Star Tribune
6 key takeaways from St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter’s State of the City address
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter used his annual State of the City address Monday to float a range of ideas for the capital city, from a new approach to snow plowing to a city-funded jobs program aimed at helping small businesses.
While the mayor’s recent addresses have headlined one or two pressing issues, such as public safety and infrastructure, Carter’s speech for 2024 touched on nearly a dozen topics, including some potential programs and policies that aren’t fully fleshed out.
The mayor, who is halfway through his second four-year term, also used the hour-long address to highlight what he considers some of his key accomplishments.
“I stand before you today with a profound sense of optimism and excitement for the future of our city,” Carter said to several hundred people gathered in the popcorn-scented lobby of the Xcel Energy Center. “The stakes are high, but our determination to create a city where every resident can thrive is even higher.”
Here are six key takeaways from the speech.
Attention to downtown
Carter’s decision to deliver his speech in the arena reflects the $2 million request from the city to the Legislature, the initial design work teeing up a multi-million dollar renovation of the Xcel Energy Center.
The hockey arena’s transformation is part of a larger vision for downtown that the city has been crafting with the nonprofit St. Paul Downtown Alliance.
As part of that work, Carter said the city will look to incentivize the conversion of office buildings into housing. St. Paul already hired a consultant to consider selling its City Hall Annex to a developer ? a move that would mean relocating hundreds of city workers to other parts of downtown.
Workforce development
Carter said he wants to connect St. Paul workers with St. Paul jobs ? starting with those the city controls.
The mayor said St. Paul will eliminate degree requirements for 90% of city positions. When selecting contractors, the city will give extra points to those situated in St. Paul and employing St. Paul residents.
The city is also exploring a program that would help small businesses employ formerly incarcerated residents, those experiencing homelessness and other at-risk populations. The city would cover part of employees’ wages for a period of time as long as small businesses agreed to retain workers after the funding runs out.
Housing
Saying the city is having too many siloed discussions about housing policies, Carter announced his intention to launch “one big conversation about housing.”
St. Paul will get roughly $6 million a year for housing from the new metro-area sales tax approved by the Legislature. Carter said he plans to convene open houses to engage the community to debate how to use those resources ? and about how other policies, such as rent stabilization and first-time homebuyer supports, should complement them.
Sales tax medallions
Carter unveiled a logo and brand for work funded by St. Paul’s new 1% sales tax. The “Common Cent” projects will each be stamped with a penny-inspired insignia.
The tax is expected to generate nearly $1 billion for streets and parks over the next 20 years. Carter described the program as St. Paul’s version of the Depression-era Works Progress Administration, saying the funding will help transform the city into a 21st-century, climate resilient city.
Ash tree removal
The city removed thousands of ash trees from the public right-of-way since emerald ash borer were first discovered in the state in 2009. That multi-million operation wrapped up last year, Carter said.
Now, the mayor said the city plans to offer a low-interest loan program to help property owners pay for removing infested trees, while also working on replanting on city-owned land.
The end of snow emergencies?
Next winter, St. Paul will likely test out one-sided winter parking rules, allowing the city to rotate which side of the street it plows each week.
Carter said that system could eventually replace snow emergencies in St. Paul. In an interview, he said city staff has been in discussion with Duluth officials about their parking rules. He told the crowd at Xcel to stay tuned for more details.
A former tire store in Brooklyn Center has been repurposed into the state’s newest vehicle inspection station, where owners of salvage vehicles can get them examined to ensure they have been repaired with proper parts and are safe to drive.
The Department of Vehicle Services (DVS) signed a 10-year lease on the Big-O Tires building on Xerxes Avenue across from the former Brookdale Shopping Center. After spending several months retrofitting the shop, officials held a ribbon-cutting on Friday to mark its official opening.
