WCCO recently had a ridiculously stupid post about the top 10 things to do in Burnsville. You can waste your time and read the drivel on their website here. Just for a quick run down two were the Med Cruise Cafe and El Loro and Skateville and “The Heart of the City” were also listed. The author was kind enough to concede that there were plenty of other things which could go on the list but didn’t–how nice.
Honestly, I have to admit there are plenty of great things to do in Burnsville. Unfortunately absolutely NONE of the ones listed in the WCCO article even come close to what people should be directed to do when they get into town. Seriously recommending people go to El Loro, an absolutely disgusting Americanized Mexican restaurant is just downright wrong when Taqueria La Hacienda #3 sits only a short jaunt down MN-13 and offers food that is 1000000x better. Get a clue WCCO.
But who cares about the top 10 things to do in Burnsville when you can instead get the top 10 worst things to do? Here’s my list and please feel free to add your own items (1, 5, 10 or as many as you can come up with):
1. Sit at the corner of CR-11 and MN-13 with a wad of twenties in your hand.
2. Go splashing around in the man-made “creek” in the Heart of the City without a recent tetanus shot.
3. Sit at Jo-Jo’s Rise and Wine during one of the mayor’s citizen chat sessions.
4. Go for a run in Wood Park after dark.
5. Eat at El Loro.
7. Use a drive-through in the Heart of the City.
8. Drive down Black Dog Road in Burnsville.
9. Drink a glass of tap water.
10. Try to schedule a face-to-face meeting with deadbeat councilmember Dan Gustafson.
So what are your ideas for the worst things to do in Burnsville? Feel free to add them below!
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July 21st, 2010 at 8:10 am
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July 21st, 2010 at 8:35 am
Maybe take one off the list – making Burnsvill that much worse – because the El Toro I’m thinking of is in Savage (on Hwy. 13) unless there’s another one I’m unfamiliar with. Feel free to rip the shit out of me if I’m mistaken.
July 21st, 2010 at 8:49 am
sornie, El Loro, not El Toro.
July 21st, 2010 at 8:49 am
@sornie, the original El Loro is in Savage but there’s also one in Burnsville a block from the intersection of 13 and Cliff. El Loro is also tied in with the El Toro restaurants in the metro.
July 21st, 2010 at 8:51 am
There are tons of El Toros and El Loros all over the place. I’ve eaten at several. They are all the same old same old.
July 21st, 2010 at 8:57 am
1. live there.
July 21st, 2010 at 9:13 am
I wasn’t quite as down on the top 10 list since I really couldn’t think of much that was better. I’ve never done Buck Hill or even Neill Hill, which is just blocks from my house. Never been to the Med Cruise Cafe. I’ve been to El Loro on more than one occasion and have liked it at times. I know enough people that like it that I’ll probably be back.
I think some of the things included were reflective of the fact that the guy grew up in Burnsville and has childhood memories of them (especially Buck Hill and Neill Hill). And as much as Buck Hill is pretty pathetic as a true ski hill, I’ve had people from literally all over the country (New York and DC are two places that come to mind) who found out I was from Burnsville and immediately said, “Isn’t that where Buck Hill is?” Seems odd to me but I guess it’s about as good as Minnesota gets for skiing south of Duluth.
11. Establish a non-profit within the city limits.
July 21st, 2010 at 9:42 am
#1- Spend more than an nano-second at the Burnsville Center.
#2- Drive on 42 past between US 35 and County 5.
#3- Go to a movie
#4- Fish on Crystal lake.
BTW, TOP Ten list in Burnsville has to include getting a lawnchair and a beer and watching people launch and load boats at the access at Crystal Lake. Amazing.
July 21st, 2010 at 9:52 am
@Sank, funny because I was just talking to an old-timer in Burnsville a few nights ago when I was out for a walk. He said the fishing at Crystal Lake is good. I’ve always avoided it because I assumed it sucked with all of the recreation.
July 21st, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Don’t get the hate for El Loro. Its not great food by any means but its cheap as hell (and easy to find coupons for), free chips and dip, has a decent variety of good beers and has a decent patio. The Med. Cruise Cafe is a way worse experience – very overpriced, bland and tasteless food (I thought non-american food was supposed to have some kick to it) and you’re in sight of the PAC.
July 21st, 2010 at 1:23 pm
Can not beleive WCCO did not pick up any of these items for thier list.
