ABSTRACT
Minneapolis is a regional business center in the southeastern part of Minnesota and home to well over three hundred thousand people. St. Paul, located just to the east, is the state’s capital city and has a population of close to three hundred thousand. Together they are known as the Twin Cities, though the differences between the two are the subject of a playful rivalry between residents. Referring to St. Paul’s grid of streets, where Seventh and Fifth streets intersect, residents of Minneapolis might say they refuse to drive to St. Paul for fear of getting lost. (In a conventional grid pattern, all numbered streets run parallel to each other.) According to former governor Jesse Ventura, who had a colorful career as a professional wrestler before running for elected office, the idiosyncratic street grid was laid out by a drunken Irishman. That Ventura would make such a culturally insensitive remark on national network
television did much to cement his legacy as an icon to people in the Twin Cities.
