Reading the Highland Villager #210

[A Villager on a mat.]

[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: Lawsuit targets organized trash; City’s proposed system is said to violate state’s Waste Management Act
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: Saint Paul is still trying to organize the trash collection trucks. [Part 1502 of a long-saga of efficient governance, discouraging dumping, and decreasing wear on roads.]  A person is suing the city because of the fee structure of the new trash system. [If this state law does indeed govern garbage fees, file this under “dumb mistakes by the city’s legal team,” a too-thick drawer in the file cabinet if you ask me.] The contracts have already been signed. The state law is from 1980. [What is going to happen here, provided the lawsuit is not meritorious, is that there will be a lot of flailing and gnashing of teeth during the rollout of the new system, and then once it’s in place everyone will forget all about it almost immediately and things will have improved. See also: the dreaded recycling bins.]



Headline: Revision of city’s historic preservation regulations delayed; HPC postpones action to give proposed changes a broader public hearing
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: There was a well-attended public meeting about how exactly the Heritage Preservation Commission conducts its business. Many people don’t like the regulations. Quote from person: “it took him three years to replace a garage.” [File under: “MOAR process.” Another thick drawer in the proverbial STP file cabinet.] There are lots of rules. The HPC and city want to charge a fee for people who appeal the process. The city has a lot of costs associated with this. [TONS of staff time! IMO having a fee of some kind to process the hours of work involved is very reasonable.] Quote from member of SARPA (summit avenue residential preservation association [as if you did not know!]): “the city does not charge bicyclists every time it stripes a bicycle lane on a street.” [Is there a law for invoking bicyclist metaphors even when there’s no logical connection? Like a Godwin’s Law for bikes? How about “MAMIL’s Law: the longer a local political public meeting goes on, the probability that someone scapegoats bicyclists approaches 1.”] Article has way more quotes about historic rules, bureaucracy, and the pros and cons thereof such as this one: “The people in this room tonight are the actual constituency of historic preservation and the HPC. I would ask the commission to reflect on the antagonism that seems to exist between the audience and the commission and how to ameliorate it.” [Sounds like a fun chat.]



Headline: O’Gara’s fine-tunes plan for redeveloping Snelling-Selby; New five-story building will need a rezoning and permit for 62-foot height
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A developer wants to built a five-story building on the site of a two-story bar, apartments, and surface parking lot at Snelling and Selby. [The bar formerly housed a small Charles Schultz museum.]



Headline: City fails to secure funds to replace crumbling RiverCentre ramp; Lobbying effort falls short at state Capitol
Author: Kevin Driscoll

Short short version: A big parking ramp downtown is falling apart. The City’s lobbyists asked the state legislature to help pay for it, but they did not. Article includes some history of ramp. A new 2K space ramp would cost $117 million. [Holy crapoly, that is a lot of money. Think of what you could do to improve downtown with that kind of money!] Quote from St Paul state legislator: “They were asking for an incredibly amount of money for a parking ramp; the $58M would bring the cost of a single parking space in the ramp to $54K.” Article claims that the last-minute change of city priorities from a new bridge on 3rd Street threw a big wrench into the bonding bill process. [NOTE: this is a really interesting article with some fascinating quotes. The city seems like it did not handle its bonding requests very well this year.]


Headline: Calming Snelling; New Medians put pedestrian-friendly face on Highland Park thoroughfare
Author: Erin Robinson

Short short version: They are [finally!] putting medians on Snelling so that people can cross the street. It cost $2.2M. Article mentions “edge friction” and traffic calming. [Wow, the Villager is really getting hot and heavy with some road design deets.] Article includes references to studies about safety. [Wow again.] Some people quoted like it for safety reasons, others do not for traffic reasons. Quote referencing Funeral Home guy: “would have preferred the city use the money to fix potholes instead of adding crosswalks where there may not be that many pedestrians. He was also concerned about the effects the medians would have on funeral processions.” [I.e. “won’t someone think about the dead people and the folks driving in cars symbolically for a change?” Wouldn't it be amazing if Saint Paul nixed street safety measures in order to keep traffic moving for funeral processions? That would be truly amazing. Note that this reminds me of the funeral home person who fought the bike boulevard at Charles and Snelling, for similar reasons.]


