Secrets of the City

Their.

Ah another reason not to go to Starbucks! Caribou is more my style anyways…

Nicollet location closing in 3 … 2…

That’s a completely fair demand.

I think it is very busy, so it won’t close. And it is a fair demand to ask for a security guard. But I wonder if other businesses in the area have one. There is Jimmy John’s, CVS, the liquor store all on the same block. How do they deal with these same folks?

So how long before their demands bankrupt the coffee industry and they come hat-in-hand for a government bailout, I ask only half jokingly.

can’t they fight off the criminals with those Ghostbuster-like backpacks full of scalding hot coffee that tastes burnt?

I used to live a block from there and the closest Jimmy John’s was in DT. They wouldn’t deliver to me. NOW there’s one right there!? Jerks.

Max, can you fix that “They’re”? It should be “Their.”

Is this the food thread? There hasn’t been one in a while. I want to mention I Nick & Eddie has peirogies on their bar menu (which changes regularly, so go get ‘em while you can).

I can understand why they’d want a security guard there. I live two blocks from it (Ang, the Jimmy Johns that close rocks!) and although I think the neighborhood is safe, it can get sketchy. Especially with Frank/Nic Liquors right next to it.

CINF and I live right by that Starbucks and go there frequently, as well as the CVS across the street and the Franklin Nicollet Liquor Store. There is a major bus stop right outside the Starbucks (I don’t know if that has anything to do with it?) and there are always vagrants loitering about. I see drunk people stumbling around that intersection all the time. I agree that the baristas working there should have security. It will only improve the neighborhood.

Oh man, I can’t imagine working there. That area sucks so bad. I don’t think I’ve ever successfully made it across the parking lot from the ATM to the liquor store without being asked for money or offered stolen goods.

That area sucks so bad.

I live in the same building as CINF and norwego…the neighborhood doesn’t suck that bad. Sure, I wouldn’t take a late night stroll to the liquor store, but I’ve never feared for my life.

Adam, I would disagree with you and kind of take offense to that, as I live in that area. It does not “suck so bad”. I think the neighborhood has greatly improved in the past few years, mainly with the help of condos and businesses moving in. The Stevens Square Community is extremely proactive and involved in their neighborhood, as CINF can attest to.

Stevens Square pride. Holla.

However, that Wells Fargo ATM on that corner is nasty. I always hold my breath when I go in there. I believe some people have used it as a toilet. And not just for number 1 and number 2.

For secret number 3, too? Nobody is supposed to know about that!

I didn’t mean the neighborhood (I live there too) but really just that stretch from the corner up to the liquor store. Well, maybe up to McD’s. Still, I’m willing to retract my “sucks so bad”. I don’t want to offend anyone.

How about “sucks so hard”? That has negative and positive connotations.

Yeah, please correct my stupid typo.

Before the condos were built across from the Starbucks it was an awkwardly placed gas station that required precision in maneuvering your vehicle around the close quarters of the pumps. One day I was trying to pull out from the pumps while avoiding hitting any other cars or people, and suddenly a handful of pebbles from the sidewalk are hurled at my car!

Some douche from the bus stop intended to approach me for some change while I was pumping gas, and thought I was intentionally ignoring him, which I probably would have if I had even seen him. I was too busy trying not to blow up the SA to be paying attention to which guy didn’t have a much needed $0.17.

I briefly considering running him over and then decided it was funnier to just throw a handful of pennies from my console in his direction. He didn’t appreciate that either.

Aw. I miss that neighborhood.

I lived in that neighborhood for 3 years and I can’t tell you how pissed I was that they started prettying it up 6 months after I moved. Fuckers.

Yeah, that’s a really shitty corner, though. I used to get hassled all the time at the liquor store, but kept going because the employees are super cool in that salty “I’ve seen everything there is to see” way. Hookers also have quite the business in the alley behind those buildings.

I miss that neighborhood too.

