Holle Brian said:
> Maybe a lot of the people in the Ace Hardware neighborhood
> haven't ever visited Linden Hills, and seen how nice it is.
> Maybe they accept the crummification of their neighborhood
> as inevitable, because it's the only system they know.
I live in the Nicollet Hardware neighborhood and I frequent Linden Hills often. I love the folks at Nicollet Hardware and I think the world of them for staying in the neighborhood and for fixing up their store. And I think more parking for the store would serve them -- and the neighborhood -- well.
Yes, Holle I'd love to have a Linden-Hills style commercial district in my backyard! But anyone can see that 38th & Nicollet is not 43rd & Upton. Nor will it ever be. The Ace intersection is two blocks from 35W (and its soon-to-come on- and off-ramps) and I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that it has few (if any) shops that your average suburbanite would ever set foot in.
I'm thankful for a great hardware store and and some authentic ethnic food a short walk from my house, but it's just plain cruel to compare a cluster of shops that includes a co-op, two bookstores, gift shops, Dunn Bros and Sebastian Joe's (etc., etc.) to a couple chicken joints and a Salvation Army!
I'll keep hoping for the day that the reopening of Nicollet at Lake (promise me it will really happen!) heralds the boom of a hundred more shops and restaurants that run from Eat Street to 46th Street, but in the meantime I support the folks at Nicollet Hardware to do whatever they think is best to keep their store the neighborhood anchor that it is.
Doug Bratland
Kingfield
