Pioneer Press Misses the Point: Rice Street Road Diet is a Huge Deal for Saint Paul

This Sunday, the Pioneer Press published a 1A front-page story about Rice Street and the North End, my old neighborhood. The piece described a changing of the guard in the local community group, the District 6 Council, which recently held an election where a new wave of board members ran for office and won, angering an old guard. The neighborhood schism hinges around a changing philosophy about streets and public space, particularly a proposed redesign of Rice Street, the main commercial drag, soon slated for reconstruction.

The reporter, Fred Melo, is one of the best journalists at the Pioneer Press and (mostly) does good work in trying circumstances. (For some context, consider how the newspaper’s hedge fund owners have admitted to “harvesting”the newsroom.)

But, as I pointed out on Twitter, he missed the key point here:

In short, Melo was right to cover the story, and has some good journalistic instincts on display. But by framing the piece around bike lanes, he and his editors needlessly turned an important story into another piece of bait for trolls.

An example of how the article’s framing quickly adopts bike lanes as its central focus:

Holst, a Marion Street resident and proponent of bicycle lanes and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, was appointed chair by the board members, and his friends and personal contacts took over the other leadership posts.

“A lot of people have served tirelessly for District 6 for a very long time,” said Holst, a rental property owner, on Thursday. “My focus is going to be on making the North End the best neighborhood it can be.”

The sudden turnover in leadership within the North End’s neighborhood planning council may underscore the extent to which bike lanes have become a contentious topic in St. Paul’s business districts. The districts have long struggled with how to balance the needs of drivers, pedestrians, business owners and nearby residents.

Scoffing at the prospect of adding bike lanes to a busy county thoroughfare, some business owners see cyclists as newcomers and outsiders inserting themselves into the discussion.

Cyclists and advocates of “new urbanism” say they’re a growing part of the city’s population, and too long overlooked. And they say the infrastructure they’re advocating for could help calm traffic, improve public safety and boost business sales by increasing general access. They believe it could save lives.

The article continues with some quotes from disgruntled neighborhood group members, a cursory mention of on-street parking, and that’s about it.

And that’s the problem, because the issue here isn't bike lanes, it's a street re-design around pedestrian safety.  The difference in focus is significant because street design is central to solving Saint Paul's safety problem, which has 140+ pedestrian crashes annually and 5 deaths in 15 months. Economically struggling Rice Street, more than anywhere else in the city, needs this kind of urban design change if it’s going to survive.

Here are three key pieces of context that the column left out:

[A "road diet", aka a safer street design.]

1. Road diets are a revolutionary safety improvement

[Seattle data.]

At first glance, the term “road diet” seems like flip jargon. Like “traffic calming” or (please God no) “woonerf”, it seems like cutesy self-help, something for the bougie “new urbanist” crowd (as Melo put it) to slap on convention brochures.

But it’s not. A 4-3 road diet is a very serious concept at the core of the contemporary shift in urban design thinking. They represent a huge change in civil engineering practice, a rethinking of the relationship between speed, congestion, safety, and walkability.

A quick definition: A road diet is when you take a four-lane undivided street (i.e. no turn lane) and replace the middle two lanes with a center turn lane. It creates a “three lane” footprint where cars can no longer swerve back and forth between gaps in traffic like they’re racing at Daytona. (Local examples include Marshall, Fairview, Lexington, West 7^th, Riverside, and Franklin.)    

Here are a few key points, from my 2010 article on deadly four-lane roads, following a tragic crash at Rice and Hoyt:

#1) 3-lane roads are much safer for car drivers. 

According to a Federal Highway Administration study, changing a 4-lane Death Road™ into a three-lane road reduces automobile traffic accidents from 20% to 50% depending on the context. (Note: this makes intuitive sense if you’ve ever driven on a street like this.) There are dozens of similar studies out there.

