For Our Minneapolis Peeps & DOGGYSTYLE

[CrimsonTide4]

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/7119224.htm


ARE THEY FUNNING WITH US? Survey says Minneapolis is most fun city in
U.S.
BY DAVID HAWLEY
Pioneer Press

We're not making this up: Minneapolis has been designated the most
fun city in the United States — way ahead of boring places like Las
Vegas (25th in fun) and New York (a dismal 41st in fun).

And St. Paul and other municipalities can claim a piece of the award
because the survey lists "fun city" amenities that technically aren't
really in Minneapolis. These include such fun things as the Minnesota
Wild hockey team, the Mall of America and even the state's 10,000-
plus lakes.

In an 11 a.m. ceremony today at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
Conservatory, Mayor R.T. Rybak will receive the "fun city"
designation from Richard Tait, CEO of Cranium Inc., a company based
in Seattle (10th in fun) that makes board games.

The game manufacturer commissioned the fun-city list from Bert
Sperling, who did "Best Places to Live" reports for Money magazine
before spinning off his own ratings business. His fun-city rankings
were based on an analysis of such things as sports teams,
restaurants, shopping malls, boat ownership, theaters, toy stores and
the amount of money spent on recreation.

Minneapolis, according to Sperling's report, "has more theaters than
Boston, more parks than Denver, more golfers per capita than any
other city in America — and, with 10,000 lakes in the state,
Minnesota has more coastline than California, Florida and Hawaii
combined."

Top contenders behind Minneapolis were two California locales: Orange
County, which came in second for fun, and San Jose, which was third.
Orlando, home of Disney World, finished 36th. Fun-loving Omaha, Neb.,
by comparison, beat out Mickey Mouse and came in 30th. Dead last on a
list of 56 cities was Niagara Falls, N.Y. Mention that to the next
visitor you take to see Minnehaha Falls.