 |
| [St. Paul Union Depot c. 1910. It burned down soon afterward.] |
Here's a quote from turn-of-the-century railroad industry booster magazine, Railroad Gazette, describing St. Paul's passenger rail service at the Union Depot in 1906, around the peak of its powers:
One of the most striking illustrations of the rapid development of the railroads of the Northwest is that to be seen any night by a visit to Union Depot, at St. Paul, Minn., where, standing side by side, may be found four of the finest trains in the world, each run by a separate railroad, each bound for the same destination and, all scheduled to be started at nearly the same time. At no other place in the U.S. (or the world) can such a sight be seen, and to the railroad man it is really inspiring. The cars of these trains are all of the latest design and embody all the best features; and they are hauled by the fastest and most powerful passenger locomotives. [...] The superiority of the western service is clearly apparent.
Presumably the trains described are the Hiawatha, Zephyr, 400, and Great Western (?), all going to Chicago. This quote is from a Union Pacific historical preservation study.
 |
| [The two downtowns back when they were full of street life.] |
I'm excited to announce a "Urban Biography" mashup with Tom Weber, former MPR host and one of my all-time favorite radio interviewers. Tom wrote the Minneapolis version of my Saint Paul book, and the Minnesota Historical Society Press is going to have us both on stage at the History Center to discuss our projects. We're going to determine, once and for all, the real difference between Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
You don't want to miss this! And it's free.
Minneapolis and St. Paul are built on the same river, one in an improbably hilly gorge, and the other on the wide plains surrounding a waterfall. Both have Indigenous histories that reach back thousands of years. They are distinct from one another in nearly every other way. But why is that so?Join Tom Weber, award-winning writer, journalist, and radio host and the author of Minneapolis: An Urban Biography, and Bill Lindeke, urban geographer, historian and author of St. Paul: An Urban Biography for a conversation that will shed light on the historical whys and hows our sometimes fractious, always intertwined, fraternal Twin Cities.
I hope to see you then.
It's a
BOY
[Porch. Cathedral Hill, Saint Paul.]
Nearby
$10 off haircuts
crispy line-up
spray-enhancer
[Pole. Hamline-Midway, Saint Paul.]
Sorry...
we don't have parking!
YOU CAN PARK ON THE
STREET!
[Window. Location forgotten.]
No Trespassing
Unless Friendly
[Fence. Hamline-Midway, Saint Paul.]
To The PERSON(S) THAT TRAMPLED MY
BEE GARDEN... THIS IS MY HOUSE - MY
YARD... NOT YOURS... AND, IT's not
a camp, resta rea, or vacation spot!!
they weren't weeds. it was a mix of lil, sedum, bee balm, liily of the valley , snow ## wueen anne lace, daisy, fern hostas, etc. with odd flowers mixed in.
[Yard. Hamline-Midway, Saint Paul.]
under Construction
[Window. University Avenue, Saint Paul.]
CABINET AND
GLASS ENTRY
DOORS
[Pole. Duluth.]
NO
Public
Restrooms
-THANKs
[Door. Duluth.]
SLOW DOWN
[Boulevard. Somewhere in Saint Paul with a crappy bike lane.]
Saint Paul's newly-reelected mayor, Melvin Carter, had a very interesting appearance on a KSTP news show yesterday morning. If you've been following the debate over the rent control proposal, this is quite the revelation.
(Side note: I am amazed that KSTP has a Sunday morning TV news program!)
Anyway, here's the transcript:
KSTP Guy: Good morning, mayor.
Mayor Melvin Carter III: Good morning. How are you today?
KSTP: Doing great. First of all, tell us why this ordinance is a good thing for the city of Saint Paul.
Carter: Absolutely. Thanks for having me. First of all, we’re exited about the strong statement the voters of Saint Paul made last week that endorsed the direction that we’re leading this city in. One of those things was the rent stabilization ordinance. I told the voters of the city about a month ago that I was going to vote "yes", not because I think the policy is flawless, but because we have some real urgent needs where housing growth and housing equity are concerned.
The conversation somehow ended up pitting our growth and equity goals against one another, which I find lamentable. But again, we’re in an urgent moment. We’re in a point of crisis. We lost Saint Paul residents last winter just because they couldn’t find a warm place to sleep. And our teachers in our public schools tell us we have children in our schools who, they switch schools five six times in one school year, because that’s how housing insecure their family is. I voted "yes" because it's a good start, and we have to continue to build on that, rather quickly, frankly.
KSTP: And of course many people are divided on the topic. So what do you say to those people who think negatively about his, who think it may affect landlords and new development. Are you worried that this might scare development away?
Carter: That’s one of the things I’ve said since the beginning of my administration: we’re a city that’s almost at our all time high in population. We’ve already got a significant housing shortage. And we’ve got two decades of projected growth in front of us.
