Twelve blocks of downtown Minneapolis belong to people, not cars. Nicollet Mall, the city’s pedestrian promenade since 1967 and beautifully rebuilt in 2017, threads cafés, public art, fountains and green “living rooms” between the riverfront and the convention center.
At 7th Street, everyone stops for the same photo: the Mary Tyler Moore statue, tossing her hat into the air exactly where the show’s opening credits made Minneapolis famous. Thursday farmers markets have filled the mall for a century, and winter brings the Holidazzle parade’s lights under the skyways’ glow.
The IDS Center’s Crystal Court — a soaring glass atrium designed by Philip Johnson — anchors the mall’s middle, while the Foshay Tower, the city’s first skyscraper, keeps watch from a block away. This is downtown’s front porch: stroll it slowly.
