Neighborhoods in Minneapolis

The city of Minneapolis, Minnesota is officially defined by the Minneapolis City Council as divided into eleven communities, each containing multiple official neighborhoods. Informally, there are city areas with colloquial labels. Residents may also group themselves by city street suffixes South, North, Southeast, Southwest, and Northeast.

The Council has authority to define neighborhood boundaries by the State Legislature, but these are separate from Council Ward boundaries, which are adjusted after each decennial census.

Common conceptions of Minneapolis neighborhoods do not always align with official city maps, especially since much of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area's population now lives outside of the two major cities. Generalized names such as "North Minneapolis" are actually a combination of the Near North and Camden communities with each of these communities made up of several neighborhoods.

The local community defines several general areas based on the directional suffixes added to streets in the city. These city areas do not necessarily correlate with official community or neighborhood definitions.

Downtown Minneapolis refers to the street grid area aligned on a diagonal with the Mississippi River bend, as opposed to the true north grid orientation. South of this grid begins South Minneapolis. Southwest Minneapolis is not as clearly defined within South Minneapolis. The core is considered the official community of Southwest and is bounded on the north by the line of 36th St W, extending west from where it ends at Lake Calhoun, and on the east by I-35W.

The part of Minneapolis on the east bank of the Mississippi River is divided into Northeast and Southeast street suffixes by East Hennepin Avenue. These suffixes approximately align with the communities of Northeast and University respectively. North Minneapolis is high in crime due to a high prevalence of poverty in the area. The Old St. Anthony business district along Main Street Southeast tends to orient toward Northeast. The University of Minnesota-oriented University community and the traditionally working-class Northeast community have quite distinct identities.

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