Bob Spaulding breaks down the “it” status of St Paul neighborhoods based on streetlight over at e-democracy:
“Take a walk down that high-priestess of our City’s commercial corridors - Grand Avenue - and you’ll notice the dominance of the double lantern lighting. So dominant, in fact, that those double lanterns are the symbol of Grand Avenue (see www.grandave.com), and until recently, the Macalester-Groveland Community Council.
What do the lights say to me? That Grand Avenue is “it” of course, the quintessential St. Paul, and has long-since arrived. Surely it wasn’t always this way, but to some, the streetlights seems to hold some sort of mythic power that draws people near. Or pedestrians near. Or something.
And so, other hopeful commercial corridors are apparently trying to woo the bountiful goodness of Grand Avenue with their own streetlights. Selby tried to woo Grand-hoppers a few blocks down Dale to Selby with some new lighting a few years back. And just a few blocks down Selby at Western, the streetlights seem so thick that it could act as a landing strip - and over the years it surely didn’t hurt. The Marshall and Ford bridges are also packed with lights, and an even larger pile of lights adorn each end of the bridge. With a sense of optimism, Phalen Corridor planted lantern lights very few feet, and there’s success there too.”
By the end of next summer, E Lake St will be an “it” street with new streetlights being installed as part of the street’s reconstruction. Look out, Grand Ave. There’s a newly streetlight-lifted street in town.
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