mplsmirror.com

I have spent the last several days walking the streets of downtown Minneapolis.  Most of this vision quest has been on Nicollet Mall and the area surrounding it, or the more vibrant parts of our downtown. 

Why would I spend time walking these streets?  What sort of vision quest was I on?  I guess I need to start at the beginning of my journey.  At the last full City Council meeting, Lisa Goodman introduced ordinance changes that would eliminate outdoor advertising on our sidewalks in the name of a prohibition of pole signs and sandwich signs. 

These are the signs that tell those of us who go on a regular quest for lunch, feeding our primal nature as hunters and gatherers, where new restaurants are open and what today’s special might be.  Almost every establishment at street level uses this very effective form of advertising, so why should the City Council make it go away?

Council Member Goodman made the argument that these signs impede pedestrian traffic and make navigating downtown a near impossibility for our sight-impaired and wheelchair-bound neighbors.  On my vision quest, I saw many of these offending signs, but they were out by the parking meters and in between tree and green space boxes where no disabled person could actually walk easily.

So, I thought, the next logical step to eliminating these obstructions would be to chop down all of the trees getting in the way of pedestrian traffic.  The sidewalk cafes my wife and I so love to dine at must go as well.  Where will we park our bicycles when we are no longer allowed to chain then up outside of our favorite establishments? 

Let’s face facts, this ordinance change will put the small business person into bankruptcy while the McDonalds and Burger Kings will thrive and the quaint nature of our downtown will turn into a big box emporium.  Advertising in all its forms is expensive, but this type of advertising was an equalizer for the corner restaurant.  

I can’t count the number of new venues I have discovered in our city through these signs that will be illegal come Friday’s City Council meeting.  I agree that access to our city must be universal to our entire citizen population regardless of their disabilities, but this draconian measure is too extreme.  These signs must be placed in such a way so as to not impede passersby, but we still need to allow our merchants to display their wares.

The next consideration that must be made is that if this is such a huge problem for our disabled communities, should we eliminate the farmers market that lines the sidewalk on Nicollet Mall every Thursday?   We are advancing without consideration for the ambience that makes downtown Minneapolis worth living in or visiting. 

At the rate we are going, our neighbors will sooner go to Mall Of America to window shop and dine than come downtown.  After all, the Mega Mall has free parking and an LRT station.  All the people of Bloomington would have to do is build enough adjacent office space and our downtown may be lost. 

Many Metropolitan areas have downtowns that are dead and dying.  When I last visited St. Louis, all of the best restaurants, and most of the jobs, were in the collar suburbs; their downtown was mostly vacant.  Is this what we want for our future?

The loss of small business all over town, on top of our downtown neighborhood experience, will lead to the exodus of consumers.  The overzealousness of our current city council to impose excessive regulation already has many small businesses voting with their feet. 

One friend of mine informed me that in the last year he has had need to repair a garage door and to replace broken window glass.  He called every listing in the phone book for both of those services, and was surprised to find that not one of the businesses offering service in Minneapolis was located in Minneapolis.  Each business was either suburban or in St. Paul.  Apparently, the small businesses have already been jumping ship.

When will we stem the tide and reverse the reduction of small business leaving our neighborhood for other locales so that our city may once again produce jobs?  In my own mind, I like to relate our economic environment to my own garden.  If I prune back my plants too much, they die.  That is what our current city council and mayor are doing… killing our city!

Mayor Rybak said in his state of the city address that when a Minneapolis citizen gets a job created in Edina, we all win.  As a resident of Minneapolis, my statement is, when a job moves from Minneapolis to Edina, we lose.  We lose property tax base, commercial land value, and taxing capacity.  We further shift the burden of city services onto our house owners.   As commercial land use moves away, all the parcels left to foot the bill will be the ones belonging to our already over-taxed homeowner.