Star Tribune
University of St. Thomas baseball, softball moving to Highland Bridge
The St. Paul City Council on Wednesday gave the green light to the University of St. Thomas baseball and softball teams to move to new homes 2 miles south of campus.
By a 6-0 vote, the council approved changes to the Highland Bridge master plan that will allow St. Thomas to build two new stadiums, an indoor practice facility and surface parking at the development’s southeast corner.
Phil Esten, St. Thomas’s athletics director and former baseball player at the St. Paul school, thanked council members and city staff and said the vote allows the university to begin fundraising in earnest.
“This is the result of months of really hard work,” Esten said. “Ultimately, it’s a really important part of the process. It allows us to move forward.”
Nearly a year ago, officials from St. Thomas and Ryan Cos., creators of St. Paul’s 122-acre Highland Bridge development, unveiled a broad plan to redevelop a vacant 13-acre tract just outside the development boundaries into new athletic facilities for the university’s softball and baseball teams.
At a community meeting in Highland Park, officials touted the benefits they say will come: economic development, environmental cleanup, community amenities and expanded park space. Dozens of neighbors that night said they had their doubts.
But over the ensuing months, City Council Member Chris Tolbert said St. Thomas officials worked to ease community concerns bout traffic and parking. Early on, St. Thomas officials had floated the idea of building a hockey arena there, but pulled back on that. Saying they’d make the fields available to youth and high school teams helped, Tolbert said.
“Obviously their proposal has evolved. They want to put the arena on campus and not not on the Highland site,” Tolbert said. “They’ve refined it. And the St. Thomas administration has done a really good job of going down and working with the neighbors to figure out how to be a true neighbor. And that goes a long way.”
The athletic facilities will be built on land owned by Canadian Pacific Railway. Save for the stadiums, Ryan officials had said it was doubtful anything else would be built there.
The St. Paul Port Authority will work to clean the site in preparation for the ballparks.
St. Thomas recently made an unprecedented jump from NCAA Division III athletics to Division I and officials have said they need to upgrade its facilities. It has proposed a joint basketball/hockey facility to be built on campus — at the former St. Paul Seminary. The conjoined baseball-softball stadiums at Highland Bridge will each hold 1,000 to 1,500 fans.
Highland Bridge’s ongoing transformation from the former Ford assembly plant has been dramatic, with the development of new parks, housing and a winding water feature. A new Lunds & Byerlys grocery store has opened and dozens of expensive rowhouses are in various stages of construction.
“I’m excited about what expansion of their athletic program will mean just for the vibrant upgrade to the neighborhood,” Tolbert said. “Division 1 baseball and Division 1 softball is going to be a great addition.”
Dozens wept and embraced before releasing scores of balloons Saturday over north Minneapolis to remember two community pillars who were killed in a fiery car accident.
The crowd gathered near 26th and Emerson avenues to remember Esther Jean Fulks, 53, and Rose Elaine Reece, 57. They died on Dec. 16 when Teniki Latrice Elise Steward, 38, allegedly drove through a red light and struck their vehicle. A teen waiting at a nearby bus stop also was injured.
Fulks and Reese “gave their love and their hard work and dedication to the community. And as you can see, there’s people out here for them,” said Fulks’ daughter, D’Nia. “I’m going to miss my mom. That was my world, I was with her day in and day out. I was hoping to come home to my mom and it didn’t happen.”
“It means a lot,” Esther’s son, Joseph Loyd, said of neighbors attending the balloon release. “It shows what they contributed to the community and how much they meant to people. Not just their own families, but they touched countless other families and helped people.”
Emmary Thomas set a candle down at a bus stop during a balloon release Saturday for Esther Fulks and Rose Reece at 26th and Emerson avenues in north Minneapolis. Fulks and Reece died in a crash at the intersection on Dec. 16. (Ayrton Breckenridge/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Flowers, balloons, candles and pictures sat at a bus stop during a balloon release Saturday for Esther Fulks and Rose Reece in north Minneapolis. Fulks and Reece died in a crash at the intersection on Dec. 16. (Ayrton Breckenridge/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Drakarr Lobley hugged a supporter during Saturday’s balloon release for Esther Fulks and Rose Reece in north Minneapolis. Fulks and Reece died in a crash at the intersection on Dec. 16. Lobley is Reece’s son. (Ayrton Breckenridge/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Family and friends said Fulks and Reece were pillars of the community who treated strangers like family and brought love to those around them. Both had worked as navigators for the Minneapolis Cultural Wellness Center since 1998, connecting residents to food, clothing, shelter and other resources.
“They reminded us daily of the transformative power of service, love, and cultural connection,” Elder Atum Azzahir, executive director of the Cultural Wellness Center, said in a statement. “They were not just navigators — they were beacons of hope, guiding people toward brighter futures.”
At the crash scene Saturday, loved ones embraced while shedding tears and sharing memories. Anthony Hamilton’s “I Can’t Let Go” played as passing motorists shouted condolences and words of support. Caution tape strung to a traffic cone near the intersection fluttered in the wind.
Hit by headwinds including inflationary pressures, competition from e-commerce sites, big box retailers, pop-up stores and even a helium shortage, Party City is going out of business.
The closing of the nation’s largest party supply store, reported by CNN on Friday, is expected to shutter more than 700 retail stores in North America by the end of February, including 10 stores in Minnesota.
According to the company’s website, Party City has outlets in Apple Valley, Bloomington, Chanhassen, Coon Rapids, Maple Grove, Maplewood, Roseville, St. Cloud, St. Louis Park and Woodbury. Employees contacted at stores in Roseville, St. Cloud and Apple Valley said they had heard of the closing but could not comment.
Party City, which sells everything from balloons, costumes and birthday banners to gender reveal props and New Year’s Eve tiaras, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2023. That resulted in the cancellation of nearly $1 billion in debt.
The 38-year-old New Jersey-based company exited bankruptcy after naming a new CEO, Barry Litwin, in August. But the company was still contending with more than $800 million in debt, according to CNN. The New York Times reported the company employed more than 16,000 people.
A panel of independent health experts recommended this month against older adults using vitamin D and calcium supplements to prevent falls and fractures, citing inadequate evidence to support their effectiveness.
The guidance from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force underscores the risks of supplementation without prior testing and diagnosis for a vitamin D deficiency or for osteoporosis.
While vitamin D and calcium are important for bone health and muscle function, the task force, a blue-ribbon panel of experts in disease prevention and evidence-based medicine, said the supplements do little to reduce falls or fractures, and they may increase the risk of kidney stones.
The task force said the recommendation applies to people living at home, including women who have gone through menopause and men 60 years and older. It does not apply to people in assisted living or nursing homes because people living in those facilities may be more prone to health complications, including risk of falls.
Patients whose medical providers have suggested supplements as part of their clinical regimen are recommended to continue with that guidance.
The task force assigned a grade of D to the recommendation, indicating that it advises against use of the supplements because of moderate or high certainty that they provide no net benefit or that the harms outweigh the benefits — discouraging its use.
Falls are the leading cause of injury-related death among people 65 and older, a problem that increased steadily from 2012 to 2021. In 2020, health care spending related to falls in older adults that did not result in death was $80 billion, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
John M. Ruiz, a task force member, said the answer to minimizing the risk of falling does not lie in vitamin supplementation. He said a review of research by the health experts found no dose of vitamin D with or without calcium was useful in preventing falls and fractures.
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