Joe Thornton and his colleagues in the Lowertown offices of the marketing firm AIMCLEAR aren’t holding out for a downtown promenade overlooking the Mississippi River, a longtime goal of outgoing St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter’s administration, as well as the mayoral administration before it.

Thornton can trace his St. Paul roots back generations — his uncle was once part of a private partnership that owned the downtown St. Paul Union Depot transit hub. Nevertheless, he’s not rooting these days for a towering mall where West Publishing once sat along Kellogg Boulevard, or any other among the longstanding efforts that begin with the words “reimagining downtown” or “reinventing downtown.”

Instead, he’s holding out for air conditioning.

In fact, he’s been praying for a fix to his downtown off

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