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Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis is the largest city the state of Minnesota. . The city lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, and the Minnesota River. Minneapolis neighbors Saint Paul, the state's capital. Known as the Twin Cities, these two cities form the core of Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, the fifteenth largest metropolitan area in the United States Minneapolis-St Paul metropolitan area has about 3.5 million residents. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the population of the city of Minneapolis at 387.900 people in 2006.

Minneapolis is home to of many corporate based companies such as Target, (which has approximately 1500 retail stores nationwide), U.S. Bancorp, Xcel Energy, Ameriprise Financial, Pepsi, Wells Fargo, Macy's, Star Tribune, IBM, Piper Jaffray, ING Group, Qwest, etc. The largest shopping mall, Mall of America is located in Minneapolis.

The economy of Minneapolis today is based in commerce, finance, rail and trucking services, health care, and industry. Smaller components are in publishing, milling, food processing, graphic arts, insurance, and high technology. Industry produces metal and automotive products, chemical and agricultural products, electronics, computers, precision medical instruments and devices, plastics, and machinery.

In 2005, Popular Science Magazine named Minneapolis as the "Top Tech City" in the U.S. due to its above average public transportation, university research, Medical research and energy conservation. In 2006 Kiplinger's poll of Smart Places to Live ranked the Twin Cities as the second best place to live. It also stated Minneapolis is one of the Seven Cool Cities for young professionals.

Minneapolis is the primary business center between Chicago, Illinois, and Seattle, Washington. Minneapolis is considered one of America's most literate city, housing many cultural organizations for theater, visual art, writing and music. The metropolitan area ranks second only to New York City in live theater per capita and is the third-largest theater market in the U.S.

The Minneapolis park system has been called the best-designed, best-financed and best-maintained in America. Mineapplis has twenty lakes and wetlands, the Mississippi riverfront, creeks and waterfalls, many connected by parkways in the Chain of Lakes and the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway.

Runner's World ranks the Twin Cities as America's sixth best city for runners. Minneapolis is home to more golfers per capita than any major U.S. city.

Minneapolis winters usually are cold and dry, while summer is comfortably warm . Because of its northerly location in the United States and lack of large bodies of water to moderate the air, Minneapolis is sometimes subjected to cold Arctic air masses, especially during late December, January & February.