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A Town Turned Mean: What happened to downtown Minneapolis?
CityPages ^ | 6-28-17 | Cory Zurowski

Posted on 07/01/2017 5:14:30 AM PDT by dynachrome

If downtown is the heartbeat of Minneapolis, then its collective soul resides on Hennepin Avenue, the corridor that’s long served as its cultural, commercial, and entertainment epicenter. But these days, visitors aren’t seeing the intoxicating glimmer Schmidt beheld so long ago.

Talk to civic leaders, downtown workers, and couples descending from Burnsville, and they’ll tell you to drive down Hennepin with the windows open once the sun has called it day. If you watch and listen, the feeling isn’t one of good vibrations. It’s energy with a serrated edge, the vibe that comes from a city turning mean.

Apocalypse now

The harbinger that something was wrong came via letter in December. Among the four authors of the missive to Mayor Betsy Hodges was Steve Cramer, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council, a business group with more than 400 members (including City Pages and its corporate parent, the Star Tribune).

The letter spoke of a new kind of peril threatening downtown. Unlike years past, when a spike in violent crime cast the city in an uncomfortable light, this cause for alarm was more elusive. The problem wasn’t necessarily crime in the technical sense. It was more of a belligerence, a creeping sense of depravity.

(Excerpt) Read more at citypages.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Minnesota
KEYWORDS: bluezones; crime; liberalcity; minneapolis; selfinflicted; trends; urban; usjihad
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To: Hacksaw; dynachrome

Well, there ya go. Didn’t you read post #6?


21 posted on 07/01/2017 5:52:14 AM PDT by Mr. Lucky
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To: Carl Vehse

Liberals are all about diversity and multiculturalism until it’s in their front yard and they have to look at it every day. It’s okay to them if someone else has to stare it in the face every day, but not them. The denial continues, however, because they’re never wrong, dontcha see.


22 posted on 07/01/2017 5:55:35 AM PDT by virgil (The evil that men do lives after them.)
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To: dynachrome

An commentary that bemoans Minneapolis for its decline into incivility illustrates its own bad manners with coarse language including the f-word. Ironic.


23 posted on 07/01/2017 5:57:07 AM PDT by jonrick46 (The Left has a mental illness: A totalitarian psyche.)
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To: dynachrome
"something is different and it’s not good"

You bet it isn't!

They asked for it. They got it. It's not as though they didn't know what they were going to get.

To paraphrase Dorothy Parker, commenting on another Minnesotan upon his demise: "The poor sons of bitches!"

24 posted on 07/01/2017 5:58:19 AM PDT by Savage Beast (You can drive coast to coast without ever crossing a district run by Democrats! MAGA = Renaissance!)
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To: wastoute

Yup. Ain’t diversity grand?


25 posted on 07/01/2017 5:58:54 AM PDT by rbg81 (Truth is stranger than fiction)
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To: dynachrome
I was in St. Paul for a work conference the late 90’s. One evening I took the bus to meet up with a blond girl who had been baptized at my church camp two years earlier. I took the bus from my St. Paul hotel to her apartment in Minneapolis.

There was a sort of downtown “park” of maybe two or three unimproved blocks of land (sans trees), there in Minneapolis. A theater (maybe for plays) and restaurants lined the area, but so did a lot of people milling around. I had to wait there for a connecting bus.

I eventually made it to her home and we talked for a while. When I left, I caught what would be the last set of buses back to St. Paul (around 1 AM). I had to wait again for the bus near the theater.

The area had become raucous and most all of the people looked “unsafe.” One or two others with me in the barely-covered bus waiting area looked like normal people who must have been going home after work. Their behavior further told me the danger of the occasion. When the bus to St. Paul appeared, I confirmed with the driver his was the bus I needed. He told me it was, and that this was not the place or time for someone obviously alone and seemingly unprepared for the situation.

The evening was both exciting and sad. It was the first time I'd visited a blind person in the evening. She was happy to hear from me, but her apartment was bleak and bare, with one or two harsh lights. She seemed desperate for companionship on this cold, early winter night.

When I got back to St. Paul, I entered the above-ground, environmentally-controlled “habitrail,” block-connecting maze and walked the rest of the way back to my hotel (a beautifully-inviting Embassy Suites).

I never ventured back to Minneapolis on subsequent visits.

26 posted on 07/01/2017 5:59:26 AM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: dynachrome

Feral Swedes have taken over the downtown.


