Listen: Why didn't Minneapolis gobble up its suburbs?

The Curious Minnesota podcast discusses why the Minneapolis area fragmented into a web of smaller cities.

May 9, 2023 at 3:40PM
The Minneapolis skyline photographed in 2018. (Glen Stubbe, Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Listen and subscribe to our podcast: Via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher

Minnesota's largest city, Minneapolis, is much smaller than cities elsewhere in the country that it considers peers — like Seattle and Denver. This is partly because the city did not annex its surrounding suburbs. (It is also because Minneapolis and St. Paul never merged, a topic for a future podcast episode.)

Eric Roper, who wrote an article on this topic, joined host Ash Miller on the Curious Minnesota podcast to discuss why the greater Minneapolis area fragmented into a web of smaller cities — instead of consolidating.

Further reading:

Why didn't Minneapolis gobble up its suburbs? (March 2023 Curious Minnesota article)

about the writer

about the writer

Eric Roper

Curious Minnesota Editor

Eric Roper oversees Curious Minnesota, the Star Tribune's community reporting project fueled by great reader questions. He also hosts the Curious Minnesota podcast. 

See More

More from Curious Minnesota

card image