Editing Minneapolis–Saint Paul (section)

==Geography==
Natural geography played a role in the two cities' settlement and development. The [[Mississippi River Valley]] in the area is defined by a series of stone bluffs that line the river. Saint Paul grew up around Lambert's Landing, the last place to unload boats coming upriver at an easily accessible point, {{convert|7|mi|km|spell=in}} downstream from [[Saint Anthony Falls]], the geographic feature that, due to the value of its immense water power for industry, defined Minneapolis's location and its prominence as the Mill City. The falls can be seen from the [[Mill City Museum]], housed in the former [[Washburn "A" Mill]], which was among the world's largest mills in its time. The phrase "St. Paul is the last city of the East, Minneapolis the first city of the West" alludes to the historical difference.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Popik|first=Barry|title=Barry Popik|url=https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/first_city_of_the_west_minneapolis_nickname#:~:text=It%E2%80%99s%20often%20said%20of%20these%20Twin%20Cities%20that,%E2%80%9CThe%20Northwest%20begins%20at%20St.%20Paul%20and%20Minneapolis.|access-date=2020-08-03|website=www.barrypopik.com|language=en}}</ref>

=== Farming ===
[[File:Ford lock and dam.jpg|thumb|right|[[Lock and Dam No. 1, Mississippi River|Lock and Dam No. 1]] on the [[Mississippi River]] upstream from the [[Minnesota River]]]]
The state's oldest farms are in [[Washington County, Minnesota|Washington County]]. The county borders the [[St. Croix River (Wisconsin–Minnesota)|St. Croix River]] and [[Wisconsin]] on the eastern side of the metropolitan area. Joseph Haskell was Minnesota's first white farmer, harvesting the first crops in the state in 1840 on what is now part of Afton Township on Trading Post Trail.<ref>{{cite book |title=Afton Remembered |first=Edwin G. |last=Robb |year=1996 |publisher=Afton Historical Society Press |isbn=978-0-9639338-7-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iuRhAAAACAAJ }}</ref>

=== Grand Excursion ===
{{See also|Grand Excursion}}
The [[Grand Excursion]], a trip into the Upper Midwest sponsored by the [[Rock Island Railroad]], brought more than a thousand curious travelers into the area by rail and steamboat in 1854. In 1855, [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]] published ''[[The Song of Hiawatha]]'', an [[epic poem]] based on the [[Ojibwe]] legends of [[Hiawatha]]. A number of natural area landmarks appear in the story, including [[Lake Minnetonka]] and [[Minnehaha Falls]]. Tourists inspired by the coverage of the Grand Excursion in eastern newspapers and those who read ''The Song of Hiawatha'' flocked to the area in the following decades.

=== Rail transport ===
At one time, the region had numerous passenger rail services, including both interurban [[streetcar]] systems and interstate rail. Due to the river's width at points farther south, the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area was briefly one of the few places where the Mississippi could be crossed by railroad. Much commercial rail traffic also ran through the area, often carrying grain to be processed at Minneapolis mills or delivering other goods to Saint Paul to be transported along the Mississippi. Saint Paul was long at the [[head of navigation]] on the river, until a [[Lock and Dam No. 1, Mississippi River|lock and dam facility]] was added upriver in Minneapolis.

Passenger travel hit its peak in 1888, with nearly eight million traversing to and from [[Saint Paul Union Depot]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2018}} This amounted to approximately 150 trains daily. Soon, other rail crossings were built farther south and travel through the region began to decline. In an effort by the rail companies to combat the rise of the automobile, some of the earliest [[streamliner]]s ran from [[Chicago]] to Minneapolis/Saint Paul and eventually served distant points in the [[Pacific Northwest]]. Today, this interstate service is served by [[Amtrak]]'s [[King Street Station|Seattle]]/[[Portland Union Station|Portland]]-to-[[Chicago Union Station|Chicago]] ''[[Empire Builder]]'' route, running once daily in each direction, and supplemented by the {{lnl|Amtrak|Borealis}} route to Chicago. The Empire Builder is named after [[James J. Hill]], a railroad tycoon who settled on [[Summit Avenue (St. Paul)|Summit Avenue]] in Saint Paul in what is now known as the [[James J. Hill House]].

=== Socioeconomic history ===
Like many Northern cities that grew up with the [[Industrial Revolution]], Minneapolis and St. Paul experienced shifts in their economic base as heavy industry declined, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. With the economic decline of those decades came population decline in the [[Demographics of Minneapolis|central city areas]], [[white flight]] to suburbs,<ref>{{cite book |chapter=It Couldn't Happen Here... |title=Metropolitics : a regional agenda for community and stability | first=Myron Jr. |last=Orfield |isbn=0-8157-6640-8 |location=Washington DC |publisher=Brookings Institution |year=1997 |chapter-url-access=registration |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/metropoliticsreg00orfi/page/n20 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/metropoliticsreg00orfi }}</ref> and, in the summer of 1967, [[race riots]] on Minneapolis's North Side.<ref>{{cite news |last=Neset |first=Ray |title=Plymouth Avenue 40 Years Later |date=July 20, 2007 |url=http://mplsmirror.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=128&Itemid=1 |url-status = usurped|newspaper=Minneapolis Mirror |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090109122142/http://mplsmirror.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=128&Itemid=1 |archive-date=9 January 2009 |access-date=2 May 2019}}</ref> But by the 1980s and 1990s, Minneapolis and Saint Paul were often cited as former [[Rust Belt]] cities that had made successful transitions to service, high-technology, finance, and information economies.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=A Tale of Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul |last1=Abercrombie |first1=Thomas J. |last2=Griffiths |first2=Annie |magazine=National Geographic |date=November 1980 |volume=156 |number=5 |pages=664–691 }}</ref>

