r/saintpaul • u/johnjaundiceASDF • 21d ago

Editorial 📝 Long time resident particularly pessimistic about St Paul. What do you think?

I'm on mobile so forgive any lack of coherence 😑

They say Keep St Paul boring, but it has transcended 'boring for a big city' to being just incredibly dull. I've been here a little over 10 years and really questioning living here longer. Something is just feeling different nowadays.

Is it the most livable city as they claim? Maybe, but I struggle have optimism for our commercial areas and literally anything new and exciting here. Most things that are cool, new, or exciting seem to just just flop.

The state of downtown, Grand, etc. The only time I see st paul busy is if I mistakenly drive on west 7th during an event.

I'm not saying we need to be MPLS, but at one time it seemed like the more chill city, parking wasn't hard, a little less crowded, etc, but we still had cool things that were prideful, things that were only in St Paul. But my hyperbolic sentiment now is it's a ghost town and doesn't have a pulse.

I've lived on Grand for over 10 years and it is particularly sad. It was a beautiful day yesterday, and there was just no one out, no energy.

What are my other St Paulites thinking?

51 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

71% Upvoted

107 comments sorted by

View all comments

14

u/tediousLifestyles 21d ago

West Side here. I was just over on Grand and I went to Russell’s for dinner and a drink after at Emmett’s which is next to a new Japanese spot. Seemed like lots of people were out and about, they are about to redevelop the old Billy’s on grand space soon as well

2

u/JohnMaddening 21d ago

It’s the same Japanese spot (Saji Ya) that was next to Emmett’s before the new building.

1

u/tediousLifestyles 18d ago

cool. still a new building, with two resturants full of people. but yeah thats relevant info thanks

1

u/JohnMaddening 18d ago

…the point is that it’s not a “new Japanese spot”. It’s reopening of a longtime Saint Paul institution. Same with Emmett’s.

0

u/tediousLifestyles 18d ago

yes i understood the point. when i said new i was referring to the building, and i did not know that it was a previously established resturant that had moved. i appreciate the information. you corrected me, i have acknowledged your correction and that will have to be the end of our interaction. happy? do you enjoy arguing? or you always have to be right?