Regionalism : Buzz

St. Paul-based public-private partnership Connect Minnesota recently released data from a series of residential technology assessments in the state, and found that approximately 2.1 million adults use the Internet on their cell phones or subscribe to a mobile wireless service for a laptop or tablet computer. That usage represents 51 percent of Minnesota's adult residents.
 
The survey was conducted to support the organization's efforts to close Minnesota's digital gap. Connect Minnesota explores the barriers to broadband adoption among various demographics as a way to boost more Internet usage.
 
Connect Minnesota State Program Manager Bill Hoffman noted that the research shows that mobile broadband plays an ever-increasing role in how Minnesotans get online. A previous study showed that only 39 percent of the state's adults used a mobile Internet service.
 
"As we look ahead, I think mobile broadband will continue to be an integral part of Minnesota's broadband landscape," Hoffman stated.

In a recent MarketWatch section, The Wall Street Journal named the best U.S. airports for business travelers, and Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport made the list of favorites.
 
Coming in at number four out of ten, the airport was singled out for its WiFi, a fitness walking patch, postal services, and FedEx availability. The newspaper also appreciated the soothing vibe of the airport, which features quiet seating areas for reading and resting, as well as meditation. Business travelers are also likely to appreciate the airport's massage chairs, shoeshine stations, and luggage delivery services.
 
The Journal's top pick for business travelers was Atlanta's airport, thanks to its "minute suites" that allow travelers to nap or watch TV during long layovers. The airport also has four Brookstone stores, a currency exchange, and a spa. Rounding out the top three were Chicago O'Hare and Dallas/Fort Worth.

Two Minneapolis authors recently won National Book Awards, a prestigious designation that highlights the rich literary culture in the state.
 
Louise Erdrich won for her novel "The Round House" and William Alexander won for his debut young adult novel, "Goblin Secrets." As noted in The New York Times, Erdrich's book centers around a teenage boy's effort to investigate an attack on his mother on a North Dakota reservation.
 
Speaking to the newspaper, Erdrich said the novel is about a huge case of injustice, and focuses on the violence that can happen on reservations. The Times adds that in her acceptance speech, the author noted: “If this prize means anything, it is that small stories in so-called hidden places matter because they implicate and complicate what we consider to be the larger story, which is the story of people who do have political and economic powers.”

Grand View Lodge is among the top resorts in the Midwest, according to a recent round of Readers' Choice Awards from Condé Nast Traveler.
 
Located in the Brainerd Lakes area, the resort came in at No. 4, and was the only Minnesota resort on the list. Topping the list was the Osthoff Resort in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, which beat out Grand View Lodge by only about two percentage points.
 
The lodge, opened in 1916, sits on Gull Lake and features cottages, cabins, and a spacious main lodge, all with a log-cabin, Northwoods feel. The lodge also features a spa, championship golf course, and several restaurants.

Businessweek released a list of "America's 50 Best Cities," and St. Paul and Minneapolis came in at no. 10 and no. 12 respectively.
 
"St. Paul may be the smaller of the Twin Cities, but the state capital is also cleaner and safer, if slightly behind Minneapolis in median household income," the business publication notes.
 
Minneapolis, meanwhile, is recognized for its parks and lakes, as well as the University of Minnesota's numerous national championships in ice hockey. The article states, "Downtown Minneapolis beats the cold with a unique network of connected buildings, with the City Center mall at its core."
 
As for the best cities in the rest of the country, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. took the top three spots.
 
To get the results, Businessweek teamed up with Bloomberg Rankings to evaluate data on 100 of the country's largest cities, and looked at leisure attributes, educational attributes, economic factors, crime, and air quality.

Renowned urban expert Charles Landry recently spent time in Minneapolis and St. Paul, and shared numerous thoughts on how citizens and developers could make the area into a world-class region.
 
As noted in a recent article in MinnPost, Landry spoke with more than 1,000 people during his seven-day visit, and gave advice on how to increase appreciation for diversity, view community projects in a broader context, and rally behind small-scale efforts.
 
