This is not the downtown St. Paul found in my working days there

I worked in downtown St. Paul at the Pioneer Press and the Dispatch from September 1968 to June 1988. The paranoia in St. Paul over its second city status was pervasive.

I've always insisted that St. Paul was so hard up for an attraction to call its own that this was the main reason for building the Civic Center: to regain the state hockey tournament that had moved to Met Center in Bloomington in 1969.

The Civic Center was one of those one-corridor arenas built on the cheap. It opened on Jan. 1, 1973, in the midst of the first season of the Minnesota Fighting Saints in the new World Hockey Association.

The greatest hustle seen from Fighting Saints employees came from the office workers, as they raced to the bank on the first and the 15^th of the month in the hope that theirs would be one of the checks that cleared.

I had a considerable loathing for the the Civic Center because of the enormous number of rows in the upper deck, at the top of which was the press box. If the late, great hockey writer, Charley (Buck) Hallman, had not developed the proper method to tack your way to the press box – seven, eight steps upward, then walk a section to the left, repeat several times – the climb would've killed a full-figured fellow.

The other structure that was greatly celebrated in St. Paul was the building of the World Trade Center that opened in 1987. What a nothing that turned out to be for the Saintly City.

To me, the most-exciting thing that happened in downtown St. Paul in my two decades there was when a Leeann Chin opened on the skyway so you could get a quick, tasty lunch.

(They had shrimp toast then. Hey, Leeann Chin brainiacs, what happened to the shrimp toast?).

Last week, I was at CHS Field for two games: a 5 p.m. start on Sunday and a 7 p.m. start on Monday.

The St. Paul boosters used to always talk about "Lowertown'', and they were going to turn Galtier Plaza into the gateway to Lowertown, and it was going to be quite the boon to putting post-5 p.m. life into the city.

Yeah, it took about two months for two-thirds of the retail space to be empty in Galtier. The only reason to go to visit Lowertown remained to get a couple of chili dogs at the Gopher Bar.

It's a fine chili dog, as long as you're a liberal like me who can laugh at the outrageous political stickers that are attached to the walls, coolers, etc.

If you're a more sensitive liberal, well, there are options. This is no longer that Lowertown – of an empty Galtier and the Gopher Bar.

This is a Lowertown filled with bars and restaurants and occupied condos and, since the summer of 2015, the finest little ballpark in America in CHS Field.

The American Association All-Star Game will be played there on Tuesday night. This evening with gates opening at 5, the Saints have a celebrity softball game, a home run derby and a Soul Asylum concert.

"All for 15 bucks,'' said Mike Veeck, the man behind the Saints.

I was there last week with the buzz of 8,000 people heading to the Saints game, combined with all the younger folks hanging out, drinking and eating inside and on the sidewalk tables of those bars and restaurants …

Amazing.

A friend of mine was in Lowertown last Thursday, when there wasn't a game, and told me the restaurants were hopping. They are good joints, too. I went for the pregame fried homemade bologna sandwich at the Saint Dinette, which is short block from the main entrance of the ballpark.

Heartland is even closer. There is a valet parking there. Valet parking, in St. Paul, at any place other than the St. Paul Hotel …

Amazing.

There has been a great boom in foot traffic and nightlife on West Seventh, since the Xcel Energy Center opened in 2000, of course. The X also feeds the restaurant row on St. Peter Street.

Now, there is considerable life in Lowertown --- with actual, money-spending city dwellers, just like with big brother in Minneapolis.

There is the boring middle of the city, between the activity surrounding the arena and Lowertown, but if the city and the developer can pull off the redo of the empty Macy's building (with a Wild practice arena at the top), St. Paul won't be missing much as a vibrant downtown.

Except shrimp toast at Leeann Chin. What a travesty … taking it off the menu.