I’ve lived in Saint Paul for most of the past twenty years. I have no intention of changing that.
I love this city; its neighborhoods, its attitude, its architecture, its down-to-earth feel.
I love its contradictions. Mark Twain once said, “Saint Paul is the last city of the east, and Minneapolis is the first city of the West”), and as you go through the neighborhoods, you can see why. The great playwright August Wilson lived on Cathedral Hill because more than anyplace he’d seen, it reminded him of the Brooklyn he’d grown up in. Highland Park feels like parts of Chicago; the West End reminds me of Cleveland, Toledo, even parts of Boston; the East Side, parts of Chicago or Baltimore or Camden, New Jersey, depending on the area. My Midway? Well, it could be anywhere. And yet the old saying “Saint Paul is fifteen small towns with one mayor” still resonates; each neighborhood is, in many ways, its own stand-alone city. And with all that, it’s still a ten minute drive from the hustle and bustle and thrum of Minneapolis (and yet you can duck back across the river and escape the crime rate pretty much at will).
But things feel different lately.
Back during the Latimer and Scheibel administrations, Saint Paul felt tired and spent. While the neighborhoods throve, downtown was deteriorating as you watched; the Saint Paul Port Authority committed the city to a series of ruinous boondoggles, Town Square and Galtier Plaza and the World Trade Center, all of which stand mostly unoccupied, or occupied by government and non-profit offices; renting to government is the closest thing developers have to a “get out of jail free card” in Saint Paul, but even the state’s appetite can’t consume all the spare office space in downtown. Saint Paul, especially the downtown, turned into a ghetto of official space and a few stalwart local companies.
During the Coleman and Kelly administrations, things felt like they picked up. I’ll allow in advance that part of it is my projection of good thoughts onto more-conservative administrations. But the fact that Coleman and Kelly held the line on property taxes and spending was huge; people started buying houses in the city again; the plague of absentee landlords abated as people started choosing to invest in living in Saint Paul. The crime rate, always much lower than Minneapolis, subsided as Selby-Dale, Frogtown and the Lower East Side’s crime waves abated. It wasn’t all roses; profligate Tax Increment Financing lured a few companies – most notably USBank – out of downtown and into the huge, and for the next several years TIF-subsidized – West Side Flats complex, leaving several downtown office buildings vacant and strewn with tumbleweeds. But for the most part, Saint Paul during those 12 years had a “let’s do it” attitude.
But since Chris Coleman was elected mayor, and the ultra-left wing of the DFL took prohibitive control of the City Council with five far-left council members, the city just feels different.
Again, I’ll allow that part of it is projection. And the foreclosure crisis, especially on the East Side, North End and Frogtown, doesn’t help.
But a huge part of this intangible, subjective change is the attitude behind the flip in course in the Mayor’s office. The bulk of Chris Coleman’s campaign, and the reason a fair chunk of his supporters voted for him, was retribution for Randy Kelly’s endorsement of George W. Bush in 2004. They rode into office with a promise to raise taxes, not endorse Republicans…
…and not a whole lot else. It was pure negativity. And negativity is a response, not a direction.
The city feels devoid of real leadership these days. It feels rudderless, drifting in a dyspeptic sea of bile. And I don’t mean from Dave Thune’s mythical puking Republicans.
Oh, the city is putting its best face forward for the Convention (when clowns like Thune aren’t slandering the GOP from their bully pulpit); downtown will be in its Sunday best, and I have no doubt that Grand Avenue, Saint Anthony Park, Ford Parkway, Concord Cesar Chavez, West Seventh northeast of Saint Clair, and that strip of downtown from Eagle Street to Wabasha between Kellogg and Ninth will be great places to see, be seen, and take the whole event in.
But elsewhere?
The twelve years of vitality the city experienced under Norm and Randy seem to have dissipated. Rice and Payne and Arcade, after years of slow recovery, seem to have stopped – partly due to the foreclosure epidemic that has hammered the North End and lower East Sides, leaving some streets on some blocks with more blue “Vacant” tags than without. The Midway is riding out the economy better, but University Avenue is on death watch, waiting for the light rail to come through and smother twenty years of largely organic, grass-roots-driven progress. And downtown? The rebirth of the west end of Downtown, from Five Corners up through Wabasha, while gratifying to those of us who remember the Scheibel years, has stalled cold, but for convention preparations.