Writing about Landry in MinnPost, Erik Takeshita noted that the Twin Cities show up on many national "Top 10" lists, but that we shouldn't get complacent. "So, as we bask in the glory of national kudos for best this and best that, let's rededicate ourselves to making sure Minneapolis-St. Paul continues to have a place high on those lists for many years to come," he wrote.
 
For more on Landry's visit to the metro and his insights on our urban landscape, check out Camille LeFevre's recent article in The Line.

A new study puts Minneapolis-St. Paul into a list of the five top cities for women residents.
 
The research was done as part of a project, "Measure of America," from the Social Science Research Council. The study compared factors such as differences in women's education levels, marital status, life expectancy, and earnings.
 
Washington, D.C., earned the highest ranking, with San Francisco, Boston, and New York City rounding out the top five.

Minneapolis and St. Paul residents are adept at staying young, according to a ranking by the Real Age website.
 
The site lists the Twin Cities at number four on its list, noting that we're best at eating whole grains, defeating stress, and getting adequate sleep and vitamin D.
 
Top cities were determined using a number of factors, including lifestyle choices, exercise, and diet. San Francisco topped the list, coming in first for its significant fruit and vegetable consumption, low smoking rates, and high exercise statistics.

Among more than 400 metro areas, the Twin Cities ranks 37th for average annual worker pay. The analysis comes via the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which noted that workers in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area earn an average of  $49,140 annually.
 
The San Jose metro area ranked first for worker pay, at an average of $67,850, followed by the San Francisco-San Mateo area, where salaries average $63,290.
 
The rankings were reported in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, which noted that within Minnesota, Rochester ranked second, followed by Duluth, St. Cloud, and Mankato.

Business website 24/7 Wall St. issued its annual report on how well America's 50 states are run, and Minnesota came in fourth, just behind Wyoming, Nebraska, and North Dakota.
 
The site reviewed data on financial health, standard of living, and government services to determine how well each state is managed. Based on that information, 24/7 ranked the states from best to worst.
 
Minnesota moved up one place in this year's rankings due to improvement in several categories, including violent crime rate and health insurance coverage.
 
Admitting that the comparison was a challenge because of the unique characteristics of each state, the site did note that, even given the differences, states can do a great deal to control their fate. The editors write, "Well-run states have a great deal in common with well-run corporations. Books are kept balanced. Investment is prudent. Debt is sustainable. Innovation is prized."

According to the 2012 Minnesota Manufacturers Register, an industrial directory published annually by Manufacturers' News, the state lost less than one percent of manufacturing jobs from October 2010 to October 2011.
 
Publisher Tom Dubin noted that the economic recovery is gaining momentum in Minnesota, and added that the state's educated workforce and solid infrastructure have been a draw for a variety of enterprises.
 
Bright spots in the past year have include the opening of a tractor plant in Jackson, the expansion of an ethanol plant in Welcome, and the expansion of a pet litter production facility in Detroit Lakes.

A recent survey of major metropolitan areas found that Minneapolis and St. Paul are the best in the nation when it comes to senior living. The cities were rated based on nine categories that are key to seniors' quality of life: healthcare, transportation, housing, social opportunities, crime, environment, economy, health and longevity, and spiritual life.
 
Ranked by Bankers Life and Casualty Company Center for a Secure Retirement, the other cities in the top five were Boston, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Denver. At the bottom of the list of 25 cities were Washington D.C., Austin, and Chicago.
 
In awarding the Twin Cities the top spot, the organization noted: "Seniors gravitate to Minneapolis-St. Paul for Minnesota's progressive medical insurance program and for proximity to the Rochester, MN-based Mayo Clinic; factors that contribute to the region's high scores for life expectancy and healthcare." 

In a recent review of Insiders’ Guide to Twin Cities by local author Jay Gabler, the librarian/blogger known as ricklibrarian talks about spending hours with the book before coming to the Twin Cities.

