A Love Letter to Downtown Minneapolis

There are many Minneapolitans who are currently bemoaning the state of downtown Minneapolis – empty office buildings, lack of quality retail, unsavory characters wandering Nicollet Mall, vacant skyways – many of my friends refuse to visit downtown today and seem proud of the fact.

But I’ve had a love affair with downtown that goes back to my early youth. And I’m not ashamed to tell you about it.

When I was five years old, my parents piled us into our 1940 Buick Special for the annual holiday trip to see the window decorations at Dayton’s and Donaldson’s. While there were other decorated windows at Christmas, the two big department stores competed to see who could produce the most colorful animated displays. And of course, there was the obligatory trip to visit Santa, and produce an audio recording that played backwards!

By the time I was ten, I took the number 8 bus downtown by myself to have lunch with my grandmother who worked in the cafeteria at Northwestern Bell. I either ate with her in the company cafeteria, or on good days, she took me to the Forum or the Nankin.

As a teenager, my friends and I took our dates to the movies on Hennepin Avenue, then to a Bridgeman’s for a banana split. Then, if we were lucky enough to have saved our paper route money, we would take them to the Café do Napoli.

My friend Harvey and I were Laker fans, and I caddied for Ben Berger at Oak Ridge country club. So we scalped tickets for games at the Armory.

Then I enrolled at De La Salle on Nicollet Island. This meant walking every day from 8^th to the Island, right through “skid row” on Washington. We were reading novels about life in the Bowery, and this made us feel like we were living in the “big city.” Of course, the presence of a couple of brothels on the Island gave the experience a feeling of authenticity.

In 1965, I enrolled in journalism school at the University. Tuition was $90 per term, and I paid my own way by working as the night watchman at the General Mills A Mill, just after it shut down. I also worked in the newsroom at the Star and Tribune as a copy boy, for several months as Sid Hartman’s assistant. I developed a case of “ink in my blood,” loved working in the newsroom, spent nights talking with Jim Klobuchar, Molly Ivins, and Ira Berkow.

Then I landed a job on the graveyard shift at Grain Belt Brewery, but we took our lunch breaks at the Normandy downtown, where the restaurant was open all night.

After a year in VISTA, I returned to Minneapolis and quickly went to work as the night auditor at the Dyckman Hotel. I got to meet all of the professional wrestlers who stayed there when coming into town for matches. I found a job at Donaldson’s in the display department, and then at Investors Diversified Services, delivering punch cards to the computer room. When I worked at Donaldson’s, I had a chance to meet Tippi Hedren, star of The Birds. We had her for a cosmetics promotion, and I set up her mike and podium.

I left Minneapolis for graduate school in 1979, and then worked as downtown director in. Kalamazoo, Detroit and Des Moines. In 2001, I became president of the International Downtown Association in Washington DC. Obviously, my love affair with downtowns continued. But I returned to Minneapolis frequently, visiting family, seeing shows (for example, Riverdance – our whole family attended.) We attended Twins games, Timberwolves games, Lynx games. And Gopher games, staying at a variety of downtown hotels.

I still feel a sense of ownership in downtown Minneapolis. This is my town, and my downtown. I love walking the streets, seeing events, attending meetings. My wife, who is from Pittsburgh, has told me she is willing to move to Minneapolis if I get an apartment or condo on the skyway system. We’ve looked, seriously. Before my friend Ray Harris died, we looked at his building. I love Minneapolis, and I love downtown. Dear readers, find reasons to love downtown once again. It really is a great place.