Skip to Content

The Line

The Line logo

The Line tells the story of the new economy in The Twin Cities — a narrative of creative people and businesses, new development, cool places to live, and the best places to work and play.

Read more from The Line.

Subscribe with RSS
huge board meeting

Minnesota’s funniest nonprofit board

By Julie Kendrick | 06/14/13

At HUGE, board membership involves more than just the usual committee and development work — it also requires the willingness to perform improv.

garage photo
The Line

In Minneapolis, garages serve as galleries, theaters

By Camille LeFevre | 06/07/13

For artist/gallerist Pete Driessen and the theater artists of Off-Leash Area, turning their garages into art spaces provided opportunities for innovation, experimentation and freedom.

we can grow
The Line

We Can Grow: building urban gardens, helping gardeners thrive

By Elizabeth Millard | 05/24/13

The nonprofit installs low-cost or free gardens, and supports the efforts with classes that cover growing topics, cooking, food preservation and community engagement.

barrio
The Line

Two food cities: Restaurateurs compare Minneapolis and St. Paul

By Holly Dolezalek | 05/17/13

Three local restaurateurs compare the Twin Cities from a food-business point of view. The results? Minneapolis rocks, but St. Paul is on a roll.

lili hall
The Line

The WBDC: ‘a very feminine, very driven business incubator'

By Julie Kendrick | 05/10/13

The local office of the Chicago-based Women's Business Development Center gives majority-women-owned ventures here support and connections they might not otherwise have.

zabel photo
The Line

Laura Zabel on art's new roles in the community

05/03/13

Long an important part of the distinctive arts-support "ecosystem" here in the Twin Cities, Springboard is now seeing its initiatives attracting national attention and emulation.

house model photo
The Line

The challenges of building ‘the essential house’

By Camille LeFevre | 04/26/13

Daniel Yudchitz decided to design and build a small, low-cost, energy-efficient house in St. Paul's Rondo neighborhood. Then came the banks.

mehta photo
The Line

Meet the new face of STEM: Shefali Mehta

By Julie Kendrick | 04/19/13

This scientist-businesswoman founded a local STEM-education program. Now she's more committed than ever to strengthening science-and-technology training in our towns.

joule
The Line

Joule: the little co-working space that could

By Holly Dolezalek | 04/12/13

A quiet co-working space at the edge of downtown Minneapolis welcomes solo entrepreneurs in search of a serene scene.

KRISTA DONALDSON photo
The Line

At the U of M, a confab for designers who want to change the world

By Camille LeFevre | 04/05/13

The Structures for Inclusion program focused on the presentation of the SEED Awards, which celebrate excellence in social, economic, and environmental design.

MIKE HATZIS
The Line

Central Corridor: Relief — and optimism — as LRT construction winds down

By Dan Heilman | 03/29/13

As the building phase of the Central Corridor line finishes up, it's becoming clear that the direst predictions of business disruption didn't materialize.

ward 6 sign
The Line

St. Paul's next hot neighborhood? Put your money on Payne Avenue

By Anna Pratt | 03/22/13

It's weathered exits and foreclosures, but now the proud old neighborhood is home to a hot new bar/restaurant, Ward 6, that's a force in a wider renewal.

debate
The Line

A place at the podium: Debate drives success in inner-city schools

By Julie Kendrick | 03/15/13

Once the province of privileged students, debate is flourishing in inner-city schools here, thanks to the Minnesota Urban Debate League.

front door
The Line

Turning a modernist classic green in Highland Park

By Camille LeFevre | 03/08/13

When Heather and Brent Fredrickson bought a modernist house in a historic Saint Paul neighborhood, they remodeled, adding a 21st-century environmental ethic to the home.

advisory bike lane
The Line

Change comes to car country: Biking, walking on the rise in the suburbs

By Jay Walljasper | 03/01/13

From "road diets" to "advisory bike lanes," the Twin Cities' suburbs are creating infrastructure and policy to turn their auto-only paradigm into a new vision of walkable, bikeable streets.

st thomas entrepreneur school
The Line

At St. Thomas, the hottest tech incubator you've never heard of

By Elizabeth Millard | 02/22/13

The university's Minneapolis campus is home to a program that has incubated and helped fund some of the Twin Cities' most prominent tech startups.

Sarah Williams with a student
The Line

Rock Star Supply Co.: Young professionals help kids rock the classroom

By Julie Kendrick | 02/15/13

This serious-minded but lighthearted nonprofit tutors at-risk kids in the coolest possible way — by matching them up with adults in creative industries.

TU Dance studio
The Line

St. Paul's TU Dance Center: movement in the neighborhood

By Camille LeFevre | 02/08/13

When Uri Sands and Toni Pierce-Sands decided to establish a multicultural dance school, they put it along the Central Corridor in the heart of the city.

Martin Patrick 3, a men's-furnishings boutique
The Line

Minneapolis' new North Loop: both cool and comfortable

By Anna Pratt | 02/01/13

The bars and restaurants here draw national attention, and the neighborhood is becoming a pleasantly dense, lively, and livable urban village.

Lars Leafblad
The Line

Bush Foundation's Lars Leafblad on leadership: from 'top down' to 'around'

By Jon Spayde | 01/25/13

A new ethic of connectivity, consensus and compromise is struggling to be born — and Lars Leafblad has some ideas on how we can all help it happen.

Jacque Urich, co-organizer of She's Geeky, at the CoCo coworking space
The Line

Geek gals: Can the Twin Cities lead in helping women take their place in high tech?

By Elizabeth Millard | 01/18/13

High tech in Minneapolis is still more or less drowning in testosterone, but some strong local initiatives are pointing the way toward more opportunities.