Featured Stories
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.
Izak Leon and Adam Jacobs Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Izak Leon and Adam Jacobs' video "Dinkytown: Food Music Books" is a a lively look at the semi-legendary neighborhood of cafes, bars, clubs, and bookstores adjacent to the University of Minnesota campus. The two Perpich Center for Arts Education students portray a neighborhood that's moving toward the mainstream while still holding on to many of the values of its countercultural past.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, March 28, 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: Do you live in, or know about, a great microneighborhood in Minneapolis or Saint Paul? A block, an alley, a corner where people come together regularly to have fun and share their lives? Tell us about it.
Julie Kendrick Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Don't talk to the residents of the 5300 block of Emerson Avenue South in Minneapolis about urban alienation, "bowling-alone" isolation, or being too busy to build next-door friendships. Led by a few creative souls, the multi-generational microneighborhood has found more ways to connect, celebrate, and hang out together than any urbanologist would dare predict.
Michelle Vigen Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Adapted from Bush Fellow Michelle Vigen's blog, Common Spark: a simple (if not easy) process to help organizations turn the good ideas and information with which we're inundated--why we should recycle, bike, eat better, revive citizenship, you name it--into real changes of habit and life.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, March 21, 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 cabaret showcase that will bring together some of the city's A-list avant-garde performers in what promise to be gorgeously twisted takes on our politico-sexual status quo.
Dan Heilman Wednesday, March 14, 2012
When the economic downturn derailed plans for a U of M North Minneapolis campus, university and civic visionaries created a unique alternative: a Northside research and outreach center that's the hub for a whole galaxy of town-gown partnerships in economic development and social betterment.
Camille LeFevre Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Native American trail, gaudy entertainment district, forge of gay consciousness, showcase of the arts: Minneapolis' Hennepin Avenue has been all of these and more. Recently, historians, urbanists, and the public gathered to explore the avenue's colorful history as part of the city's initiative to shape its future.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, March 14, 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 visit from an old friend, a lunch on Mears Park, and a film about an ancient pilgrim route produce a Spanish-accented take on Twin Cities cosmopolitanism.
Julie Kendrick Wednesday, March 07, 2012
BeNeighbors.org, is an online forum that connects people who live near each other to build community and tackle real issues. With a brand-new grant, it's adding Saint Paul neighborhoods to its ambitious goal of getting everybody talking. Can the city become a national leader in "digital inclusion?"
Jon Spayde Wednesday, March 07, 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, I note the unusual Facebook alert I received the other day: In Saint Paul on Saturday, March 10, there's going to be a poetry reading in a wholesale bakery.
Holly Dolezalek Wednesday, March 07, 2012
This concept-contest, with a deadline later this month, not only rewards great ideas for a better Minnesota--it helps make them happen. This year's theme: connecting across cultures and faiths as the state becomes less white, less Lutheran, less Lake Wobegon.
Anna Pratt Wednesday, February 29, 2012
A far-seeing developer and an innovative culinary artist are turning a hard-luck Minneapolis intersection around with present and future projects that are "artisan, local, sustainable."
eluko79 Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Capturing hundreds of sequential Street View images from Google Maps using ScreenHunter software, then stitching them together and time-lapsing them in Windows Movie Maker, the peripatetic highway videographer who goes by the YouTube handle eluko79 has created a real-but-virtual photographic journey into the heart of the city.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, February 29, 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: Carlyle Brown's American Family opens at Saint Paul's Park Square Theatre in mid-March. It's the nationally acclaimed, locally based playwright's first attempt to explore the black experience through a white central character. And it will also mark Brown's first appearance onstage at Park Square.