METRO 100: Giveaway Winners

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Art-a-Whirl, Nicollet Island, Twin-Ness, Haus Salon, and the Hope House of St. Croix Valley make the Twin Cities great.

Image credit: Photo courtesy METRO

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By: METRO staff

We recently asked METRO readers to consider what they think makes the Twin Cities great and come up with their own personalized, condensed versions of our METRO 100 list.

We got oodles of submissions (OK, not oodles, but a few) and came up with two we thought deserved to be shared.

The winners are Jeffrey Martin and Erin Suzanne Morgan Bachmann, who will each receive complimentary year-long subscriptions to METRO (which we know was inadvertently omitted from each of their lists).

Thanks for reading, and look for another chance to win next month.

Jeffrey Martin

Art-a-Whirl: Art-a-Whirl, in Northeast Minneapolis, is the nation's largest art crawl. Few art crawls have the talent or the patron support that Art-a-Whirl exhibits, not to mention the lack of pretension. The energy and momentum of Art-a-Whirl is so great that it has spawned other events and festivals in Northeast Minneapolis on the same weekend.

Theodore Wirth: Theodore Wirth planned to locate and design parks so that every household in the city of Minneapolis would be no more than six blocks from green space, a vision that Minneapolis residents reap the benefits of today. Exceptional elements of park design like the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway, the Rose Garden, Minnehaha Falls, the Chain of Lakes and Victory Memorial Drive are all a testament to Wirth's grand vision.

Public Art: We have a lot of it, and a lot of it is good. From the statue of Abraham Lincoln off Victory Memorial Drive to the Mississippi Guardian Birds in Upper Landing Park, the Twin Cities has a wealth of public art on display. Bronze lumps sponsored by cable networks don't count.

Trees!: Both St. Paul and Minneapolis are Tree Cities, along with dozens of other cities in the metro. Minneapolis alone has a tree canopy that covers more than 25 percent of the city. Organizations like TreeTrust help ensure that Minneapolis and St. Paul will have glorious canopy to shield us from the evil, evil sun for years to come.

Nicollet Island: A quick spin around this island with it's Victorian-era houses, wooded lots and quiet streets will make you forget that you are mere feet from downtown Minneapolis. Not to mention Satan's Cave is a great piece of urban folklore.

Twin-ness: St. Paul is like a tiny vacation for people from Minneapolis! Minneapolis is where people from St. Paul can experience big city life!

Smart People: We're smart. From rankings on lists like America's Most Literate Cities to regularly topping the list of highest ACT scores in the nation we're smart and everyone knows it.

Proximity to Wisconsin: When it's Sunday and you forgot to buy beer for your Memorial Day BBQ, Wisconsin is always there to enable your forgetfulness. Not to mention that many 'Sconies have taken up residence here and some do contribute to our society in positive ways.

Lakewood Cemetery: Lakewood is a grand cemetery in the heart of the city. It serves as the final resting place for many local politicians, civic leaders and celebrities, and its spectacular upkeep exceeds that of many other urban cemeteries around the country.

The Alberta Clipper (evil): Our northern latitude should do enough to keep the snow on the ground during the winter months. But a few times every winter, the Alberta Clipper seems to come down from Canada with the jet stream just to make our winter a little worse to punish us for all glorious nature, civic participation and civilized events we have.

Erin Suzanne Morgan Bachmann, whose METRO 100 list comes in the form of the “Best Way to Spend my Day in the Twins Cities with Happiness Bursting from Me (in a non-gross bursting way).”

First things first: #1. CorePower Yoga. I need to get myself amped up for the day with Yoga Sculpt which is offered at several times throughout the day, but I chose the butt-crack of dawn one, because it gives me great schadenfreude to know that I've completed something good for myself before most people are awake.

Then I'd jump into my car and put in my cd of #2. The Smarts. They are super talented musicians who play an impressive number of different instruments and sing songs like "Foreclosure Simplified My Life"....I mean....come on....who doesn't want to sing along to that?!?

After showering, I'd head over to #3. Haus Salon, which newly opened on Nicollet Ave with amazing stylists and service. They even take my before and after shot and keep it in their files so I can A. Look at how pathetic I looked before, and B. Let me reference the 'after' picture for the next time I go in, so when I say "Do what you did last time," they know exactly what I'm talking about.

So now I'm looking good and I want to dress good too, so I throw on my "Its Nice to Be Nice" t-shirt by #4. I Like You. And don't worry, just to be sure people know where I'm from, the text is inside an outline of the state of MN. (It gets distorted a bit depending on what bra I wear, but none-the-less, an amazing t-shirt that I always get compliments on!)

By lunchtime I'm looking pretty dang good, but I'm starving, so why not drive to Champlin and eat at #5. Buona Sera, where the owner/chef Rafaele, from Italy, comes out to the table (usually with wine in hand) and checks on you - I don't think he travels directly from Italy on each table visit, just to be clear. And I could probably swim in his Penne Siciliana, but alas, I shall not, because of my aforementioned hairdo and awesome t-shirt.

I have stuffed myself to a stupor, and just to add icing on the cake, I'm going to drive to Stillwater jammin' to my CD of #6. Cooker John. His blues/folk music is fantastic, and you know a guy is writing from the heart when one of his songs he proclaims that if he had money, he would buy a Mercury for me. Now that's just plain nice.

But why did I drive to Stillwater, you ask? (Thank you for asking). I drove there to visit Minnesota's oldest winery, #7. Northern Vineyards Winery, and I sample 10 wines, then pick-out my favorite to have a glass on their outdoor deck overlooking the St. Croix River. And if I'm lucky, I'll get to watch the lift bridge go up and down! (And by lucky, I mean I'm pretty sure it goes up once an hour, so I'd be pretty unlucky not to see it).

Then on my way out of Stillwater I drive by #8. Hope House of St. Croix Valley to visit my friends who are living there while surviving AIDS...they don't let me stay long though, because I wreak of wine.

So off to #9. Sample Night Live I go, where in just two acts, I can see if there are even MORE things in the Twin Cities that I love, because the sampling of artists/acts/comedies/bands/ have just 7 minutes to WOW me, and they usually do....all for just $20 (or free if I volunteer....which is frowned upon if I show up smelling of booze, so next time, perhaps.)

But you know one thing I just don't get about the Twin Cities? #10. Plastic bags. Really? Our biking trails are voted the best, we have consistently scored high on the overall health levels, and our schools score pretty highly....at least compared to, like, Mississippi...but what I'm saying is that we are smart, healthy, active people. Why have we not outlawed plastic bags?!?! Several other cities have, now we just have to jump on board! Come on! Peer pressure! Just do it! (insert cliche saying)! But for reals, plastic bags got to go!

Photos courtesy Jeffrey Martin and Erin Suzanne Morgan Bachmann.

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