Minneapolis Skyway System

[Silophant]

That door is going to be removed and a public passage built through the Xcel building to connect to 365 Nicollet. The area is a lunchroom right now, but it's pretty clear from the inside where the corridor is planned to be.

[SurlyLHT]

Have people heard how the businesses in the Skyway are doing with the big game? Max's Cafe's owner wrote to the Star Tribune that he was down 20% and Park Cafe in the Government Center is closing on Thursday I think. I'm afraid that the workers are fleeing and the tourists aren't taking their place.

[minntransplant]

Have people heard how the businesses in the Skyway are doing with the big game? Max's Cafe's owner wrote to the Star Tribune that he was down 20% and Park Cafe in the Government Center is closing on Thursday I think. I'm afraid that the workers are fleeing and the tourists aren't taking their place.

My impression has been less active skyways than normal in the morning and lunchtime. Things start picking up later in the day, especially around IDS. Anecdotal ... but half my coworkers are working remote this week, and the people that are here have been commenting on how empty the nearby garages have been all week.

[at40man]

Have people heard how the businesses in the Skyway are doing with the big game? Max's Cafe's owner wrote to the Star Tribune that he was down 20% and Park Cafe in the Government Center is closing on Thursday I think. I'm afraid that the workers are fleeing and the tourists aren't taking their place.

Which is exactly what happened 10 years ago when the RNC was held in Saint Paul. Not surprising.

[SurlyLHT]

Logically this doesn't surprise me. It is just so counter to the narrative that has been promoted. MinnPost had the below quote putting the economic impact around the same number the that was raised by the Super Bowl Committee.

"“If everything works out favorably, you’re probably looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of $30 million to $50 million of incremental impact,” Zimbalist said. “That’s in a situation where you’re presuming there’s a great deal of excess hotel capacity during those weeks in February.”

https://www.minnpost.com/politics-polic ... ct-numbers

[amiller92]

I don't think anyone thought it was going to be a windfall for lunch-only skyway places.

And, of course, I think we can assume there's a great deal of excess hotel capacity during the first weekend in February in the Twin Cities.

Anyway, I have the same impression as others. It's quieter during the day than normal, as people are working from home, but a lot livier than normal on and near the Mall in the evening.

I thought it was kind of funny, though, that guest parking at the Nic wanted $50 yesterday (we had free validation) and there was effectively no one parked there around 6:30 last night.

[alexschief]

The skyways are incredibly confusing to navigate for infrequent users, let alone newcomers (regular skyway users badly underestimate this). The streets are being programmed to death for the Super Bowl. Nothing surprising that a lot of the activity this week is bypassing the second level.

[amiller92]

There are volunteers in every building to give skyway directions. It's weird during the day, because they're just standing there, but yesterday early evening I saw several of them actually in use and more people than usual with skyway maps in hand. Of course, those maps are terrible and hard to read. Also funny that they were trying to offer my dad and I help as we stood at a wall mounted map and debated which was the best route to where.

The facts that we needed the map to have the discussion and the organizing committee thinks it needs volunteers everywhere are both indictments of the existing way-finding, which is terrible. Sure seems like something the Downtown Council could have spent the last few years fixing, but no, Steve Cramer had city elections he wanted to mess with and crime fearmongering he wanted to do instead.

[SurlyLHT]

Personally, I think the Super Bowl Committee blew an opportunity with the skyways. We should have gotten new signs and mapping and the volunteers should have been trained better. They obviously aren't familiar with the skyways and rather then giving people a confusing map and their tiny bit of knowledge they should be walking around more guiding people to their destinations. I worked at Wal-Mart years ago and when a customer asks where something is you're supposed to walk them there. Secondly, I think it's sad that the lunch joints are hurting from the Super Bowl. I'm guessing a one week slowdown won't be too painful, but as the owner of Max's Café pointed out in the StarTribune it's frustrating to be paying the higher stadium taxes and to be getting no, or negative benefit from the stadiums. I suspect most of the money from all of this is going out of town via NFL sponsors and etc. It also may have been smart to direct people into local eateries instead of offering overpriced food at Super Bowl Live.

