Minneapolis

Minneapolis (/ˌ m ɪ n i ˈ æ p əl ɪ s / ( listen ) ) is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Hennepin County. Abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls, Minneapolis had its origins in timber and as the flour milling capital of the world. It lies along both banks of the Mississippi River and adjoins Saint Paul, the state capital of Minnesota.

The city, inhabited by the Dakota Sioux prior to settlement, got its start due to the construction of Fort Snelling in 1819 eventually spurring growth along Saint Anthony Falls. With 429,954 inhabitants as of 2020, Minneapolis is the most populous city in the state and the 46th most populous city in the nation. Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and the surrounding area are collectively known as the Twin Cities.

Minneapolis has one of the nation's best park systems, and many of these parks are connected by the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway. Biking and walking trails, some of which follow old railroad lines, run through many parts of the city, such as the historic Mill District by Saint Anthony Falls and around the lakes of the Lowry Hill area. Minneapolis has cold, snowy winters and humid summers. Some large corporations have their main headquarters in Minneapolis. The city is home to the Guthrie Theater as well as the First Avenue nightclub. Minneapolis is also the host to four professional sports teams.

The main campus of the University of Minnesota is in the city limits along with a few other institutions of higher learning. The downtown area of Minneapolis is served by a light rail system. The city has some highly rated hospitals.

Minneapolis has been a Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) stronghold for 50 years. The city uses a mayor council government system. Jacob Frey (DFL) has been mayor since 2018. The May 2020 murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by Derek Chauvin, a White officer of the Minneapolis Police Department in the city provoked global protests, arousing national and international attention on Minneapolis and racism.

Prior to European contact, the Dakota Sioux were the region's sole residents. In Dakota, the city's name is Bdeóta Othúŋwe ('Many Lakes City').[6]

The French explored the region in 1680. Gradually, more European-American settlers arrived, competing for game and other resources with the Native Americans. Following the Revolutionary War, the 1783 Treaty of Paris made British land east of the Mississippi River part of the United States.[7] In 1803, the US acquired land to the west of the river from France in the Louisiana Purchase.

Fort Snelling was built in 1819 by the US Army at the southern edge of present-day Minneapolis[8] to direct Indian trade away from the British-Canadian traders, and to deter warring between the Dakota and Ojibwe in northern Minnesota.[9] The fort attracted traders, settlers and merchants, spurring growth in the surrounding region. At the fort, agents of the St. Peters Indian Agency enforced the US policy of assimilating Native Americans into European-American society, encouraging them to give up subsistence hunting and to plow for cultivation.[10] Missionaries encouraged them to change their religion to Christianity.[10]

The US government pressed the Dakota to sell their land, which they ceded in a succession of treaties negotiated by corrupt officials.[11] In the decades following the signings of these treaties, their terms were rarely honored.[12] During the Civil War, officials plundered annuities promised to Native Americans, leading to famine among the Dakota.[13] Facing starvation,[14] in 1862 a faction of the Dakota declared war and massacred settlers. The Dakota were interned and exiled from Minnesota.[15]

Outwitting the fort's commandant, Franklin Steele laid his claim on the east bank of Saint Anthony Falls,[9] and John H. Stevens built his home on the west bank.[16] Residents had divergent ideas on names for their community. In 1852, the city's first schoolmaster, Charles Hoag, proposed Minnehapolis, with a silent h, combining the Dakota word for "waterfall", Mníȟaȟa,[6] and the Greek word for "city", polis , which became Minneapolis, meaning 'city of the falls'. The Minnesota Territorial Legislature authorized Minneapolis as a town in 1856, on the Mississippi's west bank.[17] Minneapolis incorporated as a city in 1867 and later joined with the east-bank city of St. Anthony in 1872.[18]

Minneapolis developed around the power source of Saint Anthony Falls, the highest waterfall on the Mississippi River. A lumber industry was built around forests in northern Minnesota, and seventeen sawmills operated on power from the waterfall. By 1871, the west river bank had 23 businesses, including flour mills, woolen mills, iron works, a railroad machine shop, and mills for cotton, paper, sashes, and planing wood.[19] Due to the occupational hazards of milling, six competitors manufactured artificial limbs by the 1890s.[20] Grain grown in the Great Plains was shipped by rail to the city's 34 flour mills. A 1989 Minnesota Archaeological Society analysis of the Minneapolis riverfront described the use of hydropower in Minneapolis between 1880 and 1930 as "the greatest direct-drive waterpower center the world has ever seen".[21] Minneapolis led the world in flour milling for 50 years.[21]

A father of modern milling in America and founder of what became General Mills, Cadwallader C. Washburn, revolutionized his business from gristmills to "gradual reduction" by steel and porcelain roller mills capable of producing premium-quality pure white flour very quickly.[22][23] Some ideas were developed by William Dixon Gray[24] and some say[who? ] they were acquired through industrial espionage from Hungary by William de la Barre.[23] Charles A. Pillsbury and the C.A. Pillsbury Company across the river were barely a step behind, hiring Washburn employees to immediately use the new methods.[23] The hard red spring wheat grown in Minnesota became valuable ($0.50 profit per barrel in 1871 increased to $4.50 in 1874),[22] and Minnesota "patent" flour was recognized at the time as the best in the world.[23] Later consumers discovered the value in the bran that "... Minneapolis flour millers routinely dumped" into the Mississippi.[25]

A single mill at Washburn-Crosby could make flour for 12 million loaves of bread each day,[26] and by 1900, 14 percent of America's grain was milled in Minneapolis.[22][23] By 1895, through the efforts of silent partner William Hood Dunwoody, Washburn-Crosby exported four million barrels of flour a year to the United Kingdom.[27] When exports reached their peak in 1900, about one third of all flour milled in Minneapolis was shipped overseas.[27]

