I was born and raised in St. Louis Park. Moved to South Mpls. in the late 90s before ex-patting to Japan. Those years were magic. Many of the indie comic artists in the TC inspired me to become an artist. It was my first introduction to a thriving tattoo scene, which would become my occupation.

I have missed out on a lot in the decade apparently.
The city has been churning out artistic talent left and right. The whole rise of “Dead Arts Publishing” for example. You can imagine my jealousy!Then one day a few weeks ago I was at an otaku bar in south Osaka. In walks a guy I’ve known for a couple years wearing a T-shirt that says “Nicollet Mall.” I was like, what the hell is that?! He tells me his wife has a Prince cover band called, of all things, Nicollet Mall. 

Maggie, thanks so much for this post; with all the Occupy news (important as it is) it’s nice to see a Wonderful Thing once and awhile.

“Minneapolis: We Build Stuff and Take Care of Things.” Well, except for the bridge on I35, but I’ll just chalk that one up to Michelle Bachman for the hell of it.

While Minnesota’s state government shut down for 20 days because the GOP-dominated Legislature couldn’t make a budget deal with the Democratic governor, the city’s Democratic mayor answers to a 13-member City Council with nary a Republican member. (Or, for that matter, an independent; the only non-Democrat represents the Green Party.)

That hasn’t exactly made things any easier here in SF, but I suppose what we have here is really machine vs. not-machine parties, where the latter are not really an organized party.  That said, when we had citywide supervisoral elections and the machine controlled everything, things were worse.

“That party stuff just does not get in there,” she says. “Why? Because there is no Republican or Democratic way to pick up the garbage.”

Ms. Johnson clearly lives in a enviable, blissful state of ignorance about how the Republican Party operates.

The City of Lakes is not without its problems and failures. The economy is stagnant. Poverty is increasing. But many of the city’s issues are rooted in decisions made far beyond the reach of City Hall. 

“Shit rolls downhill, right?” says David Brauer, who has covered Minneapolis city government on and off for three decades. “They can’t pass their obligations off to some other unit of government, so on some level that is where it all settles.”

That is surely the crux of problems with city government in this day and age: if Minneapolis is keenly aware of the problem, perhaps that explains some of their success.  Here in the Bay Area we’re often too busy planning foreign policy to look at our own streets.