One of Minneapolis most celebrated communities, Uptown is a distinct group of four vibrant neighborhoods that have long offered a host of cultural treasures to residents and visitors alike. In addition to the entertainment provided by the area's nightspots and lakes, Uptown also has a long history of presenting its residents with a wide range of housing choices, schools,churches and temples, parks, restaurants, and stores. This book uses rare photographs to document and celebrate Uptowns development from a 19th-century summer retreat and agricultural area into a thriving metropolitan business, entertainment, and residential district. From the Minneapolis Arena-home to the Minneapolis millers and the Ice Follies-to Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles, and from historic homes and majestic theaters to the Buzza greeting card factory. Uptown Minneapolis takes readers on a scenic journey through the heritage of this much-loved community.

At a pizza place in uptown Minneapolis, scenesters and a psychic try very hard to find the next cool party and a pure state of punk living in the summating year of 1989. Their overripe imaginations (and beer) bring out bizarre fatal accidents, memories of once being devil possessed, and a vengeful ghost of a hippie who had overdosed.

"Local editors Schaper and Horwitz have assembled a noteworthy collection of noir-infused stories mixed with laughter…The Akashic noir short-story anthologies are avidly sought and make ideal samplers for regional mystery collecting." --Library Journal "The best pieces in the collection turn the clichés of the genre on their head . . . and despite the unseemly subject matter, the stories are often surprisingly funny." —City Pages (Minneapolis) Brand-new stories from John Jodzio, Tom Kaczynski, and Peter Schilling, Jr., in addition to the original volume's stories by David Housewright, Steve Thayer, Judith Guest, Mary Logue, Bruce Rubenstein, K.J. Erickson, William Kent Krueger, Ellen Hart, Brad Zellar, Mary Sharratt, Pete Hautman, Larry Millett, Quinton Skinner, Gary Bush, and Chris Everheart. "St. Paul was originally called Pig's Eye's Landing and was named after Pig's Eye Parrant--trapper, moonshiner, and proprietor of the most popular drinking establishment on the Mississippi. Traders, river rats, missionaries, soldiers, land speculators, fur trappers, and Indian agents congregated in his establishment and made their deals. When Minnesota became a territory in 1849, the town leaders, realizing that a place called Pig's Eye might not inspire civic confidence, changed the name to St. Paul, after the largest church in the city . . . Across the river, Minneapolis has its own sordid story. By the turn of the twentieth century it was considered one of the most crooked cities in the nation. Mayor Albert Alonzo Ames, with the assistance of the chief of police, his brother Fred, ran a city so corrupt that according to Lincoln Steffans its 'deliberateness, invention, and avarice has never been equaled.' As recently as the mid-'90s, Minneapolis was called 'Murderopolis' due to a rash of killings that occurred over a long hot summer . . . Every city has its share of crime, but what makes the Twin Cities unique may be that we have more than our share of good writers to chronicle it. They are homegrown and they know the territory--how the cities look from the inside, out . . ."

As it cuts across South Minneapolis, Lake Street reflects the city's diversity and its rich history. Initially a narrow dirt road out beyond Minneapolis's early city limits, Lake Street evolved into a major transportation route after the turn of the last century. Spurred by the city's population boom during those early years, the Lake Street corridor soon filled in with retail shops, restaurants, movie theaters, and auto dealers. But Lake Street's role as a major commercial corridor did not last. Buffeted by the forces of suburbanization after World War II, businesses along the corridor began to close, leaving Lake Street pockmarked with vacant, blighted buildings. Then, starting in the 1990s, the seeds of the corridor's renewal were planted when an energetic group of new arrivals to the United States began renovating Lake Street's deteriorating storefronts for their family-owned businesses. Lake Street's rejuvenation has continued into the current century as business and community leaders build on the work begun by those 20th-century urban pioneers.

Even though they’re often lumped together, the Twin Cities are two distinct cities with very different histories. Minneapolis is the Mill City, the City of Lakes, composed mostly of flat prairies. St. Paul is the Capital City, built on rolling hills and high river bluffs. Whether you’re interested in art, culture, history, or nature, there’s a walk in this book designed for your interests. We hope that it serves not only as a guidebook for (re)discovering the Twin Cities, but as a springboard for additional explorations. Walking Twin Cities contains 35 walks of varying levels of difficulty, built around the natural, architectural, and historical attractions of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The downtown areas of both cities are explored in depth, as well as many of the neighborhoods, scenic parks, and lakes that are scattered through the area.

The recent development of light rail transit in the Twin Cities has been an undeniable success. Plans for additional lines progress, and our ways of shopping, dining, and commuting are changing dramatically. As we embrace riding the new Hiawatha light rail line, an older era comes to mind—the age when everyone rode the more than 500 miles of track that crisscrossed the Twin Cities. In Twin Cities by Trolley, John Diers and Aaron Isaacs offer a rolling snapshot of Minneapolis and St. Paul from the 1880s to the 1950s, when the streetcar system shaped the growth and character of the entire metropolitan area. More than 400 photographs and 70 maps let the reader follow the tracks from Stillwater to University Avenue to Lake Minnetonka, through Uptown to downtown Minneapolis. The illustrations show nearly every neighborhood in Minneapolis and St. Paul as it was during the streetcar era. At its peak in the 1920s and early 1930s, the Twin City Rapid Transit Company (TCRT) operated over 900 streetcars, owned 523 miles of track, and carried more than 200 million passengers annually. Recounting the rise and fall of the TCRT, Twin Cities by Trolley explores the history, organization, and operations of the streetcar system, including life as a streetcar operator and the technology, design, and construction of the cars. Inspiring fond memories for anyone who grew up in the Twin Cities, Twin Cities by Trolley leads readers on a fascinating and enlightening tour of this bygone era in the neighborhood and the city they call home. John W. Diers has worked in the transit industry for thirty-five years, including twenty-five years at the Twin Cities Metropolitan Transit Commission. He has written for Trains, and has served on the board of the Minnesota Transportation Museum. Aaron Isaacs worked with Metro Transit for thirty-three years. He is the author of Twin City Lines—The 1940s and The Como-Harriet Streetcar Line. He is also the editor of Railway Museum Quarterly.

Insiders' Guide to Twin Cities is the essential source for in-depth travel and relocation information to Minneapolis and St. Paul. Written by a local (and true insider), this guide offers a personal and practical perspective of the cities and the surrounding environs.