In previous visits to the area, “I only had a limited amount of time to see the sites and saw just enough to know I wanted to see more. So I enjoyed the well-organized and frequently updated Insiders’ Guide,” he states in the post.  

The book helped him to compile a list of must-see sites, including Minnehaha Falls, Open Book, the state capitol, Como Zoo, local art museums, and more.

He sums up by saying, “There is enough in the Twin Cities for several trips. Perhaps I should read Gabler's chapter on relocating to the great Midwestern metropolitan area. I'd love to go to Twins games regularly no matter where they are in the standings and have my picture taken on Kirby Puckett Lane. I hope the weather is fair.”

Agriculture site Agweek recently profiled Gordon Frederickson, a Minnesota author who's written a number of illustrated books that celebrate his family's small farm in the 1950s.
 
Published by Beaver's Pond Press in Edina, the books highlight Frederickson's experience of growing up on a dairy farm in New Prague.  The author believes that it's there he learned lessons like the benefits of teamwork and the importance of physical activity.
 
As noted in Agweek, Fredrickson says that too often, agriculture is portrayed to the public as "a petting zoo," and his aim is to provide a broader view of farm life.

A study of 361 metro areas gives the Twin Cities a third-place ranking for its resilience. Rochester, Minn., and Bismarck, N.D. top the list, according to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.

The Business Journal states that according to the study "there is no place better than the Upper Midwest at bouncing back from financial, natural or other disasters."

Cities in Texas and California were at the bottom of the list, whixh came out of the University at Buffalo Regional Institute.

Factors in the Resilience Capacity Index included voter participation, home ownership, economic diversity and income levels, the Business Journal reports.

Minnesota now ranks 7th in CNBC's annual ranking of the top places to do business.

For the past five years, the news firm has ranked all 50 states based on categories such as cost of doing business, workforce, transportation and infrastructure, education, access to capital, and quality of life.

Minnesota improved its rankings for cost of doing business and access to capital, and came in 8th for its quality of life. The state came out ahead of Iowa and Nebraska, which also placed in the top 10.

Overall, Virginia was the highest-ranked state, and Rhode Island was the lowest-ranked.

Saint Paul beat out hundreds of competitors to become a "top 10 city" for its quality of life and business-friendly environment.

The rankings were put together by FDi Intelligence, a division of the Financial Times Ltd., which tracks global business and investment trends.

The Cities of the Future process compares over 400 cities in North and South America, examining economic potential, human resources, cost effectiveness, quality of life, infrastructure, and business-friendliness.

In a comment on the Financial Times results, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman cited significant infrastructure investments like the Central Corridor Light Rail Line as well as a revitalized bar and restaurant scene in Lowertown. He noted, "[W]e are focused on making Saint Paul a destination for living, working and playing."

When it comes to global warming, the Twin Cities is more resilient than other U.S. cities.

In response to the Resilient Cities 2011 Conference and Grist.org's list of the 10 most "climate-ready" cities, Nature Conservancy blogger Jeff Opperman compiled his own ranking of cities and climate change that addresses "how vulnerable or resilient a city is to climate change based on the city's environmental context," writes Opperman.

While Minneapolis did not appear on the Grist list, we were number five in terms of the "most resilient/least vulnerable" to climate change, behind Cleveland, Milwaukee, Detroit, and Chicago.

"Rust Belt" cities rank high for their sustainable water supply (like the Great Lakes), low heat-stress rankings, and low vulnerability to natural disasters, he writes. 

The Republic, a newspaper in Columbus, Indiana, recently published an Associated Press story about a celebratory bike ride from Minneapolis and St. Paul mayors R.T. Rybak and Chris Coleman.

The two mayors jointly participated in their cities' Nice Ride public bike-sharing program.

Along with a number of other local bicyclists, the mayors started pedaling at the Seward Coop in Minneapolis and ended at a St. Paul Dunn Bros coffee shop.

Their ride was a nod to the program's expansion, which involves adding another 43 bike stations to its 73 in Minneapolis last year. This time around, the bike stations are popping up in both cities. 