In May and June 2020, the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area became a focus of international attention after [[Minneapolis Police Department|MPD]] officer [[Derek Chauvin]] murdered [[George Floyd]] by kneeling on his neck for almost ten minutes. The murder sparked [[George Floyd protests in Minneapolis–Saint Paul|local]], [[List of George Floyd protests in the United States|nationwide]] and [[List of George Floyd protests outside the United States|international protests]] against racism and police brutality, bringing considerable attention to the MPD.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Scheiber|first1=Noam|last2=Stockman|first2=Farah|last3=Goodman|first3=J. David|date=2020-06-06|title=How Police Unions Became Such Powerful Opponents to Reform Efforts|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/06/us/police-unions-minneapolis-kroll.html|access-date=2020-06-07|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Minneapolis–Saint Paul was the site of the second-costliest act of civil disobedience in U.S. history, after the [[1992 Los Angeles riots|1992 Los Angeles Riots]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=St. Paul rebuilding efforts inch along after civil unrest|url=https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/08/14/st-paul-rebuilding-efforts-inch-along-after-may-civil-unrest|access-date=2021-12-10|website=MPR News|date=August 14, 2020 }}</ref> Local protests and riots caused an estimated $550 million in damages<ref>{{Cite web|last=Tribune|first=Neal St Anthony Star|title=Minneapolis Foundation raising $20 million for riot-hurt small businesses|url=https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-foundation-raising-20-million-to-rebuild-small-businesses-hurt-in-2020-riots/600058520/|access-date=2021-11-29|website=Star Tribune|date=May 18, 2021 }}</ref> and affected around 1,600 businesses.<ref>{{Cite web|title=St. Paul rebuilding efforts inch along after civil unrest|url=https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/08/14/st-paul-rebuilding-efforts-inch-along-after-may-civil-unrest|access-date=2021-11-29|website=MPR News|date=August 14, 2020 }}</ref>

===Rivalry===
Minneapolis and Saint Paul have competed since they were founded, resulting in some duplication of effort.<ref name="OAH">{{cite web|url=http://www.oah.org/pubs/nl/2007feb/wingerd.html |title=Separated at Birth: The Sibling Rivalry of Minneapolis and St. Paul |first=Mary Lethert|last=Wingerd |date=February 2007 |publisher=Organization of American Historians |work=OAH Newsletter |issue=35 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120707020313/http://www.oah.org/pubs/nl/2007feb/wingerd.html |archive-date=July 7, 2012 }}</ref> After Saint Paul completed its elaborate [[Cathedral of Saint Paul (Minnesota)|cathedral]] in 1915, Minneapolis followed up with the equally ornate [[Basilica of Saint Mary, Minneapolis|Basilica of St. Mary]] in 1926. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the rivalry became so intense that an architect practicing in one city was often refused business in the other. The [[1890 United States census]] even led to the two cities arresting and/or kidnapping each other's census takers, in an attempt to keep each city from outgrowing the other.<ref name="Cen1">{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1890/06/21/archives/censusbred-bitterness-st-paul-and-minneapolis-have-locked-horns.html|title=Census-Bred Bitterness; St. Paul and Minneapolis Have Locked Horns |newspaper=New York Times |date=June 21, 1890 }}</ref><ref name="Cen2">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1890/06/22/archives/they-want-hays-scalp-st-paul-residents-are-going-to-descend-upon.html|title=They Want Hay's Scalp.; St. Paul Residents Are Going to Descend Upon Washington |date=June 22, 1890 |newspaper=New York Times.}}</ref><ref name="Cen3">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1890/07/23/archives/fighting-over-the-census-st-paul-jealous-of-minneapolis-and-charges.html|title=Fighting over the Census; St. Paul Jealous of Minneapolis and Charges Fraud |date=July 23, 1890|newspaper=The New York Times.}}</ref>

The rivalry occasionally erupted into inter-city violence, as at a 1929 game between the [[Minneapolis Millers]] and the [[St. Paul Saints]], both [[baseball]] teams of the [[American Association (20th century)|American Association]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thornley |first1=Stew |title=Baseball in Minnesota: The Definitive History |date=2006 |publisher=Minnesota Historical Society |isbn=978-0-87351-551-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D0u6nMN6iwoC&dq=Sammy+Bohne+Doesn%E2%80%99t+Play%2C+But+Gets+More+Hits+Than+Those+Who+Do&pg=PA63 |access-date=October 18, 2021 |language=en}}</ref> In the 1950s, both cities competed for a [[major league baseball]] franchise (which resulted in two rival stadiums being built), and there was a brief period in the mid-1960s when the two cities could not agree on a common calendar for [[daylight saving time]], resulting in a few weeks when people in Minneapolis were one hour "behind" those in Saint Paul.<ref>{{cite news |title=May 10, 1965: Minneapolis falls an hour behind St. Paul |url=http://www.startribune.com/may-10-1965-minneapolis-falls-an-hour-behind-st-paul/371419821/ |newspaper=Star Tribune}}</ref>

The cities' mutual antagonism was largely healed by the end of the 1960s, aided by the simultaneous arrival in 1961 of the [[Minnesota Twins]] of the [[American League]] and the [[Minnesota Vikings]] of the [[National Football League]], both of which identified themselves with the state as a whole (the former explicitly named for both Twin Cities) rather than either city (like the earlier [[Minneapolis Lakers]]). Since 1961, it has been common practice for any major sports team based in the Twin Cities to be named for Minnesota as a whole. In terms of development, the two cities remain distinct in their progress, with Minneapolis absorbing new and avant-garde architecture while Saint Paul continues to carefully integrate new buildings into the context of classical and Victorian styles.<ref name="OAH" />