how many buildings in the banner above? Some could name them all. Some could tell you what they used to be called. The latter group is probably unsuited to think too much about the city today, because really . . . no one cares.
Why does that matter? Why would anyone care?
Pardon me for getting local here, but this is my home and I love it, and I’m tired of people shooting people. Everybody’s sick of it and nothing will change. I’m not a pessimist, but I’d like to think I’m not entirely unrealistic.
There’s a hopeful piece in the Strib today about Uptown maaaaybe coming back. It’s absurd it went away; the neighborhood is upscale, the big lake is right there, and it seems as if every parking lot or nondescript commercial structure was replaced by a massive apartment complex.
How can this area be commercially inert? Especially since it was once full of interesting stores, a real community with a corner grocery store.
it was teetering before 2020, and the riots just cleaned it out. Then came the miscreants. Strib:
Landlords have worked with the community and police to address public safety. Since the riots in 2020, Uptown has also been the site of repeated "intersection takeovers" by street racers.
Every one of these should have been broken up immediately with arrests and citations. It’s part of the general belief that there are no consequences for lawlessness, partly because the police are overstretched or they aren’t doing their job, depending on your priors. (The people who believe the latter are also the angriest when the police do something, because ACAB.)
Uptown has always been a playground, so you'll get people inclined to misbehave. But what I get now, as I got the other night downtown, is the sense that a particular style of modern citizen feels utterly disconnected from the bedrock culture, contemptuous of everything that made this place possible. This is just a sandbox.
A picture I took on my daily walk around downtown:
Take a look at all these new well-appointed expensive apartments:
I mention this because a 17 year-old shot a 15-year-old at 5:30 PM right here the other day. They knew each other. Strib:
Metro Transit video surveillance captured the shooting, according to the court filing. Powell was on the train when it pulled into the Nicollet Mall station. Walker stepped onto the platform holding only a cigarette in one hand, the filing continued.
Powell stared down Walker through a train window before pointing a handgun at the 15-year-old, who raised both hands "in the air showing that he is unarmed."
Powell opened fire and hit Walker in the upper left chest from a few feet away. Powell got off the train and ran.
The 17-year-old was denied bail, to the surprise of some.
Judge Todd Fellman said that because Powell was on probation for a gun case at the time of the shooting — for which he had four failed court appearances— he should remain detained.
Over at Reddit at r/minneapolis they're mostly debating whether the reasons are Guns / Racism / Poverty / Underfunded Schools / COVID, or a different combination of the five elements, each of which has its own ability to rewire morality and behavior in ways that cannot be undone by one's individual agency.
The next day, at this stop, there were these two guys hitting on all the passengers for money:
When the train left, they were gone, having pushed their shopping carts into the car. Of course there's no one to tell them no. There is an argument about whether it is right to tell them no.
For OLD, we have a favorite: the massive Phone Company building. It's usually shot from an angle so you see its massing, but this side is just awesome:
Buildings covered with stone look like buildings made of stone. Fro comparison:
Most of the Thrivent Apartment Phase 2 has had its poxy wrap covered. It's stark and metallic, like its neighbor, and what it lacks in flourishes it makes up for in well-done minimalism.
Over at the Stadium apartment project . . .
I was right. They are building it over the parking ramp next door.
They'll be a bit more difficult to fill if the neighborhood becomes the late-night automotive playground for the people unwilling to learn the first thing about living with other human beings.
It's time to bring vagrants down to the orphans' shack for some lessons in life:
Lance is teaching them to be cynical, and it's paying off. Oh, it's okay to be trusting and all that other kid stuff, but a guy's gotta grow up and see the world for what it is.
Solution is here.
It's another "guess that actor mystery" that's not a mystery at all in the slightest! This one cracks me up for two reasons: the accent used, and the description of the character. It's one those phony swamis that abounded in 40s noir.
There's really only one character I can hear him voice nowadays.
This year we're counting down the top hits . . . of 1922. Why not? Another Whiteman hit, and as usual the interesting part is what the band does when it gets to stretch out in the middle.
The answer here is "not much." Tempo's too lame to take off.
It does make you realize how adding drums would change things. The banjo's doing all the work here.
It's 1959, and CBS would very much like you to know that Lowell Thomas has been everywhere.
See you on Monday when we start it up again. Now it's the end of Frank Reade Jr. and his Ingenious Death Boats! |