[MattW]

It also may have been smart to direct people into local eateries instead of offering overpriced food at Super Bowl Live.

Major missed opportunity here. Could have had an opportunity to really engage skyway businesses, instead we have dumpy concession stand food. Maybe the when the Final Four comes next year, the business association can lobby that host committee?

[alexschief]

The best way to funnel business to skyway tenants would be to hand them two-week-long permits to open a concession on the street. Laboring to send people up to the skyways and orient them there wouldn't be a good use of anyone's time.

[amiller92]

It also may have been smart to direct people into local eateries instead of offering overpriced food at Super Bowl Live.

I had the same thought, although we also don't have anywhere close to enough storefronts on Nicollet, so...

Given the sheer number of volunteers, especially relative to visitors so far, I think you're right they could just walk people to their destination.

[Nathan]

I'm not sure it's anyone's fault. These businesses are based on having office workers downtown. Most of my friends who work downtown had the option to work from home this week due to issues with parking contracts, road closures, and traffic. Even if every person in town for the super bowl was I the skyway eating or if they had concessions on the street I doubt their sales would remain at 100 percent with a large chunk of their usual business either at home or avoiding the "crowd"

[mamundsen]

To me... it's really strange how many of the Super Bowl activity is down at MOA. It should ALL be downtown.

[BikesOnFilm]

Same old story, we sell the state at the expense of the city.

[karlshea]

TBH I think everyone here that's familiar with the skyway underestimates the problems with it. You're complaining about wayfinding/signage (which are indeed terrible) when you're using it, but failing to realize that if you're not from here the skyway itself isn't even something you're going to investigate.

Why would you? From the outside it just seems like a way to get from one building to the other that's not on the sidewalk. It's not clear that it's filled with restaurants open during the day, and you'd never even think to look because in most other cities those restaurants or shops are right outside. Even if you knew that they were there how would you find out what's available? The only way that comes to mind is searching for a specific place on Google Maps (eliminating discovery of a place you wouldn't think to search for), but that just shows a street address, not "it's in the skyway in this building".

On top of all that it's completely non-obvious how to even get into the system. For example, right on Nicollet Mall there's the giant Target lobby. If you didn't know already would it occur to you to walk in, take the escalator up to the second floor, and then *not* enter Target but instead walk down a plain white hallway? I'm guessing no.

The only solution to this I can think of is signage outside on the sidewalks, and also some sort of identity system similar to public transit combined with the Food/Gas signs on the Interstate. There should be some sort of standardized plaque on every building that's connected near the door to enter that basically shouts "Enter Skyway here! These are the shops in this building: logo, logo, logo".

[Bob Stinson's Ghost]

Here's a little out of the box thinking. How about augmented reality? What if you could enter your destination in an app on your phone, then look through the camera and see lines and arrows showing you where to go?

[Anondson]

I haven’t been downtown for a few weeks, is it really the case that the state’s super bowl planning organizations failed at providing better signage directing people how to get into the skyways from outside? Did they maybe think that relying on free volunteers was adequate for this lingering decades-old problem?

[BBMplsMN]

I haven’t been downtown for a few weeks, is it really the case that the state’s super bowl planning organizations failed at providing better signage directing people how to get into the skyways from outside?

They have big banners outside at major access points that I think say “Skyway Access.” For example there is one outside Mayo Clinic Square. They did not revamp the skyway wayfinding system, but there is additional signage leading to specific Super Bowl locations. And there are about 500 volunteers at all times. You really can’t walk 20 steps without running in to 2-4 volunteers. It’s pretty fun to see.

[FISHMANPET]

The volunteers seem very eager. I nearly had to run away from one giving away maps at the Nicolet Mall station. I'm a local I don't need a map! I was just going to the library!