Star Tribune
Jack Jablonski gives Minnesota another gift
Jack Jablonski was going on a date.
It was summer and he was back in Minnesota for a few weeks for another fundraiser for the foundation that bears his name. The 26-year-old opened an app, swiped and found a guy he liked and who liked him.
And then he canceled.
“What if someone sees you?” his family worried.
Paralyzed at a high school hockey game in 2011, he had been a source of inspirational, feel-good news stories. He was the kid who turned a devastating sports injury into a force for good in the world. The Jack Jablonski Foundation has raised millions of dollars for spinal cord injury research. He had a great job with the NHL.
But he wasn’t out yet. What if someone told the world he was gay before he was ready to share the news himself?
Coming out doesn’t change who you are. But it can change how the world treats you.
Which is why coming-out announcements, like Jablonski’s last month, still matter.
It matters to kids like the ones KQ Quinn works with as a school equity coordinator for OutFront Minnesota.
Quinn offers coming-out training for youngsters who are almost ready to tell their parents or friends or teachers that they’re gay, or trans, or ready to use the pronouns that make them feel more like themselves.
They talk about what they’ll say, how they’ll answer questions, where they can go for support if they don’t find support at home. Being kind when someone comes out is more than just Minnesota Nice. It’s a lifeline. A 2022 survey by the Trevor Project found that 45% of LGBTQ youth have seriously considered suicide in the past year.
So if someone comes out to you, say thank you.
“This person just shared some really, really important and vulnerable information,” said Quinn, who uses they/them pronouns. “I always recommend starting with ‘Thank you very much for sharing that with me’ … ‘What do you need in this moment and what do you need moving forward so I can show that I support you and love you?’ “
Jablonski came out on his own terms, in his own words, and so far the response has been overwhelmingly – 99%, he estimates – positive.
“Now I can just be myself,” he said. “I don’t have to worry about living in the shadows … Embrace who you are. This is the only life you’re promised.”
The Jack Jablonski Foundation is hosting its big Beat Paralysis Gala on Oct. 15 in St. Paul, which will raise money for two spinal cord research projects. Over the years, the foundation has raised $3 million, bringing hope to an injury the Jablonski family never saw as hopeless.
“Slowly but surely, progress,” Jablonski tweeted in March. Below the words, a video showed him pouring water out of a bottle and into a glass — an action that would have been unthinkable before his participation in an upper-limb stimulation research trial.
By July, a follow-up video captured the moment he swiped a cracker through some hummus and popped it in his mouth. A tiny, everyday gesture. An enormous triumph.
“Hard work is paying off!” he tweeted. “Couldn’t control my hands like this six months ago. Finally able to eat lunch on my own.”
He will walk again someday, he believes. Someday, he’ll skate again.
Right now, he’s just happy to be living without fear of what might happen if somebody spots him out on a date.
“It’s great to be who you are,” he said. “I just want everyone to be who they are and not have to hide and live a lie.”
Now that he’s out, the most intrusive questions he’s likely to face at the Oct. 15 gala will be whether he’ll be rooting for the Minnesota Wild when they play his employers – the L.A. Kings – in St. Paul that night.
Jablonski, a Minnesota story of courage and optimism for the past decade, just added another chapter.
“It was scary,” he said. “But I’m so happy I’ve done it. I’m happy to be who I am.”
“You’ve got to be able to say, ‘Here’s how much we want to spend, and here’s what we want the impact to be,’” Carter said.
During the council meeting, Johnson, the Ward 7 council member, alluded to those statements, saying people have used such language to try to discredit women in leadership, especially young women. This is the first budget from St. Paul’s new all-women council.
Staff writer James Walsh contributed to this report.
After months of maintenance problems and safety concerns in downtown St. Paul’s Lowry Apartments, city officials condemned the building, forcing dozens of tenants to abruptly relocate to hotels this week.
On Monday afternoon, city staff responded to a plumbing leak in the 11-story building at 345 Wabasha St. N. Officials reported significant damage and signs of vandalism, including copper wire theft that left electrical systems exposed. The leak also raised concerns about mold.
To make repairs, the building’s water must be shut off — a move that would leave tenants without boiler heat and fire sprinklers, Deputy Mayor Jaime Tincher said in a Tuesday email to state Rep. Maria Isa Pérez-Vega and City Council Member Rebecca Noecker, who represent the area.
After determining heat and water could not be restored quickly, Tincher wrote: “There was no other option than to conclude the building was not safe for residents to stay.”
Property manager Halverson and Blaiser Group (HBG) agreed to provide alternative housing for tenants for up to 30 days, Tincher said. City staff worked with Ramsey County’s Housing Stability team and Metro Transit to help 71 residents pack and move.
Before then, the building belonged to downtown St. Paul’s largest property owner, Madison Equities. After the January death of the company’s founder and longtime principal, Jim Crockarell, the dire state of the group’s real estate portfolio became apparent.
The Lowry Apartments, the sole property with a high concentration of low-income housing, quickly became the most troubled. Residents reported frequent break-ins, pest infestations, inoperable elevators and more, to no avail.
Star Tribune
Metro Transit allocated $12 million to boost security, cleanliness on Twin Cities light rail and buses
They will be soon. With more money to spend, Metro Transit plans to bring on 40 more this year. With their ranks growing, TRIP agents, clad in blue, have recently started covering the Metro C and D rapid transit lines between Brooklyn Center and downtown Minneapolis.
The big investment in public safety initiatives comes as Metro Transit is seeing an uptick in ridership that plunged dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic and has been slow to recover. This year ridership has been a bright spot, the agency said.
Through October, the agency has provided 40.1 million rides, up 7% compared with the first 10 months of 2023. In September, the agency saw its highest monthly ridership in four years, averaging nearly 157,000 rides on weekdays, agency data shows.
At the same time, crime is down 8.4% during the first three quarters of 2024 compared to the same time period last year, according to Metro Transit Interim Police Chief Joe Dotseth. However, problems still persist.
On Nov. 29, Sharif Darryl Walker-El, Jr., 33, was fatally shot on a Green Line train in St. Paul. Just a week earlier, a woman was shot in the leg while on the train and taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Earlier this year, a robbery attempt on the Green Line in St. Paul left a passenger shot and wounded.
“Our officers are spending time on the system and sending a clear message to everyone: Crime will not be tolerated on transit,” Dotseth said. “And we will work to ensure those commit those crimes are held accountable.”
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