Mill City Valentine: A Greeting

By Susan Schaefer, Reporter

I’m delighted to join Mill City Times as a veteran contributor to the Minneapolis Riverfront. Coming onboard this week is a fitting valentine.

Twenty years ago today, on February 14, 1996, I scored triple hearts when I married my heartthrob, the Dutch philosopher and gentleman, Martijn Hermse, on Valentine’s Day in the then-Whitney Hotel in what is now known as Mill City, the heart of the Central Riverfront.

                                     Our iconic honeymoon shot shows us gazing lovingly at St. Anthony Falls                      from our penthouse balcony of the Whitney Hotel.

The Minneapolis Riverfront has been central to my life, love and work. Twenty years ago marks another anniversary, when as an independent consultant I developed the concept for The Minneapolis Riverfront: Vision and Implementation project and book for my architectural client, Cuningham Group, whose office is still located on St. Anthony Main’s East Bank. This public affairs and urban planning project won local, regional, national and international acclaim with many local leaders heralding it as the inspiration for what has become today’s successful riverfront revitalization. Our work brought welcome attention to the then neglected central riverfront.

For this project, I toured multiple Dutch riverfront developments considered by the Urban Land Institute as some of the most successful in the world. While consulting with Dutch officials and architects on behalf of our project, I met my husband. Not only were we wed on the Minneapolis Riverfront, we later moved blocks from it to the Seward Neighborhood, where Martijn served on the Seward Coop’s Board of Directors while I served on the Neighborhood’s Executive Board. Everyday we walked, ran, biked or drove the river’s riparian paths in a state of constant enchantment.

Seven years ago, while on an educational sabbatical in my husband’s hometown of Maastricht, living alongside another mythical river, the Meuse, Martijn died from cancer. Gradually, I made my way back to my adopted city and the river that flows in my veins.

Now I live directly atop historic Bohemian Flats with an enthralling view of the Mississippi and the Minneapolis Riverfront I cherish. On favorable days you’ll find me loping north, past the Whitney, glancing lovingly at the balcony where our gaze on river reflected our united dreams.

So, I am very pleased to join Kim and David in their united dream to provide comprehensive coverage to the central riverfront as a reporter and photographer for Mill City Times. I have city reporting in my blood as a long time journalist and former publisher and editor of center city Philadelphia’s South Street Star newspaper. I plan to bring thoughtful, original writing, commentary and images to our readers. If you want to know more about me please click here.

I welcome emails: susan@millcitymedia.org.  Thank you. And remember, be well, be wise and laugh a lot.