Oh, Goody
By Mitch Berg
The Science Museum of Minnesota is one of downtown Saint Paul’s major attractions. Its new complex on the bluff over the Mississippi River is one of the city’s crown jewels.
The museum’s old complex, up on Wabasha and Exchange, sits half-empty (a music school bought the part east of Wabasha) since a charter school in the space closed about a year ago.
So check out the new neighbors:
The Church of Scientology has purchased the former Science Museum of Minnesota building in downtown St. Paul
Eric Rapp, a Welsh Cos. broker who marketed the space, said the church plans a major renovation of the building that once housed exhibits…The sale closed Friday…”That block will be a bright spot for St. Paul in an otherwise slow market,” Rapp said.
I always say – downtown Saint Paul just isn’t weird enough.
June 14th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Damn, I was hoping they could get another government building, to take some prime downtown space off the tax rolls, thereby shifting the burden of feeding the fat sow that is City Hall onto Midway homeowners.
Oh wait – it’s a church. They don’t pay property taxes, either.
Hope they have few members. Not much parking in that neighborhood.
June 14th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Do we have enough well heeled marks to support a CoS in St. Paul?
Apparently someone thinks we do. *shrug*
June 14th, 2007 at 9:48 am
What’s next for St. Paul? The Church of Snakehandlers? Wickens?
Oh, wait…they do have snakehandlers already. Their church is called City Hall and the High Priest is named Chrissy Coleman.
June 14th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Yet another reason that St. Paul will keep rolling up the sidewalks ’round 6:30 pm.
Still… they have Cosetta’s.
June 14th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Saint Paul does have one odd gal that I’ve noticed quite a few times – it’s a woman with long blonde hair or wig dressed in a purple princess-type outfit, complete with large, sparkling tiara and an angled ribbon like the Miss America contestants wear to show which state they’re from. She’ll walk along West 7th from Smith Avenue to downtown and back, in any kind of weather. Always the same clothes – no coat, no nothing except that dress. I’ve thought about pulling over and asking her what her story is, but I really don’t need any more evil spells cast on me, you know?
June 14th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
And now I rise to my city’s defense:
Yet another reason that St. Paul will keep rolling up the sidewalks ’round 6:30 pm.
Just downtown, Badda. Unlike Minneapolis, Saint Paul isn’t centered around its downtown; its real life is in the neighborhoods.
So while you can fire a gun down any street east of Wabasha after 8PM confident that you’ll hit nobody (or maybe even attract a cop), Grand Avenue, and Selby up on Cathedral Hill will be buzzing until closing time most nights, and Snelling and Randolph, and sometimes Como in St. Anthony and Chavez down on the West Side will have people and traffic and places open and all those other things that I’m sure Jay Benanav will try to ban at some point.