1. Hip Hop Night
2. Bowling
3. Olmeca Nightclub
4. Rescue a homeless animal from the human society.
5. Play a game of frogger with your own life on Nicollet Avenue in the Heart of the City
6. Encounter a right turn lane at an intersection you find yourself waiting behind 4 cars going staight at a red light.
7. Cruising down Buck Hill on a Mattress and hitting a parked ATV and suffering a collapsed lung only to complain about the quality of ambulance equipment on your ride to HCMC.
8. Getting Ice time at the Ice Arena
9. Hoping that enough donations have been made to fund the Burnsville K-9 Unit so the police can track down the buglary suspect who just broke into your home.
10. Enjoy the new 2010 Parade of Homes Tour, just so happens that Burnsville excels in the Section 8 Housing, Parade of Homes!
11. Envision Academy!!
July 21st, 2010 at 1:32 pm
11. Shop at Cub Foods and you’ll quickly realize your not in Kansas anymore.
12. Stand on the hill down from Parkway Grille and count how many tickets can be issued by the police at the temporary stop sign on the Parkway for passengers not wearing their seat beats.
Please don’t bash El Loro, Alex (Owner) is a great guy and they do offer good value at a good price.
July 21st, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Full disclosure: I grew up across the street in BURNSVILLE from the WCCO author, we were playmates as kids and are still friends as adults. Oh yeah, and I write a food blog for WCCO. (Man, that was a lot to disclose.)
Personally, I think he hit on a lot of things we experienced as kids growing up in Burnsville (and I know he sought out ideas from other current and past Burnsville residents for the write-up).
Crystal Lake Beach, Buck Hill, Grand Slam, Neill Hill, and Skateville were all places to hang out while growing up in Burnsville and bring back many memories. They’d be on my Top 10 list. I only wish Shooters had made the list. Seriously – big time hang spot.
Maybe the list was a little skewed towards “best memories of Burnsville” as the author no longer lives there and likely doesn’t trek to Burnsville for entertainment.
Whatever the case, I’m certainly enjoying the Burnsville discussion!
July 21st, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Wow. This post makes me very sad.
As someone who grew up in Burnsville and swore I would never move back- I now have and I am very proud of the littlest things in this city.
My son is involved in sports here and Burnsville offers some of the best places for athletics that I have seen. Our ice arena is one of the most beautiful and well kept I have been in- and if you know hockey, you know that is a lot.
I also spent the last weekend at Alimagnet fields where they held an inhouse baseball tournament that was well run and made me proud to be a part of.
Whatever you might say about Skateville, the kids LOVE it and I would assume that if the Nicollet Commons Park was a vintage park in another community- it would be seen as quaint and lovely. The difference is the demographic and financial status of the people who are swimming in it.
I also must say that the people of Burnsville are an unseen positive. I have seen this community surround a family who lost their son over the weekend with so much love and support that it makes me humble.
In the last week I have been more proud of this city than I could have ever imagined.
July 21st, 2010 at 4:08 pm
I went to the El Loro in Burnsville and the one in Eagan once each. It’s been a long time and they didn’t leave any impression on me either way.
Buck Hill was always good for skiing when you just wanted to go somewhere quick and didn’t want to drive over to Afton or Welch (let alone up to Lutsen). But I haven’t been there in at least a decade, since I stopped skiing.
I went to Skateville with a bunch of people from high school last year, and it was fun. I think the last time I had been in there was around 1992 or so, and it seriously had not changed one bit. Like a lot of things in that part of Burnsville, time seemed to pass it by. While it was enjoyable from a nostalgia standpoint, it’s certainly not something I’d come to Burnsville for on its own.
I haven’t been to the new Grand Slam yet and don’t expect to have a reason to anytime soon. I used to have a friend that lived just up the hill from the old location, and once in a while we’d play mini-golf on the crappy but still kind of fun mini-golf course, if we didn’t feel like bowling across the way.
Despite not actually living by it, I also spent a ton of time around and on Crystal Lake, having known, been friends with, or dated a bunch of people who lived on the lake. But there again, not someplace I’d go out of my way for now.
So yeah, growing up in Lakeville, Burnsville did have a lot more going on by comparison, back when there was only one high school and our big box retail consisted of, well, Fleet Farm. Today, however, there really isn’t anything there that I would consider a destination; it’s more of a place that caters to the people that already live there, the efforts around the BPAC notwithstanding.
July 21st, 2010 at 4:29 pm
I think the criticism with the El Loro recommendation (and I agree, for what it is, it’s fine kind of like Walgreens is “fine” for a drug store) is that by posting it on a major local news site which (unfortunately) still implies credibility, it further defines Burnsville as lame.
