Minneapolis

The Dakota Sioux were the region's sole residents prior to European contact. The city's Dakota name is Bdeóta Othúŋwe ('Many Lakes City').[12] French explorers arrived in the region in 1680. Gradually, more European-American settlers arrived, competing for game and other resources with the Native Americans. By the Treaty of Paris following the Revolutionary War, British land east of the Mississippi River became part of the United States.[13][14] In the early 19th century, 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,[15] to direct Indian trade away from the British-Canadian traders, and to prevent the Dakota and Ojibwe in the north from fighting each other.[16] The fort attracted traders, settlers and merchants, spurring growth. Agents of the St. Peters Indian Agency built at the fort enforced US policy of assimilating Native Americans into European-American society, asking them to give up hunting for subsistence and to learn to plow for cultivation.[17] The US government pressed the Dakota to sell their land which was ceded in a succession of treaties. The US reneged on the treaties during the Civil War, resulting in hunger, war, internment, and exile of the Dakota from Minnesota.[18]

Outwitting the fort's commandant, Franklin Steele laid his claim on the east bank of Saint Anthony Falls,[16] and John H. Stevens built his home on the west bank.[19] 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,[12] 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.[20] Minneapolis incorporated as a city in 1867 and later joined with the east-bank city of St. Anthony in 1872.[21]

Minneapolis developed around the power source of Saint Anthony Falls, the highest waterfall on the Mississippi River. Forests in northern Minnesota encouraged a lumber industry, which operated seventeen sawmills on power from the waterfall. By 1871, the west river bank had twenty-three businesses, including flour mills, woolen mills, iron works, a railroad machine shop, and mills for cotton, paper, sashes, and planing wood.[22] Due to the occupational hazards of milling, six competitors manufactured artificial limbs by the 1890s.[23] The farmers of the Great Plains grew grain that was shipped by rail to the city's thirty-four flour mills. Millers have used hydropower since the 1st century B.C.,[24] but the results in Minneapolis between 1880 and 1930 were described as "the greatest direct-drive waterpower center the world has ever seen."[25] For this half century, Minneapolis led the world in flour milling.[25]

Loading flour, Pillsbury, 1939

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.[26][27] Some ideas were developed by William Dixon Gray[28] and some say they were acquired through industrial espionage from Hungary by William de la Barre.[27] 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.[27] The hard red spring wheat that grows in Minnesota became valuable ($0.50 profit per barrel in 1871 increased to $4.50 in 1874),[26] and Minnesota "patent" flour was recognized at the time as the best in the world.[27] Not until later did consumers discover the value in the bran that "...Minneapolis flour millers routinely dumped" into the Mississippi.[29]

A single mill at Washburn-Crosby could make flour for twelve million loaves of bread each day,[30] and by 1900, 14 percent of America's grain was milled in Minneapolis.[26][27] Further, 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.[31] When exports reached their peak in 1900, about one third of all flour milled in Minneapolis was shipped overseas.[31]

The city made changes to rectify discrimination as early as 1886 when Martha Ripley founded Maternity Hospital for both married and unmarried mothers.[32] 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.[33] Lincoln Steffens published Ames' story in "The Shame of Minneapolis" in 1903.[34] The gangster Kid Cann engaged in bribery and intimidation from the 1920s until the 1940s.[35]

Bigotry played multiple roles during the early 20th century. 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 2017.[36] The Ku Klux Klan succeeded by entering family life, but effectively was a force in the city only from 1921 until 1923.[37] After Minnesota passed a eugenics law in 1925, the proprietors of Eitel Hospital sterilized about one thousand people at the Faribault State Hospital.[38]

Battle between striking teamsters and police, Minneapolis general strike of 1934

From the end of World War I until 1950, Minneapolis was a site of corrosive anti-semitism. A hate group called the Silver Legion of America held meetings in the city around 1936 to 1938.[39] Answering bigotry against Jewish doctors, Mount Sinai Hospital opened in 1948 as the community's first hospital to accept members of minority races and religions on its staff.[40][39]

When the country's fortunes turned during the Great Depression, the violent Teamsters Strike of 1934 resulted in laws acknowledging workers' rights.[41] A lifelong civil rights activist and union supporter, mayor Hubert Humphrey helped the city establish fair employment practices and a human relations council that interceded on behalf of minorities by 1946.[42] In the 1950s, less than 2 percent of the population was nonwhite.[43]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.[44][45] A coalition was able to reach a peaceful aftermath but ultimately failed to solve black poverty and unemployment, and a law and order candidate became mayor.[46] Minneapolis contended with white supremacy, participated in desegregation and the civil rights movement, and in 1968 was the birthplace of the American Indian Movement.[47]

