Star Tribune
City Council member wants Rondo Avenue to regain a place in St. Paul
Official street signs label the frontage road south of Interstate 94 as Concordia Avenue, but St. Paul City Council Member Russel Balenger says that many longtime residents of the area have never stopped using a former name: Rondo Avenue.
As one of his last acts before leaving the council, Balenger is leading a charge to restore the name of the road that once served as the main artery of the storied Rondo neighborhood — the social, cultural and commercial heart of St. Paul’s Black community for much of the 20th century.
When the freeway was constructed in the 1950s and ’60s, it destroyed more than 1,000 homes and businesses in Rondo, many of them owned by African Americans. Balenger’s family was one of the first forced to move out in 1957, when he was 8 years old.
Much of Rondo Avenue disappeared, and part of what remained was renamed Concordia Avenue in 1964 in honor of the nearby college — a decision made by the City Council without public discussion, according to Balenger.
“It was one thing to take your home and your community and destroy it,” he said. “But then when they erased the name, that was just adding insult to injury.”
On Wednesday, Balenger plans to introduce a resolution to restore the Rondo name to a stretch of Concordia Avenue between Griggs and Mackubin streets, and a stretch of St. Anthony Avenue from Western Avenue to Rice Street. The public will have a chance to testify at the meeting before the council takes a final vote, said Dan Dodge, Balenger’s aide.
Rev. Brian Friedrich, president of Concordia University, already has sent a letter expressing support for the proposal to flip the street name from Concordia to Rondo.
Balenger, who was appointed to the council in August 2022 to fill a vacant seat, secured $23,000 in the city’s 2024 budget to swap out street signs and assist property owners affected by the change.
“I look at this as a thing that will provide some healing for those, like myself, who felt like the name was taken,” he said.
Nieeta Presley, whose family also was displaced by I-94, said that bringing back the Rondo name would be another way for officials to apologize for the trauma that freeway construction caused the neighborhood.
“It doesn’t solve all the pain and the hurt, but it definitely is moving in the right direction,” she said.
Presley added that she’s also hopeful about simultaneous efforts to make amends for the injustices of the past — including the Reconnect Rondo land bridge, St. Paul’s reparations commission and the city Inheritance Fund, which helps former Rondo residents and their descendants with down payments and home repairs.
“This is part of being in my DNA to do whatever I could do to make sure that the legacy, the history, of Rondo doesn’t get forgotten,” Presley said. “And I can tell you, we haven’t had this much attention in a long time.”
Marvin Anderson, a son of Rondo and longtime leader of efforts to preserve its legacy, said the simple act of restoring the avenue’s name will have “a profound impact,” likening it to when Minneapolis renamed Lake Calhoun as Bde Maka Ska.
“To me, restoration means we’re returning something to the way it should have been, the way it was — like you restore your land after a disaster,” Anderson said. “You go in, and then once that’s restored, you’re able to now have a foundation upon which many things can be built.”
Anderson said that he and others have asked city officials to restore Rondo Avenue’s name for years. Commemorative “Old Rondo Avenue” signs, posted atop the official street signs, have marked the street’s old footprint since 2016.
Frank White, another former Rondo resident, said a renamed Rondo Avenue should match the historic footprint as much as possible — which is why he’s pushed for the renaming of two separate street segments.
Because I-94 was built to curve toward downtown, it bisected the old Rondo Avenue. Part of the former street overlays what is now Concordia Avenue. But moving further east, starting around Western Avenue, historic Rondo Avenue matches up with what’s currently St. Anthony Avenue.
“For me, I don’t really think the renaming is necessary in the scheme of things,” White said, adding that changing addresses will be an inconvenience to residents and businesses. “But if they do choose to do this, let’s do it historically accurately.”
In talking to residents and businesses in the area, Balenger said he’s heard mostly excitement about the proposal. Asked whether he thinks the changes may cause confusion, he noted that the commemorative signs have denoted the two segments for years now. Only one building on St. Anthony will have to change its address, he said, and GPS will guide those unfamiliar with St. Paul.
There’s been a lot of turnover in the neighborhood over the years, said Balenger, who for decades has lived four blocks off the street he’s hoping to rename.
“I love to hear my neighbors — my new neighbors — take pride in saying they live in the Rondo community,” he said. “The point’s been made that whatever happened, it’s still Rondo.”
Star Tribune
Biden calls out Musk over a published report that the Tesla CEO once worked in the US illegally
NEW YORK — President Joe Biden slammed Elon Musk for hypocrisy on immigration after a published report that the Tesla CEO once worked illegally in the United States. The South Africa-born Musk denies the allegation.
