Minneapolis

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Minneapolis
Nickname : Funkytown
Minneapolis skyline
Minneapolis skyline
Seal of Minneapolis
seal 		Flag of Minneapolis
flag
Located in Hennepin County and Minnesota
Located in Hennepin County and Minnesota
Basic data
Foundation : 1867
State : United States
State : Minnesota
County : Hennepin County
Coordinates : 44 ° 59 ′  N , 93 ° 16 ′  W Coordinates: 44 ° 59 ′  N , 93 ° 16 ′  W
Time zone : Central ( UTC − 6 / −5 )
Inhabitants :
-  Metropolitan Area :		 382,578 (status: 2010)
3,551,036 (status: 2016)
Population density : 2,690.4 inhabitants per km 2
Area : 153.3 km 2  (approx. 59 mi 2 ) of
which 142.2 km 2  (approx. 55 mi 2 ) are land
Height : 264 m
Postcodes : 55401-55487
Area code : +1 612
FIPS : 27-43000
GNIS ID : 0655030
Website : www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us
Mayor : Jacob Frey ( DFL )
Minneapolis federal courthouse.jpg
Minneapolis Federal Courthouse

Minneapolis [ ˌmɪnɪˈæpəlɪs ] is the most populous city in the US state of Minnesota with around 382,500 inhabitants . Together with St. Paul , it forms the metropolitan region of the Twin Cities with over 3.5 million inhabitants (as of 2016).

The name of the city comes from a combination of two languages, the Dakota Indian word for water ("minne") and the Greek word for city ("polis").

history

The regions around what is now Minneapolis belonged to the settlement areas of the Dakota. French fur traders arrived in the area around 1680. From then on, European settlers increasingly claimed the Mississippi region for themselves. In various treaties with the Mdewakanton these were suppressed more and more by the Europeans. Since the construction of Fort St. Anthony, later Fort Snelling , on the site of the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers in 1819 by the United States Armed Forces , several new settlements have emerged. In 1867 , Minneapolis, north of the Saint Anthony Falls , became a city, and in the same year the railroad to Chicago went into operation. In 1872, Minneapolis merged with the now smaller city of St. Anthony , which had developed east of the Mississippi since 1848.

With the construction of flour mills on the Saint Anthony Falls, very fine flour could be produced. Between 1880 and 1930, the city became one of the most important flour producers in the United States. The high effectiveness of the water-powered mills was considered innovative and made Minneapolis known worldwide. Numerous settlers from the eastern United States came to the city and made it grow rapidly. Between 1880 and 1930 the number of inhabitants increased tenfold to over 460,000. In addition to many flour mills, numerous sawmills were built at the waterfalls that processed the wood from northern Minnesota. In 1905 just under ten percent of the flour and meal consumed in the United States was made in Minneapolis.

The renovation of the town center began in the 1950s. Over 200 new buildings were built and numerous old - some of them historically valuable - were demolished. The Metropolitan Building , built in 1890 and one of the first and most important skyscrapers in the city, was demolished.

On May 25, 2020, the African American George Floyd was killed in a police operation in the city, which was followed by days of protests, some of which were violent (see also the death of George Floyd ) .

geography

Minneapolis is located in the American Midwest on the Mississippi River . It has an area of ​​around 151 square kilometers. Six percent of this is water and 15 percent parks. The 45th parallel runs south of the city center. The lowest height above sea level is at the confluence of the Minnehaha Creek and the Mississippi Rivers with a height of 209 meters. The highest point is in the Prospect Park area at 282 meters.

Minneapolis has the typical climate of the Midwest. The winters are very cold and dry, the summers warm and sometimes humid. In the Köppen / Geiger climate classification , the city falls into the humid continental climate ( Dfa ).

The highest temperature ever recorded is 42.2 degrees Celsius in July 1936, the lowest at −40.6 degrees Celsius in January 1888. The winter of 1983/84 was the snowiest when 2.5 meters of snow fell. Due to the unprotected location in the north of the United States from the effects of weather, Minneapolis often comes under the influence of polar cold air masses in winter. The average annual temperature for the Minneapolis-St. Paul of 7 degrees Celsius is also the lowest of all metropolitan areas within the USA.

Minneapolis
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.
 