Proponents of such bike-sharing programs say that they can "help cut down on obesity, traffic jams and auto emissions," the story states.

Travel and Leisure magazines gives the Twin Cities high marks for cleanliness. The Twin Cities come in second nationwide, just after Salt Lake City, Utah and before Portland, Ore., out of a handful of U.S. cities. 

New York City is on the opposite end of things, according to the magazine's survey, which separately looks at various quality of life factors. 

City Pages has a piece about the distinction that mentions that Travel and Leisure's readership determined the rankings.

How much trash a city seems to have had a lot to do with the results, it states.

"A hipster is just a Brooklynite who wishes they were from Minnesota because it's 'more real,' while genuine Minnesotans are exempt from the label," writes Chris Menning in Buzzfeed on "the most hipster state in the U.S."

They are strong words, stated tongue-in-cheek and a with a good amount of data behind them: Menning cites the frequency of regional searches for the term "hipster," and he backs up Minnesota's crowning with our "lumberjack look," thriving theater scene, plethora of co-ops and farmer's markets, favorite musical sons (from Dylan to Atmosphere), bike-city status, and the movie Juno.

A group of five students from Normandale Community College in Bloomington embarked on a road trip March 31 with a modest plan: save Detroit, writes Christine MacDonald in the Detroit News.

The plan, which came out of an assignment for a city politics class, involves "rebuild[ing] from the core," increasing the size of Wayne State University, and making it an "education epicenter," with Midtown Detroit modeled after Dinkytown, according to the article.

Calling Detroit a "laboratory for urban reformers," MacDonald notes that the five students are not the only ones bringing their visions to the motor city: The American Assembly public policy forum will "discuss proposals" there April 14–17.

Corporate Responsibility Magazine (CRM) has released its 100 Best Corporate Citizens List for 2011.

Six of the 100 companies listed are from Minnesota, including number-three ranked General Mills, Inc.

The list is compiled using publicly available data in seven categories: climate change, employee relations, environment, financial, governance, human rights, and philanthropy.

The six Minnesota companies included are (ranking in parentheses):

General Mills, Inc (3)
Xcel Energy, Inc. (30)
3M Co. (32)
Hormel Foods Corp (40)
Mosaic Company (45)
Medtronic, Inc. (77)

The list includes a "yellow card" category for companies that appear on the list "despite some self-caused reputational damage," according to CRM--usually a "pending or completed administrative or official legal sanction."

Minnesota was represented in this arena as well; CRM notes a December 2010 suit filed against 3M by the State of Minnesota "for contaminating the state's waters."

When it comes to public transportation, the Twin Cities are working hard to improve options, according to U.S. News and World Report.

In its recently compiled list of top ten U.S. cities for public transportation, the Twin Cities came in fifth place, after Boston and ahead of San Francisco. Portland topped the list.  

The Twin Cities made the list in part for its work on the Central Corridor Light Rail line that will link Minneapolis and St. Paul. It'll build on the already-existing Hiawatha Light Rail line that brings people between downtown Minneapolis and the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Also noteworthy is its Northstar Commuter Rail that runs between downtown Minneapolis and the northwestern suburbs.  

Last year ridership increased 2.3 percent. 
 

In a recent column in the Huffington Post, local author Jay Walljasper describes winter bike-riding in the Twin Cities while also providing some practical tips for others who want to do the same. 

For Walljasper, winter biking is good exercise and it provides a "mental lift that comes from feeling the wind in my face and blood pumping through my body," he says.

He's not alone. Information from Bike Walk Twin Cities, he says, shows that 36 percent of summer bike commuters persist on "clear, warm winter days," while 20 percent brave the elements even when it's cold and snowy. 
 
For others looking to start winter biking, he suggests investing in a good light and snow tires and wearing layers, among other things.  

Dave Van Hattum, who is the policy and advocacy program manager at Transit for Livable Communities and Jim Erkel, the land use and transportation program director at the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, co-wrote a recent Star Tribune editorial urging the Twin Cities to pull together as a region to stay competitive.  

