![Communities and neighborhoods of Minneapolis](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Communities_and_neighborhoods_of_Minneapolis.svg)
The
U.S. city of
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
is officially defined by the
Minneapolis City Council as divided into eleven communities, each containing multiple official neighborhoods. Informally, there are city areas with colloquial labels. Residents may also group themselves by their city street suffixes, North, Northeast, South, Southeast, and Southwest.
Description
General areas
The
local community
A local community has been defined as a group of interacting people living in a common location. The word is often used to refer to a group that is organized around common values and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical l ...
defines several general areas based on the directional suffixes added to streets in the city. These city areas do not necessarily correlate with official community or neighborhood definitions.
Downtown Minneapolis refers to the street grid area aligned on a diagonal with the Mississippi River bend, as opposed to the true north-south grid orientation. The area north of downtown on the west bank of the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...
is considered North Minneapolis. The part of Minneapolis on the east bank of the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...
is divided by East Hennepin Avenue into Northeast and Southeast, approximately aligned with the communities of
Northeast
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
and
University
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...
, respectively.
The entire area south of downtown is widely referred to as South Minneapolis. The westerly portion surrounding the city's famed Chain of Lakes is loosely labeled Southwest Minneapolis, bounded on the east by
I-35W Interstate 35W may refer to:
* Interstate 35W (Texas), an Interstate highway serving Fort Worth, Texas, and its suburbs
* Interstate 35W (Minnesota), a Interstate highway serving Minneapolis, Minnesota, and its suburbs
**The I-35W Mississippi Riv ...
and on the north by 36th St W, which extends west from
Bde Maka Ska
Bde Maka Ska (, previously named Lake Calhoun, its former official designation) is the largest lake in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, and part of the city's Chain of Lakes. Surrounded by city park land and circled by bike and walking ...
(formerly Lake Calhoun) to the city limits.
Common conceptions of Minneapolis neighborhoods do not always align with official city maps, especially since much of the
Minneapolis–Saint Paul
Minneapolis–Saint Paul is a metropolitan area in the Upper Midwestern United States centered around the confluence of the Mississippi, Minnesota and St. Croix rivers in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is commonly known as the Twin Cities ...
metropolitan area's population now lives outside of the two major cities. Twin Cities residents and visitors frequently use generalized names based on geography, such as "North Minneapolis". What most people would consider North Minneapolis is a combination of the
Near North and
Camden communities, each of which is made up of several neighborhoods.
Official communities and neighborhoods
![Minneapolis-Neighborhood-Markers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Minneapolis-Neighborhood-Markers.jpg)
The city council, made up of one representative from each of the city's 13 wards, has legislative authority to define neighborhood boundaries. Community and neighborhood boundaries are not the same as the Ward boundaries, which are adjusted after each decennial
census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...
.
Minneapolis consists of 11 communities, each of which are subdivided into anywhere between 4 and 13 neighborhoods. The official neighborhoods have a variety of origins; some were formed out of the attendance areas for elementary schools, while others are the areas of coverage of neighborhood associations formed by activists between 1901 and the 1980s. The division of the city into official neighborhoods and communities occurred as part of the Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP) in the early 1990s. They remain associated with this community-based funding program, and are also used for statistical purposes. For purposes of the NRP, some of the 81 official neighborhoods have combined forces, leading to a total of 67 NRP Neighborhood action plans.
Neighborhoods historically defined themselves around schools and commercial hubs, and many trace neighborhood identity back into community organizations formed in the early part of the 20th century. The oldest, the
Prospect Park East River Road Association formed in 1901 to oppose city plans to level Tower Hill. In other neighborhoods, the current official neighborhood association was formed in the 1970s and 1980s; in
Linden Hills, the organization was formed in 1972 in response to proposed changes in the park, although there were several social and commercial organizations in the neighborhood dating back to the neighborhood's development at the turn of the 20th century.
List of neighborhoods by community
Calhoun-Isles
Camden
Central
Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...
