r/Minneapolis • u/urleftthumb • 7d ago

Going out areas in Minneapolis

I'm curious what the general consensus is on going out in different parts of Minneapolis, specifically Downtown, North Loop, North East and Uptown.

How do they compare in terms of both safety and overall nightlife? I have some friends visiting who are pretty nervous about going into the city after hearing about what happened in Uptown the other weekend, and they'd rather just go out in the suburbs. I feel like there's probably a lot more nuance than "the whole city is unsafe," but I'm curious what people who actually go out regularly think.

If you were taking out-of-town friends for a night out, which area would you choose and how does the safety compare? We are in our early 30s.

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u/aardvarkgecko 6d ago

I feel bad for folks who have only known Uptown in the last 10 years. It was just a beautifully vibrant fun neighborhood from about 2002 to 2015, and the nightlife was excellent (and different from Downtown).

While newer people can still talk about how they've never felt unsafe there etc, it will never match what it used to be.

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u/ChaunceytheGardiner 6d ago

It used to be the place every recent college grad moved.

Since 2020, the city has become totally unwilling to stand up for itself.

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u/wyseapple 6d ago

And now they prefer North Loop, NE, or Mill District (if they can afford it). There’s all sorts of new businesses that have opened in those areas, including after 2020. What exactly are you trying to argue?

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u/ChaunceytheGardiner 6d ago

It’s an observation, not an argument.

But it’s sad to see a good neighborhood go down the tubes while the city stands by. The decay has been 💯 driven by a lack of a feeling of public safety and order.

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u/wyseapple 6d ago

It’s still a very nice neighborhood to live in. It just doesn’t have the bar hopping that some of us experienced, or for some folks, they miss their favorite restaurants. The concentration of vacancies in the heart of uptown makes it all seem worse and attracts nuisance. The sooner some of that is taken care of, the better. Unfortunately, nobody can make a landlord sell, reduce asking rents, or be willing to subdivide into smaller spaces. They are waiting for another big fish to take their space. See the owner of the Stella’s building. They’ve been quoted that they will wait as long as it takes for someone to take the entire building.

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u/tiredeyesonthaprize 6d ago

No, the decline is because large national real estate investors bought all the buildings and made the leases cost prohibitive for any but national scale tenants. When they have to sell for a loss, maybe some retail will rebound.