My first apartment was in that neighborhood and I have many a fond memory of the old gas station (SA wasn’t it?) and liquor store. On the day I moved in my dad and I took a break to find a place to eat. Not knowing the neighborhood so well, we stopped in at that McDonalds. After that dining “experience” I don’t think my dad visited me again for at least another year. Of course, getting my car stolen soon after likely didn’t help my case that it was a safe and exciting place to live.

Needless to say, I also miss the neighborhood.

The Franklin Nicollet liquor store is awesome. The employees don’t put up with any shit from anyone. I finally got the “head nod” from one of them last time I was in there. I feel safe in that store, the employees really look out for their regular customers.

So what y’all are saying is the gentrification of Nicollet/Franklin is only partially complete?

For secret number 3, too? Nobody is supposed to know about that!

The first rule of #3 is to never talk about #3!!!

Two questions: Is gentrification inherently bad? Does a modicum of increasing safety make for gentrification?

Also are middle class people gentry? ‘Cause when I hear gentrification, I think of fox hunting and horse farms… But that’s just me.

Erica, I would say that is correct. The gentrification is not complete, but it has begun.

It’s funny how people piss and moan about Stevens, yet love it too. I mean really, out of all my friends, I had the best stories.

Franklin Nicollet Liquor also has a pretty good wine selection, too.

The SA now on the corner of Franklin & Nicollet was originally a 7-11 back in the ’80s. The original SA was down on Franklin a couple of blocks. When the 7-11s were bought by SA, the original SA was closed (and eventually turned into a restaurant) and the 7-11 was turned into an SA. The other nearby 7-11 was at Grant & LaSalle. That too was turned into an SA.

I lived for several years on the 1500 block of LaSalle. Franklin & Nicollet has always been a grungy corner. Heck, back in my mid’70’s art school days, the whole stretch of what’s now Eat Street was considered ghetto.

lunch!- gentrification, I think, can be done well, but often isn’t. Our neighborhood is “getting better”, but I’m afraid that means that all the great low income residents will be forced out. It is a matter of filling houses with homeowners, but keeping rents affordable for low income earners.

I do think the “getting better” in my neighborhood may stop or reverse in the next couple years. Stupid economic crisis.

Frankly, I don’t think Stevens will ever be fully gentrified.

aliecat- no way will it be. Way too many apartments that will always have thin walls and way too close to downtown. I think that is why it is such a great neighborhood.

kc, I would agree with you. The “getting better” in my neighborhood I think is basically just people buying condos and businesses moving in. Which in turn forces the low income renters out. Not that all renters are bad, but there are some problem apartment buildings in the neighborhood.

But as it stands right now, no one is buying the condos and there are several empty stores waiting to be rented.

kc, exactly. Also, that area really needs a decent grocery store and it’s a little close to Phillips for the nervous Nellies. Anyway, I’d rather see police patrols increase to 2001-2002 levels as opposed to more crappy condos that no one can afford to buy. Part of the reason I moved was after the cuts in police for that area, crime shot up significantly.

Alie, I would KILL for a grocery store in Stevens Square! The closest store is Kowalski’s in Uptown, and I frankly cannot afford to shop there.

Stevens Square = dormitory for hipsters and artists

yes/no?

Norwego, some of those problem buildings are also the fault of landlords. Some of those owners are glorified slumlords. I rented from Stevens Association and they were insanely strict in their app process and rental policies. But my building was always secure, clean, and maintanance was always addressed right away. Not sure how it is now, but if I ever moved back I’d totally rent from them again.

To fix Stevens all you need to do is bulldose the Kmart!

After that all is well.

Dougie, I always thought Whittier was more affected by that Kmart than Stevens.

It’s far away but the disruption in traffic is the real issue.
I think bulldozing that Kmart might just cure Venereal Disease.

Isn’t the Kmart and it’s parking lot built over what was once Nicollet Ballpark?

Isn’t the Kmart and it’s parking lot built over what was once Nicollet Ballpark?

No, I think it was a few blocks south.

The Wells Fargo across the street is. They also used to have a ballpark at 6th Street and 1st Avenue N., which is now Target Center.