Near North
Nokomis
Nokomis is the name of Nanabozho's grandmother in the Ojibwe traditional stories and was the name of Hiawatha's grandmother in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, ''The Song of Hiawatha'', which is a re-telling of the Nanabozho stories. Nokomis is ...
Northeast
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
Phillips
Powderhorn
Southwest
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
University
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...
Other areas
Unofficial districts
Many of the major business districts of the city sit on major thoroughfares, and since these thoroughfares also form the boundaries of official neighborhoods, local identity may not correspond with these official neighborhoods.
Lake Street, running the entire width of the city in south Minneapolis is a string of commercial districts which includes
Uptown,
Lyn-Lake and
Midtown, while forming the border of 12 neighborhoods. Other streets with similar linking and bordering qualities include
Nicollet Avenue
Nicollet Avenue is a major street in Minneapolis, Richfield, Bloomington, and Burnsville in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It passes through a number of locally well-known neighborhoods and districts, notably Eat Street in south Minneapolis an ...
, stringing together
Nicollet Mall
Nicollet Mall is a twelve-block portion of Nicollet Avenue running through downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is the shopping and dining district of the city, and also a pedestrian mall and transit mall. Along with Hennepin A ...
, Eat Street south of Franklin Avenue, and smaller districts south of Lake Street;
Central Avenue, which links downtown to Old St Anthony Village via the Third Avenue Bridge and then continues on to form a core commercial district of Northeast around
Lowry Avenue; and
University Avenue
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...
, which joins Old St Anthony to Dinkytown, and then continues into
Midway and the
State Capitol in
Saint Paul
Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
.
Little Earth
Little Earth is a residential housing area in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States that is home to nearly 1,500 people, many of whom are American Indian. The residential housing association at Little Earth considers itself a united people of 3 ...
is a , 212-unit housing complex at approximately East 24th Street and Cedar Avenue. The Little Earth community and surrounding area has been at the center of the
American Indian Movement
The American Indian Movement (AIM) is a Native American grassroots movement which was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 1968, initially centered in urban areas in order to address systemic issues of poverty, discrimination, and police br ...
.
Uptown is probably the most well-known business district in Minneapolis besides downtown, centered at the intersection of West Lake Street and Hennepin Avenue, but it is not officially recognized as it includes parts of four neighborhoods:
South Uptown,
East Bde Maka Ska,
East Isles, and
Lowry Hill East
Lowry Hill East is a neighborhood in southwest Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, part of the Calhoun Isles community. Lowry Hill East developed in the 1880s along a horse-drawn streetcar line built by Thomas Lowry. The interior of the neig ...
. The Uptown Business Association is focused on the area within a few blocks of Lake and Hennepin, but the "Uptown" identity can stretch as far north as Franklin Avenue, and as far east as Lyndale Avenue, where it now merges into
Lyn-Lake.
Eat Street is the newest of Minneapolis's commercial district, formed in the late 1990s to promote the international variety of restaurants along Nicollet Avenue South within three blocks of 26th Street. Nicollet was historically the "Main Street" of the
Whittier neighborhood, but was cut off from Lake Street by construction of a K-Mart. The named district was an effort to give the neighborhood a fresh identity.
The Old St. Anthony district, commonly known as Northeast, straddles the neighborhoods of
Marcy-Holmes, and
Nicollet Island/East Bank, both of which are part of the
University
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...
community, rather than
Northeast
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
. It was the downtown for the city of St. Anthony before it joined Minneapolis in 1872.
