It's been pointed out before that the "Downtown East" moniker has never really been in public use. Up until maybe 3 years ago with the stadium announcement and subsequent press coverage, it really only existed inside city planning documents and whatnot. It's never really been something people go around saying out loud in public.
My take:
1. The "Downtown East Project" bubble on your map will effectively become just an extension of downtown proper, given the office use and skyway connection.
2. The "Mill District" might as well extend past Washington to 3rd St, considering that the south side of Washington will soon be fully developed in a pretty similar and complimentary fashion.
3. That leaves the stadium itself, which doesn't really matter what "neighborhood" it's in. The stadium, plaza, park, etc. will effectively be referred to as "the stadium".
4. What's left after making those changes is essentially the current boundaries of the Elliot Park neighborhood. So why not just stick with that instead of coming up with some convoluted new name that will struggle/fail to catch on?
EDIT: Looks like acs and MNdible pretty much already covered it.
I think Downtown East is a pretty meaningless and useless term. I'd recommend that we have the Mill District and Elliott Park, and they're divided by the Commons and the stadium, which is its own little district to itself.
Somebody needs to beat it into their skulls that for 99% of Minnesotans there is no downtown east or west or WeDo or East villiage. It's just Downtown Minneapolis. Why is that so hard?
I'd argue this statement holds true for over 90% of Minneapolitans as well, not just Minnesotans. "Downtown East" is not, and has never been a thing, outside the small circle of city planners, urbanist nerds, and the press.