#2) 3-lane roads have marginal impact on traffic flow. I’m not going to suggest that a 4-to-3 conversion of a Death Road™ has no impact on traffic flow (though sometimes that turns out to be the case). Rather, fixing a Death Road™ usually sees a reduction in car throughput in the 5% to 10% range. As another Federal Highway Administration report puts it, “under most average daily traffic (ADT) conditions tested, road diets have minimal effects on vehicle capacity.” 

#3) 3-lane roads slow speeds. 

The main difference between a 4-lane Death Road™ and a 3-lane safe street is that traffic speeds go down and become far more uniform. It’s a proven fact that reducing speeds even a little bit, i.e. from 40 to 30 miles per hour, can make a huge difference on accident severity for pedestrians and bicyclists. 

#4) 3-lane roads increase biking and walking. 

After a 4-lane Death Road™ was fixed in San Francisco, “bicycle usage increased 37% during the PM peak hour, the number of pedestrians increased 49% during the PM peak hour, [and] public response has been overwhelmingly positive about this project.” That’s just one example; also, it’s common sense.

#5) Fixing a Death Road™ is really cheap. 

Unlike expensive street reconstructions or concrete bumpouts, cities and counties can quickly, easily, and cheaply fix these Death Roads™.

Here’s a quote from a city engineer in Portland, Oregon:

Graff said the price of all five road diets considered in the city’s analysis was “in the $100,000 range,” or up to $120,000 or so for projects that added new median islands or other improvements. “The cost/benefit is really high,” he said. “For the cost of one improved crossing — a median improvement or rapid-flashing beacon that provides a point improvement, you can reduce crashes across 10, 20 blocks.”

[A forthcoming example from Hennpein County.]

If anything, the case for 3-lane designs has only gotten stronger in the last seven years.

Hennepin County is going to do a 4-3 (and 4-2!) road diet on Lowry Avenue, and just this week I’ve read about a proposed 4-3conversion in Bloomington and a 4-3 conversion on a 30,000+ ADT street in Denver that barely impacted congestion. (That’s over twice as much traffic as on Rice Street.)

The only thing I’d change:  

#6 Road diets solve the fatal crosswalk problem

[Four people recently killed on Saint Paul streets.]

I would also add that the 4-3 conversion solves the deadly“whip around” problem that Saint Paul has been wrestling with for years now. In response to a rash of crashes where drivers killed five people in just over a year, the Police Department has led “crosswalk stings” at dangerous points around the city.

But the truth is that Saint Paul Police can continue doing “Stop For Me” events until Sergeant Ellison is blue in the face, and it will make only marginal differences. Enforcement is facing huge challenges because of escalating distraction culture.

Two-hour police stings make for nice headlines, but when you install a 4-3 road diet, you can build 24-hour medians at key intersections. These designs will literally save lives on a street like Rice, and it’s not hyperbole or speculation to say so. They are the only thing that will make Rice Street (and others like it) safe for the thousands of people who live and work along it every day.

[A sign I once spotted on Rice Street.]

2. Social ties in the North End are very frayed

[Via MN Compass: North End is getting poorer, more diverse.]

The second big piece of the puzzle is that the North End is struggling and I’m very worried about its future. Think about this: I lived In the North End for seven years and barely met any of my neighbors. Keep in mind that I’m an outgoing, friendly guy, but after spending seven years living on Western Avenue, when I moved away, the only people I knew by name were the butcher down the street (since burned down), the bartender at my local dive bar (since burned down) and the owner of the pizza place (not burned down!).

There are a lot of demographic and social reasons for the weak social ties. The North End has always been a working-class place. A local bar (Tin Cups, featured in the story) sells a shirt that says “It’s a Rice Street thing, you wouldn’t understand,” and there’s a legacy of community there from past generations.

[Asked an old-timer the age of Born's Bar: "I came here in my mothers' womb," he said.]

But over the last few decades, the area has quickly changed and the institutions have not kept up. Looking at Rice Street offers a good example. Super old-school Tschida Bakery closed a few years ago, a building burned down next to Mama’s Pizza, bars that closed included Diva’s Overtime Lounge, Easy Street West, and the bar on Front Avenue (I forgot the name). Many in the neighborhood saw this as addition by subtraction, but I see these closures a as a bad sign.

