If humanity flies to Mars and builds a city there, it will look like Minneapolis. At first glance, it sounds absurd — how a normal building of glass and concrete may be associated with the space, conquest of the universe, the future? It may be! As well as the future Martians, residents of Minneapolis do not come to the surface of the planet. The only astronauts that came up this morning in the outer Minneapolis were my brother and me. Citizens get around the city solely by cars. Moreover, we found no catering facilities, could not find even McDonald’s. What’s the city of the future without McDonald’s…
Understanding came later. It turned out that everyday life in the city continues inside buildings that are connected by enclosed pedestrian footbridges.
169 buildings in the Minneapolis downtown are connected with transitions, they form the SkyWay system, which total length is 11 km.
2Outdoor is harsh Midwestern winter and temperature is -20, and inside — comfortable year-round +20. Minneapolis residents use SkyWay with great pleasure even in summer.
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If you can pave a route successfully , you can «go out» in the morning, get work, go for lunch, work again, go shopping, hang out with friends, come back home and still never get outside.
They say that has grown up a whole generation of people who never went on to the streets of Minneapolis. And a percentage of people with dromophobia here is the highest in the States.
5Each new building is connected to the SkyWay, it is usually assigned the first two floors or only the second. None of the developers waives such opportunities, you can profitably sell Skyway areas to restaurants and shops, and advertising agencies do not abhor to show their ads for people, traveling by SkyWay.
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Even parks are situated inside buildings (building IDS Center, the highest building of Minneapolis and Minnesota):
11Free maps of SkyWay are placed for city guests, native Minneapolis residents know by heart all the entrances and exits on the native space station:
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SkyWay seemed too futuristic for us, we got used to walk the streets. So after a few twists and couple passages, we found a way out. Downtown of Minneapolis is no different from other major American city centers.
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To get to the upper floors was not an easy task. We hadn’t seen any tablets with invitation and cards of a route in the lobby, and guard began to look at us with suspicion when we passed them for the fifth time.
It may sound crazy, but the police came to help us. The same officers Boulay and Lisholms from the article about the American police. They were very nice and immediately warned us that it’s a private property, so we may have problems. But they know one quiet elevator with a minimum of guards where we can lift up. They gave us the following instructions — with a straight face pass the security post, turn left on the first corridor, take the elevator and go to the top floor. Officers said they will wait for us on the 1st floor if someone calls the police, and they are already here.
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View of the home stadium of MLB Minnesota Twins. It is called after agglomeration «Twin Cities» (population is 3.5 million people), which includes Minneapolis and neighboring city-state capital — St. Paul.
21We took only few pictures, because there was preparing for a banquet and we bother attentive waiters.
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At the first floor, with unconcealed excitement, officers Boulay and Lisholms were expecting for us. They said that we worked cleanly, no one called the police. We showed the pictures, talked with officers for some time and agreed to visit their station with an unofficial visit the next day .
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To see natural sights would be interesting for tourists. They say (we haven’t seen personally) that the city has got 24 lakes, many of them are even very picturesque. Unfortunately, in the winter, we could not check it.
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