Headline: Six citizens withdraw from Pedro Park design process
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A while ago the city put together a committee to help design a park but many of them quit because they did not feel they had any say in the process and because the city is selling half the plot to a developer.


Headline: Neighbors appeal permit for Snelling-St. Clair development
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A group is appealing a conditional use permit for a mixed-use building on Snelling and St. Clair. The group claims that granting the permit would be “detrimental to the character of the neighborhood / endanger the public’s health safety and general welfare.”


Headline: Commission favors allowing accessory dwellings citywide
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: People will probably soon be able to [theoretically] build ADUs anywhere in Saint Paul now, not just in a small spot. [So far there is one (1) ADU in Saint Paul.]


Headline: Council grants garage license with conditions on West End
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A business person can build an auto repair garage on Randolph Avenue, as long as they have a nice fence and not too many cars.


Headline: Hearing set on new distance regs for off-sale liquor stores
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: Saint Paul liquor stores might soon be able to be slightly closer to each other. [This is about the Big Top where the soccer stadium is going. I heard it is moving into the old Perkins! That is a wild turn of events: “liquor store Perkins Big Top Perkins” sounds like an old West Bank blues musician.] 


Headline: Walking tours of Marshall Avenue preview proposed zoning changes
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: There is a plan to maybe rezone a part of Marshall Avenue, downzoning part of it and upzoning other parts. [Weirdly, they are going to downzone the part that is on the route of the #21 bus and future aBRT line, while upzoning the part that is not really directly on the transit line.] Neighbors are concerned about students living near them, preserving old homes, and “the specter of large-scale redevelopment.” [A spectre is haunting saint Paul – it is the spectre of private real estate, the presence of young people, and 50-year-old zoning.] People will walk around and look at the street on June 18th.


Headline: Concerns aired over sewer project’s possible impact on Coldwater Spring
Author: Bill Wagner

Short short version: An historic spring and civic site might be affected by a sanitary sewer tunnel.The National Park Service person does not seem concerned.  Neighbors are concerned about delineating the footprint of the watershed. [You can tell this story takes place in Minneapolis because traffic and parking are not mentioned. Also, Coldwater Spring is sacred to tribes.]


Headline: Gov’t snafu wipes out Merriam Park neighbors’ $10,000 landscape project; Xcel crew clear-cuts freeway berm 2 years after it was replanted [Call me an old fashioned fuddy duddy if you must, but I think SNAFU should be capitalized.]
Author: Lucas Hansen

Short short version: The vegetation on a freeway berm that had been planted for two years was cut down by utility workers in early May. The utility had cut down all the vegetation three years ago and people replanted it. There was “miscommunication between the city of St. .Paul and MnDOT” that caused the clear cutting. Neighbors want to see Xcel and MnDOT fix the problem. Quote from CM Henningson: “it’s one of those situations where the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing.” Quote from upset neighbor: “I don’t want an apology; I want to have the earth restored.” [Go ahead and put that on my gravestone, please!]


Headline: Commission favors plan for senior campus on old Riverside site
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: The Planning Commission approved a rezoning and CUP to build housing for older people at the site of an old school. It will also include the reconfiguring of a dangerous intersection to make it safer.Another building is planned.


Headline: Fitzgerald’s wants to demolish Urban League building to add parking
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A restaurant in a busy walkable area wants to tear down a late 50s-era building to build a parking lot and patio. The building housed an African-American community group that has lots its funding in the last ten years.

Vote for Molly Coleman in St. Paul's Ward 4

I live two blocks from Ward 4, and consider myself, if not an honorary resident, at least someone with plenty of vested interest in the health of the neighborhood (i.e. what I’ve already called House Stark). After Council President Mitra Jalali stepped down earlier this year, there’s a special election for a new Council Member happening right now.

