37 years ago this past Saturday, just out of college, I moved to Minneapolis<\/a> (and, a few years later, Saint Paul – because it was a place with huge opportunity, that a recent college grad with almost no money and without a tech degree and a really nice entry level salary (I didn’t get one of those for another 8 years) could afford to live in.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA friend of mine got an apartment, back then. Nice, brand new one-bedroom place – $400 a month. After inflation, probably $1,000 today. So tell me what a 1 bedroom in a brand new building in a neighborhood where a single 22 year old woman can live without a full time escort costs today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1986, when I was working as a producer on the Don Vogel show, I booked a writer from the Fodor travel guide on the show. He’d just written an article calling Minneapolis and St. Paul \u201cthe Athens of the modern era\u201c – and he was not alone. Other publications shared the consesus – the Twin Cities were “the next big thing”, economically and culturally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was an amazing time to be here. And that was the place I wanted my kids to have, when the time came.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Something sure screwed up along the way, didn’t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The place is economically plateaued, *at best*. People respond “But look at all the Fortune 1000 companies!”, to which I respond “Sure – it can still be a good place to live and work, if you frequent the Guthrie and the club level at Target Center”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But if you’re that kid getting out of school today? Usually economic stagnation comes with deflation. But thanks to the Met Council’s meddling, Minneapolis and Saint Paul housing stock is harder to find, AND hideously expensive, AND increasingly cheap (to build, not to rent) ticky-tack stick and frame apartments with the build quality of an IKEA dresser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As to crime? Crime was bad in the ’80s, and got worse in the ’90s. But there was a general sense that those responsible thought it was a *bad* thing, and gave the appearance (outside the month before a “red wave” election) they wanted to do something about it. If the President of the Minneapolis City Council had called public safety a “privilege” in 1985, Walt Dziedzic would have led a mob of union pipefitters down from Northeast – back when Northeast was a blue collar neighborhood, not an “urban life” theme park for hipsters – and tarred and feathered her. If Attorney General Humphrey would have written an op-ed supporting defunding the MPD, someone would have checked him in for a 72 hour hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Twin Cities are *not* better; they have not \u201cmoved forward\u201c, they haven’t become \u201cmore vibrant,\u201c it\u2019s just more dangerous, more expensive – and more segregated, especially by class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I would love to see a rebirth of what the Twin Cities were – a hotbed of economic and scientific and artistic creativity and opportunity, and a place where young people of all backgrounds can afford to get established. A place where \u201cvibrancy\u201c isn\u2019t a punchline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can anybody possibly be delusional enough to think the current regime can bring that about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As to the “polls” – should Minneapolis be saved? Sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can it be, without a 180\u00b0 political turn around? I\u2019m afraid not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is it worth it? That\u2019s its own people to decide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
30 ideas ago, New Yorkers decided New York City was worth saving. And they did it – they elected Rudy Giuliani (and other cities in the NYC metro area followed suit; Jersey City elected Brett Schundler, one of my personal political heroes). And a few years of hard work paid off; NYC went from being a high-crime toilet with a First Class section, to being one of the safest cities in America; a second Golden Age of New York followed closely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NYC is in the middle of squandering that legacy – and there’s no way they’re electing another Giuliani, since the “Great Sort” has driven the Giuliani voters upstate or waaaay out onto Long Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As to Minneapolis? As long as the white, upper-middle-class, ultra-“progressive” laptop-class members continue to control everything about Minneapolis, there really is no hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that’s a shame. The city used to have so much to offer, not just to them, but to *everyone*.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve had a couple of DFLs claim I, among other GOPs, \u201cwant Minneapolis to fail\u201c. They cite a couple of online polls taken by my friend (and one of about six actual journalists in the Twin Cities) Bill Glahn showing lots of conservatives don’t think the city can be saved. Speaking for myself? It’s not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-minneapolis","category-liberal-tyranny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83628"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83631,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83628\/revisions\/83631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}