Not Covid, but Floyd

"I will now speak for myself as well as many others I know in the outstate area. I hate going downtown. I hate what Minneapolis has become. It has gone from the town I was raised next to, the town I loved to brag about, to a national embarrassment."

I have thought this for a long time now. It really hit home after watching A Precarious State on YouTube. But before I get into my main point, some background. I grew up just feet from Minneapolis. My mother worked in downtown Minneapolis at Dayton's. I would often times ride the bus downtown (by myself). I lived in Minneapolis for a year shortly after we were married. I went to college in Minneapolis. I had clients in downtown Minneapolis when I worked for IBM. In fact, I was at work in downtown Minneapolis when 9/11 happened.

Now before you say, "so what" and hang up the phone, here is why I mention all of this personal background. I know Minneapolis for what it was. It was not a faraway place to me - it was almost like home. Today however, it is like a faraway place to me. Hardly recognizable. Hostile, not friendly. Dangerous, not safe. Dirty, not clean. Shrinking, not thriving. 

In the show A Precarious State, Rick Kupchella tried very hard to answer the question "what happened?" I was pleased that unlike other local documentaries, the answer always starts out Covid and then mentions the Floyd riots as an afterthought. I have believed that Covid kept many folks from working in downtown offices and kept them as remote workers from home. BUT - the thing which kept many people from downtown (other than work) - was the unfettered crime. The crime which blossomed under the post Floyd riots. And is still going on. 

I will now speak for myself as well as many others I know in the outstate area. I hate going downtown. I hate what Minneapolis has become. It has gone from the town I was raised next to, the town I loved to brag about, to a national embarrassment. Basically, it really sucks right now. Even the police chief, whom we brought in from the very blue New Jersey, cannot understand the politics here. Why the socialist who run this place hate cops to much. Why they want to defund and neuter the police. Hello? Fewer cops = more crime. Duh!

Minneapolis is no longer fit for man nor beast. It is a "no man's" land. A "do not enter" area. Is it fixable? Not unless there is a complete turnover in the ruling class. Until that happens, I will keep my distance, thank you.