Mmmm, Beer.

I love beer. My favorite beers are boring, pedestrian beers like Minnesota favorite Michelob Golden Draft Light (fun fact! Michelob Golden Draft Light is only available for sale in nine states, and was introduced to the market in 1991), the hipster nectar PBR, and when I get fancy, something like Dark Horse Brewery's Raspberry Ale (love their motto: "Beer first, fruit second.")

My boyfriend also loves beer. He loves beer that I don't like (maybe that is not a coincidence?) because it's all bitter and hoppy and not at all refreshing.

My brother and most of my guy friends are "beer snobs".

Minnesota has a few really great breweries--Surly, Summit, and of course I would be remiss in not acknowledging Grain Belt Brewery, which brought us one of my favorite Minneapolis landmarks:

The Grain Belt Beer sign facing the Hennepin Avenue Bridge, between Downtown Minneapolis and Northeast!

However, curiously, Minneapolis has a long-standing ban on allowing small brewing companies to sell their beer.

Fortunately, the Minneapolis City Council is likely to update the wording of this ordinance on Friday! Brewers will be allowed to sell growlers. This is important because it cuts out the distributors, and allows the small companies to make more money early on, enabling them to grow and hopefully expand their business. Ultimately, of course, the goal would be to gain wide distribution which would necessitate working with a distributor, but having a small "cult" following is a great way to grow business as well, expanding by free word-of-mouth advertising instead of paying for exposure.

Ghetto in the Sky

A dubious landmark in Minneapolis is Riverside Plaza, or as it's more commonly known among my generation, "Ghetto in the Sky" or "The Crack Stacks".


Located at the intersection of 35W and I-94, it is primarily home to East African immigrants. Minneapolis has a huge Somali population (fun fact: the much more commonly used "Somalian" is grammatically incorrect!)--in fact, Minneapolis has the largest Somali population in the United States.

When I was little, I thought this building was so cool, because of the painted squares on the outside that set it apart from other skyscrapers in the city. I don't know if it's a side-effect of me growing older, or if the buildings' colors have faded from the sun over the years, but they now seem dingy and dated, an embarassing hulk of real estate set apart from the rest of Minneapolis's reflective glass skyline. It was built in 1973 and looks like it was built in 1973.

Now, the owners of the development are planning a $100M renovation of the property, and are looking for the state to grant the buildings historic status in order to get over $20M in federal and state tax credits to help finance the project. Usually, a building needs to be over fifty years old to be considered for historic status, or have a great significance. I don't personally believe that these buildings are historically significant enough to be granted this status.

Am I biased, based on the buildings' not-so-flattering nicknames? My opinion is not based on racial stereotypes associated with these buildings, I just don't think they deserve historical status, and therefore don't deserve the funding from the government for their project. What do you think?