Between 1958 and 1963, as part of the most monumental urban renewal plan ever tackled in America,[48] 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.[49]

On May 25, 2020, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was seen on video kneeling on George Floyd's neck for eight minutes, resulting in his death. This incident sparked national unrest, riots, and mass protests.[50] The Twin Cities experienced prolonged unrest in 2020 as part of an ongoing culture war focusing on racial issues.[51]

Mississippi riverfront and Saint Anthony Falls in 1915. At left, Pillsbury, power plants and the Stone Arch Bridge. Today the Minnesota Historical Society's Mill City Museum is in the Washburn "A" Mill, across the river just to the left of the falls. At center left are Northwestern Consolidated mills. The tall building is Minneapolis City Hall. In the right foreground are Nicollet Island and the Hennepin Avenue Bridge.

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.[63]

In 2018, the Minneapolis City Council voted to end single-family zoning citywide. 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 disparites and segregation.[64] The Brookings Institution called it "a relatively rare example of success for the YIMBY agenda."[65]

Minneapolis experiences a hot-summer humid continental climate (Dfa in the Köppen climate classification),[67] 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.[68][69][70] 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%.[71]

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,[72] and the least snowy winter was 1890–91, when only 11.1 inches (28 cm) fell.[73]

Commentators and observers have written about historic racism and socioeconomic disparities in the city.[95] Kirsten Delegard of Mapping Prejudice explained that disparities today evolved from white people asserting control of the city's land.[96] William D. Green of Augsburg said that in Minneapolis the races live in parallel universes.[96]

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.[98] 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.[98] 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.[99] The first Jewish congregation was formed in 1878 as Shaarai Tov, and built Temple Israel in 1928.[85] St. Mary's Orthodox Cathedral was founded in 1887, opened a missionary school, and created the first Russian Orthodox seminary in the US.[100] Edwin Hawley Hewitt designed both St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral and Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church just south of downtown.[101] 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.[98]

Christ Church Lutheran by Eliel and Eero Saarinen is considered an architectural masterpiece.[102]

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association was headquartered in Minneapolis from the late 1940s into the early 2000s.[103] 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.[104] As of 2012, Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in southwest Minneapolis was the nation's second-largest Lutheran congregation, with about 6,000 attendees.[105] 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.[106]

During the 1950s, members of the Nation of Islam created a temple in north Minneapolis,[107] and the first Muslim mosque was built in 1967.[108] In 1972 a relief agency resettled the first Shi'a Muslim family from Uganda in the Twin Cities.[109] As of 2017, the 28,000 to 120,000 Somalis who live in the city are primarily Sunni Muslim.[110] The city has about 20 Buddhist and meditation centers.[111] Atheists For Human Rights has its headquarters in the Shingle Creek neighborhood in a geodesic dome.[112] Minneapolis has a body of Ordo Templi Orientis.[113] The first Hindu temple in the city was built in 1978, and North America's largest as of 2010, the Hindu Temple of Minnesota, is in Maple Grove.[114]

Mia is open daily and offers free admission to its collection of 90,000 objects spanning 20,000 years.[132]

The Walker Art Center, one of the five largest modern art museums in the US, sits atop Lowry Hill, near downtown. 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.[133]

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.[134]

The Weisman Art Museum, designed by Frank Gehry for the University of Minnesota, opened in 1993 and offers free admission.[135] An 2011 addition by Gehry doubled the size of the galleries.[136] 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.[137]

The Northeast Minneapolis Arts District has 400 independent artists, a center at the Northrup-King Building, and recurring annual events.[138]

Minneapolis has hosted theatrical performances since after the Civil War.[139] Early theaters included the Pence Opera House,[139] the Academy of Music, the Grand Opera House, the Lyceum, and later the Metropolitan Opera House, which opened in 1894.[140] As of 2020 Minneapolis is home to dozens of theater companies.[141]

The Guthrie Theater, the area's largest theater company, occupies a three-stage complex overlooking the Mississippi, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel.[134] 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.[142][143] 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.[144] 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.[145][146]

Recording artist Prince studied at the Minnesota Dance Theatre through the Minneapolis Public Schools.[147][148]

