Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

[gpete]

Here's one other internet reference to Rick Christenson: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-120157901.html and a little more on the same subject here: http://postbulletin.typepad.com/kiger/2 ... irlin.html

[gpete]

Oh, and this editorial written by Rick Christenson on the same subject: http://www.postbulletin.com/col-rochest ... 58354.html

[Minneboy]

So the source of many downtown development rumors, Ryan, has been found on LinkedIn. I'll just post the link and let everyone make their own assumptions:
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/ryan-nelson/b/382/154

Oh man, couldn't you have waited a few months? I was really looking forward to R etiredBanker's obituary and the subsequent wailing and grinding of teeth.

WOW. Looking forward to someone's obituary. How revealing.

[nate]

What a strange story. The fact that someone has the time and motivation to concoct and maintain such an elaborate fake identity in order to dupe a few dozen people on a message board dedicated to urban development in the 13th biggest city in the United States is sad, impressive, and terrifying all at once.
The lesson, as always, is if something sounds too good to be true and is on the internet, then it is absolutely a hoax.

[MN Fats]

Well there has to be at least one real person behind all this, maybe it's him?

[Anondson]

I'm even entertaining the possibility it is a group. A group of enthusiasts for development, real people. But a group who are promoting themselves as something bigger than they are or are capable.

[spearson]

The rumor mill that happen early on with this board was a lot more believable (I've been reading since the beginning of this forum). Even if it was just "I work in the industry, and through networking I've seen render A, or render B for block C." It's entirely probable that things get to preliminary planning stages in order to drive up investor interest. Some people hear or see said prelim things, and post about them. Great.

The problem is that some people take them for gospel, which led to things getting absurd. Unfortunately that absurdity has completely squashed any type of rumor mill on this board, which is a bit sad.

Reading the posts on SSC over the last 6 months.. I don't know how people don't see that the BS meter is at an all time high, but still seem to buy it. That post from "Ryan" was filled with so much "fluff" and bad grammar that I wonder if this person has ever written a college paper before. Zero credible information has yet been provided.

The most telling fact that it is indeed all BS is that not one rumor has been shown credible. There are known journalists that browse these boards, some heavy into downtown development, and not one single story has ever surfaced about any rumor. If something was credible, don't you think a journalist with development connections would throw up a story on it? I think it's probable that we would have seen at least something on at least one of the many rumors over the last two years.

A second reason that it's all BS to me anyways, are the proposals for the Nicollet Hotel block. The duval proposal was from the sounds of it, a publicity stunt, and the rest were based on what the market would allow. If the market analysis from three different developers show that 30-40 stories is about all the market can handle, then it seems highly unlikely that we're going to get 10 supertalls over the next 10 years.

Come on people..

[Tyler]

EDIT: I know Rick is real, we've been in contact for a few years, but it does seem odd. Personally my initial thought was this is mostly coming from URBAN and that they're the ones laughing and giggling. BTW; I've seen renders and details that have not been posted, so I'm at the very least confused.

From five days ago:

When nasa35 states something, you can take it to the bank. His credentials speak for themselves, his expertise requires him to discuss business with developers-construction executives for projects around the world. His contact list is probably larger than even Retiredbanker's. And that is saying something.

Things that make you go hmmm.

[David Greene]

So the source of many downtown development rumors, Ryan, has been found on LinkedIn. I'll just post the link and let everyone make their own assumptions:
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/ryan-nelson/b/382/154

Oh man, couldn't you have waited a few months? I was really looking forward to R etiredBanker's obituary and the subsequent wailing and grinding of teeth.

WOW. Looking forward to someone's obituary. How revealing.

Dude, R etiredBanker is a fake. Don't you see that? I was quite enjoying the story being told. It was a development soap opera. What's weird about it is that apparently one or more people moved it toward discrediting this site and some individuals here. It seems like nasa is an obvious candidate for the faker as he has some sort of personal vendetta against Nick and others. Maybe Avian too, since I believe he's said he knows these people multiple times. Which is sad. I rather like Avian's posts.

