Tag: Central Minneapolis

Downtown Minneapolis

It is a bit difficult to untangle Dwtn Minneapolis from its surrounding inner city districts. My approach was to include the core of Dwtn and the parts of the surrounding inner city district that feel Dwtn in fabric. I used 3rd avenue/I-394  as the northern border including a couple blocks of the Warehouse District, the eastern edge of Loring Parks as the Western border, Grant St and I-94 as the southern, Fifth Avenue as the SE border as Elliot Park was not included in this evaluation, and the Mississippi River as the Eastern border including both the Gateway and Dwtn East neighborhoods within the Dwtn evaluation area.

Downtown Minneapolis is very much a Midwestern Downtown with its large surface area, vertical modern high-rises accompanied by large plazas and extensive nearby parking garages & lots, wide streets, an extensive highway network inclosing it, and overall a grand and regal feel to it. And outside of Chicago, Dwtn Minneapolis has a strong argument for being the best Dwtn in the Midwest thanks to its large Dwtn population accompanied by big city amenities (supermarkets, a target, several malls,  and extensive theaters and live music venues). Dwtn also excels with great sidewalk and ADA infrastructure, an excellent bike and transit network that extends across the entire City of Minneapolis and beyond, great concentration of 3 professional sports venues a top notch convention center, and over 100K employees working here (at least pre-pandemic).

But there are several aspects of Dwtn Minneapolis that are not top-notch that leave the door open for Midwestern cities like Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Milwaukee to claim Midwestern’s second best dwtn title. Dwtn Minneapolis has good but not great park amenities. The Commons is not a strong Civic Heart and outside of the Riverfront and Loring Park, park spaces are limited. Street vibrancy is not what it should be for a Dwtn hosting 20K people. This is largely due to a lack of street boutique retail as retail is concentrated in indoor malls and the City’s extensive skyway system. But it is also due to Dwtn’s wide streets and remaining surface parking lots and extensive parking garage network. Dwtn could also use more K-12 schools making it more walkable to families and should try to increase the number of students Dwtn to add to street vibrancy. Other than post-pandemic retail and office struggles, the trajectory is good for Central Minneapolis. I foresee its population continuing to grow, new mixed-use infill claiming more and more surface parking lots, better car free modes of transportation. But the open question is whether Central Minneapolis will become a great Dwtn more similar to Chicago? Will it perhaps close down the inner belt that separates it from many great inner city neighborhoods? We shall see.

Click here to view my Downtown Minneapolis album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Great density for an Dwtn district and pre=pandemic had over 100K working dwtn.
* Excellent sidewalk and ADA curb cut infrastructure. Only about 10% of intersections are without upgrade ADA curb cuts.
* Almost all of Minneapolis proper has solid public transit access. The City has also recently built 3 light rail lines and many Bus Rapid Transit routes. Public transit service however out to the suburbs is generally only good for 2-4 miles.
* Minneapolis has an extensive bike lane system serving well every neighborhood within the City and including tons of bike lanes even dwtn. The bike share system, while dockless, forces uses to park bikes on City bike racks. Decent bike connections to the suburbs but they are often fragmented esp. to the north and west of the City where there are more lakes.
* Excellent Dwtn Grid. Easy to navigate.
* Good amount of for-sale product with 1-bed condos selling btwn 150K-600K (some luxury product selling for 2 M), plenty of 2-bed condos selling btwn 200K-800K, and a good amount of 3-bed product generally starting in price at 450K but some cheaper product selling around 200K.
* Tons of rental product with plenty of studios leasing btwn $750K-2K, 1-beds btwn $950-2.5K, 2-beds ranging anywhere from 1.3K-4K. Decent # of 3-beds but generally pretty expensive.
* Very attractive skyline with many vertical towers well concentrated in the core of Dwtn.
* Good but not world-class parks in Dwtn Minneapolis. The highlight is certainly the extensive riverfront parks along the Mississippi River which includes the raised Gold Metal Park, Mill Ruins, and the extensive recreation trail. Loring Park on the western edge of Dwtn is also a highlight including the Loring Greenway that cuts into Dwtn. The Commons Park functions as “Civic Heart” of Dwtn. While it has planned activities is pretty bland and not well trafficked. A couple other smaller plazas spread through Dwtn.
* Solid cultural amenities including plenty of restaurants, bars, & cafes, a handful of art galleries & breweries, plenty of theaters & music venues especially concentrated along Hennepin Ave, tons of night clubs, and a couple of museums. Regional amenities include a large convention center, professional baseball, basketball, & football arena.
* Decent college enrollment of about 7K between Minneapolis College, Minneapolis Community & Technical College, Dwtn St. Thomas University, and North Central University but a bit underwhelming for a City of Minneapolis’ size.
* Solid architecture with a good amount of quality historic buildings, attractive midcentury high-rises, and solid modern apartment bldgs.
* Good retail amenities including 4 major grocery stores, a Target, several drug stores, several indoor malls & all the shopping inside the skybridge system, the Dayton Project Dept Store, plenty of salons, a couple bookstores, several dessert joints & gyms, plenty of churches, a major hospital, a Dwtn post office & public market.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