The Minnesota Orchestra plays classical and popular music at Orchestra Hall under music director Osmo Vänskä[149] The orchestra was nominated in 2013 for its recording of "Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5," and it won a Grammy Award in 2014 for "Sibelius: Symphonies Nos 1 & 4."[150][151]

According to DownBeat, for 25 years the Dakota Jazz Club has been one of the world's best jazz venues. [152]

Singer and multi-instrumentalist Prince was born in Minneapolis and lived in the area most of his life.[153] 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.[154] 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.[155] With fellow local musicians, many of whom recorded at Twin/Tone Records,[156] Prince helped make First Avenue and the 7th Street Entry prominent venues for both artists and audiences.[157]

In 1970, Allan Fingerhut saw the potential for the nightclub that became First Avenue & 7th Street Entry which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2020.[158]

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.[159] The MN Spoken Word Association and independent hip hop label Rhymesayers Entertainment have garnered attention for rap, hip hop and spoken word.[160] Underground Minnesota hip hop acts such as Atmosphere and Manny Phesto comment about the city and Minnesota in song lyrics.[161][162]

Tom Waits released two songs about the city, "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" (Blue Valentine, 1978) and "9th & Hennepin" (Rain Dogs, 1985), and Lucinda Williams recorded "Minneapolis" (World Without Tears, 2003). Electronic dance music artists include Woody McBride,[163] Freddy Fresh[164] and DVS1.[165] In 2008, the century-old MacPhail Center for Music opened a new facility designed by James Dayton.[166] Minneapolis has four opera companies: Minnesota Opera, Mill City Summer Opera, the Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company, and Really Spicy Opera.[167]

Philanthropy and charitable giving are part of the community.[168] According to AmeriCorps, in 2017 Minneapolis–Saint Paul ranked first among cities with 46.3% of the population volunteering.[169] The Minneapolis Foundation invests and administers over 1,000 charitable funds.[170]

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.[171] In the state, Catholic Charities USA is one of the largest providers of social services.[172]

The non-profit Appetite for Change (AFC) administers ten gardens, sells produce at the West Broadway Farmers Market in summertime, supplies its restaurants, and gives away boxes of fresh produce.[173] AFC's goal is to improve the local diet against an influx of fast-food stores.[174] 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.[175] 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.[176] Wirth Co-op since opened in 2017 but closed within a year. North Market opened in 2017.[177][178]

Team USA, including Gavin Kaysen (of Spoon and Stable, kitchen pictured), Thomas Keller and Daniel Boulud, won a silver medal in the 2015 Bocuse d'Or.[179]

As of 2019, Minneapolis-based chefs have won James Beard Foundation Awards: Ann Kim, chef at Young Joni, Pizza Lola and Hello Pizza, won in 2019.[180] Founder of the Sioux Chef, Sean Sherman won two James Beard prizes in 2019—the leadership award and best cookbook. Steve Hoffman won the James Beard distinguished writing award for "What Is Northern Food?."[181] 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.[182][183] 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.[184] 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.[185]

Both credible originators of the burger, the 5-8 Club and Matt's Bar have served the Jucy Lucy since the 1950s.[186] East African cuisine arrived with a wave of Somali immigration which started in the 1990s.[187] Young Joni was selected one of the GQ top ten new restaurants and one of Eater's twelve best new restaurants of 2017.[188][189] Esquire put Hai Hai on its list of America's best restaurants in 2018.[190] In 2018, Food & Wine named Spoon and Stable one of the 40 most important restaurants of the past 40 years.[191] As of 2019, chefs and bakers at eight of nine Kim Bartmann Minneapolis restaurants used heritage grains from Sunrise Four Mill.[192]

Year-round events include the City of Lakes Loppet, a 22-mile (35 km) cross-country ski race in February; 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, Uptown Metris 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.[193]

Terrence Floyd at memorial to his brother George Floyd

Aftermath of George Floyd's death, May 29, 2020 (5 mins)

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.[230]

Killings of citizens by Minneapolis police occur repeatedly. The police caused ten deaths in the decade preceding the killing of George Floyd,[231] and in 2021, Star Tribune counted 200 police-related deaths in the state this century.[232]

