(00:00:00) With news from Minnesota Public Radio, this is Karen Louise Booth. Good afternoon. The governor wants State lawmakers to finish their work in time for the adjournment of the session May 17th. But with the deadline approaching major differences remain over such key issues as the budget tax relief and profiles of learning graduation requirements Senex Harvest States and farmland Industries have announced merger plans combined the two giant Midwestern Farmers coops would have annual sales of nearly 20-billion dollars Minnesota public radio's Mark zdechlik reports (00:00:35) Twin Cities based sin x Harvest States and farmland industries of Kansas City have pooled resources before in several areas in March the to coops announced plans to combine their grain businesses Sanic service state spokeswoman, Lonnie. Jordan says the decision to pursue an all-out merger reflects a belief that combined the two coops will be able to operate more efficiently ultimately saving their Numbers money the board and Leadership of this organization feels that if we can put Senex Harvest States and farmland together, we'll really have a better opportunity to help our member owners gain value all the way from the farm to the consumer Marketplace cynics Harvest States and farmland. Hope to close the merger in about a year. This is Mark. Zdechlik, Minnesota Public Radio (00:01:21) more volunteers from the Minnesota Air National Guard are headed for Europe 35 troops will fly humanitarian and other support missions in the war in Kosovo in Yugoslavia in whether we're going to well it's going to be occasional rain and drizzle throughout the day to day but partial clearing tomorrow and dry on Sunday not a bad weekend ahead currently in the Twin Cities metro region. We have some light spotty rain and 49 degrees and that's news from the MPR news room. This is Karen Louise Booth. (00:01:51) It is six minutes past 12:00 o'clock. We'd like to thank the law firm of schwate Abel gets and sieben for helping make today's live broadcast from the IDS Crystal. possible and good afternoon. Welcome back to midday here on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Gary eichten. And today indeed. We are out and about we've deserted our studios in downtown st. Paul and here we are at the Crystal Court the IDS Center in downtown Minneapolis. We're focusing today on the City of Minneapolis. We talked with the mayor last hour this are we've been joined by a who's who panel of guests to talk about development here in Downtown Minneapolis where the downtown is now and what's on the drawing boards those of you here at the Crystal Court. If you have a question for our panel just wave your hand and Danielson are Oprah for the day. We'll get to you with a microphone. So you can ask your questions. If you're listening on the radio, give us a call six five. One two, two seven six thousand 6512276 thousand outside the Twin Cities one eight hundred two, four two two eight two eight and those of you who aren't up on the hot spots downtown. If you'd like some tips, you might want to get a pen and paper ready later this hour, we'll have some tips on where to meet Eat & Greet when you come to downtown Minneapolis right now, though. We've been joined by a true Minneapolis booster one who likes the city so much. He hasn't been shy about doing a little poking and prodding over the years Star Tribune columnist. Barbara Flanagan has joined us to put this 1999 version of downtown Minneapolis in some perspective little history. Hi Barbara Hi, how are you Gary? Well, I'm fine. Thank you so much for joining us. This used to be downtown Minneapolis. Specifically Hennepin Avenue used to be the real magnet for the entire Upper Midwest. Can you talk about that a little bit? I mean people came from everywhere. Did they (00:03:52) know? I came to a little bit later. I mean actually it was a magnet long before I got here, but I got here in the late 40s from Des Moines, Iowa great sound of a great town. And yes, there were lots of movie theaters still going at that point and you It was only up until about I would say 15 years ago that everything seemed to just go totally to pot. I mean, you know, it was Ted. Mann was still here running some of his own theaters and and Minnesota Amusement was the big company behind him. And you know, everything was was working nicely, even though Vaudeville had disappeared and all that but I do think that it's making a comeback. I think that Hennepin really is quite getting to be quite (00:04:36) exciting a lot of like, I mean, it's Lively up here, (00:04:40) it's Lively on Hennepin and I think that the only blot on that spot is blocky and you know, I was talking beforehand, but we wonder because it it seems to me it's taking forever to find someone who's going to do something creative with lucky. I don't settle for just those movie theaters, but we'll (00:05:04) see. Well, what kind of Grill the panel here in (00:05:07) yes, and I want to Or that I want to hear that. (00:05:10) What about Nicollet Nicholas Avenue is always been the retail Street in town (00:05:15) has and I think it is still the retail Street. I think having having Target. Come down is a great Boon because we have lost a lot of our all of our medium income stores. We lost Donaldson's and pennies and Powers they were all there and now there's just Dayton's which of course is the mother of us all have covers everything but I do think target is going to be a real edition. (00:05:43) How did we end up with the Nicollet Mall as opposed to just Nicollet Avenue. (00:05:49) The Nicollet Mall came about through the well the work of the downtown Council of Minneapolis, which you'll be hearing from shortly and the city got together and they sort of came up with the idea of doing a mall which sort of taking over in a lot of different cities and they ask the retailer. Zero what they wanted more people still write to me. I write once a month now because I'm semi-retired but they still say why are those buses on them all of the muscles around the mall? Because the Retailer's one of the buses on them all the idea picking people up as they came out of the stores. So the buses are there. I think that the mall has been basically successful. I'm not thrilled with the redo of it that happened about three years ago now or four years ago, but it seems to be hanging in there and I think the addition of the Southern restaurants and so on certainly it has been an addition and I think we've got to do something at the North End of the mall because that is fading a bit. (00:06:51) What is it about a downtown in a big city that distinguishes it from all the other places that people could go Suburban strip 494 used to be real hot. For example, what does the downtown have that well in other (00:07:05) areas one thing it has sidewalks. I happen to