North Loop, Minneapolis

[Jennifat]

Originally Posted by WalPaulista

Many beautiful buildings just lacking some trees.

Thanks! If you'll look closely, you'll notice that there are young trees throughout the neighborhood, but they're hard to see because they haven't leafed out yet since it's still early spring here. This is a relatively new residential area (in what used to be a purely industrial part of the city), so trees haven't had time to mature.

Also, this is a historic district, and the city of Minneapolis has regulations on where trees can be planted. Some streets/areas are to remain free of trees to maintain the industrial character of the neighborhood.

[WalPaulista]

Well, from other pictures I can see that there are bunches of trees available some meters far, differently from where I live!

But one other thing is that those historical buildings should really be left more visible.

Thanks for the pictures!

[aarhusforever]

Great and very interesting photos Thank you for sharing

[Mudhen419]

Great pics! thanks! are those bikes outside the colonial warehouse "B cycle" rental bikes?

[Jennifat]

Originally Posted by Mudhen419

Great pics! thanks! are those bikes outside the colonial warehouse "B cycle" rental bikes?

They're actually "Nice Ride" bikes, which is a bike rental organization that operates in the Twin Cities only. There are stations all over Minneapolis and St. Paul, so they're quite convenient. I've seen lots of people taking advantage of them this spring.

Over the last decade or so, the Twin Cities (and Minneapolis particularly) have been heavily focusing their efforts to push bicycle transit, and bicycle lanes have been installed on most key streets. If you ever get the chance to visit, a bike ride around the Grand Rounds is probably one of the coolest ways to see the city of Minneapolis.

[Double]

Lately, I've been wondering why people call this area the North Loop.

I think Chicago calls their downtown area The Loop because of the train lines looping around downtown. Minneapolis doesn't have any train lines and nothing else seems to loop around downtown.

Do people just think any downtown is a loop or is there some other reason?

[Major Deegan]

Personally, I prefer the name Warehouse District.

[srsmn]

Originally Posted by Major Deegan

Personally, I prefer the name Warehouse District.

I've always thought (and I might be the only one) that the Warehouse District is pretty much everything from Hennepin to 3rd Avenue North, and that the North Loop is on the other side of the tracks.

I guess I assumed that the name was because the tracks and 94 create a sort of "crescent" shaped loop around the neighborhood...

[Major Deegan]

Well that's what I thought too at first.


The North Loop neighborhood association appears to use the name interchangeably. From the official page:

The Warehouse District North Loop Neighborhood is located along the Mississippi River, adjacent to the heart of Downtown. The
geographic boundaries of the Neighborhood are the Mississippi River on the east from Plymouth Avenue to Hennepin Avenue,
Interstate 94 on the west from Plymouth Avenue to 1st Avenue North, Plymouth Avenue on the north from Interstate 94 to the
Mississippi River, and 3rd Avenue North on the south from Washington Avenue to 1st Avenue North.

We are also provided with a diagram, which complicates things further:



While part of the Warehouse Historic District is indeed included in North Loop, a rather large chunk of it appears to lie outside the neighborhood boundaries.

Confusing?

[Avian001]

As I understand it, "North Loop" derives its name from the streetcar turnaround loop that extended from 4th to 8th avenue and from 1st to 2nd streets north.

You can see it in this aerial from 1937:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[John Nicollet Mall]

Thanks Avian for the map and interesting history. I just noticed the obelisk shadow of The Foshay on the right just above the bottom of the photo! Interesting how dense our downtown once was. I can just imagine if even half those buildings still existed what an amazing character our city would have!