Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Coastal Elites Yet Again Stroke Their Erudite Chins, Deeply Contemplating This Creature Known as 'the Midwesterner'
Look, this daily series is called the The Flyover with no shortage of wink-nudge-tee-heeing about our region's perceived insignificance. But what in the name of hotdish did we do to deserve another election-season cycle of tedious, pop anthropological examinations of the mystifying Midwestern voter? The latest: "200 Years Later, Still Trying to Define the Midwest," from the New York Times, a piece that also functions as an extension of this deathless online geography debate.
You've seen story before: Are we jug-hooting Menards shoppers? Or are we urbane Chicagoans? I don't recommend slogging through the Times story which was written, to their great shame, by two Midwestern-born journalists. But I will make you suffer through this tidbit:
The pop star Chappell Roan is one of many cultural figures who are subverting old notions about Midwesterners. In a music video for her song “Hot to Go!” from the album “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” Ms. Roan dances in front of monster trucks, stadium bleachers and a putt-putt course in Springfield, Mo., near her hometown, Willard, Mo.—with drag queens flanking her.
Whoa! It's almost as if the internet has flattened culture for everyone born after 1990!
In the next graf, they mention Kid Rock. You get the idea.
The two major VP candidates, Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. JD Vance, default as the lenses through which the Times attempts to understand us, with predictably ham-fisted results. "A host of shared rituals and memes unite Midwesterners," the authors write, giving us the full David Attenborough treatment before teeing up... quotes from the yahoo behind the Midwest vs. Everybody Instagram account. Illuminating stuff! The U.S. electorate now makes sense to me, the coastal sophisticate.
On behalf of all 69 million Midwesterners, most of whom live in different regions with politics and cultures as far-flung as your precious boroughs: STOP TRYING TO DEFINE US; THERE IS NO "US" TO DEFINE.
Why Is the North Loop Excluded From the Minneapolis Downtown Sales Tax?
You tell us, MinnPost's Winter Keefer!
If you didn't know, a large chunk of downtown Minneapolis is subject to a special 3% liquor, lodging, and restaurant tax that's used for "economic development." But, as Keefer explains, that boundary ends along the Burlington Northern Railroad tracks northwest of Target Field. That means much of the North Loop—which, let's face it, is booming/burgeoning/blossoming compared to downtown Minneapolis—is exempt.
It might not be forever. In the last legislative session, a pair of bills introduced by Rep. Esther Agbaje (DFL-Minneapolis) and Sen. Scott Dibble (DFL-Minneapolis) would have expanded the district through the North Loop, with the new cutoff at Plymouth Avenue North to the northwest and into Elliot Park on the southeast. Both bills were referred to the Legislature’s property tax committee, where they languished through the end of the session, though it sounds like the state lawmakers aren't giving up.
“A lot of the stuff that we were trying to do got cut in order to make the deadline,” Agbaje tells MinnPost. “We’ll probably take another crack at this again. I’m still having conversations with the city.”
Do You Like Looking at Cats?
Don’t tell New Yorkers (not that you can tell than anything) but other cities have bodegas too. Even hinterland burghs such as Minneapolis, though we often refer to them more prosaically as “corner stores.” And these other cities are also home to critters that New Yorkers also like to lay exclusive claim to: bodega cats. To prove that this is the case, Audrey Kennedy at Axios Twin Cities is doing an Instagram series on Minneapolis businesses with live-in pets.
Kennedy is not focusing exclusively on “bodega cats” (apparently dogs and bunnies are also fair game, as are establishments other than food stores) but her first two installments stick to the basics. First up, she visits Alice and Sophia at Third Avenue Food Market in Stevens Square. For round two she says hi to Smokey and Bear at Adam’s Grocery and Tobacco in Como. She's still looking for recommendations, so hit her up if you've got any. Don’t worry, New York, you still have better pizza than we do. (Though not better than New Jersey.)
It's Tunnel-Scrubbin' Time
It's that magical time of the year when MNDOT scours the grime-coated walls of the Lowry Hill Tunnel and we get to watch. Try to forget for a moment how your car has contributed to this gross plaque and just enjoy how easily the scrubber makes it disappear. It's Friday after all!