We just can’t afford to do anything that’s going to slow the growth of new housing in our community. I think that is a valid concern. I shared that actually, when I first voiced my support for the ordinance in the first place, about a month ago. And so one of the things that I’m telling them, right now, is that I plan on asking the City Council, very soon, to take action to consider and pass what I think of as a clarifying ordinance, to explicitly allow an exemption for new housing construction.
The ordinance as passed by voters last week is silent on new housing construction, but it does allow a specific exception for a reasonable rate of return. And so, to make sure that our new housing developers can access a reasonable rate of return, our goal is to pass that clarifying amendment, so that people who are interested in building in our city, so that people who are interested in building new housing in our city, can know that they can with confidence.
KSTP: There has been a little bit of confusion, especially with members of City Council, about when this takes effect, or of paying for the ordinance. Can you help clear up some of the timeline? There’s been talk about whether it starts in May, or whether it’s effective immediately. Can you help clear that up for us?
Carter: The City Code and also the state law governing this has been clear that when voters express their will at the ballot box, their will becomes effective immediately. What’s confusing this is that in this case, what becomes effective immediately is a language that the voters approved, that explicitly includes an implementation date of May 1, 2022. So we believe that’s what becomes effective immediately, and that’s what we’re working toward with our team. Implementing that.
We frankly don’t know yet what we expect it to cost, because there are a million variables where that is concerned. There are some folks who want that work to be done faster. The vote passed less than a week ago, and our priority is doing it well.
KSTP: That’s Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter. Mayor, thank you so much for waking up early with us on this Sunday morning.
Carter: Thanks for having me on.
Make from this what you will!
I would only flag that the timeline - "very soon" - does not imply waiting until November 2022 to make any changes. I'd predict this happening within a month or two, or as soon as the Mayor and a City Council majority can get on the same page.
I'd say the outcome odds I posted a while ago are looking solid, only that the chances of the ordinance staying "as-is" for two years would drop from 15% to a low number. Unless any of the Council Members have changed their minds about this rent control ordinance, it seems a safe bet that this policy will be changed before it's even implemented.
The other note is that this seems like only the first stage of trying to amend this policy. Both Mayor Carter and his director of Planning and Economic Development have stated that they are hiring a consultant to advise the city on rent control and other housing policies (e.g. inclusionary zoning). They have said they will be convening meetings of "stakeholders" to identify a different city policy than the one that was passed on the ballot last week. I would guess that the timeline for that is more of a year-long situation.
Update: Council President Amy Brendmoen was on MPR today throwing some cold water on the Mayor's plan. Sounds like it might take longer than Mayor Carter was hoping...
Well that’s a good question. We’ve been asking in advance of the referendum being passed by the voters what changes could be made before a year’s time, and we’ve been told we could not make any substantive changes. To me, this sounds like a substantive change, and it’s coming after the voters spoke quite loudly that they support the rent stabilization measures that were put before them. So can we look at something that the Mayor brings to us, sure, but my recommendation would be that he engage the stakeholders who brought the measure forward in the first place, and get their support, so that we can move forward without the risk of legal action.
[Listen here.]
 |
| [From the City Council meeting yesterday.] |
The Pioneer Press has the best coverage of the meeting yesterday with the City Council and the City Attorney's office, on the legal avenues for change to the proposed rent control ballot initiative. There are certainly legal takes from both the pro- and anti-rent control campaign, that are aimed mostly at the election. The City Attorney, on the other hand, should offer a relatively neutral perspective. If anything, you would think they would be trying hard to ensure that Mayor Carter's plans for a community process and quick amendment would be legally supported. (Spoiler: they do not make that case.)
At any rate, for those who don't want to watch the video, here's a transcript:
Council President Amy Brendmoen: There’s some confusion about whether or not the City Council has the ability to change a referendum that has come to us in this manner in the chance that it is passed.
City Attorney Tierney: Thank you CP Brendmoen, I have a colleague with me here, he’s going to dig into the differences between Minneapolis and Saint Paul. I think that will be helpful.
Attorney Steven Ernest: My name is Steven Ernest speaking on behalf of the City Attorney's Office. There are two points before answering the question about how the rent stabilization how we got to this place. The first clarifying point is that there is a difference between an initiative and a referendum. The power of initiative is the power to have voters petition to have an ordinance placed on ballot; A referendum is kind of the opposite, voters are acting to repeal and act of Council, after the City has already acted. The ordinance in this case has been brought through the power of initiative.
I make that distinction because the Minneapolis charter does not give initiative to their voters, but Saint Paul does.
The second point is about Municipal leg. Power. It’s important to review it to set up why the rent stabilization came from the voters as opposed to City Council In Minnesota there are have as our document that grants and defines power of our city government, the charter it’s like the constitution. Statutory cities are different, their uniform statuary code that’s in the Minnesota statutes. In contrast, charters can be different, which is why the charter in Saint Paul is different from the charter in Minneapolis In general home rule charter cities with reference to local matters have all of the power the state legislature possesses w/r/t statewide matters, except when the legislature has expressly said “no," you cities cannot legislate in this area. So the default rule is home rule charter city have very broad power except when they’ve been preempted by the state in this case the city of Saint Paul very likely has the power to adopt a rent stabilization ordinance pursuant to its police powers but you can’t because the state has said in [the rent control law] that no city can adopt a rent stabilization or rent control ordinance that relegates private rents. Prior to the enactment of that law the city could have done rent stabilization but now it can’t.