I’m endorsing Molly Coleman. If you live in Ward 4, please take the time to vote for her. 

I’ve met Molly many times, even before she announced her campaign. She’s smart, humble, experienced, wonky, and has good positions on some of the St. Paul’s thorniest issues like rent stabilization, housing, or economic development. She clearly loves St. Paul, and (for obvious family reasons) has deep knowledge of its neighborhoods and traditions. Most importantly, Molly Coleman seems like a good listener, a rarity in politicians these days. I’ve been impressed with her mix of curiosity and experience, and especially her desire to learn from others even as she brings a lot of St. Paul knowledge to the table. I think this election is an easy choice.

The other candidates: 

School Board member Chauntyll Allen is a nice person who’s been involved in local politics for years. I met her during an early discussion of the Rondo Land Bridge, and still remember a lot of what she said about that project. In this case, though, I don’t see her actively putting forward any reasons to vote for her in this situation.

I've never met her, but Carolyn Will is an communications person (and former SARPA president) running on a 'taxes are too high' / 'crime is out of control' message, making her the obvious conservative in the race. More importantly, she helped run the Save Our Street / Summit Avenue anti-safety campaign, which is both wrong about infrastructure and street design and actively wasting your tax dollars.

That's a terrible thing to be ring leading. For a year, I’d go out of my way to not bike on Summit Avenue, just because the signs infuriated me. The endless disinformation campaign is a bleak sign of the future, making it seem like any improvements to St. Paul's urban fabric are going to be slow and painful. There’s a toxic strain in St. Paul toward negativity, where anything “the city” is doing is inherently bad. Carolyn Will seems to personify this pessimistic defeatism.

Cole Hanson is a young organizer who is maddeningly inconsistent, and I cannot suggest supporting him either. For one thing, he is way too online, repeatedly getting into inane fights with people on social media. For another thing, he's both for and against policies that contradict each other; When it comes to rent stabilization or transportation policy, it seems like he’ll say anything. See for example: this weird video. (Sure, Snelling Avenue is dangerous — I've been saying so for 20 years — but random spitballing about something that’s not in the cards, and is out of the city’s control, is a waste of time at best. Why not talk about an issue that's actually in front of us?) 

Before launching his campaign for City Council, he'd apparently purloined the District Council mailing list where he'd been working. That's naive at best, and unethical at worst. 

The real sign of trouble with Cole Hanson is his parroting the disinformation around the Summit Avenue reconstruction project. The Summit Avenue reconstruction is a great litmus test for one’s susceptibility to bullshit, so that's a deal breaker. Without naming names, the City Council has already been a hot mess this year, rife with inexperience and lack of attention to detail. Cole Hanson would make that problem worse. In a time when St. Paul is in rather desperate straits, he seems like a random policy generator. 

We need positive visions and common sense, and only Molly Coleman passes the test. Her stance on the Summit Avenue process and other key dilemmas are great signs of how she’d make decisions at a time when we need thoughtful wisdom in City Hall. Please vote for her on or before August 12th!

[Molly with John Edwards on Wedge Live!]

Reading the Highland Villager #204

[A Frogtown Villager unearthing.]

[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: Conservatory of Music to move to St. Paul’s church; It’s part of a larger plan for a performing arts center

Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: The Planning Commission [it me!] approved a permit for an old church to be used as a concert and music lesson venue. The church is 104 years old and mostly empty. Neighbors are concerned about parking. [The group here is called SARPA.]

Headline: Police unveil new approach to using force in arresting possible suspects

Author: Kevin Driscoll

Short short version: [Please don’t shoot people.]

Headline: St. Paul businesses are wary of a hike in minimum wage; Some question whether it is the best approach to reducing poverty in city

Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: [Since when has paying people more helped reduce poverty? they asked  loudly.]