The city made changes to rectify discrimination against unmarried women in 1886 when Martha Ripley founded Maternity Hospital for both married and unmarried mothers.[28] Known initially as a kindly physician, mayor Doc Ames made his brother police chief, ran the city into corruption, and tried to leave town in 1902.[29] Lincoln Steffens published Ames' story in "The Shame of Minneapolis" in 1903.[30] The gangster Kid Cann engaged in bribery and intimidation from the 1920s until the 1940s.[31]

Bigotry during the early 20th century presented in several ways. In 1910, a Minneapolis developer wrote restrictive covenants based on race and ethnicity into his deeds. Copied by other developers, the practice prevented Asian and African Americans from owning or leasing certain properties. Though such language was prohibited by state law in 1953 and by the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968, restrictive covenants against minorities remained in many Minneapolis deeds as recently as 2021, when the city gave residents a means to remove them.[32][33] The Ku Klux Klan succeeded by entering family life, but effectively was a force in the city only from 1921 until 1923.[34] After Minnesota passed a eugenics law in 1925, the proprietors of Eitel Hospital sterilized about one thousand people at the Faribault State Hospital to the south of Minneapolis.[35]

From the end of World War I until 1950, Minneapolis was a site of corrosive antisemitism—Carey McWilliams called the city the anti-Semitic capital of the United States.[36] A hate group called the Silver Legion of America held meetings in the city around 1936 to 1938.[37] Mount Sinai Hospital opened in 1948 as the community's first hospital to accept members of minority races and religions on its staff.[38][37]

When the country's fortunes turned during the Great Depression, the violent Teamsters Strike of 1934 led to laws acknowledging workers' rights.[39] Mayor Hubert Humphrey helped the city establish fair employment practices and a human relations council that interceded on behalf of minorities by 1946.[40] In the 1950s, less than two percent of the population was non-White.[41] In 1966–1967, years of significant turmoil across the US, bottled-up anger in the black population was released in two disturbances on Plymouth Avenue.[42] A coalition was able to reach a peaceful outcome but failed to solve black poverty and unemployment; a law and order candidate became mayor.[43] Minneapolis contended with White supremacy, participated in desegregation and the civil rights movement; in 1968, it was the birthplace of the American Indian Movement.[44]

Between 1958 and 1963, as part of urban renewal in America,[45] the city razed roughly 40 percent of downtown, destroying the Gateway District and its significant architecture, including the Metropolitan Building. Efforts to save the building failed but sparked interest in historic preservation.[46]

Video captured the May 25, 2020 murder of George Floyd, an African-American man, by a White Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin who knelt on Floyd's neck and back for more than nine minutes while he struggled to breathe and died. The incident sparked national unrest, riots, and mass protests.[47] Local protests and riots resulted in extraordinary levels of property damage in Minneapolis,[48] including of a police station that was overrun by demonstrators and set on fire.[49] The Twin Cities experienced prolonged unrest from 2020 to 2022 over racial injustice.[50]

The history and economic growth of Minneapolis are tied to water, the city's defining physical characteristic. Long periods of glaciation and interglacial melt carved several riverbeds through what is now Minneapolis.[52] During the last glacial period around ten thousand years ago, ice buried in these ancient river channels melted, resulting in basins that would fill with water to become the lakes of Minneapolis.[52] The glacial River Warren, fed by the meltwater of Lake Agassiz, created a large waterfall in what is now downtown Saint Paul that eroded upriver past the confluence of the Mississippi River, where it left a 75-foot (23 m) drop in the Mississippi.[53] The new waterfall, later called Saint Anthony Falls, in turn eroded up the Mississippi about eight miles (13 km) to its present location, carving the Mississippi River gorge as it moved upstream; Minnehaha Falls also developed during this period via similar processes.[53][52]

Lying on an artesian aquifer[54] and flat terrain, Minneapolis has a total area of 59 square miles (152.8 km2) and of this six percent is water.[55] Water supply is managed by four watershed districts that correspond to the Mississippi and the city's three creeks.[56] Thirteen lakes, three large ponds, and five unnamed wetlands are within Minneapolis.[56]

A 1959 report by the U.S. Soil Conservation Service listed Minneapolis's elevation as 830 feet (250 m).[57] The city's lowest elevation of 687 feet (209 m) above sea level is near where Minnehaha Creek meets the Mississippi River.[58][59] Sources disagree on the exact location and elevation of the city's highest point, which is cited as being anywhere from 965–985 feet (294–300 m) above sea level.[a]

Minneapolis is divided into eleven communities, each containing several neighborhoods, of which there are eighty-three. In some cases, two or more neighborhoods act together under one organization. Some areas are known by nicknames of business associations.[62]

In 2018, the Minneapolis City Council voted to approve the Minneapolis 2040 Comprehensive Plan, which resulted in a city-wide end to single-family zoning. Minneapolis was the first major city in the United States to make this change.[63] At the time, 70 percent of residential land was zoned for detached single-family homes, however many of those areas had "nonconforming" buildings with more housing units. City leaders sought to increase the supply of housing so that more neighborhoods would be affordable, and decrease the effects that single family zoning had caused on racial disparities and segregation.[64] The Brookings Institution called it "a relatively rare example of success for the YIMBY agenda".[65]

In the metropolitan area, 77% of White families own their homes, compared with 25% of Black families, the largest differential for any major American city.[66] The 2019 Brookings Metro Monitor ranked Minneapolis-St. Paul 92nd out of 100 as the least racially inclusive metro area.[67] Keith Mayes of the University of Minnesota says that Black families were pushed north to the Powderhorn and Lyndale communities from south Minneapolis and that pockets live in the King Field neighborhood.[68] Racial covenants prevented Black people from buying land in residential neighborhoods.[66] Simultaneous redlining occurred in surrounding neighborhoods, and the effects remain in education, employment, and entertainment.[68]

Minneapolis experiences a hot-summer humid continental climate (Dfa in the Köppen climate classification),[70] typical of southern parts of the Upper Midwest, and is situated in USDA plant hardiness zone 4b, with small enclaves of Minneapolis classified as being zone 5a.[71][72][73] Minneapolis has cold, snowy winters and hot, humid summers. As is typical in a continental climate, the difference between average temperatures in the coldest winter month and the warmest summer month is great: 60.1 °F (33.4 °C).

