“Boo hoo! Wah!”
Photo by Bruce Bisping, Star Tribune

I’m breaking my personal anti-Strib-linking policy just so I can comment on this story:

When Mike Wendorf moved into a condominium in Minneapolis three years ago, he knew what to expect from downtown living. But reality twisted those expectations when tailgaters twice swarmed around his increasingly residential neighborhood north of the Metrodome over the weekend.

The Gophers crowd had barely hauled away their empty beer kegs from the parking lot next to his high-rise Saturday night when Vikings fans started firing up their grills Sunday morning.

“I expected panhandlers and sirens living in an urban setting, but 300 college kids setting up bars in vacant parking lots for an all-day party, serving underage students and urinating all over, that’s another thing,” said Wendorf, 39, president of the RiverWest condos.

Um, you bought a condo near the Metrodome and you’re surprised by the tailgaters? Those parking lots have been there longer than the other buildings in your “increasingly residential neighborhood.”

“I don’t even know the Vikings fans are down there,” [Wendorf] said Sunday morning, from his balcony perch 18 floors up. “I went to the ‘U’ and had fun, too, so I get it. But the music and vocalness of the college students, all the hooting, hollering and yelling, we don’t hear that from Vikings fans.”

So it’s okay, as long as you can’t hear what’s going on. Great for you, 18 floors up. The folks on the first few floors don’t get a choice either way. I will admit to having been surprised that tailgating for the Gophers was starting as early as 1:30pm for a 7pm game when I was in the area last weekend, but… really?

The article goes on to make the very valid point that both residents and tailgaters would be better served by improved port-a-potty availability, so that desperate times don’t call for the desperate measure of peeing on the side of someone’s building. No further mention of the underage drinking issue.

Pity about the noise, though.

*cue the violins*