Wednesday, May 6, 2009

No More Mail Collected Here: More Signs Of Deep Demographic Change In NoMi

Photo By John Hoff 

I was mailing a letter a few days ago, and I encountered yet another sign of the deep demographic change which has taken place in North Minneapolis due to foreclosures and associated vacancies. So deep are the demographic shifts, that a rather smart friend of mine asserts in the next census North Minneapolis might be no longer "majority black." One thing is for sure: this place has lost an incredible amount of population.

So one sees little signs of how much has changed. And here's one of those signs:

Next to the "super market" style liquor store at Lyndale Ave. N. and West Broadway, where no-account characters pretty much hang out in and around the parking lot all the time, loitering for no good purpose, there is blue post office box. I often use it because it is convenient.

Well, that won't be happening anymore....


An official notice on the box says the box will soon be removed, and it states the reason. Mail at that collection point has dropped off sharply.

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign...that things have deeply, irrevocably changed, and until the next census data rolls around, we can hardly reckon up what, exactly, the changes are.

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