Van Huttum and Erkel, along with Ann Canby of the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership, are the authors of a report about regional governance titled "Planning to Succeed?"

In their editorial, they state: "Today, we hear from some quarters that we don't need a strong regional vision, that local control is the key to success." They argue that that kind of thinking could put the metro area behind others across the country while also shortchanging its ability to respond to changing needs.

The market is shifting to more walkable, transit-friendly neighborhoods. "To compete with other regions, we need to ensure that the money we spend on transit, roads, airports, and sewers maximizes efficiency."  

While the Twin Cities' population declined in the early 2000s, it's been steadily increasing in recent years, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reports.

For starters, both cities have attracted more residents over the past year: Minneapolis went from 385,378 to 388,123 while St. Paul increased from 281,253 to 282,038, the article states, citing data from its sister company, Buffalo Business First. 

Those figures appear to be part of a longer-term trend for incremental growth in the urban areas. Since 2004, Minneapolis has gained over 10,000 city dwellers. And, across the river, the population has been on the rise since 2006, when it had 276,237 inhabitants.

What constitutes local food in the Twin Cities? Lenny Russo, "a de facto leader in the local and sustainable food movement," argues at his Star Tribune's Your Voices blog that it's not as restrictive as farmer's markets might have it, nor as broad as California growers want:

"Heartland is a Midwestern regional restaurant , and as such its food shelf extends as far east as Ohio, south to Missouri west to the Dakotas, Kansas and Nebraska and north to Canada and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  In other words, we draw products from the entire Midwestern portion of North America. While the vast majority of our ingredients are sourced within a 200 mile radius of the restaurant, there are some who would not consider much of what we serve to be local food. We certainly wouldn't pass muster with the St. Paul Farmers' Market whose members define local food as that which is grown and produced within 75 miles of the market."

Read the entire article here.

St. Paul topped a new list as the city where residents enjoy the fastest Internet speeds in the nation. Minneapolis came in seventh. But the Star Tribune reports there are local skeptics:

"Ookla, a well-known Seattle company that measures the speed of Internet connections, says St. Paul has recently become No. 1 in the nation in residential Internet download speeds. Minneapolis is no slouch either, coming in seventh in the current Net Index report.

"But some local experts say Ookla's numbers are questionable. They point out that 18 months ago the state-sponsored Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force found that average residential broadband speeds in Ramsey and Hennepin counties averaged 6 million to 10 million bits per second, also called megabits.

"But Ookla's average speeds -- 14.5 megabits in St. Paul and 12.3 in Minneapolis -- were significantly higher."

Read the rest of the article here.

It started as a one-room school house before Warren Burger's grandfather expanded it into a humble residence. The future chief justice of the United States Supreme Court lived there from the time he was seven years old, sleeping on the porch. Now the house on the East Side of St. Paul stands vacant, but there's an effort afoot to give it its due, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports:

"Local preservationists hope someone steps forward to buy it and prevent further deterioration.

"'I kind of thought some attorney might want to live in the home that Warren Burger was in,' Trimble said.

"'Someone from such a simple house on the East Side of St. Paul rose to such prestige and power,' said Matt Mazanec, a member of the St. Paul Heritage Preservation Commission. 'It is such an important structure. We want to make sure it's available for future generations.'

"But at least some people in the area don't see it as much of a landmark.

"'Who's Warren Burger?' said Cindy Rowan, who lives across the street from the house.

"Things turned out differently for the Minnesota childhood homes of Judy Garland, Charles Lindbergh, Sinclair Lewis, Wanda Gag and Maud Hart Lovelace. They're all museum sites.

"Typically, that has happened because local fans decided the place where their hero carved his initials in the woodwork deserved to be enshrined and they found a way to raise the money to do it."

Read the full article here.

