Rethink the Endless War on Street Art

As a person who grew up in Minnesota, I know how long the months of February and March drag on as we wait for the brown grass to transition to colorful flowers and ice-free lakes. A prominent contributor to such a drab winter landscape is the monotone streetscape itself, with its gray pavement and stainless steel posts, and Minneapolis’ unique red-backed stop signs repeated at each intersection. These places aren’t welcoming and are void of culture, which reflects upon the city itself. Nicollet Mall and downtown Minneapolis as a whole come to mind when thinking of examples of “drab.” A moment that triggered me to notice the flaws of our downtown was when multiple out-of-state students at the University of Minnesota mentioned how dead and unwelcoming our core was compared with ones they were more familiar with, like Boston and Chicago. Why wasn’t there a “Gum Wall” or any hot dog vendors? A colorless city that is a vertical and horizontal parking lot. South Fifth Street and Second Avenue North in Minneapolis, formerly the Gateway District. While we have the Bob Dylan mural and the Stone Arch Bridge to show the world, we lack a real downtown culture in Minneapolis....