Changes sometimes leave people grief-stricken and angry. In Albert Lea, people told us how upset they are that Mayo Clinic closed the city’s labor and delivery unit as well as other services at the hospital.
And in Rochester, which is turning itself into Destination Medical Center, officials found themselves embroiled in a dispute with people upset that downtown isn’t prioritizing projects they have long awaited, like turning the Chateau Theatre, an old vaudeville house, into the vibrant heart of the community.
Even hard conversations are good. People are passionate; it means they care.
From Marshall to Mankato, from Albert Lea to Rochester, from Winona to Red Wing, despite our regional differences, it all feels like Minnesota, even in Winona, where they joke they are part of the state’s “Deep South.”
Winona has changed too. Long a college town and a river town, it began embracing the arts in recent decades, with the opening of a marine arts museum and the start of the annual Great River Shakespeare Festival. It’s in the midst of another major development in the arts, with a $60 million concert hall and art gallery under construction.
The swing through southern Minnesota reminded me that Minnesota is what we make it, every hour, every day.
