Reading the Highland Villager #163

[Basically the problem is that the best source of Saint Paul streets & sidewalks news is the Highland Villager, a very fine and historical newspaper. This wouldn't be a problem, except that its not available online. You basically have to live in or frequent Saint Paul to read it. Until this newspaper goes online, sidewalk information must be set free. See also: Three Reasons Why I Re-Blog the Highland Villager.] 

Headline: Plan for West 7th marketplace makes strides as three establishments sign on
Author: Frank Jossi

Short short version: An old building in an old brewery will have at least three cool shops within a year or so. It will be a "festival marketplace" [Hi from the 1980s!] Article includes some history of the brewery. It's probably a year before a lot of tenants open up in the building. The developer got about $1.7M in TIF money for the site. Article quotes around the phrase "a hip destination." [If this works it will be awesome. Still it is really tough to pull something like this off, I think. Even Midtown Global Market had some trouble.]


Headline: City suddenly looking at 7% levy increase for 2017
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: Taxes will go up because the legislature sucks.


Headline: Council OKs soccer stadium, hailed as 'game changer' for city
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: The City Council voted to approve plans for thew new soccer stadium at Snelling and University, CM Prince voting against because "uncertainty abounds." [That's funny because I just got "uncertainty abounds" tatooed on my left calf just a week ago while I was biking through Coon Rapids. I guess we've all been noticing the uncertainty abounding these days, running around like a horny dog pooping in Iris Park. It's enough to fill one with hope and/or fear, or with fiercely negative attitudes about change.] CM Thao got a community benefits agreement attached to the proposal about affordable housing and a diverse workforce. [I would bet it has few teeth.]


Headline: Mayor's budget calls for hiring of pedestrian safety coordinator
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: The mayor gave a budget speech that included $100K for a new pedestrian safety coordinator, half of which is paid by a grant. The job would involve looking at sidewalks, and prioritizing pedestrian safety requests. Three people have been killed while walking in Saint Paul so far this [calendar] year. Article includes strange quote from PW Director Lantry: "one of the biggest challenges for city officials is convincing people that a new stoplight, stop sign, painted crosswalk or other change will not always make a street safer." [The job of the city should not be telling people that "Sorry that won't work." There are lots of ways to improve pedestrian safety that will work, including things like temporary bollards or bumpouts, 4-3 road diets, etc. Painting crosswalks can work if we also make some other changes to the street, and the city should be adopting much more of a "yes and..." appraoch instead of a "yeah but..." default attitude.] The City Council seems supportive of the hire. Article includes picture of a surrender flag. [Sigh. This person will have their hands full.]


Headline: Ramsey County is eyeing 2.8 percent increase in its tax levy
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: People pay taxes for government services.


Headline: Higher city fees and taxes may have homeowners digging deeper in '17
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: Again with the paying for things that cost money thing.


Headline: County seeks proposals for jail, West site in downtown
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: The county is still trying to get people to develop something on the site along the river downtown. They tore down one of the buildings and are tearing down the other one. Hopefully they will have a developer sign an agreement  in the next few months. The request includes the words "bold" and "architecturally significant." [So not a Culver's?] CC Rettman voted against the development. [She and CM Prince should each give TED talks. I would pay to attend.] Article includes some history of the sites, which housed a publishing company and the county jail. Article states that "workers had to install a lage concrete retaining wall and rock bolt tieback system. [That's funny because "Rock Bolt Tieback System" is the name of my blues band.]


Headline: First stretch of Hamline striped for bikes
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A street on the bike plan is being milled and overlaid and bike lanes are being painted on it, maybe all the way to Pierce Butler Route but maybe not. [Just do it! Of course, the real problem is Hamline South of University, which is a complete horror show despite the fact that it's next to a college campus.] Article quotes a "Hamline-Midway resident and bicycle advocate" who says they should not put bike lanes on the street because people need to park cars there. [If by advocate you mean nutty opponent... ] Neighbors are concerned about traffic and parking. Article quotes neighbor the "bike lanes are not safe because the street is too dangerous" argument. [This is the dumbest anti-bike argument out there. If it's dangerous, let's make it safer.] Article ends by quoting some sort of Mac-Grove resident: "Hamline is a really important connection." [Great quote, bike guy. Next time let's spice it up with some inflammatory rhetoric. This is the Highland Villager, dammit!]