 
24
 
-6
-16
 
 
22nd
 
-3
-13
 
 
49
 
4th
-5
 
 
62
 
14th
2
 
 
86
 
21st
9
 
 
103
 
26th
14th
 
 
90
 
29
17th
 
 
92
 
27
16
 
 
69
 
22nd
10
 
 
56
 
15th
4th
 
 
39
 
5
-4
 
 
27
 
-4
-12
Temperature in ° C ,  precipitation in mm
Source: WMO ; wetterkontor.de
Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Minneapolis
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C ) -6.3 -3.0 4.0 13.6 20.8 26.0 28.9 27.1 21.5 14.9 5.0 -3.6 O 12.5
Min. Temperature (° C) -16.2 -12.7 -5.2 2.3 8.7 14.2 17.3 15.7 10.2 3.8 -3.8 -12.1 O 1.9
Precipitation ( mm ) 24.1 22.4 49.3 61.5 86.1 102.9 89.7 91.9 69.1 55.6 39.4 27.4 Σ 719.4
Hours of sunshine ( h / d ) 5.1 6.3 7.0 8.1 9.5 10.7 11.3 9.9 7.8 5.8 3.8 3.7 O 7.4
Rainy days ( d ) 5.3 4.8 6.9 8.0 9.0 9.4 7.2 7.6 7.7 6.0 5.5 5.7 Σ 83.1
Humidity ( % ) 70 70 67 60 60 64 65 68 71 68 73 74 O 67.5
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
-6.3
-16.2
-3.0
-12.7
4.0
-5.2
13.6
2.3
20.8
8.7
26.0
14.2
28.9
17.3
27.1
15.7
21.5
10.2
14.9
3.8
5.0
-3.8
-3.6
-12.1
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
N
i
e
d
e
r
s
c
h
l
a
g 		24.1
22.4
49.3
61.5
86.1
102.9
89.7
91.9
69.1
55.6
39.4
27.4
  Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Source: WMO ; wetterkontor.de

population

Ethnic origin of the population groups
Ethnic groups Percentage
White population
(Europe, Middle East, North Africa) 		65.1%
African American 18.0%
Asian Americans 6.1%
Multiple groups 4.4%
native people 2.2%
Pacific islanders 0.1%

In the 1850s and 1860s, businessmen, speculators, clergy and urban developers from New England and New York settled in what is now Minneapolis on the Mississippi River . Immigrants from the Scandinavian countries Sweden , Norway and Denmark followed from the mid-1860s . Later immigrants from Germany , Italy , Greece , Poland , Bohemia , and southeastern Europe came to the city. Russians and Eastern Europeans also settled there. Asian immigrants began to settle in Minneapolis in increasing numbers since the early 20th century. These included mainly Chinese , Filipinos , Japanese and Koreans . After Asian immigration increased in the 1970s, the Hispanic and Afro-American population gradually increased in the early 1990s, with around 100,000 people of Somali origin living in the metropolitan region. The highest population figure was reached in the 1950 census with 521,718 inhabitants, since then it has steadily decreased until 1990. The reason for this is strong suburbanization . Since 2000 the population has remained constant at around 382,500. For the year 2010 a population of 382,578 was determined during the census , which corresponds to a decrease from 2000 of only 40 inhabitants. The proportions of African Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanics in the total population are steadily increasing. However, the ethnic minorities are less educated than the white population. While 42 percent of the white population have a bachelor's degree, this figure is 15 percent for the Afro-American population and 13 percent for the Latin-American population. The standard of living continued to increase compared to 2000, and the per capita income is among the highest in the Midwest, although there is also a strong gap between the different ethnic groups. Almost a third of Asian Americans live below the poverty line, while this figure is nine percent among the white population.

Population development
1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
3,000 13,000 46,887 164,738 202.718 301,408 380,582 464.356 492,370 521.718 482.872 434,400 370,951 368.383 382,618 382,578

Culture and sights

Culture

Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis

Minneapolis, together with its twin city St. Paul, forms a cultural focus in the Midwest of the United States. After New York City, both cities have the highest per capita density of theaters in the USA. In 2006 architect Jean Nouvel designed a new theater building for the traditional Guthrie Theater . In addition to the well-known theaters such as the restored State Theater, the Orpheum Theater or the Pantages Theater, there are also numerous smaller theaters and stages where shows, ballets and concerts are performed.

The Minnesota Orchestra , led by principal conductor Osmo Vänskä, is considered one of the best symphony orchestras in the country and performs regularly in the Orchestra Hall.

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is an art museum built in the south of the city in 1915 with over 80,000 exhibits. The Walker Art Center has been named one of the best contemporary museums in the country by Newsweek . It was the first public art museum in the upper Midwest and was renovated and expanded from 1999 to 2005.

Architecture and unusual buildings

Collapsed Interstate 35W Mississippi River Bridge

In Minneapolis there are also a number of architecturally sophisticated buildings, such as B .:

economy

Target Corporation headquarters

Together with the surrounding metropolitan area, the city forms an important economic center in the Midwest of the United States. Minneapolis is home to the food and processing industries, banking and finance, healthcare and freight forwarding companies, and railroad companies, among others.

