library Interior Design Awards, the story states.

A Reuters article titled, “Cities' efforts to make exercise easier pays off,” calls attention to Twin Cities’ efforts to help residents get in shape.
 
Fitness results in part from lifestyle and environmental supports, it states, adding that the American College of Sports Medicine's 2012 American Fitness Index (AFI), which ranks the country’s 50 healthiest cities, supports that theory.
 
Minneapolis/St. Paul has jumped to the top of the list for the second year in a row thanks to higher rates of physical activity.
 
The story quotes Walter Thompson, who chairs the AFI board: "When I say Minneapolis ranked No. 1, people give me an 'are you kidding me' kind of look,” who adds, "Between November 1 and April 1 they have cold and snow, but they've addressed that."
 
It has to do with having plenty of gyms and government investment in parks, he says in the story.
 
 

 

The Washington Post recently featured the Minneapolis restaurant the Bachelor Farmer, in its lifestyle section.

Writer Tom Sietsema describes the Nordic-themed restaurant as “homespun and stylish.”

“Cheery blue-and-white awnings welcome diners to the sprawling corner property,” along with an underground cocktail lounge that’s known as the Marvel Bar, the story states.

“Asked to define Minnesota cooking, Eric Dayton says it revolves around the simple use of a few ingredients, preferably local. “There’s a humility to the cooking” in his state, he says. The description sums up my meal in his restaurant, where nothing shouted “Look at me!” but everything reveled in good taste, right through dessert.”