Minnesota’s 2025 in graphics and visual storytelling

Visual storytelling and graphics at the Minnesota Star Tribune covered everything from childhood vaccines and Mayor Jacob Frey’s path to a third term to how the State Fair smells. Yes, smells.

We tried to answer perennial questions, like “Is this a lot of snow compared to the past?” and “Where is Uptown?” and “Is this lake good for fishing?” while explaining, again, how ranked-choice voting works. Catch up on some you may have missed.

Your ultimate guide to paddling routes in the Twin Cities

Where do I put in my boat? How fast is too fast for moving water? How long will this take? Are there rentals? The information you need is all over the place, if you can find it at all. We thought it could be easier, so some water-loving Minnesota Star Tribune staff members set out to create an urban paddling guide. We researched, paddled and mapped our favorite routes within the metro area.

“This guide was an idea many years in the making. Reporter Greta Kaul and I have talked a lot over the years about our shared love of canoeing and the special fun of doing it in the city (The BWCA is nice too!). When we actually pitched the guide, we thought it would take a month to put together. The real figure? A full year to research and test the routes, get the photos, and build the app. I think it was totally worth the wait, and hope we can add a few more routes to it in 2026.” - Tom Nehil

How does this winter compare to to when you were a kid?

One of the challenges of climate storytelling is finding the story in reams of data. With this piece, we wanted to create a personalized story for each reader out of multiple datasets. 2024 was a strange year in weather. It felt like spring had started by late February. The Twin Cities Marathon was cancelled in early October due to 90-degree temps.

See more: How much snow has — or hasn’t — fallen in our snow tracker

We mapped 340,000 trees in the Twin Cities to find the best fall color

We looked at more than 340,000 trees and 342 species documented in 2021’s Minneapolis-St. Paul Long Term Ecological Research program to find the highest tree density — where there are a lot of trees in a space — and species mix.

“The work was less about finding a single ‘best’ spot and more about understanding patterns: maples lining long boulevards, honey locusts turning whole blocks golden, and avenues where different species overlap to create denser displays of color. The result is a guide to where fall shows up most vividly in the city and how tree species shape what autumn looks like in urban neighborhoods.” - Yuqing Liu

Look up the health of your favorite lakes

“The DNR had already created a great tool for exploring the health of Minnesota’s lakes. Our goal was to make the data more accessible and to be able to tie data for specific lakes to our reporting. We went with a ‘less is more’ approach, eschewing visualizations for text summaries — with zero use of AI — while also linking back to the DNR for readers who wanted a deeper dive." - Tom Nehil

Minnesota now has one of the nation’s lowest kindergarten measles vaccination rates

Minnesota has seen one of the nation’s sharpest drops in measles herd immunity among kindergartners, falling well below the threshold needed to prevent outbreaks. There have been 24 confirmed measles cases across the state this year, one of the highest totals in two decades. A rise in nonmedical exemptions, especially at private schools, is one factor.

“I worked on a story about Minnesota’s kindergarten vaccination rates several years ago, so I encouraged my team to go back to the data this year in the midst of the Texas measles outbreaks and after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stepped into the role of secretary of Health and Human Services. I was surprised how low Minnesota’s vaccination rate had fallen — and how many more parents had started seeking exemptions for their children.” - C.J. Sinner, director of Graphics & Data Visuals

See more: As Florida moves to lift vaccine mandates, do Minnesota kindergartners have ‘herd immunity’?

Minnesota was the first state to implement the public school choice system that allows students to attend schools outside their home district. The numbers have risen since the program began, and that has repercussions. School funding from the state is tied to enrollment — each student accounts for about $10,000 — so attracting and keeping students is critical to the bottom line.

How Twin Cities schools are debuting new designs

Three east metro schools have applied “school of the future” designs to new facilities, introducing new features to boost security, flexible learning spaces and eco-friendly features.

“Although it’s easy to fall back on architectural renderings and, in this case, there was a lot of interesting stuff available to show these stunning new school designs, it was complex. I brought together separate ideas — HVAC/energy conservation, security, accessibility/adaptability — in clear and simple 3D illustrations. Touring the new Bruce Vento Elementary School in St. Paul, which was in the final steps of getting ready for the school year, was a bonus, giving me a real sense of how all of these new, contemporary designs for schools, comes together.” - Mark Boswell

These Minnesota schools serving low-income students are beating the odds

We asked where Uptown is, and 2,000 readers responded. Here’s what you declared.

Uptown has no agreed-upon boundaries, existing only in our hearts and minds. As the area’s identity has evolved from bohemian enclave to shopping and entertainment district to dense urban neighborhood, many have tried to define it. We asked readers to draw their own maps of where Uptown is, and then analyzed the responses to find consensus.

“My favorite part of the project was combining all 2,000 responses into the ultimate mental map of Uptown. In this map, instead of firm, definite borders, we see a gradient of Uptowniness. I think this fits much closer to how most people conceive of a place, and it was only possible because of Star Tribune readers.” - Jake Steinberg

See more: Settle the debate by drawing your boundaries. Where is Uptown?

The 30 restaurants most vital to the Twin Cities area right now

How movies of the 1990s captured Minnesota on the big screen

In the 1990s, plains of snow replaced the deserts of Westerns. Lakes and rivers set stages just as much as malls and taverns. From low-budget indies to studio blockbusters, more than 60 movies were filmed in Minnesota. We looked at 15 films that made more than $10 million at the box office and their ties to a variety of filming locations across the state.

How does ranked-choice voting work?

Five cities use the instant runoff process to elect mayor, City Council and other officials. To better understand how voters’ ranked choices result in a winner, we can look at Minneapolis’ 2017 mayoral election results.

Why the path to the mayor’s office runs through southwest Minneapolis

See more: Where Frey drew the votes that carried him over the top

The most popular vote combo on ballots for Minneapolis mayor? Just Frey.

With 16 mayoral candidates on the ballot this year, Minneapolis voters could have ranked over 5,800 potential combinations of first-, second- and third-choice votes. But nearly 1 in 5 voters chose the same approach.

Every State Fair Grandstand performance, visualized

The grandstand lineup can also reveal the diversity of audiences the State Fair wants to attract. These days, there’s an act for almost every Minnesotan’s musical taste. But that diversity wasn’t always the case. Early lineups were heavily dominated by country musicians, comedy acts and traditional pop singers.

The Great Minnesota Get-Together can also be a great strain on the wallet. The State Fair is normally a time of excess — and that can include the cost. How far can you make it at the State Fair with just a hundred bucks?

The State Fair is a festival for the nose

In this map, wisps of fried food and animal odors mark the way. The aroma of roasting corn and Sweet Martha’s cookies loom as large as any mountain.

The Wolves were the worst team in all of men’s sports. Are they now Minnesota’s best hope for a title?

Until just two seasons ago, the Timberwolves held the dubious distinction of having the worst regular-season winning percentage in professional sports.

The worst franchise record across every team in the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL.