The Outer Limits of the Twin Cities

The Twin Cities area is getting a lot of attention lately.

You know this because national newscasters are using the Twin Cities label and they only do that when Minneapolis-St. Paul is in the news so much that they shorten it to Twin Cities. Something we’ve done forever.

Indeed, the rest of the world has been reminded that there are actual people living and thriving here in northern fly-over land. People willing to stand for hours in below-zero weather catching fish in a hole in the ice or standing with a group of protesters.

What does the term “Twin Cities” mean to you? You probably never thought about it much.

Most of us take it for granted that the reference is to St. Paul and Minneapolis. By now, the world probably knows that, too. There certainly are other twin cities in the U.S. such as Tampa-St. Petersburg, Dallas-Fort Worth and Raleigh-Durham.

To me, the Twin Cities starts when you can’t see farmland anymore, just shopping centers and housing developments. It is forever expanding. The downtowns are where the skyscrapers are. I used to think the start of the Twin Cities was the Pine Bend refinery. It seemed like the Emerald City until you drove by it and took a deep breath.

A trip to the Cities could be to the relatively close Cottage Grove or to Maple Grove. Depending on conditions, these trips could take about a half hour or an hour and a half.

The Cities

Locally, we just call it “the Cities” because it’s easier. People might say “we went up ta da Cities.” Outliers like us in Greater Minnesota use the name loosely, so it can mean anywhere in Minneapolis-St. Paul and its suburbs. This, of course, allows you to be intentionally non-specific on exactly where you went.

If you live in Minneapolis, how do you tell someone where you are going? Maybe it would be fairly specific like “I’m going shopping in Fridley.” If you live in Fridley and were headed to Minneapolis, would you say, “I’m going to the Cities to pick something up.”?

It would be normal for us living in Red Wing to say “we’re going to the Cities.” But would it be normal for someone in Hastings to say they were going to the Cities? You’d have to ask them, I guess.

But here’s the thing. The Twin Cities has been further defined in scope. There are inner and outer rings of suburbs. Collectively, it’s the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area which is the 16th largest metro area in the U.S. It includes both Hastings and Stillwater. Hudson, too. River Falls and even Ellsworth are part of the Greater Twin Cities Metropolitan Area. Maybe the “greater” part is to help Wisconsinites accept it better.

We’re All In

And (gasp) according to Google AI, “Red Wing is considered part of the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area or at least a nearby satellite city.” We have become a suburb, sort of. So now you can commute from here, which I did for 20 years.

One clue that we’re becoming a suburb is that we now more commonly use specific city names like Burnsville instead of the more generic Twin Cities. As I said earlier, if you wouldn’t normally use the term Twin Cities as your destination, you probably live within the Twin Cities area. If you use it regularly, you likely live outside the Twin Cities area.

Sometimes you catch yourself saying “Cities” to someone who might not know what the reference is. It’s worse explaining to an out-of-stater that you’re from Red Wing without saying Minnesota. Sometimes mentioning Red Wing Shoes helps. I usually say, “We’re about 50 miles southeast of the Twin Cities, right next to the Mississippi River on Highway 61.”

Originally, the Twin Cities apparently referred to Minneapolis and St. Anthony. After they merged, the moniker was eventually tied to Minneapolis and St. Paul, naturally separated by the Mississippi River. It’s a logical name, even though the cities are different from each other in many respects. That’s what keeps it unique.

This is probably too much discussion about a name that’s suddenly front and center in the news. But it’s an important Minnesota name. Like Paul Bunyan.

And it will always be “the Cities” to me.