Macy's Gives Workers a Yellow Slip

It was early January when Macy's in downtown St. Paul announced its intention to close its doors.  No one seemed surprised.  The first week of clearance sales brought out the downtown workers and the comments I heard from shoppers were pretty much what I think.  That is...."I did my part to buy stuff but I guess it wasn't good enough".  No one seemed particularly sad.  The truth is Macy's is not going to be a store that I will miss.  I have a love-hate relationship with the Macy's coupons that come every other day in the mail.  Every shopping experience became a 7th grade math quiz.  You have two coupons....one for $15.00 off a $50.00 purchase and one coupon for 20% off of one purchase.  The pants I want are $65.00 on Monday but will be 25% off on Wednesday which brings them down to $48.00.  What do I need to do to get my maximum discount?  The answer is that I need to keep shopping for more stuff which must be what they intended.  The question now is what goes in that space.  I hear plenty of people hoping for a Target store.  I say the Target store out on Robert Street is close enough.  My suggestion is to have the Minnesota Museum of American Art move into the space and share some of those 4,000 works of art they have in storage.

St. Paul's Living Room

On cold mornings like today I wished I lived directly on the skyway so I could skip the jacket, the hat, and the gloves.  But I don't so I bundled up and walked to my nearest skyway entrance in the direction of the Union Depot.  Saturday, Dec 8th was the grand opening of the "Waiting Room".  If you haven't been there yet that's the long, skinny building behind the Union Depot that had been closed up since the 70's when Amtrak train service was moved out to the Midway area.  Some local bus service has already started and the Jefferson Line will begin service this January. Train service starts sometime in 2013.  I was at the Waiting Room on the 8th and unlike this morning it was packed with thousands of lookers.  This morning there were about 6 of us including some workers.  It's been called "St. Paul's Living Room" so I wanted to find out if it really is or if the security guard would suggest I move along cause there's no loitering here.  The chairs are cushy just like in a real living room.  My husband brought his coffee and a good book.  The view of the river is better than in our living room.  I brought along a sketch pad and my new set of pencils. Sketching is not an easy thing I found out this morning.  But it was my first try at it.  There were many activities for the crowd on the day of the grand opening but the one I enjoyed the most was talking to the guy at the table inviting folks to sketch something in the Union Depot.  I was amazed by his own sketch book chronically the union depot workers and years of construction work in the building.  You can see some of the sketches from the 8th at urbansketchers-twincities.blogspot.com.
Local sketchers can join groups like Urban Sketchers and MetroSketchers and share their work.  What I like about the idea of sketching is that you have to linger in a location longer than it takes to snap a photo and St. Paul's new living room seems like a nice place to linger.   

Cathedral in Winter

Weeks ago an odd looking contraption was built along side the St. Paul Cathedral. Eventually it took form into a long elevated downhill racetrack made of ice that would be the site for Crashed Ice 2012. Last night after elimination rounds on Thursday and Friday the final 64 skaters (and the audience) put on a great spectacle. Starting at the Cathedral each heat pitted 4 skaters racing downhill over curves and bumps and going speeds of cars on nearby 35 South and ending somewhere within easy access of United Hospital. Who would not want to watch that! I bet event sponsors Red Bull were a little worried when temperatures earlier in the week got up to a record 52 degrees, but temperatures finally dropped to normal January lows. The snowfall on Saturday afternoon will certainly give the rest of the country a better winter wonderland image of St Paul when the event is televised on NBC later in the month. Last night the city predicted record crowds would swarm into downtown to watch that event and they did...maybe just not the 100k that some predicted.

Edo Woman

It's nearly December and that means two things. The first is that I better get some Christmas shopping started and the second is that I start to crave a trip to anywhere sunny and warm. I can get a direct flight to Phoenix or Fort Meyers and be there in less than 4 hours. Hop on the 54 bus from downtown and I can be at the airport in 20 minutes. But yesterday was sunny in the Twin Cities so I talk myself out of that idea and decide on local travel instead...across the river to the other city and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. I had seen the advertisement for the Edo Pop exhibit on one of the bus shelters in downtown but didn't think I would be interested in it. I learned that Edo is the former name for Tokyo. The majority of the MIA is free but there is usually a charge for special exhibits like the Edo Pop. I never got further than the first floor and spent most of that time in the Bonjour Japon: A Parisian Love Affair with Japanese Art exhibit. Did you know that if the museum owns the art then you can take a photo of it (without flash of course)? I loved the Parisian exhibit so I think I'll be back to the MIA to see the Edo Pop exhibit too but I'll do that on December 11th when the special exhibits are free. Lunch....you could eat at the museum, but Eat Street otherwise known as Nicollet Avenue is blocks away. I stood outside Lu's Vietnamese sandwich shop pondering the photos when Lu opened the door for me and urged me inside. I had the mock duck sandwich and it was tasty. I tried a can of penywort pop. Unfortunately it tasted like something scrapped off the side of a fish tank mixed with a little sugar. I asked the owner if it had some kind of health benefits. Who would drink it otherwise. He thought it was good to cure a bloody nose and maybe a cold. I had neither when I woke up this morning. So I've temporarily solved my need for travel. I better start thinking about that Christmas shopping.

