Whittier is another neighborhood on the SW side. For a Columbus comparison it's like the east 1/3rd of Downtown (art institutions, art student housing in older 3 story buildings) and Olde Towne East combined, except with a totally revitalized Main St instead of a mostly empty one.

 

Nicollet Ave

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are quite a common feature here, though I wonder how effective they are in reducing right hook turns that kill and/or injure cyclists and pedestrians. I noticed that, of course, some motorists ignore the sign, but some don't.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now this is unforgiveable: instead of connecting to Lake St, another similarly vibrant corridor you have a big roadblock, which dead ends in the back of a suburban style K-Mart complete with a huge-ass parking lot. According to Wikipedia, K-Mart would only build on the condition that it cut off the street and that dealt a blow to an already emptying corridor in the late 70s.

 

 

 

Off Nicollet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some cute little homes I had to include.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stevens Square

 

This is basically an extension of Whittier and is a collection of a bunch of those three story apartments surrounding a park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice tour.

Nice-looking area with lots of vitality and diversity. The business name, "Harry Singh's Caribbean Restaurant" is an interesting contrast. I believe Singh is an Indian Sikh name."

 

Minneapolis has a deserved reputation as a bicycling city where I'd expect awareness and proper cycling habits to be widespread, yet in at least two photos I saw cyclicsts riding on the left, against traffic. Are the rules different there?

Nope: I've seen a seen a decent amount improper cycling so far, but there seems to a good number of savvy cyclists too.

Love the differsity in this city.  Minneapolis really impresses me.  I hope you made it to the Uptown neighborhood!

You bet I did: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,26252

 

Still haven't been to the U of M area, SE side (Cedar-Riverside, Seward, etc, where the light rail travels), or due south to Phillips and Powderhorn among others. Whittier and parts of the NE side definitely have more of an international feel with the mix of immigrants that reside in these neighborhoods. Still not quite sure how the city ended up being so popular with Somalis and Hmong (mostly Vietnamese) population. Glad to know when I want durian flavored "desserts" I can still get my fix here too. From what I heard, some residents think of Whittier as being pretty iffy, but while there are a few dodgy characters I tell them they've got nothing on C-bus. Gotta represent. Oh, and one or two of those mansions are testaments to the Pillsbury dynasty.

Wow Minneapolis is more Urban then i thought... :-D

glad you hit up nicollet aka eat street - very nice tour.

 

to answer yr question about the eclectic immigrants of the twin cities, they all came via uncle sam. minn-stpl and houston were chosen after the vietnam war to host the viets and hmong. i read houston was chosen as the nearby bayou fishing was roughly similar to what they were used to, no idea why the twin cities were the other choice other than its a sound city that agreed to host them. ditto later for the somalis who as you know came at the same time as they did to columbus. a tribute to these refugee host cities to not only accept these people but also that they stuck around!

 

rob - re the indian carribean resto - there are many people from india down there particularly in trinidad & tobago. i bet they have roti at singhs!

Minneapolis seems to have really benefitted from Asian and Hispanic immigration.  Where you have largely empty business districts in some older Ohio neighborhoods, cities that are able to attract immigrants keep these spaces at least occupied the area vibrant.  I'm impressed with the 4 story apartment buildings, and of course those mansions.

They sure have. I wondered myself what would be left on these immigrant-centric business districts if you removed their presence and yes, they would instead be empty urban business districts save for the shady corner markets and check cashing wastes of space. I know that in Columbus the city didn't bother to attract immigrangts to the inner city, hence why a plethora of immigrant run business districts are out in stripmalls on the edge of the city instead. They would have also paved the way for long-established citizens to open businesses in these areas after immigrants stabilized these areas.

Thanks for posting these!

 

I had an apt here back in '98-'99. It looks like the neighborhood is still going strong!

 

That being said, Stevens Square could be a little rough at night back then, but most of the issues were further up 19th. I loved being so close to downtown and all the surrounding parks. The only real issue I had with living in Mpls was that everything downtown, with the exception of the clubs and a few dining establishments, shut down before 7pm. If I remember correctly, I think I was paying $350.00 a month for my one bedroom, third story apartment. The view of downtown at night was spectacular and was worth triple the amount that I was paying! Another fond memory that I have of living there is of two squirrels that used to climb the brick facade up to my window for peanuts. The Mpls Institute of Art was (as I'm sure it still is) a gem in the area. I spent countless hours there and across the street relaxing in the park.

The neighborhood still has some dodgy characters, but not to an extent that it's detrimental to personal safety and I'm guessing that's because with the number of law-abiding citizens around it means they're on their best behavior...well, not best, but better. I can easily say that during my week+ here that there is plenty going on outside of Downtown and it's preferable to go there instead: I've only passed through Downtown and only stopped in at one coffeeshop so far, since it seems to mainly cater to yuppies and businessmen.