Small Town America with a Big Heart for the World
Hopkins Minnesota: A Great Destination to Call Home
If you've never been to Hopkins Minnesota, you are missing out on one of America's best kept secrets. Nestled 15 miles west of world-famous Minneapolis, adjacent to one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the country - Minnetonka - and just a few short minutes from the Official Home of National Football League's Minnesota Vikings, Hopkins is certainly worth visiting a few times.You've been here many times, even though you've probably never driven within 500 miles of the town. It's one of those small-town American success stories that you see in every State and region of the country. Like I said, you've been here. We all have been here. Let me take you on a small tour.
Let's get the details out of the way first:
Population - 17,591 according to the 2010 census
County - Hennepin
First residents arrived in 1852 and the name was changed to what it now is in 1928.
Most famous for its Raspberry Festival and is known as the Raspberry Capital of the World.
I keep calling Hopkins a town but it really is a small city with a small town feel. You get that sense when you walk down Mainstreet. That's all one word by the way and it drives the linguistic purists insane. Is there an avenue behind it or what about a street? It's anyone's guess really. All the signs say Mainstreet though - one word. I may be the only person in America who's notice the problem, and even then no one else would call it a problem.
Now in 2015 the city council decided to rip up Mainstreet for repairs. I'm certain they came out with a list of items that needed repairing but it still doesn't hide the fact that the entire center of town is torn up, as in, you are not able to drive down the street either way. It's a huge inconvenience to the Summer tourists and a real hassle for the business owners who literally depend on the foot and vehicle traffic to stay alive. It's hard enough to find the town as it is, but with the main drag torn up, it makes it doubly difficult. Why they decided to tear the entire street up is anyone's guess but if I had to venture my own guess, the cynic in me says it was to shovel some business to a friend of one of the City Council members. That has absolutely no basis for truth and it's clearly my opinion, but I've been studying human beings for 50 years and I've seen hundreds of small town and big city kickbacks. Again, this may totally NOT be the case, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were. Politicians the world over are like that.
When the main drag isn't torn to bits and pieces,there are quite a few shops, restaurants, bars, and non-profit organizations within a ten-minute walk of one another. Let me walk you down that street. The first establishment after you hit the general "downtown" area is the sushi bar called Aji Sushi. I've been in the place once but it's not because it was a bad place. I just don't like sushi. Actually that's not true. I've never had sushi. The thought of voluntarily eating raw fish just doesn't really do anything for me. It's probably a great place to eat, and by the steady business it receives from lunch through close every day, many people like it. They are not overflowing crowds but it doesn't hurt for business at all.
On this same block is an old-timed auction house called Bernstein's. When we first moved to the town, it was not quite ready for prime time, and when they did open its doors, we lost some coveted parking spaces. What I mean by that is that our building management owned the building Bernstein's was in. When they opened their doors, the parking spaces that about 15 of us used daily was taken. We were no longer allowed to park in that area. We had to fend for ourselves on the streets. What was interesting about that was two months prior to us being forced out of the parking area, management sent around a request that we submit the license numbers of all our vehicles. The implication at the time, or so I thought, was that we'd be the only ones allowed to park there. That was 180 degrees from the truth. Because we had given our license plate numbers out, they had a record of who was allowed to park there and who wasn't! They used our numbers against us. So I have mixed feelings about the Bernstein's auction because they really only seemed to have auctions every Thursday or every other Thursday or some such. It certainly wasn't daily.
The other beef I had with the auction house was when they first opened shop, I browsed their website. I don't recall the details right now, but there was a glaring error on one of their pages that would not allow the page to load. I dropped them a quick line and within the day they had fixed the error. I didn't get as much as a thank you from the owner. That's a shame.But it's something we really should keep in mind throughout life, if someone helps you, at the very least thank that person. Two years later I have a negative taste in my mouth towards a company I have never used nor will ever use.
Of course Hopkins has its fair share of chiropractors, fitness centers, doctors, lawyers, dentists, restaurants, and even a two-dollar movie theater. Curiously, there are a fair number of nail salons in town too, and one seems to be opening up every month. I'm not sure of the fascination but there must be a huge demand for it.I only say that because my fingers literally have NO nails to speak of so why would people pay good money to paint them up?
One of the things I recall about living in this small berg is the bar wars that occur on the weekends. There are two bars in particular that just open up their windows and let the barsounds escape. The bars are literally across the street from each other, and as you pass by at night, you really can't talk to someone else as you pass by. It didn't used to be that way but Mainstreet Bar and Grill received some competition in early 2015 when Pub 819 opened its door across the street. Their claim was that they had 70+ kinds of whiskey in stock. They had a good marketing strategy so they became popular fast.
This sleepy little town also has an arts theater (Hopkins Center for the Arts) but quite honestly I've never been in it. It's not that I don't like theater art it's just that they've taken a common but insane political position that I care not support. One of the more common practices among n'ere-do-wells is to Ban Guns on its premises. Time and time again, many mass shooting occur when well-meaning people make it policy to post to the entire world that nobody inside will have guns. Of course they don't post that but that's the net effect. I really wish they would just take down the silly and dangerous sign so that I could feel safe knowing that somebody in the theater could have a concealed carry. Now, you could make an argument that they are only signs and they really have no weight. That could be true. I'm not the only person who thinks like this nor am I the only person who would not visit the arts center because of its policies. So then why do they post the signs? So, yes, it's a political issue that the promoters really don't get, nor will they ever get. Am I missing out on something fabulous? Probably. But sometimes you have to do unpopular and disciplined things.
Labels: Deep Haven, Eden Prairie, Edina, Excelsior, Golden Valley, minneapolis, Minnesota, Minnetonka, SouthWest Metro, St. Louis Park, Twin Cities
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