There are two exceptions to that rule, the City Council can propose an ordinance or charter amendment that gives the city council the power to authority to adopt a rent stabilization ordinance, but it’s not the ordinance itself, it gives the City Council the power to adopt the ordinance at a later date but that amendment or ordinance has to first be approved by the voters and once they approve it then the City Council can adopt the rent stabilization ordinance if they choose to. The 2nd exception is that voters themselves can petition to have the ordinance placed on the ballot, as long as the city charter gives them that power. Once its on the ballot as long as its approved, it becomes law there’s only 1 step required to meet that 2nd exception, but in the 1st exception its a 2 step process.
In Saint Paul because we have that initiative power, once it's approved its lawfully enacted not withstanding the general prohibition. In the case of Minneapolis because their charter does not provide for the power of initiative the charter amendment gives the City Council that power. Thy’ve just pursued the 1st exception.
Council President Amy Brendmoen: it’s definitely complex. I can understand the complexities there. It sounds like Saint Paul could have done the other route and Minneapolis had a way to do the version in Saint Paul but opted not to do that. Are there any other specific questions.
Council Member Jane Prince: Can we ask the question about whether or we are able to amend the ordinance? Is that coming up?
Council President Brendmoen: I hope so that’s one fo the questions that we ask the City Attorney's Office and that has been circulating and confusing people that would be good to understand what are the limits given this I we have in front of us.
City Attorney Tierney: In Section 804 of our charter it says the ordinance cannot be repealed within 1 year of its approval by the voters. The ordinance can’t be repealed. The question is one that does not have a clear answer in law. We can’t repeal it, but that does not speak to whether we can amend it.
I can tell you there is a very skinny case law about what we’re able to do, so I can only speak generally. And say that we likely have the ability to amend the ordinance or supplement the ordinance but the more substantive changes we make the more likely we are to have a risk of litigation and the more likely a court is to overturn that action. Our plan in the City Attorney's Office we will review any proposed changes and look at them for whether or not they are substantive, with the goal of looking in the lens of whether or not we have altered the will of the voters. That’s kind of the lens we will look through.
Council President Brendmoen: [discusses substantive v. Nonspbustantive / typographical changes]
Council Member Rebecca Noecker: Understanding your point, there isn’t much case law here, I do think its important to be clear about this I’ve heard questions from residents. I’ve read the mayor talk about making changes quickly about what really can be changed, leaving aside switching As to Bs or Ands to Ifs any substantive change, because this is coming to us fully formed, any change could be seen as altering the will of the voters. The voters are voting on exact language. I just trying to figure how how your office would evaluate any changes that are more than ands to ifs to know if it was altering the will of the voters. And if you have any specific case law that shows cities being successful or not on litigation in this.
City Attorney Tierney: Boy, do I wish there was specific case law I could point to that would give us some guidance. It simply isn’t out there. What I can say is that obviously in order to give this ordinance meaning we’re going to do a significant amount of work creating an infrastructure for the ordinance. You asked your question you used the word change. I don’t think if we were to characterize something as a change it would have an increased risk of litigation. We’ll take a look at everything, at what other states and cities have done. We will look at what other rent stabilization ordinances do ones that are similar to ours and what they look like. We’ll have to engage in some kind of comparative process and a risk analysis. I wish I had better clearer answers. We’re in a unique circumstance here. It’ll be a matter of rolling up our sleeves and reading some tea leaves to some extent.
Council Member Chris Tolbert: Talk about the rule making process, what the city will be necessitated to do if this passes the voters rule making and implementation.
City Attorney Tierney: I’m not the best person to answer these questions Office of Financial Empowerment have been looking at what this ordinance might look like. We’ll need to create a board. You use the term rule making. We don’t have a clear process. The City Attorney's Office we have some recommendations for how departments should do rule making. Rules are under subservient to the ordinance itself. The rules can provide breadth but can’t be in conflict with the ordinance at all. With reference to what the process will look like I can’t say. That’s a much better question for [someone?]. More information about what other jurisdictions have done. He and the office of finance are working on how many staff would need to be hired and those kind of issues.
Council President Brendmoen: one other question about effective dates what is effective dates and how that relates to the 1 year piece.
City Attorney Tierney: I’m feel like I’m coming here with a lot of non answers. Under our charter an ordinance takes effect immediately after its adopted. The effective date on this ordinance is May 1, 2022. I think it is likely that a court would find this ordinance takes place immediately as a practical matter we won’t have the infrastructure in place to meaningfully enforce the ordnance but there is a private right of action in the ordinance and a court may interpret that that private right of action takes effect immediately. We don’t have any case law to guide us in this area we only have what our charter says.