  • Diversity indicators Dwtn are so so.
  • Too many wide streets including 3-4 lane one way pairs. Too easy to drive into Dwtn.
  • Schools dwtn are generally small or not rated highly. Best school is the FAIR Senior High.
  • Certainly some dead spots dwtn but several pretty active areas (i.e. Nicolette Mall, Downtown East, Convention Center)
  • Vibrancy is ok and could be so much better if it wasn’t for Downtown’s extensive skybridge system, many autocentric uses, parking garages, and parking lots.
  • Much of the retail is concentrated in the many Dwtn malls and skyway system. Limited amount of street retail that lends itself well to more local boutiques. The pandemic has also not been kind to Dwtn’s retail activity. Some of these smaller shops are located in the Warehouse District which sits on the north edge of Dwtn. “

Elliot Park- Minneapolis’ Original Milloinare’s Row and now Quality Urban District

Elliot Park is one of Minneapolis’s oldest neighborhoods and was plotted starting in 1856. The neighborhood is named after Mr. Joseph Elliot, an area physician, who donated his farm land to the city in 1893 which turned into present day Elliot Park. Sitting just outside of the City’s main commercial district (Hennepin Ave) and the mills along the Mississippi River, Elliot Park became a destination for Minneapolis’ wealthiest residents in the late 19th century. Several large mansions sprang up along Park Avenue.  But this was short lived.. As the city grew and encompassed the neighborhood, most of the wealthy citizens left for nearby Lowry Hill and Kenwood districts and Elliot Park densified and built more and more 3 & 4 story apartment buildings. The area began to decline in the mid-20th century  as white flight and highways decimated the district. Elliot Park’s population decline and lower income families became concentrated in Elliot Park.

Thankfully this was not to last and by the turn of the 20th century Elliot Park began to gentrify and its population grew taking advantage of the general raise in popularity of Central Minneapolis. Elliot Park does a nice job of mixing historic structures and homes from the late 19th century with quality urban in-fill largely constructed since 2000.  Elliot Park is generally a very walkable neighborhood with great access to many of Central Minneapolis’ amenities. It also has good park amenities, diversity housing options, and pretty good food & beverage amenities. For Elliot Park to be a top tier urban district it needs much more retail amenities. There is no supermarket and limited local retail in the district. This can be fueled by increased urban-infill filling in the decent number of surface parking lots remaining and intentional mixed-use development.

Click here to view my Elliot Park Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Excellent density.
* Great sidewalk and ADA infrastructure throughout.
* Great proximity to Dwtn as it is literally within a 5 minute walk of the neighborhood.
* Good racially and economic diversity.
* Not a ton of parks but three quality parks in Elliot Park including Elliot Park (includes a wading pool & recreation center), Franklin Steele Park, and the Commons.
* Decent tree canopy, especially the more residential/historic sections on the southern edge of Elliot Park.
* Nice mix of historic and modern urban in-fill. Some ugly infill as well but generally pretty urban.
* Lots of rental options including a good array of price points. Plenty of studios leasing anywhere btwn $500-1.5K, 1-beds btwn $900-2K, 2-beds btwn 1K-3K. Only a handful of 3-beds. Decent number of affordable housing as well.
* Some condo options with 1-beds selling in the 100Ks & 200ks. 2-bed are a mix of condos and townhouses selling btwn 200K-600K.  Good amount of 3-beds selling btwn 300K-800K. A handful of 4-beds.
* Decent cultural amenities especially with its proximity to Dwtn Minneapolis. Good # of food & beverage bizs, a handful of art galleries, a couple live music venues, and US Bank Stadium. North Central University is here and hosts decent # of cultural activities.
* Urban massing and streetscaping is generally pretty good.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

  • A mix of poorly rated public schools and small private schools in Dwtn Minneapolis and nearby.
  • Some safety concerns but Elliot Park seems a lot safer than it was 15 years ago.
  • Ok retail amenities within Elliot Park itself including a drug store, a couple banks, a major hospital and lots of medical offices, a couple clothing stores & salons, a handful of dessert joints and gyms, and plenty of churches. Decent access to retail amenities in surrounding Downtown Districts.
  • Some surface parking lots but not terrible. “