Our Axios colleagues were pleasantly surprised by the Twin Cities

• Many of the reporters in 29 other Axios Local cities shared with their combined 2 million subscribers warm and fuzzy thoughts about a metro area with a reputation that took a hit in recent years.

The big picture: They liked us. They really liked us.

• Visitors — especially from Sun Belt cities — loved our light rail. Those same people also basked in our mild weather, which was 20 to 30 degrees cooler than back home.
• The bike lanes, parks and scooters were a hit.
• Target Field got respect from baseball fans. The team, however, embarrassed itself when we attended on Tuesday night.
• People were wowed by MSP Airport. There's a reason we're No. 1.

A sampling from other Axios newsletters.

🤠 Dallas reporter Naheed Rajwani-Dharsi liked it so much she's already planning a return visit.

☕️ Seattle's Melissa Santos gave high marks to Owamni, Reverie and Hai Hai, and Milkjam.

🏎 The Indianapolis team loved Pryes Brewing and Minneapolis so much they considered never going home.

🌵 Jeremy Duda, who covers the Arizona Legislature in Phoenix, was impressed by our state capitol.

🐶 Axios Cleveland, thanks to a tip from Nick, wrote about Browns Backers bar Mackenzie Pub in downtown Minneapolis. But reporter Sam Allard called us Minny. Tsk tsk.

The other side: This is too much lavish praise for us and we need some balance. So we begged Chicago's Justin Kaufmann to look down his nose at this junior Midwest city.

What he said: "Listen, I wanted to hate Minneapolis because well, that's what we do in Chicago, but I enjoyed my visit!

• "Although, the 6pm cutoff on Sunday beer sales is ridiculous, and the bees were out of control. Oh and also, downtown was bland, Target Field was mediocre and 'Minnesota Nice' is a myth. Other than that, great! 🤣 "

Between the lines: Justin was joking, but we are not when we say that the Bears still stink.