The big question in Showtime's new TV series "The Big C" is how actor Laura Linney, in her role as a Minneapolis school teacher, deals with her cancer. A separate, less momentous question is whether the series, filmed in Connecticut at Linney's insistence, can capture the Twin Cities' vibe without its environment. Neal Justin in the Star Tribune seems to think it can:

"The show's creator, Darlene Hunt--a veteran sitcom actress who hails from Kentucky--has spent considerable time in Minneapolis, where her husband's sister lives, and thought it would be an ideal setting.

"'It had to be a city with distinct seasons, because it's about a woman going through the seasons of life. Setting it in L.A. definitely wouldn't do it,' said Hunt.

"She plans each 13-episode season of the series to reflect one of the four seasons, starting with summer. Producers won't say which town they used as a model, but think Edina, or St. Paul. ...

"'The first day I was there, I didn't quite have my bearings, said Linney, who had never been to the Twin Cities. 'But the second and third day I realized, Oh, this is a very, very cool place. The arts are so prominent and, for someone like me, that made my heart sing.

"'I really got a sense of how the city interacts with nature in ways you don't think it's going to, in terms of walking, running, boating and how the lakes and land interact with each other.' ...

"The show has some quintessential Minnesota touches, including an episode that revolves around Cathy trying to get someone to share a bicycle-built-for-two and a Scandinavian neighbor who guards her privacy."

But Minneapolis native Jessica Flint, writing in Vanity Fair, doesn't see it:

"The houses, restaurants, and cityscapes that appear in the show feel like something straight out of suburban Stamford, Connecticut--which, it turns out, is where 'The Big C' was filmed."

Read the entire Star Tribune article here.
Read the entire Vanity Fair article here.

The Financial Times of London went looking for people struggling to achieve the American Dream and found Mark and Connie Freeman of Minneapolis. It's not a buoyant piece, but the Freemans are both employed, their house is worth more than they paid for it, and their refrigerator magnets are funny in an off-color way even if they aren't made by Minneapolis' own Magnetic Poetry.

"Every now and then the Freemans invite their neighbours round to their front porch, to watch the world go by, drink beer and eat Connie's justly renowned dish of ­Minnesota wild rice. In the best American spirit, Mark and Connie are active neighbourhood people. They are the types who shovel your snow, volunteer for school events, and coach the baseball little league--Mark has done all three.

"It takes optimism to be like this. But in the past few years the Freemans have been running low on it. 'I guess the penny dropped in the last 18 months when we finally realised that it's always going to be like this--we are never going to be able to retire on our savings,' says Connie."

Read the full article here.

A proposed fee on new development in Minneapolis dedicated to funding parks appears to be on course to adoption this fall, according to the Southwest Journal. Discord between the park board and city council over the fee has been repaired, and the fee reduced:

"With some exceptions, the ordinance would require developers to create parks on new project sites or pay a fee for the creation or enhancement of nearby green space. The ordinance, similar to those used in many metro-area suburbs to develop new parkland, is meant to help the financially strapped Park Board meet the outdoor needs of the city's population as it grows....

"Fee collections would be placed in a special Park Board-managed fund and used solely for the acquisition, development and improvement of green space and park connections within the neighborhood the development is in or an adjacent neighborhood within a half-mile radius. 
 
"'The challenge is we are in very difficult financial times and any additional costs you want to make sure that they're not so great that they would limit any new development,' Erwin said. 'But the Park Board wanted to make sure that the support was enough that they could actually do something.'

"Developers of affordable housing projects would be exempt from the ordinance ..."

Read the full article here.

MPR takes note of a study by economists at Ohio State University who closely examined Baldwin, Minn. to measure the health of exurban sprawl in America. Is the phenomenon dead as a doornail at a vacant McMansion? Or just sleeping the deep sleep of an overdeveloped bedroom community? Perhaps a new concept, like agriburbia, will bring it back:

"As the demographics of households in the U.S. continues to shift from those with children--69 percent in 1990 (U.S. census records)--to those without children--60 percent in 2008--the priorities of home-buyers begin to change.

