March 16, 2003

Applebee’s downtown. Applebee’s downtown. APPLEBEEE’S, fer crissakes! Did you know they’re putting an Applebee’s downtown on Block E? I can’t believe this. Have you ever, EVER been downtown and thought, “Damn! There are so many restaurants I can’t get anywhere else in the metro area, but I sure wish there were an Applebee’s I could get to right now.” NO! Because there are Applebee’s everywhere. Everywhere! In order to have a vibrant downtown, you need to have things down there that people can only get downtown. Why do we expect people to come downtown for mainstream movies, Applebee’s, and Borders? They won’t if they can get it in Brooklyn Center, fer cryin’ out loud. But the worst part about this is the political posturing over it all. My (and your) tax dollars went to subsidize this homogenized crap (only non-homogenized crap for me, please) while the city refuses to give ANY money to finance a baseball stadium. Ugh. If they didn’t build the applebee’s, I’d have to drive, what, five minutes to get to the nearest one? Take away my professional baseball team and I have to drive six hours to see a game in Milwaukee. And you know what? I bet they make a local news story out of that damn applebee’s opening up. I will say this, though…you’ve really got to hand it to that city council…the applebee’s is an improvement over the parking lot they let sit there for over a dozen years. Ptui. - Scott

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