The bridge collapse in Minneapolis has been given huge coverage here in Australia across all media. It is a big talking point across the counter at my newsagency and I am sure newsagencies, taxis and other watercooler conversation places around the country.
What surprises me is that until yesterday Minneapolis would only have been on the radar of Australians who watched the Mary Tyler Moore shop in the 1970s (it was set there). Now, it is etched in our memory as the city of the bridge tragedy of 2007.
Minneapolis is a small city by US standards. It’s people are regular folk, not of the extreme type we see reflected in US reality and other TV shows. For the most part, the city and its people fly under the radar, getting on with life and not seeking the notoriety of New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
I have spent some time in Minneapolis over many visits – first in 2000 to see a play I wrote performed in their Fringe Festival. Curiously, the 2007 Fringe Festival started last night.
Watching the coverage of the bridge tragedy here last night, I wondered if a tragedy of a similar scale here would receive the same coverage overseas? Is suspect not.
I guess what surprises me most about this story is its resonance with Australians. A colleague working at my newsagency from Minneapolis heard about the tragedy first from one of our customers and then another and another. This reminded me of the watercooler nature of newsagencies. How we engage with customers on the topic of the day reinforces our value to the community.