The "effect date" is certainly a surprise. I'm not sure much has changed since I put up my "outcome odds" the other day. I'd say the most likely outcome - litigation clusterf**k - seems about right.
In Italy, where this sort of thing can occur,
I had a vision once – though you understand
It was nothing at all like Dante's, or the visions of saints,
And perhaps not a vision at all. I was with some friends,
Picking my way through a warm, sunlit piazza
In the early morning. A clear fretwork of shadows
From huge umbrellas littered the pavement and made
A sort of lucent shallows in which was moored
A small navy of carts. Books, coins, old maps,
Cheap landscapes and ugly religious prints
Were all on sale. The colors and noise
Like the flying hands were gestures of exultation,
So that even the bargaining
Rose to the ear like a voluble godliness.
And then, when it happened, the noises suddenly stopped,
And it got darker; pushcarts and people dissolved
And even the great Farnese Palace itself
Was gone, for all its marble; in its place
Was a hill, mole-colored and bare. It was very cold,
Close to freezing, with a promise of snow.
The trees were like old ironwork gathered for scrap
Outside a factory wall. There was no wind,
And the only sound for a while was the little click
Of ice as it broke in the mud under my feet.
I saw a piece of ribbon snagged on a hedge,
But no other sign of life. And then I heard
What seemed the crack of a rifle. A hunter, I guessed;
At least I was not alone. But just after that
Came the soft and papery crash
Of a great branch somewhere unseen falling to earth.
And that was all, except for the cold and silence
That promised to last forever, like the hill.
Then prices came through, and fingers, and I was restored
To the sunlight and my friends. But for more than a week
I was scared by the plain bitterness of what I had seen.
All this happened about ten years ago,
And it hasn't troubled me since, but at last, today,
I remembered that hill; it lies just to the left
Of the road north of Poughkeepsie; and as a boy
I stood before it for hours in wintertime.
[Anthony Hecht, c. 1964.]
Last night I did a quick version of my St. Paul history blab, the first half anyway, for the Ramsey County Historical Society speaker series. It was co-hosted by the Roseville and East Side Freedom Libraries, and there was good attendance! Something like 80 people tuned in to hear me go through the rushed version of Saint Paul history from 1837 to 1917. This was a quick tour of some highlights of Saint Paul history, including the "Pig's Eye" origins, the founding of the railroad empire, annexation and growth, booms and busts, insecurity and the Winter Carnival, labor strife, and the difference between Saint Paul and Minneapolis.
I am going to do a "Part 2" of this talk on January 20th, that will be focused on race, immigration, and the role of city plans in creating today's urban inequality in Saint Paul. Update: here's the link to that!
If you want to buy an autographed copy of the book, here's the link! You can also go to your local bookstore, especially if it's in Saint Paul.
[Youtube link.]
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| [Homes for sale in my neighborhood, a part of town seeing 10+% annual increases.] |
Discussing Saint Paul’s rent control proposal over the last few weeks, I've heard one reaction a few times:
"I understand what you’re saying. You’ve got a point, but we have to do something!”
Or, another long-time pro-housing, pro-rent control friend told me:
“It’s not perfect but sometimes you have to throw spaghetti against the wall to see if it sticks.”
Given the urgency of the moment, both around housing, COVID / evictions, homelessness, and demands for racial equity, I completely understand the desire to do something about the housing crisis.
To me, the irony with the rent control proposal on the Saint Paul ballot is that it is literally doing nothing. A 3% rent control cap that applies to new housing is trying very hard to prevent change from happening, to preserve the status quo in amber. Instead, when I think about the need to "do something", it makes me think of another famous mantra: the fundamental Hippocratic principle, “first, do no harm.”
This is where I get frustrated with the HENS rent control proposal. The details of the proposal mean that, quite needlessly in my opinion, the policy will make the overall housing crisis worse.
Here’s the basic housing crisis in one graph:
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A = we have a huge backlog of 50,000+ homes that were never built because of the ’07 crash
B = affordable housing funding is a fraction of what we need
If you solve both these problems, you can largely fix the housing crisis.
Notably, rent control does not get us closer to either of these goals. The policy doesn't build more housing, nor does it provide money for housing subsidies. If done well, it can slow the loss of natural occurring affordable housing (NOAH) while we fix these more fundamental problems. But if done poorly, rent control can make both problems A and B even worse.
That’s why the details matter and I continue to be a critical pedant when it comes to differentiating between good and bad forms of rent control.
 |
| [A Saint Paul apartment building.] |
What Should We Do?
The other question people keep asking me: "Bill, if you're so smart, what’s your plan?"
Here are a few ideas:
- actual rent stabilization
I think a pro-housing rent stabilization policy would slow the loss of NOAH and prevent displacement. And I think the details of a rent stabilization policy must be crafted to ensure we grow the housing supply and tax base. That's why the three details I wrote about six weeks ago remain the largest problems with the proposal on the ballot. If I were setting up this policy, I would get rid of all of them.