"This analysis of the 2000 census shows a clear shift: over 80% of downtown city populations are composed of non-families and families without children while the same demographic groups make up just over 60 percent of the suburbs. This shift to cities will reduce demand for exurban development.

"However, other factors will continue to increase demand, the researchers found.

"High gas prices have recently slowed exurban development, but improvements in fuel efficiency and public transport, as well as technology improvements that make working remotely possible, will create opportunities for people to live further from cities in the future, the researchers say.

"It is possible that companies will begin to create clusters of suburban or exurban remote work-sites as technology improvements continue."

Read the full article here.

Money magazine has named Eden Prairie the nation's Best Place to Live in 2010. (And, hey, if we're all about regionalism these days, that means we can count this as a victory for the entire Twin Cities, right?)

Here's what Money has to say:

"Why is Eden Prairie No. 1 this year? Not only is it family-friendly, it has a dynamite economy too. At 5.1%, its unemployment rate is nearly one percentage point below the county rate and more than four points below the national average. It helps when you've got 50,000 jobs right in town."

The publication notes the city's perfect bond rating, it's miles of trails, and major employers, including C.H. Robinson, Starkey Labs, and the Minnesota Vikings.

Eagan, Plymouth, Woodbury and Apple Valley were also in the Top 25.

Read the entire Money report here.

In the 1930s, Larpenteur Avenue on St. Paul's northern border was the favored getaway route for bank robbers seeking sanctuary in the Saintly City. Now a different kind of conspiracy--crop mobs of urbanites looking for a chance to dig in the dirt--is finding what it needs along the same road, on the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus. The Twin Cities Daily Planet explains:

"Though sustainable small-scale farming may be seen as a return to low-tech methods of growing food, Anderson is organizing Crop Mobs using very contemporary mediums. One third of Saturday's volunteers signed up through his Fair Food Fight  website or follow his Twitter feed, Anderson said, another third came through the Twin Cities Crop Mob page on Facebook, and the rest were students.

"Fair Food Fight started as an online blog and conversation sponsored by Equal Exchange, an employee owned cooperative committed to fair trade relationships with farmers for crops like coffee and chocolate. River Cook, an Equal Exchange sales representative who participated Saturday, said that Fair Food Fight and the Crop Mobs are 'our way of making a local connection to the work we've done internationally.'

"After cleaning up, the Cornercopia Crop Mob air-dried while eating lunch donated by the University of Minnesota's Campus Club in a classroom. The mostly urban twenty- and thirty-something volunteers filled up tables and talked with those around them. Conversations ranged from the mainstreaming of organic products to farming experiences and plans to attend future Crop Mobs."

Read the full article here.

According to Business Week, the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area has the ninth most improved housing market in the nation:

"The Twin Cities area, which has a low 6.8 percent unemployment rate, is more stable now than it has been in years. Prices in the Minneapolis area started to rise in 2010 after falling for 41 consecutive months, reported the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors, signaling that prices have already reached bottom."

Read the full article here.

New York Times media columnist David Carr, himself a veteran of the Twin Cities media scene, takes a look at Minneapolis-based MinnPost as an example of online news experiments taking root in several cities across the country. Carr notes that MinnPost employs the equivalent of 18 full-time workers with an operating budget of $1.1 million drawn from diverse sources: advertisers, investors, members, sponsors, foundations and donors at fundraising events.

"The trends are impressive, even if the numbers sound more like a successful taco stand than a big news operation. Of course, like many other nonprofit news sites, MinnPost is taking advantage of one of the upsides of the downsides: many skilled journalists with years of expertise are on the loose and looking for a way to continue to avoid getting a real job.

"Doug Grow, a columnist at The Star Tribune for 20 years, has retired, but now finds himself filing as much as six or seven times a week for MinnPost.

"'We don't have enough staff to have any meetings, we can write with a point of view, which is wonderful, and the psychic rewards are enormous,' he said. And the money part? 'I worry about that. They haven't crossed the line in being able to sustain young reporters in the middle of their careers.'"

Read the full story here.
Source: The New York Times