Working for progress that brings all of us with it

 

 

Name in black

 

 

(651) 266-8640  |  ward4@ci.stpaul.mn.us

Hamline-Midway  |  Union Park |  Saint Anthony Park

Macalester Groveland | Como

 

 


Mitra

Greetings Ward 4,

 

It’s been a very busy spring season welcoming Allianz Field to the neighborhood, hosting numerous community forums for greater housing security and to combat displacement, exploring ways to improve transportation and sustainability in St. Paul, and more. This round-up of highlights reflects just some of the great work I’ve gotten to take on with you lately for a better future for St. Paul. Our whole team can always be reached at ward4@ci.stpaul.mn.us, and you can follow our official Facebook page or my personal Twitter account for even more frequent updates!

 

I’ll also make a plug for our next regular office hours coming up tomorrow, Thursday May 30, from 6-8PM at Co-Creatz at the corner of Raymond and University. Stop by anytime to share your thoughts, concerns, questions or to get help from my office on a city issue.

 

We’re hard at work for progress that brings all of us with it. I’m so proud to be your City Councilmember, and I’m looking forward to continuing to work with all of you for our shared future.

 

Best,

Mitra


LEGISLATIVE AND POLICY UPDATES

 

2020 Budget Process - Join us this Sunday, June 2 @ BlackStack 3:30PM

Mayor Carter is hosting his annual community engagement series, Our City, Our Budget this Sunday, June 2 at BlackStack Brewing in Ward 4 from 3:30-5:00PM (755 Prior Ave N). Please join us and spread the word about this community conversation to shape and guide our priorities going into the 2020 budget season. Learn more, share and RSVP here.

 

Anti-Displacement Policy Network: Community Forums

Our office helped host two forums in St. Paul and Minneapolis last week to hear from the community about how we should combat displacement in the Twin Cities. These forums are a part of the Anti-Displacement Policy Network, a working group of Minneapolis and St. Paul city and community leaders I’ve been grateful to be a part of since I took office. We shared what St. Paul is attempting through its new Affordable Housing Trust Fund and asked community members to share their experiences so we could begin a process of shaping new solutions together. There were so many powerful stories, and I’m committed to carrying those lived experiences with me as we discuss new policies and solutions in St. Paul.

 

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Tenant Protections

One major step we’re working on following the anti-displacement forums and our Renter Voice Summit is to shape a tenant protections ordinance for the families and individuals living in our community. Mayor Melvin Carter echoed this as a top priority during his State of Our City address, and our office is proud to partner with staff in Planning and Economic Development, the Office of Financial Empowerment, and our colleagues on the council to continue engagement in this area, with the hopes of passing a suite of policies later this year. Minnesota in general has some of the weakest tenant protections in the country, and cities need to do their part to step up and make sure everyone in our community has safe and stable housing free from discrimination. I look forward to working with everyone in this effort, and welcome your thoughts and opinions as we shape this critical policy.

 

Scooter and bike share

St. Paul residents deserve a wide range of ways to safely get around in addition to cars. After a successful pilot of scooter share vendors last year, the City Council has created an ordinance for better managing shared electric scooters and bikes in St. Paul moving forward. Amongst other things, the ordinance requires vendors to quickly remove scooters when they need to be moved and respond to city requests in a timely manner. The ordinance also lays out the parameters for a bikeshare program. As mentioned in a previous newsletter, unfortunately Lime has decided to pull its bikes out of cities across the country including ours, and we may not have a bikeshare vendor this year - something I’m working actively on with our administration to address. I would be thrilled to see e-bikes and other forms of bikeshare amply available throughout our community.