be a believer in sidewalks and so they can walk. I mean they can park their car and walk now some people say Where am I gonna Park? Well, that's another story but there's a lot of parking now, there will be more I do believe but I don't know. I think there's just that feeling of you're coming downtown to the big city and going years ago going way back downtown was always the center of things and I think in Minneapolis, it has remained the center. I'm kind of amazed that we have done it but we have and it has remained that for at least 35 years since I've been writing, you know on that (00:07:42) subject just in the brief time. We've been talking you've already laid out big projects North North End of the Nicollet Mall block e the said if you could wave a wand. Oh one thing that needs to happen immediately to to spice up downtown. What would it be two things two things? (00:07:59) Okay. Well as Light Rail Transit everywhere, but quicker and easier would be a unbelievably Citing creative and crowd-pleasing (00:08:10) blocky. Thanks so much Barbara. Appreciate you (00:08:15) joining us. Thank you Gary. It's really great. Fun (00:08:17) Star Tribune. Columnist Barbara Flanagan joining us with just a little history of downtown Minneapolis. We're broadcasting live from the Crystal Court here at the IDS Center in downtown Minneapolis noon hour and the pedestrian traffic picking up. This is in many respects the center of the city kind of a city park if you will in Minneapolis, and we're talking about the city during this hour joining us now are three people actively involved in deciding how Downtown Minneapolis looks today and will look in the future Jackie Cherry homes president of the Minneapolis city council is with us Sam grabarsky is here. He's the president and CEO of the Minneapolis downtown Council and Gregor tell has come by as well start L is the president and CEO of the Minneapolis Convention and visitors Association. And again, we invite those of you here at the Crystal. To join our conversation. If you've got a question or comment about Downtown Minneapolis wave your hand and Olson will come by our Oprah. There. He is. He will come by so you can get your question on the air. If you're listening on the radio, give us a call six five. One two, two seven six thousand outside the Twin Cities one eight hundred two four two two eight two eight folks. Thanks for coming by today. We really appreciate you joining us glad to be here. Thanks for inviting us. Well council member Cherry Holmes. I know you're you can't stay too long. So let me start with you while we've got you here and let's put the question to you that Barbara raised. What about blocky? When are we going to see something over there? And what might we see? (00:09:53) Well, I think for sure we're going to see movie theaters there and based on the development plans that I've seen from the developer in the last week. I think we're going to see what Barbara would like a crowd-pleasing entertaining one-of-a-kind development there. It's clearly going to be much more than movie theaters. I'm not at Liberty to talk about some of the details of that right now, but I think over the course of the next 60 to 90 days. The public is going to start to see more of the details and start to see the real concept for what will go into blocky and I think it will be one of a kind Minneapolis has clearly a competitive downtown area and this will rival anything in any downtown in the country. (00:10:32) Can you give us some idea of when the project will be started and when it would be (00:10:37) completed don't have specific dates on that right now. The developer is under a timeline where he has to report back to us honor about May 31st as to where things are at. And I think at that time the public will start to see more of the (00:10:50) details Sam for barsky. Do you think that Downtown Minneapolis has regained that luster that it once had the real magnet the Broadway of the Midwest if he will. Well, I think downtown is has become a magnet of all sorts of kinds of development since 1987. We have announced or started 8.5 million square feet of new commercial development, which is a number that is the Envy of just about any downtown in the United States by the fall of 2003. This is a number that's hard to believe we're going to have about thirty 1 million square feet of Office Space. It will amount to 52 percent of all of the office space of the seven-county metro area. So along with that huge growth and office space this huge growth and residential population that the mayor was talking about earlier. We're now starting to attract this the widest array of restaurants New theaters new interest and other kinds of entertainment development people want to live along the riverfront Transportation might get a lot better. If we get this light rail line through the legislature this year. It's hard for a lot of other Central Business districts across the country to understand why we're being so successful right now, but this is clearly one of the golden eras of development in Downtown Minneapolis of the 20th century and much closer. I might add to the the future that the people and the Planning Commission of 1905 curiously enough had for Downtown Minneapolis. We're coming closer to their Vision than we were in the 40s Rygaard. What are you hearing from folks who are thinking about bringing their convention here or actually come here. What what kind of impression does this city leave with them? Well, the simplest thing that we have to do is to get our customers to the city the city sells itself and that is also our biggest marketing obstacle because there are perceptions outside of Minneapolis that we closed down in November and reopen in April. And so getting them here is is half the battle in terms of looking forward we needed to get this convention center underway, which we're going to do next week. And and then we're going to need some new hotels Dan. Dan Olsen is standing by with a person here at the Crystal Court with a question for our panel. Go ahead Dan Gary and panel members. We have Gretchen here who has two questions. (00:13:26) First of all light-hearted question. I want to know when I'll be able to lace up my skates and go ice skating in the Old Milwaukee Depot. That's my first question. My second question little more serious has to do with light rail Transit. I've read that there are two possible roadblocks the Mac Mini at Metropolitan Airport. Ocean not necessarily wanting to fund a portion of the the stopped at the airport and also a Suburban legislator who probably doesn't necessarily feel that the Hiawatha Corridor suits her districts needs. Can you just give me an update on where we're at with these two potential roadblocks and my figure skating question (00:14:01) Jackie Cherry homes, you want to take