Atlantic Magazine and PBS News Hour declare Minneapolis and St. Paul as The Best City In America for Millennial's. (Plymouth: condos, organic)

[Thedosius]

Originally Posted by Port Pitt Ash

What I expected was a cohesion on par with Portland/Seattle in the core and what I ended up seeing was a less convenient, yet slightly better city than say Pittsburgh.

I agree with this. I think it's a combination of car-driven development and lack of any natural barriers to prevent sprawl. Though Minneapolis is regarded as bike friendly, we're working from an infrastructure that is fundamentally based on catering to automobile drivers (like so many cities in the U.S.). What we've done is laudable but what we have to work with is lamentable.

[Port Pitt Ash]

Originally Posted by Govie

Minneapolis is where it's at for nightlife. Minneapolis > St. Paul - AINEC.


I'm saying that as a lifelong St. Paulite, but it shouldn't be any surprise to anyone.

I was thinking more along the lines of dates, hockey games, and diner. For some reason I noticed a lot of the attractive girls I was meeting seems to either live in or prefer St. Paul for some reason.

[Govie]

Originally Posted by Port Pitt Ash

I was thinking more along the lines of dates, hockey games, and diner. For some reason I noticed a lot of the attractive girls I was meeting seems to either live in or prefer St. Paul for some reason.

For me it's the opposite. I've been seeing way finer girls on the West side of the River than my side.

[tjasse]

Originally Posted by Port Pitt Ash

Downtown was...I don't know if it was just when I was there or what, but I got a really eerie vibe whenever I was somewhere other than Nicollet Mall, Loring Park, or the Stone Arch Bridge.

I think it's because on a lot of streets, there really isn't anything. You can traverse the entirety of 3rd Ave and there's only one ground level store front, and it's some sort of strange costume/lingerie shop. Some of the streets going perpendicular, have nothing on them at all.

This is a post about St. Paul, but the same "blank wall" issues apply to streets downtown Minneapolis, too.

twin city sidewalks: Blank Walls of Saint Paul #1

[Govie]

Originally Posted by tjasse

I think it's because on a lot of streets, there really isn't anything. You can traverse the entirety of 3rd Ave and there's only one ground level store front, and it's some sort of strange costume/lingerie shop. Some of the streets going perpendicular, have nothing on them at all.

This is a post about St. Paul, but the same "blank wall" issues apply to streets downtown Minneapolis, too.

twin city sidewalks: Blank Walls of Saint Paul #1

What is the point of that link?

[tjasse]

Originally Posted by Govie

What is the point of that link?

Port Pitt Ash mentioned she got an eerie vibe in MPLS, and I think its because many streets have an empty feel, due to the 'blank walls,' like in St. Paul.

[Govie]

Originally Posted by tjasse

Port Pitt Ash mentioned she got an eerie vibe in MPLS, and I think its because many streets have an empty feel, due to the 'blank walls,' like in St. Paul.

Ehh, the only "eerie vibe" I get in Minneapolis (and to some extent St. Paul) is all the loitering trash around every corner - they leave me incredibly uneasy.

[Port Pitt Ash]

Originally Posted by tjasse

Port Pitt Ash mentioned she got an eerie vibe in MPLS, and I think its because many streets have an empty feel, due to the 'blank walls,' like in St. Paul.

That was part of it and like you said the street where people had no reason to really be on them. If someone has never visited the net doesn't do the city justice as the scale is a lot bigger than it looks on say google st. view. Before I went everyone talked about how romantic the Stone Arch Bridge was and since it's stone I expected a smaller almost quaint bridge. Not the case. It is really interesting though.

I think another reason is it's more modern architecture lends it to a colder almost futuristic feel in places. Seattle can get that way too, but there you typically have more people around.

People downtown were also polite and helpful, but you could tell they wanted to be on their way as quickly as possible. Almost made you wonder if they knew something that you didn't.

A few sketchy folks at the library with cops all around. (In the city itself not many cops were visible at all. Someone said it's because they have cameras everywhere, but I don't know if that's true.) Again gave you the feeling like something might go down at any moment.

The skywalks with all those cameras, yet was mostly deserted if you deviated from one or two routes. Sort of expected security to pop up when you went around a corner to tell you not to go this way.

Also when I was on Hennepin Ave. (I think that's right. It's the one with all the theaters on it.) had a thug looking guy start ghosting me. Still kept following as I cut over to to Nicollet Mall. Gave him a few looks to let him know I knew he was there, but if not for that the people I was with might not have been so savvy and got mugged. Someone ballsy enough to ghost more then one person in the day is always potentially troublesome.

