What is Minneapolis like today?

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Flatiowa

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Flatiowa
I ask because I know some people from Italy that are scheduled to fly into Minneapolis later in the week for a large work project. There are countless news articles/shows showing it is currently “not normal buisness as usual” there. I have heard third hand reports from people I know that have family that live there that in the areas they live it is getting intense. Should I work hard to get them to land in a different airport and accept costs of the late change of destination? The logistics in place have them overnighting in Minneapolis when they land before driving rental cars to northern iowa the next morning.
 
iu
 
Doc Holliday said:
iu
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I absolutely do not want to start a debate on what is going on one way or the other, simply to get information of what current on the ground conditions are without media bias from either side from people who are in the area. These are highly skilled engineers sent to assist on the instillation of some multimillion dollar processing equipment by the manufacturer of that equipment. Their arrival on site at projected times is critical to a very complex instillation encompassing work crews from a hand full of companies.
 
Flatiowa said:
I absolutely do not want to start a debate on what is going on one way or the other, simply to get information of what current on the ground conditions are without media bias from either side from people who are in the area. These are highly skilled engineers sent to assist on the instillation of some multimillion dollar processing equipment by the manufacturer of that equipment. Their arrival on site at projected times is critical to a very complex instillation encompassing work crews from a hand full of companies.
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Are you new here?
 
Flatiowa said:
I ask because I know some people from Italy that are scheduled to fly into Minneapolis later in the week for a large work project. There are countless news articles/shows showing it is currently “not normal buisness as usual” there. I have heard third hand reports from people I know that have family that live there that in the areas they live it is getting intense. Should I work hard to get them to land in a different airport and accept costs of the late change of destination? The logistics in place have them overnighting in Minneapolis when they land before driving rental cars to northern iowa the next morning.
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All I know is what I see on the news, which is a lot of turmoil in primarily residential areas. The only thing I could say is to call the local hotels, maybe get an airport hotel and check with the Information desk there at the airport itself. They may be just fine but this is gonna take a little digging.

Egress the following morning from the hotel should be planned as well. I used to work in a high crime area once upon a time. It was very important to know where to go, and when. If you did that you generally would be OK.
 
There is a 99% chance everything will be fine. If I'm traveling on the company dime (and insurance!) I'm switching to a different airport if even just for piece of mind.
 
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Flatiowa said:
I ask because I know some people from Italy that are scheduled to fly into Minneapolis later in the week for a large work project. There are countless news articles/shows showing it is currently “not normal buisness as usual” there. I have heard third hand reports from people I know that have family that live there that in the areas they live it is getting intense. Should I work hard to get them to land in a different airport and accept costs of the late change of destination? The logistics in place have them overnighting in Minneapolis when they land before driving rental cars to northern iowa the next morning.
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Land at KMSP. Stay at a hotel airport. The next morning, drive straight to Iowa. That avoids the problem areas.
 
Seems like most the problems are in the neighborhoods near the city centers of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

That said, it might be worth looking into trying to change the itinerary to connect through ORD and have them land in Des Moines or Cedar Rapids (whichever is closer).

It would suck for them to get caught up in that mess.
 
donjohnston said:
That said, it might be worth looking into trying to change the itinerary to connect through ORD and have them land in Des Moines or Cedar Rapids (whichever is closer).

It would suck for them to get caught up in that mess.
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I absolutely agree, Des Moines would actually be closer, but it is “late in the game” to be calling an audible…
 
From what I've seen on the news and what I know of MSP, they should be fine flying into MSP/won't even know anything is going on if they can stay in a hotel on or very near the airport and then immediately get on I-35S and get out of town the next day. I would advise against sight-seeing or looking for off-property food, but I would also advise that in general in Minneapolis. :goofy:
 
They should be fine. The airport is south of the tumultuous area of South Minneapolis (currently W 26th St & Nicollet Ave,) and it's easy to depart the KMSP area on 77 or 35E/35W and head south out of the area.
 
The airport is in the right location to get out of dodge quickly... But everything I'm hearing from friends in the area is that, as bad as it may seem on the news, it is significantly worse in reality! :o
 
<joke>
As long as they are not staying in the same hotel as the VP, they should be fine.
</joke>

I think the bigger issue is protests at the airport. There was a kur****le a few days back where there were disruptions. I don't know if there are future "gatherings" planned there. Consider flying into Des Moines so you don't have to leave the MSP airport. Driving to northern IA would from Des Moines would be the same as driving from MSP.
 
Flatiowa said:
There is a daily shuttle flight from ORD to FOD that would actually get them much closer..
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Fort Dodge is a nice airport. I remember the bathrooms in the FBO were so fancy, I took a picture when I flew in there on my solo cross country! The drive from Fort Dodge will almost definitely be more pleasant than the drive from MSP, too.
 
I remember spending two weeks for work in the Twin Cities (Arden Hills, actually) in January. My glasses froze over, I had to scrape the ice off with my fingernails. Altho I was born and spent too much time in Buffalo, I'd been living in Texas for a number of years. Fortunately I knew how to dress for the weather. Went skiing over the weekend. Night skiing, too. Unfortunately the black runs were what we call bunny hills out here.
Bonus - Marvin Hamlish was guest soloist with the orchestra, and I had really good seats.
 
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