Minneapolis is the largest city in Minnesota, and it grew around the focal point of St. Anthony Falls. Because of the resources provided, it became a milling society, both sawmills and flour mills. Prior to the white settlers, the land was populated by the Dakhóta (Dakota) and the Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe). The city formed in 1837 along with Saint Anthony (and the two were later merged into one) as part of a treaty with the indigenous people. Sawmills were more prominent in the early years, but Minneapolis slowly grew as a flour mill city rather than a sawmill one. The city was platted by John H. Stevens in 1854. They went through several different names before finally settling on Minnehapolis, both because it's close to Minnehaha and because  mni is the Dakota word for water (there are two dozen small lakes in Minneapolis) and polis, Greek for city. Saint Anthony was recognized as a town in 1855 and Minneapolis soon followed in 1856. Minneapolis was incorporated as a city in 1867. After the boundaries were changed, Saint Anthony and Minneapolis joined as one city under the name of Minneapolis 1872. Two of the prominent flour mills of the day, Washburn-Crosby Company Mill (now General Mills) and Pillsbury Company Mill were fierce rivals. In 1880, Washburn-Crosby Company won a national competition for their flour which was never held again, and they named their flour Gold Medal Flour decades later because of it (and because they were trying different marketing in a sagging market). In response, Pillsbury Company put a blue ribbon on their bags and called their flour Pillsbury's Best Flour. At the beginning of the 20th century, the flour mill business began to slow down because there was too much stress on the resources. The flour mill companies could see the writing on the wall and began diversifying. Washburn-Crosby Company bought a television station, and the call letters are WCCO in honor of the company. They merged with some national mill companies in 1928, changing  their name to General Mills. Today, General Mills owns several businesses, including Betty Crocker (which they created back when they were the Washburn-Crosby Company); Annie's, Inc.; and Blue Buffalo. They also acquired Pillsbury in 2001, which effectively put an end to the inter-company rivalry. The city went through much turmoil during the late 1880s and the early-to-mid 1900s. It was known as the most anti-Semitic state in the Midwest until the mid 1900s, and it had many issues with racial inequality. The KKK was was a strong presence in the early 1920s and there was racial segregation practiced in housing covenants across the city (blocking the sales of homes to racial minorities). https://www.mappingprejudice.org/ In addition, corruption ran deep in the Twin Cities at this time, which was the era of Prohibition. Gangsters ran both North Minneapolis and St. Paul, the ladder with the blessings of the Chief O'Connor of the Saint Paul Police who established the O'Connor System as a means to curry favor with the gangsters. There is a Saint Paul Gangster Tour in the Wabasha Street Caves to venerate those times. Things started to change in the 1940s when those in high political places realized just how serious the discrimination was and because of the racial unrest around the country. In 1943, Governor Thye created a commission to study these issues and come up with solutions, which was later renamed  the Governor's Human Rights Commission. One person leading the fight for civil rights during this time was Hubert H. Humphrey. He was the mayor of Minneapolis in 1946 when a renown sociologist, Carey McWilliams, labeled Minneapolis as the most anti-Semitic city in the country, and he was spurred on to improve the city so this was no longer true. He established the Mayor's Commission on Human Rights, a civil rights commission, and he became a lifelong crusader for civil rights. There were major bumps in this road, however, including the decision to try to mainstream Native Americans into the Twin Cities at the urging of President Eisenhower in 1953. The thinking was that assimilation would allow the Native Americans to blend in and flourish, but the opposite was true. Most Native Americans suffered more from being moved from the reservations to the Twin Cities. The federal policy was eventually overturned, and Native Americans were given back tribal authority. However, the ramifications of this policy were long-term and linger to this day. Minneapolis was in unrest during the sixties, much like the rest of the country. Civil rights were on the forefront of many people's minds, and there were touchstone moments in the city during this period  in regards to this issue. In 1963, the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council was created by the Legislature. Of course, there was the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1967, a local chapter of the Brown Berets was established at the U of M to address the issues that Latino people were facing. AIM (American Indian Movement) was founded in 1968. The first gay organization in Minnesota was FREE (Fight Repression of Erotic Expression) and was established at the U of M in 1969. In the same year, black students took over Morrill Hall at the U of M in protest at the exclusion of curriculum and academic opportunities specifically for African American students. The 1970s and 1980s brought a different kind of turmoil to the city. Because of the troops leaving Vietnam after the war causing the American-supported governments in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos to collapse. This created millions of refuges in these countries, and many of them fled to the United States. The Twin Cities has the largest concentration of Hmong people in an urban place in America at more than 66,000. The population of Minneapolis had been on the decline since 1950. It reached its nadir in 1980 since the 1910s, and the population was still 90% white. A stream of immigrants from all over the globe has driven the numbers up. The Latinx population of Minneapolis has quadrupled from 2% of the population in 1990 to 8% in 2000.  In addition, the Black population nearly tripled from the 1980s to the late 1990s. Most recently, there has been an influx of immigrants from East Africa, specifically Somalia and Ethiopia (Oromo people) who have settled into the West Bank neighborhood of Minneapolis. It has not been easy for the Somalis  to integrate especially after the events of 9/11 as they have been targeted for racial/ethnic harassment. In the 1980s and 1990s, Minneapolis started blossoming in many ways. Musically, it really started to thrive on several fronts. It got its first pop hit with Funkytown, performed by Lipp, Inc., and written by Steven Greenberg. Prince, of course hails from Minneapolis (or near enough0 and with him came producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. On the alt rock scene were The Replacements and Hüsker Dü. Minneapolis has struggled with racial integration for its entire history. After a concerted effort to improve things through the late 1900s, but then things slowly started unraveling starting at the beginning of the new millennium.      