First, the new construction exemption is a no-brainer. I didn’t concoct the theory that rent control that applies to new construction will reduce the housing supply. It's the dominant, consensus opinion reflected in housing policy literature. I’ve done a lot of research, and talked to dozens of housing experts, on and off the record. If you're still unconvinced by all of that, I don’t know why you’re reading this post in the first place.
The new construction provision is a glaring unforced error by the makers of this policy, causing all kinds of housing problems with little-to-no benefit. We need to get rid of it.
The policy's second problem is the inflation provision. I also don’t see any rational reason for an inflexible cap. I’m can only imagine that, when the folks drafting this ordinance were coming up with the 3% number, they did not envision COVID-19 happening, triggering large rent fluctuations and leading inflation to spike past 5%.
But that’s the point! You need a policy that adapts to changing and unpredictable circumstances. If you tie the rent cap to the consumer price index (CPI), you mitigate much of that risk, which is why every other rent control and rent stabilization policy on the continent uses CPI (or something like it). Saint Paul should do the same.
I would say (depending on the next detail) that you should cap rent increases at the CPI or CPI+3% or something in that range, and it would work OK. It would still piss off the landlords, but it would have many fewer negative consequences than the current inflexible proposal.
Third, the vacancy control question is complicated, involving pros and cons and tradeoffs no matter what you do. It’s certainly a provision worthy of deep discussion.
A lot depends on whether or not you are optimistic you can keep apartments affordable using tools other than rent control. In other words, if you believe that “housing supply” is a lost cause, then rent control becomes your only means of providing affordability, and strict vacancy control makes sense. If you think, as I do, that building lots more housing (see below) will help keep housing affordable, then vacancy control becomes less important and its downsides - disinvestment and discrimination - are magnified.
The way I see it, if you get rid of the vacancy decontrol, you can make the rent stabilization provision stricter, e.g. a CPI rent cap. If you keep hard vacancy control, you have to loosen the rent cap to be something like CPI + 3% or higher. Honestly, I'm still not sure about this very important policy detail, which is why I would like to have an honest conversation about it.
Finally, the other details like "cost pass-throughs" are also important. I think one glaring omission is something that accounts for tax increases. This is the kind of specific detail that makes for bad politics: if you don’t allow people to increase rents to match taxes, at least in some fashion, you’re creating a huge talking point for reactionaries. Plus, a tax levy exception sort of makes sense! At the very least it would prevent thousands of variance requests in a year like 2021, where the property tax levy is going up 11%.
Anyway, that would be where I'd start the conversation around reforming this policy. If it passes, I hope Mayor Carter and the City Council go this direction. Given what the Mayor has already said, I imagine that's likely [see below].
 |
| [New apartments under construction at Raymond and University.] |
- building lots of housing
Almost every housing expert believes we need to build lots of new housing across all levels of income in the Twin Cities. That's especially true in Saint Paul, which has lagged behind Minneapolis for twenty years while seeing a lot of transit investment in the meantime.
I believe Saint Paul needs to build at least 2,000 new homes every year, and like it or not, the vast majority of them are going to be market-rate. I’d love to see a goal larger than that number, between 3,000 and 4,000 new homes per year (i.e. Minneapolis levels). If we built housing at that pace, Saint Paul would make a dent in all kinds of problems, everything from rental housing costs to the owner-occupied real estate market to climate action to pollution to tax base growth to crime prevention. It’s really important.
- inclusionary zoning that works
When I was on the Planning Commission, I repeatedly asked staff to study inclusionary zoning and get a policy in place. Inclusionary zoning has downsides and is not a silver bullet - nothing is! - but it's a policy that, unlike rent control, produces new affordable housing for people at the levels we need.
Unless I am wrong about how housing financing works, having an inflexible rent control policy on the books kills any chance of having a working inclusionary zoning ordinance. On the other hand, if you have an exception for new construction in a rent stabilization proposal, you can implement inclusionary zoning. Doing so will have the extra benefit of setting reasonable affordability expectations during the public engagement process around new housing construction, a problem I have encountered repeatedly.
- tenant protections
Minneapolis has been a national leader on housing policy, and that includes passing tenant protections that have survived court challenges. Just last month, they even adopted (in committee) a new process that will provide court representation for tenants facing evictions.
Meanwhile, the Saint Paul tenant protections (pushed by the same group backing this year's rent control policy) were thrown out in court, leaving Saint Paul tenants with no new rights that help them prevent evictions, screening, and other major problems.
It would be good to follow Minneapolis’ lead, revisit tenant protections and other policies that could help keep the city’s renters secure in their homes.
- affordable housing trust funds
Ramsey County puts $11M in an annual affordable housing trust fund, and spends most of it. Minneapolis budgets around $15M per year. Saint Paul, on the other hand, has been setting aside:
Not great! It's one reason why we need to make sure we continue to grow our city's tax base.
Which brings me to...
- sell off stuff for privileged people to fund affordable housing
One of the best ideas to come out of Mayor Carter’s office in the last few years was when, in 2018, they floated the idea of selling a 1,170-space downtown parking ramp in order to put $10M into the city’s aforementioned affordable housing trust fund.
