Media

Media

WCCO-TV on the Nicollet Mall

Five major newspapers are published in Minneapolis: Star Tribune, Finance and Commerce, Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, the university's The Minnesota Daily and MinnPost.com. Other publications are the City Pages weekly, the Mpls.St.Paul and Minnesota Monthly monthlies, and Utne magazine.^[252] In 2008 readers of online news also used The UpTake, Minnesota Independent, Twin Cities Daily Planet, Downtown Journal, Cursor, MNSpeak and about fifteen other sites.^[253]
Minneapolis has a mix of radio stations and healthy listener support for public radio. In the commercial market three radio broadcasting companies iHeartMedia (formerly Clear Channel), CBS Radio, and Cumulus Media operate the majority of the radio stations in the market. Listeners support three Minnesota Public Radio non-profit stations and two community non-profit stations, the Minneapolis Public Schools and the University of Minnesota each operate a station, and religious organizations run four stations.^[254]

KFAI radio with studios in Cedar-Riverside is a community station.

The city's first television was broadcast in 1948 by the Saint Paul station and ABC affiliate KSTP-TV, an NBC affiliate at the time. The first to broadcast in color was WCCO-TV, the CBS affiliate which is located in downtown Minneapolis.^[255] WCCO-TV, FOX affiliate KMSP-TV and MyNetworkTV affiliate WFTC operate as owned-and-operated stations of their affiliated networks. The city and suburbs are also home to independently-owned affiliates of NBC (KARE), PBS (KTCA-TV/KTCI-TV), The CW (WUCW) and one independent station (KSTC-TV).^[256]
A number of movies have been shot in Minneapolis, including The Heartbreak Kid (1972),^[257] Ice Castles (1978),^[258] Take This Job and Shove It (1981),^[259] Purple Rain (1984),^[260] That Was Then, This Is Now (1985),^[261] The Mighty Ducks (1992),^[262] Untamed Heart (1993),^[263] Beautiful Girls (1996),^[264] Jingle All the Way (1996),^[265] Fargo (1996),^[266] and Young Adult (2011).^[267] In television, two episodes of Route 66 were shot in Minneapolis in 1963 (and broadcast in 1963 and 1964).^[268][269] The 1970s CBS situation comedy fictionally based in Minneapolis, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, won three Golden Globes and 31 Emmy Awards.^[270]

Infrastructure

Transportation

Main articles: Transportation in Minnesota, METRO (Minnesota), and I-35W Saint Anthony Falls Bridge

METRO Blue Line LRT downtown at Government Plaza

Half of Minneapolis–Saint Paul residents work in the city where they live.^[271] Most residents drive cars but 60% of the 160,000 people working downtown commute by means other than a single person per auto.^[272] Alternative transportation is encouraged. The Metropolitan Council's Metro Transit, which operates the light rail system and most of the city's buses, provides free travel vouchers through the Guaranteed Ride Home program to allay fears that commuters might otherwise be occasionally stranded if, for example, they work late hours.^[273]
On January 1, 2011, the city's limit of 343 taxis was lifted.^[274]
Minneapolis currently has two light rail lines and one commuter rail line. The METRO Blue Line LRT (formerly the Hiawatha Line^[275]) serves 34,000 riders daily and connects the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport and Mall of America in Bloomington to downtown. Most of the line runs at surface level, although parts of the line run on elevated tracks (including the Franklin Avenue and Lake Street/Midtown stations) and approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) of the line runs underground, including the Lindbergh terminal subway station at the airport.
Minneapolis' second^[276] light rail line, the METRO Green Line shares stations with the Blue Line in downtown Minneapolis, and then at the Downtown East station, travels east through the University of Minnesota, and then along University Avenue into downtown Saint Paul. Construction began in November 2010 and the line began service on June 14, 2014. The third line, the Southwest Line (Green Line extension), will connect downtown Minneapolis with the southwestern suburb of Eden Prairie. Completion is expected sometime in the late 2010s.^[277] A northwest LRT is planned along Bottineau Boulevard (Blue Line extension) from downtown to Brooklyn Park and Maple Grove.
The 40-mile Northstar Commuter rail, which runs from Big Lake through the northern suburbs and terminates at the multi-modal transit station at Target Field, opened on November 16, 2009.^[278] It uses existing railroad tracks and serves 2,600 daily commuters.^[279]

Bike rack on the Blue Line

Minneapolis ranks 27th in the nation for the highest percentage of commuters by bicycle,^[280] and was editorialized as the top bicycling city in "Bicycling's Top 50" ranking in 2010.^[281] Ten thousand cyclists use the bike lanes in the city each day, and many ride in the winter. The Public Works Department expanded the bicycle trail system from the Grand Rounds to 56 miles (90 km) of off-street commuter trails including the Midtown Greenway, the Light Rail Trail, Kenilworth Trail, Cedar Lake Trail and the West River Parkway Trail along the Mississippi. Minneapolis also has 34 miles (54 km) of dedicated bike lanes on city streets and encourages cycling by equipping transit buses with bike racks and by providing online bicycle maps.^[282] Many of these trails and bridges, such as the Stone Arch Bridge, were former railroad lines that have now been converted for bicycles and pedestrians.^[283] In 2007 citing the city's bicycle lanes, buses and LRT, Forbes identified Minneapolis the world's fifth cleanest city.^[284] In 2010, Nice Ride Minnesota launched with 65 kiosks for bicycle sharing,^[285] and 19 pedicabs were operating downtown.^[286] In 2016, Nice Ride expanded to 171 stations and 1,833 bikes^[287] supplied by PBSC Urban Solutions, a Canadian company.^[288]
A 2011 study by Walk Score ranked Minneapolis the ninth most walkable of 50 largest cities in the United States.^[289]
Seven miles (11 km) of enclosed pedestrian bridges called skyways, the Minneapolis Skyway System, link eighty city blocks downtown. Second floor restaurants and retailers connected to these passageways are open on weekdays.^[290]
Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) sits on 3,400 acres (1,400 ha)^[291] on the southeast border of the city between Minnesota State Highway 5, Interstate 494, Minnesota State Highway 77, and Minnesota State Highway 62. The airport serves international, domestic, charter and regional carriers^[292] and is a hub and home base for Sun Country Airlines. It is also the second largest hub for Delta Air Lines.^[293]