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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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Future Detroit,baltimore, etc.
1 posted on 07/01/2017 5:14:30 AM PDT by dynachrome
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To: dynachrome

I gave up reading. First and lasting impression is a city filled with and attracting animals. Untamed in the worst sense. Uncivilized. If I were there, I’d be happy to be carrying a concealed weapon and should be asking why I was there.


2 posted on 07/01/2017 5:20:51 AM PDT by Reno89519 (Drain the Swamp is not party specific. Lyn' Ted is still a liar, Good riddance to him.)
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To: dynachrome

It’s just “diversity”, you know, multicultural blessings...


3 posted on 07/01/2017 5:21:40 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: dynachrome

"She's dead, Jim."

4 posted on 07/01/2017 5:22:47 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Islam: You have to just love a "religion" based on rape and sex slavery.)
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To: dynachrome
"A Town Turned Mean: What happened to downtown Minneapolis?"

Like a never-flushed toilet, the Minneapolis city government got clogged with liberals.

5 posted on 07/01/2017 5:24:45 AM PDT by Carl Vehse
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To: wastoute

There is one thing that is not mentioned in the story. very carefully avoided.


6 posted on 07/01/2017 5:25:27 AM PDT by dynachrome (When an empire dies, you are left with vast monuments in front of which peasants squat to defecate)
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To: dynachrome

Didn’t Minneapolis import a bunch of Somalis?


7 posted on 07/01/2017 5:26:19 AM PDT by Hacksaw (I haven't taken the 30 silvers.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

MTM’s opening was my first thought.


8 posted on 07/01/2017 5:27:26 AM PDT by exit82 (The opposition has already been Trumped!)
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To: Hacksaw

Yup.


9 posted on 07/01/2017 5:28:04 AM PDT by dynachrome (When an empire dies, you are left with vast monuments in front of which peasants squat to defecate)
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To: dynachrome

Result of decades of Democrats in charge. I saw the same when I went to Green Bay for a concert. Couldn’t wait to get back South.


10 posted on 07/01/2017 5:28:33 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: dynachrome

I figured. Just how many Somalians can you take in before your city looks more like Somalia than American?


11 posted on 07/01/2017 5:31:22 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: dynachrome

[People shouting, dropping F-bombs for all to hear. Groups running up and down sidewalks, steamrolling whomever and getting into confrontations. Men urinating on the front doors of businesses, day and night.]

Jesus Is The Answer - Andrae Crouch & Singers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9Mz3P1L1w8


12 posted on 07/01/2017 5:34:05 AM PDT by stars & stripes forever (Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Psalm 33:12)
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To: dynachrome

25 years ago the “problems” were confined to neighborhoods a few blocks from downtown. Emboldened by politically correct policing the “problems” moved a few blocks north into downtown. Areas that were safe for a evening stroll 20 years ago are now no-go zones.


13 posted on 07/01/2017 5:35:28 AM PDT by Senator_Blutarski
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To: dynachrome
They just spent millions redoing the streets and the Nicollet Mall, all so they could turn it over to the ferals and beggars. Hennepin Ave has always been a cesspit, so that's really nothing new.

It's typical Liberalville. Waste billions of taxpayer dollars trying to whitewash over the problem instead of just picking up the trash.

14 posted on 07/01/2017 5:38:46 AM PDT by IronJack
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To: dynachrome

A city run by Democrats. Need I say more?


15 posted on 07/01/2017 5:42:55 AM PDT by From The Deer Stand
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To: dynachrome
"There is one thing that is not mentioned in the story. very carefully avoided."

Hmmm. Could it be ferals, Somalians, muslims, amigos, gibs-me-dats, aspiring rappers, "youths", "teens" "good boys" and "youngsters turning their life around" ?

16 posted on 07/01/2017 5:45:45 AM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie
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To: dynachrome

I remember as a teenager growing up in Minneapolis stepping over or walking around bums lying on the sidewalks along Hennepin Ave. Going to the library on Nicollet Ave you had to run the gauntlet of bums congregated between the library and planetarium, which got so bad that they finally stationed a cop permanently in the library. Drunken Indians were a major problem plaguing downtown. In those days there weren’t many blacks. Once the blacks arrived in large numbers from Gary, Chicago and St. Louis, the violence skyrocketed, and venturing downtown became not just unpleasant, but dangerous.


17 posted on 07/01/2017 5:47:09 AM PDT by euram
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To: dynachrome
Minneapolis has always been a Dem stronghold. That's not what has changed. What has changed is the restrictions put on the police. They simply are not allowed to properly control the trouble-makers anymore.

When I was young everyone knew where the bad neighborhoods were. And the police kept those places under control and never let them spread.

Today, the sheep dogs are on short leashes and the wolves are having a blast!
18 posted on 07/01/2017 5:48:03 AM PDT by Spruce
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To: dynachrome

The descriptor he’s looking for, positive-sounding but morally neutral, is “vibrant.”


19 posted on 07/01/2017 5:48:50 AM PDT by Trailerpark Badass (There should be a whole lot more going on than throwing bleach, said one woman.)
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To: Reno89519
Great. I have to go there to work the SuperBowl this year. This and Chicago are going downhill while a couple formerly nasty cities are improving.

Massive gentrification in SE section of D.C. (West of the Anacostia River). Philly has nice areas I would have never gone to 20 years ago. I was in Cleveland for the RNC and they have a nice entertainment district, as well.

20 posted on 07/01/2017 5:51:17 AM PDT by USNBandit (Sarcasm engaged at all times)
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