urbanMSP

I wouldn't say that it is defending seediness per se. Minneapolis is an obsessively orderly place, probably more so than any other big city in the country. Making it even more orderly isn't going to help a district that is centered around fun. It may actually be part of the problem.

Regular news coverage of people not wanting to spend time in the Warehouse District, with local business owners regularly quoted as being frustrated, all coupled with perpetually empty storefronts, this is all evidence of a bad trend.

No, that's anecdotes coupled with anecdotes coupled with a thing that's decades old. "Perceptions (although not stats) of crime are up over the last five years" simply does not explain why the Chevy's space has been empty for a decade. It doesn't explain why the Forum space has had several failed attempts over multiple decades.

You know what might explain it? No one lives in the central business district or Warehouse District, so who exactly was going to eat at that Chevy's? Or Applebees?

Meanwhile, businesses offering a decent product have done well (Fogo de Chao, still kind of novel for around here, Kieran's, The Loon, even the tackiness of Sneaky Pete's).

Then what's the obstacle?

No one lives there. The businesses that have been tried there were terrible.

One of the huge reasons that Hennepin Ave. feels so unloved is because, in fact, nobody loves it. It's a poorly designed street, fronted by four types of uses, theaters, clubs, mega restaurants, and surface parking lots, that are not consistently in use and have little investment in the street presence. Additionally, nobody lives there.

The best time to fix Hennepin Avenue is coming up, when the city rebuilds the street. The best way to fix Hennepin Avenue is to get two new uses, residential and retail, on the street. There are probably two white whales in that effort. One is the parking lot opposite the Warehouse District Station, which could still be rebuilt as a parking ramp for gamedays, but as a podium for a tower or a wrap, or both. It's ridiculous that there's no residences and retail on that site, and the city should be nudging the lot's owners to do something. The other is City Center. The tower itself isn't that bad, but the two lower buildings that flank it are possibly the two worst structures in the downtown, and they ruin both Nicollet and Hennepin. The good news is that neither are in any way relevant to the structure of the tower itself and so it should be possible to tear them down and start over. Since both retail spaces have completely failed and the Nicollet and Hennepin rebuilds offer a chance for a fresh start, the city should be approaching the City Center owners and pitching them a total mixed use redevelopment for both sides.

I know it's been discussed here before, but I very much doubt the continued existence of the Warehouse District Station parking lot has anything to do with crime. Developers are perfectly happy to throw up six-story stick buildings in weird/marginal/seedy areas, such as the hotel proposed yesterday. It's far more likely that the owners are sitting on it armed with the knowledge that it is one of the largest vacant lots left in the downtown core and is zoned for something big and lucrative.

And just a little hint: when journalists start writing articles such as you so vehemently disparage, it's almost ALWAYS because they are seizing upon popular zeitgeist, such as, oh I don't know, the #metoo movement? In other words, where there is journalistic smoke (hype), there is often fire (a valid point).

Just another little hint: your point above is wrong:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/20 ... h-reality/

And just a little hint: when journalists start writing articles such as you so vehemently disparage, it's almost ALWAYS because they are seizing upon popular zeitgeist, such as, oh I don't know, the #metoo movement? In other words, where there is journalistic smoke (hype), there is often fire (a valid point).

Just another little hint: your point above is wrong:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/20 ... h-reality/

Don't recall claiming crime was up over the past 50 years. I agree it is not: Straw man. That said anti-social behavior isn't limited to criminal. Harassment, such as cat-calling, is a problem that impacts far more people. Sorry, I thought I'd made that clear.

I think you missed the point, which was that the "popular zeitgeist" can be and often is not grounded in anything real.

Boom Island Brewing says they will relocate because of the crime on their block.

http://www.startribune.com/boom-island- ... 493009631/

Crowd sourcing your moving fees is a bold move... On one hand - totally get it. Nuisance crime is one thing, dying is another. On the other hand, I still hope this area turns around. Broadway has decent bones and opportunity is gradually increasing in the neighborhood.

Yeah, the crowdsourcing kinda rubs me the wrong way. Crowdsourcing start-up costs is one thing, but once you've got a profitable business up and running... just get a loan for your major capital (sort of) expense like anyone else, and pay it back from your increased profits.