Comme ci, comme ca. Business has cycles. Cities ebb and flow over time.
Except that it’s about to get a lot worse in Saint Paul. Government negligence is one thing – a good conservative expects it, especially from a bunch of bobbleheads like the Saint Paul City Council.
But there’s a difference between negligence and active connivance in a plan that’s going to gut the city – and the Saint Paul City Council is about to drive across that line with a bulldozer.
And they’re going to do it for the children.
More on Monday.
I’ve noticed the east side has changed a lot recently. I’m afraid at some point it will become another north Mpls. I have to ask, is the Coleman administration doing anything to save that neighborhood? I don’t have any answers, but then I am not in city hall.
I used to spend a lot of time in Frogtown; I went to church at a small Catholic parish there for nearly a decade. Last time I went through the area things looked considerably worse for wear. I worry that the light rail is really going to screw up all the businesses on University Avenue, especially east of Lexington. It was pretty remarkable to see the development happen from 1995 on, but if traffic on University gets bollixed because of the train (and it will), a lot of the shops and restaurants in the area are going to be in trouble.
St. Paul probably didn’t remind August Wilson of Brooklyn, since he was born in, grew up in and drew his inspiration from Pittsburgh.
Well, it was something I read in a Pioneer Press piece on Wilson (ca. 1990) when he was still living here (also living), and he referred to his connection to Brooklyn.
There are other parts of Saint Paul I’d compare to Pittsburgh, but not Cathedral Hill.
Might have to go to the library and check the microfilm tomorrow.
Disagree with light rail impact. With gas never going down, perhaps some nice urban condo’s near the stops (see Minneahaha neighborhood of S Mpls). Then the things that come with that (are there enough Caribous’ in the neighborhood).
I worked for U Suk Bank down there (it was 1st Bank at the time), in the Endicott, next to the PiPress building. I loved that funky old building. The marble steps from 1st floor to ground were concave from a hundred years of feet.
Then they changed to U Suk Bank, moved me down to RiverBank and the blush was off the rose.
I despair for your city, Berg. While Minneapolis can doubtless survive the Boy Mayor (it survived Sharon Sayles, um, ah, Belton after all) I fear Comrade Coleman will be too much for it.
Hey, maybe you could get Jessie “The Brain” Ventura to run for mayor next time. He’s expressed his admiration for the Irish architects of St. Paul.
Chuck says – I have to ask, is the Coleman administration doing anything to save that neighborhood?
Far too little. Invest St. Paul currently only amounts to community organizing – no tangible investment. The first director of the program bailed because it was going nowhere and didn’t want to take the heat.
The only real money dedicated to area has been assigned to pay for the acquisition and demolition of vacant homes. Homes which the city will hold “until a more viable time” for new construction.
The city has now adopted a policy to use the Tenant Recovery Act to fix homes to code that are found in violation of code. The act was originally set up to force landlords to fix their properties or the city would do it for them and assess their taxes the amount used in the process. This new use of the act allows one non-profit to find bring the properties to the city, another non-profit to evaluate the property and determine what needs to be done and either the owner must fix or the latter non-profit acts as guardian and does the repairs, receives a developer’s fee and then then the owner (in most cases, a bank) gets it as an assessment on the property tax. The city has budgeted $1m for this enough to do 2 houses in each of the IStP areas. Not even a dent for all the work necessary and they aren’t even sure it’s entirely legal.
The east side isn’t becoming a North Mpls. – it’s far worse for homes, the vacant home rate is twice as high. Crime may not be the same but that’s only because no one is living there.
Chuck says
perhaps some nice urban condo’s near the stops (see Minneahaha neighborhood of S Mpls). Then the things that come with that (are there enough Caribous’ in the neighborhood).
Hope you’re being sarcastic. University Avenue in St. Paul is funky and can be dangerous, but there are dozens of good restaurants and markets that really serve the people who live in those communities. You can get Caribou anywhere.
And we suburbanites take crap for our supposed conformity — sheesh.
