Today marks three events:
1. The end of the 1964 World’s Fair. Minnesota had an exhibit, of course. I’ll post some pictures this afternoon.
2. It's the birthday of Gov. William Marshall, who worked to extend the vote to African Americans two years before the passage of the 15th amendment. Not to engage in regional chauvinism, but isn't it odd how the unlettered brutes in the hinterlands managed to be somewhat more enlightened than their betters in the coastal provinces now and then.
3. It's the end of haphazard higgely-piggety video updates. From now on they come every Wednesday, whether we have something to say or not. Up today: we expand on last week’s discussion of suburban downtowns. The following was shot on a rainy day, which is why half the shots look like they were taken from inside a car.
Mallard-murderer update: he was fired. He is presently remorseful. It’s possible that single stupid act screwed up the rest of his life; a felony conviction would make future job prospects difficult. Time for mercy? I’d say yes. The act was horrible, and indicated the fellow has some problems, either with alcohol, or waterfowl. He did four days in jail. He paid them back. He lost his job. He will be known forever more as the Daffy Decapitator. If he’d shot the duck on a pond, after all, no one would care.
Maybe some jail, restitution, shame and unemployment are enough?
Yeah, it was a bad day . . . sort of
You did catch Excelsior and Grand on a bad day. The drizzle ruins it a bit. But in a way you caught some of what it lacks and is unfixable. A downtown has workers in it. Excelsior and Grand has retail workers, to be sure, and maintenance staff too, but the office workers are absent.
The building with the Trader Joe's was originally intended to include office space. The office space was scrapped by the developer after few companies came to lease the planned space. Instead the space was converted apartments.
In a downtown you'd expect to see folks on the sidewalks during the day because the workers get out and about. At Excelsior and Grand, well, everyone is away during the day working somewhere else. Strangely, it really functions like some newfangled bedroom community for adults with no children.
It picks up once everyone returns home in the evening, though the Trader Joe's corner is pretty busy most of the day. Pier 1 suffers from the stupid choice of painting over most of the windows that sidewalk strollers would be looking in through.
The primary source of daytime workers around Excelsior and Grand is the Park Nicollet campus a few blocks away and there just aren't enough of them to make the area look bustling with people on the sidewalks during the daytime.