Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
"Imagine Yourself a Police Officer/It's Easy if You Try"
Yesterday, the City of Minneapolis unveiled a new plan to entice job applicants to the city's Police Department and 911 dispatch center. The "Imagine Yourself" recruitment campaign was previewed at a press conference, according to Andy Mannix at the Star Tribune, where Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara screened a YouTube commercial that'll air as part of the effort. "It's not the buildings, bridges, or streets of the city that motivate you," a voiceover intones as the ad begins. "It's the people."
(Update: Ope, looks like they took that video down after we published. Here's a screenshot!)
Clearly marketing firm Accenture, to whom the city paid $950,000 for the new campaign, isn't motivated by those buildings and streets—because the ones you'll see at the 31-second mark don't belong to Minneapolis at all. As Charlie Rybak of Minneapolis Voices noted via Twitter, that's stock footage of Baltimore.
"I noticed it because I was watching the video and thought, "Ah, cool, Minneapolis has row houses? Where?'" Rybak tells Racket. "So I looked it up, and sure enough..."
Look, I get it, it can seem petty to complain about such a stupid blunder in the grand scheme of things. Would we do our best to plug the right search terms into iStock and ensure our one minute and 18 second long video wasn't accidentally interspersed with footage of random East Coast cities in exchange for almost a million dollars? We would, we would. But maybe it won't matter that much, big picture-wise. At the time of this writing, Rybak's tweet has amassed thousands more views than the MPD ad—earned media, baby!
Buses Will Return to George Floyd Square
The intersection at 38th & Chicago, where George Floyd was killed by MPD officer Derek Chauvin in 2020, reopened to cars in June of 2021, but Metro Transit buses have continued to reroute around the south Minneapolis square since community members shut it down. That will change on March 16, according to H. Jiahong Pan at the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, when the Route 23 buses that run from Uptown Minneapolis to Highland in St. Paul make their return. Metro Transit reps says the change is being made in part to keep things running on schedule due to the Hennepin Avenue reconstruction in Uptown, and not all routes will return: Route 5 and the D Line will continue to detour to Portland and Park Avenues as they have since 2020, Pan reports.
We're a Worldwide Beer Destination
That's according to VinePair, which just dropped its list of the top 10 beer destinations for 2024. Sitting at No. 7, right between Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Queenstown, New Zealand, is none other than Minneapolis, Minnesota, which is credited for having more than 40 craft breweries, "each pushing to make brewing a more innovative and creative space." Here's what VinePair's Olivia White had to say:
Leading the charge is Modist Brewing and head brewer Kiegan Knee, who received a nod from VinePair last year for his experimental brewing techniques. In a custom-built brewhouse, Knee conceives beers from a singular desired flavor, leading to recipes like Pineapple Passionfruit Fruited Sours, Double Marshmallow & Vanilla Dark Lagers, and a number of hemp-based seltzers.
A short 10-minute drive leads to Fair State Brewing Cooperative, the first cooperatively owned brewery in Minnesota, and only the third to open in the United States. Founded by Evan Sallee, Niko Tonks, and Matt Hauck, guests are able to buy into Fair State’s Member-Owner Program, which allows for beer lovers to help design recipes, pick berries for brews, and volunteer to support the brewery.
Purchase a Purple Plymouth Prowler, Perhaps?
Not the one that belonged to Prince—that one, as far as we know, lives inside Paisley Park. But there is a 1999 purple Prowler (same year/make/model/color as The Purple One's) for sale in Lindstrom right now, with just 24,000 miles and two owners. It's "in mint condition and a blast to drive," per the seller, and has never been driven in the rain, purple or otherwise. It can be yours for a cool $34K.
Speaking of Prince: Earlier this week the Strib scooped the sale of Birchwood Cafe to a group that includes Juell and Ray Roberts, who own local salad and sandwich chain Peoples Organic and were his former personal chefs. They'll open Darling in late April, their first new endeavor since the Minnesota music legend's 2016 death.
Take us away, Autumn Prince!
