Minneapolis, This and That
This is the last post in the Minneapolis series.
Vancouver – Minneapolis with Delta
I could not miss the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, especially as the admission is free. Google maps showed a 20min walk from the Milennium hotel so I walked, … and I understood why my wife does not like traveling with me, I walk too much and apparently chaotically not to mention the area I walked through didn’t seem too safe, a place where you would not walk during the night.
I walked past a BP gas station and I witnessed a scene movie like (one of the Quentin Tarantino movies). Three Afro-American guys in a car, one of them gets out, goes to other two Afro-American guys that have just finished washing the cars, and says very aggressively:
“Why the f… are you washing the car? Didn’t need any washing.” Then he says something more, I could not understand, mentioned the word “money” a few times for sure.
One of the others guy smiles and extends his hand, the universal sign for being friends, and at the sometime trying to placate the aggressive guy, who shakes his hand but does not stop talking. I wish I had stopped, try to understand the way they talk, gold material for a movie script, but I was afraid of the “What are you staring at?”, so even if I slowed my pace I had to walk on. What I understood was that the guy who washed the car had better and more important things to do, and the “aggressive” guy was like a manager scolding his/her employee that they waste time with things that are not important instead of focusing on the important matters.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
In front of the building ‘The Fighter of the Spirit’ by Ernst Barlach
I found out why Japan’s population is decreasing
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
Spoonbridge and cherry
Hare on bell (down left)
Walker Art Center
Carry-on suitcase that moves on a plastic bottle and a microphone
First floor, strong bars, I did not see them in Vancouver but there should be, so I would not avoid first floor apartments when renting.
And almost ubiquitous signs (I have not traveled extensively in the U.S. only Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oahu, Maui, but I don’t remember seeing this kind of signs there).
And a smiling building (I could not identify what it was)
Smiley Bldg is the Federal reserve Bank on Minneapolis
Let me clear a few things up…
1)I would defiantly not walk in that area after dark! haha It’s a bad place to be!
2)Regarding the guns signs…Minnesota passed a law a few years ago allowing the right to carry with a permit. You will see the signs all over, not just in that area. If you would came ten years ago you wouldn’t have seen one.
3) Pretty sure that wasn’t a BP Gas Station! I’ve live DT Minneapolis and do to the Amex Sync Promo I have researched all the local BP locations. 🙂
Good idea for the Federal reserve bank to have a smiling building!
3) It was BP :), I could even walk around it using Google maps
http://mybpstation.com/station-finder/
2000 3rd Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55404
5 min. walk to Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2400 3rd Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55404
Oh that area isn’t that bad, it looks worse than it really is, a bit rundown but not dangerous. I’ve walked it tons of times at night. Lots of college kids and hipsters moving there and have already changed it a lot. You want a real rough neighborhood just go to north Minneapolis.
I will say you missed a lot if you missed the lakes and the trails in the west and south of Minneapolis. Come back in summer!
Also, if you wanted to avoid the walk, you could have taken the 11 bus down Nicollet. Not super glamorous, but it goes almost door to door from the Millennium. You could also stop at the Spy House coffeeshop which is an excellent specimen of the hipster side of MPLS.
If you’re into art, you should also check out the Weissman on the U of Minnesota campus (designed by Frank Gehry) as well as the Walker Art Center near downtown.
Nice! I will have to go there and fill up now. Don’t worry I have my permit to carry so I will be safe.
That’s actually the old Federal Reserve Bank, not sure what it’s been used for now, but the new Fed moved down by the river about 6 or 7 years ago.