While Rybakian jawboning continues apace, it looks more and more to me like Minneapolis is in a recession.
I’ve seen an economy on the ropes before, and there are signs Pawlenty: the sheer volume of vacant properties in Downtown, a collapsing Uptown, closing libraries, condo projects stalled, falling rents (yea! a possible silver lining), a struggling Midtown project, Target screwing us over, crumbling infrastructure while ill-fated developments go up, a Twins stadium boondoggle, slumlords declaring themselves as the city’s saviors, and the selling off of the city’s assets. And, of course, the politicians talking about “the future.”
The vultures are circling. First, the Guardian Angels, and this morning I read about the city deciding to co-host the Republican National Convention with our similarly challenged sister city, St. Paul.
Uptown is perhaps the best bellwether. When I moved here in the late 80s, it was, as they say over in CPED, a “destination.” There were lots of people milling around. Calhoun Square was alive–OK, in a kind of cheesy way, but you felt like there was some sort vitality to the place. Ironically, as developers in fill the area with contrived condominiums, it feels like the Uptown area is in peril.
Recessions can have salutory effects if the economic damage isn’t fatal to the local economy, and there is still some money around in Minneapolis.
In this case, if the housing bubble truly bursts and multiple condo units are converted to apartments, driving down rents, Minneapolis might just begin to attract hungry young people from around the country, spurring a creative renaissance in this listing burg.
Don’t believe it? Look at tired old industrial Nordeast, now the trendiest of locations in Minneapolis largely because rents remained affordable, at least until recently.
For the longterm vitality of the city, that sure beats the current plan, which is apparently to turn Minneapolis into a retirement community for baby boomers, with immigrant populations changing the bedpans, while we host the blood sucking fascist hordes that come with Republican National Conventions and live for baseball.
–Loosestrife
Original post by Loosestrife
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