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

The Downtown Minneapolis real estate scene is primarily condominiums in several districts. There's the North Loop (formerly the Warehouse District), Downtown East and Downtown West, Loring Park, and Elliot Park.

North Loop

The North Loop was formerly known as the Warehouse District. Over the past 30 years it has changed to one of the most vibrant areas of Downtown Minneapolis. There are many award-winning restaurants in this part of town like https://www.spoonandstable.com/. It also has the Target Field baseball stadium, and a myrid of condo buildings. These include: 710, 720, 730 Lofts, Bookmen Lofts, Harvester Lofts, Riverwalk Lofts, Security Lofts, Renaissance On The River, Herschel Lofts, and many, many more.

Downtown East

Within Downtown East, is the Mill District. This area consists of numerous cultural institutions, such as the (new) Guthrie Theater, the Mill City Museum, Mill Ruins Park, Gold Medal Park, and the Stone Arch Bridge. Condo buildings within this are include: Stone Arch Lofts, Bridgewater Lofts, Humboldt Lofts, Riverwest Condos, Metropolitan Lofts, The Zenith, and several other buildings. Some of these are new construction, some are reconfigured industrial spaces, some are boutique.

Downtown West

Downtown West is where the tallest buildings are in Downtown Minneapolis. Within this business district core, there are just a few condo buildings, and most are connected via skyway to the downtown buildings making it a quick walk to work. These buildings include: The Ivy Residences, The Carlyle, The Crossings, Centre Village, 6 Quebec, City Heights, and River Towers.

Loring Park

Home in Loring Park can be found in the following: Summit House Condos, The Kenosha, 1200 On The Mall, Loring Green, Loring Way Condos, The Bellevue, Wellington, Clifton Place, 510 Groveland (co-op), The Groveland, and many more unique buildings.

Elliot Park

There are fewer condo buildings in this part of downtown, which is right on the SE corner of downtown. These condo buildings include the Sexton Lofts, Grant Park Condos and Townhouses, 607 Washington, Rappahannock Flats, Skyscape, and American Trio. If you are wanting to search for homes, or list your home for sale, click on the links below.