Well, It’s No Paris

Is Minneapolis a “hell hole”? It’s certainly no Paris. Or Philadelphia. Where would late-night star-crossed lovers even serendipitously meet—the Light Rails basically don’t run after bar close and no one serves food after 11 PM. Mike Max, the sports reporter on WCCO TV who also appears on WCCO radio, caused a bit of controversy this week when he and his callers rang up both cities on his radio program. The hell hole comment (shocking he didn’t actually say “heck hole”) wasn’t even the weirdest part,  his main point was that the area was lucky to have the Super Bowl and Final Four before COVID and the protests after George Floyd’s murder. Of course Max wasn’t talking about the entirety of the cities—he metonymically referred to the downtowns at Minneapolis and St. Paul. Here we are yet again. When locations are built and marketed and maintained as all-inclusive resorts, you get entitled tourists who want shuttles to and from the airport and armed guards protecting the bars on the beaches. Hopefully Max can connect with the Downtown-based PACs that funneled a million dollars into Mayor Frey’s re-election campaign to directly share his hot takes.