(Or see also Melo' excellent story on the struggles of a Maryland Avenue beauty salon from 2016. It is very hard to start a business in this neighborhood.)

[Via MN Compass.]

The result is that the old North End institutions have disappeared through death, entropy, changing tastes, and demographic changes that have seen a transformation of the neighborhood away from older white residents toward younger people of color.  

The growing diversity is a good thing for Rice Street, which boasts businesses like Bangkok Thai Deli or Kathy's Live Bait, with more and younger people speaking languages other than English. But in an area that struggles with crime and gang violence, it’s a challenge, especially for the old-timers.

Another story: I felt really weird when I marched in the Rice Street Parade back in 2006, because the parade offered a long string of floats full of white people heading down a street lined with people of color. The parade dynamics really bugged me, especially when I saw the guy running for City Council on a “tough on crime” platform hoisting police logos against a segregated racial background. It was one the things that pissed me off enough to get involved in local politics in the first place.

(I door knocked for his opponent, who won a close election. Then, four years later, I door knocked for his opponent, Amy Brendmoen, who has shown a great ability to have tough conversations across some of the stark neighborhood lines.)

[The view from Tin Cups.]

One more story about Rice Street inequality: When I attended the North End/Como Ward DFL convention back in 2007, where the City Council nomination was being determined, there was a huge disparity between the different ward neighborhoods. My Rice Street precinct had three delegates in the room, while many of the other Rice Street precincts had none at all. (!) Meanwhile, every Como Park precinct was jam packed with dozens of supporters of different candidates.

This to say that political engagement in the neighborhood is hugely imbalanced. For years, it’s felt like almost nobody advocates for Rice Street, except in a reactionary way. Few people vote, politicians generally ignore the area, and the street has been stuck in a downward cycle of disinvestment and apathy.

It’s in the midst of this vacuum of social capital that Rich Holst, the new chair of District 6 (featured prominently in the story) has been doing some amazing work. Here are three quick examples that I've personally witnessed:

Last summer I attended an hour+ long meeting that Holst had set up in the District 6 offices. He’d invited an expert on co-cooperatively owned real estate developments from Northeast Minneapolis to give a “how-to” talk on setting up alternative community investment models on Rice Street, an area that has trouble getting regular business loans.

Second, last year Holst successfully applied for a city grant to install new, branded bike racks on Rice Street. He pulled together a design for for the racks: a “North End” logo featuring a compass rose. They’re kind of like the ones in Highland, only it’s much easier to lock a bike to them. Then, by himself, Holst went up and down the street talking to business owners trying to convince them to agree to have the racks installed.

Finally, he and his neighbor, (newly elected Soil and Water Commissioner) Lena Buggs, have been hosting weekly (!) “pink flamingo” parties in his neighborhood for over a year. Every week, all summer, for over a year…  People gathering on each others lawn to talk about the weather and how to improve the neighborhood.

This kind of work is hugely difficult in a neighborhood like the North End, where poverty, crime, and demographics tend to keep people turtled up in silos.

[One of the "flamingo friday" parties in the North End.]

 

3. Neighborhood politics is always about getting friends to show up

[Meeting in Minneapolis' Central neighborhood.]

Maybe it was the petty quotes from the outgoing District Council members, but Melo’s article seemed awfully naïve about how neighborhood group politics work.

For one thing, there’s a huge range of difference in quality between the different neighborhood groups in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Some neighborhood groups reach out to city leaders and the community all the time; others seem like they don’t exist. (At the Saint Paul Planning Commission, the inequality is very apparent. Union Park, Mac-Grove, Fort Road, Highland, and Highwood, for example, have very active Councils. I have never heard anything from District 6, other than a complaint about a used car dealership.)

Secondly, some neighborhood groups take pains to try and reflect the demographics of their neighborhood. Others explicitly disenfranchise marginalized groups, like students, renters, or people who don’t speak English. A lot depends on where you live, each neighborhood’s unique history, and who steps up to get involved.