Now, you may argue that Burnsville is lame and I’m not sure I could be persuasive in arguing to the contrary.
But re: El Loro, there is a small but healthy Mexican population here and, as Bill points out, one of the very, very few unique aspects of Burnsville over neighboring communities is that we have a few honest-to-goodness Mexican restaurants and markets in Burnsville.
Beyond that, the CCO rube could have picked up the pretty cool assortment of ethnic markets and resources — Halal, Russian, pan-Eastern European, Chinese, Pan-Asian, Thai, and Mexican to name a few. In some cases you have 2, 3..up to a half-dozen competing markets (Asian in Burnsville alone).
He should have put Blue Max Liquors on there which is notable for its beer selection on a metro-wide scale.
The Laca Dog Park at Alimagnet is pretty unique and is a model for a number of other communities. Alimagnet and Terrace Oaks have great hiking and cross-country skiing (to complement Buck Hill’s downhill which I actually do think is worthy of placement on the list).
But enough positivity.
I would say metal detecting around the defunct Burnsville Bowl/Club 1200 would be on my list. It’s a metallurgical paradise what with all the dozens of types of shell casings you can find on any given day.
Personal Tax Accountant to the City Council would be a “Worst Of” qualifier. Or wait…on second thought….you could get a full paycheck for only having to do 4/5 of a job. I’d like to rescind that one.
Collecting and making sculptures out of used condoms found along Black Dog Road would probably qualify as another Top 10 Worst Things to Do in Burnsville.
Bobbing for diapers in the HOC fountains?
Lunch with the Mayor?
July 21st, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Blue Max – yes! That’s a good one. Great selection!
July 21st, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Haha metal detecting and bobbing for diapers! Good ones!
July 21st, 2010 at 5:42 pm
But Blue Max scans IDs unnecessarily and thus regardless of what beer selection they have I only walk through it finding what I’d like to have and ask one of the closer liquor stores to me to carry it. No business, unless mandated by law, should scan a person’s ID and if they do they should be shunned.
July 21st, 2010 at 9:17 pm
There is a halfway decent mountain bike trail hidden within Alimagnet Park, and the baseball fields are nice.
Dan Gustafson has nothing on RT Rybak for avoidance – it has been 5 1/2 years since my husband almost died in the line of duty as the MPD bomb commander, and he won’t even answer an email, let alone schedule a meeting.
July 21st, 2010 at 10:17 pm
10. Watch your neighborhood go down the tubes.
9. Go to Crystal Lake Beach – described as “not safe” by one of our esteemed city council members, who then did absolutely nothing about it.
8. Walk on iced over city sidewalks during winter – and be told by staff to “take another route”; when in fact, there is no safe alternative.
7. Use the bathroom at the PAC and get included in their # of visitors stats as having “enjoyed the beautiful facility.”
6. Dodge the dog poop in parks and on sidewalks.
5. Try to sell your house.
4. Roundabouts.
3. Instead of “Where’s Waldo?” play “Where’s the Weeder Leader?”
2. Deal with non-enforcement of ordinances and traffic enforcement because the overburdened police force is busy dealing with heroin dealers and prostitution.
1. Travel County Road 42.
July 21st, 2010 at 11:00 pm
LMAO! This is about the funniest series of comments I’ve read here. Sank, I once witnessed a guy at Crystal Lake skip his boat down the cement on the skeg (the little fin below the prop) with his wife and young kids IN the boat. He then proceeded to make sure all the spectators knew that it was the boat’s fault.
I would go roller skating at Skateville on occasion if I could find others with the same nostalgia for the 70s. Any takers? (They have an 18+ night and a rock-n-roll night.) Do I smell a blog meet? …or is that just my CPU fan that needs a vacuuming?
Yes, Buck Hill is kinda lame skiing, but it’s close and if I remember you can ski sunday nights 7-close for like $10. I’ve gone a few sundays on a whim when Afton would have been cost- and time- prohibitive.
July 22nd, 2010 at 3:34 am
Hmm I go to Blue Max maybe once a month and I don’t remember them scanning my ID, but 100% agree on that being a huge pet peeve. Speaking of liquor stores, has anyone been to the new “Liquorville” by Menards on 13? Is there anything decent there at all i.e. something besides the yawn-inducing selection of the same domestics that is everywhere other than Blue Max?
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:47 am
Add the Redhawk Liquor & Wine on Cliff to the worst experiences in Burnsville. The shelves are empty. I went there and they were out of rum, completely. They have almost no stock in the store.
