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.”
CBRE, which marketed the property, declined to comment on the sale.
Adam Duininck, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council, said while the low sales prices might sound alarming, there are bright spots. Homeowners in the city are facing a few tough years of property tax increases as commercial values drop, he acknowledged. But the lower prices have also enabled new players to buy downtown properties, paving the way for fresh ideas to transform the urban core.
“Hopefully, they come into the market with a certain kind of energy and optimism that helps drive the market back up,” he said, adding public safety improvements have also fueled recent momentum.
Take the Kickernick Building, which recently opened an art gallery. Earlier this year, Twin Cities-based United Properties sold the historic former warehouse on the edge of the CBD for $3.79 million. In 2017, United paid $19.5 million for the building.
Just a couple blocks away, Tom McCarver and Steve Boynton bought a mixed-use, nearly 31,000-square-foot building at the corner of Seventh Street and Hennepin Avenue that most recently housed Seven Steakhouse & Sushi. Last month, they paid about $4.3 million, slightly more than half of what it sold for in November 2017.
Tom McCarver, CEO of Hennepin Real Estate Partners LLC, poses Tuesday on the rooftop of the Stimson Building in Minneapolis that formerly housed Seven Steakhouse & Sushi. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
After the restaurant closed during the pandemic, the building went into receivership and up for auction. McCarver and Boynton, executives at a company that owns billboards across the metro, were among nearly a dozen bidders. They won the auction in March, but because of “legal hurdles,” the sale didn’t close until last month.
A third wildfire burning within the Superior National Forest was discovered Tuesday near Bogus Lake in Cook County.
The fire, 45 acres in size, was active overnight into Wednesday as firefighters and aircraft continued suppression efforts, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The cause is unknown.
Bogus Lake is less than 20 miles northeast of Grand Marais.
A drought has put much of the upper Midwest, from northern Minnesota to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, under “above normal” conditions for potential wildland fire, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
The Bogus Lake Fire is the second wildfire to be discovered in the Superior National Forest this week and the third one actively burning since early September.
Monday, a fire was detected on the eastern side of Shell Lake, about 4 miles north of Road 116 within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, in St. Louis County. That fire is less than one acre, with the potential to spread east near Agawato Lake and the Sioux-Hustler Hiking Trail, the Forest Service said.
That fire grew to 45 acres and half of it was contained as of Oct. 1, according to the Forest Service. It is suspected of being caused by humans. Firefighters remain assigned to the fire.
Star Tribune
Duluth man involved in chaotic aftermath of fatal stabbing turns himself in 6 months later
DULUTH – On the mid-April night that Chantel Moose was fatally stabbed outside a downtown bar, Trayvon Joseph Walters fired at least two shots toward the fleeing suspect and a man who was pistol-whipping the accused. Then Walters took off for six months.
Walters, 27, traveled back from Colorado and turned himself in to local law enforcement officials on Wednesday morning, according to his attorney, assistant public defender Aaron Haddorff. He faces charges of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon — along with unrelated charges of second-degree assault from 2020 — and appeared before Judge Eric Hylden in the afternoon at the St. Louis County Courthouse. His bail is set at $250,000.
Kimonte Travion Cadge, 26, who was taken to a hospital for the gunshot wound Walters allegedly inflicted, was charged with second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. He was extradited from Cook County Jail in Chicago and was booked in St. Louis County Jail in September.
According to the criminal complaint: Moose and Plummer, who is friends with Moose’s ex-boyfriend, got into an argument after bar close on April 12 outside Spurs on 1st Street. A bouncer intervened, and Plummer reached over him to take a swipe at Moose with a knife with a 4- to 6-inch blade. Moose backed up and walked away before she dropped to the sidewalk.
When Plummer saw her fall, he took off running.
Cadge chased him, pistol-whipped him, then fired his gun at him. Walters, according to the criminal complaint, fired at least two shots toward both men, then left in a vehicle. Cadge retreated to a nearby apartment before he was transported to the hospital.
Moose was pronounced dead at a hospital, with a stab wound to the right side of her chest.
