what are some main streets, downtowns, central business districts, etc.?

[Mplsite]

Not sure why only a few select areas of Minneapolis and St Paul are being looked at: most "main streets" lie outside of these areas. In South Minneapolis: Nicollet Ave, Hennepin Ave, Lyndale Ave, and Lake St are major ones while Grand, 38th, and 46th south of Lake St have destinations here and there. Then there are districts like E 48th and Chicago, E 50th and 34th, E 42nd and 28th and Franklin Ave in Seward. In NE there's 13th Ave NE, St Anthony Main, Old St Anthony around the University-Central-Hennepin triangle, Central Ave between 18th and Lowry, and 29th NE and Johnson. Stadium Village right off East Bank Station is a little main street where mass transit, pedestrians, and cyclists are prioritized over cars.

St Paul has Snelling as its main north-south commercial district while Grand Ave is a short but the densest in the city and gentrified. St Anthony Park has a little one on Como Ave and Payne Ave is up and coming.Cathedral Hill is a must. St Paul doesn't really do the main street thing, the city mainly has residential streets only with commercial buildings at intersections: Randolph and Cleveland are just a two of many examples.

As for Hopkins I suggest LTD Brewing: it's in an ugly new building and much nicer on the inside. Munkabeans is a quirky little coffeeshop and there are a few restaurants and bars too.

[jennifat]

Originally Posted by steel03

St. Louis Park actually does have a tiny little """downtown""" area around the intersection of Lake St and Walker St, near St. Louis Park High School, but it's really nothing anymore, it's not worth seeing.

St. Louis Park looks like it used to have a nice little downtown, but was probably 95% destroyed when Hwy. 7 was built. It always makes me sad when historic business districts are razed for highway expansion.

[demtion35]

Originally Posted by tjasse

I forgot about Hopkins in that list. Is there any interesting thing to do over there? I've never been there.

I used to have a welding job in Hopkins.

[steel03]

Originally Posted by jennifat

St. Louis Park looks like it used to have a nice little downtown, but was probably 95% destroyed when Hwy. 7 was built. It always makes me sad when historic business districts are razed for highway expansion.

Yep, exactly. Unfortunately it's deeply depressing these days: http://goo.gl/maps/V9K0M
Excelsior & Grand and West End are pretty characterless but at least there's life there.

[jennifat]

Originally Posted by steel03

Yep, exactly. Unfortunately it's deeply depressing these days: http://goo.gl/maps/V9K0M

Yeah, I was actually looking at that earlier – you'd never know this was basically in the center of a major metropolitan area and one of the densest suburbs in the Twin Cities. Looks like one of the many ghost towns along the Hi-Line in Montana.

[buckaroo17]

Many thanks to all who provided great information. This will help us to not drive aimlessly throughout the TC. Street names and intersections help keep the focus spot on.

be well!

[Mason3000]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

Not Hopkins. It has a main street and a large area of houses in a grid layout, and was an independent town long before the Minneapolis-related development came out to meet it. Still has an annual Raspberry Festival, too. My mom remembers it being called West Minneapolis, and it was a town out in the boonies but still accessible by streetcar.

Another area to possibly check out is the area around 50th and France in Edina.

Exactly right. In the old days, when you left Minneapolis headed West on the train, Hopkins was the first railroad stop West of Mpls. Therefore it developed it's own main street and small town charm, then later became a suburb.

[northsub]

In Shoreview/Arden Hills, I'd suggest doing a loop of Lexington, Highway 96, Hodgson/Rice, and County E. You'd find a good amount of the commercial nodes there. Despite what those who don't visit these places say, you can find some interesting things there. For instance, what claims to be the oldest family-owned bowling alley in the country and the tallest structures in the state of Minnesota. The section along Lexington south of 694 has seen a fair amount of new construction in the last few years and the corresponding chains to go with. Most of the rest of the area will be independent restaurants. I personally like the strip mall north of 96 and east of Hodgson. That's North Oaks, but every other corner of that intersection is Shoreview. You can find Panino's("wraps"/bar), Village Scoop (ice cream/candy), Taste of Scandanavia(bakery/cafe), and a sushi place there.

If you are thinking about the northern reaches of Shoreview, you might look at the Circle Pines/Lexington business district (Lake and Lexington).

Mounds View will have most things along County 10. That's an interesting corridor with the city having worked to make it a walkable corridor despite that it's a former wide U.S. highway. Both sides of much of County 10 have asphalt trails with lights, benches, and signage pointing out points of interest (library, community center, etc). I like the variety of things I find in Mounds View. I am a bit of a sucker for mom-and-pop type stores though. Mounds View is also the kind of place you find a painted plywood trailer in the parking lot of a gas station selling tacos.

In the area of all of these in the Twin Cities Ammunition Plant which is supposed to be developed soon. That might be worth scouting online.

[pete6032]

How is Excelsior and Grand not considered downtown St. Louis Park?

[jennifat]

Originally Posted by pete6032

How is Excelsior and Grand not considered downtown St. Louis Park?

I suppose Arbor Lakes is considered "downtown" Maple Grove, too, right?