I have two loves in my life St. Paul and Minneapolis. I love them for different reasons. Each of them is unique and I don’t want them to change who they are. Even though they are twin sisters they have very little in common.
St. Paul is the girl next door. She is cute, sweet, and innocent. She is quaint, wears little to no makeup, and your parents want you to date her. She often times puts her hair in a ponytail and wears jeans and a sweater, but looks cute as a button doing so. She is smart and has a full-ride scholarship to the college of her choice. She is active in the community, volunteering at various animal shelters and soup kitchens. She is active in sports and participates in choir at her school. She is social and nice to everyone she meets, rarely judging anyone. She is unpretentious, kind, and fun to hang out with. She likes to have a drink, but rarely gets out of control. Most of the time she drinks beer and can be seen as one of the “guys”. She is a tomboy at heart and isn’t considered high maintenance. You can take her on a date to a dive bar with nothing but a juke box and an old guy working behind the counter and she will have the time of her life dancing to old Bruce Springsteen and Rolling Stones songs. Her neighborhood is unique, with tree lined streets and neighborhood bars and restaurants where everyone knows your name. Her restaurants rarely require a reservation and if you come in overdressed it’s more noticeable than coming in underdressed. There isn’t much of anything “big”, everything is smaller and more discreet. No fancy buildings or vivacious artwork, just simple, classic, and elegant architecture everywhere. Most of her buildings are old. She built a new arena about 10 years ago and although it’s popular and was necessary to the livelihood of her neighborhood, she felt guilty about it. Like she was undeserving or it was too fancy, but in the end she is happy and gracious to all those who helped her with it.
Minneapolis is the hot girl. She is beautiful and sexy. She is loud and somewhat spoiled. She can be seen as stuck up and pretentious to some. She has multiple tattoos and piercings. She is unreliable and can be out late partying and blow off school and/or work. She is the popular girl, captain of the dance team. She is naturally smart, but puts little effort into her schoolwork. She is a marginal student and has applied at numerous “party” schools. She likes big fancy things and lots of them: Louis Vuitton purses, Lulu Lemon workout gear, juicy sweat suits, and will only wear name brand clothing. She will put her own needs ahead of the needs of others and complain to her parents (i.e. the MN legislature) if she doesn’t get what she wants. Like a shiny new stadium. She requests the biggest gifts from her parents every year and for the most part gets them. However, if her request for a fancy gift is delayed one year she will throw a temper tantrum until her demands are met. Her parents have just accepted this fact and shrug their shoulders and say “ah, it’s just Minneapolis being Minneapolis”. She’s a baby doll and they usually get what they want. She is into art and being trendy. Her restaurants are fancy, require reservations and are ranked very highly. Her buildings are new, big, fancy and shiny as are her hotels. Even her lakes, usually seen as an escape are considered social areas and a place to be seen.
So that is what I can tell you about my girls and you know what? I love them both very much for different reasons.
This is also why I wanted the Vikings stadium to be in Minneapolis and not Arden Hills, which is a suburb of St. Paul. I didn’t want my innocent, sweet St. Paul to put on makeup and go to the tattoo parlor, it’s simply not who she is. I want all the big, sexy, fancy things to stay where they belong in Minneapolis. Minneapolis is great at being big and sexy, and St. Paul is great at being sweet and innocent. Let’s not turn either city into something they're not.
