Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Is St. Paul Better?
Something you may have noticed is that every time Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty tweaks her department’s procedures, and the typical loudmouths blather about how she’s being soft on crime, it turns out the Ramsey County Attorney John Choi made similar changes months or years earlier and they’re working out great.
Things just seem to be going smoother on the other side of the river. As Clay Masters and Gretchen Brown report for MPR News, St. Paul is looking at a 70% drop in homicides by the end of the year, and the police are solving more than 70% of crimes. Ya gotta wonder, just what in the NextDoor is happening over there?
Choi credits much of their success to the adoption of a “non-fatal shooting initiative” in Ramsey County that’s often referred to as “the Denver model”—essentially detectives investigate all shootings, whether or not they result in death. He also notes that unlike the MPD, the St. Paul Police Department is fully staffed.
But more broadly, they’ve arrived at cooperation between the various agencies involved in law enforcement. “It’s about actually collaborating, truly collaborating with one another,” Choi explains. “No one agency can make this change themselves.”
Ah. So in other words, there’s no chance of this ever happening in Hennepin County.
Kupchella Interviewee Regrets Precarious Statements
Downtown Minneapolis boosters can never quite get their stories straight. Is the city’s central business district an abandoned deathzone because some socialist council member said mean things about the cops, or is it a thriving pleasure center that you should bring your suburban family to visit this weekend?
Living within this paradox has made it so some folks don’t know when to say what to who. As Nick Halter reports for Axios today, commercial real estate agent Erin Fitzgerald is miffed that she spoke to Rick Kupchella for his “Minneapolis is burning” doc A Precarious State.
"I was told that it would be a positive spin on downtown Minneapolis, so I agreed to do it," Fitzgerald now says (though she adds that she was on board with the socialist-bashing).
But Redline Properties owner Andrew Webb (Redline Properties???), who also spoke to Halter, is happy to talk crime. "How do I decide to go on the corner of Fifth and Nicollet and risk someone being stabbed walking to their car at 3 o'clock in the afternoon?" he says, referring to an incident this summer that he believes happened and the MPD does not.
There are two lessons here. First, when you talk to journalists, think about the fact that other people will hear those words and know that you said them.
Second, maybe journalists, business owners, and residents should all talk realistically about the problems downtown Minneapolis faces rather than selling an image, whether positive or negative, to the people who don’t live here. Ya think?
Painted-Over NE Mpls Mural Repainted
It’s the kind of “oopsie” that makes your heart sink. In 2024, Yemeni coffee shop Qahwah House, the new tenant at 1851 Central Ave. NE, painted over their building’s mural. They thought it was an advertisement for the business that had previously resided in the space, but it was actually a work by local artist Gustavo Lira, and had been funded by the city via a Great Streets grant.
“We are trying to bridge the gaps between the communities, and we don't want a mural to be a part of something that will ruin my mission of bridging those gaps,” owner Mohammed Azmi tells Alex V. Cipolle in this really sweet MPR story about correcting an unfortunate misunderstanding.
A new mural—one celebrating farmers, immigrants, and labor rights—is now being painted on the building’s wall, and should be back to its original glory by the end of October. And inside the shop, Lira has already completed a new mural for Azmi of Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. To ensure future tenants don’t make the same mistake, Azmi is looking to add a plaque to the wall about the art piece—something that other murals from the project have, but Qahwah’s didn’t.
Meanwhile, the building’s owner, Tryg Truelson, was completely unaware that his building had a publicly funded mural until neighbors reached out about its removal. “I certainly learned to be more in tune with what is going on with my property, for sure,” he says.
Allianz Field To Get Its Own Dang Village?
Alliance Field opened to the public six years ago, but Minnesota United team owner Bill McGuire says he’s not finished yet. This week, he announced plans for something he dubs “United Village.”
And wow, does it sound like a lot! According to Fred Melo at the Pioneer Press, who attended a presentation on the area’s big future, McGuire is envisioning a list of very specific things, including a pizzeria, a fancy pastry shop, a public park with art installations, a flower garden with pieces designed by a Korean artist, a space that will be an ice rink in winter and a market in summer, a boutique hotel, and a two-story childcare center.
It's unclear what could actually become reality and who is going to pay for it, but McGuire is dreaming big and promises these collaborators/investors exist. “The people involved with it are on board,” he says. “You just haven’t heard their names. But they will make your heart pitter patter.”
One project that is a sure thing: a four-story office building set to begin construction next summer. Not sure that is pitter-patter-worthy but hey, it’s a start.
