| Official Name: | Cooper |
| Settlement Type: | Neighborhood |
| Mapsize: | 200px |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Type3: | City |
| Subdivision Type4: | Community |
| Subdivision Name: | United States |
| Subdivision Name1: | Minnesota |
| Subdivision Name2: | Hennepin |
| Subdivision Name3: | Minneapolis |
| Subdivision Name4: | Longfellow |
| Seat Type: | City Council Ward |
| Seat: | 12 |
| Leader Title: | Council Member |
| Leader Name: | Aurin Chowdhury |
| Established Title: | Founded |
| Unit Pref: | US |
| Area Total Sq Mi: | 0.67 |
| Area Footnotes: | [1] |
| Population As Of: | 2020 |
| Population Total: | 3,560 |
| Population Density Sq Mi: | auto |
| Population Footnotes: | [2] |
| Timezone: | CST |
| Utc Offset: | -6 |
| Timezone Dst: | CDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | -5 |
| Postal Code Type: | ZIP code |
| Postal Code: | 55406 |
| Area Code: | 612 |
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).
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.
2005 marked the closing of Cooper Elementary School, forcing Cooper's children to move to the neighboring Longfellow Elementary,[3] which itself closed in 2010.[4] Today, elementary students in Cooper are split between Dowling Elementary School[5] and Hiawatha Elementary School.[6]
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.
Cooper is part of City Council Ward 12[7] and Minnesota Legislative District 63A.[8]