those while we've got you here put you on the hot seat here. (00:14:04) The figure skating question is the easier of the two, I think sometime in the next year you'll be able to lace up your skates and go skating and that project is moving forward. The developers are excited about it. And I think the public is going to be very excited to have that kind of recreation in Downtown Minneapolis on light rail Transit. I think I'm not as familiar with the issue that you referred to with the airports commission, maybe mr. Grabowski can handle that. But what I will say is that it's we've had difficulty convincing some of the Suburban legislators that even though this may be doesn't touch their constituents the health and vitality of the downtown Minneapolis is what the whole state of Who needs I represent the north side of Minneapolis Light Rail Transit isn't going to touch my constituents either but that doesn't mean I'm not a strong supporter of it. That doesn't mean I met a promoter of it because the fact of the matter is if the City of Minneapolis isn't healthy the state of Minnesota isn't healthy so light rail Transit is one of those issues that we have to appeal to people beyond their parochial or their their District interests and help them understand that it's not about the City of Minneapolis. It's about the state of Minnesota in the state's Financial (00:15:11) Health isn't there a danger though that it's going to soak up so much money that other Transit needs that do affect. Not only other people but the city itself are going to suffer the bus system Road repair Road improvements and there's some danger of that. Because the the Minneapolis downtown Council has been one of the lead proponents of a multimodal system at the legislature the fact remains that the the one element that could hold back the the continued growth of the whole metro area is the lack of a modern transit system. And so we're over there saying that for some areas of the metro area the bus system must rule. It is the Workhorse for other areas. It's a dedicated Transit way or it's in the case of Hiawatha Corridor a light rail Transit way. There are ample proposals on the table of how to fund this in the future. We need to find a dedicated funding source. There are several proposals that are over there. I fully expect that now that we have a governor who is very Pro modern Transit. We have a commissioner who heads the Metropolitan Council who is very Pro Transit. We have a Of Transportation commissioner who is pro Transit and we have new people being appointed to the metropolitan area airport commission who are also Pro Transit all these road blocks blocks will be met. Let's not forget that this is the first time that anybody can remember at the legislature where we've had three different forces all vying for priorities three different parties and I think in the 11th Hour of the legislative session, when all the bargaining chips are placed on the table, I'm quite optimistic. We're going to see our light rail transit in the Hiawatha Corridor and the young woman who asked that question in the audience, I invite her back to write it with me and the fall of the year 2003 at Sam grabarsky. Who is the head of the downtown Minneapolis Council Greg cartel is with US president and CEO of the Minneapolis Convention & Visitors Association and Minneapolis city council president Jackie. Cherry Holmes has joined us as well. This is midday coming to you live from the Crystal Court at the idea. Center in downtown Minneapolis were on the road today and again those of you out here. If you've got a question for our panel raise your hand and Dan Olson will get to you with a microphone. If you're listening on the radio, give us a call six five. One two, two seven six thousand or one eight hundred two, four two two eight two eight. Let's go to the phone. Karen has a question. Go ahead Place. Hi. I live in North Minneapolis. I have young children under 5 and I find myself constantly driving right past Downtown Minneapolis over to Saint Paul to the children's museum to the Como Zoo Etc. I'd like to know what the plans are for the City of Minneapolis for keeping families with young kids in the city. They're not interested in The Nightlife. I want to know what's going to happen in this city for families with young kids. Councilmember (00:18:18) carry-ons. Well, I think first of all one of the things that we are working on is the Milwaukee Road Depot project which will include figure skating and ice skating for kids, which is clearly a family attraction and again to get back to blocky the blocky development that we're going to see is clearly a family oriented development. I need to say that I share your concerns. I'm frequently in my our babysitter is frequently taking our daughter to st. Paul for family-oriented activities and one of my goals since I represent part of downtown is to figure out how do we keep families in downtown? And how do we have more activities for them? A lot of people don't look at the public library as an entertainment venue. I happen to and I'm looking forward to having a new library downtown where families can go and which will feature Premier children's room and other activities for families to do so, it is on our agenda. We're working on it most specifically the skating and secondly the blocky development. (00:19:13) Do you think if I could jump in you have some great new ideas also, For the riverfront the mill ruins Park will be very children oriented won't it? (00:19:22) The Maroons Park will be very children oriented. And the other thing that I would say is Minneapolis has a system of parks and Parkways and bikeways that is really uncomfortable anywhere else in the country. And so I think that that's another family oriented activity that we may not think about but getting out and recreating with our family in our parks on our bike ways and in our green areas is another thing we can do is families (00:19:45) Dan Olson. You have a question there Gary and panel. Here's Barbara who prefaced your question by saying she has kind of a crabby comment. (00:19:53) I live in the Uptown and I'm curious why it feels like it gets targeted for parking tickets a high number of the parking people are going around giving out tickets and doing things like City and Street Maintenance last fall. There was a particular zone right near Lake Calhoun that had a bunch of sidewalks replaced and it seemed like the rich neighborhood was targeted Tristan comment. I think if you talk to any member of the city council, you would find out that they get similar comments from their constituents. I frequently have people calling me and asking why in the warehouse District which I represent people are targeted for tickets. I have my own constituents in in North Minneapolis who don't understand why we've got to repair