27 posted on 07/01/2017 6:00:20 AM PDT by bert (K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column)
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To: wastoute

“What happened to downtown Minneapolis?”

Take a guess.


28 posted on 07/01/2017 6:07:28 AM PDT by Bonemaker
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To: dynachrome

I’m just surprised the author did not use the well worn white villain trope as code word for vibrant people of color acting like asses.


29 posted on 07/01/2017 6:08:31 AM PDT by junta ("Peace is a racket", testimony from crime boss Barrack Hussein Obama.)
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To: dynachrome

btt


30 posted on 07/01/2017 6:11:58 AM PDT by KSCITYBOY (The media is corrupt)
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To: dynachrome
There is one thing that is not mentioned in the story. very carefully avoided.

Doesn't need to be mentioned. Everyone already knows.

The article cleverly tosses in the following passage to clear it up to anyone still wondering:

White people don't talk like this.

31 posted on 07/01/2017 6:11:58 AM PDT by Drew68
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To: dynachrome
Future Detroit

Nah. The arabs are slowly taking over Detroit and pushing the blacks out to Southfield, Novi, Wixom, etc..
32 posted on 07/01/2017 6:13:12 AM PDT by farming pharmer (www.sterlingheightsreport.com)
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To: KSCITYBOY

MN didn’t have enough crime, hate, and violence.... So they imported some. Sheer lunacy!


33 posted on 07/01/2017 6:14:15 AM PDT by KSCITYBOY (The media is corrupt)
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To: dynachrome
I wonder how Minnesotans are reacting to this article?
34 posted on 07/01/2017 6:15:04 AM PDT by KSCITYBOY (The media is corrupt)
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To: dynachrome
It was more of a belligerence, a creeping sense of depravity.

Liberalism.

35 posted on 07/01/2017 6:16:07 AM PDT by Kudsman ( Anyone to the Right of Stalin is a Far Right Wing candidate to the Far Left Wing Media.)
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To: dynachrome

Voters of Democrat city officials reap what they sow.


36 posted on 07/01/2017 6:16:19 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: dynachrome
WHAT A METAPHOR FOR CONTEMPORARY AMERICA:

'a group of young men made lewd remarks as she and her hubby walked from a restaurant to a parking ramp. Their comments escalated from “you look nice” to “skinny bitch wanting some of this.”

'The couple found themselves on a lonesome block, save for the four men now following them. Ignoring them didn’t work. The couple quickened their gait. Colleen’s husband finally stopped and spoke firmly, appealing to their sense of honor.

'“They laughed at him,” says Colleen, who was scared and veering toward panic. “They laughed like it was hysterical, and I mean they were sincere.”

'The men continued to follow until the couple turned a corner and two cops came into sight. The men evaporated into the night.

'“I didn’t know what to expect next. That’s what really scared me most,” she says. “It felt like they were enjoying making us feel fearful.”'


37 posted on 07/01/2017 6:16:27 AM PDT by Savage Beast (You can drive coast to coast without ever crossing a district run by Democrats! MAGA = Renaissance!)
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To: dynachrome
WHAT A METAPHOR FOR CONTEMPORARY AMERICA:

'a group of young men made lewd remarks as she and her hubby walked from a restaurant to a parking ramp. Their comments escalated from “you look nice” to “skinny bitch wanting some of this.”

'The couple found themselves on a lonesome block, save for the four men now following them. Ignoring them didn’t work. The couple quickened their gait. Colleen’s husband finally stopped and spoke firmly, appealing to their sense of honor.

'“They laughed at him,” says Colleen, who was scared and veering toward panic. “They laughed like it was hysterical, and I mean they were sincere.”

'The men continued to follow until the couple turned a corner and two cops came into sight. The men evaporated into the night.

'“I didn’t know what to expect next. That’s what really scared me most,” she says. “It felt like they were enjoying making us feel fearful.”'


38 posted on 07/01/2017 6:16:29 AM PDT by Savage Beast (You can drive coast to coast without ever crossing a district run by Democrats! MAGA = Renaissance!)
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To: jonrick46
An commentary that bemoans Minneapolis for its decline into incivility illustrates its own bad manners with coarse language including the f-word. Ironic.

Get over yourself. They were quoting a guy who was mugged. Us adults understand that we don't live in a G-rated world.

39 posted on 07/01/2017 6:16:51 AM PDT by Drew68
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To: dynachrome

muslims?


40 posted on 07/01/2017 6:20:34 AM PDT by mowowie
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