Secrets of the City

Pardon my ignorance… what streets bound the West Side Neighborhood in St. Paul?

Does this include Snelling/University and that shite?

The westside of St. Paul is the area south of downtown on the “west” side of the river.

We use that new geography here in St. Paul. South St. Paul is actually a distinct town down river a ways. Used to be home of the slaughter houses in town and man did it stink. Now it’s kind of an odd little town that is home to a few interesting buildings and for some reason, locus of the white power movement in the Twin Cities.

A few news sites used my photo of the fire. I am now going to be a news photographer, but only news I can see from my window.

That’s correct. Here’s a helpful map.

On the Bridges article. I was under the impression that the Bridges was basically dead. They haven’t gotten any funding as far as I know and Chris Coleman has come out against it. I could be wrong on all counts here as I am trafficing in St. Paul development rumor here, but why is the PiPress publishing this article? Anyone have the skinny?

Also, the Bridges is the ugliest development St. Paul has seen proposed in qute a while. What, we need a 1980’s era Marriot on the banks of the river? Las Vegas meets the flats?

It’s no more or less confusing than the names of the larger neighborhoods in the northern half of Minneapolis…appears whomever named these areas had a compass that showed NE as True North

NW= “North Side”, or “Over North”
N = “Nordeast”
NE = SE

Pardon my ignorance… what streets bound the West Side Neighborhood in St. Paul?

St. Paul’s “West” side is not the same as West St. Paul, which is actually a suburb located in Dakota, not Ramsey, county. The area west of downtown STP, more or less along West 7th St., is the general area considered to be the “west side” of St. Paul … but the area immediately around Harriet Island (which is hadsn’t been a real island for a century) is also considered part of St. Paul’s West Side. It gets confusing, doesn’t it?

And, yes, South St. Paul is a wholly independent, distinct, incorporated city located along the river as it turns south from downtown St. Paul.

Ooops. I stand corrected re: the West Side after looking at the map more closely.

Nevermind.

NE DOES NOT = SE

SE is South East of NE

and NE is NW of downtown.

So go figure.

Personally, I hope the Bridges project gets built. I’d love to see a movie theater closer to downtown St. Paul along with new retail options. I like the idea of sitting near the banks of the river while eating at a nice restaurant.

Pete – I too would love to see a movie theater opening up downtown Saint Paul. The Galtier Plaza Cinema 4 is still intact, and could easily be reopened. With the additional people living downtown, plus the people who live in Galtier’s two towers, this seems like an idea that has no reason NOT to work, except for perhaps mis-management.

Thanks for the clarification. Seems these city planners goofed a bit. Do you think there’s politics involved in assigning certain neighborhoods incorrect directional signifiers?

Minneapolis isn’t extremely strict about its regions, either, though they mostly make sense (unlike St. Paul’s southern portion being considered “west”.)

South: Nicollet and east, to the river.
Southwest: 394 and south, Nicollet and west… plus Bryn-Mawr.
North: 394 and north, the river and west… minus Bryn-Mawr.
Nordeast: East shore of the river, to Hennepin.

And there isn’t really a SE Minneapolis, to my knowledge. You pretty much have to refer to specific areas like “East Bank”, “Prospect Park”, etc.

look, it took me forever to figure out the NE/SE minneapolis thing, but just think about it as the “East” part takes precedence (as in east bank of the river) and then it kind of makes sense. It’s fun to confuse out of towners with it, though.

I don’t think so, acalhoun. “West Side” is correct if you think in terms of the river, which I would think played a much greater role in the city’s daily life and economy early on.

Maybe it would be less confusing if they’d called it West Bank? It works for Minneapolis.

Oh and I don’t really see the problem with the bridges development. Yeah it’s ugly, but that’s why they have these meetings. Just like with the Pillsbury A Mill project, the neighbourhood/city officials said “we don’t like this part of the design” and they changed it to something beter suited to the area and that most people were ok with. But what’s the problem with development on the “wrong” side of the river? It would be like a little St. Anthony/Main condoville gentrified neighbourhood. Plus if it brings that many people to live in close proximity to downtown StP it might actually get some downtown retail to stay open late.

New Orleans’ West Bank is actually south and, from some vantage points, east of the French Quarter.

the old convention of naming areas based on riverbanks was dumb. what’s dumber is that we continue to use them when they are exactly opposite of true directionality.

The Southeast Angle always said “South of Hennepin, East of the Mississippi” and that was good enough for me. Of course, they’re not the Angle anymore, so what did they ever know.

It seems that part of the problem with the project being ugly is even if there are meetings and the developer agrees to address specific design issues, the often don’t and there seems to be no ramifications. For example, recently a very well known developer built a parking ramp near me. We had issues with their ugly ass design and the council and historic preservation committee agreed. The developer addressed their concerns – in their renderings. When they actually built the thing the managed somehow go back to their original design and we’re stuck with a ramp with no facade facing us. Lovely.

One major issue that many people are having with the Bridges is that its further dissipating retail in the downtown core. Not that there is any retail to really compete. I’m mainly against it ’cause it’s uuuuugly. C’mon, it’s not that hard to design a nice building. Of course, when the developer cites Las Vegas as inspiration perhaps it is.

We are forgetting the obvious naming error: Uptown. In Thatcher Imboden’s Uptown book he says that Uptown got its name after the theater, which got its name from the Chicago neighborhood.

This one confuses my outta-town amigoes.

And there isn’t really a SE Minneapolis, to my knowledge. You pretty much have to refer to specific areas like “East Bank”, “Prospect Park”, etc.

Actually my entire family grew up “South East” and many people over there around Como Ave SE refer to their neighborhood, and have for decades, as South East.

So we exist, dude!

It is actually a small tight knit community where people that Mazaspaza are encouraged to STAY THE FUCK OUT.

You can tell that by the presence of Wellstone signs and the general goodwill toward humanity that permeates the area.

“where people that Mazaspaza are encouraged to STAY THE FUCK OUT.”

“You can tell that by the presence of Wellstone signs and the general goodwill toward humanity that permeates the area.”

?

yeah, uptown being south (down on a map) of downtown can confuse people,

I get my directions confused in minneapolis cause north is the bad part but in the whole country, the south is the bad part (too many republicans)