Lange says Stillwater “Yuppified”

JessicaLangWenders.jpgAccording to today’s (February 26th) Strib, Oscar-winning actress and Minnesota-native daughter Jessica Lange doesn’t like what she sees happening to Stillwater.

“When we first moved to Stillwater, it still felt like a real place. It had a downtown with a hardware store, a clothing store…Now it’s all gift shops and these terrible condominiums.” “It was a little town with a great deal of character. Everything gets yuppified, I guess”.

It’s hard for real downtowns, symbolized by the presence of a hardware store and clothing store, to survive with the Wal-Marts and Lowe’s out on the highway. The gift shops are intended to serve the desired visitors and the condos are hoped to add population density to support the traditional retail. Towns try to add the promising without sacrificing the valued.

Jessica and her husband Sam Shepard lived in Stillwater for nine years. They raised three children in a house on North 4th Street.