Dinkytown
Dinkytown is a commercial district within the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Centered at 14th Avenue Southeast and 4th Street Southeast, the district contains several city blocks occupied by various small businesses, restau ...
is the coined name for an area just north of the University of Minnesota within the official
Marcy-Holmes neighborhood, heavily populated by students. A row of historic
fraternity houses along University Avenue is referred to as "fraternity row." Similarly,
Stadium Village
Stadium Village is an area of Minneapolis, Minnesota near the East Bank campus of the University of Minnesota. While not an official neighborhood of Minneapolis, the area is an important commercial district that serves university students with man ...
on the east end of campus is named for the now-demolished
Memorial Stadium and is officially part of
Prospect Park neighborhood (the name makes sense again now that nearby
Huntington Bank Stadium
Huntington Bank Stadium (formerly known as TCF Bank Stadium) is an outdoor stadium located on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The stadium opened in 2009, after three years of construction. It is ...
, formerly known as TCF Bank Stadium, was completed in 2009).
The
Warehouse District
This is a list of notable warehouse districts.
A warehouse district or warehouse row is an area found in many urban setting known for being the current or former location of numerous warehouses. Logistically, warehouses are often located in indust ...
was a 19th and early 20th-century rail and truck shipping center for the region. In the 1970s and 1980s it became an artists quarter, and then a nightlife and entertainment district, which the southern portion (between I-394 and Hennepin Ave) remains. The district is largely within the
North Loop neighborhood, but the heart of the entertainment district lies in the
Downtown West neighborhood.
As the Mississippi riverfront downtown has been redeveloped since the 1980s, there have been several attempts at "rebranding" it. The "Mississippi Mile" spanned both sides of the river, but never really caught on locally.
Saint Anthony Main
Saint Anthony Main refers to an area of buildings with multiple owners located on Main Street across from Saint Anthony Falls in the Nicollet Island/East Bank, Minneapolis section of Southeast, Minneapolis in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Common ...
, the name of the commercial development, came to refer to the section of the East Bank around it. More recently, people have come to refer to the West Bank between 3rd Avenue and the University as "The
Mills District", though the name more properly applies to both sides of the river
Some neighborhoods enjoy nicknames such as
Lowry Hill East
Lowry Hill East is a neighborhood in southwest Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, part of the Calhoun Isles community. Lowry Hill East developed in the 1880s along a horse-drawn streetcar line built by Thomas Lowry. The interior of the neig ...
which known as "The Wedge" because of its shape. However the Wedge Co-op, originally located in the Wedge area, moved to its current location on Lyndale Avenue S in the
Whittier neighborhood in the 1980s. Local amenities are also taken on as nicknames. Minnehaha refers to the businesses by Minnehaha Falls rather than along Minnehaha Avenue, and Tower (Hill) which is located along University Avenue SE in Prospect Park refers to the
Witch's Hat Tower.
A historically significant neighborhood known as Homewood lies within
Willard-Hay in Near North, spanning from Penn to Xerxes Avenues North between Plymouth Avenue and Oak Park Avenue. The district was deemed eligible for the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
by the State Historic Preservation Office in 2002. It is architecturally and culturally significant due primarily to settlement by Jewish families during the first half of the twentieth century, when Minneapolis was openly anti-Semitic. In the 1930s the Homewood subdivision was the center of the North Side Jewish community, populated by a middle- and upper-middle-class families. The City of Minneapolis began a formal review process for potential historic designation of the district in 2016.
Cultural districts
In 2020, the city designated seven new cultural districts to promote racial equity, preserve cultural identity, and promote economic growth:
38th Street,
Cedar Avenue
Cedar Avenue is a roadway that runs from Minneapolis to Northfield in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The roadway is known as Minnesota State Highway 77 in the busiest portion of the route, from Minneapolis to Apple Valley. The portions north and ...
South, Central Avenue,
East Lake Street, Franklin Avenue East, West Broadway, and Lowry Avenue North.
See also
*
Neighborhoods in Saint Paul
Notes
External links
Cornerstones: A History Of North MinneapolisDocumentary produced by
Twin Cities Public Television
Twin Cities Public Television, Inc. (abbreviated TPT, doing business as Twin Cities PBS) is a nonprofit organization based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, that operates the Twin Cities' two PBS member television stations, KTCA-TV (channe ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neighborhoods Of Minneapolis
*
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
Communities in Minneapolis