We were told that the future lay in density, urban environments served by mass transit and with pedestrian/bike friendly landscapes. They were wrong.
From the Minnesota Star Tribune,
St. Louis Park’s West End bucks the trend with one of area’s lowest vacancy rates.
For those not familiar, St. Louis Park is actually located in Minnesota, sitting immediately to the west of the Minneapolis city limits. It’s where the movie director Coen brothers (Fargo) come from.
The West End development is easily accessible from two major freeways and features plenty the free parking. Other than bus service, there is no mass transit available.
A large movie theater, restaurants, shops, office buildings, apartments, and hotels fill the complex. Crime in the area is much lower than the adjacent big city.
The Star Tribune seems almost surprised at this turn of events,
Although the West End lost some shops, restaurants and office tenants during the pandemic, it quickly refilled those spaces — a sharp contrast to downtown Minneapolis, where vacant commercial space has been far harder to backfill. The district’s top-tier offices now post the metro’s highest occupancy rates, reflecting how tenants have gravitated toward newer, amenity-rich spaces.
Neither crime nor taxes are mentioned at all in the article.
No, since at least the 1980’s, the future exists in Edge Cities. An Edge City is exactly how I’ve described the West End. The classic example of the type is Tyson’s Corner, outside of Washington, DC.
Urban hellscapes like Minneapolis can no longer support retail and office space, due to high taxes and high crime. Residential uses will be the next to go.
Case in point was the carjacking this week of sitting Minneapolis city council member Jamal Osman, just re-elected last week to another term.
In the Twin Cities, we are creating an urban donut, with commercial and civic life carefully avoiding the hole in the middle.
This past spring, I spent some time in the Battery district, outside of Atlanta, where the Braves baseball stadium is located.