Headline: Proposed Snelling apartments too tall, area residents say
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A developer wants to build a six-story mixed-use building on Snelling Avenue. Neighbors are concerned about traffic, parking, views, and having more vibrant architecture. The local neighborhood group is having a meeting. [They had the meeting and it sounded like a circus.] The building will have 155 units and 230 parking spaces. [Ummm... this is directly on a brand new high-frequency transit line. Ideally, we'd be talking about development here with little or no parking at all! In Minneapolis they got rid of parking minimums along transit routes, and this would be a textbook case of doing something similar.]


Headline: Leading the charge: Highland expert promotes future of electric cars
Author: Frank Jossi

Short short version: They make cars now that run on electricity, and you plug them in to recharge them. There are dozens of these charging station things in Saint Paul.


Headline: Expect it to be 'messy' during next year's resurfacing of Highway 110: Work also planned on Dodd Road underpass
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: One of the highway in Mendota Heights needs road work. They will be building a $2 million tunnel there for people to cross the street. [This intersection is terrible for bikes. Also, nobody walks in Mendota Heights.]


Headline: Kowalski's expands grocery, deli, opens wine, coffee shops
Author: Larry Englund

Short short version: The grocery store on Grand Avenue has other stuff now.


Headline: St. Paws canine day care is in the doghouse over lack of a city license
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A dog boarding place on University Avenue doesn't have a license to operate. Article includes the sentence: "at issue with St. Paws is where the dogs relieve themselves." Apparently they have been peeing in a nearby park, which has caused "significant negative impacts." [That's planner speak for "dog shit."]


Headline: State court rules St. Paul right-of-way fees are actually taxes
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: Saint Paul is trying to get non-profits and government entities to pay for streets and other things but it's tricky.


Headline: Merriam Park masonry shop allowed to keep items outside
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: An industrial shop can store industrial-type-things in the out-of-doors.


Headline: Breezeway linking Summit Hill duplex to new garage denied
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A fancy house will not be allowed to make a roof-type-thing to their new wider garage.


Headline: Appeals court says collector cars need better screening
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A court decided that a guy who lives in Highland cannot use tarps and fences to hide on the old cars parked in his driveway. [This is such a classic Highland story. Get a garage, old car guy.]


Headline: Homeowners are feeling expansive when it comes to replacing garages
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: Everyone wants a huge garage these days! [The old car guy should read this.]


Headline: BZA approves variance for front-yard garage in Summit Hill
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: [What's with all the garage articles this fortnight? Holy moly folks. Who knew garages were such a journalistic hot-button? Suggested new name for the paper: Saint Paul Wealthier Area Semi-Monthly Garage and Parking Review, or SPWASGAPR. Rolls off the tongue.] Article includes the sentence: "According to Linwood resident and former city planner Larry Soderholm, Summit Hill neighbors have historically opposed front-yard garages, which he described as 'an ugly intrusion' even with good design." [That's a hell of a sentence, and it's kinda funny because "An Ugly Intrusion" is the name of my yet-unpublished one-act play about a visit from the in-laws that goes hilariously wrong.]

Twin City Clotheslines #1

[Saint Anthony Park, Saint Paul.]

[Longfellow Corcoran, Minneapolis.]

 [West Side, Saint Paul.]

[Lex-ham, Saint Paul.]

[Location forgotten.]

[Frogtown, Saint Paul.]

[East Side, Saint Paul.]

Twin Cities Neon #18

[East Side, Saint Paul.]

[Location forgotten.]

 [Location forgotten.]

[Downtown, Saint Paul.]

[Riverside Avenue, Minneapolis.]

[Saint Clair Avenue, Saint Paul.]

[Location forgotten. Northfield? Raymond Avenue, Saint Paul.]

 [State Fair.]

 [State Fair.]

 [State Fair.]

