FULL EPISODE: Bloomington, Minnesota | Main Streets

[@blue6point62]

Unsung hero of the bicycle industry, QBP.

[@Goadenhomestead]

I grew up in Bloomington. There was/is a man who was/is my neighbor who remembers Bloomington as farmland. He currently sets up all the bluebirds houses you see around the lakes.

[@vondagrubb4623]

Great video!

[@SteveRuprecht]

My favorite part of Bloomington is every year after the algae blooms from the fertilizer dumped around the office park around Normandale and the heat of the late summer sun causes a mass die off and the entire area smells like a rotting corpse.

[@visiongoo]

Never heard of Wally's. Denny's Bakery on American Boulevard is a Bloomington staple not mentioned here, putting that out there I guess. Haven't been there post pandemic though.

[@VegasInsight]

interesting show. i work in bloomington, quite extensively. seeing the choices of what is and isn't featured in this show is curious. you can't go to Bloomington without hyping up MOA. i remember the days of the ice rink at Mayfair Mall. i'm surprised John is so dazzled by an amusement park inside MOA, given he grew up in Milwaukee. did you forget Old Chicago? i guess i'm not as amazed by an amusement park in a mall given I was born in NW Indiana and went to Old Chicago once during my youth. no, Old Chicago didn't last 30 years, but given it came and went before MOA was ever imagined, Nickelodeon Universe isn't so amazing to me. cool to see unique, local businesses such as Mhiripiri Gallery and Wally's Roast Beef featured. QBP is interesting and noteworthy, but i'm at a loss to figure out why it warranted as much time as it did. and while it's mildly interesting to note that DQ now calls Bloomington its corporate home. why not feature Toro, which is now 110 years old and has had a presence in Bloomington for more than six decades? that's certainly more notable than DQ. you have to know where to look, but the Japanese garden is hardly a secret. it's a shame that was glossed over, yet you spent a few minutes talking about pickleball. sure, Bloomington has been a leader in making the game available through its parks, but the game wasn't invented in Bloomington. very odd choice for an extensive feature. the old farm is noteworthy, no doubt. although the family has been farming there for nearly a century, they're willing to sell for the right price, and it won't be bought for farming. they were going to sell out to the city many years ago if Minnesota landed a World Expo. that didn't happen, so the city didn't buy the land. but that land is worth millions of dollars, and when the price is right, you won't see sheep there. nobody will say so, but it'll be sold. a shame that you spent time in Bloomington and didn't show off the 100-year-old bridge that leads to the river, and was restored at a cost of more than $10 million as a pedestrian access to the other side of the river. or show the miles of trails along the river, providing largely unpaved access for bicycling... at least for now. some day we may have a paved path all along the river. the ski jump has interesting history, and it's unique, just as our little suburban "mountain" is down the road. yet downhill skiing in the middle of a huge suburb like Bloomington doesn't warrant inclusion? the Bloomington Ferry Bridge would have been another old bridge that has been repurposed and is deserving of recognition over pickeball. that old town hall building you showcased is now the historical society. folks there can talk about how why the town hall was there once upon a time. lots of trails and unique recreational spaces that would have been worth including, too. and speaking of museums, there's one dedicated to preserving the memory of Northwest Airlines, and it's in Bloomington's South Loop District. that would have been more interesting to see than how they make a roast beef sandwich at Wally's. you can't feature it all in one half-hour program, and if you ask 10 people, they'd have different ideas about what should be prioritized in less than 30 minutes. i will be eternally baffled by some of the choices in this program.

[@lauriecederstrommatson1043]

I have to check out Wally’s Roast Beef!