A few examples: I wrote an article about the great work being done in the Standish-Ericcson neighborhood; or check out John Edwards’ justified diatribes and hell-stories about LHENA and critique of Whittier's democratic process; or listen to Chris Meyer’s experiences with student disenfranchisement in Marcy-Holmes.

(Meanwhile, in my West Side district council, the annual meeting does a great job reflecting the diversity of the community and the board has many younger and/or non-white board members. In fact, a year ago, a group of board members ousted a long-time executive director in a contentious vote.)

[Meeting in Minneapolis' Standish-Ericcson neighborhood.]

In each case, the power dynamics are pretty simple. District Councils hold an annual election, and you try to get as many friends, neighbors, or others who live in the neighborhood to attend the three-hour meeting. After some period of mingling, they vote and elect the board. It’s straightforward, though group dynamics can quickly become petty in wrong circumstances. 

The point is that talking to friends and neighbors about the neighborhood is precisely the point of a community group. The idea that people who voted and ran for the board of a neighborhood group would know each other is a feature, not a bug.

The Takeaway: Bike Lanes Have Little To Do with It

[Drive down Rice, chances are good you'll see a crash.]

This kind of context is difficult to explain, and there’s no way that a newspaper story could fit it in. But my big critique of Melo’s story is that it focused on bike lanes instead of Saint Paul’s huge street safety problem.

(PROTIP: "new urbanism" is a term most commonly linked to developments like Seaside, Florida.)

It’s worth pointing out, as Osten does in the article, that bike lanes are just one of the options for the forthcoming street re-design. Compared to the safety improvements, they’re not anyone’s top priority.

It’s also worth pointing out that Rice Street can stand in for a half-dozen deadly Saint Paul streets in poor areas of town. These deadly streets are a social justice issue, because the high number of people of color and people living in poverty who depend on walking, biking, and transit. It’s a geographic issue, because of the imbalance of power within both the city and the county.

[A deadly intersection on Maryland Avenue.]

And it’s a political issue, because changing these streets isn’t a given, by any means. Almost all of Saint Paul’s deadly arterial roads are Ramsey County jurisdiction, so having a friendly Council Member does very little to advance the conversation with County-wide constituents, old-school County engineers, and little-known County Commissioners. These are the people shaping street designs on Rice, Dale, Maryland, and White Bear, and they’re only beginning to change the way that they make decisions. As Bob Collins predicts, it’s not a given that any of these streets will become safer in the next ten or twenty years.

(For example, the County Commissioner who represents the North End, Janice Rettman, successfully killed a 4-3 road diet on Dale Street a few years ago because she was worried about parking. She’s also consistently opposed bike lanes, and was *the only vote* against Ramsey County’s new All Abilities Transportation Network Policy, which aims to increase safety and ensure mobility for vulnerable people. There’s little chance that she will support safer designs for Rice Street.)

The work of people like Holst, Buggs, and Osten, and many others in these vulnerable neighborhoods, to build community and get involved, show up to meetings and stay positive, is one of the best things to happen on Rice Street in many years. In other words, this is exactly the kind of community work we need if we’re going to finally build safe streets in all parts of Saint Paul. It won’t be sufficient, but it’s a great first step. To me, it feels like blowing the dust off of the King of Rohan.

This isn’t the first time that media chosen a misleading slant for a street-related story. Bike lanes make both a convenient scapegoat, and an easy shorthand for more complex issues. But focusing on bikes does a disservice to the stakes and concerns of the people involved. It’s not about bikes, it’s about safety, and it’s about time. I wish the article could have figured that out. 

[The corner of Rice and Hoyt, where Bickram Phuyel was put in a coma.]

Twin City Bike Parking #27

[Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis.]

 [Sent in by a reader.]

[Snelby, Saint Paul.]

[West Side, Saint Paul.]

[Powderhorn, Minneapolis.]

[Powderhorn, Minneapolis.]