This was great. The city should not be in the business of owning and operating downtown parking ramps, which run counter to Saint Paul's climate action goals. Subsidizing downtown parking overwhelmingly benefits wealthy folks coming from all over the region; instead this money would have helped provide just the kind of 30% AMI housing that we so desperately need.
So this seemed ideal, not only for affordable housing but also in general for the city budget. Check out this quote from the Pioneer Press story:
Ramsey County property records show an estimated market value of roughly $14 million, though it could sell for more or less than that depending upon the findings of independent appraisers. The ramp pays street maintenance assessments to the city, but no property taxes. In the hands of a private owner, it’s likely that would change, and the ramp could return to the tax rolls.
So what happened? Well, the Children’s Museum cried foul and city leaders balked, citing the need to keep control over the downtown parking revenue.
Since then, especially post-COVID, parking revenue and demand downtown has fallen to less than 10% of its previous 2018 levels, with no end in sight. The city missed a golden opportunity to fund affordable housing, take climate action, and help the tax base, and balked because we lacked the courage to make a tough decision in the name of equity and social justice.
I would like to see Saint Paul sell off marginal assets for affordable housing funding, especially downtown parking ramps. We should also develop at least two the four city-owned golf courses - the most elitist and polluting park land in the city - to fund and build affordable housing. Why does the city own golf courses?
- expand existing landlord programs
The city actually has existing programs aimed at keeping housing affordable with rent caps and tax abatement. Make these more effective and widespread.
- regional or other solutions
The housing crisis is inherently a regional problem, though because of its historic walkable fabric, great transit, and flexible zoning, Saint Paul can play a huge role. Ideally, I would love to see a metro-wide (Met Council?) tax levy set up for affordable housing funding at a regional scale, or a statewide fund.
 |
| [The same homes for sale, from the other angle; IMO rent control will drive Frogtown home prices through the roof.] |
In Conclusion: There are Different Perspectives
The reason I’ve spent so much time writing about this rent control proposal is because it didn't take more than a few minutes of digging into its details until all kinds of red flags began popping up. Since then, I've extensively researched the topic, tried to report what I’ve found, and have shared my own relatively neutral perspective.
How you vote on this upcoming ballot measures involves weighing a lot of different factors.
Q: How many people would be helped by the rent cap and how urgent do you think this is?
(I tried to answer this but really we have no good information other than anecdotes and national news headlines; the average Saint Paul apartment is around $1000 a month, and so the difference between a 3% and 5% rent increases is $20 a month; the difference between 3% and 10% increase, on the other hand is $70 a month, which over a year adds up to a good chunk of change for a family that might need it. You can see the average increases for different neighborhoods in my study and figure out a rough idea of what the short-term benefits would be)
Q: How important do you you think it is to keep building market-rate housing in Saint Paul?
(IMO it's very important, for affordability and other city goals.)
Q: How much do you trust Mayor Carter and the City Attorneys Office to be able to change the ordinance?
For a lot of people, this not an issue of housing policy at all, but one of allyship, race or class solidarity, or something else. Lots of people are simply not interested in making distinctions about different kinds of rent stabilization, and are tossing both cities' proposals into the same boat.
For me, it's a housing issue. I keep coming back to the actual policy on the ballot. It's is not a good housing policy, and I have to vote against it.
If it passes, which I think is likely thanks to Mayor Carter’s support, Saint Paul will be facing intractable legal and/or policy problems. Thanks to the state law, I don't think this policy is easy to change, and I predict it will have a fate similar to the SAFE tenant protections.
Here are my odds of what happens if the HENS proposal is approved by voters:
One perverse thing about most of these outcomes is that rents will be worse than if we had done nothing; I bet most Saint Paul landlords will increase rents significantly before the policy takes hold next May. In the meantime, as I wrote a month ago, it’s unfortunate that this proposal is on the ballot, giving Saint Paul voters a bad set of choices. I don't see this whole thing ending well.
[See also my short column in Minnpost about the Saint Paul ordinance and my long-read with all the research about how this rent control proposal affects housing in Saint Paul, an explainer of why a 3% rent cap blocks new housing construction, short posts on how the policy would affect rents and taxes, interviews with housing policy experts on new construction and rent control, and guesses about Mayor Carter's plan.]
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| [Ffwd to about 38:00 for Carter's rent stabilization comments.] |
I have almost two decades of a policy policy, decision-making experience and one of the things that every policy I’ve ever written has in common is that the first draft needed revisions. And I think that is one of the limitations of policy making through referendum, is that we sort of lock in a first draft. This proposal in front of us is absolutely a start, and there are some very clear challenges with regards to the equity of our housing market that must be addressed with urgency. We must address those things.
I am going to be voting 'yes' on the rent stabilization proposal, not because it's perfect, but because it's a start. And our housing and our equity goals simply cannot wait another day. They are just too urgent.
