So it looks like Borders is planning on closing shop in their Block E location. The company line on the closing is slow sales due to poor foot traffic. The Star Tribune's brilliant idea? A white guy got shot down the street last year and everybody's afraid to go there. They must have forgotten that nobody went to Block E before last year, either. There's a small sentence acknowledging the Barnes & Noble 300 feet down Eighth Street, but according to the Tribune, that couldn't possibly have anything to do with it. And Block E being the ugliest building in town, built below the lowest common denominator (Borders was how they 'niced it up' a bit) couldn't possibly have an effect, right? Because people just love spending time in places where they don't enjoy being? While every globalized chain store continues to move out of that eyesore [wasn't there a Snyder's for about three days?], how long is the Star Tribune going to blame the teenagers that spend their time there because they're the exact demographic the entire building was built for?

When is Minneapolis going to learn?

Borders prepares to leave Block E [Star Tribune]