[State Fair.]

That Feeling when Big 10 Closes, but Washington Avenue is Thriving

[The Big 10 building.]

The Big 10 Bar and Sandwich Shop in Stadium Village closed for good last week, and I consider it a personal loss because I loved their pastrami sub. Not just the sandwich, of course, but the whole experience of the sandwich. The the way that the old wooden walls held traces of generations of Gophers, the laid-back attentive staff, the clean unfancy atmosphere.

The pastrami itself was a living sandwich tradition, an old-school creation: toasted bun with a huge heap of lettuce atop the cheese on the quality pastrami, all doused in a light oil. Nobody makes them like that any more, and it had a unique flavor and texture that I can taste with the slightest mention.

Yet right now, the entire two-story building is covered in “auction" signs, as one of the last historic brick buildings on Washington Avenue, is coming down for a new 26-story mixed-use apartment tower.

[The pastrami.]

[The bar.]

It’s tempting to be sad about the loss of a building like the one at Washington and Harvard, especially when it houses tenants that have been around for decades, especially when its the last in a long line of buildings that have bitten the dust on an old commercial street. But in this case, I’m not that upset. There should be word for this feeling, loss combined with the knowledge of a bright future. Let’s call it “buildingsroman freudenschade": the bittersweet taste of the loss of innocence that accompanies the coming-of-age of a neighborhood.

Outside of a few truly irreplaceable historic sites, when faced with a preservation decision, the key question that I ask myself: What is the proposed alternative? The context is critical, and the question “should we save this building” has to be accompanied with the answer to the other question: “what are we replacing it with?”

Back in the post-war building boom, the majority of redevelopment and preservation debates involved tearing down buildings for roads, parking lots, and less-dense auto-centric development like strip malls or industrial parks. But in today’s development context, the question of preservation is completely different because it often sits in a context of transit-oriented mixed-use density. Now the Nye’s Polonaise block, mostly surface parking, becomes a 22-story apartment tower, the shoddy Totino's building becomes seven-story apartments, or the old three-story high school building in Dinkytown becomes a six-story apartment building with a Target store. Or here, where a two-story mixed-use building increases in density by over an order of magnitude. The question of preservation looks a lot different in that light, and as CM Cam Gorden explained in the Star Tribune piece on the building’s history, you feel sad but you move on because these are the kinds of changes you need to make to create a sustainable city.

[All the old wooden booth joints are disappearing.]

Commercial and retail environments are constantly changing, and neither sub sandwiches nor Chinese food carry the same meaning today as they did a generation or two ago. I’m not sure how many sandwich shops thrived in Stadium Village the 70s, but I’d bet that there were fewer than today, when a half-dozen places will make or deliver affordable sandwiches for the campus hungry. Admittedly, they're all chains these days — Erbert and Gerbert, Subway (of course), Jimmy Johns, Potbelly, Davanni’s — and to me, they all seem kinda the same next to the Big 10 sub. But regardless of taste, the world of quickly made sandwiches is still thriving, even without Banh Mi and Big 10.

And despite the new buildings with less affordable rents, the same goes for the diversity of Washingtion Avenue in general. Stadium Village has dozens of independent, unique restaurants, many of which are in buildings that have been built in the last ten years. Beginning at University Avenue, you have Blaze Pizza (don’t know, don’t care), Hong Kong Noodle (last of the old school), Kowloon (generic chinese), Burger King (been there for a long time now)…  But then there are a whole bunch of small and/or local places including Haiku Japanese, Little Szechuan (amazing place!), the Kitty Corner Café (don't want to know), Punch, a newer Vietnamese restaurant, Tea Garden, SenCha, Bar Luchador, and more, along with the usual suspect chain restaurants like Noodles, Bruegger's, Dairy Queen, or Dino’s Gyros. Even with the loss of the old building, Stadium Village has more restaurants in fewer blocks than just about any street in Minneapolis, up to and including Nicollet!

