It’s not every day someone tells you that, in all seriousness, they want to start a magazine. But that’s the email I got a few months ago from a young woman named Katie Eggers. When we met up to discuss the idea, I was impressed with both her vision for the publication and for how thoroughly she seemed to have thought everything through. The magazine was to be called Thirty Two (Minnesota being the 32nd state, as well as the point at which things both freeze and thaw) and it would be a broad canvas for ambitious stories from the region.
Over the last few months I’ve watched her will Thirty Two into existence with a certain amount of awe. Finally last week, after months of hard work, I got to see the first issue, which turned out beautifully: brilliant photos, excellent writing, clean design and–mostly importantly–lots of big ideas. Get a copy here (or at one of these local stores) before they sell out!
Frank Bures 
Well done! A pleasure to read your skillful weave of the personal and analytical. This is an example of how blogs should work…authentic, transparent, rigorous, and provocative. Thank you.
Loved the article on the creative class. Sociological stuff aside, I can identify with your tale of moving to a place for the wrong reasons. We moved to Jacksonville, FL 3 years ago for a really good job. We moved into a part of the city, put our kids in school and tried to fit in in the church/country club community. Eventually, we realized that we had chosen poorly. Not the job or the city, really, but the area of town and community we had chosen. We moved recently into a different part and put our kids in different schools. It is an experiment and a risk, but your statement “And to live in a place you don’t belong can begin to feel like nonexistence” really put into words what the last three years felt like. I like the way you write and will bookmark this blog.
Thanks Mike. Glad you enjoyed the story, and I totally hear you on the nonexistence thing. A very strange and difficult experience, and hard to explain to anyone who hasn’t gone through it. I hope your new place works out!
The creative class is alive and well in Ashland, Oregon. Cheers.
…and unemployment there is 12.7%.
Interesting essay on the creative class. My dad (from Wisconsin and Minnesota) would call it an “over-elaboration of the obvious” but some of us need the obvious in black and white before it sinks in…
Hi Frank – just read your thoughtful essay about the Creative Class and wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed it. Living in Pittsburgh, you might imagine how much publicity Florida’s book got when it came out. It’s nice to see someone do a thoughtful, well-researched article that essentially lets the hot air out of Florida’s balloon. And best of luck with your venture, thirty-two.
Hey Frank, I liked your piece about the Fall of the Creative Class, a theory that always seemed a little suspect to me even when I was living in PDX in the 90s. (New Yorkers trucked in to work at Nike and Weiden + Kennedy always seemed to be taking a little too much credit for the city’s food cart scene, etc.) Fingers crossed for thirty-two…