Downtown News

I don't subscribe to a local newspaper. Once in awhile I will pick up the Pioneer Press if I'm walking around downtown. I guess I don't get my news from any one source any more. Sometimes I'll get my news from the local TV broadcast but that can be frustrating because I can't sit through all of the advertising and most of the news shows advertise during the show about what they will tell you later. Yesterday in one advertisement for the news at 10pm with Frank Vascellero (on WCCO) they announced that he will talk about how he lost 20lbs in a month. Although I applaud him for his diet, that's not really news...should news people show news stories about themselves? I think we all know how to diet even though we may not do it....eat less, eat better, exercise more. This morning I went to the Internet version of the Pioneer Press. I learned that there was a gas leak several blocks from where I live but it has been fixed. Good to know. Also they found the guy that stabbed someone over at the Cherokee Tavern. Good news. That's just over the high bridge and up the hill a 1/2 mile. They should also have mentioned that this is a nice place and don't be afraid to go. They make a nice chicken pot pie and have a great happy hour. But skip the chicken pot pie unless you plan on walking there and back because it is definitely not on your diet. I also read about the 3 million dollars that the city council found laying around under the so-called sofa cushions. The funds came from from unused Star grant funds promised for development projects that never got off the ground. So really its not missing cash but rather checks that were never sent out because the folks who wanted the money decided that they didn't need it after all. That's simplifying the thing of course and the city should review the status of grant funds annually. Now they just need to make an accounting adjustment and open up those funds to other groups that can use them. What is interesting to me in this story is the negative viewer comments shouting out fraud and mismanagement. At least with a story on the Internet we get to find out what other readers think.

Thanks

Thanks for reading my blog. Looking back I see I started this thing a year ago on September 26th of 2010. I usually try to enter something once a week but I don't always make my made-up deadline. What happened in October??? Not a single entry. My Mother noticed. Well, I could offer several excuses. Maybe I wasn't feeling that great....allergies flaring up....but I don't usually have allergies this time of year. I am convinced that downtown has a cone of pollution hanging over it right now from all the digging that has been going on. Maybe I didn't write anything in October because I didn't go anywhere or see anything interesting. Well, that's not exactly true either. I saw the zombies in Mears Park on October 8th. Unfortunately I tossed out my zombie bride outfit about 8 years ago so I was only an observer and therefore couldn't be counted toward the attempt to set the Guinness world record. The park was full but did they have the 8,000 that they were hoping for? I haven't heard the verdict on that one. I attended Sample Night Live at the History Theater on October 5th. I could have written about that. The first Wednesday of the month they host 10 to 12 performers who each get about 15 minutes to perform. It is very much like an old fashion variety show so if you don't like the jazz singer you might like the poetry slam performance or the improvisational comedy act. My favorite act last month was a comedian named Linda Aarons. I enjoyed hearing her talk about nothing more than her own name for a solid two minutes. They give out prizes too. Last month I came home with one free Flamenco dance lesson. I went to Plug-In St Paul on the evening of October 20th at the Crowne Plaza too. I certainly could have written about that. Why weren't there more people there??? It should have been packed. It was held at the top of the hotel overlooking the river in the old carousel dining room which is now only open for events. It still has the revolving platform and the view at sunset was spectacular....free hors d'oeuvres too.....come on people. The real reason I went was to hear about "ranked voting" which we will use to elect our next city council members next Tuesday. Hope we have better voter turn out than the Plug-In St Paul event. Well, I feel better now that I have at least re-capped October and look forward to whatever November will bring to downtown living.

Road Work Ahead

On a stroll through town I heard a fellow walker say to his companion "downtown is under construction". Well, yes that would be an understatement. One bicyclist passing the Union Depot construction site mumbled "I hate this". Even my own condo is under construction as I am trying to finish painting walls before the winter weather sets in. Orange diamond shaped signs with Road Work Ahead are located everywhere downtown. Maybe I should have one of those on my front door. I've noticed that a few of those orange signs have added ornamentation in black and blue and shiny white....no doubt unauthorized by the city planners or safety sign makers. I like the one with the black and blue star even if it is not authorized. Maybe we could adopt it as the universal sign for Problems Ahead Just Go With It. Even as my own personal painting project is zipping along it seems that we are making speedy progress in downtown too. The Union Depot LRT stop on 4th St is taking shape. Will that be called the 4th Street Station? I bet the owners of the 4th Street Station Bar would like that. The skyway connection that was removed on Cedar and 5th is moving along this week too with its reconstruction. I remember the city saying that it would be done by November and I think that might actually happen. That connection is important for anyone wanting to get to the library or the Excel Center without having to set foot outside in the winter. It's not that I mind walking to the library outside. In fact I normally prefer it and I enjoy sitting in Rice Park across from the library before I return home. Has anyone noticed the lovely new garden and benches across from the library that the city constructed this summer? Earlier in the week as I sat there (it was getting darker by the minute), I noticed that the garden is completely overrun with mice....not unattractive mice exactly. No, I would say they were the cutest, tiniest brown mice I've ever seen. Beatrix Potter would have loved to capture them in a drawing or two and I imagine they too are busy with their own construction projects far below the new garden in Rice Park.