You needn’t really be busy doing things, just look busy by walking briskly and talking with certainty using action words. It works – until someone asks what you’re doing, exactly. 

Which gets to restoring once-vibrant downtown Minneapolis, something teeming with talk but little walk. So, what’s going on, exactly?

Our city’s core suffered through the pandemic and the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, and then the swarming chaos of federal ICE agents. Hybrid workers vacated downtown offices, few strolled the streets, retailers left.  

There’s a conspicuous void in what’s long been a lively center of commerce and entertainment, and devalued buildings have put serious upward pressure on residential property taxes. 

Through it all, elected city officials and business interests voiced “urgency” (with certainty and action words) in getting on with downtown recovery. “We need some quick fixes,” ex-Mayor R.T. Rybak said, touting a “come-to-Jesus” by city officials and business interests.  That was six years ago.  

In announcing his Vibrant Downtown Storefronts Work Group in 2022, Mayor Jacob Frey said cities must “embrace change.” On releasing his 2024 Downtown Action Plan, Frey said he’d “hit the ground running” to get on with promised changes. 

Well, the mayor must’ve tripped on landing. “Embracing change” is tepid at best, maybe why multiple requests to Frey’s office to review progress were met by crickets. Frey’s website lists nine “priority” issues; downtown recovery isn’t one.  

When the Downtown Council’s Adam Duininck spoke recently on city recovery, attendees rated it mostly boosterism. Duininck declined requests to review his embellished claims of progress.      

Yes, Frey and the Downtown Council are actively pushing the conversion of vacant offices to residences to add to a population of 60,000 (up 35,000 since 2000). Some office workers are returning. There’s near-downtown activity: The North Loop is booming, with efforts underway to bring back a once-lively Uptown. The Upper Harbor project is redeveloping the Northside riverfront into parks, affordable housing and an amphitheater.  

Our clean downtown has handsome buildings, ample services, quality theater and entertainment, top-rated restaurants and welcoming open space. It’s a good, fun place to live.  

While events this summer – like the monthly “Vintage Market,” art fairs and even a major bridge tourney – brought visitors and added a few days of excitement, Duininck says more big events are needed. But last fall the Downtown Council quit sponsoring two popular biggies: wintertime Holidazzle and midsummer’s Aquatennial Parade, citing new priorities and cost – around the same time the Downtown Council gave $280,000 to the the pro-business, pro-Frey PAC All of Minneapolis for city elections.   

There are other instances where calls for “urgency” ring hollow. 

One is closing Nicollet Mall to buses, enabling a beautified pedestrian walkway. It’s been advocated for years, and in 2024 Frey had a plan to make it happen by this year. But nothing.  

Another is razing the huge U.S. Post Office to open Mississippi River access near Hennepin, something Frey has advocated for over a decade. Building’s still there.  

Two years ago, there was hype over a Harmon Place arts district near Loring Park to fill empty store fronts. Stores remain mostly empty.   

Frey’s Action Plan includes “branding” the Warehouse District as a “sports and entertainment headquarters.” That’s given way to converting downtown’s largely-empty City Center into a new pro basketball arena, abandoning the publicly-owned Target Center and its $53 million debt from a recent, very expensive renovation.

Downtown recovery is like a wandering horse that can’t find the barn. Time to saddle the pony, but who’s the rider? Who’s in charge here?   

When Frey’s storefront group convened in 2022, then-editor of Twin Cities Business, Allison Kaplan, was skeptical: “…the new committee is once again stacked with many of the same downtown stakeholders who’ve been stymied by the lack of momentum for years.” That was echoed by the Minneapolis Foundation in its 2023 Downtown Next report: “The same people…doing the same old things and expecting a different outcome.”

And where’s the big thinking?  

Engaged business leaders like the Daytons and Pillsburys used their considerable standing in the 1960s “urban renewal” era to help shape downtown as a bustling center of commerce and retail.  Earlier, Theodore Wirth’s big thinking – including dredging marshland to create Lake of the Isles – made Minneapolis parks along the scenic Grand Rounds an international envy. The Rand and Foshay towers punctured the skyline in 1929, topped by IDS Center in 1971 and since by a host of gleaming skyscrapers.

One big idea is removing the obsolete Ford Dam to uncover a spectacular rapids through the Mississippi’s only gorge from Stone Arch to Ft. Snelling.  The Twin Cities would be the world’s only metro with rapids roaring around a wonderland dotted with riverine islands.

How about a London-sized Ferris Wheel to carry gondolas-full of visitors for breath-taking, year ‘round views? Or zip lines across the Mississippi, and between downtown buildings? Or evening digitized-light shows above Nicollet, like downtown Las Vegas?

But big ideas can’t flourish where doable plans flounder.