[Mpls] RE: Downtown Shopping

[Gregory Luce]

Hey, don't knock downtown yet, it's a great playground for toddlers, as I've said before. And it's even better during the holiday season, with Holidazzle ("hey, that teddy bear has lights all over it!  WHOA!") and with the Dayton's 8th floor show (by the way, a good friend told me about a mother-daughter luncheon at Dayton's skyroom during holiday seasons long ago, where Santa would end up climbing down from the Dayton's roof and entering the skyroom through a window--is this true?).   Holidazzle and the 8th floor show are now traditions for my son, as is eating at the Dayton's Marketplace, where all families with kids seem to congregate given the lack of choices of other real (i.e., affordable and family-friendly) places to eat downtown.  Now, apart from riding escalators, pointing out big skyscrapers, running down looooong skyways, playing with Hot Wheels on skyway handrails, and talking about ice skating at the new ice rink (Max, in Minnesota fashion, now has his first pair of skates, size toddler 9), I'm not sure what "downtown shopping" has to offer to families with kids. If I'm missing obvious things, please let me know.   One of the problems with downtown is that it hasn't figured out what it is, though I fear that the forces of making it the Urban Mall of America are well past any time to reverse them.  That is, in so fearing the forces of the Mall of America, downtown has tried to become the, well, Mall of America with skyways.  Thus, we continue to recruit and retain bland chains such as Hard Rock Cafe, Barnes & Noble, Gap, Williams Sonoma, and so forth, which dominate the retail end (which, admittedly, allow downtown workers to do their mall shopping during the day).  Given the choice of dealing with traffic and parking in coming downtown to shop at the national chains or going to a mall where those concerns are much less prominent, folks pick the Mall hands down each time.    For planners and others, I have this question:  what is the vision for downtown Minneapolis and who is part of that vision?   Here's my uneducated, wishful, and toddler-tested (thus, very concrete) vision:   1.  Woo the Red Balloon Bookshop, the Rumpus Room, or Creative Kidstuff, all obviously kid-oriented places,  to open a store downtown; 2.  Create an indoor playground that is free or very low cost (the water park associated with the Marriot Residence Inn is way too expensive).  How about an urban indoor park and playground, run by the Park Board? 3.  Somehow, somewhere, open back up an observation floor in one of the skyscrapers so we can see the city from up high without having to simply visit a friend who happens to work in a skyscraper; 4.  Talk to the Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater about subsidized and thus free shows in a downtown courtyard, or even along Nicollet Mall; 5.  Open up a train museum or transit museum in association with the commencement of Light Rail.  By the way, riding the trains back and forth from downtown to the Mall will be one fun thing to do with a toddler.   Gregory Luce St. Paul   Tom Leighton wrote:   So I'd be interested in seeing some thoughtful dialog about the ways in which market (free enterprise) forces have weakened downtown retail vs. the effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of planful steps taken to retain it.