Global Livability Index: Minneapolis Ranks No. 50

Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.

We're No. 50! We're No. 50! We're No. 50!

That’s in the world, folks. According to the EIU analysts at The Economist, the top four cities are Vienna, Copenhagen, Zurich, and Melbourne. And while the U.S. didn’t manage to crack the top 20 this year (we rarely do), Canada has three cities—Calgary, Vancouver, and Toronto—on the list this year. 

To determine rankings, analysts crunched data from 173 important categories like health care, stability, infrastructure, cultural offerings, and education. While Vienna lost points for not having enough sporting events, most U.S. cities were dinged the hardest for gun safety, overall racism, and the baggage that comes with stuff like that—you know, well-established problems that are only going to get worse under the new presidential administration.

“Foremost among these is a greater incidence of social unrest, which is often rooted in racial inequalities,” Barsali Bhattacharyya, deputy industry director at EIU, tells Forbes on what U.S. cities needs to work on. “Moreover, weak gun-control laws mean that crime is often violent and fatal and undermines social cohesion.”

But hey, Minneapolis fared a little better on the U.S. cities list, where we ranked 10th. Honolulu came in at No. 1, Atlanta was second, and Pittsburg took third. And hey, No. 9 San Francisco? We're coming for your ass next year.

The Trader Joe’s Unionization Struggles Continue

In 2022, Racket broke news that the downtown Minneapolis Trader Joe's would become the second U.S. location to unionize, behind one in Hadley, Massachusetts. Then came the bullshit from corporate. In August of that year, Minnesota Reformer's Max Nesterak reported that TJ's gave weekend and holiday pay bumps for every store in the U.S…. except for Minneapolis and Hadley. Since then, there have been complaints made to the National Labor Relations Board of union materials being removed from break rooms, unionized locations not receiving the same retirement benefits as non-union stores, and attempts to cut deals with the union that would lessen their bargaining power. 

Late last week, an administrative law judge at the NLRB concluded that, yep, Trader Joe’s “retaliated against unionized workers” and “used coercive threats against workers who wore union pins.” The ruling requires the store to post news of the decision in workrooms, restore equitable pay, and allow workers to wear union pins. Minneapolis and Hadley aren’t the only union shops in the chain these days; stores in Louisville, Kentucky, and Oakland, California, have also voted to unionize.

Opioid Settlement Funds: Where Is the Money Going?

That’s what Aneri Pattani is looking into in this excellent piece for MinnPost. So far, Minnesota has taken in over $76 million in settlement funds since 2022. This handy tracker estimates that the state will have collected $223,398,384.60 million by 2038. But where is the money going? The ability to research this varies greatly from state to state. Idaho, for example, requires investigators to go through a Byzantine collection of nearly 100 documents that the average layperson isn’t going to read.

The good news? Pattani found that Minnesota is doing a pretty good job at transparency with our funds. This Opioid Epidemic Response Spending Dashboard is about as thorough as one can hope for, with tabs that allow you to find payouts based on amounts, organizations, types of services, and even targeted population. That includes education programs, Naloxone/harm-reduction access, and outreach into LGBTQ+, homeless, and at-risk communities of color.  

RIP Wuollet’s St. Paul

A purveyor of sweets and treats for over 80 years, local bakery chain Wuollet’s has closed a fourth location this year. “Yes, regrettably, our St. Paul Grand Ave. retail location of more than 30 years is closed,” CEO Eric Shogren tells KSTP, citing building repairs as one reason for the shuttering. “Please stay tuned for news of a Wuollet’s Re-Granding Opening somewhere else on Grand Ave. in the near future.” The 1080 Grand Ave. already as a new tenant lined up; next door neighbors GoodThings is reportedly expanding into the space.

Back in May, Wuollet’s was evicted from its Wayzata location after landlords filed a lawsuit alleging $8K in owed rent. That same month, the Biz Journal reported that Wuollet’s Hastings location is on the hook for around $1 million in unpaid rent. “We do want to continue to provide our delicious baked goods in the Wayzata area and are looking at several other potential retail locations,” a spokesperson told KSTP at the time. In September, Wuollet’s downtown Minneapolis skyway location also shuttered. You can currently find the bakery still standing in Edina, Robbinsdale, and Uptown Minneapolis, and south Minneapolis’s Baker’s Wife is also owned by the same company.