MINNEAPOLIS – Boarded-up window frames remain along Nicollet Mall, a throughway of what should be a bustling shopping and social district in downtown Minneapolis. On a Saturday night, foot traffic on and off public transit was the only sound that broke the night. On Sunday, a season-opening NFL game day, the roughly 10-minute walk from a large George Floyd portrait behind one of the few intact panes at Nordstrom Rack to U.S. Bank Stadium was a largely solitary endeavor. A couple of cyclists weaved through the street. A few pedestrian conversations bounce around the closed doors of businesses.
The light railway sliding past the eerie, echoing 73,000-set home venue was the only active noise.