Five Fortune 500 companies are based in and around Minneapolis: Target Corporation retail chain , US Bancorp credit institution , Xcel Energy energy company , Ameriprise Financial financial services company, and Thrivent Financial, a Lutheran insurance company . Other Fortune 1000 companies include Valspar , Polaris Industries, and the Donaldson Company .

The Mall of America (MoA) just south of Minneapolis is the most popular shopping mall in the world with 42 million visitors annually.

The metropolitan region of the Twin Cities generated a gross domestic product of 235.7 billion dollars in 2014 , which puts the region in fourteenth place in the USA. The unemployment rate is below 3 percent (October 2015).

In a study by consultancy Mercer on the quality of life in 231 cities around the world, Minneapolis was ranked 61st. (Status: 2018)

traffic

air traffic

The Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) is an international airport, which covers the southeast addition. In the past it has been continuously expanded and expanded and with 35.6 million passengers (2007) is an internationally important airport. It is served by three international, twelve national, seven charter and four regional airlines.

Rail transport

Northtown Yard of the BNSF
Station Union Depot

The railroad played an important role in Minneapolis' early development. Major railroad companies are or were the BNSF Railway , Union Pacific Railroad , Canadian Pacific Railway and the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad . Although the volume sank after the Second World War and some stations and lines were closed, the railroad is still an important means of transport for goods traffic. The BNSF operates Northtown Yard, a large marshalling yard in the north of the city, the origins of which go back to the 1910s.

Every day, the Empire Builder operated by Amtrak is a national passenger train on its way from Seattle / Portland to Chicago and the counter train from Chicago stops at Union Depot station in St.Paul, which has reopened in May 2014 . Since then, the Union Depot can also be reached directly from Minneapolis by local transport, the Metro Green Line . Until the renovated Union Depot went into operation, Amtrak dispatched its trains at Midway Station in St. Paul.

On November 16, 2009, the so-called Northstar commuter line was opened, a regional train between Minneapolis and Big Lake with a route length of about 65 km.

Road traffic

As a result of the growth of the metropolitan region and the emergence of automobile traffic in the 20th century, a dense and well-developed road network was created in and around Minneapolis, which, however, reaches its capacity limits, especially during rush hour. Among the major expressways in Minneapolis include the Interstate 94 and Interstate 35W .

Local public transport

buses

The most important means of transportation in local public transport is still the bus, despite the increasing popularity of the rapid transit system. There are approximately 130 bus routes in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area , often with separate bus lanes on wide streets. The Hi-Frequency Network, which is part of twelve bus routes that run in busy areas during the day from Monday to Saturday at intervals of less than 15 minutes, is particularly popular.

Light Rail and Trams

A Hiawatha Line tram at Government Plaza
Skyway between 9th Street and Nicollet Mall

Ever since Minneapolis trams ceased operations in 1953, the city's residents have had to rely on a deteriorating network of buses. However, there have been calls for a light rail or a reintroduction of trams since the 1970s.

In January 2001, construction began on Minneapolis' first light rail, called the Hiawatha Line . It was partially opened on June 26, 2004 and has been in its current size since December 4, 2004. Since 2011 it has been called METRO Blue Line . The line begins north of downtown at the intersection of 5th Street North and Hennepin Avenue in the historic Warehouse District, then follows 5th Street through Downtown to the Metrodome , a large football stadium in the southeast of downtown, and then runs southeast along Hiawatha Avenue through residential areas from Minneapolis to the airport, where it runs underground and connects two terminals. The route then leads through the suburb of Bloomington to the Mall of America . From there, another line, the so-called Red Line, now leads further out of the city. An extension by one station to the northwest in the warehouse district was planned for 2009. This station ("Target Field Station & Rail Platform") is now operational. There is a connection to the Northstar local train going north / northwest.

Next up was the Green Line, formerly known as the Central Corridor , which connects downtown Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Construction work on this line began in late 2010 and regular operations began in mid-2014. The line is the same as the Hiawatha Line to the Metrodome, but then goes through the University of Minnesota campus , crosses the Mississippi, and then goes to the Along University Avenue through Saint Paul, past the State Capitol of Minnesota to downtown Saint Paul.

The extension of the Green Line, originally known as the Southwest Corridor , has been under construction since the end of 2018 . It will run southwest from Downtown through Uptown and the suburbs of St. Louis Park , Hopkins and Minnetonka to Eden Prairie . As of 2020, commissioning is planned for 2023.

In 2007 a study on the reintroduction of trams was completed. In the following years, up to eight tram lines could run along centrally located streets.

Skyways

A special urban development feature in Minneapolis are the so-called skyways , kilometers of closed footpaths on the upper floors of the houses on the street side with pedestrian bridges over the streets, which enable city errands in the city center without ever having to go outside. They connect all urban goals, such as parking garages, shops, banks, authorities, restaurants, hotels, etc., and offer protection from the extreme cold in winter as well as from the possible heat in summer.

