Bob Collins
The Twin Cities online arts and creativity magazine The Line announced today it’s shutting down today.
In an announcement posted on the site, editor Camille Lefevre said it was a decision by its Michigan-based owner.
On May 26, 2010, founding editor Jon Spayde introduced the Twin Cities to a new online publication, The Line, “the web magazine that chronicles creativity in Minneapolis/Saint Paul: creativity in entrepreneurship, design, environmentalism, the arts, retail, urbanism, neighborhood vitalization and revitalization, and wherever else we’re meeting the future of our cities and our region.”
The Line was named in “homage to several things: the old Twin Cities Lines, the streetcar company whose cars disappeared from our streets, but whose heritage has been reborn in our light-rail Hiawatha Line and the Central Corridor line that’s (not uncontroversially) coming to birth as we speak,” Spayde explained. After the Green Line light-rail opened along University Avenue connecting Minneapolis and St. Paul, we continued to chronicle how transit-oriented development was sparking new affordable housing, community-based developments, artistic endeavors, creative placemaking and sustainable environmental strategies.
Now, as ever, all good things must come to an end. The Line, owned by Issue Media Group, Detroit, MI, will cease publication today, February 14, 2017. The Line and all of its contributors—led by Spayde and then current editor Camille LeFevre— gathered around a shared passion for celebrating the Twin Cities by unearthing and telling stories about our new creative economy. We enjoyed covering entrepreneurs and their start-ups; makers and maker culture; architects and developers changing our cities; technology, education, and transit; arts and culture; restaurants, gardens and the farm-to-table movement; the neighborhoods we love; and the best places to work and play.
