Minneapolis is the largest city in Minnesota and the county seat of Hennepin County. It adjoins Saint Paul, the state's capital and second-largest city. Together they form the core of the Twin Cities metropolitan area, the 15th-largest agglomeration in the country (and roughly 65th-largest in the world), with over 3,000,000 residents. In the 2000 census, the city itself had a total population of 382,618, making it the 47th-largest city in the United States. However, in the Census' 2004 estimates, that number had decreased to 373,943. If the two core cities themselves were combined together in the census, the resulting "city" would rank 17th, just between Louisville, Kentucky and Austin, Texas. People living in Minneapolis are called Minneapolitans.
The city is in the southeast portion of the state and sits along the Mississippi River. There are also 24 small lakes in the city. The abundance of lakes led Charles Hoag, an early settler and Minneapolis's first schoolmaster, to suggest a name derived from minne, the Dakota word for water, and polis, the Greek word for city. Other names considered at the time were Brooklyn and Albion. The early use of "Brooklyn" for the then-village lives on into the 21st century in the names of two suburbs north of Minneapolis, Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center. The city is also known as the "City of Lakes", a phrase that appears on many municipal vehicles and properties. The traditional postal abbreviation (now deprecated, but still often used) for the city's name is Mpls., and much old correspondence can still be found dated from "Mpls., Minn."
The city center is located just south of 45 degrees north latitude. On the south side of Golden Valley Road just east of Wirth Parkway, there is a stone containing a weathered plaque, marking a point on 45th parallel. Metro Area citizens take some pride in being "halfway to the North Pole".
Minneapolis is recognized by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network as a world-class city.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 151.3 km2 (58.4 mi2). 142.2 km2 (54.9 mi2) of it is land and 9.1 km2 (3.5 mi2) of it is water. The total area is 6.01% water.
Minnesota has historically been a home to Scandinavian and German immigrants. Scandinavians (mostly Norwegians and Swedes) tended to settle in the colder, forested north, and Germans often resided in the relatively warmer rolling hills of the south. Minneapolis sits between these two regions and thus has large populations of people of German and Scandinavian descent.
During the great wave of Eastern European immigration in the 1870s through the early 20th Century, many immigrants from Poland, the Baltic States, and Russia, as well as other people from the region settled in the Northeast neighborhood. "Nordeast" was until recently very strongly identified with these populations.
Minneapolis also has a large Native American population, one of the largest in the United States. After the Vietnam War, Minneapolis became a destination city for Hmong and Vietnamese refugees. More recently, a large influx of Somali refugees has modified Minneapolis's ethnic makeup. Smaller populations of Laotians, Cambodians, Ethiopians, and others can also be found in the city.
The population residing within the city's limits has decreased significantly since its peak of 521,718 in 1950, although the number of people residing in the city has seen a rebound in recent years. The 1990 census recorded a low of 368,383, and the next census saw a small increase from that level. The rebounding growth has largely been due to an increase in the number of non-white residents, as the number of white residents has continued to decline and is now at its lowest level since the very early 20th century when the city had a much smaller total population. Jews, for example, were once a significant presence in the northern part of the city, but they have largely moved out to suburbs such as St. Louis Park. In general, the Twin Cities suburbs have seen massive growth, and the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area has roughly doubled since 1950 and now has about three million residents.
The downtown region also saw a major decline in population, but managed to retain residents better than many similar cities. The downtown population has been booming in the last decade as new condominiums are completed and warehouses are converted to loft-style housing. The U.S. census recorded 20,201 residents in the city center in 2000, but an estimate by Maxfield Research just five years later in January 2005 put the number at 29,350, fully recovering from losses in the 1960s and 1970s. Considering the number of new condos in development, the downtown district could reach 40,000 by 2010. Still, the people living downtown are greatly outnumbered by commuters, who bring the daytime population up to about 165,000 each weekday.
As of the census2 of 2000, there are 382,618 people, 162,352 households, and 73,870 families residing in the city. The population density is 2,691.4/km2 (6,970.3/mi2). There are 168,606 housing units at an average density of 1,186.0/km2 (3,071.6/mi2). The racial makeup of the city is 65.13% White, 17.99% African American, 2.19% Native American, 6.13% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 4.13% from other races, and 4.36% from two or more races. 7.63% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 162,352 households out of which 22.6% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 29.0% are married couples living together, 12.3% have a female householder with no husband present, and 54.5% are non-families. 40.3% of all households are made up of individuals and 8.0% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.25 and the average family size is 3.15.
