The Nation’s Future Depends on Its Cities, Not on Washington

The residents of Minneapolis-St. Paul suffer, collectively, from a serious insecurity complex. They're always talking about how no one knows anything about their "twin" cities on the upper Mississippi River. Young professionals never want to live there, complains local author Jay Walljasper, who did a study of where those sought-after Gen X-ers and Y-ers want to go. "They all had aspirations for Toronto, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Washington, Montreal. I kept waiting for them to mention Minneapolis-St. Paul," he says. "But we were not on the radar."

To the extent that anybody pays attention at all, people tend to make fun of "MSP" (the preferred abbreviation; the cities' collective name is as ungainly as its reputation)—even homeys such as Garrison Keillor, who's made a career out of Minnesotan self-deprecation. Some "Twin Citians" (many hate that nickname, too) grimly joke that the last thing that brought them national attention was The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the 1970s sitcom about a thirtysomething TV reporter based there. As if to drive home just how deep the insecurity runs, the middle of downtown Minneapolis features a slightly ridiculous bronze statue of the actress throwing her "tam," as in the opening credits of her long-ago show.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/the-nation-s-future-depends-on-its-cities-not-on-washington-20130828