Twin Cities' National and Global Image

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talindsay
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby talindsay » August 1st, 2013, 2:56 pm

It's also obvious for me, living in Minneapolis. But yes, growing up in Saint Louis with no connection to Minnesota, I knew that the Twin Cities were Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and that both cities were in Minnesota. I had a shaky grasp on where Seattle was until Kurt cobain helped anchor it for me; otherwise I knew where America's midsize metropolises were, and Minneapolis was on that list. I don't think the Twin Cities label hurts that.

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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby MNdible » August 1st, 2013, 3:00 pm

You must talk to smarter people than I do. I often have conversations like this:

Me: I'm from Minneapolis.

Them: [blank stare]

Me: It's in Minnesota.

Them: [blank stare]

Me: It's sort of by Canada.

Them: So it's cold then.

Me: [Sighs] Yes.

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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby MNdible » August 1st, 2013, 3:01 pm

Also, I never use Twin Cities, although when I grew up outstate, we would make trips to "The Cities".

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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby RailBaronYarr » August 1st, 2013, 3:49 pm

^^ "The Cities" is definitely common.. the people I know from Marshall, St Cloud, Alexandria, Winona, and Duluth all say it.

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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby FISHMANPET » August 1st, 2013, 4:26 pm

And yet I'm amused how people from around New York City describe it as "The City." I think other metro areas do that as well.

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Nathan
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby Nathan » August 1st, 2013, 5:34 pm

I almost always say St. Paul. Sometimes Twin Cities. Maybe because its the capitol city that everyone learned in school, or the people I've talked with, but I have yet to run into someone who doesn't know where one or both of those places are, and I've been to 40 states...
I have plenty of people argue with me that Minneapolis is the capitol of Minnesota, just saying.

In a lot of branding classes that I took they emphasized that (though sometimes the name could kill something) Most of the time it's saying it over and over again and emphasizing the brand. So it really shouldn't matter what moniker we choose, it's that we need to be more consistent with which one, and we need to shout it a lot and give it a positive brand image.

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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby FISHMANPET » August 1st, 2013, 7:24 pm

Somewhere there's a map of the United States separated by what people consider to be their nearest metro area. Minnesota is pretty fragmented because Minneapolis, St Paul, and Twin Cities aren't grouped together.

I found the map: (click for bigger)
Image
The main map is based on an answer the following question: “On the level of North America as a whole, what major city do you feel has the most cultural and economic influence on your area overall?” From this, they created a map of various “spheres of influence” of cities.
http://www.urbanophile.com/2010/09/17/r ... influence/

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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby MNdible » August 1st, 2013, 8:38 pm

I've seen another version of this where they ask people to say what they think of when somebody says "The City". The results are interestingly different than the results of this one. Can't find the link, though.

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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby mullen » August 1st, 2013, 10:04 pm

what's interesting is no waterfall, no st anthony/minneapolis. it would have been an organic growth from the upper landing to fort snelling. i was always curious as to why the growth didn't happen closer to the fort. would've made for a picture postcard downtown setting today, the merging of the two rivers.

i tend to agree that any branding will fall short of the general perception of this place as cold hinterland. it's not fair to be sure but it is what it is. we know the variance in our weather. unfortunately someone not living here doesn't have that perspective. our branding should consist of embracing our unique qualities, the quality of our cities and their natural surroundings. flying into msp airport it's like a city in the forest, really. the view of our cities from the air never gets old.

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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby lordmoke » August 2nd, 2013, 8:57 am

Part of central North Dakota answered "Washington." As in Washington DC. That's... odd.

On a serious note, it's very interesting to note how the areas around us differentiate between "Minneapolis" and "Twin Cities" when referring to our urban core.

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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby MNdible » August 2nd, 2013, 10:21 am

I think if you look at the cities that have really prospered recently (the ones we'd call our peer cities, not the Sun Belt cities), it's been mid-sized cities that have really been able to capitalize on their adjacency to nature.

I mean, Portland and Seattle have (I would argue) worse weather than Minneapolis, but they've really sold themselves on being cities next to nature, and that's very attractive.