In the city the population is spread out with 22.0% under the age of 18, 14.4% from 18 to 24, 36.6% from 25 to 44, 17.9% from 45 to 64, and 9.1% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 31 years. For every 100 females there are 101.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 100.1 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $37,974, and the median income for a family is $48,602. Males have a median income of $35,216 versus $30,663 for females. The per capita income for the city is $22,685. 16.9% of the population and 11.9% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 24.5% of those under the age of 18 and 10.9% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
Minneapolis's economy has been historically based on the adjoining agricultural area, though that has changed as can be seen from the list of companies below:
Called in the Ojibwe language Gakaabikaang (at the falls), the city grew up around the Saint Anthony Falls, the only waterfall on the Mississippi River and the end of the commercially navigable section of the river until locks were installed in the 1960s. Father Louis Hennepin was the first European to explore the area, giving the falls their name, as well as lending his name to the county in which Minneapolis is located. The nearby Fort Snelling spurred the growth of villages and towns in the area. A lumber mill was built on the falls in 1822 to supply the fort. In the 1840s, settlers were not allowed to stay on land controlled by the military without special permission, so the first settlement near the falls, St. Anthony, grew on the northeast side of the river, just outside of the fort's jurisdiction.
The first person authorized to live on the river's southwest bank was Colonel John H. Stevens, who operated a ferry service starting around 1850. A few years later, the amount of land controlled by the fort was reduced with an order from U.S. President Millard Fillmore, and free settlement followed. The village of Minneapolis soon sprung up on the southwest bank of the river. The village of St. Anthony was incorporated by the Minnesota Territorial Legislature in 1855, and Minneapolis soon followed in 1856.
The original campus of the University of Minnesota system first appeared near the falls at this time. Today it is a Big Ten university with more than 50,000 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the Twin Cities alone, making it one of the largest campuses in the country.
Minneapolis grew quickly during and after the Civil War and became a city in 1867. Outstripping the growth of its neighbor, the city merged with St. Anthony five years later in 1872. The early growth of the city was directed by the river, which ran to the southeast, and most early streets ran parallel to it to maximize the amount of land that could be used. Later growth of Minneapolis eventually turned to using north-south/east-west streets, so many unique intersections were formed to translate between the two layouts (probably the most famous of these is a site known as Seven Corners, on the eastern periphery of downtown). Some streets, especially many of the older and more traditionally important ones of the city, like Hennepin Ave. and Nicollet Ave., have both orientations at different points along their roadways.
Following an initial burst of activity in the lumber industry, the city's economy developed around the processing of grain from the Great Plains, which is reflected by the presence of companies such as General Mills and Pillsbury in the city. In its heyday, it was known as the "milling capital of the world." It was the leading producer of grain in the world until 1932. Today, it is still referred to as the mill city. More recently the city has become notable for its medical and financial industries, as well as the largest shopping mall in terms of indoor space in the United States, the Mall of America (actually located in Bloomington, a suburb south of Minneapolis). Minneapolis was the headquarters of Honeywell International Inc.
The 1920s and 1930s were a rather dark period in the city's history, as organized crime and corruption took hold of the region. The most notorious gangster from this time was Kid Cann (real name Isadore Blumenfeld) who ran much of his operation from the city's West Hotel and engaged in bootlegging, racketeering, and prostitution.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the downtown area of Minneapolis went through a major phase of urban renewal, which involved the razing of about 200 buildings across 25 city blocks--roughly 40% of the area. This included the destruction of a slum area known as "Skid Row," but also the destruction of many buildings with notable architecture. One of the most lamented buildings was the Metropolitan Building, known simply as "the Met". Efforts to save the building (which ultimately failed) are credited with jumpstarting a much greater interest in historic preservation in the state of Minnesota.
While it was never official policy, segregation occurred between whites and blacks in the city, and in some ways, racial issues still trouble the city today. A desegregation program of forced busing to balance the number of black and white schoolchildren in city schools began in 1972. Ethnic diversity continues to grow in the area, although African American residents continue to complain that they are excessively targeted by the Minneapolis Police Department and Minneapolis has a higher rate of black poverty than many other American cities.
In the 1980s, Minneapolis took its place as a center of the arts, with the Walker Arts Center leading the nation in appreciation of pop and postmodern art, and a diverse range of musicians, from Prince to Hsker D to the Replacements to the Suburbs to Soul Asylum keeping up with the nation in musical innovation. This gave rise to the term "the Minneapolis sound", though the groups really shared very little in stylistic terms.
Another relatively troubled period in parts of Minneapolis was the 1990s, when the murder rate and incidence of gang violence climbed, almost entirely in poorer neighborhoods of the city. The Phillips neighborhood (now referred to as Phillips Community) was particularly hard-hit. After reaching a record 97 homicides in 1995, the city gained an unpleasant nickname because of the violence: "Murderapolis." Supposedly coined by local gun shop owner Mark Koscielski, the term gained widespread use after The New York Times used it when reporting that Minneapolis had surpassed the per capita homicide rate of New York City. The murder rate retreated in the following years, but area residents often grow concerned that the nickname may make a comeback whenever there is an uptick in violence in the city.
Health and environmental issues have gained importance over the years. Many cleanup projects have taken place, and industrial activities have been scaled back or modified within the city. In 2005, the City amended its Comprehensive Plan and adopted various Indicators that strengthens its commitment to sustainability. On the scale of individuals, a ban on smoking in all bars, bowling alleys and restaurants went into effect in March 2005.
Source:
MinneapolisUSA.com
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