”That wealthiest man in the world turned out to be an illegal worker here. No, I’m serious. He was supposed to be in school when he came on a student visa. He wasn’t in school. He was violating the law. And he’s talking about all these illegals coming our way?” Biden said while campaigning on Saturday in Pittsburgh at a union hall.
The Washington Post reported that Musk worked illegally in the country while on a student visa. The newspaper, citing company documents, former business associates and court documents, said Musk arrived in Palo Alto, California in 1995 for a graduate program at Stanford University “but never enrolled in courses, working instead on his startup. ”
Musk wrote on X in reply to a video post of Biden’s comments: ”I was in fact allowed to work in the US.” Musk added, ”The Biden puppet is lying.”
Investors in Musk’s company, Zip2, were concerned about the possibility of their founder being deported, according to the report, and gave him a deadline for obtaining a work visa. The newspaper also cited a 2005 email from Musk to his Tesla co-founders acknowledging that he did not have authorization to be in the U.S. when he started Zip2.
According to the account, that email was submitted as evidence in a now-closed California defamation lawsuit and said that Musk had apllied to Stanford so he could stay in the country legally.
Musk is today the world’s richest man. He has committed more than $70 million to help Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and other GOP candidates win on Nov. 5, and is one of the party’s biggest donors this campaign season. He has been headlining events in the White House race’s final stretch, often echoing Trump’s dark rhetoric against immigration.
Trump has pledged to give Musk a role in his administration if he wins next month.
The only debate between DFL U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and GOP challenger Royce White started Sunday on the street outside WCCO Radio.
As White approached the building, he loudly called some two dozen flag-waving and cheering Klobuchar supporters a “whole lot of commies.” The 33-year-old provocateur and podcaster also told them to thank Republican former Vice President Dick Cheney — who endorsed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris — because there was “no chance in hell” that Harris would defeat Republican former President Donald Trump on Nov. 5.
Klobuchar, 64, had arrived moments earlier, smiling and wishing “good morning” to her supporters. Once inside, the two took questions for an hour from moderator Blois Olson. Their tone was generally polite with White often interrupting a Klobuchar response with, “rebuttal,” indicated he wanted to respond.
The senator repeatedly raised White’s claims on X, formerly Twitter, that “The bad guys won in World War II” and that there were “no good guys in that war.” She called that stance offensive to veterans.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar arrives at WCCO Radio for a debate with Royce White in Minneapolis on Sunday, Oct. 27. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii)
Klobuchar, who is seeking a fourth six-year term, portrayed herself as a pragmatist. She opened by saying that we live in “incredibly divisive times politically” but that she has listened and worked with Republicans to bring down shipping costs, drug prices for seniors and to help veterans and push for more housing and child care.
“Courage in this next few years is not going to be standing by yourself yelling at people,” she said, her opening allusion to White’s rhetoric, which she said is often vulgar.
White, a former NBA player, is a political novice, but a close ally of Steve Bannon, the jailed former chief strategist for Trump and right wing media executive. Last summer, White won the state GOP endorsement to run against Klobuchar.
“Our country’s coming undone at the seams. I think we can change that,” White said in his opening statement. He said he threatens the status quo, decried the “permanent political class” and referred to the two major parties as the “uniparty.”
Other buildings destroyed at Khojir and Parchin likely included buildings where Iran used industrial mixers to create the solid fuel needed for its extensive ballistic missile arsenal, Eveleth said.
In a statement issued immediately after the attack Saturday, the Israeli military said it targeted ”missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the state of Israel over the last year.”
Destroying such sites could greatly disrupt Iran’s ability to manufacture new ballistic missiles to replenish its arsenal after the two attacks on Israel. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which oversees the country’s ballistic missile program, has been silent since Saturday’s attack.
Iran’s overall ballistic missile arsenal, which includes shorter-range missiles unable to reach Israel, was estimated to be ”over 3,000” by Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, then-commander of the U.S. military’s Central Command, in testimony to the U.S. Senate in 2022. In the time since, Iran has fired hundreds of the missiles in a series of attacks.
There have been no videos or photos posted to social media of missile parts or damage in civilian neighborhoods following the recent attack — suggesting that the Israeli strikes were far more accurate that Iran’s ballistic missile barrages targeting Israel in April and October. Israel relied on aircraft-fired missiles during its attack.
However, one factory appeared to have been hit in Shamsabad Industrial City, just south of Tehran near Imam Khomeini International Airport, the country’s main gateway to the outside world. Online videos of the damaged building corresponded to an address for a firm known as TIECO, which advertises itself as building advanced machinery used in Iran’s oil and gas industry.
