They call it "Minnesota Nice" with varied explanations, mostly positive. Minnesotans are proud of their much-deserved reputation. I was there on Oct. 11, meeting with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, talking with him about Minneapolis 2040, the bold plan to break the back of the city's deeply rooted racial segregation.

We in the "Land of Steady Habits" can learn a great lesson from the dramatic and truly unprecedented action taken by Minneapolis in its plan recently approved by the Metro Council.

The city is upfront about its land use pattern of racial segregation and has forcefully traced its origins back to the express racial discrimination embodied in racially restrictive covenants supported by zoning and public infrastructure decisions. In February, MinnPost published an article detailing the history.