According to the NOAA, the annual average for sunshine duration is 58%.[74]

Minneapolis experiences a full range of precipitation and related weather events, including snow, sleet, ice, rain, thunderstorms, and fog. The highest recorded temperature was 108 °F (42 °C) in July 1936 while the lowest was −41 °F (−41 °C) in January 1888. The snowiest winter on record was 1983–84, when 98.6 inches (250 cm) of snow fell,[75] and the least snowy winter was 1890–91, when only 11.1 inches (28 cm) fell.[76]

Dakota tribes, mostly the Mdewakanton, were permanent settlers near their sacred site St. Anthony Falls.[18] New settlers arrived during the 1850s and 1860s from New England, New York, Bohemia[84] and Canada, and, during the mid-1860s, immigrants from Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark began to call Minneapolis home. Migrant workers from Mexico and Latin America interspersed.[85] Other immigrants came from Germany, Poland, Italy, and Greece. Central European immigrants settled in the Northeast neighborhood, still known for its Czech[86] and Polish cultural heritage. Jews from Central and Eastern Europe, and Russia began arriving in the 1880s and settled primarily on the north side before moving to western suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s.[87]

Two groups came for a short while during US government relocations: Japanese during the 1940s, and Native Americans during the 1950s. In 2013, Asians were the state's fastest growing population. Chinese, Japanese and Filipinos came in the 1970s, Hmong, Lao, Cambodian and Vietnamese in the 1970s and 1980s, and people from Tibet, Burma and Thailand came in the 1990s and 2000s.[88] The population of people from India doubled by 2010.[89] After the Rust Belt economy declined during the early 1980s, Minnesota's Black population nearly tripled in less than two decades, a large fraction hailing from cities such as Chicago and Gary, Indiana.[90] Black migrants were drawn to Minneapolis (and the Greater Twin Cities) by its abundance of jobs, good schools, and relatively safe neighborhoods. Beginning in the 1990s, a sizable Latino population arrived, along with immigrants from the Horn of Africa, especially Somalia,[91] however immigration of fourteen hundred Somalis in 2016, slowed to forty eight in 2018 under President Trump.[92] As of 2019, more than 20,000 Somalis call the city home.[93] In 2015, Brookings characterized Minneapolis as a re-emerging immigrant gateway with about 10 percent foreign-born residents.[94] As of 2019, African Americans make up about one fifth of the city's population.

The US Census Bureau estimates the population of Minneapolis to be 429,606 as of 2019, a 12.3 percent increase since the 2010 census.[95] The population grew until 1950, when the census peaked at 521,718, and then declined until about 1990 as people moved to the suburbs.

Gallup reported in 2015 that the Twin Cities had an estimated LGBT adult population of 3.6%, roughly the same as the national average, and about 38th among the 50 largest metropolitan areas.[96] In line with other cities, Human Rights Campaign gave Minneapolis its highest possible score in 2019.[97]

A 2015 report found that racial and ethnic minorities in the city lagged behind White counterparts in education, with 15 percent of Blacks and 13 percent of Hispanics holding bachelor's degrees compared to 42 percent of the White population. While the standard of living is rising with incomes among the highest in the Midwest, in 2015 the median household income among minorities was below that of Whites by over $17,000 and the poverty rate gap between Blacks and Whites was the highest in the US.[98][failed verification ] A 2020 study found little change in economic racial inequality, with Minnesota ranking only above the neighboring state of Wisconsin and equal to the states of Iowa, Louisiana, and New Mexico.[99]

Despite being known for high quality of life, Minneapolis struggles with long-standing structural racism. The city has some of the country's greatest racial disparities in housing, income, healthcare, and education.[100]

Some historians have claimed that at various times, some White Minneapolitans have used discrimination based on race against the city's non-White residents. As White settlers displaced the indigenous population during the 19th century, they claimed the city's land.[101] In 1910 when less than 1% of Minneapolis residents were non-White, the city was fairly well integrated,[100] but discrimination increased when flour milling moved east and the economy declined.[102] Developers created racial covenants on real estate deeds that excluded people with Black and Asian backgrounds from fair housing and accumulating equity and wealth.[103] Redlining by the Federal Housing Administration in the 1940s cemented racial restriction on desirable properties bordering the Grand Rounds.[104]

Commentators and observers have written about historic racism and socioeconomic disparities in the city.[105] Kirsten Delegard of Mapping Prejudice explained that disparities today evolved from White people asserting control of the city's land.[106] William D. Green of Augsburg University said that in Minneapolis the races live in parallel universes.[106]

The Dakota people, the original inhabitants of the area where Minneapolis now stands, believed in the Great Spirit and were surprised that not all European settlers were religious.[108] More than 50 denominations and religions have been established with a Christian majority. Those who arrived from New England were for the most part Protestants, Quakers, and Universalists.[108] The oldest continuously used church, Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, was built in 1856 by Universalists and soon afterward was acquired by a French Catholic congregation.[109] The first Jewish congregation was formed in 1878 as Shaarai Tov, and built Temple Israel in 1928.[87] St. Mary's Orthodox Cathedral was founded in 1887, opened a missionary school, and created the first Russian Orthodox seminary in the US.[110] Edwin Hawley Hewitt designed both St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral and Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church just south of downtown.[111] The first basilica in the US, and co-cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, the Basilica of Saint Mary was named by Pope Pius XI in 1926.[108]

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association was headquartered in Minneapolis from the late 1940s into the early 2000s.[113] Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye met while attending the Pentecostal North Central University and began a television ministry that by the 1980s reached 13.5 million households.[114] As of 2012, Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in southwest Minneapolis was the nation's second-largest Lutheran congregation, with about 6,000 attendees.[115] Christ Church Lutheran in the Longfellow neighborhood, designed by Eliel Saarinen with an education building by his son Eero Saarinen, is a National Historic Landmark.[116]