July 22nd, 2010 at 11:26 am
Coz, visited Liquorville last week. I felt like I was in a Tiajuana, Mexico liquorstore that was set up overnight. They have taken the shell of the old Waldoch building put in a few coolers, and some shelving, put up neons in the windows, the standard free beer manufacturer signs for wall coverings and created a beer cave cooler in the back for cases of cold beer. Besides this they have done nothing else and the prices were nothing that made me want to buy anything. The liquor they did have was the very basics. When I asked if they had X, they said they had just bought the basics iniitally and are looking to expand their selection. By all means please go experience the place for yourself but I think you will find it to be rather sparse and in desperate need of price reductions for the products based on the condition of the store as they put nothing, and I mean nothing besides a few coolers, shelves and a checkout counter into the operation. Blue Max for beer selection scores a 9.5, Liquorville scores a 2.
July 22nd, 2010 at 7:04 pm
Burnsville, home of the hourly rate hotel rooms for prostitution.
http://www.twincities.com/dakota/ci_15573073
“The two had met the night before at a Burnsville hotel along Minnesota 13 and Interstate 35W, where, he said, he paid her $200 for sex.”
Gives a whole new meaning to Mayor Kautz’s Heart of the City!!
July 23rd, 2010 at 12:09 am
Don’t speed on McAndrews, especially going westbound between Portland and Nicollet. The police sit on the backside of the hill on the north side of the street and aim the speed gun at you as you come over the top of the hill.
July 23rd, 2010 at 6:55 am
One of the better things to do in Burnsville: Go to Buck Hill for 3 hours of skiing or snowboarding, weekdays, for $12.
One of the worst things to do in Burnsville: Go to Buck Hill on a Friday or Saturday night (at a higher price, though off hand I don’t remember it).
I made that mistake once.
July 23rd, 2010 at 9:49 am
Shouldn’t that read, “Don’t speed on McAndrews, especially going westbound between Portland and Nicollet. There are all kinds of kids, pedestrians, and vehicles stopped to turn left into the Church/Preschool that don’t want to be killed on the backside of the hill, not to mention this is someone’s community and the road is clearly marked 35 mph.”
July 23rd, 2010 at 10:07 am
That’s the only section on all of McAndrews from Burnsville to Eagan that’s under 40, with most sections being 45 or 50. It feels a little out of place to have the housing on that short little stretch of the street when the rest of it is more what you would expect a county road to be.
July 23rd, 2010 at 10:47 am
I would LOVE for the cops to regularly sit on my street with radar guns, and have the area be known as a place to slow down, that the speed limit is enforced. (Who wouldn’t want this in their own neighborhood? Problem is, some people want traffic to be slow on their own street, but seem to forget about that same courtesy when traveling in neighborhoods elsewhere in the city). 5-7 mph over the limit may be “acceptable” on the interstate, but on a residential street, anything over the limit is too fast.
I understand selective enforcement of areas where speeding is a visible, constant problem (like the intersection of McAndrews and Nicollet). The problem is, side streets may have low volume, but the traffic that does travel on them, is frequently over the limit. Those areas, in my experience, are very infrequently patrolled/speed trapped. And the speeders either know it and consciously speed, or are not paying attention to their speed and are unaware they are traveling too fast. The lack of enforcement encourages the former and fails to provide a wake up call to the latter.
July 23rd, 2010 at 12:44 pm
The reason for that particular speed trap is the high number of accidents on that stretch over the years. I can personally attest — TWO times I’ve witnessed cars rear-ended turning left at the soccer field (both times while I was on the stationary bike in front of the window at the Y…good entertainment, really). Cars turning left have a hard time seeing over the crest of the hill, so they hesitate or turn fast, and cars going straight aren’t paying attention to a car stopped in front of them.
That stretch has people’s driveways, a church/preschool, the YMCA, youth sports fields, a senior living center, entrance to retail, entrance to a neighborhood, and poor visibility by virtue of the hill. I’m always happy to see them running speed traps there (or anywhere for that matter).
Go Burnsville PD!
July 23rd, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Come on MSPD, BPD is much more useful taking photos of protesters and writing honking tickets!
July 23rd, 2010 at 1:35 pm
While I have no problem really with the speed trap, it does bother me the way they set up the “trap.”
