Welcome To Minneapolis SAFeDATA

Abundantly rich in water, the city has twenty lakes and wetlands, the Mississippi riverfront, creeks and waterfalls, many connected by parkways in the Chain of Lakes and the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway. Once the world`s flour milling capital and a hub for timber, Minneapolis is the primary business center between Chicago, Illinois, and Seattle, Washington. Regional theater was pioneered at the Guthrie Theater, one of many cultural organizations that draw creative people and audiences to Minneapolis for theater, visual art, writing and music. Indeed, the city was ranked the most literate in the U.S. in 2007. A diverse populus, the community has a long tradition of charitable support through progressive public social programs and through private and corporate philanthropy.

The name Minneapolis is attributed to the city`s first schoolmaster, who combined mni, the Dakota word for water, and polis, the Greek word for city. Minneapolis is nicknamed the City of Lakes and the Mill City.

Minneapolis made dramatic changes to rectify discrimination as early as 1886 when Martha Ripley founded Maternity Hospital for both married and unmarried mothers. When the country`s fortunes turned during the Great Depression, the vicious Teamsters Strike of 1934 resulted in laws acknowledging workers` rights. A lifelong civil rights activist and union supporter, mayor Hubert H. Humphrey helped the city establish fair employment practices and a human relations council that interceded on behalf of minorities by 1946. Minneapolis contended with white supremacy, participated in desegregation and the African-US civil rights movement, and in 1968 was the birthplace of the US Indian Movement.

During the 1950s and 1960s as part of citified renewal, the city razed about two hundred buildings across twenty-5 city blocks—roughly 40% of downtown, destroying the Gateway District and many buildings with notable architecture including the Metropolitan Building. Efforts to save the building failed but are credited with jumpstarting interest in historic preservation in the state.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 foreground to the right are Nicollet Island and the Hennepin Avenue Bridge.

Availability of Wi-Fi, transportation solutions, medical trials, university research and development expenditures, advanced degrees held by the work force, and energy conservation are so far above the national avg that in 2005, Popular Science named Minneapolis the "Top Tech City" in the U.S. The Twin Cities ranked the country`s second best city in a 2006 Kiplinger`s poll of Smart Places to Live and Minneapolis was one of the Seven Cool Cities for young professionals.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, with one branch in Helena, Montana, serves Minnesota, Montana, North and South Dakota, and parts of Wisconsin and Michigan. The smallest of the twelve regional banks in the Federal Reserve System, it operates a nationwide payments system, oversees member banks and bank holding companies, and serves as a banker for the U.S. Treasury. 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.