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east-lake:

adambez:

Once rivals, the glitzier Minneapolis and the more down-to-earth St. Paul are starting to lose their differences to become a single metropolitan area.

I think this article might be satire. 

The article was kinda stupid, but for as much as I like to rip on St. Paul, we cross the river on an almost daily basis. My wife works there, we go to the Whole Foods there, we have friends that live there, and eat out there. Minneapolis will always be home to me, and St. Paul will always feel strange, but the border isn’t what it once was.

And our situation is nothing compared to that of Kansas City, a metropolitan city that spans two states. That isn’t all that common and it creates an interesting competition between the two.

I of course have opinions on this! Not really the article, but the general ideas.

Minneapolis and St. Paul are not islands, and even the great Mississippi is not some ultimate divider, since both cities have viable neighborhoods on either side of the river. The cities coexist together - Minneapolis would not be the city it is if St. Paul were non-existent, or if the suburbs weren’t there, and vice versa.

This is part of why I get annoyed when people make knee-jerk blanket remarks like “St. Paul sucks!” (oh look! Right there in the notes of this post!). To deny the interconnectedness of the two cities, to praise one while completely slamming the other, is short-sighted and will quite honestly make me think of you as a bit of an idiot. I understand preferences, and I understand that if you live and work in Minneapolis and all of your friends are there, you probably don’t have a lot of reason to go to St. Paul. This doesn’t mean that it’s worthless, or that there’s nothing to do there, or you need to condescendingly apologize to anyone who chooses to live there.

To me, living in the Twin Cities is finding and celebrating the goodness of both. When friends visit, they immediately notice the beauty of the Cathedral, right near my home. I take them to places like Mickey’s Diner, Swede Hollow Cafe, and the farmer’s market. “I love St. Paul!” they say. Then we go to the Stone Arch Bridge or the Sculpture garden and wander around. You can have a perfectly good time in either city on its own, but you can have an even better time in both.

This is to say that I agree with the main point of the article, even if the article itself isn’t great. A healthy rivalry is fine, but it’s not really in either city’s best interests to be down on the other.

Deb mentioned that I would probably like the essay in the Runoff this week, and she’s right! It’s great! It’s all about experiences living in Louisiana and the Twin Cities, and the water that connects us all. The parts about swimming and being immersed really resonated with me, such as this one:

I admit to having the same impulse regarding Lake Pontchartrain. Often I longed to simply pull my car over and jump in—to really experience that water, to become a part of it, letting it soak through my skin and right into my bones. Instead I learned to live vicariously, remembering horrifying pollution statistics.

About a month ago I swam a mile long race in Lake Harriet - it was cold, smelly, and felt like an awfully long mile but I was happy to have done it. I posted my triumph on facebook and among the likes and way to go’s there was a “ewwwwww.” Because, you know, urban lakes are like, so gross. And while I understand this sentiment, the stubborn part of me still wants to experience the lake for what it is, and that doesn’t happen if you just walk around it and enjoy the view. You have to get in.

We are lucky here to have bodies of water where this is still possible, even if the thought of swimming in someone else’s untreated toilet makes us squeamish. (Pro-tip: when you do long races, you have to get away from the beach zone, which is where most of the grossness festers.) We are lucky to have bodies of water where the scariest living things within them (fish, weeds) really pose no harm.

Swimming in water and actually experiencing it also gives you a better perspective of how the water has changed (usually for the worse) over time, a necessary reminder that what we put down our drains does indeed go somewhere. This reminder becomes more acute the closer you are to the oils on the surface, the more you have to scrub the scent of lake off when you shower.

Still, I think of all the places I’ve swam in Minnesota (and the world) and am grateful to have done it, and am always wishing to add more to the list.

east-lake:

As if it wasn’t hard enough being the perpetual Jan Brady to Minneapolis’ Marcia (Cindy is, like, Brainerd), now residents have to deal with a national magazine calling St. Paul the 24th worst dressed city in America. To make matters worse, the writer even includes a shout-out to Minneapolis at the end of the description, choosing to call it “younger,” “hipper,” and “boutique-strewn.” It’s like pouring salt in an already festering, highly self-conscious wound that is badly dressed in last season’s gauze.

Yep.

Yeah, let’s all keep on quoting the first part of this summary (the rest goes on to point out that GQ doesn’t really like the way anybody dresses, including notoriously hip cities like San Francisco, Austin, and Seattle (because they liked flannel in the 90s)) of this really terrible list (can someone point out a list like this that isn’t some shade of terrible?) because making fun of St. Paul has never ever been done before.

Also, I find it superbly disappointing that instead of finding people actually dressed badly (like, it would not be so hard! Jeans and  Wild sweatshirts at nice restaurants!), we get the Ugly Sweater Party Stock Photo (uhhh) and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

I EXPECT BETTER, ALL OF YOU. AND THAT INCLUDES YOUR CLOTHES.