the sidewalks and their argument is that we're repairing the sidewalks in the lower income Community who can't afford it. So, you know, the city has to do maintenance. We have to keep the city clean and neat and we will do it on a Citywide basis. I don't believe that any neighborhood is targeted (00:20:56) Gregor tell when people come to visit Minneapolis, do they get out of the downtown much or do they get here get their hotel room and just kind of circulate around in the the downtown region do they get out to the lakes? And the other things that the city has to offer it really depends on the kind of visitor, you know, there's an axiom that every convention delegate is a tourist but not every tourist is a convention delegate in a truce will come and they don't come generally to just Minneapolis. They come to the area and they're going to try and see all of the attractions. They see it as as one destination. The majority of our business is convention business and the convention the convention are comes down here and depending on their program or depending on whether or not the group is a vocational or professional will determine whether or not they get out but quite quite a bit now with more of a Adventuresome meeting planning. You see 5K runs that start off on the Nicollet Mall and go over to up toward the Lake of the Isles. You'll see Adventures where we have we have a trade show for example at Calhoun Square on next Saturday. So you'll see a lot of different things. So people do and we also make an effort to try and get people to celebrate the neighborhoods of Minneapolis and a Twin Cities, you know, and we sort of we pitch the Uptown area is sort of our little microcosm of Greenwich Village and we pitch the warehouse district and all of those things as unique and as as opportunities for people to get out and enjoy themselves and entertain themselves and it's been very successful. So they get out and get get around quite a bit councilmember Cherry homes before you run one last question for you. Do we put too much emphasis on Downtown Development? Is it hurting the neighborhoods is a Sequence. I know there's some tax benefits, of course to having a vibrant downtown but hear this complaint a lot by gosh. You guys just focus all the time on the big projects downtown and you're ignoring us little (00:23:04) people. I've been doing Community Development work either through the city council or as a Neighborhood Community Development developer for the last 20-some years and it's an ongoing tension between neighborhoods and downtown from my vantage point right now. I don't think that we spend too much time on downtown though. I do think that we need to spend increase time on our commercial corridors in our neighborhoods. We've changing neighborhood economies our commercial corridors. Our neighborhoods are not going to be what they were 30 years ago, even 15 years ago, and we need to re-evaluate what wait what will make them successful into the future that is a priority for the city council right now and where we'll be spending a lot of time energy and I think dollars but we don't have the money to spend in our neighborhoods. If we don't have a strong downtown the neighborhood revitalization. And the bulk of our community development activities are fueled and funded by the growth in downtown and the tax base that we're creating downtown. So we can't look at it as either are we have to look at it as both end in order for our neighborhoods to be successful downtown needs to be successful in order for downtown to attract people to it. Our neighborhoods have to be attractive and have to be successful too. (00:24:15) Thanks for coming by today. Thank you very much. Now don't go away. We're not done here. We have much much more to come. This is midday coming to you on Minnesota Public Radio Broadcasting live today from the Crystal Court at the IDS Center in downtown Minneapolis. We're going to have some tips on nightlife in the city for those of you who don't get downtown a lot. You might want to get a paper and Pen ready and that'll be coming up shortly and much more conversation with Sam grabarsky president and CEO of the Minneapolis downtown Council and Gregor tell who is the president and CEO of the Minneapolis Convention & Visitors Association get a reminder if you've got a question These gentlemen and you're right here. All you have to do is wave your hand and our Oprah Danielson will come by to get a microphone to you. If you're listening on the radio. Give us a call six five. One two, two seven six thousand 6512276 thousand in the Twin Cities outside the Twin Cities 1-800 to for 22828 and we'll get to some more callers some more questions in just a couple of minutes the right now, let's catch up on news headlines. Here's Karen Louise Booth Karen. Thank you Gary (00:25:24) and earthquake flattened hundreds of homes today in southern Iran killing at least 26 people and injuring one hundred others. According to Iranian media Reports say 800 houses in twenty five Villages were either destroyed or damaged. Some of Iran's most impressive Antiquities lie near the epicenter of the Quake. It's not known whether they were damaged more American Air power is heading to Europe even as the effort to find a diplomatic solution to the Kosovo crisis picks. Steam Russian and Western leaders have agreed to the basics of a plan that includes sending in an armed International military monitoring Force. The nation's jobless rate may be up but President Clinton says the economy continues a remarkable combination of great job growth and low inflation Clinton notes recent drops in the unemployment rate for African-Americans and the rises in real wages for all Americans researchers at the University of Minnesota have found that AIDS drug treatments known as cocktails actually allow the immune system to rebuild itself that helps Aid patients fight HIV as well as other diseases there is still a chance that hunting and fishing license fees could be increased in Minnesota before the end of the legislative session the plan could be tacked onto Game and Fish Omnibus bills in both Chambers, but Governor Ventura is urging lawmakers to make more Headway. On major issues of the session including the budget tax relief and the profile of learning graduation standards tests leaders along both sides of the aisle still have disagreements and have yet to reach compromise on those issues in weather today quite windy and cool in the west occasional rain and drizzle highs ranging from the mid 40s to around 50 in the west and other regions of the state the extended forecast partial clearing on Saturday and dry weather on Sunday. And right now it's we have some intermittent light rain in the Twin Cities region, and it's 49 degrees, and that's news Gary back to you in Downtown Minneapolis. (00:27:35) All