Motorists who have bought salvage vehicles — those involved in crashes, damaged by weather or for any other reason declared a total loss by insurance companies — and had them repaired can bring them for a checkup at the new station. Under Minnesota law, motorists driving salvage vehicles must have them inspected to ensure their wheels are safe to drive and to renew their license tabs.
That has not been an easy task as the demand for salvage vehicles has ballooned in recent years, said Bob Jacobson, the commissioner of the Department of Public Safety. After the COVID-19 pandemic hit, salvage vehicles became popular since new and used car prices shot way up, and people found it cheaper to buy cars that needed major repairs, Jacobson said.
The DVS had only one metro area inspection station, on Starkey Street in St. Paul. And with just two bays for vehicles, availability was limited. By moving to Brooklyn Center and closing the St. Paul location, the DVS will have five bays, and each will be able to handle 18 vehicles a day. That is 90 vehicles on every weekday.
So far this year, the DVS has inspected more than 23,060 salvage vehicles across the state, which represents a 32% increase compared to the same 10-month period last year. In the past two weeks, inspectors in the Twin Cities have looked at 588 vehicles, DVS data shows.
Those numbers reflect the growing number of salvage vehicles on state roads and the need for more inspectors and longer hours at locations to verify vehicles were repaired using legal parts, said Greg Loper, director of the DVS Inspection Program.
Besides Brooklyn Center, which will be open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays, the DVS operates eight other inspection sites across Minnesota. But most are overbooked and understaffed. That is changing.
Two men are dead and one woman was injured in a shooting at a homeless encampment in south Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, police said. It was the second shooting at a Minneapolis encampment this weekend.
At about 2:20 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a reported shooting in the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue near the railroad tracks at the small encampment between Snelling and Hiawatha avenues. At the scene, officers found two men with fatal gunshot wounds, said Sgt. Garrett Parten Minneapolis Police spokesman. Responders rendered aid, but both men died at the scene.
A woman was found at the scene with life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital where she was being treated Sunday night, he said. Police have yet to say whether the three were living at the encampment.
Officers detained three people, who Parten said have since been released after police found they were not believed to be involved in the shooting. No suspects had been identified as of 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
The shooting is the second at a southside homeless encampment this weekend. One man died and two were critically injured early Saturday at an encampment shooting near E. 21st Street and 15th Avenue S. On Sunday, the man was identified as Deven Leonard Caston, 31, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“We don’t know if there’s a connection between this homeless encampment shooting and the one that occurred yesterday,” Parten said on Sunday. “That is a consideration of the investigation. We can’t rule it out.”
Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the area and lives nearby, was at the site of the shooting Sunday afternoon. She said officials need information about what happened to better understand how to address situations like this long-term.
“This is an absolute tragedy, and this type of violence should never occur within our city,” she said. “It really makes me think about how we need to look at this more systemically and not just take a whack-a-mole approach and expect the problem to go away.
During Sunday’s Twitch stream, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez played Madden while discussing making homebuying more accessible, building affordable housing, eliminating student loan debt and raising the federal minimum wage.
After the match, Walz showed off his Sega skills in a round of “Crazy Taxi,” the Y2K-era racing game where gamers play as a taxi driver picking up passengers and taking them to their destination for cash.
Walz called himself a “first-generation gamer” and recalled playing “Crazy Taxi” when he bought a Sega Dreamcast. He also mentioned the Minnesota Star Tribune’s coverage of how his old game console was sold and ended up with a Plymouth resident, who still has it.
Afterward, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez watched a short clip of Trump denying on Rogan’s podcast that he lost the 2020 presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden won that year.
Ocasio-Cortez during the livestream also showed viewers her farm on the cozy, indie game Stardew Valley. Walz said the game reminded him of Minnesota: “You’ve got mining,” he said. “You’ve got agriculture. You’ve got snow.”
Before Walz headed out to a rally in Nevada, he pleaded with viewers to vote. More than 12,000 viewers tuned into the livestream on Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch channel. More watched from Harris’ channel.
