Hang onto your wallets. The same bureaucrats who connived with the City of Minneapolis’s ruling class are, uh, “reimagining” again:
“We’re going to talk about how we’re going to reimagine downtown,” Adam Duininck, Minneapolis Downtown Council president, said at the annual meeting. “Our story’s going to continue to be centered around public safety, inclusion and reimagining the future of downtown.”
Duininck, a former head of the Met Council, is a lifelong DFL fixture; his imagination has given this blog a lot of material over the years. While the Southwest Light Rail debacle wasn’t entirely his fault, he was part of the ocntinuum of bureaucratic arrogance and, shall we say, less than exceptional capability that has turned that project into the flaming dumpster it’s been since its inception.
And now, with the Downtown Council – the crowd that brought you the redevelopment of Block E – they want to “Reimagine” again.
Downtown safety continues to be a concern for some Minnesotans.
Taking a look at 2023 city data, violent crime is down about 14% downtown compared to 2022.
Why do they never compare crime with, say, 2016?
Anyway – this is far from the first time the “in” crowd has tried to “reimagine” downtown; efforts go back to the disastrous “Urban Renewal” effots in the ’50s and ’60s, the building of Nicollet Mall in the ’60s and ’70s, the building of the Metrodome in the ’80s, the rebuilding of the Nicollet Mall in the ’80s, Light Rail, the de-building of the Metrodome and its replacement with Darth Vader’s fishing cabin, Betsy Hodges’ exquisitely expensive Bauhaus rebuilding of Nicollet Mall in the 2010s…
…and the’re not done with Nicollet Mall:
Looking ahead, city leaders said there will be challenges, but 2023 was a turning point to reinvent what downtown could be.
“On Nicollet Mall, we can have a fully pedestrian world-class mall. We can set a tone for other cities to follow,” Frey said. “Why can’t it be more like Times Square? Why can’t we have digital billboards off and tons of light and activity? Why can’t we use that excess revenue to do more programming to make sure that there’s activity 100% of the time?”
Another goal has been to get people back in the office downtown.
“On Nicollet Mall, we can have a fully pedestrian world-class mall”.
What – again?
Could someone just buy the Downtown Council a “Minecraft” subscription?
The free market could, of course, settle this inside a generation – if there were a free market in force downtown.
Downtown Minnepolis is in the state it’s in because of politics – the spring from which government planning flows, and the arthritic yet flighty decision making process that comes with it.
What “excess revenue” is he talking about?
Last I head, tax receipts were down 28%.
It amazes me that Duininck is still out there grifting all these years later. Can a Kate Knuth grift be far behind?
More of the same from the brain trust that built the blue line light rail from downtown to the largest mall in the US.
The Met Council is more or less inverting the ordinary path cities use to create vibrant city centers. These city centers started as forward thinking people found a good setting–like along a river–and thought far enough ahead to make sure that there was adequate transportation and functioning security apparatus like police and guards on the walls.
Fast forward to today, and urban planners seem to think that you can have a functioning city without these prerequisites, and it shows. That’s why you get urban showpieces like Gary’s “Genesis Center” surrounded by a sea of empty lots and crack houses.
Didn’t they just spend a boat load of money on Nicollet Mall?
Oh, screw you all, as a bipoc, non-binary, indigenous, disabled vet, I am going for a juicy contract.
“Why can’t we have digital billboards off and tons of light and activity? Why can’t we use that excess revenue to do more programming to make sure that there’s activity 100% of the time?”” BECAUSE YOU dimshits want to kill all of our energy sources and make it colder out you ignorant fokwads!
This is what happens when “forward thinking” planners combine a struggling city center with a shopping district. Other places, the shopping malls were built as separate entities. When the shoppers moved on, it was possible to demolish the old shopping venues and repurpose the property. Do “forward thinking” planners plan to demolish downtown Minneapolis? What do they propose to build in its place?
I work downtown. I refuse to spend more than for parking and a cheap lunch there once in a while.
Also, I walked through at 3 in the afternoon last spring. The skyways were DEAD.
It looks like Denver is trying to be like Minneapolis. Their mayor announced last week that some city services would have to be reduced to pay the illegal aliens that are flooding the city. Of course, he blamed Republicans.