[Powderhorn, Minneapolis.]

[Powderhorn, Minneapolis.]

Catch Me in a New Documentary on TPT this Weekend!

[The I-94 bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.]

If you're watching TV Sunday night, tune in to Twin Cities Public Television and watch Part II of the Rethinking I-94 documentary. I haven't seen it yet, but apparently I'm in there. I did a sit-down interview with the crew, and participatd in a televised focus group.

Yikes! It's really a challenge to "re-think" something as taken-for-granted and heavily used as an intra-city interstate. I did my best to share a critical on this piece of collective infrastructure and I'm not sure how it will look.

Here's the plug:

This Sunday night, May 7, TPT (Twin Cities PBS) will premiere Part Two of our two-part documentary about Interstate 94. The half-hour program will begin at 7 p.m. and air on TPT MN.

Part Two of the documentary, entitled Interstate 94: Today and Tomorrow, focuses on the here and now as it relates to I-94 through the Twin Cities, as well as our continuing work to engage with communities along the interstate in an effort to develop a comprehensive, community-based vision for the corridor. If you are unable to watch this Sunday night, the program will air at the times listed below and will be available on our Rethinking I-94 project website starting next week.  This website is located at the following address:

http://www.dot.state.mn.us/I-94minneapolis-stpaul/

Upcoming air dates on TPT
•             Sunday, May 14 at 1 a.m. TPT MN
•             Sunday, May 14 at 7 a.m. TPT MN
•             Sunday, May 14 at 1 p.m. TPT MN
•             Sunday, May 28 at 12 p.m. TPT LIFE

If you have not seen Part One of the documentary, or would like to see it again prior watching Part Two, you can do so by visiting the Rethinking I-94 project website noted above and scrolling to the bottom of the page. Part One of the documentary, entitled Interstate 94: A History and Its Impact, focused on the construction of I-94 in the middle of the 20th Century and the affect it had on the communities it bisected.

It'll be online also. Part I is here.

Reading the Highland Villager #180

[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: Commission rejects site plan for 6-story building at St. Clair and Snelling aves.
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A developer proposed a six-story [pretty sure it was five-story?] building on Snelling at Saint Clair Avenue where some vacant properties and old strip malls were located. The Planning Commission voted to rezone the property to TN3 zoning, which allows a by-right height of 55', but denied the site plan and conditional use permit for the proposed development. Article cites the Commission head as saying that the proposal was lacking in specific design goals. A local neighborhood group committee had supported the project. Neighbors were concerned about traffic, parking, the blotting out of the "natural light," and the lack of mixed-use in the building. [Only a tiny part of the first-floor, 1800 sq ft, was for retail, which actually sparked a legitimate debate about the definition of mixed-use and whether there should be a minimum percentage of retail in order to qualify as a mixed-use building in the first place. Note that article takes great pains to avoid any mention of yours truly, despite my central place in the zoning committee conversation... which is fine. It would be weird to see myself in the Villager anyway in any way other than just my kneecap form. For example, as the summary points out, I objected to the way that the building ignored the TN zoning design guidelines which explicitly call for parking to be placed at the rear of a building, and not along the street front. There was also the ironic requirement of windows along the first floor street façade and the fact that these windows would be opening up and revealing a parking lot instead of any actual legitimate human interior.] The project's traffic study had not been signed by a registered traffic engineer, for some reason. The developer made several revisions based on neighborhood concerns. Many people testified. [Now that the full Commission has voted on this, I can share my perspective. I voted against the project primarily because it was not mixed-use enough, not because it was too large or did not fit with the "character" of the area. The Commission recommended the rezoning to TN3 (vs. TN2), which gives a sense of whether or not they felt that the project was too big. I voted against it because it did not create a walkable enough environment and I believe we can expect more of development in Saint Paul along a corridor with a great deal of transit investment, existing diversity and density, and walkability potential. I am hopeful another project will come forward that meets the goals and design guidelines that Saint Paul and this neighborhood have put in place.] Quote from neighbor: "This is an apartment building on top of a parking ramp." [Also note that the developer has found out that there's something strange about the water table which prohibits them from creating a below-ground parking ramp of any size. Very strange! Why is the water table so high here? It's not a low elevation part of the city...]