[IllogicalJake]

So I'm confused - who is this Rick Christianson that the IP was tied back to? Was the same person just a puppeteer for June, Ryan, and RB?

[Chef]

Over the years, Avian and JohnNicolletMall have both talked about RetiredBanker as if he is a real person. So either they are all sock puppets, they are all in on it, or RetiredBanker is the only part of this fabrication that is real.

Also David, we are trying to put this to bed over there, try not to stir it back up.

[David Greene]

So I'm confused - who is this Rick Christianson that the IP was tied back to? Was the same person just a puppeteer for June, Ryan, and RB?

How was R etiredBanker named as "Rick Christianson?" I don't remember a post about it, that name just popped up all of a sudden. Probably to connect to the existing stories about him. Either that or someone wrote fake letters to the newspaper.

[David Greene]

Also David, we are trying to put this to bed over there, try not to stir it back up.

Sorry, but I felt I had to respond to explain things to people who didn't seem to get it.

[Chef]

How was R etiredBanker named as "Rick Christianson?" I don't remember a post about it, that name just popped up all of a sudden. Probably to connect to the existing stories about him. Either that or someone wrote fake letters to the newspaper.

Read Nicks long post on the previous page.

[PhilmerPhil]

I'm pretty sure Rick Christenson is a real person based on the articles posted earlier in this thread. Whether or not the retiredbankr user name is actually the Rick Christenson, is up in the air.

So to my knowledge, Rick is a real person, as is Avian, who several of us met at a Happy Hour. The unconfirmed characters remain Texas_RE, Ryan, nasa35, and the retiredbankr username.

This is all so intriguing. We haven't really heard too much from any of the above characters since this whole thing broke loose, so I'm hoping we'll get that soon.

[IllogicalJake]

I'm cringing at how much I defended the rumor posters now, heh. At the time it seemed plausible enough that people shouldn't have been driven away for posting some fun speculative shit, but I never imagined it was someone going through this level of effort. Dafuq?

[Chef]

Before the recession, when Minnescraper was still up and running, nasa35 was predicting supertalls left and right. Maybe he really is a highrise hvac guy with insider knowledge and the financial crisis quashed all those projects, but it does make one wonder.

[twincitizen]

Avian seems like the one person who could possibly shed light on this situation, since he actually exists and claimed to know one or some of these folks IRL. As noted previously, retiredbanker's personality seemed to change, shortly before he stopped posting here - he started to sound a lot like Texas_RE/"June". It is possible that the hoaxster at this point gained control over the "retiredbanker" account on urbanmsp, coinciding with Texas_RE's big rise to fame/adoration over at SSC. Other real people involved, like Avian, would not have been aware that retiredbankr's account had been compromised. The only problem is that Avian at times seemed to acknowledge Texas_RE/June as a real person.

Avian really ought to help everyone get to the bottom of this. Over at SSC right now there are posters (the real die-hard true believers) that are pushing for the whole thing to be deleted, because it's "off topic". They want to cover up the whole damn thing so they can continue the delusion.

[lordmoke]

What the hell is going in here? Good lord.

[David Greene]

Avian seems like the one person who could possibly shed light on this situation, since he actually exists and claimed to know one or some of these folks IRL. As noted previously, retiredbankr's personality seemed to change, shortly before he stopped posting here - he started to sound a lot like Texas_RE/"June". It is possible that the hoaxster at this point gained control over retiredbankr's account here on urbanmsp, coinciding with Texas_RE's big rise to fame/adoration over at SSC. Other real people involved, like Avian, would not have been aware that retiredbankr's account had been compromised.

But did R etriedBanker ever post a rumor that turned out to be true? I didn't join this board until his time here was almost done. He always struck me as a bit unhinged. Maybe the account was managed by a real person before I got here.