Lowertown.info was launched in 2014 as an online visitor’s guide, news magazine, and community information portal serving the arts neighborhood of Lowertown, Saint Paul, Minnesota.

The site also served as a place of record of the changes Lowertown went through in the last decade. The site created special archives relating to the gentrification of the neighborhood—the JAX Wake, Domination Corporation, interviews with Lowertown pioneers, the pandemic on top of the existing struggles of an artistic community—for those interested in what happened to Lowertown.

This project and its associated Twitter feeds will be wrapping up by 1 May 2022.

An unavoidable part of running a neighborhood or community news website is listing the places you can go in that neighborhood. When I look back at how much time I spent, during those eight years, creating and keeping up-to-date just the Food & Drink page alone—and pondering that not one of the restaurants, bars or cafes ever listed in that guide once thought to toss even a single cent at the project—it’s time to hit the wrap it up button.

I can’t thank enough the people who supported this project over the years—artists, individual community members, galleries, and local performing collectives… Thank you so much. I am exploring ways to archive the content on the site so it’s permanently available. Mostly, as with everything Lowertown, that’s down to money.

Nigel Parry
Editor, Lowertown.info