Minnesota: L'etoile du Nord...not the "uncool" Midwest

I haven't written a blog post in a few years.  And, this may be the only one I do for quite some time.  But, when I saw this article about Minnesota lamenting being lumped in with the Midwest, I felt the need to write something. 

First off, Minnesota, you are part of the Midwest, whether you like it or not.  You are a lot closer to Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio than you are Washington, Oregon, or even British Columbia.  I know that's a sore spot since Minneapolis desperately, desperately wants to be just like Seattle, Portland, or Vancouver.  But, those are the facts.  Your flagship school is a Big Ten school, which used to be strictly Midwest.  Your sports teams largely play teams from Chicago, Detroit, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Ohio.  You have a lot of dairy farming and other agriculture.  For crying out loud, your biggest annual event is the freaking STATE FAIR!!!  You don't get more Midwestern than that!

Second, I know Minnesotans really believe that the state they live in is a really unique and beautiful snowflake.  No one has lakes like we do, and no one has the cultural sophistication of the Twin Cities like we do.  I have bad news for you, but those Republican-voting miscreants to your east have a lot of lakes and a good amount of culture as well.  No mid-size Minnesota city could pull this off, but Appleton, WI can. 

Third, the whole idea is based on a flawed premise anyway.  If you really think branding Minnesota (and the rest of the so-called Upper Midwest) as "the North" will make the Twin Cities more of a regional center than it already is, you're sorely mistaken.  I think people here believe their sphere of influence goes farther than it really does.  I speak from an insider and outsider perspective (I live in the Twin Cities area, but am not from here), but I think the sphere of influence of the Twin Cities pretty much ends at US 53 (and starts to fade quickly past US 63) in Wisconsin, and at around US 20 in Iowa.  I'm not as certain about the Dakotas, but I would guess it ends at around the Missouri River.  So, if you really want to not be considered part of the Midwest, you're really isolating yourself.  That has its limitations.  Also, in a world where megaregions are probably going to be a major driver of commerce and population growth, it's better for the Twin Cities and Minnesota to be a part of this than not to be. 

But you know what, if you want to break off from the Midwest and make up a region so you can be the center of it, that's fine.  However, I am pretty sure Iowa and Wisconsin want no part of it.  I'm quite certain that Michigan doesn't, as it has its own large city that, while severely flawed, is still bigger than the Twin Cities.