Overall housing density is a good thing from the perspective of providing infrastructure. It's far easier to put in one big sewer pipe (or pretty much any utility) on one block with 2,000 residents than it is to have to put in many smaller sewer lines to a whole neighborhood of 2,000 people.
As a lifelong city mouse, personally it sounds like Minneapolis is moving in a direction that appeals to me. If only the weather involved less snow... Perhaps over the next few years the weather will change enough that SO and I'd actually consider it as a retirement location. (historical weather patterns make it a big fat no for me.)