Armatage neighborhood is located in the Southwest corner of the city. The area is great for food lovers, families, and fitness. Armatage has a lot of unique restaurants, neighborhood is built up with mostly single-family housing and some multifamily buildings, and Lake Harriett is easily accessible for a quick jog. The neighborhood is named for the Armatage Community and Montessori School. In turn, the school is named for Maude Armatage; a community leader who became the first woman elected to a Minneapolis municipal office in the position of Commissioner at Large (a seat on the Park Board) in June of 1921. She was unanimously elected the Vice President of the Board in 1924. Café Maude is a popular bistro in Armatage that is also a salute to this pioneer woman. It also has great food and live music, and is therefore difficult to get reservations. The café has a motto of civilized leisure, so if you want American food with a twist, this is the place for you. Rated the best neighborhood by City Pages, Armatage is the prefect place for families, strong community, volunteering opportunities, and a summer festival.

Armatage began in Richfield, but was annexed over to Minneapolis in 1920. The neighborhood earned its name after Maude Armatage, a member of the Minneapolis Board of Park Commissioners. She served for 30 years, fighting to improve civics, culture, leisure time, and education in the neighborhood. Armatage also fought for women’s rights during a time when it was still taboo to speak of. Ms. Armatage was a face of duty, integrity, and devotion for the neighborhood, and became the inspiration for the name. Most of the housing in Armatage was built between 1949 and 1969. 5 percent of housing was built before World War II, and therefore Armtage’s houses have more of a modern and spacious flavour to the neighborhood.

In 2013, Minneapolis adopted their Climate Action Plan, which put into place a comprehensive set of emission reduction strategies. These strategies cover 3 areas: Buildings and energy, Transportation and land use, Waste and recycling. For buildings and energy, the goal is to reduce energy usage by 17%, and generate 10% of electricity from local, renewable sources. On the residential building side of things, Minneapolis is proposing a "home energy audit" as part of the Truth In Housing program (TIH or TISH, Truth In Sale of Housing). This would require sellers to have an energy score when listing their house for sale. They are proposing that the TISH inspectors be trained to perform this component of the inspection process. The end result of this energy score would be a single number, for example 37 on a scale of 1 to 100. 100 would mean that the house would have virtually no energy costs. Another part of this program is to make incentives for sellers to improve their homes energy-wise so that they can get a higher sale price due to energy efficiencies. If they don't, the buyers will at least have some knowledge about the energy efficiency of the house, making it an incentive to them to improve the house energy-wise. Also on the residential side of things, Minneapolis is proposing a "time of rent" energy disclosure for renters. Renters currently have no way of knowing how much their utility bills will be before renting a unit. The disclosure would be mandated so that renters could compare units on energy efficiency. This would give incentives to the landlord (owners) to improve their buildings to make them more attractive to the rental market. On the commercial side of things, some of them already have to do an energy score of sorts and disclose to purchasers. Minneapolis would like to extend that to all commercial buildings. They also have an Energy Reduction Challenge called the "Kilowatt Crackdown" to encourage commercial buildings to reduce usage. For renewable energy, Minneapolis is trying to create policies that promote renewable energy, develop a "solar-ready" certification, and encourage "net-zero" buildings. Making a building "solar-ready" adds virtually no cost at the time of construction, and would potentially have some value to purchasers. This would involve adding some structural supports and electrical conduit so that solar could be installed without adding structural support to the roof trusses, and/or digging in walls to add conduit. Both of these items can be added at a very low cost when in the construction phase. What is a net-zero building? Basically net-zero means the building (or house) would generate all the energy it needs to power the building itself. This generally means that the building is super insulated so that it requires less energy to heat and cool the building, as well as solar panels to generate the energy it needs. Oftentimes this type of building uses geo-thermal heat pumps to heat and cool the building, running off solar energy. You can read more about "Net-Zero" buildings at this link. You can read the entire action plan at the link below. Minneapolis Climate Action Plan: http://www.minneapolismn.gov/sustainability/climate-action-goals/climate-action-plan

If you are wanting to search for homes, or list your home for sale, click on the links below.

Armatage Park - ( 2500 W 57th Street, 612-370-4912, website)

The only park in Armatage is called Armatage Park. Named after Maude Armatage, the park and recreation center has a wide assortment of playing fields and even a Tier 1 skateboard park. The park also has a state-of-the-art playground with all kinds of swings as well as a climbing wall; baseball, soccer, football, and softball fields; hockey rink; picnic area; wading pool; and public art.

Pizzeria Lola - ( 5557 Xerxes Ave S, 612-424-8334, website)

Pizzeria Lola, a delicious pizzeria, was founded by a Korean immigrant who loved food, joy, and cooking. The restaurant is named after the owner’s dog, and the space itself is open and warm.

Red Wagon - ( 5416 Penn Ave, 612-259-7147, website)

Another great pizza place is Red Wagon. Enjoy a selection of pizza, pizza based dishes, salads, soups, and pasta. Founded in New Jersey, raised in Detroit, and alive in Minnesota, Red Wagon is a passion based restaurant run by Pete and Jacquie Campell.

Flight Attendant Shop LLC - ( 5641 Vincent Ave S, 612-926-8003, website)

Holiday Stationstores - ( 5601 Xerxes Ave S, 612-929-8577, website)

Marathon Gas - ( 5400 Penn Ave S, 612-922-3834, website)

Penn Minnoco - ( 6001 Penn Ave S, 612-869-4272, website)

Settergren Ace Hardware - ( 2813 W 43rd St, 612-920-2813, website)

Wagners Greenhouse & Garden Center - ( 6024 Penn Ave S, 612-395-4926, website)

At Wagners, you can purchase any needed and beautiful flowers for your home or yard.

AUG: Armatage Summer Festival - ( 2500 W 57th Street, 612-370-4912, website)

A wonderful summer get-together, including a car show!