I’ve observed, with tongue half-heartedly about a quarter of the way into my cheek, that you could tell there not a significant number of “white supremacists” in last year’s riots, because as the Midway burned, vandalized and/or caked with graffiti, Allianz Field, the playground of upper-middle-class white progressive Europhiles and, we were once told, immigrants, protected by not so much as a row of barberry bushes, had not so much as a squiggle of Sharpie on it.
So the notion that “white supremacists” were behind the riots seems…far-fetched.
But it’s interesting that the owners of Allianz Field and “Minnesota United” would seem to be the only people who stand to profit, maybe immensely, from the riots.
I’m old enough to remember the time when Dr. McGuire was, in the eyes of Twin Cities media, public enemy number one because he received back dated shares of United Health Care stock as compensation for his job as CEO. Now that he’s a big soccer promoter that never gets mentioned. I received a modest sum ($800) as part of a class action suit filed against him. Only time I got anything substantial in one of those things.
Urban renewal, in the time-honored tradition of Nero.
^ I would say that yes McGuire’s entry into soccer was a calculated way to rehab his image, with an assumption being the media would build out this no critic zone for the Loons. But I don’t know how often they are supposed to revisit the stock thing though it was supremely crooked.
It’s a very long game with that commercial redevelopment. Money maker but I don’t know about immense money maker in terms of returns.
I personally anticipate that if they do get the shopping center and turn it into parking lots, it’s going to end up like Portland’s convention center–one building being used in an area with few viable businesses for visitors to patronize. So even if the soccer team gets it, they could end up hurting financially. Oopsie.
^ There’s something about that Midway location, I just don’t think it can be made into a thriving shopping destination. or condos. whatever.
….and that’s why it was an abyssmally dumb idea to make a stadium there. If one takes a look at long-term stadia that really make it work–Wrigley, Fenway, Lambeau, and the like–you see places where can go out to get a bite to eat or whatever. Politicians don’t seem to understand that if you’re driving in from the suburbs, you’re not just going for the game.
to see who benefits look at who(think LLCs) has been buying up the housing stock on Lafond, Van Buren etc in the last couple years, usually at or above asking. The LLCs are being bundled into saleable tranches.