right. Thank you Karen 28 minutes snow before 1 o'clock, and this is midday coming to you live today from the Crystal Court the IDS Center in downtown Minneapolis. Today. We're focusing on the City downtown specifically and we'll get back to our conversation about the future of the city and just Couple of minutes, but right now we've been joined by Neil Justin pop culture critic for the Star Tribune. He writes a regular feature called night crawlers and he stopped by to give us a few tips on nightlife downtown. Hi Neil after doing here. Thanks for coming by a couple of mythical visitors to the city. Let's we have an older couple coming up from Mankato and a couple of young hipsters from Starbuck Minnesota. If you could have been there if you could walk us walk us through this. First of all, the the older couple from Mankato, they're interested in coming up here. Maybe a nice dress up dinner. Is there are there any of those places left there? Sure are in fact, I think they're on the rise downtown. I think the first thing I tell people when they're when they're visiting the area is that downtown is the place to come and that's not true in many cities anymore downtown's are falling apart across the country and Minneapolis is one of the rare exceptions where If you do come to Minneapolis and you want a night on the town the place you go is actually downtown. They used to be true everywhere and it's not true in that many places anymore. So first of all, you come downtown and you can stay at a nice hotel down here. I think we're on the rise for places for people to go have little money to spend and you actually want to dress up again. The Twin Cities is odd because we don't have a lot of places that require a jacket and tie but you can certainly spend the kind of money you would spend to the jacket and tie place a couple new restaurants that are that are fun dress up places that are doing well. We're sitting by one of them aquavit which is a place you could drop a few bucks, but have a very nice meal and and do that kind of dressup kind of thing and the ocean are new seafood restaurant that opened up fairly recently in the high building is doing very well and again sort of a dress up place downtown Minneapolis that the steak seen if you're looking for that kind of meal. It's very very healthy. We have three or four steak houses downtown again that that's somewhat rare but They seem to be doing very well for the young for the younger people. You know, there's not as many if you're talking about a meal. There's not as many exciting sort of, you know, edgy places that they might want to go but the dancing is fairly good down here in the music scene is excellent. There is everything from there's a new place called Foxfire. That's a that's open for all ages They don't serve alcohol, but it's perfect for teenagers who are looking for a night on the town and its kind of the slamdance kind of scene that would probably start all of us, but they seem to like it and you know First Avenue is still doing very well. There's a fine line Music Cafe. You can within walking distance. There's at least 10 or 12, very good music venues that are a young couple that are in town for the you know, the big city experience. It's going to get by just staying here downtown so and back to the older folks again after they've had their nice meal. Is there any place for them to go after word where it isn't? Real loud and crowded and noisy or is it there are few places. You know, I think one thing that we can always improve and I think one thing we talked about are a few more sort of neighborhoody wine bars and and beer bars here in the downtown area that you can do just what you're saying sort of sit back and relax those places that we do have tend to be a little livelier a little more crowded than maybe a couple in your scenario might want you know, one of the most fun places. There are a lot of great place to get a glass of wine, but we still need a few more of those kind of neighborhoody place where you can just sort of chill. Is there one good source of information for people who are coming to the city and they want to look down a list of things and make a choice. I've heard a lot of good things about Star Tribune.com. We have here's my little plug. We do have a website that offers that kind of information but there's a lot of good I guess online is really the way to go and City Pages of course and You know, there are a lot of sources for that kind of information. Thanks Neil. Thanks Neal Justin pop music or pop culture critic. I should say for the Star Tribune Gregor tell is with us. He is the president and CEO of the Minneapolis Convention & Visitors Association sambar barsky is with us. He is the president and CEO of the Minneapolis downtown Council and Greg you were chomping at the bit there you have information that you could help our older couple or our young hipsters from Starbuck. Well actually both but certainly the older company should admit older couple should not miss a piano bar at nice if they want to come in in the afternoon high tea at Murray's is a spectacular event. There's a number of neat little Jazz bars or they can go to for a quiet evening the cafe. Luxford Sam's the music guy so he could probably add a couple more that I can't but also for information on what's going on and what's happening. We have a variety of Publications and 24/7 website also as Was as well as our information center on the corner of 7th and Nicollet. We had a caller on the line who had to hang up, but they but he had a question. He wants to know when in the world here. We are in Cosmopolitan Minneapolis. When can you hail a cab? When are people going to be able to do that? Sam I asked the cab companies if they are allowed to pick up people on a hail basis and they claim they are and so I guess what it means is that we don't have a lot of a tradition here where people hail calves as a person who I March all around downtown taking a look at it almost every day. Most of the cab stands are just backed up in front of the hotels near some of our larger centers of Commerce. I'd say within about a half a block walk. Even if it can't hail one if they don't stop for you you have no problem finding a cab in Downtown Minneapolis. So I'd like to add to the question of how do you find out about things going on in downtown? We just added a website. We're also connected over to Greg's visitors association website, but in ours we're trying to do the state of the art technology for downtown people or anybody who wants to call up. Have 400 shops 200 restaurants. You can actually have a virtual map appear on your screen where you can park you can have that printed out and each of the merchants are able to tell you what their specials are that day that night and we have a calendar that now goes out as far