Interesting how much you know about their profitability.

I think it's great, and something more business should do before claiming that neighborhoods or development or lack of parking or crime or anything else caused them to close. It's great to see a business being proactive. The article could be reading "percieved crime causing business to close" but instead they're making another go.

Crowd sourcing your moving fees is a bold move... On one hand - totally get it. Nuisance crime is one thing, dying is another. On the other hand, I still hope this area turns around. Broadway has decent bones and opportunity is gradually increasing in the neighborhood.

Honestly, it was a weird place to try to put a taproom in the first place. Lots of the successful ones are in "industrial" areas, I guess (although mostly it's converted industrial) and there are other watering holes nearby, but this still just never left like a place that would draw the craft beer crowd and they didn't do much to make it an appealing place to hang out. It's sort of tucked away, with no street presence, surrounded by hostile streets and with not much to look at.

Seems like they thought of the venue as secondary to the brewing and packaging business, which is fine and certainly one approach, but it seems like having a bustling tap room is also good for business. Hopefully they'll find a better spot.

Yeah, I've seen a few people beefing about the crowd-sourcing thing. Nobody's forcing you to pony up. What's the problem here?

Sort of sad to see them move, though. I've always enjoyed their very chill, no-frills atmosphere. Although maybe the fact that it's usually quiet should have been a clue that all wasn't well.

I wonder if they decided they just wanted a more premium location and this was a way to trigger a clause to kill the existing lease? Cynical perhaps, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were some truth to this.

I wonder if they decided they just wanted a more premium location and this was a way to trigger a clause to kill the existing lease? Cynical perhaps, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were some truth to this.

Based on the statements in the article I'd hardly suggest this is a hoax.

Hanging the flag associated with King Léopold II in North Minneapolis is probably not going to endear your establishment to the neighborhood.

Unless you're a historian you're probably not going to know about King Leopold II. Granted, after finding out the history I would probably reconsider flying it, but it has zero to do with the crime there.

The frustrating part about this story is that there are a lot of businesses that have invested and are still investing in the neighborhood and yet the problems are not fading. The new riverfront development buy the city and UP is not too far north of here; it's a shame that the police have allowed this kind of behavior to persist to the point that companies feel the only option is to move. This area is kind of an island between the river and 94, there are a lot of places to hide in plain sight along here. It's easy access to get in and out in a hurry, so the drug traffic is hard to pin down.

Sometimes business people make bad decisions.

I think Boom Island Brewing's decisions have not always been the best.

The brewery opened 7 years ago in a known high-crime area and even though crime has decreased relative to how it was when they opened they've made the decision that it's too dangerous. The point at which the owner should have been "looking out for the safety of [his] employees" was when they originally were looking at the site.

I don't begrudge the owner his decision but I think he (and everyone) needs to acknowledge that his original plan incorporated an abundance of magical thinking. Ultimately I think he thought the area was going to get much better crime-wise in a pretty short period of time...in fact he bet his retirement and business on it. I don't disparage him for it - in fact, bravo to him for starting up a new business: that takes guts. It also takes good planning. His business plan pretty much required a rapid turnaround in a part of the city that has been plagued for decades by crime.

Just as the 'popular zeitgeist' has been documented to be flat wrong on issues of crime, business people are not the infallible gatekeepers of reality. Boom Island Brewing is moving in significant part because its original business plan was based on unreasonable assumptions. I don't condemn them for making errors - I share the cause of that error: their human-ness. Still, I think there's an emotional tendency to see this as a sign that crime is getting worse in that part of north Minneapolis, but statistics as well as the fact (if executive director of the WBC is speaking accurately) that business in general is on the rise on the North Side belie that perception. Other businesses in the area are opting to expand.

None of this means that the Brewery owner is *wrong* in feeling he needs to move, it's just the reasons he needs to move were worse when he initially chose to locate his business.

Swervo using the shooting that injured three at the Aqua nightclub to begin with eviction proceedings to evict the club located at 400 N 1st Ave.

https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-ne ... -injured-3

Crime dropped city wide by double digits.

http://www.startribune.com/latest-numbe ... 500869511/