Shrinking Minneapolis

"This summer, as the city has been looted and burned, people who could, left. For sale signs were everywhere in Minneapolis. Companies were considering their options on relocation." 

The year - 1950. Minneapolis is a boom town. Not quite the size of her bigger siblings out east, but hey - a bit over 500,000 was nothing to sneeze at! Skyscrapers, streetcars, beautiful houses on avenues like Park, Portland and Chicago - plus jobs galore. The University of Minnesota was an incubator to produce well paying jobs in the region. Out at Metropolitan Stadium, one could watch the Minneapolis Millers (with Willie Mays for a while), play other small town teams. The Minneapolis Lakers played basketball downtown. Plus the team even had a scrawny, yet feisty kid on it name Bud Grant. Like was good in the Mill City. It was a great place to live and raise a family.

In the 1960's, the city was so safe, I would often ride the bus downtown either by myself or with buddies. I would visit my mother at the Dayton's building, where she worked part time. Dayton's Donaldson's, Penny's - all must do stops when I was downtown. Once in a while, my mother would even take me out to lunch in Dayton's Sky Room. 

In the mid-1990's, the gleam of Minneapolis had lost some of its luster. The population had shrunk to about 370,000. The good life had been calling from the burbs. Better schools, less crime, and bigger yards and houses. PLUS - many corporations were still located in Minneapolis - just a hop, skip and short drive away from the homes in suburbia. The people in the metro area could have their cake and eat it too. Live in the burbs like Ozzie and Harriet, and then go to work in Minneapolis during the day. Living the dream!

Flash forward to today. 2020, which is 70 years from 1950, the Mill Cities heyday. The city is a mess. True, the population is higher (425,000) than it was in the 1990's, but still almost 20% less than it was in 1950. Crime, deteriorating schools, sky high taxes, socialism, social unrest, homelessness, panhandling, hollowed out neighborhoods - you get the picture. Many large corporations are now living in the burbs, along with the people who work at them. The good life, which the Mayor and City Council were try trying to sell, evaporated on Memorial Day, when George Floyd died. Now Minneapolis has gone tribal. 

This summer, as the city has been looted and burned, people who could leave - did. For sale signs were everywhere in Minneapolis. Companies were considering their options on relocation. Between the pandemic and the social unrest, traveling into Minneapolis was like going into Beirut or Mogadishu. Those of us who grew up either in Minneapolis or close to it, could not believe the change. It is like the entire city was being swallowed up in a sink hole of PC goo. 

Is there a future for Minneapolis? Not much, I'm afraid. The tribalism has developed deep roots and the politics are dark blue and deeply monolithic. The Minneapolis Police Department is being defunded, and if the City Council has their way, cops will all be replaced by social workers. The Cedar Riverside area of town looks otherworldly. The 1,500 businesses which were burned out, are still down and out. You can get mugged and suffer a beat down, at any time of day, in just about any part of the city. Many who have loved this city for decades, are now mourning.

Enough about Minneapolis. St. Paul is close behind. What purpose do these two cities serve right now? Screwing up our elections. If not for the Twin Cities, this state would be bright red every year. Maybe if we can get the population of Minneapolis back to what it was in 1950...