as we know events. So if the Vikings were to tell us who are they're going to play three years from now, we'll have it on there. We'll have all of the Broadway attractions on there. And if somebody has fresh salmon just flown in and there are restaurant and they want to Hype it they're going to put it on the website. So in our case, I know that Greg probably wants to say his call letters but ours are w-w-w DOT Min e appleís, excuse me downtown. That's all spelled out minneapolis's contract that mpls.com. I'm sorry. If I didn't get that out there well enough for people to hear but this is our latest thing and I promise you it's very virtual. Very up-to-date and the mapping part of it is really fun to use Greg. You want to get your pitch in here? Well, I would just ours is Minneapolis dot-org and we have most of the things that the Sam has and we're link back and forth and tied into sidewalks.com. But there's there we have done a much better job organizationally ourselves Sam and others to really get that information out there. And it I think it's paying off I would just like to say on the cab thing. I think we have a culture problem. I don't think that I think that we get our drivers are just never trained how to work the streets like the New York cabbies are or Chicago cabbies are and I think that's that's part of our problem. So theoretically though if people come downtown they should and they see a cab they should be able to wave and theoretically The cab driver will stop and pick him up if he understands. That's what they're about. Otherwise, he'll way back if those of you here at the Crystal Court have a question for Sam. Grabarsky Gregor. Tell just let Dan Olson know and he'll get by get a microphone to you. If you're listening on the radio and you've got a question about Downtown Minneapolis. Give us a call six five. One two, two seven six thousand or one eight hundred two, four two two eight two eight Paul your question, please I will thanks for having me on him. Probably a little late for the transit discussion, but I was talking wanted to talk about Transit and I guess I'm disturbed by the politicians fixation on light rail Transit as a modern solution to to our congestion and pollution and every every other Transit related problem light rails basically refinement of 19th century technology. It's not modern and it's not a solution because it's not going to do anything more than have a marginal effect. There's more there's more modern work. Okay, you've been working on that Sam Actually the downtown Council supplies about a dozen reasons why we support a multimodal transit system congestion is only one of the reasons and I probably agree with the caller that congestion when it comes to the Hiawatha Light Rail Corridor is not among our top reasons to support that specific Corridor the downtown business Community has offered up all kinds of new investment ideas to to do Economic Development and most of the station stops all along the Route also in the National Industry. There's something that's called a barbell effect and economic barbell effect. If you imagine that metaphor of two large economic centers connected with a tube, which is in this case a Transit Corridor that all along that tube and at both ends a greater chance for Synergistic Prosperity exists. So I'd say that the Hiawatha quarter offers a whole lot of Economic Development along it and it allows them all of America and the and the airport to be connected economically with Downtown Minneapolis. And we see that our futures are ever more connected in that way, but the caller is wrong to think that all we want is light rail. We want dedicated bus ways where they make sense we want commuter rail where it makes sense. The buses will always be the Workhorse of the transit system. And so we're big supporters of that as well. Remember the goal here is to get started. This is light rail in one Corridor. They want to have the broad transit system improved throughout the Metro region. You mentioned the Mall of America in Bloomington. How is that affected downtown? There were people who pooh-poohed the mall when it was built or other people who said well, that's the death knell of downtown Minneapolis to a lot of people Come to the area Greg just to go to the mall. It has it has it taken people out of downtown. Is it how has it affected downtown, Minneapolis? Well, it's unquestioned a major tourist attraction. There's there's no way of getting around that I think that that both of the comments that was a death knell and poopoo. Dad are both obviously are obviously wrong and it's somewhere in the middle is where it's actually happened is proven to be a great attraction is proven to be synergistic and and helped us in terms of promoting of Tourism for downtown. Ironically where we can say, all right, you know spend the day at the mall but also come downtown and and do Dayton's Neiman's and Saks in a two-block area as compared to four stores in a one mile area. And so I mean they're you know, we have to work together to it's not an it should not be an either or or situation are the big retail stores down here doing well at all Sam or are they on the edge the sax and Neiman Marcus is matter of fact, we just had a meeting this week with the managers of all those stores and all of them are doing All it costs them more to operate in Downtown Minneapolis than a dozen some other places which adds to some of the challenges of are helping them. Keep Pace with the rest of their corporate models and the other locations where where they might be housed but retail in general is holding its own here. I'd have to tell you that the downtown Council was scared to death of the mall when it first started and you probably know the holidays will parade was a direct response to try to get people back now the Holidazzle Parade draws about a million people to downtown during the holiday season and really is is becoming a great tradition in the how and the area but thanks to the office of Tourism and thanks to Greg or tails good work with the visitors Association. We've been able to determine now that a lot of people who make the trip to the Mall of America stay there for days and Greg might know the statistics better than I there are a lot of people who come from outside our Ro who come from foreign lands who are here for a whole week and the mall is an extraordinary place. I enjoy it. I take my grandchildren there. I also know that you can't spend a week there. I know that you're going to have to go somewhere else Downtown Minneapolis offers some different shopping. We have 65 tablecloth restaurants. We have nightclubs. We have Broadway Theater, we have professional sports. So what begins to happen as you see that by marketing together and Greg does that for us and I thank you for it Greg that we're finding that the