During the 1950s, members of the Nation of Islam created a temple in north Minneapolis,[117] and the first Muslim mosque was built in 1967.[118] In 1972 a relief agency resettled the first Shi'a Muslim family from Uganda in the Twin Cities.[119] Thousands of Somalis who live in the city are primarily Sunni Muslim.[120] The city has about 20 Buddhist and meditation centers.[121] Atheists For Human Rights has its headquarters in the Shingle Creek neighborhood in a geodesic dome.[122] Minneapolis has a body of Ordo Templi Orientis.[123]

As of 2020, Minneapolis–St. Paul area is the second largest economic center in the Midwest, behind Chicago.[126] During the city's formative years, millers had to pay cash for wheat during the growing season and then hold it until it was needed for flour. This required large amounts of capital, which stimulated the local banking industry and made Minneapolis a major financial center.[127] The economy of Minneapolis today is based in commerce, finance, rail and trucking services, health care, and industry. Smaller components are in publishing, milling, food processing, graphic arts, insurance, education, and high technology.[128]

The Twin Cities metropolitan area has the fifth highest concentration of major corporate headquarters in the country as of 2018,[129] and in 2020, five Fortune 500 corporations were headquartered within the city limits of Minneapolis.[124] American companies with US offices in Minneapolis include Accenture, Bellisio Foods ,[130] Canadian Pacific, Coloplast,[131] RBC[132] and Voya Financial.[133] In its 2018 survey based on 2017 cost of living for expatriate executives, The Economist ranked Minneapolis the third-most expensive city of those surveyed in North America and 26th in the world.[134]

As of 2020, the Minneapolis metropolitan area contributes $273 billion or 74% to the gross state product of Minnesota.[135] Measured by gross metropolitan product per resident ($62,054), as of 2015, Minneapolis is the fifteenth richest city in the US.[136] In 2011, the area's $199.6 billion gross metropolitan product and its per capita personal income ranked thirteenth in the US.[137]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis serves Minnesota, Montana, North and South Dakota, and parts of Wisconsin and Michigan, the smallest population of the twelve regional banks in the Federal Reserve System.[138] Along with supporting consumers and the community, the bank executes monetary policy, regulates the banks in its territory, provides cash, and oversees electronic deposits.[139] The Minneapolis Grain Exchange, founded in 1881, is still located near the riverfront and is the only exchange for hard red spring wheat futures and options.[140]

Sitting atop Lowry Hill near downtown is the Walker Art Center, called by Newsweek "possibly America's best contemporary-art museum".[142] The size of the center doubled with an addition in 2005 by Herzog & de Meuron, and expanded with a 15-acre (6.1 ha) park designed by Michel Desvigne, located across the street from the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.[143]

Known as Mia since its 100th anniversary, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, designed by McKim, Mead & White in 1915 in south central Minneapolis, is the largest art museum in the city, with 100,000 pieces in its permanent collection. New wings, designed by Kenzo Tange and Michael Graves, opened in 1974 and 2006, respectively, for contemporary and modern works, as well as more gallery space.[144]

The Weisman Art Museum, designed by Frank Gehry for the University of Minnesota, opened in 1993.[145] A 2011 addition by Gehry doubled the size of the galleries.[146] The Museum of Russian Art opened in a restored church in 2005 and hosts a collection of 20th-century Russian art as well as special events.[147]

The Northeast Minneapolis Arts District has 400 independent artists, a center at the Northrup-King Building, and recurring annual events.[148]

Minneapolis has hosted theatrical performances since after the Civil War.[149] Early theaters included the Pence Opera House,[149] the Academy of Music, the Grand Opera House, the Lyceum, and later the Metropolitan Opera House, which opened in 1894.[150] As of 2020[update] Minneapolis is home to dozens of theater companies.[151]

The Guthrie Theater, the area's largest theater company, occupies a three-stage complex overlooking the Mississippi, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel.[144] The company was founded in 1963 by Sir Tyrone Guthrie as a prototype alternative to Broadway, and it produces a wide variety of shows throughout the year.[152][153] Minneapolis purchased and renovated the Orpheum, State, and Pantages Theatres vaudeville and film houses on Hennepin Avenue, which are now used for concerts and plays.[154] A fourth renovated theater, the former Shubert, joined with the Hennepin Center for the Arts to become the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts, home to more than one dozen performing arts groups.[155][156]

The Minnesota Orchestra plays classical and popular music at Orchestra Hall under music director Osmo Vänskä[159] The New Yorker critic Alex Ross said of one 2010 special performance at Carnegie Hall, "...  the Minnesota Orchestra sounded, to my ears, like the greatest orchestra in the world".[160] The orchestra recorded Casa Guidi, winning a Grammy Award in 2004 for composer Dominick Argento.[161] Vänskä's affinity for fellow Finn Jean Sibelius[162] was recognized by a Grammy nomination in 2013 for a recording of "Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5," and the orchestra won a Grammy Award in 2014 for "Sibelius: Symphonies Nos 1 & 4."[163][164]

According to DownBeat, for 25 years the Dakota Jazz Club has been one of the world's best jazz venues.[165]

Singer and multi-instrumentalist Prince was born in Minneapolis and lived in the area most of his life.[166] After Jimmy Jam and the 11-piece Mind & Matter broke through discrimination that had created a race barrier downtown, Prince reached a global multiracial audience with his combination of indecency and religion.[167] An authentic musical prodigy enriched by a music program at The Way Community Center, Prince learned to operate a Polymoog at Sound 80 for his first album that became a sonic element of the Minneapolis sound.[168] With fellow local musicians, many of whom recorded at Twin/Tone Records,[169] Prince helped make First Avenue and the 7th Street Entry prominent venues for both artists and audiences.[170]

