Secrets of the City

Without even knowing if he’s entering, I’m declaring Taylor the odds-on favorite.

Goatse Commons

I dunno Rex, ever since the “Poon Rapids” debacle, I’ve been trying to fit the word poon into everything.

Poon Village.

This will be good because I can submit my joke ideas here — Welcome to the wonderful condos of Gentrification Station! — and my iPod winning submissions over there.

Why not try to buy naming rights? The condos of MNSpeak.

I like the Seven Stories of Jderusha. MNSpeak should hold out for the Twins’ stadium.

oooohh… i just won a nano on monday night, could it be my lucky week? Something replacing Whittier with “Whiter”. nah, too easy.

god i hate condos.

Who are all these people that are buying these condos & where are they coming from? I have been sickened in the last couple of months seeing new condo developments on 22nd & Hennepin, 24th & Lyndale, & most upsetting to me, the disease has spread to my beloved N.E. These developments are epidemic and are pushing people out of neighborhoods they’ve lived in for generations.
Where are all the working class people supposed to live?
Has Minneapolis really become this Beaugoise that the majority of it’s citizens are more concerned with living in a brand new condo (with so much lack of character that it feels like you’re in far, far out suburbia) than preserving & reinvigoriating community?

Greenleaf is such a good name that it’s already been used… that’s what the condos at Franklin and Nicollet are called.

While it’s not the case with condo conversions, obviously, most of the new condo construction has taken place on seriously under-utilized land, eg. parking lots, derelict industrial land. I don’t know why people are crying about that.

Also, what’s sure to push lower income people out of an area is a housing shortage. It seems like a good way to combat that is to add to the housing stock, rather than artificially limiting it.

Incidentally, why isn’t the area around Rudolph’s/Mort’s, about a mile north of Lyn-Lake called Frank-Lyn?

Great stuff – I’m going to add a consolation prize of an iPod Shuffle for the best/funniest/most bizarre name we won’t use if this keeps up.

So far vampkate has a slight edge with “Whiter Condo’s,” just ahead of the emailer that suggested Norweigan Author and sometime Nazi sympathizer Knut Hamsun. Weird beyond words, that one.

Also: what MunsingW said.

Plus, at some point, if conversions start pushing all available rental stock out (this is not happening yet – vacancy rates are higher now than 5 years ago) we’ll wind up doing something similar to what San Fran has done – limit the amount of conversions annually and award the right to convert via lottery.

The Towering Inferno.

What MusingW said, and what Alex said, and… why would anyone want to live in the city if the city’s not growing? Without signs of cultural development like new construction, we’d be pretty short on new commerce, and we’d fail to attract the next generation, and the Twin Cities would be a wasteland devoid of culture. Cultural preservation and invigoration occurs especially when a city is thriving and growing. Hello!