Not only was this weekend’s closure useless security theater - touted routinely during news broadcasts, because “something must be done” - but it misdiagnoses the problem. This is why Minneapolis needs the Stone Arch Bridge open all the time. It’s the only place in the city that consistently passes the street musician test: If there aren’t buskers on the Stone Arch Bridge at sunset, the streets of Minneapolis should be deemed lifeless. I saw everyone from new immigrants to Minneapolis lifers, street musicians, convention-goers, joggers, downtown lanyard types, and more. Last Thursday, the evening before MPRB closed the bridge, the bridge boasted the diversity of the Twin Cities. No matter how many times you’ve done it, crossing the Stone Arch Bridge remains unique. Nothing else even comes close downtown it’s the one part of the city where all walks of life cross paths, from CEOs to conventioneers to the unsheltered. It’s important because public spaces, where people from all over the region come together, attract vitality creating a virtuous cycle. The Stone Arch Bridge is the best public space in Minneapolis, the urban icon that literally appears on nearly every tourism video, public relations campaign, and in generations of prom photos. This is why it boggles the mind that Minneapolis and its Park and Recreation Board (MPRB, the elected entity managing Minneapolis park space) closed the car-free Stone Arch Bridge during the evenings of a key holiday weekend. Now more than ever, downtowns need to foster vitality, a critical mass of “eyes on the street,” and other urbanist clichés. The correct reaction from city leaders has been to place more emphasis on street life. Minneapolis is not alone, as post-COVID work patterns have swept through Midwestern downtowns like a tsunami of emptiness. Everyone seems to agree that downtown Minneapolis, whether on the brink or the cusp, is poised at a pivotal moment where something needs to happen.
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