Headline: City Council supports $2 billion plan for Riverview streetcar line

Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: The Riverview streetcar proposal [which as I said is very vague at the moment and missing crucial details like route and footprint and dedicated ROW %] was approved by the City Council. [Guess which CM was absent? Hint: starts with B and rhymes with “nostrom.” Nostrom, by the way, is an interesting word. I urge you to look it up.] There was a public hearing. CM Noecker, who represents the area, voted in favor. Neighbors are concerned about traffic and parking and a lack of room. Quote from a business owner: “You can’t put a square peg in a round hole.” [Little known fact: West 7^th once had streetcars running on it.] Quote from neighbor citing a “planned bikeway on West 7^th”: “Fixed rail and bicycles don’t play together.” [OTOH, bicycling on West 7^th is very not-good presently. Also there is no “planned bikeway on West 7^th” AFAIK. In fact, a special amendment to the bike plan explictly banned such a concept.] Other people were in favor of the idea.

Headline: Snelling/St. Clari site eyed for new one-story commercial building

Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A flower shop / strip mall an Snelling Avenue will be developed into a one-story building. [This is the site of the proposed five-story housing development that was pulled because of a mix of neighbor concerns, lack of street level mixed-use, and a problem with site control involving a parking lot for a dance studio.] No housing is planned. There will be parking.

Headline: Allianz Field scores large sign variances

Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: The new soccer stadium can have a big sign during construction and also when it’s open. BZA (board of zoning appeals) people are worried that it might prevent development.

Headline: Sustain chair fined for stolen ‘Stop Ford’ signs

Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A person was accused of stealing “anti-Ford site” development signs and sued over it before settling the "suit". One concerned neighbor filed the case in small claims court. The alleged sign stealer denies stealing the signs and is quoted thus: "I feel like they’re trying to make an example out of me” and “Unfortunately my neighbors have chosen to use the court system to seek restitution for yard signs placed in the city right-of-way.” [Placed in the city right-of-way? Yes, you heard that correctly.] The alleged sign taker-downer had earlier tweeted the following: “wonder who had the time today to bring a step ladder out and rip down Liveable signs illegally stapled high up on trees in the public right-of-way?” [Well this is just amazing to me personally. The thing here is that these signs were graffiti / illegal litter. They were just like the pro-Bob Fletcher signs placed in theyards of abandoned houses. They were strictly speaking much like the similarly-illegal yellow “We Buy Ugly Houses” signs that I wrote about years ago and that CM Brendmoen is rightly proud of removing from poles or trees in her neighborhood. OR that civic-minded people in North Minneapolis take down continually to such a degree that they have hundreds of these signs that accumulate and build sculptures out of them. So, yes, Stop Ford signs are the rich-neighborhood equivalent of predatory lending signs in a poor neighborhood. This is just petty and sad.] The alleged culprit denies taking the signs and said that he is a “pretty average looking young male.” [Counterpoint: I think Brandon Long is above average and handsome! Anyway, if it's an undisputed fact that these signs were litter placed illegally on the public right-of-way, then this situation is beyond frivolous. See below for File photo of City Council President Amy Brendmoen's trunk, containing illegally posted signage confiscated from the public right-of-way:

[This should have been one of those "I Am Spartacus!" moments where every young male in Saint Paul simultaneously admitted to taking them down. That is all.]

Headline: Not bluffing; Moose Country, strip mall to close by end of April to make way for housing development

Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: The 70s-era old timey looking [but not really] strip mall in Mendota Heights is going to become housing. [“Moose Country” is a terrible place. I used to go here all the time as a kid. The chinese restaurant, then called China Delight, was exotic and exciting at the time. Also there used to be a gun shop here. Wow!]

Headline: Proposed disc golf course expansion discussed by HDC

Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: The parks department wants to add more disc golf holes. Neighbors are concerned about the loss of trees, frisbees hitting parked cars, and “criminal behavior.” [Disc golf seems like a fine upstanding activity to me. Serious! These anti-frisbee folks are kind of nuts-seeming.]