I do believe there are concerns with reference to the impact on potential new housing starts, in a time when population is growing so fast, because our city is that vibrant place that Mr. Frost was talking about, that people want to live in, that recognize that high quality in life that we have here. It’s a must for us to be able to build the new housing that we need to accommodate our rapidly growing population. And I think it’s necessary for all of us, whether this proposal passes or fails on the ballot, it’s going to be necessary for all of us to look at this as a start, and not and end, to the conversation, and all come together in a conversation about how do we want this policy, in the long term for our city, in a way that builds us toward our goals that we have.
I don't see anything in there that contradicts what I took away from the earlier Mayoral tweets...
It was all behind me now. By the next day, there would be what my mother had called "another kind of world, one with more hope and promising things." She had said," Make a man of yourself up there. Put something into it, and you'll get something out of it." It was her dream for me. When I stepped onto the chilly streets of St. Paul, Minnesota, two days later, I was determined to fulfill that dream...
[My sisters house,] It was a nice house — two-storied, handsomely middle-class, with large comfortable rooms. And that night, lying in bed, I marveled at the hundreds of deer leaping the bushes on the wallpaper around me, and my thoughts were charged with vague imaginings of the future. Yet I felt that whatever security lay ahead would be of my own making. There was no feeling of permanence in the softness of the ornate bed. I sensed that this was to be an uneasy stopover, and that it owed be necessary to move on before long...
I awoke early the next day dressed and went out of the doors, eager for a look at the new surroundings. The morning was already brisk and alive, with sunshine full upon the big porch. The tree-lined avenue seemed clean and beautiful. The leaves, yielding to the first frosts, had taken on the golds and oranges of autumn. Stretching full length upon the steps, I was suddenly thankful to be in this bright new land.
People were now on the street, moving with the quickness that autumn mornings enforce. I thought that I too would have to move much faster here; otherwise I would be left behind. Maggie Lee had made pancakes and sugar for breakfast. We ate quietly, this three of us; then my brother-in-law, a Pullman porter, went away for a week — the only week that I was to know happens in this house.
I enrolled in Mechanic Arts High School, and got an evening job bussing dishes in a diner, where I was paid six dollars a week and given one meal a day. My brother-in-law took two of this for my rent and meals, yet the four dollars left seemed adequate. It was more than I had ever had at one time in my entire life. The new friends I made kidded me about my country mannerisms and dress, my shyness with the girls and my “Kansas talk.” But when basketball season came, my status grew.
Real winter came one Friday just before Christmas. A hungry north wind knifed down like a hawk. By seven o’clock that night, the temperature had dipped to ten degrees below zero.
….
After the pool hall closed, I rode trolley cars back and forth to the ends of the line between St. Paul and Minneapolis, sleeping most of the time, using my suitcase for a pillow, waking now and then to the sound of snow and sleet pelting against the trolley windows. I was aware of people getting on and off at different stops, noting that they had someplace to go, knowing that I was only riding out the night. Once when I awoke, the car was empty and dark, the doors were open and wind and snow swept in from both ends. I sat up, rubbed frost from the window and looked out. Except for the falling snow, there was nothing — no trees, lights or landscape. The car seemed suspended the stormy blackness. Again I rubbed briskly at the window, and then there came a sputtering of bluish-white light. The trolley operator was swinging the contact pole to the power line from where it had slipped. The lights came on, and a railing came into view. We were on a bridge, high above the Mississippi River.
I rode the trolley between the Twin Cities for several weeks. The rent was reasonable, and there was always some heat. My food for those days and nights was the single meal I got at the diner, eked out by hot dogs and root beer.
[From Gordon Parks' amazing autobiography, A Choice of Weapons. Parks moved from Kansas to St. Paul at the age of 15.]
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| [Rondo Avenue streetcar, c. 1947.] |
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| [Mayor Carter at last night's Mayoral debate.] |
Balanced those two things had become a really difficult choice for lots people around Saint Paul, including many of the Council Members who were forced to answer “yes” or “no” to supporting the HENS rent control referendum as-written. But yesterday, the Mayor tweeted a statement that, for me, changes the situation.
His very short tweet was basically a “yes, and…” It’s a stance that helps me breathe a sigh of relief in what had become a very frustrating situation with few good outcomes. While I still think there are some unknown legal hurdles, how this debate is playing out illustrates the difference in process around how Minneapolis and Saint Paul handle difficult policy problems.
Parsing Semantics
To re-cap what elected officials have said: Council Members Jalali and Yang have said that they support the rent control ordinance, with Jalali in particular cautioning that “we can have some revision after a period of time.” Meanwhile, Council Members Brendomen, Prince, Thao, and Tolbert all said they do not support the rent control ordinance, citing to varying degrees problems around new housing and unintended outcomes. Meanwhile Mayor Carter had remained cryptic, indirectly saying he was “studying it” through a spokesperson.
Well, that changed yesterday.
It sucks to parse a Mayoral tweet as if he’s a Federal Reserve Chairman, but in a way, he kind of is and that’s what we have here. The key part of Mayor Carter’s Tweet IMO is the following clause: “we can and must make it better, quickly”.
