Minneapolis manhole covers

 I like to take walks on my lunch break when I'm working in downtown Minneapolis. In the wintertime, when it's too cold to be outside for long, this usually means walking through the skyways, which feels a lot like walking through a haphazardly-designed shopping mall. (The Replacements steered me wrong: The Skyway is not glamorous.) When the snow melted this spring, I started walking around downtown, looking down to make sure I didn't slip on any remaining ice. That's when I started thinking about the manhole covers.

Around Nicollet Mall, there are a lot of interesting covers. I started taking photos of them with my phone this spring. You'll notice some of these photos reveal some of the grit left over from road salt and melting ice. Some of them reveal brilliant August sunshine.

If you want to read more about Minneapolis manhole covers, check out this site by artist Kate Burke, who designed most of the ones you see here. There's also this great article by Andy Sturdevant which contains the line, "I prefer the '80s covers." Sturdevant's article makes me realize I haven't found all of them yet. Gotta hurry, before the snow comes again.