Normally they sit on the north side of the road, and they are only checking people coming over the hill from the east. The people they are “catching” and ticketing are within about 100 yards of the next posted sign, showing the speed increase back from 35 to either 40 or 45. Nicollet and McAndrews, as noted above, are higher than 35 everywhere except that short stretch. Nicollet is 40 through the same area (north and south) and then drops to 35 over by Sky Oaks.
So, it would be nice if they were a little more consistent. If the goal is actually to reduce speed it would be more effective if they actually sat in the area where the speed limit is 35 and slowed people down, instead of on the edge where they catch people who have already sped through the dangerous area.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have not had a ticket in years, and my child goes to daycare across the street from the YMCA. I have a vested interest in people driving the speed limit in that area.
July 23rd, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Not to get too far off on a tangent, but I’ve had more frequent interactions with BPD (and Fire) over the last couple years through community involvement, etc. and have gotten familiar with them “in action”. The “Go Burnsville PD” was for fun, but truthfully, I’ve had only outstanding experiences with Burnsville police and fire personnel.
I think they’re in a tough spot (the protester thing for example) where they are under tremendous demands, but are woefully lacking in support (financial and policy) from the City.
July 23rd, 2010 at 1:49 pm
I live within a mile of there and have seen them do enforcement on both north and south sides. When the stationary bike at the Y was in the window overlooking that road, I used to watch them pull people over going both ways constantly. I, myself, got a ticket GOING EASTBOUND at that very spot 20 years ago (back in my scofflaw days..ha ha). It’s not a new phenomenon.
The bottom line is people need to slow the f**k down. Period.
July 23rd, 2010 at 11:11 pm
I dont disagree in any way, but still think its a big of a manufactured trap. I looked tonight to be sure of speeds. McAndrews is 35 mph on the east side of Nicollet. Its 40 on the west side. Nicollet is 40 going both ways across McAndrews, even though there are business and residential driveways on both sides, and numerous accidents at the turn lanes north of Mcandrews on Nicollet.
I also have yet to see any enforcement on Eastbound traffic. They sit in the same place, with the gun pointing the same way each day. Its certainly an effective spot to write tickets (people are literally 100 yards from where the speed limit climbs from 35 to 40, and going downhill.
I do think though that in terms of actual prevention of speeding, a squad car at any of the intersections on top of the hill, directly across from the Y, would be more effective on traffic going both ways, and actually have more impact in the residential area of McAndrews.
Just my two cents. Sorry for the tangent. I think the Burnsville PD do a pretty decent job given the challenges they have.
July 24th, 2010 at 9:47 am
Speed traps are about revenue generation more than safety. I agree with the need for safety, but if safety is the primary concern, there are ways of reducing and preventing speeding before it happens, like Chad described.
July 24th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
Mr. M, we’d totally go to Skateville. We’re free next weekend :)
July 26th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
Tim, if you got the City of Burnsville summer bulletin this past week it says that the BPD values safety over revenue, and they provide figures to back it up. They provide a pie chart which shows that the city only receives 10% of the money from a ticket.
July 26th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
If what Cascade Bay says is in #40 is true, then we need to set up a new “Kangaroo Court Justice System” in Burnsville where the suckers are required to donate their time and money to the Burnsville Performing Arts Center. Maybe that would work to get the “White Elephant” off the backs of the Burnsville taxpayers. That would be as legitimate as the tactics used to get it built.
July 26th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
In 2009 the Legislature passed a law that both enabled, and restricted the types of tickets that local government could issue. This came to be after the State started annually increasing the surcharge they place for all traffic violations, causing local municipal governments to initially not ticket people due to the excessive fees (over $140 for a speeding ticket of less than 10mph over the limit). Cities then started issuing their own tickets, allowing them to lower the costs (no state Surcharge) and recover more of the fines to be held locally. But the State didn’t like that, as cities were taking over everything. So a law passed in 2009 limits what city government can cite for, specifically allowing tickets for speeding of 10mph over the limit or less.
So yes, part of what the police department did was to save citizens money when they are ticketed. But police departments are also making sure that they get a bigger piece of the pie when a ticket is written.
http://www.startribune.com/local/16006542.html
http://www.lmc.org/page/1/hottopics-adminfines.jsp
July 30th, 2010 at 11:27 am
I agree with your opinion of the Taqueria de la Hacienda: the food is good, the staff is courteous and the place is squeaky clean.
I love cutting across Black Dog Swamp Road when I’m tired of the traffic and hey, bald eagles! I try to ignore the parked cars. : )
Since I work in Savage and live in Apple Valley, I want to add a don’t: drive home down 42 on a Friday afternoon.