{"id":89428,"date":"2025-03-25T05:09:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T10:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=89428"},"modified":"2025-03-25T05:47:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T10:47:47","slug":"the-choice-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=89428","title":{"rendered":"The Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So, what’s worse?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Empty real estate?<\/p>\n

Or vacant lots?<\/p>\n

Evan Ramstad – who’s in a hammer-and-tongs battle with Jennifer Brooks for “worst Strib columnist” – says “empty lots”<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, that\u00a0could\u00a0<\/em>make some sense, if there was some intense craving for downtown real estate – perhaps to build the “housing” that “urbanists” are fantasizing about. \u00a0<\/p>\n

But Minneapolis already has a glut of overpriced “luxury” housing, and rent control (albeit not quite\u00a0<\/em>as stupid and myopic as Saint Paul’s version) and unicorn-style zoning are choking out the supply of middle-class construction.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, what’s worse?\u00a0 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\u00a0could\u00a0make some sense, if there was some intense craving for downtown real estate – perhaps to build the “housing” that “urbanists” are fantasizing about. \u00a0 But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-minneapolis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89428","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=89428"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89435,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89428\/revisions\/89435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}