The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

that prattle is the most pointless shit i've ever read.

everyone involved should have to send me money for ruining the internets.

"i don't like teal"
"yeah me neither"
"great point"
"burp"

The "tepid pansies" remark in the podcast about sums it up.

I'm with Rex. Every good newspaper should have a place to play it, uh, straight, and a place to tart things up. Come on, wouldn't everyone love to have a forum for trading bon mots and deserved tweaks?

touche, kristin.

I kind of enjoy it too. It's silly, but that's cool.

I believe the Mall was built using federal funds for transportation... so it's unlikely they'd be able to get rid of buses.

From what I remember from college logic, then you're not joking that you're not joking. You're joking, right?

So, to sum up, I think Rex thinks the Strib's a joke...as it currently reads, that is.

how can you honestly even try and compare downtown Minneapolis to Chicago?

how about a more fair comparison, downtown Minneapolis to Milwaukee, Indianapolis, etc., which if you've been to any of those cities, Mpls's downtown totally blows them all away.

for the size of the Twin Cities, Mpls downtown is very vibrant and full of tons of arts & energy. i'd take it over many downtown metros (not Chigago mind you).

Pardon me, the Strib is the Nicollet Mall of Newspapers. Actually, there's some diversity further south.

This whole "whithering glance" embarrassment is an obvious attempt to to benefit from the alleged success of queer eye for the straight guy. But the only people who admitted to liking that cultural twilight zone episode were amused women. And they don't drive the strib's numbers, so it's already a failure.

I don't know. I kinda liked the audio part, at least, though I thought the printed version was overwritten. I don't think it's about the gayness as much as it's about listening to a couple of informed and relatively clever people talk about an interesting topic, and, somewhat refreshingly, be very critical. You don't get a lot of harsh local criticism from the mainstream media. (I usually come here for that.)

That piece of reckless dribble reeks of pointless, outdated cliche that seriously makes my stomach turn and my eyes water. What is the point of filling people's heads with downtown hate over the color teal and lampposts? We need people down on Nicollet Mall, eating, listening to music, and, um, walking (?) using public transportation (?). Nicollet Mall offers us so much, it's a privilege to have it. Yes, it could use some work, and so could the creative ducts of these two dweebs.

I think "dweeb" would be a promotion for these marys.

Dtester -- you don't know much about the audiences newspapers want to attract.

I'm work on Nicollet and don't see the point of criticizing its street lamps. In fact, I consider myself a visually-oriented person and I've never been bothered by them, or the colors of the "design pastiches." What does bother me and prevent me from eating my lunch outdoors is a combination of exhaust fumes and smokers. If I want "fresh" air, I have to begrudgingly walk the skyways instead of the streets.

Say what you will about Nicollet Mall (and I'll agree that Gaviidae is a bit outdated), but I don't think there is any other part of the city that incorporates varied street performers, street vendors, and a weekly Farmers Market. Plus, we have the newly opened library, the IDS crystal court, a bevy of restaurants, and Neiman Marcus! What more can you want?

Dtester -- you don't know much about the audiences newspapers want to attract.

Well since they're all losing money and/or readership, maybe they don't either.

Vlado4 - I agree. Pedestrian all the way. I work at a restaurant on the Mall and, no, the buses don't bring in customers. They bring in workers in the morning and take them away at night. A bus-less evening on Nicollet Mall is a wonderful thing. And, by the way, if people (lepetite) has such a problem with the smokers outside, perhaps they'd like to go inside, since the air in there is now smoke-free, just like they like it! Why doesn't everyone just quit their bitching and get down there are enjoy themselves!

Molly, I'm all about supporting local businesses downtown, and on Nicollet in particular. I just find it ironic that I'm not able to get fresh air where I should be getting it - outside. I can't find a place to sit anywhere along Nicollet that's not at most four feet from a smoker. And smoke with food is not an appealing combination.

One thing is for sure. . . it is fun to bike past the car/taxi drunkies and tourists on the weekend straight thru the heart of the city

If there's no buses on Nicollet, they have to go somewhere. That means they're on other streets. Making life "unpleasant" for someone else.

And for what? How far does the city/government have to go so people can insulate themselves from the quotidian annoyances of having live among other people?

Florence, Italy has electric buses in the city center. You hardly notice them as they roll quietly by - fume free.

"cattle-tag wearing cubicle dwellers."

You must be doing something soooo important that it gives you the ability to look down on people like this. Aren't you fortunate.

Actually I wear my cattle-tag with pride!

But, onto the mall:

Either:

1) turn it into a pedestrian mall and make a northbound bus-only lane on hennepin ave to take up the slack

2) a trolley (not LRT) line down nicollet that could serve as a downtown circulator (possibly turning around via the convention centre and maybe going across the river to st. anthony/main? (after all, it IS in the downtown zone)). This would allow the buses to just pass by the mall and not slow every bus down in the incredibly-slow bus traffic on nicollet during rush hour, but also keep a frequent circulation service for the north-south downtown axis to either transfer between buses or take you to your final downtown destination if your bus doesn't stop close by it downtown

3) bus tunnel? I know seattle is turning theirs into an LRT tunnel now, but that way you still get the exclusive busway, only you can have a lovely pedestrian mall on top of it. Of course I sincerely doubt they'd ever want to pay for such a thing, even if it were only like half a mile of tunnel downtown with a few entrances/exits.

I spent a GLORIOUS night last Friday night on Nicollet Mall. The weather was perfect, and while Brit's gets its share of frat boy, it was a spectacular late afternoon on the rooftop. Then I went downstairs to see a little Alive After Five (with my bro's band...in full disclosure), then back to Brit's for a nightcap. Really. Truly. With good weather, Nicollet Mall was a memorable night. (I do miss the real Nicollet with the Times and Jitters...)

I love the way these twenty-somethings, three years removed from Bumfuck Iowa, or worse, Omaha, Nebraska are urban experts telling us how we should remodel our city to resemble the cities they saw on their ur-pee-an vacation that daddy bought for them with his hard-earned republican-farmer money.

I admit to loving Nicollet Mall. I work there, I enjoy walking around and seeing all the people there, I like Brits, I like The Local. Dakota has awesome food and great jazz. Rossi's is a gem, right off the mall. I like Crate and Barrel, I like the cool jewlery store on the second floor of the Gaviidae, I like the downtown Marshall Fields. The live music all summer is amazing.

I visited Denver recently, I liked the electric buses, but I found their downtown to be far more boring than ours. Massively abandoned retail, few crowds, tons of homeless people. So it ain't all that.

A bus circulator would be fantastic... but as I said earlier, federal transportation money paid for the mall, so I don't think it's possible to make it pedestrian-exclusive. Personally, I'd like to see most of the bus activity moved to Marquette, just a block off the mall.

I love the hot sewage odor that Nicollet Mall has to offer. It's especially nice when taking out-of-town visitors downtown. "Uhh..yeah, I know it stinks. Sorry."

Hey wayne, you fucking twit, you haven't been on this planet long enough to know what works and doesn't work you limp-wristed mama's boy. I've got more scars than frankenstein and more eagle feathers than you've got toes so YOU shut the fuck up and just be flattered that I even bothered to reply to your sophmoric scribblings. Now go play with your electric choo choos since you can't afford a car now nor anytime in the near future what with that receptionist's job you have downtown. lol

They don't call her the simpleton for nuthin.