MINNEAPOLIS - The city of Minneapolis is offering residents a Thanksgiving night treat that has nothing to do with calories or slipping into a food coma.
November 22 marks the one day each year that motorists can actually drive down Nicollet Mall. The city opens it up so people can take in the holiday decorations set up alongside the venerable downtown route.
This year, the Downtown Improvement District Ambassadors have spruced up the Mall with more than half a million twinkle lights. Organizers sayif you connected the strings end to end, they'd stretch 23 miles, all the way to Saint Paul and back.
A few more number-related holiday factoids: light poles have been decked out with 300 illuminated snowflakes and 4,000 feet of natural garland and plantersare sportingmore than 5,500 spruce tips.
Nicollet Mall is normally reserved for buses, taxis, and emergency vehicles, but Minneapolis city ordinance allows cars to drive down the Mall one evening a year, from 6 to 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving.
A speed limitof 10 miles-per-hour will be enforced.
