Is Minneapolis always desolate? (St. Paul, Wayzata: apartments, townhouse, neighborhoods)

[Staggerlee666]

My wife and I are relocation to Minneapolis due to a job. I had been here once or twice for business over the years and she was here for a daybfor her interviews.

We just took a trip over the weekend to scout out apartments and we stayed in the Dowtown area. Honestly, for the most part the city looked like a scene from the Walking Dead. Barely any people on the streets, desolate, boring. Is this what the city is like? Are there any people around at all? Were we just in the wrong area?

FYI, we loved the suburbs and the Wayzata area especially. I just coukdn't believe that a city the size of MSP would be so desolate.

[Thedosius]

Yes, large parts of downtown empty out after hours and on weekends. It's really feast or famine. If you're in the 'financial district' there is little activity outside of business hours, but both Hennepin and First Avenues go from deathly quiet to totally hopping all in the same weekend.

A lot of activity in the cities disperses to various 'nodes' throughout the metro region but yes, I've had the "did someone drop a neutron bomb?" feeling in downtown during the off-hours many times.

[WoodburyWoody]

Wrong area ... both downtowns quiet down on the weekends.

Especially when the weather turns nice, people take to the road to head out to nature. Minneapolis has a great park system and one of the best biking trail systems in the nation, plus the state (and neighboring Wisconsin) have great state parks and any Friday afternoon there is a back up of cars on all roads north heading to the North Shore, rain or snow or shine ... but especially shine.

The metro is something like 3.5 million, but it is a sprawling metro with the overwhelming bulk of the people living outside the downtowns, even if they live in Minneapolis or St. Paul city limits. It is just small enough that you don't have to live downtown to work downtown due to transportation issues (time/availability/parking/etc.) for either city, though there have been a lot of new townhouse/apartment projects going into/around downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul over the past ten or so years with even more slated for the short-term future.

[rcsteiner]

How many people downtown are walking through the skyways and not on the street level?

[gweilo845]

Not many on the weekend, some parts are even closed.


Unless there's a big event, downtown is usually pretty quiet on the weekends. Especially with all the construction going on now.

[Glenfield]

Downtown is a business district so there are not many people in the business district on weekend. The city is very much alive, just not in the Central Business District. IMHO it would be a mistake to move into one of the apartments in that area. Look elsewhere for neighborhood activity. For example Open Streets Minneapolis

[Stanton1433]

Originally Posted by Glenfield

Downtown is a business district so there are not many people in the business district on weekend. The city is very much alive, just not in the Central Business District. IMHO it would be a mistake to move into one of the apartments in that area. Look elsewhere for neighborhood activity. For example Open Streets Minneapolis

The places that are more lively is the Chain of Lakes, especially near the bandshell. also check out near Uptown.

[rogead]

Downtown Minneapolis has several different neighborhoods. Downtown West (where most of the skyscrapers are located), which is the CBD, is an area of about 1/2 square mile. On business days, there are approximately 110,000 people working in this small area alone. So the area is extremely busy. At night and on weekends, there is very little reason for anyone to be there. This is true of the CBD in almost all large cities unless the CBD has a significant residential population (e.g. Manhattan, San Francisco, Chicago). There are some residential buildings in the area, but there aren't enough of them to create any real vibrancy during non-business hours.

At night and on weekends, pedestrian traffic shifts to downtown's theater and entertainment district (mostly along Hennepin Avenue) and the North Loop (warehouse District). This is where you find most of the theaters, night clubs, specialty shops, restaurants, sports venues, etc. On weekend days, there is also a lot of activity in The Mill District, which is adjacent to The Mississippi River and offers numerous recreational opportunities and historical sights.

There are about 40,000 people who now live in Downtown Minneapolis. The North Loop and Mill District are where most of them live. There are also a lot of residential buildings directly across the river from The Mill District in The St Anthony West neighborhood. Downtown East (which I believe has been lamely-rebranded as "East Town") is also seeing an influx of residential units. This is the area of the new Viking's stadium. It's also an area that merges into the West Bank campus of The University of Minnesota.

[jennifat]

Like others have said, downtown Minneapolis is dead on the weekends in the summertime simply because there are better places to be.

Most Minnesotans are weekend warriors and spend their time at their cabins on lakes up north, relaxing at their neighborhood bar/restaurant patio, enjoying the city parks, going to outdoor festivals, or doing other outdoorsy things. You'll see a lot more people hanging out downtown when the weather turns cooler in the fall and there are more events going on around town.

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

Originally Posted by rogead

There are about 40,000 people who now live in Downtown Minneapolis. The North Loop and Mill District are where most of them live. There are also a lot of residential buildings directly across the river from The Mill District in The St Anthony West neighborhood. Downtown East (which I believe has been lamely-rebranded as "East Town") is also seeing an influx of residential units. This is the area of the new Viking's stadium. It's also an area that merges into the West Bank campus of The University of Minnesota.

I would also add "Loring Park" to the list of the largest/most populated neighborhoods downtown.

Population does not always necessarily correlate to busyness....it's usually the presence of parks, retail, museums, etc. that drive the most foot traffic in places like downtown. There could be 100,000 residents and it may feel relatively quiet IFF there's no restaurants or other things to drive people to visit and/or get out of their homes.

On the whole though I agree that downtown can feel desolate for a city of this size. Other cities in our size grouping (Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa, San Diego, Baltimore, etc.) all have varying degrees of success with implementing retail and restaurants downtown that drive tourists and people from the suburbs. One of Minneapolis' greatest negative location externalities is the presence of the Mall of America (MOA) (and to a lesser extent, the Galleria), which is where the majority of the types of higher-end retailers set up shop in our metro (unlike Seattle, for instance, which has many of these downtown). The MOA is a great asset to the metro but the metro is (apparently) just not big enough for 2 downtowns AND the MOA to sustain all 3 with enough retail to generate high foot traffic volumes. Not yet, anyways. These things do seem to occur in cycles though, and 50 years ago Minneapolis was one of THE best places in the country for mid-sized cities for downtown retail, and it appears things are on the up-and-up again.