Cooper, Minneapolis

The Cooper neighborhood (part of the larger Longfellow community) resides along the west shore of the Mississippi River in south Minneapolis. It is bound by 34th St. E. on the south, 38th Ave. S. on the west, 27th St. E. on the north, and the river gorge to the east. Bordering neighborhoods are Seward to the north, Longfellow to the west, and Howe to the south. St. Paul's Merriam Park neighborhood is just across the Mississippi River to the east.

Cooper was named after the 19th-century author James Fenimore Cooper, best known for writing The Last of the Mohicans (1832).

Geography
The Mississippi River Gorge is unique to this stretch of the entire Mississippi. The river cut an eighty-plus foot gorge as what is now St. Anthony Falls moved upstream over thousands of years, finally stopping at downtown Minneapolis due to engineering work during the city's flour milling boom times. Today, the Mississippi River Gorge is a protected natural landscape.

Schools
2005 marked the closing of Cooper Elementary School, forcing Cooper's children to move to the neighboring Longfellow Elementary, which itself closed in 2010. Today, elementary students in Cooper are split between Dowling Elementary School and Hiawatha Elementary School.

Sanford Middle School (formerly Jr. High) is the closest middle school, located in the Howe neighborhood to the south.

South High School is the closest senior high school, located in the Corcoran neighborhood further to the west.

Minnehaha Academy's (private) high school is located in Cooper along West River Road. Their middle school is further south on West River Road in the Howe neighborhood.

Political representation
Cooper is part of City Council Ward 12 and Minnesota Legislative District 63A.


 * City Council (Ward 12): Aurin Chowdhury
 * Minneapolis Park Board (District 3): Becky Alper
 * Minneapolis Mayor: Jacob Frey
 * Hennepin County Commissioner (District 4): Angela Conley
 * Minnesota House of Representatives (District 63A): Samantha Sencer-Mura
 * Minnesota Senate (District 63): Zaynab Mohamed
 * US House of Representatives (District 5): Ilhan Omar

Notable residents

 * Jesse Ventura, former Minnesota Governor, grew up in the house on the southwest corner of 32nd St. E. and 46th Ave. S.