HomeExploringTracking Down Minnesota’s “Doughnut Cities”

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Tracking Down Minnesota’s “Doughnut Cities” — 8 Comments

  1. I’m surprised that you did not mention Brookline, an exclave of Norfolk County, Massachusetts.

    I’m also surprised that none of these enclaves are in the biggest cities.

  2. I was only considering Minnesota doughnuts. I will look into that Brookline situation though, I thought that was the kind of thing that couldn’t happen under a New England-style dispensation.

  3. Lovely work! It is hugely fun that you and K have so thoroughly documented places to have coffee, and are now working on doughnuts (even if not the edible kind).

    You seem to be continuing your tradition of “in the fourth year, have four words in the title” (if we assume that articles are not usually counted, and in this this case, treat “Doughnut Cities” as an honorary compound word). I may be stretching that, however.

  4. Thank you Jules! Actually the blog is in its fifth (calendar) year. Begun in June 2015 and I chose to assume that the second year (and two-word titles) began in January 2016. Articles do count; and considering “doughnut city” as if it were a compound word would feel like a particularly egregious cheat. As I mused here, I may return to single words at the turn of the next calendar year.

  5. A neighbor pointed out (on Nextdoor.com) the curious case of New Hope and Crystal, MN.

    These adjacent cities have a complicated border running mostly north-south. And each city has a piece of its territory within the bounds of the other.

    The small, disconnected chunk of New Hope surrounded by Crystal contains a Mexican restaurant, an auto parts store, two banks, and a few houses. It does not make an ounce of sense. The piece of Crystal enclosed within New Hope is more understandable: it encompasses a synagogue and the associated cemetery.

    Perhaps we can call those two cities “mutually assured doughnuts.”

  6. I commuted through and worked near the Crystal/New Hope border for several years but never recognized the weird geometry there. Reminds me of some of the San Jose shenanigans…

  7. Say more about San Jose if you would, Greg. I seem to recall a little straw-like projection to the north along a roadway…?

  8. A doughnut of a different kind: in the northeast corner of Arizona, which does not observe daylight saving time, is the Navajo Nation, which does; and entirely enclosed within the Navajo land is a Hopi reservation, which does not.

    So consider this trip some time in early summer. Start in Winslow AZ at noon. Drive north on state road 87 and arrive at Seba Dalkai AZ (in Navajo country) 45 minutes later at 11:45 am. Continue north to Kykotsmovi Village in Hopi territory, arriving 38 minutes later at 1:23 pm. Continue north and pick up state 264 west, arriving 56 minutes later in Tuba City AZ at 1:19 pm, 4 minutes before you left the Hopi village. On this last leg you will have passed through another Hopi enclave. Total time changes over your 2:19 trip: 5.

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