Headline: O'Gara's plans new mixed-use building on Snelling Ave. site
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: The old Irish bar [renowned for hosting "urban conservative" social functions as well as my High School reunion as well as the 'big band in a small room' concept] is going to tear down its building and build a larger mixed-use building in its place. It might be four stories, and will occupy a whole bunch of the existing surface parking lot. Neighbors are concerned about property values and taxes. [????? grunt noise???] The owner is going to get "input" from the neighborhood. There will be parking. Article includes some mention of Charles Shultz. [I would have sworn there would be more gnashing of teeth and wailing of arms about this, but it's a weird situation because O'Gara's is also synonymous with libertarian and free-market narratives within Saint Paul. So it's like, the "lassiez faire" side of the coin is strong here. ¯\_(ツ)_/] Article includes O'Gara family history.

Headline: Commodore appeal is denied, but Rupp says he will keep dining room open
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: [Speaking of libertarian / free-market narratives within Saint Paul...] The owner of an old hotel / restaurant is upset about the City Council supporting a BZA denial of an appeal to keep open a part of a restaurant. Article includes long discussion of the "nonconforming use" permit etc. CM Thao says it will all work out. There is also a Squash Club in there somewhere. Article includes history of the hotel.

Headline: Another lot spot on 1900 block of Igelhart is denied
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: The owner of an old house wanted to tear it down and subdivide the lot but the city said no. A neighborhood group is trying to save the house and move it somewhere else.

Headline: Proposed residential permit parking changes reviewed
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: The city is studying how permit parking works. There was a study and there will be two meetings. [Basically, this whole thing is a huge mess! The city loses money on this from administration costs alone, let alone opportunity costs about parking etc. The rules are arbitrary, there is supposedly rampant "gaming" of the system, and the policies change willy-nilly depending on which neighborhood you are in, and for police, it's almost impossible to enforce these rules in any way that does not involve an angry neighbor calling the police specifically. The reform should involve simplification, getting rid of the "one-hour" or "two hour" zones, raising the cost to cover inflation at the very least, having an escalating fee for the overall # of cars, and reducing the overall number of these areas to only the places where they're actually used. I doubt, though, that there will be a sensible discussion about this?]

Headline: St. Paul issues ultimatum for unregistered Airbnbs
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: The city passed a new short-term rental policy and is trying to get people who have short-term rentals to actually register them. They are mailing "warning notices."

Headline: Light-industrial firm opposes permit for 60 new apartments
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A developer wants to turn an old abandoned slaughterhouse into housing in an industrial area but the trucking / engineering / testing firm next door is upset about it. [Name for the development: The Abbatoir Arms? Killing Floor Flats? Schlachthof-fünf?]

Headline: I-94 noise wall planned between Fairview and Prior
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: MN-DOT is putting a new noise wall along 94 between Fairview and Prior. They had a meeting about it. [Is Trump involved?]

Headline: RAS Restaurant is fined $500 for license violations
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A [East African] restaurant got fined. Two of the violations were parking related, including "expired tabs in the business' lot" and "failure to install barriers to prevent cars from parking on an adjacent vacant lot." [Seems petty.]

Headline: Correction [WOAH! This is a rare correction in the Villager! Check it out...]
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: "A story in the February 28 Villager on plans to add more sidewalks in Highland Park should have stated that once people walk past the sidewalk in front of Dawn Zaidel's home on Saratoga Street, they have to walk onto a neighbor's driveway and into the street." [Most Villager correction ever.]

-->

Reading the Highland Villager #36 (May 11th - 24th Edition)

[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. That's why I'm reading the Highland Villager so that you don't have to. Until this newspaper goes online, sidewalk information must be set free.]