Mall of America and the downtown retail District are actually very connected together as far as that future is concerned. I think that also makes the argument in part that Sam was making a moment ago in terms of having that that barbell effector dumbbell effect. Is it connecting us up particularly International visitors do not want to drive on Minnesota streets and highways and so to be able to get on light rail at the airport to come downtown stay be able to get on a bus and get Out to the mall if they want all of that is very important to our future for international tourism Dan. You've got a person that other question Gary. It's lunch hour and Sam and Greg. Here's Mike who has a question about food. Yes. Good afternoon. How you doing with the growing residential base in Downtown Minneapolis? What are the prospects for a decent supermarket in the area? Well, that's one of the great questions and I like being asked as the residential population grows and let me tell you a very almost astounding statistic. I rarely say this in private and I'm about to do it on live radio that Downtown Minneapolis. How does that compare our residential population base with other Central Business districts and I got a discount immediately downtown downtown Manhattan. That's a world unto itself. Let's take downtown Baltimore downtown Indianapolis downtown Denver downtown Dallas combine all of them and their Central Business districts all four of those famous American cities. We have more people living in Downtown Minneapolis right now than all four of them combined Denver when it finishes their $1,000,000,000 reinvestment in housing will have 9,500 people. We have at least twenty three thousand five hundred in downtown. I heard the mayor say 25,000. I haven't been able to get our Census count quite up to 25 yet, but we know we're on the way so as that population-based grows. We're going to have to have a grocery store down here that can sustain it what's happened up to this point is that the cost of actually developing a free-standing grocery store in Downtown Minneapolis has been prohibitive up to this point think the solution is going to be when we have a development in downtown where we can actually sell a condo into it for a grocery store. That's when it's going to happen. I'm aware of at least one or two attempts to have that happen right now. I can't announce anything but I think that that's how it's going to happen. There won't be a free-standing Lunds in Downtown Minneapolis because luns couldn't afford to build it maintain it pay the taxes on it and they might be worried as to whether or not they would have people shopping there enough for them to do it. It doesn't mean though that we won't get it as a condo in a larger development. So Please keep moving to downtown. We want to hit 30,000. I'd like to be able to add at least one or two more famous American cities to that big bunch and say that we have that many more people living here Dan. You have another question Gary. Here's another big fan of midday Todd with questions about downtown cultural amenities. Yeah. I think that Downtown Minneapolis has done a really good job at expanding its business Community with new office buildings and and Retail things like that. But one thing I think is lacking is a expansion and growth of cultural amenities. I'm thinking about in downtown st. Paul. They have added the Children's Museum and the Science Museum of Minnesota. So my question is are their prospects for adding additional cultural attractions to the downtown core. And then also I'd like you to comment on the status of the new downtown library and what the plans are for that Do I draw that question? Another excellent question. I appreciate it. If we if we were to say cultural meaning the Arts in particular. I think that there's great things ahead especially for our Theater District. We already know people are quite aware of the fact that we have the Orpheum on this state. Now. The Schubert is going to Shubert Theater is going to be restored. It's right next to Hennepin Center for the Arts. The hey City stage is up and operating particular developers now have six months to come up with a plan for the man theater by the time we get blocky up with all of its movie theaters and so forth. You can see the immersion the what's emerging there is clearly a national caliber Theater District. We also are trying to make it clear to the Guthrie Theater that if they can't find a way to build a larger facility near where they currently are that we have land available for them in downtown as well. So from a from a musical from a jazz from a film from an art from An Arts perspective. There's a lot going on. I think that the new Shubert Theater wants us up an operating is going to be particularly receptive to smaller dance companies and so forth. So I think that part of the cultural scene will also do better going forward into the future. I'm very optimistic about this being one of the Arts capitals in the United States. I think that when it comes to the the library the good news is that now that we've got we're breaking ground next week. Is it Greg on the convention center that was such a high priority that the whole business Community banded together with the visitors Association. We had to get that underway that was too important to the future. We had to stay focused on that especially if we can get the light rail line started this fall, which is what we'll do if the legislature passes the Senate position that priority will have shifted over a little bit the mayor I know the Jackie Cherry homes, they're both dedicated to a new Central Library will be on board with that. I'm very optimistic on that as well. Now once upon a time only four or five years ago. We probably had six seven eight good sites for a public library in downtown. We've built on four or five of those sites already. So now we're shifting around looking where those sites can be. I expect we'll see it. I expect we'll see a hundred million dollar commitment to a new Public Library what? I don't know and I don't know if even the library knows is what should a library be going into the 21st century. How many more people will actually prefer to visit their online than the go there to read the library has some of the greatest cultural collections of the Midwest and people aren't able to see them because they can't display them. Some people may not know this but one of the largest civil rights memorabilia collection in the United States is located here makes a great opportunity. I think for cultural tourism. Wouldn't you agree Greg? Absolutely and I would Also add, you know a lot of the institutions that were built in st. Paul. We already had institutions built here. Certainly the Guthrie The Walker the sculpture garden the Minneapolis Institute of Arts while granted it's