This makes me so sad. I LOVED St Paul. I was born there and, up until 3 years ago, had always lived in St Paul (or one of its nearby ‘burbs.. West St Paul, Inver Grove). I lived in Galtier Plaza for 9 years. I moved in just as Norm was starting to turn things around. It was actually kind of fun living down there – Farmer’s Market, new restaurants.. you actually thought it was going to turn into something REALLY good.
Then it all started coming undone, and I bailed. Moved west of the river.
Now I love living here. In 3 years, I haven’t had to call the cops about fights at the bus stop or shots fired. Nobody’s breaking in and peeing in our elevators (that was the nastiest. That was why I finally HAD to leave.) I’m not getting panhandled every time I step out the damn front door.
I come back and visit there a lot. My doctor, my banker and my favorite grocery store are all on that side of the river. And maybe one day I’ll live there again, because it will all turn back around. But I don’t want to be on the front lines anymore.
Sorry if this is tl;dr! I just feel strongly about it.
I came to St Paul in 1991. At the end of the “little Jimmy Schiebel” days.
Norm Coleman turned that city around. People felt a pride to live in St Paul. People became more proud of their neighborhoods.
I feel that is slipping away again.
Just a couple comments on the First Coleman Renaissance.
Latimer’s own development binge — including World Trade Center and Galtier Plaza — looked good for a time. By the time Scheibel was elected, it was clear the city had overbuilt and was stuck with a big debt load. A recession pretty much finished things off.
The Coleman years were also the booming national economy years, and his heavily leveraged (by the taxpayer) deals did help revitalize St. Paul short term. The St. Paul Companies CEO, one of the beneficiaries, was Coleman fan as were a lot of the big business interests. Small businesses and non-subsidized developers, not so much.
A City Pages story at the time (1997) quoted one:
“He’s maxing out our credit card,” says St. Paul developer John McCarty. “This is a 100-percent deal on the city. I want my streets plowed, I want good fire protection, I want good police service, I want to be able to use my parks. What the hell are we doing playing developer, financier, and landlord? That’s not the function of the city of St. Paul, that’s the function of the private sector.”
Coleman’s city was based on public debt and a bet the economy would remain strong enough to pay it all off. I don’t fault Coleman for making the bet, because a lot of people had to go along with him. But with the rest of the city still paying off Norm’s legacy, I do disagree with laying the blame at the feet of Chris Coleman.
It’s a lot more complicated than that.
Charlie,
I’m aware of Coleman’s record – indeed, I noted “it wasn’t all roses”, in re the USBank move to the Flats. I opposed accruing all of that debt for the X and Rivercenter, as well.
So no, I won’t lay the blame for the past on Chris Coleman. But I will certainly ding him for his, and his council’s, role in making the present so blah.
I’ve only lived here for the last 10 years, so I can’t comment on older history. I can comment on attitude. The St. Paul City Council’s attitude toward its own citizens is atrocious.
My house in Midway was built in 1908. At the high point, it was maybe worth $180,000, now more like $120,000. My taxes are nearly $2,000 per year. Plus I get hit for an annual special assessments for storm sewers; another for street maintenance; another for and alley repairs (no, in 10 years I’ve never seen any evidence of any of those activities that supposedly improve the value of my property enough to be specially assessed). And no, that doesn’t cover water or sewer charges, nor garbage or recycling, those are extra. Nor does it cover plowing the snow from the alley so you can get out of the garage – neighbors must hire the alley plowed privately (but obtain a city permit, naturally). Streets are plowed two DAYS after the snow stops, maybe, if the City decides to plow at all.
Cost of owning a modest home here: $200 per month, minimum.
Services provided: minimal, and begrudgingly.
Why Stay: upside down on the loan; trapped.
CharieQ: it’s instructive to compare the “investments” made under Norm Coleman with those under Chris Coleman.
Norm Coleman saw a moribund downtown and emphasized buildings to revitalize commerce. Business cycles come and go but the buildings will be there for years.
Chris Coleman said in his State of the City address that the greatest crisis facing the City is . . . global warming. His solution was to close down several rec centers to divert the money to build outdoor refrigerated hockey rinks so kids won’t have to suffer soft ice during January thaws.
The people on the City Council are DFL union-member poli-sci types. They literally have no idea what it takes to make money in business. Their grand vision of St. Paul seems to be endless government employees, riding bicycles to catch The Train downtown.
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