Police chief Medaria Arradondo was part of a $740,000 settlement after accusing the department of "a history of tolerating racist and discriminatory remarks by its white police officers."[233] Body cameras were introduced in 2016 by former chief Janée Harteau but they were rarely used. A city audit in 2019 found body camera activation eventually increased to 95% since a 2017 order from Arradondo.[234] The police union viewpoint protects officers with a legal doctrine of qualified immunity.[233] MPD150, a community coalition formed at the department's 150th anniversary, holds a different view that the department should be abolished.[235]

City council president Bender announced in 2020 that the city should dismantle its police department and replace it with a "transformative new model of public safety."[236] However, the Charter Commission rejected the proposal.[237] In December, the City Council voted to move $8 million from police to dispatcher training and mental health crisis teams, and more narrowly, they voted 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.[238]

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.[239] Students speak over one hundred different languages at home and most school communications are printed in English, Hmong, Spanish, and Somali.[240][241] Some students attend public schools in other school districts chosen by their families under Minnesota's open enrollment statute.[242] Besides public schools, the city is home to more than twenty private schools and academies and about twenty additional charter schools.[243]

University of Minnesota teaching art museum, teaching hospital, and student union (left to right)

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.[244] The graduate school programs with exceptional national rankings in 2020 (top five) were health care management, nursing: midwifery, pharmacy and clinical psychology.[245]

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.[246]

Founded by T. B. Walker in 1885,[247] the Minneapolis Public Library merged with the Hennepin County Library system in 2008.[248] The new downtown Central Library designed by César Pelli opened in 2006.[249] Ten special collections hold over 25,000 books and resources for researchers, including the Minneapolis Collection and the Minneapolis Photo Collection.[250] About 845,000 people have free library cards.[251]

Metro Blue Line downtown at Government Plaza

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.[272][273] An extension of the Green Line will connect downtown Minneapolis with the southwestern suburbs and is expected to open in 2023.[274] An extension of the Blue Line to the northwest suburbs reentered the planning stages for a new route alignment in 2020.[275] 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.[276] 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.[277]

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.[278]

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.[279] 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.[280] Bicycling named Minneapolis the 4th best bicycling city in 2018.[281] Off-street facilities include the Grand Rounds, Midtown Greenway, Little Earth Trail, Hiawatha LRT Trail, Kenilworth Trail, and Cedar Lake Trail.[282] Bicycle sharing provider Nice Ride Minnesota planned expanded capacity in 2019.[283]

Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) serves international, domestic, charter and regional carriers[284] and is home base for Sun Country Airlines.[285] As of 2019, it is also the second-largest hub for Delta Air Lines, who operate more flights out of MSP than any other airline.[286] 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.[287] Forbes named MSP the second best airport in North America, behind Detroit in 2019.[288]

Abbott Northwestern Hospital was founded in 1882.

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.[289] Hennepin Healthcare, Minneapolis VA Medical Center, Shriners Hospitals for Children and Phillips Eye Institute also serve the city.[290] The Mayo Clinic in Rochester is a 75-minute drive away.[291]

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.[292]

Hennepin Healthcare opened in 1887 as City Hospital, and also has been known as Minneapolis General Hospital, Hennepin County General Hospital, and HCMC.[293] A public teaching hospital and Level I trauma center,[294] the Hennepin Healthcare safety net counted 643,739 clinic visits and 111,307 emergency and urgent care visits in 2019.[295]

The 2018 AARP Livability Index scored Minneapolis above average on health;[296] 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.[297] The ACSM American Fitness Index ranks the city third in 2020.[298]

A snow emergency

Ambassadors of the Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District (DID) work on 120 blocks of downtown to improve its cleanliness, friendliness and acceptability of behavior. They are employees of Block by Block, a company in Nashville, Tennessee that serves forty-six US cities.[299]

Xcel Energy supplies electricity, CenterPoint Energy supplies gas, CenturyLink provides landline telephone service, and Comcast provides cable service.[300] The city treats and distributes water and charges a monthly solid waste fee for trash removal.[301]

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.[302] Ordinances govern parking on the plowing routes during these emergencies as well as snow shoveling.[303]

• Nathanson, Iric (2010). Minneapolis In the Twentieth Century: The Growth of an American City. Minnesota Historical Society Press. ISBN 978-0-87351-725-6.
• Weber, Tom (2020). Minneapolis: An Urban Biography. Saint Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press. ISBN 978-1681341613.

• Official Minneapolis Tourism site — Visitor Information
• City of Minneapolis — Visitors page
• Minneapolis Convention Center
• List of Minneapolis buildings, places and tours on Placeography
• Minneapolis travel guide from Wikivoyage