More than most places, a large college campus reflects rapidly changing tastes. (Heck, even the "Big 10" itself has like 12 or 13 teams now...) Stadium Village, named after a stadium that existed, then didn't exist, and now sort of exists again, has always been a place where the bulk of the population changes completely over all the time. Few people have institutional memories past a five-year horizon, so it’s no surprise when older places succumb to the new — for example, on today’s campus there are thousands of young Chinese students, actually from China, who have little interest in eating bastardized 80s-era “American Chinese” food.

One one hand, it's sad that the loss of an old building means the loss of the cheap rents that allowed a place like the Big 10 to hang on for so long. If they had wanted to stay in business, they’d likely have had to invested quite a bit of money and take a substantial risk, like Sally’s Bar did down the street when their building was knocked down, and given the volatile unromantic nature of the student body, it’s likely the owners decided to take the money and retire.

So much worse for the nostalgic, but the loss of Big 10 and the building that housed it comes at the gain of a new homes for a thousand young people who will start their own traditions at the heart of campus. If any place should reflect the optimism of Minneapolis's urban future, it is here at the heart of campus, next to a light rail line, in a place where (finally!) walking has become the default way of getting around. I guess I’ll have to bike to Hopkins for my pastrami sub now, but in the meantime, we’re one step closer to creating a dense, walkable, urban city. Buildingsroman freudenschade indeed.
  
[See also, the last days at Serlin’s, Bonnie’s, Stasny’s, and Nye’s.]
  

*** 25 Weekend Sidewalk Links! ***

Sidewalk Rating: Halcyon

St. Paul had poetry running in the gutters. Its neighborhoods – Irvine Park, Crocus Hill, Mac-Groveland, Ramsey Hill, West Seventh – were marked by the illogic of the city’s fierce begetting as a French and Indian fur-trading river town originally named by a half-blind whiskey runner: Pig’s Eye. Leo the Lion loved that – we started as a bar. Numbered streets crossed each other fecklessly, as if the city planners has used a scribble rather than a grid as a template. This was nothing like the tidy squaring of numbered avenues and alphabetical street names that Scandinavian Minneapolis laid like a crosshatched veil over the flat features of its city. The St. Paul streetlights dissipated their flow rather than truly shed it on the crusted snowbanks. This was strangely beguiling – that light could be conscripted into the service of obscurity, a St. Paul trick.

[Patricia Hampl.]

[Saint Paul's Wheelock Parkway bike lanes under construction.]

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Within only a few weeks, a remarkable suite of fauna including echidnas, wallabies, possums and goannas had found and used the ledges. But most exciting of all were the numerous koalas captured on the monitoring cameras and tracked by various technologies. These otherwise arboreal marsupials, whose main proclivity is climbing trees or walking – quickly – to the next tree, had somehow discovered a way of avoiding the great risks of the traffic above by travelling below on an artificial ledge over water in a dark tunnel!

[this]

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Spiders in Vienna are evolving to build their webs near moth-attracting streetlights. In some cities, moths, in turn, are developing a resistance to the lure of light bulbs. Certain Puerto Rican city lizards are evolving feet that better grip urban surfaces like concrete. Some grass is adapting to the relentless regime of the lawn mower by acquiring a shorter stature.

[this]

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The concepts in use remind me of what the famous German sociologist Ulrich Beck has labeled “zombie concepts,” with reference to the social sciences. They are concepts that still are very much in use, but actually no longer fit the reality they intend to describe. As such the concepts are like the living dead, they are alive in our heads and our language, but not any longer useful for making precise propositions about the reality of the city.

[this]

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“I was always struck by the extraordinary and moving attachment people had to places. They would wrangle over whether a street sign should be placed at an intersection or not.” Case in point: During his tenure, after a prolonged community debate, a semaphore was installed at an intersection on Carter Avenue in St. Anthony Park and Latimer was invited to attend and turn on the switch for the first time.

“That’s what mayors do,” he says with a laugh, adding that the ceremonial event included a performance by a three-piece string ensemble, followed by a brief talk by the head of neighboring Luther Seminary on the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard and his ode to walking. “I would know that I’m in St. Anthony Park when they tell me a red light reminds them of Kierkegaard,” Latimer quipped.

[this]

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