Skyways and Byways....

 After World War II, specifically after the creation of the Interstate Highway system, the Twin Cities fell victim to suburbanization. Like almost all major cities, specifically in the Midwest and Northeast, millions fled what was perceived, and often times accurate, increases in crime and poverty. Unfortunately, this rapid suburbanization became a positive feedback loop. With more people, who were generally white and middle class, leaving the cities, a larger urban immobile poor, who were generally minorities, remained leading to increased crime and poverty convincing even more to leave. What was most unfortunate about this white flight phenomenon was that many provisions of the National Housing Act of 1934 promoted what was almost something similar to aparthied in the United States. Some minorities were capable of leaving the inner city but were forced away from the suburbs because of the practice of "redlining" which pretty much delineated where minorities could live. Although not specifically spelled out in law in most places, the act of redlining allowed banks to determine who was eligible for housing assitance and loans in the suburbs based on their own criteria. This resulted in blatant racist application processes which in many cases had questions like "Does he/she act black?" and "Were the applicants great great great grand parents eligible to vote?" (In case you aren't following, blacks couldn't vote when they were slaves). With the practice of redlining, suburbanization wasn't just a trend based on capitalistic desires for cheap housing using relatively low prices of commuting by car, it was also a social phenomenon based on separating races. In cities such as Detroit, redlining was actually a PHYSICAL manifestation. Although the practice of redlining has now been illegalized, the social ills of decades of racial separation are now apparent. Although ironically, many inner cities are seeing a return of what is now their white minorities due to high gas prices and increased urban amenities. But in the 70's many cities struggled to keep businesses and retail customers returning to their central business districts. Especially after shopping malls became the newest construction fad. The first fully enclosed and fully climately controlled mall was built in Edina, MN, a suburb of Minneapolis in 1956 called Southdale Center (and is still in use). Designed by Victor Gruen, an Austrian immigrant, Southdale was a rebuttle of American suburbanization, or at the very least an attempt at a rebuttle. He despised American suburbs do to their down right anti-social arrangement and transportation dependent travel. He attempted to design Southdale like European arcades to act as a community center where people could socialize, eat, drink and mosey about. However, Gruen couldn't exactly emulate the arcades of Europe. His main issue with this assignment was the weather. About Minnesota's weather, Gruen said it was "either freezingly cold... or unbearably hot" and "From these personal experiences, under which I suffered greatly, I came to the conclusion that a[n outdoor] shopping center... would never do. So I carefully prepared the Daytons for the shocking idea of establishing completely weather protected, covered, and climatized public areas." Although Gruen attempted to reinvent the suburb by creating what would be akin to a high street in the UK or arcades in Vienna, but instead closed, he inadvertently created a suburban icon... the shopping mall. 

This was not the last of Victor Gruen however. Saint Paul approached Gruen to help revive its urban core as thousands (almost 100,000) fled the city in search of homes in areas like Maplewood and Roseville. Gruen attempted again to emulate European shopping experience by focusing on its recreational and social aspect of shopping. However, one crucial component of its plan didn't sit well with both city and Federal officials. He intended to restrict cars or downright ban them in much of downtown Saint Paul working towards a pedestrian friendy garden lined public arcade. This was in direct contradiction of what officials believed would help downtown. They had planned (and were eventually successful) on having the Interstate (which is I-94) run between the Capital and downtown providing direct access from the suburbs to allow people to still work and shop downtown. Gruen tried in vain to reroute I-94 north of the capital saying that splitting downtown would not have worked and instead wanted to expand downtown. His plan was rejected as the I-94 plans were already well established at this point. Because the City Planning Board and Gruen conflicted on the role of the personal vehicle, the board tried to create its own plans that would focus on brining cars downtown, a huge non-starter for Gruen. Eventually the planning board separated from Gruen and worked with other developers in transforming downtown, with a vehicle based plan complete with parking ramps. However, Gruen's ideas weren't completely abandoned. They still wanted to focus in a recreational shopping experience and to promote foot traffic AFTER a person or family had arrived downtown....

Introducing...

The skyway!!!

Much like Victor Gruen's Southdale Center, downtown Saint Paul created a climate controlled pedestrian system that connected much of the cities urban core to provide a comfortable social experiment. Much of the 2nd floor in all the buildings connected to the system looks and acts like a sidewalk complete with street businesses. Although the plan for downtown focused on bringing vehicle loving suburbanites downtown, it also tried to shed them from their cars. Contemporary urban planning generally has negative views of skyways because it makes the street look dead. Personally, I don't mind the skyways when its well below 0 F (-18 C). Additionally, I guess I don't really care that there's little street life, I go where there IS life... and finally. During the summer, people are outdoors anyway at sidewalk cafe's, farmers markets, or just milling about. Now that urban areas are continuing to grow again, I believe cities that have skyway or tunnel based pedestrian systems like Minneapolis-St. Paul, Calgary, Edmonton and others will not only have a successful 2nd floor/underground pedestrian ways, but the street level businesses will continue to increase. 

So... in essence... America has malls because... Austrians can't take the weather of Minnesota 

I have new pictures of Saint Paul :)

If you want higher resolution or higher quality pictures, I can host them on imageshack for ya. For some reason Windows image resizer thing (which allows you to resize multiple images at once) isn't that good. It kills the image quality. They aren't that grainy on my computer or if I "manually" resized it in another program.