Headline: Commission questions citywide benefit of Ford site plans
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A committee of the Planning Commission has met to think about the city master plan for the old Ford truck factory in Highland. Commissioners seem to be emphasizing city-wide (as opposed to local) priorities when thinking about the plan, for example the creation of jobs. Neighbors are concerned about traffic and parking (NACATAP). There is a petition about how traffic is bad. Article describes the plans in a rough way. Quote: "single-family housing is not being proposed because of the high costs of development...". [WHY NO AMERICAN DREAM CITY OF SAINT PAUL?] A city staffer would like to see more affordable housing. Some commissioners have questioned the status of the ball fields [which have been *assured* for Highland, or so I am told by the 1950s Villager headline]. There will be a storm water feature, according to the plan. There will be more meetings.


Headline: City clear-cuts quarter mile of Mount Curve in advance of repaving project
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: Sick trees had to be cut down on a fancy street. Article includes photo of neighbors walking a black lab and counting the rings of a stump. There were 90 rings. Quote from neighbor: "They just came and clear-cut the street." [So what happened is that there's this invasive insect that eats and kills the trees that were cut down. It's been in the news. It's called an "ash borer" and it bores and it might be boring for people to read about. (Keep Saint Paul Boring... har har.)]


Headline: City pressures private haulers for pact; Council pursues a plan for putting trash collection out for bids while negotiations continue
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: The city wants to "organize" trash collection [for a ton of good reasons]. It has been trying to get the garbage companies to come up with a plan for how to allocate trash turf, but they have been extremely reluctant. So the city is coming up with a plan it can use in case the garbage men fail. [Good leverage!] Quote from one garbage company person: "Befuddled." Another: "frustrated as hell." [Please note that a group of garbage companies has spent a lot of money to build a garbage website urging city voters to reject the organization efforts. This fancy new website will surely accomplish nothing because practical common sense is overwhelmingly on the  side of supporting an organized system.] Negotiations continue, but there are sticking points about how many contracts will be issued and labor rights. [Unions! Scary!] Quote from article: "Haulers say they feel squeezed by the city's negotiators, who do not seem to realize their need to make a profit. ... The smaller haulers are more wiling than the larger ones to sign the labor peace agreement... that issue may be the one that prevents the two sides from ever reaching an agreement." [If you can't have a labor-friendly contract drawn up in Saint Paul, where can you have a labor friendly environment?]


Headline: SPA center part of $38M expansion, renovation
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A fancy private high school is building a new building and tearing down part of an old building.


Headline: Linwood-Monroe Arts Plus expansion to proceed as planned; City Council upholds variances for $21M in improvements to Summit Hill school
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A school in a nice neighborhood will be allowed to expand its building as the City Council refused to overturn the Board of Zoning Appeals decision not to overturn the original approval by the Planning Commission. Neighbors are concerned about traffic, parking and the loss of green space. Council Members wanted the "two sides to resolve their differences." [By accident, I was at this Council meeting and it was intense. The chambers were packed and dozens of people testified on each side. The "pro-expansion" side brought in disabled kids in wheelchairs; the "anti-expansion" side had lots of architectural diagrams and head-shaking neighbors. It was intense and I pity any Council Member having to vote on the issue. But still you can't vote against a disabled kid in a wheelchair, no matter how many upstanding citizens you bring to the table, and the Council didn't...] Quote from the article: "what the neighbors oppose is ... how the project would alter the character of the neighborhood." People were upset about the process that the school district employed. [The school administrator at the meeting talked forever on and on and I couldn't make sense of a word he was saying, TBH.]


Headline: Residents seek safer Dale Street bridge
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: [There's a really really really shitty bridge with tiny sidewalks over the freeway that was designed and built in the early 1960s when the city was destroying the heart of Saint Paul and especially the black neighborhoods and it hasn't been fixed yet. The whole thing is criminal.] The city is studying how to improve the Dale Street bridge over 94. There was a meeting to review concepts. Article includes traffic counts for cars.