Total # of articles about sidewalks: 11
Total # of articles about sidewalks written by Jane McClure: 8


Headline: Highland hasn't given up on plan to redo Village's 1986 streetscape; lobbies for new sidewalks, lights, trees
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: As mentioned in the last RTHV, the St Paul Utilities Task Force of the Capital Improvement Budget Committee was not too keen on the new streetscape plan for Highland's shopping area. Includes description of the mix of funding sources: $4M in LGA funds, $760K in city bonds, and $731 from increased property assessments.

Headline: Mannillo, Tolbert line up support in Ward 3 race; Candidates curry the favor of prominent DFLers in lead-up to the endorsing convention
Reporter: Kevin Driscoll

Short short version: Discussion of the open seat City Council race in Highland, including two front runners John Mannillo and Christ Tolbert with lengthy lists of their respective endorsements. Mannillo is a developer who specializes in historic preservation and Tolbert is a Hennepin County Attorney and former McCollum staffer (and who the article mentions “is single”). Both candidates emphasize the importance of the Ford Plant redevelopment. There is a nice Mannillo quote about how he doesn't believe in big giveaways to developers. Otherwise, it's hard to notice any meaningful policy differences between the two.

Headline: Commission considers three plans for redrawing St Paul's seven wards
Reporter: Kevin Driscoll

Short short version: Because of population changes and movements between St Paul's wards, primarily away from Highland Park (Ward 3) and toward the North End, East Side, and West Side (Ward 2 and 6).

Headline: Growing seminary may reoccupy St Mark's old convent
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: There is an old convent what will switch to housing future priests in Merrian Park. Apparently men are “continuing to answer the call.”

Headline: Final draft of St. Paul's Great River Park plan to be unveiled
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: A big plan for making St Paul's Mississippi River frontage into a large National park, which seems to be a big amalgam of different park and improvement projects, including a re-thinking of Shepard Road into “a more pleasing parkway … with a maximum speed limit of 35mph.”

Headline: Federation buys part of brewery, awaits decision on historic status
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: More on the Schmidt Brewery redevelopment, about how the W 7th District Council used $1.4M in TIF money to buy the old office building and rathskeller. Includes obligatory CM Dave Thune quote, awesome photo of sculpture of “King Gambrinus, the patron saint of malt,” and more historical info on the brewery [probably cut and paste from the last 4 articles on the same topic. -Ed].

Headline: Graffiti vandals damage buildings, fixtures along future light-rail route
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: Taggers tagged a two-mile stretch of University Avenue on the night of April 25th.

Headline: Noise limits relaxed for rail project
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: Noisy construction can now extend further into the evening, until 10:00pm, thanks to a variance passed by the St Paul City Council. There will also, thanks to CM Stark, 25 “overnight extensions.”

Headline: Displaced Mdewakanton hope to move up the hill to sacred site
Reporter: Dave Page

Short short version: Story about the small Mendota Mdewakenton tribe moving their headquarters and healing house up to tan old farmhouse on Pilot Knob, an old spiritual site. Contains some history of Indian / government relations [which are obviously not very flattering to the US. -Ed.]

Headline: Summit-U board scrambles to keep district council afloat; Rejected reimbursement for Promise Neighborhoods program adds to SUPC debt
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: Story about the Summit-U district council and how they claim to have been screwed by the city over the "Promise Neighborhoods" program, which aimed at improving neighborhoods around schools in Frogtown. The city is not reimbursing $8,500 in expenses for the district council, which means that the district council is in debt. Includes quote from CM Carter proclaiming ignorance.

Headline: [A story completely buried after the culture and sports sections, on the HV's penultimate page] SARPA sets public meeting on Summit Avenue traffic concerns
Reporter: Jane McClure

Short short version: Discussion of the Summit Avenue Residential Preservation Association's campaign to reduce traffic speeds and improve walkability on Summit Avenue. Refernces a paper written by the organization where they say they don't want any speed humps or traffic caliming devices, but do want bumpouts near William Mitchell Law School. [But bumpouts are traffic calming devices?] Apparently the group would prefer "stepped-up enforcement." [Far less effective than actual traffic calming infrastructure. -Ed.]