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Comment by colechristensen | Hacker News Reader

I in uptown and got an email a few weeks ago explaining the bullet holes in the building, and still get emails from the U about armed robberies regularly and much more often than a decade before. There is no question crime rates are up significantly, police are too busy to respond to many calls, and even caught crime isn’t being investigated, charged, or convicted anywhere near properly.

The restaurant scene did take a significant covid dip and several of my favorite places are gone but there is still quite a lot and a few new things.

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Yeah uptown got hit really hard. Maybe the other commenters don't live in uptown but I do and the crime issues are pretty wild since the riots. My neighbor was carjacked at gunpoint by a group of teenagers in our parking lot. You have to be very aware of your surroundings now. I'd say about half of the businesses have closed permanently around me.

The Walgreens on 27th and Hennepin gets robbed at least once a month. One time they just shot up drive through windows and the employees left while they robbed the place. Luckily the glass is bulletproof on them. The cops don't seem to really respond things.

One of the weirdest things was this summer where they were doing construction on 28th and Hennepin and there was a cop posted up there during the day. I asked him why and he said "because the construction workers were being assaulted and their tools were being stolen". And this is in a nice area right by Lake of the Isles.

Deny it if you want, it's just like a political mess now because the DA will no longer bring a lot of prosecutions to trial it seems like.

Sure, a few restaurants I loved have closed, but that seems to mostly be due to covid (e.g. Bachelor's Farmer) or poor management (Butcher & the Boar). If anything restaurants have gotten even better in the last 10 years in the Twin Cities. There's of course higher-end places like Spoon and Stable, Kado no Mise, and Owamni, and also quite a few better Chinese options that have opened in Dinkytown (e.g., Lao Sze Chuan). And of course old favorites like Bar La Grassa that's still going strong.

My pet theory on Bachelor Farmer is that being owned by the Daytons affected the closing quite a bit.

It was a hobby of theirs, but nothing they were willing to keep around as a risk (contrast with Spoon and Stable, Gavin’s identity). The other restaurants in the area are booming (Kado no Mise, Belacour, Billys are a few particular post-Covid success stories on the same block)

I just wish somebody would take that wonderful space. I’m sure it commands a hefty rent.

Batchelor Farmer went downhill when the original chef left, years before Covid. Spoon and Stable spelled the end of it what with being a block away and far better. I visit MN a couple times a year from CA, the food scene is strong and getting stronger.

Speaking of North Loop - rich get richer I suppose.

https://northloop.org/prominent-chef-turning-ribnicks-into-r...

Interesting... that fur store always seemed so out of place in the North Loop as shiny new apartments and restaurants sprouted up around it.

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