A developer wants to tear down an old Minneapolis flour mill. Some neighbors want to save it. | A company that wants to buy the Nokomis Mill on Hiawatha Avenue from ADM says it’s blighted and must be torn down to deter “vandals, squatters and criminals”

> In the heart of Minneapolis, along busy Hiawatha Avenue, there are enough stoplights to give drivers a chance to gaze at the old flour milling complexes and wonder why they sit idle in the middle of a metro area.

> To some, they’re empty eyesores that are a magnet for trespassers, graffiti and drug users, a relic of bygone days when Minneapolis was the flour-milling capital of the country in the early 1900s. To others, they’re an important part of the city’s history and shouldn’t be torn down to make way for another upscale apartment building with a rooftop deck.

> The demolition permit is being appealed by Joel Albers, a health economist and pharmacist who leads a small group called Save Minneapolis from the Wrecking Ball that formed about a year ago to save the historic Bethany Lutheran Church building. A public hearing on the appeal will be Tuesday at the Minneapolis City Council’s Business, Housing and Zoning Committee.

> Albers calls the former Nokomis Mill at 3501 Hiawatha Av. “iconic.”

> “These mills are just so unique,” Albers said.

> The company that wants to demolish the buildings calls them “immensely blighted,” saying it costs $13,000 per week just to secure the property. That’s $676,000 per year.

Won’t someone think of the historic abandoned flour mills?!?!? We can’t just be pricing looters and squatters out of the neighborhood.