The Choice
By Mitch Berg
So, what’s worse?
Empty real estate?
Or vacant lots?
Evan Ramstad – who’s in a hammer-and-tongs battle with Jennifer Brooks for “worst Strib columnist” – says “empty lots”
Now, that could make some sense, if there was some intense craving for downtown real estate – perhaps to build the “housing” that “urbanists” are fantasizing about.
But Minneapolis already has a glut of overpriced “luxury” housing, and rent control (albeit not quite as stupid and myopic as Saint Paul’s version) and unicorn-style zoning are choking out the supply of middle-class construction.
So I’m trying to see how this ends up as anything but a downtown full of lots suitable for graffiti, “encampments” and all the other bits and pieces of. urban blight that the Minneapolis City Council and the Strib columnist bullpen seem to think the city deserves.
March 25th, 2025 at 7:14 am
St. Paul missed an opportunity during the last real estate crunch.
Streets are not promptly plowed because people need time move their cars because there is not enough off street parking.
Condemn vacant buildings for off street parking, ban winter on street parking, plow promptly.
Mpls, are you listening?
March 25th, 2025 at 7:14 am
I love the smell of moderation in the morning.
March 25th, 2025 at 7:47 am
Bad link.
March 25th, 2025 at 12:22 pm
I have a friend who got a divorce a couple years ago and ended up marrying his high school sweetheart a few months ago. She is a red-pilled liberal (largely due to becoming re-involved with my friend) but while she was liberal, she did what lots of solid middle class liberals do and bought a nice condo near DT Mpls. It’s a couple blocks away form Loring Park. The Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church and the Walker are visible from her west-facing balcony. They bought a house together in Plymouth. Her condo has been on the market for more than a year. No serious offers. Says a lot about the real estate market in Mpls.
March 25th, 2025 at 2:27 pm
In the case of my neighborhood, the urbanist activists actively advocate for the tear down of functioning businesses because the businesses have parking lots. They hate parking lots (or anything) that serve a purpose and want empty lots uber alles! I haven’t yet figured out how empty lots that serve no purpose are urban…but that’s what the so called urbanists want here. *shoulder shrug*
March 25th, 2025 at 3:23 pm
Because it’s not like vacant buildings have people break in to get shelter and become flophouses for the homeless, crack houses, and the like. Certainly no one familiar with Detroit, Gary, Chicago, St. Louis, Baltimore, DC, South Central LA, and the like would be able to point out what happens with abandoned homes and businesses.