Bellanotte is the latest downtown restaurant to say arrivaderla. The recession hurt, and perhaps the fact that it was half-owned by Denny Hecker didn't exactly make its future rosy, either. Stories about restaurant closings are depressingly familiar these days, but Bellanotte has another story: it's the latest Block E tenant to die a gurgling, gasping breath. Add this to GameWorks, the Borders store, the drug store, and a few others, and it's more proof that the misbegotten heap of gimcrack and neon is an utter, expensive, needless failure.

Those of us who've watched the sad case of Block E since it existed in its flophouse-and-pr0n days knew this would happen. At the risk of repeating a column I wrote about this earlier this year: either tear it all down and put in a park, or rebuild the old Block E the way it was, with small buildings that fit the history and context of Hennepin, instead of dumping sub-Vegas-style architecture where it doesn't belong. What do you think - park, or smaller development?

Below, a look at Block E as it originally stood. (Either the picture's hand-colored, or sunsets were heavily influenced by the explosion of Krakatoa.)