Those eight words say a lot! Here’s how I read them:
The last word “quickly” is doing a lot of work. You don’t stick a dangling adverb into your carefully-worded Tweet unless you mean it. I think Mayor has a plan to act as soon as legally possible to change this policy. (My wild guess would be that he tries to amend the ordinance before it would be enacted in June; but for purely legal reasons, it might also mean next November.)
This is likely all we have to go by. Unless I’m wrong, I doubt the Mayor will clarify unknown details before the election. During last night's League of Women Voters debate, he kept calling the policy proposal a "first draft" and "a start", and specifically mentioned new construction as a provision that bothers him, but did not say anything more specific. For Mayor Carter, there’s little to be gained by elaborating before November.
Trust, Legal Hurdles, and Process
It’s a relief to hear that there’s a plan for changing this ordinance, and that proposed policy won’t be on the books for very long (if at all). I think that the Mayor, who will be easily and justifiably re-elected, has a lot of leverage, even more so after he’s said he will be voting “yes.” With the majority of the City Council on the record opposing the rent control ballot measure as-written, there should be few hurdles to changing the problematic details as much and as soon as they legally can.
(More on that in a second.)
I also trust Mayor Carter on housing issues. From the beginning of his campaign four years ago, he has been a strong supporter of pro-housing approach on the Ford Site. His recent, controversial veto of the Lexington Parkway development denial shows that his office has a good grasp over on-the-ground housing debates in Saint Paul. In short, if he says to trust him, and that his changes to the policy will work out, I’m inclined to believe him.
One frustration I’ve had about the rent stabilization/rent control debates in the two cities resolved around process. Over in Minneapolis, they’ve been studying rent stabilization for years. If Ballot Question 3 passes there, they’ll have an in-depth public hearing process process where city officials, staff, and members of the public debate and weigh in on all kinds of critical questions.
Meanwhile, in Saint Paul, we have nothing but anecdotes. There’s not even rudimentary information available on what the problem is and how different kinds of policies might work.
For example, here are things we don’t know:
Of course, I can think of lots more questions, but that's some very basic stuff!
Should the referendum pass in Saint Paul, I imagine that the Mayor will task City Staff to figure these questions out and tailor policy changes based on what they find. That’s important, because having the city’s housing policy experts use actual data on rents, and research about the pros and cons of critical details, is a necessary and missing step.
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| [This is the big legal hurdle that's still out there.] |
But the other wrench I have to cautiously throw into the wind: the lawyers might win in the end.
The ALEC-written, rent control-preemption state law is still there on the books at the State Capitol. It’s never been tested in court AFAIK. I’ve read all the relevant statues — the state law, the city charter, and the HENS ordinance — and to my eye, it is not clear if and when the City can change the ballot-approved policy. A lot depends on the legal differences between “repeal” and “amend,” or between “enact” and “renew.” Nobody knows what a judge will decide about that, especially if it’s this guy again.
For example, Minneapolis City Attorney’s office has cautioned their City Council that the legal issues around rent stabilization ordinance are vague. That’s why they have “strongly suggested” that the voters decide on, not one, but two ballot measures: the first to grant “permission” to have a policy (which is weird), and the second so that voters have a chance to approve the specific details of that policy. What this tells me is that the Saint Paul “process” here will be litigated, and likely by the same group of MHA-backed attorneys that defeated the City soundly on the tenant protection ordinance.
I don’t think anyone should be sanguine about the legal situation, and there’s still a very good chance that this whole thing is thrown out in court and renters facing steep rent hikes are left with nothing. I guess we’ll find out.
But if it works out, much like the contrast around policing and reform, Minneapolis will be going through a drawn-out and contentious public process while Saint Paul will be hopefully crafting a good (maybe even better?) policy, without much fuss, in a back-room kind of way.
TL;DR - TBD
Mayor Carter changed the conversation last night. If you read behind the lines in his tweet, he pledged to quickly change the proposed policy, and seems confident that he can find a way through the legal hurdles. We don’t know what the details will be, but I trust Mayor Carter on housing.
In short, the Mayor’s “yes, and…” tweet comes as a relief. Unlike before, where Saint Paul voters were forced to choose between two bad situations, I look at this ordinance now as the functional equivalent of the one in Minneapolis, which I’ve supported from the beginning: we don’t know what the details will be, and I believe City Staff and elected officials can sort it out. If done right, and I’ll post in a few days what I think that means, Saint Paul can lead the way on addressing the housing crisis, climate change, and a whole bunch of other critical municipal pickles.
[See also my short column in Minnpost about the Saint Paul ordinance and my long-read with all the research about how this rent control proposal affects housing in Saint Paul, an explainer of why a 3% rent cap blocks new housing construction, short posts on how the policy would affect rents and taxes, interviews with housing policy experts on new construction and rent control, guesses about Mayor Carter's plan, and what I recommend we do about the housing crisis instead of the rent control proposal.]