Hüsker Dü and The Replacements were pivotal in the US alternative rock boom during the 1980s. Their respective frontmen Bob Mould and Paul Westerberg developed successful solo careers.[172] The MN Spoken Word Association and independent hip hop label Rhymesayers Entertainment have garnered attention for rap, hip hop and spoken word.[173] Underground Minnesota hip hop acts such as Atmosphere and Manny Phesto prominently feature the city and Minnesota in song lyrics.[174][175] Electronic dance music artists include Woody McBride,[176] Freddy Fresh[177] and DVS1.[178]

Tom Waits released two songs about the city, "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" (Blue Valentine, 1978) and "9th & Hennepin" (Rain Dogs, 1985). Lucinda Williams recorded "Minneapolis" (World Without Tears, 2003). Minneapolis grunge band Babes in Toyland recorded Minneapolism (2001).[179] In 2008, the century-old MacPhail Center for Music opened a new facility designed by James Dayton.[180] Minneapolis has four opera companies: Minnesota Opera, Mill City Summer Opera, the Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company, and Really Spicy Opera.[181]

Saint Paul's Minnesota History Center manages sites statewide, including two in Minneapolis: the Mill City Museum celebrates the city's history of flour milling, and Minnehaha Depot, built in 1875.[182] The American Swedish Institute occupies a former mansion on Park Avenue.[183] The American Indian Cultural Corridor, about eight blocks on Franklin Avenue, holds the All My Relatives Gallery.[184] On Penn Avenue North is the Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery founded in 2018.[185] In a former mansion one block from Mia is the Hennepin History Museum.[186] On Lake Street is the world's largest and only Somali history museum, the tiny Somali Museum of Minnesota.[187] Formerly known as the Bakken Museum of Electricity in Life, The Bakken shifted gears in 2016 from electricity and magnetism to invention and innovation, and in 2020 opened a new entrance on Bde Maka Ska.[188]

Philanthropy and charitable giving have been part of the community since the 1800s.[189] Today, Alight helps 2.5 million refugees and displaced persons each year in Asili-Democratic Republic of Congo, Jordan, Myanmar, Pakistan, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Thailand and Uganda.[190] Catholic Charities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul is one of the largest non-profit organizations in the state and a provider of several social services.[191] The Minneapolis Foundation invests and administers over 1,000 charitable funds.[192] According to AmeriCorps, in 2017 Minneapolis–Saint Paul ranked first among cities with 46.3% of the population volunteering.[193]

Minneapolis is home to three nonprofit literary presses: Coffee House Press, Milkweed Editions, and Graywolf Press.[194] Also internationally known, the University of Minnesota Press publishes, in addition to books and journals, a widely used personality test, the MMPI.[195] Open Book, the Minnesota Center for Book Arts and The Loft Literary Center are located in Minneapolis.[196]

West Broadway Avenue was a cultural epicenter during the early 20th century but by the 1950s, flight to the suburbs began, and streetcars closed down.[197] One of the largest urban food deserts in the US was in North Minneapolis, where, as of mid-2017, 70,000 people had only two grocery stores.[198] Wirth Co-op since opened in 2017 but closed within a year. North Market opened in 2017.[199][200] The non-profit Appetite for Change sought to improve the local diet against an influx of fast-food stores,[201] and by 2017 it administered ten gardens, sold produce at the West Broadway Farmers Market in summertime, supplied its restaurants, and gave away boxes of fresh produce.[202]

As of 2019, Minneapolis-based chefs have won James Beard Foundation Awards: Ann Kim, chef at Young Joni, Pizza Lola, Hello Pizza, and Sooki & Mimi won in 2019.[203] Founder of the Sioux Chef, Sean Sherman won two James Beard prizes—best book, American (2018) and the leadership award (2019).[204] Steve Hoffman won the James Beard distinguished writing award for "What Is Northern Food?."[205] Other winners were 2008 rising star chef Gavin Kaysen who won again in 2018 at Spoon & Stable; Alexander Roberts at Restaurant Alma; and Isaac Becker at 112 Eatery. Also in venues that have closed, Tim McKee won at La Belle Vie, and Paul Berglund at Bachelor Farmer.[206][207] Among her five wins and eleven nominations, writer Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl won the Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award in 2020.[208] Andrew Zimmern won in 2010, 2013 and 2017 for Outstanding Personality/Host on Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern and for his television program On Location in 2012.[209] When thirteen chefs and restaurants were nominated for James Beard awards in 2017, The Wall Street Journal named Minneapolis one of the ten best places to visit in the world.[210]

Both credible originators of the burger, the 5–8 Club and Matt's Bar have served the Jucy Lucy since the 1950s.[211] The country's first vegan butcher shop, The Herbivorous Butcher opened in 2016.[212] East African cuisine arrived with a wave of Somali immigration which started in the 1990s.[213] Young Joni was selected one of the GQ top ten new restaurants and one of Eater's twelve best new restaurants of 2017.[214][215] Esquire put Hai Hai on its list of America's best restaurants in 2018.[216] Before Food & Wine named Spoon and Stable one of the 40 most important restaurants of the past 40 years,[217] Kaysen and others on Team USA won a silver medal in the 2015 Bocuse d'Or.[218] As of 2019, chefs and bakers at eight of nine Kim Bartmann Minneapolis restaurants used heritage grains from Sunrise Four Mill.[219] Sherman and Dana Thompson in 2021 opened Owamni by The Sioux Chef, overlooking Saint Anthony Falls (Dakota: Owámniyomni ), to reanimate Native American cuisine and decolonize indigenous food.[220]

The Great Northern is varied events every January and February, including the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships; the City of Lakes Loppet, a 22-mile (35 km) cross-country ski race; and the Saint Paul Winter Carnival.[221] The MayDay Parade is returning in 2021; Art-A-Whirl; Pride Festival & Parade, Stone Arch Bridge Festival, and Twin Cities Juneteenth Celebration in June; Minneapolis Aquatennial in July; Minnesota Fringe Festival, Loring Park Art Festival, Metris Uptown Art Fair, Powderhorn Festival of Arts and the Lake Hiawatha Neighborhood Festival in August; Minneapolis Monarch Festival in September to celebrate the Monarch butterfly's 2,300-mile (3,700 km) migration; and the Twin Cities Marathon in October.[222]

Minneapolis is home to four professional sports teams. The Minnesota Vikings football team and the Minnesota Twins baseball team have played in the state since 1961. The Vikings were an NFL expansion team, and the Twins were formed when the Washington Senators relocated to Minnesota.[224] The Twins won the World Series in 1987 and 1991 and have played at Target Field since 2010. The Vikings played in the Super Bowl following the 1969, 1973, 1974, and 1976 seasons, losing all four games. The Minnesota Timberwolves brought NBA basketball back to Minneapolis in 1989, followed by the Minnesota Lynx in 1999. Both basketball teams play in the Target Center.