The Kmart mostly affects the Lyndale neighborhood that cjc and I live in. It kind of keeps the crap out of Whittier since it blocks off Nicollet.

And the ballpark was across the street from Kmart where the condos and Wells Fargo are.

norwego- have you tried Sullivan’s SuperValu on Lake and Nicollet next to Kmart? It isn’t terrible. The have a good turn over of veggies, so they are always fresh. Just don’t go looking for organic goods or low fat cheese.

There also used to be a ballpark at Lexington/University. If memory serves, the single-season homerun leader played at the DTMPLS ballpark, whose record was later broken by Babe Ruth.

kwatt- they used to do double headers with Mpls against St. Paul. They would play at one stadium then everyone would get on the streetcars to head to the other stadium for the other game. That must have been very fun.

Kowalski’s in Camden and the North Stars.

Great, now I’m going to spend all afternoon looking at old pictures on the MNHS website.

I totally posted on the wrong thread.

Technically the Starbucks (and anything south of Franklin…Stevens Square/Loring Heights neighborhood is 35W to Lyndale and Franklin to 94) is in Whittier but since it’s, literally, across the street, it’s close enough to Stevens. Rental occupancy is around 80 percent in Stevens Square and will likely remain around that even with all the condo conversions/construction in the area.

alie, I rented from Stevens Community Apts when I moved here and they were great. A bunch of friends of mine work for them too.

ryanl, yes, it is. Supposedly we also have the most bike commuters per capita in the metro.

The thing that hurts Stevens/Whittier the most is 35W.

It goes straight through the middle of the neibghborhood and makes the outter edges feel isolated from the rest of the city. Where there should be houses, apartment buildings, sidewalks, corner stores and playing children in front yards, there is a huge fence/sound barrier.

Between 28th Street and Franklin there is no way to cross it going east. That’s really stupid and makes the neighborhood a lonely, desolate place filled with cavernous and empty mansions from the Pillsbury glory days.

Detox also hurts Whittier. The drunks get released and float through Stevens leaving vomit and empty take out cartons in their wake. Meh.

kc – I am too scared to go to that SuperValu.

joyride – I heart the MNHS website and have spent many an afternoon looking at old photos while pretending to work

christin – I love all the old mansions in Whittier. I am glad that some of them have survived. I particularly like the ones surrounding the MIA.

Home plate for the ballpark that was DT was about where the front door of Champps is. For the curious or bored.

Once upon a time, there was a full-service grocery store in the Nicollet/Franklin neighborhood: Red Owl, on the 1600 block of Nicollet. Don’t know when it closed. Sometime after 1992, though. There was a good butcher shop across the street, too.

norwego-

It is mostly families. They do a good job of keeping the riff raff out. Because lots of Latinos shop there, there are lots of Latino foods like tomatillos and dried peppers.

The thing that hurts Stevens/Whittier the most is 35W.

It goes straight through the middle of the neibghborhood and makes the outter edges feel isolated from the rest of the city. Where there should be houses, apartment buildings, sidewalks, corner stores and playing children in front yards, there is a huge fence/sound barrier.

IIRC, 35W is the end of Stevens and east of that is Philips. IMO, Philips is the most damaged by 35W.

Isn’t Lunds supposed to open a store on 12th and Hennepin? That would alievate some of the urban food desert for Whittier/Stevens residents.

Why has it taken them so long to open? I thought they were supposed to open in 2007. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the credit freeze. Nothing at all.

The Obamas Hype Park neighborhood in Chicago sounds an awlful lot like the Whittier neighborhood. Million dollar mansions popped next to urban slumlord rental apartments. Sweet!

*Hyde Park

I think the Lunds was having issues conforming to the zoning requirements of the lot with respect to off street parking and green space. I thought I remember hearing something about them trying to use a geen roof to fulfill the necessary green space requirement for the area but that didn’t fly with the city. I doubt this was the only issue but the only one I can clearly recall.

I work at this Starbucks. It is important that the people reading this article know that the majority of the employees at our store are not a part of this union and that we are increasingly uncomfortable with the tactics they are choosing to use.