Empty

A friend of the blog – and fellow Saint Paul resident – emails:

Our Councilperson, Mitra Jalali, recently tweeted about how wonderful it would be to permanently close Snelling to make it pedestrian/transitway only. Someone sane asked the question about where traffic would be re-routed. Someone who apparently has been blind to what the construction of the light rail on University has done to local businesses responded that “traffic will tend to disappear because non-locals won’t pass through and locals will walk more places.” Well, actually that person is partially correct and partially paying attention- traffic disappears because everyone will find a new place to be. But, where the person is oblivious is locals won’t walk more places because those places will disappear as they did on University Avenue.

Anyway, Little Africa Fest happened this weekend and a portion of Snelling was actually closed off to cars and was pedestrian only. I like the local African restaurants, so I checked it out, hoping to get some good food. It was 6pm in the evening. The event started around 11am, I believe, and was supposed to go on until 10pm. There was quite a lot of activity happening at Hamline Park and it was very crowded there. That is good. Those businesses deserve attention and it was a community festival with the local businesses setting up booths. But, as anticipated, nothing happening on the closed part of Snelling Avenue. No real apparent reason to close off Snelling Avenue. In fact, if we permanently closed off Snelling Avenue, this is how it would look 24 hours a day. No one walking, no real activity happening.

#vibrant!

The close the streets people say that closing some streets to cars, or “building streets for people” would actually make neighborhoods safer. I must say I didn’t hear any sirens going on during the festival- but perhaps that might have been due to the heavy visible police presence in the neighborhood for the festival…

On the one hand, a street that is genuinely closed probably makes a bad getaway route.

On the other hand, if there is no business, and thus no potential victims on the hoof – that’s a little like destroying the village to save it, isn’t it?

9 thoughts on “Empty

  1. Reality dictates that most new ideas are bad ideas. The reason for this is simple: it is easier to imagine something than to test if it works.

    On the other hand, while some ideas withstand the corrosion of time and fashion, most don’t.

    Which defines the difference between conservatives and liberals.

    – Conservatives cling to old notions, even those which do not work.
    – Moderates are wary of change and weary of fashion.
    – Liberals embrace change to distinguish themselves from the less hip and virtuous. Whether something works or not is irrelevant.
    – Marxist implement every stupid idea imaginable on the largest scale possible.

  2. The same mentality of the people that want to make I-94 between Mpls and St Paul a parkway with 45 MPH and no semi-trucks.

  3. Someone who apparently has been blind to what the construction of the light rail on University has done to local businesses responded that “traffic will tend to disappear because non-locals won’t pass through and locals will walk more places.”
    Sounds like that someone has taken taken a “cityscapes 101” course at a community college.
    Cities evolve around paradigms. American cities evolved around an “everyone has a car paradigm.” You can’t turn them into renaissance village artifacts by closing streets to traffic, people are still not where they want to be, and they have no reason to enjoy the newly created community spaces. You need a focus, like a village square or market.

  4. You need a focus, like a village square or market.

    When all businesses leave because only locals are left to support them, when locals leave because they cannot walk 10 miles, uphill, both ways, in hip-deep snow, in the middle of July to the nearest grocery store, the entire area will be ready to be bulldozed to create a village square and a market. Maybe gallows and a guillotine too, or two. Urban paradise!

  5. Not gonna deny that I’m a little bit proud that as a hick who knows knows Mpls better than St Paul (outstate MNs usually know the one or the other), that I recognized where that picture was taken. Went out on Google Maps to confirm.

    PS Kinda weird how if you play with the “little google man” turning onto University east from Snelling, the images are suddenly all from 2007. As in, the Midway Center still exists. There’s no soccer stadium… and then at the Midway Center sign by the Perkins, 2021 reappears.

  6. I suppose if Jalali had her way the street would be packed with people of unknown covid & vax status mingling, laughing, lots of personal interaction.

  7. “ I like the local African restaurants, so I checked it out, hoping to get some good food.”

    When we lived in MacG, there was an Ethiopian restaurant in Highland. We tried it once; it tasted like shit.

    Must say though, never had the balls to try a Somali plate…so tell us, Berg, how *does* human flesh taste? Chicken?

  8. It;s called “long pig,” Blade: Don’t be disrespectful.

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