 

Partnership with HOURCAR and the City of St. Paul: Electric Vehicles

I had the great privilege to travel to Los Angeles with Russ Stark, Samantha Henningson, other city staff, and HOURCAR to learn more about the possibilities of electric vehicle sharing for our city. The City of Los Angeles’s electric car sharing service works to prioritize disadvantaged communities experiencing historical disinvestment including transportation access, and focuses on the benefits of electric cars - such as better air quality and reduced traffic - for greater city health. I’m excited to work with Russ, Samantha, HOURCAR, Xcel Energy, and community partners to implement those lessons here in St. Paul as we work toward a potential electric vehicle rideshare program for our city. I’m so proud to help shape this innovative initiative, and you can learn more here.

 

blue la

 

City of St. Paul Climate Action and Resilience Draft Plan

Climate change is increasingly the most pressing issue of our time, and it’s going to take dramatic, large-scale change across our community to adapt modern cities and mitigate its effects. The City of St. Paul is actively seeking your input on its draft climate action and resilience plan. Without denser, more progressive land use that prioritizes people and equity over cars, we’ll continue to see the rising impacts of climate injustice across our communities. I’m looking forward to championing policies and ideas called for in the plan on the Council, including parking reform, bike lane and transportation expansion, improving our building efficiency and other citywide practices. Please share your thoughts and ideas this summer in this critical conversation for our city’s future. Together, we can build a more sustainable city.

 

Housing Affordability: Federal Low-Income Tax Credits scorecard

We recently reviewed and approved our new Qualified Allocation Plan scorecard for 2019, which is what the city of St. Paul uses to direct how we will use our increasingly minimal federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits on proposed projects. This is one of many tools in our fight to add affordable housing across our community, and it’s critical that our city investments reflect our values. Our discussion at the Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) illuminated the natural tension between investing in affordable projects throughout the city versus targeting those investments more closely in neighborhoods experiencing the highest rates of housing instability, especially with fewer federal dollars than ever to make affordable projects work. Our neighborhoods should represent the full spectrum of our residents, and our housing and land use choices greatly shape that - but/and, we also must ensure residents who need resources most are able to access them where they live. I will continue to work with community advocates on this issue as we consider changes to the scorecard process for next year, and am grateful for the chance to continue learning in this important process.

 

Twin Cities German Immersion School

Two important, but separate, issues involving the future of the former St. Andrews Church and Twin Cities German Immersion School site are set to come before the council in June. First, we are being asked to decide whether to grant local historic designation to the site of the former St. Andrews church at the request of a separate party - an issue that our Council has voted to lay over for two weeks to allow more time for all parties to come together for mediation. Second, we will be asked to decide on site plan approval for TCGIS’s possible expansion on the site. Though the school is not in Ward 4, I have heard from many of you on all sides of this issue, and have continued to bring technical questions to our city attorney and city staff to ensure I have all relevant information as we weigh this matter. I look forward to continuing to engage thoughtfully on this issue.

 

Proposed Local Entertainment District in the CEZ

My office has heard from several local businesses in the Creative Enterprise Zone about interest in hosting more street-level events that create neighborhood vitality and draw visitors and residents alike to the area. A proposed Entertainment District would help interested local businesses take advantage of more of these uses, such as beer and food vendors in a closed street, while still requiring the full permit and variance processes for any event that gets proposed. Over the past couple weeks, we’ve worked with the St. Anthony Park Community Council to host engagement events in the area, and a draft proposal based on this feedback will come before the City Council later this summer. There will be several weeks of public comment and readings before any final action, and feedback so far has been very positive. Entertainment Districts represent an opportunity to better support local arts and businesses, as well as better tell the story of our community. I’m excited to help shape this new idea for our community.

 


 

Community Engagement and Events:

 

Citywide Spring Cleanup

 

cleanup

 

We had a blast with everyone who came out for the Citywide Spring Cleanup in April. The City works hard to promote a clean livable place for its residents to live, and it also takes a little bit of elbow grease from everyone to make that a reality. Many thanks to the Friends of Hamline Park, Hamline-Midway Coalition, St. Paul Parks Department and countless other community organizations and networks who helped pull off this critical annual event!

 

Renter Voice Summit with 5 district councils in Ward 4