Speaking of Nicollet Mall there was some nut job yelling at a choir that was setting up and on the way back through he was in a shouting match with some random person. Not that a lot of this was out of the ordinary for city life though. Although most cities I've found don't seem to take on this feeling until people start to go home in the evening and stores close up.

However that said I was also over in the area east of the wedge and I had been told it was not a great area (along with north Minneapolis), but it seemed fine when I was there.

[Govie]

Originally Posted by Port Pitt Ash

That was part of it and like you said the street where people had no reason to really be on them. If someone has never visited the net doesn't do the city justice as the scale is a lot bigger than it looks on say google st. view. Before I went everyone talked about how romantic the Stone Arch Bridge was and since it's stone I expected a smaller almost quaint bridge. Not the case. It is really interesting though.

I think another reason is it's more modern architecture lends it to a colder almost futuristic feel in places. Seattle can get that way too, but there you typically have more people around.

People downtown were also polite and helpful, but you could tell they wanted to be on their way as quickly as possible. Almost made you wonder if they knew something that you didn't.

A few sketchy folks at the library with cops all around. (In the city itself not many cops were visible at all. Someone said it's because they have cameras everywhere, but I don't know if that's true.) Again gave you the feeling like something might go down at any moment.

The skywalks with all those cameras, yet was mostly deserted if you deviated from one or two routes. Sort of expected security to pop up when you went around a corner to tell you not to go this way.

Also when I was on Hennepin Ave. (I think that's right. It's the one with all the theaters on it.) had a thug looking guy start ghosting me. Still kept following as I cut over to to Nicollet Mall. Gave him a few looks to let him know I knew he was there, but if not for that the people I was with might not have been so savvy and got mugged. Someone ballsy enough to ghost more then one person in the day is always potentially troublesome.

Speaking of Nicollet Mall there was some nut job yelling at a choir that was setting up and on the way back through he was in a shouting match with some random person. Not that a lot of this was out of the ordinary for city life though. Although most cities I've found don't seem to take on this feeling until people start to go home in the evening and stores close up.

However that said I was also over in the area east of the wedge and I had been told it was not a great area (along with north Minneapolis), but it seemed fine when I was there.

Indeed the Chicago trash has inundated Minneapolis (and to a great deal St. Paul as well) with their ghetto presence. Maybe one day we will get a government that says 'no more' to the handouts and we can take the garbage out once and for all.

[tjasse]

Originally Posted by Port Pitt Ash

That was part of it and like you said the street where people had no reason to really be on them. If someone has never visited the net doesn't do the city justice as the scale is a lot bigger than it looks on say google st. view. Before I went everyone talked about how romantic the Stone Arch Bridge was and since it's stone I expected a smaller almost quaint bridge. Not the case. It is really interesting though.

I think another reason is it's more modern architecture lends it to a colder almost futuristic feel in places. Seattle can get that way too, but there you typically have more people around.

People downtown were also polite and helpful, but you could tell they wanted to be on their way as quickly as possible. Almost made you wonder if they knew something that you didn't.

A few sketchy folks at the library with cops all around. (In the city itself not many cops were visible at all. Someone said it's because they have cameras everywhere, but I don't know if that's true.) Again gave you the feeling like something might go down at any moment.

The skywalks with all those cameras, yet was mostly deserted if you deviated from one or two routes. Sort of expected security to pop up when you went around a corner to tell you not to go this way.

Also when I was on Hennepin Ave. (I think that's right. It's the one with all the theaters on it.) had a thug looking guy start ghosting me. Still kept following as I cut over to to Nicollet Mall. Gave him a few looks to let him know I knew he was there, but if not for that the people I was with might not have been so savvy and got mugged. Someone ballsy enough to ghost more then one person in the day is always potentially troublesome.

Speaking of Nicollet Mall there was some nut job yelling at a choir that was setting up and on the way back through he was in a shouting match with some random person. Not that a lot of this was out of the ordinary for city life though. Although most cities I've found don't seem to take on this feeling until people start to go home in the evening and stores close up.

However that said I was also over in the area east of the wedge and I had been told it was not a great area (along with north Minneapolis), but it seemed fine when I was there.

I have had many of the same experiences. The old library had a lot more lurkers. Block E was terrible, and the parking lot that was there before Block E was also sketchy.
I just mentioned the "blank walls" because I feel the architecture actually has a lot more to do with the eerie, empty feel than people think. It's had that same feel for 20 years. Retail wise, it's even emptier than it was back then, even with more people living downtown.

If you look at some of the other cities you've mentioned like Pittsburgh and Portland, they have way more storefronts and small cafe spaces. This makes it possible to have more 'organic' growth in terms of street level retail, restaurants and general liveliness. Minneapolis seems to have to wait for the next giant corporate development project. The interior Canadian cities like Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Calgary have similar architectural style and similar issues.