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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: Savage Beast

If only there was some device he could have carried that could even up the odds, that could let the bad guys know that this man could equal out against that group.

There must be something.


41 posted on 07/01/2017 6:22:44 AM PDT by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up.)
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To: Governor Dinwiddie; 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" ?

Exactly! The same thing is happening in Rochester, NY and the "progressive" MSM and public officials in the Dem-run city are purposely avoiding identifying the perps! They're in denial because their policies have enabled these feral youth.

42 posted on 07/01/2017 6:27:13 AM PDT by rochester_veteran (All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.)
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To: wastoute
I spent some time in Somalia in the Army. Everybody knows that story. It would be inconceivable at the time that America would even contemplate letting Somalians into the country and take over vast areas of our cities.

In regards to a Minneapolis Somalian, the Mogadishu never really goes away. Assimilation is not the kind practiced by the Swedes or German of the past. Subsequent generations are nothing but trouble sucking on welfare,being gangster,going on Jihad trips and turning cities like Minneapolis into another third world American shit hole.

I spit on Obama who threw gasoline on a country already on fire with illegals. These libtards who import and appease these feral third world Koranimals are a clear and present danger to our Republic.

43 posted on 07/01/2017 6:33:50 AM PDT by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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To: dynachrome
"What happened to downtown Minneapolis?"

I lived in "The Cities" in the mid 60's while going to the University there (the "U"). Hennepin Ave. was no different back then. It was to be avoided with a date, and never go alone. Washington Ave., "skid row", was bad then, too, with the railroad stations, but the bums riding the rails are gone now.

44 posted on 07/01/2017 6:33:50 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage (The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones.)
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To: IronJack
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.

Downtown Denver 20 years ago. City spent a fortune on the 16th Street Mall and LoDo. The ferals, bums and "crust punks" made things interesting.

Reading this article, however, I suspect it isn't the behavior that has gotten worse, it is the younger millennials' who now live downtown inability to tolerate it.

45 posted on 07/01/2017 6:35:08 AM PDT by Drew68
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To: mowowie
muslims?

No. These are homegrown American thugs. They've never seen the inside of a mosque.

46 posted on 07/01/2017 6:37:23 AM PDT by Drew68
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To: Drew68

Yea that was my second guess..


47 posted on 07/01/2017 6:40:05 AM PDT by mowowie
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To: Mr. Lucky
Well, there ya go. Didn’t you read post #6?

I needed to identify the elephant. :)

48 posted on 07/01/2017 6:45:37 AM PDT by Hacksaw (I haven't taken the 30 silvers.)
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To: Drew68

Seattle has an equivalent publication called “The Stranger.” I don’t recall that language used. That language does not belong in a newspaper published weekly and given out at 350 locations throughout the Minneapolis region. I have never seen those words spelled out in any publication I have ever read. I cannot even spell them out on the Free Republic. There are standards. If they want to communicate those words they can write “f**k,” “sh*t,” “bit*h.” I don’t appreciate such descriptions as “woman “with the hot ass,”” “elevating their game from jerks to bastards.” And, “ It’s so f****d (my edit) up I can’t even believe it.”

The “City Pages” needs an editor. The piece is way too long.


49 posted on 07/01/2017 6:52:01 AM PDT by jonrick46 (The Left has a mental illness: A totalitarian psyche.)
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To: dynachrome
This was posted yesterday and it explains so much of what has happened to this country.
50 posted on 07/01/2017 6:58:35 AM PDT by Oratam
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To: dynachrome

I stayed at a hotel right off Hennepin for a work-related conference last fall. Even coming from San Francisco, I was shocked at the scene down there. Mostly it was just the vibe as described in the article, people just aggressively walking around, as if trying to bump into someone who they would then beat into a pulp for the hell of it. Scary place.


51 posted on 07/01/2017 7:00:44 AM PDT by Behind the Blue Wall
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To: dynachrome

Well then, Fargo N.Dak, up the Interstate 4 hours will be next. The ratio of muslim immagrants there is even higher. Have taken over the area around West Acres Mall, Sams/Walmart in West Fargo is a virtual no-go zone after 11:00 pm


52 posted on 07/01/2017 7:02:35 AM PDT by sbark
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To: jonrick46
The “City Pages” needs an editor. The piece is way too long.

I thought the article was just fine and the language didn't bother me in the slightest.

53 posted on 07/01/2017 7:13:49 AM PDT by Drew68
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To: dynachrome

It’s a blue city that depends on giving away free stuff to the multicult and now it can’t afford to pay them to be nice anymore.

They will do what the Left trained them to do when they aren’t happy with their free stuff. You reap what you sow, Progs.


54 posted on 07/01/2017 7:28:16 AM PDT by Bryanw92 (If we had some ham, we could have ham and eggs, if we had some eggs.)
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To: dynachrome

As farms have gotten bigger and less farms are needed; all the wholesome farmkids have moved to MSP.
Right?


55 posted on 07/01/2017 7:36:43 AM PDT by HereInTheHeartland (I don't want better government; I want much less of it.)
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To: Hacksaw
Didn’t Minneapolis import a bunch of Somalis?

While I'm no fan of GWB's legacy of importing tens of thousands of Somalis to America, in this case I doubt they have much to do with the crime in Minneapolis.

There was black crime in MSP long before the Somalis showed up and if the city is anything like Denver, I'd bet it was far worse during the 1990s than it is today.

56 posted on 07/01/2017 7:38:57 AM PDT by Drew68
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To: Reno89519

It’s a shame. I remember Minneapolis as jewel of a city with beautiful lakes, parks, the Mississippi River and Minnehaha Falls.
Years ago it was thriving business city and had mayors who came from the GOP moderate wind of the party. The city was vibrant and upscale.

Now the city has gone the way of all liberal cities with envy of capitalism the driving force for them voting for ever more liberal leaders.


57 posted on 07/01/2017 7:41:03 AM PDT by Gumdrop (She made her bed and is now lying in it.)
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To: wastoute

Somalis. No doubt the great vetting let in those who shot at and killed our men in Mogadishu. The West is turning third world. Most of them offer nothing because Democrats are seeking worst of the worst to put them in power.


58 posted on 07/01/2017 7:58:41 AM PDT by VermithraxPejorative
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To: Hacksaw

Ding, Ding, Ding, we have a winner!


59 posted on 07/01/2017 8:06:26 AM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here Of Citizen Parents - Know Islam, No Peace -No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: dynachrome

Paging James Lileks. James Lileks, please pick up the white courtesy phone....


60 posted on 07/01/2017 8:29:42 AM PDT by Psalm 73 ("Gentlemen, you can't fight in here - this is the War Room".)
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