Sports

The Minnesota Twins at the Metrodome

Some of the city's best-known sports teams include the Minnesota Vikings in the National Football League , the Minnesota Timberwolves in the National Basketball Association, and the Minnesota Twins in the MLB American League . The Minnesota Wild ice hockey team is based in St. Paul.

The first professional sports team were the Minneapolis Millers in minor league baseball . They were based in Minneapolis between 1884 and 1960. In the 1940s to 1950s, the Minneapolis Lakers were the first team from Minneapolis to win a title in one of the major American sports leagues. Between 1948 and 1954, the Lakers won a total of six titles in the NBA and NBL . In 1960 the team left town and moved to Los Angeles . The American Wrestling Association split off from the NWA in 1957 and was based in Minneapolis until it closed in 1991.

The Vikings and Twins came to Minnesota in 1961. While the Vikings were an expansion team in the NFL, the Twins came about when the Washington Senators moved to Minneapolis. Both teams played their home games at the Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington . That didn't change until 1982 with the opening of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis. With a capacity of up to 64,111 seats, it was the largest sports stadium in Minnesota for a long time. In the Metrodome, the Twins celebrated their greatest successes to date when they won the World Series in 1987 and 1991 . They have been playing in the newly built Target Field since 2010 .

The west elevation of the facade of the new Vikings stadium

For the 2016 season, the Vikings were able to move into the US Bank Stadium , which has been under construction since 2013 . The construction costs were over a billion dollars, the capacity is up to 73,000 spectators. The Super Bowl LII of the 2017/18 NFL season was played here.

With the Timberwolves Minneapolis received another team in the NBA in 1989. Together with the 1999 founded Minnesota Lynx , a professional women's basketball team in the WNBA , they play their home games at the Target Center .

The University of Minnesota sports teams are also very popular and have won numerous national titles in the past. The Golden Gophers football team plays its home games at the TCF Bank Stadium, which opened in 2009 . This offers space for 50,000 spectators. The ice hockey teams play in the Mariucci Arena and the Ridder Arena .

The Twin Cities Marathon has been held since 1982, starting in Minneapolis and finishing in Saint Paul.

politics

Minneapolis City Hall

Minneapolis belongs to the fifth congressional electoral district of Minnesota and presents itself in elections mostly as the stronghold of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL). The City Council (Minneapolis City Council) consists of 13 representatives of the individual city districts ( wards ). This includes twelve members of the DFL and one member of the Green Party . The Democrat RT Rybak was Mayor of Minneapolis from 2002 to 2014. He was followed by DFL politician Betsy Hodges until 2018. In the run-up to the election in 2018, several deadly police operations took place, the political processing of which was considered inadequate. It was defeated by the Democratic candidate, Jacob Frey .

In addition to Hennepin County , the higher-level administrative units also include the Metropolitan Council, which is responsible for regional affairs in the metropolitan area of ​​Minneapolis-Saint Paul .

Town twinning

There are also informal partnerships with Hiroshima (Japan) and Kampala (Uganda).

Personalities

sons and daughters of the town

Personalities related to the city

  • Daniel Schillock (1826–1878), German attorney and senator in Minnesota; lived and died in Minneapolis
  • Eugene McLanahan Wilson (1833-1890), politician; Mayor of Minneapolis
  • George Dayton (1857-1938), entrepreneur; died in Minneapolis
  • Clifford D. Simak (1904–1988), journalist and science fiction author; worked at the Minneapolis Star and the Minneapolis Tribune
  • Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978), politician; from 1945 to 1948 mayor of Minneapolis
  • Hermann Flender (1918–2004), German diplomat and ambassador; Honorary Citizen of Minneapolis
  • Jacob Frey (* 1981), politician and Mayor of Minneapolis since 2018
  • Gabriele Grunewald (1986–2019), medium and long-distance runner; lived and died in Minneapolis

Other sources of information

See also

Web links

Commons : Minneapolis  - collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

Literature about history

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A History of Minneapolis: Residents of the City ; Minneapolis Public Library (mpls.lib.mn.us) (2001) ( Memento of February 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ Volker Mehnert: Design City Minneapolis - Avant-garde on the prairie. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. July 6, 2007 ( faz.net ).
  4. ↑ 17 Minnesota firms make Fortune 500 - with more to come , May 6, 2015.
  5. ↑ Bureau of Economic Analysis : GDP by Metropolitan Area 2014 ( Memento of October 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Bureau of Labor Statistics : Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
  7. ↑ Mercer's 2018 Quality of Living Rankings. Retrieved July 30, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Aamer Madhani: Minneapolis mayor looks to new police chief amid firestorm over fatal shooting. Retrieved May 27, 2020 (American English).