Shot in the Dark

Tag: St. Paul Land Grab

  • Government By Remote Control

    Joe Doakes from Como Park writes: The City intends to change the zoning of properties along Front Avenue between Dale Street and Rice Street. That means you can’t sell your land for as much money. Naturally, landowners are upset. Here’s why: if your land is zoned for Industrial Uses and the building on it is…

  • The Great Saint Paul Land Grab, Part VI

    I’m going to interrupt my narrative (although rest assured, it’s going to continue) to announce a fascinating experiment. Bob Johnson, of the A Democracy blog – which focuses on housing and city council issues in Saint Paul – is hosting a round table discussion featuring, as this is written, Saint Paul City Council member Kathy…

  • The Great Saint Paul Land Grab, Part V

    Over the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at  Saint Paul ordinance07-1194 4 (”Green Sheet” number 3046791), which the City Council adopted unanimously at its June 25 meeting. The law would require owners of vacant homes listed in Category II (needs a bunch of work) and Category III (almost tear-down material) to get a city-determined laundry-list of improvements, to…

  • The Great Saint Paul Land Grab, Part IV

    Last week, I sent this email (with a few subtle variations, depending on the recipient) to every Saint Paul City Councilperson (and each of their Legislative Assistants, just for good measure). I’m Mitch Berg.  I’m a twenty-year Saint Paul resident.  I live in the Fourth Ward.  I also write a blog (Shot In The Dark)…

  • The Great Saint Paul Land Grab, Part III

    So let’s recap what we have so far: On June 25th, 2008, the Saint Paul City Council passed ordinance 07-1194 4 (“Green Sheet” number 3046791). You can read it for yourself – but in essence, it amends the city’s legislative code to say the following (I’m summarizing below): To sell a vacant (or “dangerous” or…

  • The Great Saint Paul Land Grab – Intermission

    Last week, I wrote two pieces on a new Saint Paul ordinance (here and here). I’m going to delay the last part – partly because I’ve been buried at work, but largely because it’s now two or three parts. More on Friday.

  • The Great Saint Paul Land Grab, Part II

    As we noted yesterday, there’s a bit of a foreclosure and vacant home crisis in Saint Paul. And while having 1993 registered vacant homes in a stock of about 115,000 residential buildings is a crisis by any measure, the fact that they are (so far) so heavily concentrated in some of the city’s lower-income neighborhoods…

  • The Great Saint Paul Land Grab

    Last week, I wrote about the mood change I see in Saint Paul since the Coleman (Chris) Administration took over, and since the ultraliberal Gang of Four consolidated their power and expanded to Five.  To sum it up – things seem gloomy in Saint Paul lately.  Now, I’ve lived in some gloomy places.  I grew up in…