a few blocks outside of what is perceived as downtown. It's certainly there and in has world-renowned collection. So I think we have a very good base for cultural institutions what's going to happen with when the expansion of the convention center is complete. Are you going to have his downtown going to be overrun with millions of more Millions more people? How's that going to work? What impact will that have Aguirre? I hope you're right. But actually I'm glad you asked that question too because I'm dying to answer it. It's were literally doubling the size of the convention center in terms of constructed square footage and we're also going to double the amount of business that we have and what was going to happen is right now, The building has been so small that it's been one group move in and then they have to stop after they're done move out is that we're going to see more of a piston effect where you have groups moving in as be groups are moving out and so there's going to be a more constant flow of activity that's going to go on on a year-round basis and in particular. What we're excited about is the opportunities that are presented in the first quarter of the year, January February March, most people think that those are not popular months, but actually they are and and it provides us with some expanded opportunity. We don't have a lot of time left, but let's get at least two more questions on first of all a quick question on the phone Joanne quick comment. Please share just a couple of comments of things I think would make Minneapolis more people-friendly one is the need to be more pedestrian-friendly by having more places for people to sit and congregate such as more benches in the city and another would be to improve the signage to help people find buildings and And Mark and also more specifically at bus (00:50:54) stops, perhaps to have more maps for people so they know where buses (00:50:58) connect. Okay quick comments on signage and I like both suggestions. I think the new zoning code is going to ask for more of that course. We're sitting here in the Crystal Court, which is one of the great indoor spaces in downtown with benches and a fountain and beautiful trees. But I think we need to do more of that and Greg and I both agree that to the visitor. There's a need for more signage in the past. I think the zoning code has said downtown signage should be somewhat subdued but from a visitor's perspective when you agree Greg, we're going to have to have better signage. Absolutely. I mean I live in fear of the fact it will find a dried-up tourist tucked away in a corner of the sky way because they didn't understand what what this building name was. But yeah, the Sonic directional signage we make direct if we make signage of valuable to a visitor that they can use. It's going to help everybody else Dan. Can we show horn one more quick comment question in place, very very quick comment and First of all that response you just gave answered previous question per person here at the Crystal Court a person who just slipped away wanted to know what Gary eichten looked like that question was answered. He looked he left disappointed. She she was not disappointed. She liked what she saw and another another questioner just slipped away. Wanted to know if Gary eichten really had hair and that's been answered to here is Scott. One of the regular Colin guests to midday is one of the benefits of doing this program live from the Crystal Court Scott. Did you have a question or comment? I just had a quick question. I guess I was wanting to know the extra 1/2 of 1% sales tax that Minneapolis has to pay and st. Paul. What does that actually cover that the regular income tax because of that per capita area for st. Paul and Minneapolis is way larger and what what is that covering? Well, I'll tell you that Greg actually since the half cent sales tax is there to support the bonding for the convention center? What does that what are they getting for their money? They won half percent covers the revenue bonds for the convention center. It covers the condition covered the construction of parade Stadium. It covers a lot of the parking that was constructed that was around the convention center the Limington ramp the expansion of Orchestra Halls ramp as well as the one Underground on both the Hilton and the one underground at the convention center. Those are those are major public works projects that were funded by the half percent is not come out of property taxes not come out of out of income tax. And when this project is all finished we expect those those taxes to go away I would think so, but I think will be retired Sam 15 seconds if you could wave a wand. One big Improvement you'd want to make right now in Downtown Minneapolis Sandra barsky. I agree with Barbara Flanagan. I want the light rail line running this in the fall of 2003 and I want blocks d e and f to hold together to complete the Entertainment District Gregor tell I want International signage in the skyways and on the streets that's in Japanese German and Spanish as well as English. Okay? Well, we'll see what we can do. Thanks a lot for coming by today. Really appreciate it. Thank you our guest this hour Sam grabarsky president and CEO of the Minneapolis downtown Council Gregor tell president and CEO of the Minneapolis Convention & Visitors Association. And of course Jackie Cherry homes president of Minneapolis city council was with us during the first half of this hour. Well that does it for our broadcast day Sarah Mayer is the producer of our midday programmed and Olson was our Oprah today at the Crystal Court our engineer Scott lieber's Randy. In our studio engineer carried wire handled our phone calls also additional help from Rob's in ski and Bruce McDonald special thanks to any fight who helped us produce all of our Kosovo programs again this week. I'm Gary eichten. Thanks so much to those of you who stopped by here at the Crystal Court. We really appreciate your stopping by thanks to all of you who've been listening on the radio as well. We'll be back on Monday back in our Studios and st. Paul and I hope you'll be able to tune in Gary eichten here again. Thanks for joining us. (00:55:14) On the next all things considered good housing is in short supply in the nation's Indian reservations, but a private investment firm thinks it has a solution that story on the next All Things Considered beginning at 3 on Minnesota Public Radio. (00:55:30) You're listening to Minnesota Public Radio. We have light rain 49 degrees at Cana wfm 91.1 Minneapolis. And st. Paul The Weather Service says it's supposed to rain all afternoon temperatures about where they are light rain and drizzle tonight with a low in the mid 40s, and there's a chance for rain at least tomorrow morning and then it should clear off a little bit.