In summary, I think Minneapolis's image problem isn't that it's cold (it really is cold, and that's OK). It's that:

1. A lot of people don't understand that you can live well in a cold climate.

2. A lot of people think that the area surrounding Minneapolis is probably all corn fields. They don't realize the great natural environment that we have access to.

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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby FISHMANPET » August 2nd, 2013, 10:29 am

I would say Portland and Seattle (and the Pacific NW in general) have nicer weather than we do. Yes it's rainy in the winter, but that also means the air isn't so dry, and also it doesn't get as cold.

I was in Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver for my honeymoon for about 2 weeks from the end of December 2012 to the beginning of January 2013, and I much preferred the weather there to what we have here. But that's my personal preference, and I'm sure some will prefer our weather to theirs.

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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby MNdible » August 2nd, 2013, 11:54 am

I would say Portland and Seattle (and the Pacific NW in general) have nicer weather than we do. Yes it's rainy in the winter, but that also means the air isn't so dry, and also it doesn't get as cold.

I was in Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver for my honeymoon for about 2 weeks from the end of December 2012 to the beginning of January 2013, and I much preferred the weather there to what we have here. But that's my personal preference, and I'm sure some will prefer our weather to theirs.
That's fine, but my point is that they don't have magical San Diego weather. Some may prefer warmer-rainy-cloudy, I prefer colder-clear-sunny. My point is that most people don't understand that colder-clear-sunny can actually be quite pleasant.

Also, you were on a honeymoon love cloud, so I discount your weather judgement.

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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby FISHMANPET » August 2nd, 2013, 11:56 am

I'll agree with that, the cold of Minneapolis isn't as bad as people make it out to be (but boy does it come close sometimes), and the rain of the Pacific Northwest isn't as bad as people make it out to be either.

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Nathan
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby Nathan » August 29th, 2013, 4:33 pm

Greater MSP released a new video today... has some pretty good insight in it...

http://youtu.be/h-BGu-Aka_c

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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby Unity77 » September 5th, 2013, 10:38 am

Forbes recently released its list of the World's Most Inventive Cities and Minneapolis came in at #9.

The intellects at Forbes should have put a little more effort into finding a better photo of Minneapolis. Their population numbers are wrong too.

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/efee45je ... minnesota/

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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby Silophant » September 5th, 2013, 11:13 am

Come now, the only thing anyone needs to know about Minneapolis is that it snows 12 months a year here!

As far as the population numbers, I'm thinking they gave the metro population, since Boston and SF are shown at 3 and 6 million respectively. I think that's a more accurate number for this purpose anyway, since many of our big patent producers (Medtronic, 3M, etc.) aren't located in Minneapolis proper anyway.
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby mister.shoes » September 9th, 2013, 6:46 am

According to the NYTimes, we (meaning our particular metro area) are in a single family house boom again.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/08/busin ... lt-on.html

Um, yay?
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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby orangevening » September 9th, 2013, 8:18 pm

what's interesting is no waterfall, no st anthony/minneapolis. it would have been an organic growth from the upper landing to fort snelling. i was always curious as to why the growth didn't happen closer to the fort. would've made for a picture postcard downtown setting today, the merging of the two rivers.
A weird fact: Richfield was the first city in Minnesota and used to extend to 46th street on it's northern border.

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Re: Twin Cities' National and Global Image

Postby twincitizen » September 9th, 2013, 8:51 pm

[Sorry for off topic]

Almost, but not exactly true.

Stillwater and St. Paul were incorporated on the same day in 1854, proceeding statehood by 4 years. Richfield is colloquially known as the first suburb in the Twin Cities, and the border of then Richfield Township actually extended up to Lake Street (and west to now Hwy. 169). Richfield didn't incorporate as a city until the 1950s, as most suburbs were still organized as "villages" at the time. Was Fort Snelling technically inside of what later became Richfield Township? Yes, technically, but Richfield Township wasn't actually a thing until 1858 (organized same day as statehood).

Richfield Township annexation history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Richf ... daries.png
Full Wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of ... _Minnesota


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