Tuesday, July 14, 2009

You Might Not Make It After All

Well, if Mary Richards thought life in a studio apartment with a nosy live-in landlord was difficult, have I got some news for her, news I'm sure WJM hasn't picked up on yet. It seems that schmancy highrise she fled to after Rhoda and Phyllis skipped town has turned into a breeding ground for Somali jihadists, including dozens of college students who turned their backs on America and joined the ranks of a militant Islamist group aligned with al-Qaida. The New York Times reports: "The men appear to have been motivated by a complex mix of politics and faith, and their communications show how some are trying to recruit other young Americans to their cause. ... When they ended their shifts as cabdrivers or janitors, many Somalis retreated from American life. They had transformed a blighted stretch near the Mississippi River into a Little Mogadishu, commandeering a grim collection of cinderblock buildings known as the Towers ... residence of the heroine of 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show.'"

OH, MR. GRANT!!! Suddenly Phyllis Lindstrom and a pullout sofa don't seem so bad, do they Mare? Serves you right for giving up the coolest apartment ever. One mishap involving veal Prince Orloff and people are just so ready to move on ...

The Towers: It's a long way from North Weatherly Avenue ...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually Kenneth, its known as Ghetto in the Sky as we called it. It's the worse of the worse! I wouldn't dare walking through there during the day! Some of the folks who live there are some of the most unfriendliest people and it's giving a very bad name for the one that are actually really nice. Sad but true!

S

scottmplsmn said...

Ah yes, good old Cedar Riverside Towers....also known as the sty in the sky! Yup, things sure have changed since the days of MTM, and not for the better either. It's truly a Somali ghetto over there.

jim said...

ok - I have a schematic of Mary Richards' apt that was given to me by a guy who was going to do a calendar with each month being a different floor plan of famous TV characters. I have it framed but rip it apart everytime I know I'm going to get close to one of the cast members. So far, Mary, Valerie, Georgia and Cloris have all signed it (Cloris actually defaced it by drawing another room on it!!)

And a long time ago, I found this website that pointed out all the famous spots used in the opening and closing credits of the MTM show - where they were, how you could get access to them, etc. When they talked about the high rise apt. bldg, the language was all about how the neighborhood wasn't quite the same, don't go there alone and lock your car doors at all times.

Your post today only adds more color to it all.

thanks so much for the smile.

Steve said...

A long time ago, the high rise was described by a friend as the "concrete hemorrhoids, and the area is now dominated by Muslims. One of the Twin Cities' top theaters, Mixed Blood is near there, but what was a fun, somewhat dumpy area in the 1970s now has a ghetto atmosphere.

It's a pleasure to take visitors to the Mary Tyler Moore house, especially at night. The area which was Mary's apartment, which was, at one time, presumably the ballroom is often lit up at night. Mary was walking around Lake of the Isles, which is near the house, although it wasn't in North Minneapolis, it's very much is the Southeast area of the city.