In recent years, the Lynx have been the most successful sports team in the city and a dominant force in the WNBA, reaching the WNBA Finals in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2017 and winning in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017.[225] The Lynx captains wore black shirts in 2016 in the wake of the killing of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, among U.S. protests for social change by black athletes that began in 1968.[226]

In addition to professional sports teams, Minneapolis is also home to the majority of the Minnesota Golden Gopher sports teams. The Gophers football team plays at Huntington Bank Stadium and have claimed claimed seven national championships, in 1904, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1940, 1941, and 1960.[227] The Gophers women's ice hockey team plays at Ridder Arena and is a six-time NCAA champion and seven-time national champion winning in 2000, 2004, 2005, 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2016.[228][229] The Gophers men's ice hockey team plays at 3M Arena at Mariucci and has won five NCAA national championships, in 1974, 1976, 1979, 2002 and 2003.[230] Both the men's basketball and women's basketball teams play at Williams Arena.

The 1,750,000-square-foot (163,000 m2) U.S. Bank Stadium was built for the Vikings for about $1.122 billion, with $348 million coming from the state of Minnesota and $150 million coming from the city of Minneapolis. Called "Minnesota's biggest-ever public works project," the stadium opened in 2016 with 66,000 seats, expandable to 70,000 for the 2018 Super Bowl.[231] U.S. Bank Stadium also hosts indoor running and rollerblading nights, as well as concerts and events.[232]

Major sporting events hosted by the city include baseball All-Star Games, World Series, Super Bowls, NCAA Division 1 men's and women's basketball Final Four, the AMA Motocross Championship, the X Games and the WNBA All-Star Game.[233]

The Minnesota Wild of the NHL play at the Xcel Energy Center,[234] and the MLS soccer team Minnesota United FC play at Allianz Field, both in Saint Paul.[235] In other sports, six golf courses are located within city limits.[236] While living in Minneapolis, Scott and Brennan Olson founded (and later sold) Rollerblade, the company that popularized the sport of inline skating.[237]

In his textbook The American City: What Works, What Doesn't, Alexander Garvin writes that Minneapolis built "the best-located, best-financed, best-designed, and best-maintained public open space in America".[239] More than a century after the Minneapolis Park system was designed, in its 2020 ParkScore ranking, The Trust for Public Land reported that Minneapolis had the best park system among the 100 most populous US cities.[240]

The parks are governed and operated by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, an independent park district with broader powers than any other parks agency in the country.[241] Foresight, donations and effort by community leaders enabled Horace Cleveland to create his finest landscape architecture, preserving geographical landmarks and linking them with boulevards and parkways.[242] The city's Chain of Lakes, consisting of seven lakes and Minnehaha Creek, is connected by bike, running, and walking paths and used for swimming, fishing, picnics, boating, and ice skating. A parkway for cars, a bikeway for riders, and a walkway for pedestrians runs parallel along the 52-mile (84 km) route of the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway.[243] Theodore Wirth is credited with developing the parks system.[244] Approximately 15% of city land is parks, in accordance with the 2020 national median, and 98 percent of residents live within a half mile of a park.[240]

Parks are interlinked in many places and the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area connects regional parks and visitor centers. The country's oldest public wildflower garden, the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary, is located within Theodore Wirth Park. Wirth Park is shared with Golden Valley and is about 90% the size of Central Park in New York City.[245] Site of the 53-foot (16 m) Minnehaha Falls, Minnehaha Park is one of the city's oldest and most popular parks.[246] The regional park received over 2,050,000 visitors in 2017.[247] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow named Hiawatha's wife Minnehaha for the Minneapolis waterfall in The Song of Hiawatha, a famous, bestselling and often-parodied 19th century poem.[248] The five-mile, hiking-only Winchell Trail along the Mississippi River, with its gorge views and access, offers a rustic hiking experience.[249]

Made possible by Minneapolis' climate, opportunities for winter activities such as ice fishing, snowshoeing, ice skating, cross-country skiing, and sledding are available at many parks and lakes between December and March.[250] When there is sufficient snowfall conditions or the presence of snowmaking, a partnership between the park board and Loppet Foundation provides for the grooming of 20 miles (32 km) of cross-country ski trails between Wirth Park, the Chain of Lakes, and at two city golf courses.[251][252][250] The City of Lakes Loppet cross-country ski race is part of the American ski marathon series.[253] The park board maintains 20 outdoor ice rinks in winter[254] and the city's Lake Nokomis is host to the annual U.S. Pond Hockey Championships.[255]

The Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon is a Boston Marathon qualifier.[256]

Minneapolis is a stronghold for the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), an affiliate of the Democratic Party. The Minneapolis City Council represents the city's thirteen districts called wards. The city adopted instant-runoff voting in 2006, first using it in the 2009 elections.[257] The council is progressive with twelve DFL members and one from the Green Party.[258]

Jacob Frey of the DFL was elected mayor of Minneapolis in 2017 and was reelected in 2021.[259] Finally passing in 2021, a ballot question shifted more power from the city council to the mayor,[260] something that proponents had tried to achieve for most of the twentieth century.[261] Prior to this referendum, Minneapolis was unique among major cities, the vast majority of which operate under strong mayor systems. Multiple members of the city council were in favor of this change. Parks, taxation, and public housing are semi-independent boards and levy their own taxes and fees subject to Board of Estimate and Taxation limits.[262] Andrea Jenkins was unanimously chosen president of the City Council in 2022.[263] The 13-member council in 2022 has seven political newcomers and for the first time has a majority of people of color.[263]

