Jorge, thank you for the wonderful, sympathetic look at my home town. I have been steeling myself for condescension from the visiting media, and your article was the exact opposite of what I have been dreading. I currently live just northeast of the Twin Cities, but I was born in Minneapolis, and have never lived…

Great story, except for the Sears thing. I’ve lived in Boston, Baltimore, LA, San Diego, Washington DC, Rome, London, Detroit, and a few other places... The twin cities has the best quality of life. My brother came to visit from NYC and I took him to lake of the isles and the thing that he could not understand was why…

used to be always proud of being a DFL’er

Loved the article. So many stories like these all over the state.

I dunno, man. I live in New York, and I think Minneapolis gives the city a run for its money.

20 years ago, he wouldn’t have set foot on most of Lake Street save for Uptown. The revitalization of Lake Street is just like everything else about Minneapolis now: self-congratulatory gentrification pushing the poverty elsewhere, like Northeast.

I moved here from Austin, TX a couple years ago and while I perpetually complain about the duerth of Tex-Mex the variety of food here is downright fantastic. You have friendly people from every direction of the world and this is by far the best place to try it all outside of San Francisco(sorry NYC). The thing about…

Good lord...we have a 1st rate transportation system here in good ol Minnesota, even airplanes! There is no lack of warm weather fruits and vegetables..even in the dead of winter! Jorje, great article! glad you came!!

Minneapolis isn’t perfect, but it’s the neighborhoods like this that make me miss living there. Vibrant, diverse, and people who really do care about their city.

Thanks for this post, really enjoyed it. Looking like the old smug assumption often heard on both coasts that the whole middle of the country is a boring, shallow cultural wasteland is more wrong than ever.

Second that. Almost all the media coverage has been focused on all the stereotypical “Minnesota Nice” bullshit. Minneapolis is better than that.

A million thanks for this piece, which is a great snapshot of a fantastic part of Minneapolis that doesn’t make the news very often.

Forced labor is not a good look for a supposedly “free country.”

“Forcing dozens of women to go and perform for this man is without a question going to be problematic.”

Yeah I think we all were thinking it

I thought it too! Immediately.

Cotton mouth + pursed lips did it for me (my other theory: like 500 mg of adderall? Technically legal but basically the same)

You weren’t. The first thing I thought was, “What the fuck is he on?”

NO YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE WITH THE COCAINE

OMFG I wanna tongue kiss Howard Dean. I thought I was the only one with the cocaine theory.