Please forgive a new subscriber's naivete, but I was hoping a veteran or two of this list -- or perhaps the list moderator himself -- might clarify how such quasi advertisements as cited below work into the fabric of this list: In this case, the meditations of a Minneapolis man on the "cultural" capital of the latest addition to Target Corporation's 63 Minnesota-based Target retail stores, the downtown Minneapolis Target.
This particular store -- arguably the flagship for the corporation -- is celebrated below and in a previous post by the same author as a focal point for family activity and cultural celebration. I find it unnerving how the author, albeit uncritically and probably unwittingly, exposes the symbiotic relationship between consumerism and car culture, where one destructive habit supports the other. (Driving two miles only to fill one's cart with admittedly unnecessary items only to save money on the parking fee made necessary by consumers' mode of transportation of choice.) But more importantly: Making public the experience of deriving pleasure and entertainment from shopping by broadcasting one's own privilege to a list of hundreds, many of whom surely end each month deciding whether to buy groceries or pay rent, is in extremely poor taste. Moreover, it is devoid intellectually, and is -- let's face it -- consumerist and classist by nature. This is a Minneapolis issue indeed: Forgetting the potential of the state of things in our city, ignoring (or perhaps being completely oblivious of) the experiences of those less financially privileged, all the while feeding the claws of detached, destructive corporate markets as the local businesses run by our neighbors crumble... and then claiming its fun for the whole family! Have residents of Minneapolis already come to uncritically support a corporation which has, quite blatantly and without apology, thrived off of the unwilling support of tax payers, while robbing the downtown district of the "culture" per se which existed prior to when we were told that we couldn't get along without it? Is this really the company that gives back to the community, or is it the company that feeds off of it while running a PR campaign so flawless that we can feel pride and wonder in a monster corporation only intending to expand its profit margins and marketability? What's going on when the physical and ideological landscape of downtown is being replaced by monocultural subsidized suburban trash paid for by the urbanites who take pride in what our city otherwise would, and should, and most importantly -could-, have to offer? How can we stand by and watch as the culturally diverse landscape that once was downtown Minneapolis is systematically removed and replaced by the culturally sterile corporate marketplace reveled by the author below? Even more important than how can we stand by and watch: how can we drive in and participate? Hoping to receive no more updates on the status of a store which is going no where (infer meaning at will), Brett Stephan Ward 10 > From: Chris Steller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: [Mpls] Painting the Town (in concentric circles of) Red > > Downtown Target Report, Month 2: > > Still not many shoppers in the evening. Lots of staff. Unattended carts > whisked away faster than at the airport. A few kids this time. One mom, > trying to do the groovy shopping cart escalator thing, just put the cart, > kid and all, on the regular escalator (everyone arrived o.k.). > > Pick up a store map to save on escalator/elevator rides . > > We closed it down again at 8 p.m. Overstayed our one hour of free parking > welcome looking for enough stuff to buy to get the free parking. > > It really hits you on the second visit: it's just a Target. > > But the downtown location still puts it up a notch over other Targets as a > family cultural event. > > Chris Steller > Nicollet Island-East Bank _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
