Are the Twin Cities among America's best places to live? (Minneapolis: 2013, how much)

[Astron1000]

For more than four decades, the Twin Cities have topped so many polls as being the "best" in "this" or "that" categories. Is it time to admit that St. Paul and Minneapolis are one of America's best places to live?

Industry: The Twin Cities are home to 18 Fortune 500 corporations. This is more than any other US metro area other than New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Houston. Indeed, the MSP metro has more F500 corporations than Los Angeles. The MSP metro is also a major financial center. For example, while Wells Fargo is technically based in San Francisco their primary operations are based in Minneapolis. USBank, long recognized as one of the premier financial institutions in America - is the nation's 5th largest bank. Locally-based Cargill is the world's largest private corporation and would be America's 9th-largest corporation (bigger than Ford and AT & T) if it were publicly traded.

All of these corporations make the Twin Cities a major player in America's corporate dominance.

Gross Metropolitan Product - Minneapolis/St.Paul surpassed Detroit in 2010 to become the Midwest's 2nd-largest economy after Chicago, far ahead of St. Louis, Cleveland, Kansas City, Indianapolis or Cincinnati.

Arts: The Twin Cities have long been recognized as one of the country's pre-emminent arts centers. The Tony-Award-Winning Guthrie Theater and Children's Theater have demonstrated the contributions of of high quality local talent. There are at least 150 additional local theater companies that contribute to the theater scene. Dozens of local companies participate in these programs...

Wealth: The MSP metro is among the country's richest cities. This is indisputable. According to rankings per median household incomes, Minneapolis/St.Paul is the nation's 5th-wealthiest metro region. #1 is San Francisco. #2 is New York. #3 is Washington DC, #4 is Anchorage.

Minneapolis/St.Paul seems poised to become a major player in shaping the face of the future of American cities.

[StilltheSame]

Depending on your goals, personality, needs and likes, MInneapolis could be considered among the best places to live. I do think it tops the list in the Midwest.

[Mr. In-Between]

I don't know how it could even be questioned. I don't like cities much myself, but if you're going to live in one, I couldn't pick 5 better ones if you held a gun to my head. Unquestionably one of the top 2 or 3 metropolitan areas in the US, as far as I'm concerned. By any metric or combination of metrics you'd care to name. When I moved there, it was purely by accident, but 30+ years later, there's no doubt in my mind that it was one of the best accidents I've ever had in my life.

[Minnesota Spring]

I wonder how much of an impact there would be for the Twin Cities, particularly Downtown Mpls. would suffer if Target were to go bankrupt or close up shop. Does anyone know the % of downtown workers that the Target HQ attracts?

[rzzz]

Target HQ employs about 24% of the total downtown Minneapolis workforce.

[StilltheSame]

Originally Posted by Minnesota Spring

I wonder how much of an impact there would be for the Twin Cities, particularly Downtown Mpls. would suffer if Target were to go bankrupt or close up shop. Does anyone know the % of downtown workers that the Target HQ attracts?

a good amount of those employees are locals. But some of the upper level executives, directors and managers would jump ship to another city if they closed shop.

[Minnesota Spring]

Originally Posted by rzzz

Target HQ employs about 24% of the total downtown Minneapolis workforce.

Ouch! I did'nt think it was that large of a percentage. I expect layoffs from the breach fallout, but if it get's worse than that, watch out Detroit!

[MplsTodd]

Originally Posted by rzzz

Target HQ employs about 24% of the total downtown Minneapolis workforce.

This % is way too high! According to the Business Journal, Target employs around 12,000 people in downtown. Downtown employment is usually reported to be about 150,000 - 165,000, which would imply that Target accounts for about 7.5% of the downtown employment base.

[rzzz]

Sorry, you're right. I was looking at the wrong numbers. I though there were only 50K employees downtown but if I would have done a sanity check clearly that is too low. The 50K number is from the 15 largest employers. Here is an interesting article that tells who the top 15 employers are.

Largest downtown Minneapolis employers: Target, Wells Fargo, Ameriprise, Xcel, U.S. Bank, Macy's - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal

[chessgeek]

Originally Posted by Astron1000

For more than four decades, the Twin Cities have topped so many polls as being the "best" in "this" or "that" categories. Is it time to admit that St. Paul and Minneapolis are one of America's best places to live?

Industry: The Twin Cities are home to 18 Fortune 500 corporations. This is more than any other US metro area other than New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Houston. Indeed, the MSP metro has more F500 corporations than Los Angeles. The MSP metro is also a major financial center. For example, while Wells Fargo is technically based in San Francisco their primary operations are based in Minneapolis. USBank, long recognized as one of the premier financial institutions in America - is the nation's 5th largest bank. Locally-based Cargill is the world's largest private corporation and would be America's 9th-largest corporation (bigger than Ford and AT & T) if it were publicly traded.

All of these corporations make the Twin Cities a major player in America's corporate dominance.

Gross Metropolitan Product - Minneapolis/St.Paul surpassed Detroit in 2010 to become the Midwest's 2nd-largest economy after Chicago, far ahead of St. Louis, Cleveland, Kansas City, Indianapolis or Cincinnati.

Arts: The Twin Cities have long been recognized as one of the country's pre-emminent arts centers. The Tony-Award-Winning Guthrie Theater and Children's Theater have demonstrated the contributions of of high quality local talent. There are at least 150 additional local theater companies that contribute to the theater scene. Dozens of local companies participate in these programs...

Wealth: The MSP metro is among the country's richest cities. This is indisputable. According to rankings per median household incomes, Minneapolis/St.Paul is the nation's 5th-wealthiest metro region. #1 is San Francisco. #2 is New York. #3 is Washington DC, #4 is Anchorage.

Minneapolis/St.Paul seems poised to become a major player in shaping the face of the future of American cities.

I could not agree more! I am not surprised that the Twin Cities ranked #5 on the list, but nearly fell off my chair atr the sight of Rochester in the #10 ranking!