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.
Listen and subscribe to our podcast: Apple Podcasts | Spotify
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.
If you’d like to submit a Curious Minnesota question, fill out the form below:
Read more Curious Minnesota stories:
Why do so many Twin Cities mall names end in “dale”?
640th Avenue? 180th Street? The backstory behind long rural addresses
How did Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park get their names?
How did these 11 Minnesota towns get their unusual names?
Why do we have water towers and what do they do?
How do cities make Mississippi River water safe to drink?
Star Tribune
One man shot dead, another wounded near Willmar soon after gunman opened fire from Lyndale Av. balcony
Bystanders observing the scene in Minneapolis recalled hearing the female police negotiator pleading with Matariyeh to surrender. When shots rang out over the phone, the negotiator dropped to her knees and cried. Colleagues could be seen comforting her.
O’Hara said the shots in Minneapolis were fired shortly after an altercation involving Matariyeh’s ex-girlfriend and her current boyfriend, who arrived to the apartment to retrieve some items. Matariyeh and the woman share a child, who was at day care at the time. Police went there to ensure the child’s safety shortly after the suspect fled. The ex-girlfriend and the boyfriend were also not harmed.
The chief said that when police initially responded, it was unclear whether the suspect was still inside the apartment. There is no indication of a domestic violence history between the pair.
At one point after Mayerchak was shot, an officer or dispatcher radioed that the suspect was the man from Minneapolis: “He did say he was willing to shoot cops. Proceed cautiously.”
A short time later, the suspect was leading police on a chase of speeds of more than 100 mph while on the phone with the Minneapolis negotiator, threatening “suicide by cop.”
At about 2:29 p.m., Matariyeh was arrested, and a gun was recovered in the ditch.
He said he would continue to support economic development projects, including one aimed at stabilizing the riverfront and preserving cultural sites that were significant to both the Dakota people and European settlers.
“We want to have good things,” Whiting said. “I’m pretty fiscally conservative for being called the liberal that I am. But, if it makes sense, we’re going to do it.”
Yttreness, who has lived in Shakopee since 1998, spent years with the Fire Department, serving first as a volunteer. He worked most recently as assistant fire chief, a role he left earlier this year.
Yttreness declined to speak in detail about his management of the department, saying, “I’m no longer with them, so that’s the past.”
He said he is running to “get involved in trying to manage the city’s expenses more” and “give some guidance and support to our city employees, public works, police.” He said he believes his knowledge of city operations could be helpful and he wants to “try to do zero tax increases, if possible.”
Authorities identified a 35-year-old St. Paul woman found shot to death last week in a North End apartment.
The St. Paul Police Department said Damara Alexis Stowers was the woman found shot in her apartment on Oct. 19.
Police found Stowers at around 9 p.m. in the dwelling in the 100 block of Sycamore Street East after reports of a shooting. Officers rendered aid until Saint Paul fire medics arrived and pronounced her dead at the scene.
Investigators believe a carjacking reported that same night is connected to Stowers death, but no arrests have been announced. The victim in that carjacking was shot, but Regions Hospital staff treated them for noncritical injuries.
Stowers’ death marked the fourth homicide in the capital city in 10 days, and the 25th homicide this year according to a Star Tribune database. There were 28 homicides by this time last year.
