Uptown - LynLake - The Wedge - News & General

[seanrichardryan]

Sounds interesting!



(I can't help myself )

[blakehanson]

Then what do you call the businesses west of "Uptown" on Lake Street but east of Lake Calhoun? I think the majority of people use "Uptown" in a much broader sense than what a couple of businessmen outlined almost 100 years ago. Lyn-Lake is definitely a different area (at least for now), especially anything east of Lyndale, but there's not a good name when discussing the entire area made up of these small business districts. When people say they're going to Five Guys or Roat Oasha, they say they're going to Uptown. Yelp puts Five Guys in the Uptown neighborhood (http://www.yelp.com/biz/five-guys-burge ... neapolis-2) and even the South Hennepin Business Association's web address is www.hennepinuptown.com. They recently rebranded to the Lowry Hill District (http://www.lowryhilldistrict.com/2012/0 ... -district/) but I don't think that's catching on anytime soon. I don't feel a lot of people know the actual neighborhood names and none of these business areas are in a single residential neighborhood definied by the city.

I think this is interesting because some people already stretch the use of Uptown a lot and the area around it is growing. Maybe the entire outline of the wedge (Hennepin to "Uptown"/Lake Street to Lyndale) could benefit from a new brand name or the individual districts need to up their own image? Maybe it's time for me to leave the office... haha . . . . .

[twincitizen]

Sean, I shared your map with the Twitter-verse, I hope you don't mind. I found it hilarious.

An earlier comment of yours keeps coming back to me, which I will horribly paraphrase: "If everywhere is Uptown, there is no Uptown".

It seems that the Uptown "brand" is being over-extended because there isn't an established name for this larger area. I think there should be one. The area bound by (clockwise) I-94, 35W, 36th Street, and the lakes needs a name. "Uptown" has proliferated because a) it's well known b) there's no real alternative.

Sure, Lyn-Lake has a name, and "Lowry Hill Business District" (former South Hennepin) insists that they are something separate, but those don't really resonate. I think Lyn-Lake is catching on, but it really needs a marquee sign. There was a plan for one on Lime, but it didn't come to fruition. Lyn-Lake is still not known regionally, as say, Uptown and Dinkytown are.

I hope whatever we build at Nicollet-Lake is distinct, and stands out as an activity center on its own, with a name. Even if the name is "Nicollet-Lake", so be it.

P.S. I don't care what you say, Uptown extends westward to E. Calhoun Parkway. Otherwise I don't really disagree with your boundaries, except maybe going up to 28th rather than the Greenway.

[fehler]

I've always considered Uptown to look something like a spider, with a bulgy body on Lake Street, with legs stretching up and down Hennepin, Lyndale, and a few other avenues. "Lyn-Lake" is a non-entity (a dead fly?)

[twincitizen]

UrbanMSP's Twitter followers say seanrichardryan's map is "Uptown before 1990's" and "outdated pedantry"

[David Greene]

It seems that the Uptown "brand" is being over-extended because there isn't an established name for this larger area.

Yes there is. The Calhoun-Isles Community.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calhoun_Isles,_Minneapolis

It doesn't include Whittier but maybe it should. I consider the Whitter and Lyndale neighborhoods more part of Calhoun-Isles than the Powderhorn Community due to 35-W dividing the latter.

[MNdible]

"Lyn-Lake" is a non-entity (a dead fly?)

What? Lyn-Lake is actually a pretty strong brand, but it only refers to the commercial node, not the surrounding residential areas.

[min-chi-cbus]

Sean, I shared your map with the Twitter-verse, I hope you don't mind. I found it hilarious.

An earlier comment of yours keeps coming back to me, which I will horribly paraphrase: "If everywhere is Uptown, there is no Uptown".

It seems that the Uptown "brand" is being over-extended because there isn't an established name for this larger area. I think there should be one. The area bound by (clockwise) I-94, 35W, 36th Street, and the lakes needs a name. "Uptown" has proliferated because a) it's well known b) there's no real alternative.

Sure, Lyn-Lake has a name, and "Lowry Hill Business District" (former South Hennepin) insists that they are something separate, but those don't really resonate. I think Lyn-Lake is catching on, but it really needs a marquee sign. There was a plan for one on Lime, but it didn't come to fruition. Lyn-Lake is still not known regionally, as say, Uptown and Dinkytown are.

I hope whatever we build at Nicollet-Lake is distinct, and stands out as an activity center on its own, with a name. Even if the name is "Nicollet-Lake", so be it.

P.S. I don't care what you say, Uptown extends westward to E. Calhoun Parkway. Otherwise I don't really disagree with your boundaries, except maybe going up to 28th rather than the Greenway.