In December 2020, the city worked through input from nearly a thousand residents, an upturn in the crime rate, COVID-19, and the threat of a mayoral veto, to reach agreement on a 2021 budget. The $1.5 billion compromise maintained the number of police officers, set aside $8 million for community safety measures, cut funding in all major city departments, and included a 5.75 percent property tax increase.[264]

At the federal level, Minneapolis proper sits within Minnesota's 5th congressional district, which has been represented since 2018 by Democrat Ilhan Omar, one of the first two practicing Muslim women and the first Somali-American in Congress. Both of Minnesota's US Senators, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, were elected or appointed while living in Minneapolis and are also Democrats.[265]

The City Council passed a resolution in 2015 making fossil fuel divestment city policy,[266] joining seventeen cities worldwide in the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance. The city's climate plan calls for an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.[267]

Amelia Huffman is the interim Minneapolis police chief as of January 2022. The mayor is conducting a nationwide search for a new chief to replace Medaria Arradondo who resigned.[269]

Minneapolis has a separation ordinance that directs local law enforcement officers not to 'take any law enforcement action' for the sole purpose of finding undocumented immigrants, nor ask an individual about his or her immigration status.[270]

In the decade preceding the murder of George Floyd, the Minneapolis Police Department caused at least ten deaths,[271] and in 2021, the StarTribune counted 200 police-related deaths in the state since 2000.[272]

In 2020, KSTP-TV 5 Investigates found that the city had paid millions of dollars in settlements because officers had lied about use of force, dishonesty for which officers are rarely disciplined.[273] For example, the initial police statement regarding the murder of George Floyd indicated Floyd had been "suffering medical distress" without reference to the actions of officer Derek Chauvin. A witness, Darnella Frazier, recorded the assault and murder, falsifying the department's statement.[274][275][276] The city agreed to pay $27 million to settle a civil lawsuit from Floyd's family, the largest pretrial settlement for a civil rights claim ever made in the nation.[277] Frazier, who was 17 years old at the time, won the 2020 PEN/Benenson Courage Award from PEN America and a special citation from the Pulitzer Prize committee in 2021.[278]

Former police chief Arradondo was a plaintiff in a case which resulted in a $740,000 settlement for the department's "history of tolerating racist and discriminatory remarks by its White police officers."[279] Body cameras were introduced in 2016 by then-chief Janée Harteau, but they were rarely used. A 2019 audit found body camera activation eventually increased to 95% after a 2017 order from Arradondo.[280]

MPD150, a community coalition formed at the department's 150th anniversary, has advocated for the abolition of police in Minneapolis.[281]

In 2020, then-city council president Lisa Bender declared that the city should dismantle its police department and replace it with a "transformative new model of public safety."[282] The city's Charter Commission rejected the proposal.[283] The City Council voted to move $8 million from police to dispatcher training and mental health crisis teams,[284] and more narrowly, to maintain the level of police staffing at 888 for 2021. After the summer of 2020, the department lost 166 officers either to retirement or to temporary leave, many with PTSD, and a crime wave resulted in more than 500 shootings.[285] In 2020, Minnesota Freedom Fighters formed as a neighborhood watch patrol.[286] In 2021, the city signed a contract with Canopy to provide two-person teams to intervene with crisis response for mental health calls.[284]

Following the conviction of Derek Chauvin, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Justice Department was opening a "sweeping investigation into policing practices in Minneapolis". The Minnesota Department of Human Rights is also investigating the Minneapolis Police Department, looking for any discriminatory practices in policies and practices over the past decade.[287]

Minneapolis Public Schools enroll over 35,000 students in public primary and secondary schools. The district administers about one hundred public schools including forty-five elementary schools, seven middle schools, seven high schools, eight special education schools, eight alternative schools, nineteen contract alternative schools, and five charter schools. With authority granted by the state legislature, the school board makes policy, selects the superintendent, and oversees the district's budget, curriculum, personnel, and facilities. In 2017, the graduation rate was 66 percent.[288] Students speak over one hundred different languages at home and most school communications are printed in English, Hmong, Spanish, and Somali.[289][290] Some students attend public schools in other school districts chosen by their families under Minnesota's open enrollment statute.[291] Besides public schools, the city is home to more than twenty private schools and academies and about twenty additional charter schools.[292]

Minneapolis's collegiate scene is dominated by the main campus of the University of Minnesota where more than 50,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students attend twenty colleges, schools, and institutes.[293] The university offers free tuition to students from Minnesota families earning less than $50,000 per year.[294] The graduate school programs with exceptional national rankings in 2020 (top five) were health care management, nursing, midwifery, pharmacy and clinical psychology.[295] The university enjoys unusual constitutional autonomy, that exists in only three states, since 1851 when that provision was included in the state constitution.[296]

Augsburg University, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and North Central University are private four-year colleges. Minneapolis Community and Technical College and the private Dunwoody College of Technology provide career training. St. Mary's University of Minnesota has a Twin Cities campus for its graduate and professional programs. Two large principally online universities, Capella University and Walden University, are both headquartered in the city. The public four-year Metropolitan State University and the private four-year University of St. Thomas are among postsecondary institutions based elsewhere with campuses in Minneapolis.[297]

Founded by T. B. Walker in 1885,[298] the Minneapolis Public Library merged with the Hennepin County Library system in 2008.[299] The new downtown Central Library designed by César Pelli opened in 2006.[300] Ten special collections hold over 25,000 books and resources for researchers, including the Minneapolis Collection and the Minneapolis Photo Collection.[301] About 845,000 people have free library cards.[302]

Several newspapers are published in Minneapolis: Star Tribune, Finance & Commerce, Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, the university's The Minnesota Daily, and MinnPost.com. TMC Publications publishes The Monitor and Longfellow Nokomis Messenger.[303] MSP Communications publishes Mpls.St.Paul and Twin Cities Business magazines.[304] Other publications include Minnesota Women's Press, North News, Northeaster, Insight News, and The Circle.[303]

