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City Cast Twin Cities

City Cast Twin Cities

๐Ÿ›๏ธ Govt Shutdown Hitting Home

October 30, 2025

Good morning, Twin Cities! It's Adam today. Minneapolis just found its way into another national top-ten list, earning the title of "9th Rattiest City" by pest control company Orkin. Somehow, St. Paul didn't even crack the top 50 โ€“ is St. Paul really that clean, or is someone bringing all the St. Paul rats over to Minneapolis? ๐Ÿค”

What the Cities Are Talking About

The Minneapolis skyline from Ridgeway Parkway Park with a view of skyscrapers and greenery.
The Minneapolis skyline from Ridgeway Parkway Park. (Adam Sage / City Cast Twin Cities)

Homelessness Is About More Than Just Housing

In a feature for Racket yesterday, reporter Caroline Jackson spoke with multiple people who have struggled with housing stability about the various challenges they face in the Twin Cities.

  • Minneapolis: "as bad as anywhere to be really poor": Minnesotaโ€™s social safety net is something we take a lot of pride in, but as social worker Kevin Nye points out, itโ€™s mostly built for people who are already somewhat stable. For those in deep poverty, navigating fragmented programs and limited resources can feel impossible โ€“ leaving many without the sustained help they need to stay housed. [Racket]
  • Wraparound services: While housing-first solutions to homelessness are a great start, advocates are asking for more investment in financial guidance, healthcare, and employment support to help folks keep a roof over their head [Racket]
  • Ways to help: On today's episode of City Cast Twin Cities, Racket Co-Founder Em Cassel shouted out several organizations locally that can use financial and volunteer support: Simpson Housing Services, Avivo Village, Agate Housing and Services, and People Serving People. If you know other local orgs that can use more support, let me know so we can direct folks their way in a future newsletter. [City Cast Twin Cities]

Also Worth Your Time

Government shutdown is hitting home: Multiple social programs and state agencies are facing funding cliffs over the next few days as the federal government shutdown continues. Today, 100 Minnesota Department of Health employees could be receiving layoff notices. SNAP funding is set to run out tomorrow, and Head Start preschools are figuring out what to do should their federal grant money not come in on Saturday. [Star Tribune & Sahan Journal]

What happened to Zombie Pub Crawl?: According to founder Chuck Terhark, the iconic Halloween festival was on its way out in 2019, and the pandemic killed it forever. Chuck will actually be joining us on tomorrow's episode of City Cast Twin Cities to share more about the rise and fall of the Zombie Pub Crawl. You can still get drunk dressed as a zombie this weekend, though โ€“ there are organized Halloween Bar Crawls in both Minneapolis and St. Paul. [Star Tribune]

The Target bullseye logo outside of a Target store.
Target's flagship store in downtown Minneapolis. (AaronP/Bauer-Griffin / Getty Images)

Target layoff rumors were true: Following reports of layoff plans leaking on Reddit and TikTok, Target sent layoff notices to over 800 employees from the downtown and Brooklyn Park campuses earlier this week. This comes as Target's COO, Michael Fiddelke, is taking the reins as CEO, and making moves to restructure the company to be able to "move faster." [MPR News]

Got Trick-or-Treating plans?: Our host Sean McPherson thinks Palace Avenue, or "Treat Street," in St. Paul, is the spookiest place in the Twin Cities to spend Halloween with kids. Check out our video on Treat Street to see how seriously people take their decorations around there. [City Cast Twin Cities]

Which Minneapolis neighborhood has the most divorced dudes?: If you guessed North Loop, you're WRONG! It's Downtown West by a landslide. This data comes from official demographic maps kept by the City of Minneapolis, and was pointed out by local attorney Daniel Suitor on Bluesky. Poke around the map yourself for a while, there's a lot of interesting info there! [Racket]

Sponsored Content

Community Power Play awards first $10,000 hockey grant

Community Power Play awards first $10,000 hockey grant

The Richfield Little Spartans were awarded the first-ever $10,000 grant from the Xcel Energy Community Power Play to support their work to bring youth hockey back to Richfield.

Community Power Play is a season-long program between Xcel Energy and Minnesota Wild to grow the game. Applications for the next grant are available Nov. 1 to Dec. 15.

What to Do

Thursday, October 30

Friday, October 31

Saturday, November 1

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Twin Cities Job Board

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That's all we have for today here. Are we missing any major event recommendations for Hall-o-weekend? Reply to let us know so we can include them tomorrow!

โ€” Adam Sage

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