How about we take a note from New York (and more recently, every other copycat city in the country, like Denver) and go with the four-letter acronym:

"WeLy" (pronounced, "we lie") - for West of Lyndale
"HeLa" (pronounced, "hella") - Hennipen [sic] and Lake (doesn't solve the "Uptown" problem, per se, but we could call current Uptown "HeLa" instead and give the rest of the larger area the name "Uptown")
"HeLy" (pronounced, "he lie" or "Heelee") - for the area between Hennipen [sic] and Lyndale


Others?

[Nathan]

"Lyn-Lake" is a non-entity (a dead fly?)

What? Lyn-Lake is actually a pretty strong brand, but it only refers to the commercial node, not the surrounding residential areas.

that's all uptown refers to as well... just the commercial node.

[twincitizen]

Well, technically yeah Uptown only refers to the business district and not residential areas. But in the vernacular, "I live in Uptown" has rolled off more tongues than "I live in CARAG" or "I live in The Wedge" combined.

I agree that Lyn-Lake seems to not extend into the residential areas. I've told people I live near Lyndale & Lake, but never in Lyn-Lake, but that's because that brand is not known outside of Mpls residents.

[Nathan]

because technically neither uptown or lyn-lake are proper neighborhoods.

http://www.minnesotas-real-estate.com/i ... oods_4.jpg

[MSPtoMKE]

I made this map a long time ago (and possibly even shared it on Minnescraper). Not meant to be taken seriously.

Uptown Map by MSPdude, on Flickr

UpNo = Uptown North
SOUP = SOuth UPtown
Wes-Up = West Uptown.

I didn't have a clever name for Lyn-Lake.

[fehler]

HeLyn (Helen)

[woofner]

Not to preempt 10,000,000,000,000,0,00 0 , 0 pages of debate about this, but neighborhoods are fluid entities and their boundaries are ambiguous. Yes, Uptown was created as a marketing gimmick but it clearly has more meaning to most Minneapolitans. Realistically, the primary purpose of neighborhoods is to be a geographic shorthand, so a business can call itself Uptown Tattoo and potential customers can have an idea of where it was (if the dominant conception of Uptown were limited to its original gimmick, this business at 27th & Lyndale would have failed by now). Similarly, I usually use Uptown to describe where I live to people who aren't that familiar with Southwest Minneapolis, even though I consider my neighborhood (Whittier) to be different from Uptown. But at the same time my conception of Whittier doesn't match the area the City describes as Whittier for planning purposes (and which were mostly made up out of thin air by planners in the late 50s, as I showed on streets.mn last year).

So please keep arguing about these definitions, because that's how language stays vital. But you may want to keep in mind that there is no right answer, just a constantly evolving set of answers that are neither right nor wrong.

ps SOUP is a great neighborhood name, it's way better than CARAG

[Nathan]

so what you're saying is that even though you're a fan of the actual neighborhood names, you perpetuate the stereo type. I used to do that, but I've stopped now. I say the name, and when people question it,I explain it to them. and people are used to hearing me spew Minneapolis facts and trivia, so it works. then I hear them name drop their neighborhood too. is about creating pride and senseof place, not just rolling over and dumbing it down, to me.

[woofner]

No I love the idea of neighborhoods and use them all the time, and agree that they're also about creating pride and sense of place. What I hate (or am amused by) is when someone pretends that their particular definition of a neighborhood is the correct one. Those stupid signs announcing your arrival or passage through one of those CPED neighborhoods are indictments of NRP to me.

[ECtransplant]

OK but can we actually make SOUP a thing?

[MSPtoMKE]

Awww, no love for UpNo?

[twincitizen]

The groundwater debacle at 1800 Lake continues.

http://www.southwestjournal.com/news/ne ... d-to-court

What happens when you build below the water line and your Lake is within 100 feet!!

You pump the water into a sewer and hope no one notices?

Apartment drainage again diverted to Calhoun: http://www.startribune.com/local/blogs/239322381.html

[twincitizen]

4-unit townhome proposed for corner of Garfield and 32nd, currently vacant lots. It just needs some variances from the Zoning Board of Adjustment to go forward.

Agenda: http://www.minneapolismn.gov/meetings/zba/WCMS1P-118652
Plans: http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups ... 118666.pdf

No indication given if it will be rental or ownership units.

They could have built quite a bit more here, given that the site is zoned R4. They could have built 4 stories / 56 feet by right, while needing setback variances and definitely minimum parking variances. It's worth mentioning that there is an 85 year old apartment building across the street with minimal off-street parking adjacent to the alley. It has at least 10-12 units on its 3 floors. Then again, there is a need for more "family friendly" multi-BR housing in the area, and this proposal meets that need rather well. It still devotes too much space to parking, at 2 spaces per unit, at the cost of having full basements.