The Twin Cities have made a few “best of” lists that haven’t been shared yet in this blog. I thought that I would take a few minutes today to write about some of the lists that Minneapolis and St. Paul have made lately.
Minneapolis and Saint Paul made Travel & Leisure’s America’s Favorite Cities 2008 list. The people who voted on the Twin Cities found that out of 25 others, they were clean (No. 2) and full of intelligent and friendly people (ranked 2 and 3 respectively). The highest rated feature of the Twin Cities are its theaters, in which it ranked 3rd only behind New York and Chicago.
In December, Forbe’s released a list in which it evaluated the country's 40 largest Census-defined metro areas using the last 25 years of NAHB data to determine America’s Best Long-Term Housing Bets. Minneapolis came in at fourth in this list. Though it might not seem like it, Minneapolis hasn’t experienced the same sort of housing booms that other cities have seen. In the most recent run-up, building activity peaked in the third quarter of 2004. With less inventory dragging down prices, the market is better off in the short term than other places. Minneapolis’ real strength is its economy, which has less of a manufacturing base than most Midwestern cities and it hosts a handful of multinational corporations, like Target, Xcel Energy, and Ameriprise Financial.
Also in December, Minneapolis was ranked at the top for America’s Most Literate Cities 2008, sharing the title with Seattle. Seattle and Minneapolis have switched between second and first, and this year they were tied. Drawing from a variety of available resources, the America’s Most Literate Cities study ranks the largest cities in the United States, determined as having a population of 250,000 and above. This study focuses on six key indicators of literacy: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and Internet resources. St. Paul, not to be ignored, is also a rising star on the most literate cities list. It is ranked fourth over-all.
Finally, just this week I read in the Star Tribune that Men’s Fitness Magazine rated Minneapolis as one of America’s Fittest Cities. Ranked at third, Minneapolis residents participate in sports much more than average - 33 percent more than average, in fact. And it’s made easy by the fact that there are plenty of city recreational facilities, parks and open spaces. Mayor R.T. Rybak sets a positive example by exercising up to 5 days of the week and participating regularly in fitness-related public events.
There you have it, the lists that Minneapolis & Saint Paul have made. And these are just the recent ones! Some lists that we have touched on earlier in this blog are about the Outstanding Twin Cities National Night Out Participation in 2008 and how Minneapolis and Saint Paul Parks are Tops. Stay tuned, Minneapolis and St. Paul are bound to end up ranked high on another “best of” list.
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