Star Tribune
Why does my mail say Minneapolis or St. Paul when I don’t live there?
The city in official mailing addresses can be different from the actual destination.
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Maddie Oleszczak moved from Bloomington to Robbinsdale a few years ago. Yet her mail still says she lives in another city: Minneapolis.
Oleszczak isn’t the only one puzzled by receiving mail addressed to the wrong city. At least four readers contacted Curious Minnesota, the Star Tribune’s reader-generated reporting project, wondering why this happens.
Bloomington and Robbinsdale have “always been their own cities with independent foundings. And yet everything gets relabeled as Minneapolis,” Oleszczak said. “It just feels kind of arbitrary in a way to do it. We’re our own cities for a reason.”
Another reader, Dylan Anderson of Golden Valley, also gets mail addressed to Minneapolis. When he lived in Shoreview, it was addressed to St. Paul.
He speculated that maybe the surrounding suburbs were once part of Minneapolis or St. Paul.
“My assumption was always that at some point… the city limits or boundaries were broader than they currently are,” Anderson said. (Minneapolis and St. Paul actually used to be smaller than they are today.)
Blame the ZIP code
It all comes down to how mail gets delivered.
While en route to its destination, mail is sorted at a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) processing and distribution center. At these centers, machines separate the mail by ZIP code and workers prepare it for a truck delivery.
These locations become part of the mailing address through ZIP codes. The USPS address database uses the main processing center location as the default city in each ZIP code, said USPS spokesman Desai Abdul-Razzaaq. Amazon and other shippers use that database to determine the correct mailing address for delivery.
In other words, when bills, magazines or online companies change the city name, it is because their electronic system relies on the ZIP code’s USPS default city.
There are about 60 of these sortation centers in the Twin Cities metro area. The largest are in Minneapolis and St. Paul, serving all ZIP codes starting with 554 and 551.
It’s different elsewhere in the metro. For example, residents of Minnetonka receive mail that says Hopkins, Lino Lakes residents get mail addressed to Hugo and so on — because that’s where their mail is sorted.
This situation plays out similarly across the state. Wilton and Turtle River residents can expect mail listed as Bemidji. In northeastern Minnesota, all ZIP codes beginning with 558 have Duluth as the default city.
You can check to see the default city for your ZIP code on the USPS website.
Jack O’Connor is a University of Minnesota student reporter on assignment for Star Tribune.
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NHP is seeking other employers to join their efforts, and is looking to invest in both multifamily and single family projects in northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin.
The availability of new apartments allows aging single-family homeowners to sell and downsize, said David Gaddie, a longtime bank executive and chairman of Essentia’s board.
And that house “can be sold to a young family that needs housing, and they can move on up the ladder,” he said.
Developments chosen for loans won’t be targeted toward employees sought by a specific employer. The nonprofit is considering loans to projects in Superior, Wis., and Coleraine, Minn., and expects to offer investments between $2 million and $5 million.
Herman said Essentia has long invested in affordable housing, including a 72-unit project for seniors near its former downtown hospital. Without housing, “good health is almost impossible,” he said, and he’s hopeful other employers will consider housing investments that might yield lower monetary returns, “but a great return” on employee recruits.
The nonprofit’s board includes Gaddie, Herman, former Wells Fargo executive Phil Rolle, interim (and former) Maurice’s CEO George Goldfarb, and former Allete CEO Alan Hodnik.
Star Tribune
Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approves rate increase for Minnesota Power electric bills in Duluth, Iron Range
This is the second rate increase granted to Minnesota Power in two years. In January 2023, the PUC granted a 9.5% increase. That was also much smaller than what the company wanted, though higher than what some consumer advocates asked for.
More than 650 people wrote to the PUC about the rate increase, most in opposition. Many were dated prior to or just after the settlement was announced publicly. Matthew Laveau of Wrenshall said “these added costs are not sustainable to their customers.”
Gretchen Matuszak of Esko wrote she is retired and can hardly keep up with her electric bill as it is now. “You sure make it tough for us old timers!” She wrote. “Give us a break!”
Allete CEO Bethany Owen during a Minnesota Public Utilities Commission meeting in St. Paul, Minn., on Thursday May 9, 2024. ] RENEE JONES SCHNEIDER • renee.jones@startribune.com (Renée Jones Schneider/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Minnesota Power has about 150,000 customers across northeastern Minnesota. It serves energy-hungry iron mines, pipelines and the paper industry, all of which make up nearly 70% of the utility’s energy sales.
The company has the lowest monthly bills for the average residential customer of Minnesota’s three investor-owned utilities, and its electric rates for those customers are below the national average, according to 2022 data, the latest reported by the PUC. Its prices for commercial and industrial customers are higher than neighboring states, however, and 95% of the national average.
The utility has shifted its power mix from 95% coal in 2005 to nearly 60% renewable energy now as it works to meet a state law requiring a carbon-free electric grid by 2040.
“You could have helped us last year, you chose not to,” Skraba said.
Skraba was once a Democrat, like many who live in his district and on the Iron Range. But times have changed, he said.
“I think a lot of the Iron Range people are waking up going, ‘I identify more with the other side now,’” Skraba said. “For me, the Democrats were doing things that weren’t germane to rural Minnesota anymore. They were getting more metro, and rural Minnesotans are like, ‘Hey, what about us?’”
Droba said he still believes the district can swing either way. If it’s truly become more conservative, he said a higher-turnout presidential election will show it.
“I really believe that if the winds of change are turning and we are becoming more conservative, this will be the election that really shows that because it is the first presidential year after the redistricting,” Droba said.
