Down by the Riverside

Having just completed the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood last Friday in my quest to walk every street in Minneapolis, this story stood out for me.  (Hat tip: a David Strom Tweet)  In this tough economy, somebody came up with one of the dumbest proposals I've ever seen: spend over $100 million to rehab Riverside Plaza.  This complex of six apartment buildings includes several of the ugliest buildings in Minnesota, which I believe was a contributing factor to its failure.

I remember the cat-calling when it was built in 1973.  Nobody liked it hence its descent into "affordable housing" status even after Mary Richards moved there after her early years in Kenwood.  And no amount of money is going to make it a true landmark now.  There is one and only one obvious answer to this blight: demolition.  Quick, cheap, overdue, and final.  Once this obstacle to growth is removed, this otherwise historic and I think attractive area can finally blossom.  It's close to the U not to mention Augsburg College, and like its name implies, is along the Mississippi with good access every direction.  Hey, maybe the new Vikings Stadium should take its place.  There's already a Light Rail station there!

But no, let's drive a wooden stake in the heart of Cedar-Riverside once again, our own Arkham Asylum to signal and put off progress another few decades.

Comments

[anonymous]

I'm relatively neutral about the buildings themselves. But what would you propose for the 4500 people who call them home? I don't know that there's a glut of affordable housing in the area.

--Annie

[Tim]

Careful now. That complex you call "the ugliest buildings in Minnesota" won design awards when it was built in 1973 and has continued to win awards - most recently from the AIA (American Institute of Architects) in 2004.

http://www.aia-mn.org/_assets/pdf/pr/25Yr_2004_PR.pdf

Of course, none of that means YOU have to like it.

[Tired]

Sorry, but I went to Augsburg and all those buildings do is promote crime and ugliness. Demolish them and then demolish the rest of the neighborhood. There is very little good coming from that neighborhood

[Speed Gibson]

Read the comments on the Strib article, near unanimous that buildings are ugly. Friends and relatives visiting always ask WTF?

[Slatrial]

The Strib article said that the complex was 62% rent subsidized. Ive read elsewhere that the complex is now more than 75% Somali. A drive around the complex seems to confirm this.

I have some dealings with Somalis. Most consider the complex undesirable relative to other Somali neighborhoods. Those who killed the people at the Steward Somali store last December lived in the complex. Most of the recruiting to go back to Somalia to fight happened in the complex and at the Mosque next to Palmers bar (which has since cleaned up it's act.) I believe the first US suicide bomber was from Cedar Riverside Complex. He went back to Somalia to blow himself up.

Maybe it will occur to the radicalized Somalis that a light rail station is right in the neighborhood. If they want to make a big "splash" do it just before a high profile sports event related to the light rail.

I hope it doesn't happen but the London "tube" has been bombed and the attempts against the New York subway system were deemed very credible. Those two are essential to their cities but the Light Rail is a convenient "toy". People can get around and avoid the LRT if they want.

I actually developed this theory after watching the DVD "Death Race". They chose Montreal, Quebec for filming because of the large number of abandoned factories and buildings. After Montreal was awarded the Olympics in the early 1980's the French separatists started bombing and kidnapping. Corporations left in droves and factories like the locomotive factory used in the movie closed.

The same could happen here. For a corporation the main appeal of the Twin Cities is legacy. If corporations leave the charity and foundations will follow.

Again, most Somalis who don't live in the complex think of it as a "bad neighborhood" and worry about being painted with the same brush. They are almost excessively polite. At the Franklin Avenue Aldi's around a third of the Somalis don't understand the concept of giving someone the cart and they give you the quarter. They will give the cart but not take the quarter. I try to explain the concept to them. Sometimes they get it.

Anyway, tear down the complex. It is primo real-estate squandered.

Cross posted at http://LRTrider.com

[Margaret]

I am less worried about Somali terrorism than the anomie promoted by the structure and organization of those buildings. You have a refugee group with a radically different culture living there, young kids growing up who already have a difficult time assimilating and aren't part of the old culture and then you put them in that anti-social environment. Is it any wonder that they turn into criminals? There have been studies about how buildings can turn even normal people into agressive amoralists, simply by making them feel less connected and more threatened by eachother. Suprise, most of these buildings were built in the 60s and 70s, the height of ugly, dehumanized architecture.

[anonymous]

I find it equally amusing and exasperating that we think the idea of immigrant cultures living with their "different culture" when they first arrive in a new country.

Hmong/Somali/Mexican of today = German/Italian/Irish of 150 years ago

Clearly, none of us are old enough to remember church services conducted in the Old Tongue, foreign language newspapers, entire communities where merchants did their business in the language of their native country.

The first generation (with very few exceptions) is the old dog-new trick bunch. The children born here will have a foot in either culture. The third generation will be All American.

Same as it ever was.

Margaret raises a good point about healthy buildings nurturing healthy communities.

--Annie