Quite frankly folks "Eat Street" is a marketing campaign. This campaign was designed to market Nicollet Avenue as a unique commercial corridor in Minneapolis and set us apart from the Uptowns etc. as a different kind of destination location. It worked!
The neighborhoods decided to build on what was already happening on Nicollet. Immigrant business owners came to Nicollet in the late 80's and early 90's because Nicollet was affordable. The neighborhood viewed this as an asset as opposed to a detriment and grabbed our unique identity in the marketplace. I believe that the marketing campaign has gone a long way to increase the presence of new immigrant businesses that have opened Nicollet during the late 90's and early 00's. David is right. Most of these business owners don't even live in the city let alone in the neighborhood, and quite frankly, neither do many of their patrons. It's not like the early 1900's when the business owners and their families lived upstairs above their business. Most of the businesses are family owned operations with several family members working in the business. Many of them also have significant ties to the neighborhood and I for one consider them equal partners to the hard work we have all done to make Minneapolis a better place to live. "Eat Street" has a unique and important regional appeal. Many cities have a China Town or have ethnic section of town, etc. Minneapolis is the only city where so many different nationalities are clustered on one commercial corridor. But, don't confuse that with the ethnic make-up of the surrounding neighborhood. I will say that I think Whittier and Phillips are about as diverse as you get in any big metropolitan area even though we may not mirror "Eat Street". I have lived in San Francisco, Toronto, Denver and New Delhi India. I don't think any of these cities have the kind of ethnic diversity that Whittier and Phillips have. This obviously wasn't an intentional plan. I think it has way more to do with the "donut theory" Dave Harstad refers to. Whittier and Phillips have always acted as the "Ellis Island" of Minnesota. When new immigrant populations come to Minnesota, often times their first apartment is in Whittier or Phillips. Unfortunately, it seems like once they build up their family income, they move out of the neighborhood. The one difference I am seeing now is with the emergence of the Mexican Latino population. Many Mexican Latino families are buying homes in Phillips rather than moving out of the neighborhood. That's a good thing. Barb Lickness Whittier ===== "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - live college hoops coverage http://sports.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________ 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