Headline: More apartments planned at Grand-Finn
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A developer wants to build an apartment building on Grand Avenue near the University of Saint Thomas. It will be four stories and have eight units.There was a moratorium on zoning changes to the street. Quote from the article: "Though [the] latest proposal has not met with the vehement opposition his past projects have faced, neighbors have expressed some concerns." [What are they? Do tell! The article doesn't say. I guess we'll find out. #NACATAP] There will be "ample bicycle parking."


Headline: St. Paul asks Citizens League to study payment in lieu of tax
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: [The way the city was funding street maintenance turned out to be illegal so they city has asked a non-profit group to figure out how to beg non-profit groups for money.] The budget hole is $32M annually.


Headline: St. Paul to present plans to replace Jimmy Lee play area
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A rec center is replacing its playground.


Headline: Relocated Lulu's to receive $60,000 in city assistance
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A deli on Selby Avenue had to move out due to rising rents and will get some money to move to St. Clair Avenue instead. [Good news. Lulu's was awesome. Good falafel, and a key cog in the Saint Paul "hummus district". See also, my first (and only) long-form radio documentary back in 2004 (!) about street corners in Saint Paul which covered this very business.]


Headline: County receives proposal for old jail, West site in downtown
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A vacant parcel of prime real estate got a suitor after the County spent a lot of money to demolish it. It might be a hotel and also offices and housing. [I once heard a story about the jail, which looked right onto the river and the Wabasha Bridge: girlfriends or partners of the inmates who had these sweet river-view cells would go onto the Wabasha Bridge and flash their incarcerated horny partners on a regular basis. See also, Wofile's great tour of the old jail before it was torn down. #inmatesImtimates]

Notable Quotes #7: Rick Perstein describes Minneapolis Integration Backlash

[Congressman Clark MacGregor.]

An account of Minneapolis Congressman Clark MacGregor's role in maintaining school segregation from Rick Perlstein's Nixonland:

On August 9 [1966], the twelfth day of debate in the full House on the civil rights bill, a North Carolina congressman by the apt name of Basil Whitener introduced an amendment to moot Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act outright. (Whitener had earlier whined of an amendment offering relief for Negroes injured or intimidated while voting. “Why cannot a person who is injured or intimidated be a white person for once?”). Georgia Republican Howard “Bo” Callaway played good cop, offering a more realistic substitute: “Nothing in this title shall be construed to authorize action by an department or agency to require the assignment of students to public schools in order to overcome racial imbalance.”

Debate on the motion was called. There followed a shocking development. Back in the spring during House subcommittee hearings on the civil rights bill, northern Republicans with liberal records on race took turns offering their own states as models of the sort of biracial harmony that was possible in places where politicians didn’t demagogue on civil rights. Once of them was Clark MacGregor of Minneapolis, proudly noting that racial backlash over school integration was “not a factor in my part of the country.” But that had been in May. This was August. Minneapolis had just suffered a riot. Word subsequently got out that in the riot’s wake the mayor had implored the city’s business establishment to create at least 145 new jobs for impoverished black teenagers. Evans and Novak reported what happened next: “The mayor had never experienced such a city-wide outbreak of hostility – phone calls, telegrams, and letters by the scores – as hit him after he decided to respond to the riot with a promise of jobs and only limited police actions.”

And on the floor of the House, Clark MacGregor now went on a Dixie-style tear in support of his Georgia colleague: “If this amendment is defeated, we will be putting our stamp of approval on administrative action to destroy the neighborhood schools… Mr. Chairman, it is not only the Southern states which have been affected.”

The Speaker called the vote. The Callaway amendment passed. A new national panic had burst to the surface: that the federal government would deliver the chaos of rioting urban slums to your own quiet, bucolic neighborhood via yellow bus, in the guise of combating “de facto” school segregation.