This cannot go on.

It will go on.

It will happen again, and again. I don’t mean officer-involved shooting. I mean destruction for the sake of destruction. It’s the new modus vivendi.

Finally I see the vandals work on a door I used that very day. How about that.

A suspect in a murder shot himself, false rumors spread that he’d been killed by cops, and hello it’s time to start looting the Target. A helpful citizen with a bullhorn went around telling people that the cops didn’t shoot the guy, and the narrative switched to “we are permitted to destroy because the cops used mace back at the Target store.”

One reporter’s twitter account said the police had been ordered to stand down, which I find unlikely. Possible, given the leadership of the city, but unlikely.

I’ll post pictures tomorrow. More boarded up windows. The Target will probably be closed.

In related news, the encampment in Loring Park, blessed by the city, has broken up because - according to the Mpls subreddit - there was a fight involving ten - 15 people, so everyone left. For another park, in my neighborhood.

UPDATE: Let's all have a round of applause and gratitude for Saks discount store remaining open in downtown to provide some retail for the residents.

Also read that 20 people, many with guns, have entered Centre Village, which I also pass through daily in the winter. Nothing much to steal, but there's a convenience store I'm sure is trashed by now, since looting is hungry work.

UPDATE: This is across the street from my office.

 

These bastards may just have killed the city I love so much.

(record scratch)

HAPPIER TIMES NOW

HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY

WROTE THIS LAST WEEK

SEEMS UNREAL, AN UNATTAINABLE WORLD

   
 

1920

You might think it was hard to top two locomotives colliding? No!

FLOWERS!

   
  Genteel pleasures for the civilized set.
   

You can find the man’s work still for sale. None of it seems particularly interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was surprised to find it has but seven thousand souls.

Wikipedia:

The founding of the small historical railroad and ranching town of Livingston, Montana is a direct result of the Northern Pacific Railway. This site became a centralized point in the Rockies and the NPR's location for railroad shops to service NPR steam trains before their ascent over the Bozeman Pass, the highest point on the line. Livingston also became the first gateway town to America's first national park, Yellowstone National Park. This is the place to where the NPR began promoting heavily, to visitors from the East.

So, lots of big hotels, right?

Well. This is going to take two weeks.

Let’s start with a tour through time! 2012:

2018:

It looks as if they swapped out one old building with another.

Who knows what this once represented?

A hotel, I’m guessing?

Can anyone explain that upper floor?

“Johnson’s Montana Junk.” Okay.

"MANTIQUES." Not okay.

“I just don’t know how to communicate the idea that this is my second run at the concept of Action Antiques. . . . WAIT. A. MINUTE"

Not a town known for its grand hotels, I’m thinking.

“Paint over that HOTEL sign and paint HOTEL, so they know what it is.”

Nice restoration, but the glass block needs to go.

T’was a Standard, I believe.

How long until no one’s around who recognizes these buildings instantly by their original purpose?

Bittersweet palimpest:

It’s like something from the Gatsby era.

 

And cover it they did:

 

Two unlikely comrades in one building:

Many places got rid of their perpendicular signs, because they were heavy, and might fall if the bolts loosened.

Not saying that’s a possibility here, no sir.

“Basketball team no longer comes around; might as well brick ‘em up.

Interesting piece of pre-war modernism, ruined by the window treatment:

And by that I mean “the way the windows were treated.”

It’s a Grizzly birthday party!

 

Oh, say now:

 

A nice piece of signage; happy it’s survived. Well, is that all there is around here?

Oh, no. Just you wait.

That will suffice, I think. Except that there's more. There's always more.

 

 

 

 

 
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