Fury as Minnesota city's downtown looks worse than ever four years after ex-mayor unveiled $100m to

[rangerrebew]

Fury as Minnesota city's downtown looks worse than ever four years after ex-mayor unveiled $100m to revive it
 
By JACK TOLEDO

Published: 16:39 EDT, 30 September 2026 | Updated: 16:52 EDT, 30 September 2026
 
Downtown business owners in St. Cloud, Minnesota, have grown hopeless after waiting years for the ex-mayor's $100 million proposal to revive the city.

Former Mayor Dave Kleis launched an effort to revitalize the struggling downtown in 2022 before unveiling a colossal $100 million state bonding request the following year to bring much-needed life to the area.

Kleis's proposal included a skyway system, hundreds of housing units and a riverfront plaza, all designed with input from experts.
 
However, the $100 million request was not funded, and lawmakers ultimately approved just $6.4 million in state funding this year, after Kleis left office.

Now, for shop owners like Bubba Hollenhorst, who opened Gnarly Bard Theater on St. Germain Street two years ago, hope seems lost as almost none of the plan has come to fruition.

'It's a ghost town,' Hollenhorst told the Star Tribune. 'Hopefully - slowly over the next decade - downtown will get cooler.

'But right now, I'm not super optimistic.'

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16172855/st-cloud-minnesota-downtown-revitalization.html

[andy58-in-nh]

The obvious fallacy here is that government spending is "investment" of the kind that creates economic development, opportunity, wealth and jobs.

It never does. But try explaining that to a Leftist.

Instead of getting an explanation, you'll be accused of one or more of the "-isms" and/or "privileges" that substitute for argument and thought.

And so: nothing ever gets done, and things get worse.