I think the problem with the developments downtown Minneapolis are twofold
1. They are building the projects too tall on the fringes, while ignoring parking lots and other land in the core which is more suitable for tall buildings (of couse this land is more $$).
2. The developers ignore the history of an area and are not alwas honest. They sell the neighbors and then the plan morphs from 20 stories to 25 to 40. The promised retail dissappears and design tweaking sometimes creates an entirely different project.
As for the person that said "saftey and traffic is going to increase and the environment will be the big loser"...that is plain crazy. People who live downtown own fewer cars and walk more than those that live in the burbs. Environmentally a highly dense urban area is preferrable to suburban sprawl. And, many of the new buildings are using green roofs and other environmental designs. Additionally, when you increase the number of residents living downtown, you will have a more stable population which will increase safety.
When the other person said people in Minneapolis are "Weird" I sorta agree (and i was born here). They want to be a cool, fun, livable city with great parks and transportation, but they don't want any of the change to occur near them.
Reminds me of a meeting I went to when the Boulevard theater was closing in SW minneapolis-- the neighbors were angry at the business owners (who were lossing money) for closing their treasured neighborhood Icon. A check of history shows that just 50 years earlier the same neighborhood fought the development of the theater expressing parking concerns etc. In minneapolis change is often seen as bad --even when it is good.