The Death of Downtown

[RSteve]

For several years, downtown St. Paul, MN has been like a ghost town. Retail, which once was vibrant, has closed. Most restaurants of note closed during the pandemic. The only time you see activity is when the MN Wild hockey team have a home game.

Downtown Minneapolis, home to the Twins, Vikings, and Timberwolves still draw some crowds but every week it's published that another restaurant has closed. Today, there was the announcement that a former "hot spot" restaurant/club was closing after 15 years in business.
There were over 150 reader comments in the Mpls-Star Tribune relating to the restaurant's closure. Virtually all said the same thing.
"There is absolutely nothing in downtown Minneapolis for which it is worth the risk of being the victim of a carjacking, armed robbery or assault."
Carjackings are common because the perps, often teens tied to gangs, are released to their parents within 24 hours of capture, if captured. Armed robbery and assault is so common that only a fatality makes the news. Unless there's a halt, soon...Minneapolis downtown will be a larger version of St. Paul's ghost town.

 

[eggman]

I haven't been downtown to either city since the early 90’s. The last twins game I went to was still held at the metro dome.

 

[Carlos]

I am purposely avoiding major cities if at all possible.

 

[ftrplt]

Sounds like it's time to call out the cavalry!!!! FTRPLT

 

[Zeno Marx]

It saddens me to hear about Minneapolis. But it also saddened me when I moved out of a place, only to hear the rent had gone up $200+ to the next renters (+30%). Gentrification had just began in the Northeast. It's not why I moved, but I noticed it right on the tail end of my living there. Did I get out just in time? I sense I did. My hunch was that in the very near future, I wouldn't have been able to afford to live there any longer. Up to then, I didn't worry about locking the car, my wife walking home from the main library downtown, aimlessly walking around the area at night, etc. It was weird to this country boy that one block to the Mississippi and over a short bridge, and it was entirely a different world. How could that little bit of space make such a big difference? People in NYC are used to that kind of unmarked delineation, but for most of the rest of us, these imaginary walls don't make sense. So, the options seemed to have been rather extreme gentrification where only well-off professionals could live, or the hard life of the North making it over that short bridge. To be honest, neither sounds like much of a plan. More money. More money. More money. To fewer and fewer people is not the answer. Obviously, crime and violence isn't appetizing either. Like our political climate, in hindsight, Northeast Minneapolis seems to be the first time I personally experienced the extremes that have now become a way of life in the USA.

Both of us worked downtown, one full time and the other part time at a second job. I volunteered in south Minneapolis. I bicycled most of the year, very much enjoying my riding time through downton on Nicollet Ave on nearly a daily basis. It was such a well-behaved city. It's difficult for me to fathom how differently people describe it now.

 

[RSteve]

It's difficult for me to fathom how differently people describe it now.

Nicknamed Murderapolis. 2021...St. Paul-Mpls. 700 violent carjackings.
In any safe neighborhood in urban St. Paul or Minneapolis, you can expect to pay, at a minimum, $1600 to $2000 a month rent for a two bedroom apartment, unless it has some federal and/or state requirement for maximum income. One of my friends lives in a very nice 2-bedroom apartment above Whole Foods in St. Paul's midway district. Her annual rent is $30,000 and does not include heat.
In 2013, my younger daughter and her husband lived in a suburban Minneapolis (Bloomington) apartment complex. They had a 2-bedroom apartment; no special amenities. $1350 month and all the noise you could tolerate. Multiple families were cramming into one apartment. Building owners did nothing. I had my daughter and her husband move in with me for two years until they bought a house.
There is virtually no Immigration/Naturalization Service (INS) presence in St. Paul-Minneapolis. Consequently, the number of illegal immigrants is unknown, but estimated at over 200 thousand.

Minneapolis has the largest urban Somali population outside of Mogadishu. In the last 10 years, thousands of Hondurans and Mexicans have populated Minneapolis and suburbs; many, if not most, are undocumented. St. Paul has a Hmong population which is the largest urban Hmong population in the world. There's an oft repeated saying in the Hmong community, "Hmong girls go to college, Hmong boys go to prison."

It used to be a common saying, "Minnesota's sub-zero winter temperatures keep the riff-raff away." Now, they just hijack their victims' warm cars.

 

[EZONSLOW]

We live in NY, A suburb county LONG ISLAND. It is pretty peaceful so far... My wife and I used to go into Manhattan to see a show or go to dinner Monthly,Sadly - no more! Soft on crime,gangs running wild in the streets,Cops being killed,Victims being arrested for defending themselves,shoplifting is ignored unless it exceeds $1000 worth of goods being taken... Many of my cop friends have taken early retirement,or just plain moved out of state. Manhattan is a jungle-They defunded the police dept, have a no bail system and refuse to prosecute most anybody,even thugs with a long history are released in a matter of hours....

 

[Jazzer]

Sorry to hear that Minneapolis is yet another city to be wrecked by vile criminals and those who have enabled them.

I won't go into Chicago any more. I am currently working in an IT contract remotely, but I know that sometime in the next 3-4 months they will make people return return to the office. At that point, my contract will be probably over.
I'll accept that, because I can.
However. I fear for the average working person who doesn't have that option.

 

[Zeno Marx]

Multiple families were cramming into one apartment. Building owners did nothing. I had my daughter and her husband move in with me for two years until they bought a house.
There is virtually no Immigration/Naturalization Service (INS) presence in St. Paul-Minneapolis. Consequently, the number of illegal immigrants is unknown, but estimated at over 200 thousand.

Realistically, how else can people live in a city with housing prices that high? I remember my first summer in San Francisco/Oakland, working a summer job to pay for school. I ran into 13 people living in a single apartment in San Francisco. I thought they were nuts...until I heard the rental rates. A decade later, I was visiting a friend of a friend in San Francisco, and when they told me what they paid for rent, I thought he was nuts. He was a chemical engineer making six figures, though. He had money to burn, and that's exactly what he was doing. Lighting cigars with rolled up $100 bills. And now that kind of pricing is in every city. Even in mid-level cities like Boise, ID.

One of the deals with immigration is that because they come from a different culture, they don't mind having three generations of family living in a small space. Good thing, too. Who else is going to pay that kind of rent? College kids? Maybe. As for landlords and complaining about immigration...they sure don't mind taking that money though. Their convictions are about as sound and long as a Q-tip. "F'ing Mexicans!" as they deposit the rent. Become a landlord and see if you aren't talking out two sides of your mouth in no time. Or an employer. Or... They'll live stacked upon each other and for peanuts. Who else is going to do that? I've always wondered where all the service people live in these exorbitantly priced areas. Isn't Disneyland famous for having thousands of underpaid workers who have to live miles away in crappy conditions? Getting sidetracked...

 

[RSteve]

Soft on crime, gangs running wild in the streets...Victims being arrested for defending themselves, shoplifting is ignored unless it exceeds $1000 worth of goods being taken... many cops have taken early retirement, or just plain moved out of state. .. a no bail system and refuse to prosecute most anybody, even thugs with a long history are released in a matter of hours....

That is exactly what's happening in Mpls.-St. Paul! A friend just retired as a judge because he was ordered to "go easy" on offenders.

 

[Ranger107]

When I was in CA I had many friends in law enforcement, yeah, cops. They constantly complained about arresting repeat offenders only to see them back on the street 2 weeks later.