It’s been roughly six months since I last interviewed Eric Roper. He has been writing for the Star Tribune since 2009, and his columns fuel a significant amount of conversation in Minneapolis and the surrounding area.
For this interview, I wanted to hear more about his recent work. Links provided below. Over the past month, he has weighed in on some of the city’s most difficult topics. We agreed that the solutions aren’t easy and that real progress will require a genuine change in mindset from both the mayor and the city council.
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Interview Summary
On Uptown, Roper is cautiously optimistic. He pointed to a new Urban Land Institute report outlining actionable improvements: creating a Business Improvement District modeled on the downtown example, better marketing of existing parking, developing a more walkable “Uptown Alley” behind Seven Points, and, his personal favorite, extending the Como-Harriet streetcar line along the Midtown Greenway to the Uptown Transit Center as a bold, tourist-friendly connector. He acknowledged that near-term steps like walking groups and increased police presence matter, but argued that real revival will require market intervention, possibly including the city purchasing key properties or using tax increment financing to retrofit outdated retail buildings.
On downtown, Roper made the case that Minneapolis has spent roughly 25 years stepping back from the market interventions that once drove its revival, while St. Paul, having hit rock bottom, is now moving with urgency, committing county dollars to housing and riverfront development. He expressed frustration that neither the mayor nor the council is treating the erosion of the commercial tax base with the seriousness it demands. The revenue losses from deeply discounted building sales won’t fully appear in the tax rolls for another year or two, by which point the damage will be much harder to reverse.
On the drug paraphernalia decriminalization debate, Roper was characteristically nuanced. He acknowledged that since the current ordinance clearly isn’t solving the open drug use problem in Uptown and elsewhere, the case for decriminalization has some merit. But he said he was left uneasy by what he described as the “kid gloves” approach of harm reduction providers who deliberately avoid steering people toward treatment.
He also made the case for a regional summit bringing together law enforcement, social service agencies, counties, and nonprofits around a shared strategy. The fragmentation of the metro, 140-plus cities, seven counties, 35 police chiefs in Hennepin County alone, makes coordinated action extremely difficult, and no one appears to be pushing for it.
On city governance, Roper described the council as “must-see TV in a bad way.” He credited the more progressive bloc for having a clear and active policy agenda, but noted that the mayor and his allies are largely playing defense without offering a competing vision. He stopped short of predicting how things improve, and said he will be listening closely to the mayor’s upcoming State of the City address for any signal that a course correction is in the works.
Thank you for reading and caring about Minneapolis.
Links to the columns we discussed:
Five great ideas to improve Uptown, the Twin Cities’ most enduring commercial hub
March 27
The new season of Minneapolis City Council is must-see TV, in a bad way
April 11
Is now the right time for Minneapolis to loosen its drug laws?
April 14
Hunger strikers say the government is wrong about incinerator’s risks. I don’t buy it.
April 17
Only one of our Twin Cities appears serious about reviving its downtown
April 24