Nineteen FM and AM radio stations are licensed to Minneapolis, including one from the University of Minnesota and one from the public schools. Up to 79 FM and AM signals can be received in one or more areas of the city. There are 10 full-power television stations in the metro area, and one non-profit public access cable network. WCCO-TV is based in Minneapolis proper. A majority of these signals can be streamed.[305]

Movies filmed in Minneapolis include Airport (1970),[306] The Heartbreak Kid (1972),[307] Slaughterhouse-Five (1972),[308] Ice Castles (1978),[309] Foolin' Around (1980),[310] Take This Job and Shove It (1981),[311] Purple Rain (1984),[312] That Was Then, This Is Now (1985),[313] The Mighty Ducks (1992),[314] Untamed Heart (1993),[315] Little Big League (1994),[316] Beautiful Girls (1996),[317] Jingle All the Way (1996),[318] Fargo (1996),[319] and Young Adult (2011).[320] In 1960s television, two episodes of Route 66 were made in Minneapolis. The 1970s CBS situation comedy fictionally based in Minneapolis, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, won three Golden Globes[321] and 29 Emmy Awards.[322] The show's opening sequences were filmed locally.[323]

Minneapolis has two light rail lines and one commuter rail line. The Metro Blue Line connects the Mall of America and Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport in Bloomington to downtown and the Metro Green Line travels east from downtown through the University of Minnesota campus to downtown Saint Paul. Hundreds of homeless people nightly sought shelter on Green Line trains until overnight service was cut back in 2019 and rising crime on the light rail system led to discussion in the state legislature on how to best address the issue in 2020.[324][325] An extension of the Green Line will connect downtown Minneapolis with the southwestern suburbs and is expected to open in 2023.[326] An extension of the Blue Line to the northwest suburbs reentered the planning stages for a new route alignment in 2020.[327] The 40-mile Northstar Commuter rail runs from Big Lake through the northern suburbs and terminates at the multi-modal transit station at Target Field using existing railroad tracks.[328] Public transit ridership in the Twin Cities was 91.6 million in 2019, a three percent decline over the previous year which is part of a national trend in lower local bus ridership. Ridership on the Metro system remained steady or grew slightly.[329]

In 2007, the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi, at the time overloaded with three hundred tons of repair materials, collapsed, killing thirteen and injuring 145 people. The bridge was rebuilt in fourteen months. Only one-fourth of the country's structurally deficient bridges had been repaired ten years later.[330]

Walk Score rated Minneapolis as having the 13th highest Walk Score and the highest Bike Score among cities with more than 200,000 people in the US in 2020.[331] The Minneapolis Skyway System, 9.5 miles (15.3 km) of enclosed pedestrian bridges called skyways, link 80 city blocks downtown with second floor restaurants and retailers open weekdays.[332] Bicycling named Minneapolis the 4th best bicycling city in 2018.[333] Minneapolis has 82 miles (132 km) of trails for walking and biking.[334] Off-street facilities include the Grand Rounds, Midtown Greenway, Little Earth Trail, Hiawatha LRT Trail, Kenilworth Trail, and Cedar Lake Trail.[335] Bicycle sharing provider Nice Ride Minnesota planned expanded capacity in 2019.[336]

Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) serves 18 international, domestic, charter and regional carriers and is home base for Sun Country Airlines.[337] As of 2019, it is also the second-largest hub for Delta Air Lines, which operates more flights out of MSP than any other airline.[338] For terminals serving 25 to 40 million passengers, MSP was named the world's best airport for customer experience in North America in 2020 for the fourth consecutive year.[339] Forbes named MSP the second best airport in North America, behind Detroit in 2019.[340]

Minneapolis has eight hospitals, four ranked among America's best by U.S. News & World Report in 2020–2021: Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Children's Hospitals and Clinics, University of Minnesota Medical Center, and University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital.[341] Hennepin Healthcare, Minneapolis VA Medical Center, Shriners Hospitals for Children and Phillips Eye Institute also serve the city.[342] The Mayo Clinic in Rochester is a 75-minute drive away.[343]

Cardiac surgery was developed at the university's Variety Club Hospital, where by 1957, more than two hundred patients had survived open-heart operations, many of them children. Working with surgeon C. Walton Lillehei, Medtronic began to build portable and implantable cardiac pacemakers about this time.[344]

Hennepin Healthcare opened in 1887 as City Hospital, and also has been known as Minneapolis General Hospital, Hennepin County General Hospital, and HCMC.[345] A public teaching hospital and Level I trauma center,[346] the Hennepin Healthcare safety net counted 643,739 clinic visits and 111,307 emergency and urgent care visits in 2019.[347]

The 2018 AARP Livability Index scored Minneapolis above average on health;[348] the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) ranked Minneapolis and its metropolitan area the nation's first, second, or third most fit city every year from 2008 to 2016, and first from 2011 to 2013.[349] The ACSM American Fitness Index ranks the city third in 2020.[350]

"Ambassadors," identified by their blue and fluorescent green-yellow jackets, patrol daily a 120-block area downtown to greet and assist visitors, remove trash, monitor property, and call police when they are needed. The ambassador program is a public-private partnership with a $6.6 million annual budget paid for by a special downtown tax district.[351]

Xcel Energy supplies electricity, CenterPoint Energy supplies gas, CenturyLink provides landline telephone service, and Comcast provides cable service.[352] The city treats and distributes water and charges a monthly solid waste fee for trash removal.[353]

After each significant snowfall, called a snow emergency, the Minneapolis Public Works Street Division plows over 1,000 mi (1,610 km) of streets and 400 mi (640 km) of alleys—counting both sides, the distance between Minneapolis and Seattle and back.[354] Ordinances govern parking on the plowing routes during these emergencies as well as snow shoveling.[355]

Minneapolis' sister cities are:[356]