Star Tribune
Meet the man who resuscitated St. Paul’s Grand Old Day street festival
Growing up “a child of St. Paul,” Chris Jensen said going to Grand Old Day and other neighborhood festivals reinforced what was special about the capital city. But over the past several years, rising costs, dwindling sponsorships and shrinking participation ended keystone festivals such as Rice Street Days, Highland Fest and Rondo Days. In 2019, the folks running Grand Old Day decided that they, too, could do no more. Then came the pandemic, racial unrest and ballooning security costs. Talks to bring back Grand Old Day withered.
Jensen, a Grand Avenue area residential mortgage specialist, decided that St. Paul had done without celebrating long enough. Tapping into the expertise of the St. Paul Area Chamber, Jensen — the new head of the Grand Avenue Business Association — revived Grand Old Day last year. Eye On St. Paul recently visited with Jensen, 47, as he was putting the finishing touches on the 2024 Grand Old Day — Sunday, June 2, will be the 51st edition. This interview was edited for length.
Q: What are some some of the last-minute preparations that you’re doing?
A: We’re canvassing Grand Avenue this week. We want to make sure we get all that information out to everyone that lives on the avenue and in the neighborhood. We’ve put together an FAQ for everybody that breaks down the events of what’s happening [Sunday].
Q: Who gets the FAQ?
A: We get it to all the businesses, all the neighbors and the major landlords on the avenue, to let them know street closures and parking restrictions. And, of course, how they can buy wrist bands to help support us.
Q: How much are the wrist bands this year?
A: $10 [on the website]. Day of, they’re $15, plus a processing fee. We do have VIP tickets again this year [$75]. I want to give a big shout-out to Brasa-St. Paul and Bank Cherokee [sponsors]. Our VIP lunch is actually going to be inside Brasa, so it’s gonna be really cool with the main stage right next to it and some great sightlines. And, more importantly, you’re gonna have shade.
Q: What are you expecting for weather?
A: I stopped looking about a week ago but it was it was looking really nice — 78. But I don’t want to jinx it.
Q: This is your second year in a row. What’s different from last year?
A: The main difference this year is we’re not going west of Snelling. We’ve shrunk it a little bit due to the road construction happening from Fairview to Snelling.
Q: Why was bringing Grand Old Day back so important to you?
A: It was kind of depressing for citizens of St. Paul. We didn’t have anything to celebrate for three years with COVID and everything. Last year, we gave everyone an opportunity to come out and celebrate each other. At the end of the day, it’s all about community.
Q: How many people attended last year?
A: We estimate around 200,000, judging by the amount of trash we generated. And last year was pretty hot — 97, 98 degrees. So if we can keep it a little cooler, I think better attendance this year. We’re planning to have 225,000.
Q: What are all those people going to do?
A: We have eight stages here. We have everything from the Twin Cities Mobile Jazz Project on our Youth Stage to up-and-coming artists on our Flavor Stage, to our Grand Stage, where we’re partnering with the Current. We’ll have some pretty big headliners such as Yam Haus, Charlie Parr and Your Smith. We even brought live wrestling back, which was such a big hit back in 2018.
We did bring a [3K] run back. That starts at 8:30. And then our parade kicks off at 9:30. Our vendors have booths open around 9. And then at 11 all our beer gardens open and the music starts. The wrestling also starts at 11.
Q: Tell me more about what I can see without a wristband.
A: We’ll have the car show at Grand and Hamline. We have a very large art corridor. Last time I looked, we had almost 70 artists, artisans, performers and small nonprofits. That’s going to be from Hamline to Snelling. We have 227 vendors this year. One thing that’s brand new this year is we partnered with Metro Transit for free rides that day. There will be a link people will be able to click on day-of and get a free ticket. We also have a bike parking lot this year, at 1189 Grand.
Q: You told me that you and Brian Wagner [Grand Old Day co-chair] basically started from scratch last year. Is it worth the work?
A: Community’s really important to me. I didn’t like how my community looked with nothing to celebrate. So I got involved and decided to change that. At the end of the day, to see the kids’ faces last year who were 4 to 6 and had never seen a parade in St. Paul before, made it all worth it.
“They’re acting as if we had that view in 1995 or in 2005 and we didn’t,” Scissors said of the committee’s thinking of the U.S.-China relationship during the period when Walz frequented China. He said it’s unfair to apply the current thinking to Walz back then.
The early 90s was also a time when student exchange to China was common during the “high point of U.S.-China engagement,” said Robert Daly, director of the nonpartisan Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States.
“That activity was all conducted and was seen as being in the American national interest,” Daly said of student exchange trips.
“I would be surprised if this probe yielded anything about these activities, other than what Governor Walz and his students have themselves described,” Daly continued.
During Walz’s six terms in Congress, he often criticized the country’s human rights abuses.
He was a member of the Congressional Executive Commission on China, a group that looks at human rights issues in the country. He also held meetings with high-profile activists from China, Hong Kong and Tibet, including the Tibetan spiritual leader in exile, the Dalai Lama, whom China accuses of being a separatist.
City officials are asking voters to approve a 0.5% sales and use tax to help cover the cost of a new Chanhassen Bluffs Community Center. The new center, planned for the intersection of Highway 212 and Powers Boulevard, would include an indoor walking track, an ice arena that doubles as a venue space, field house, indoor playground and other amenities. The project would cost nearly $80 million and would be funded using the new tax, the property tax levy and money from a sale of the existing recreation center and other sources.
The city of Cottage Grove is asking taxpayers to approve a 0.5 % sales and use tax to help pay for projects at three different parks. Each project will be a separate question on the ballot, but whether one project passes or all three pass, taxpayers would only see a 0.5 % sales and use tax increase.
If approved, Hamlet Park would see up to $17 million for a new building, play equipment, skateboard park, athletic facilities, splash pad, and other updates. The Mississippi Dunes Park would see $13 million for improvements including an interpretive center, habitat restoration, a kayak, canoe, and small boat launch, outdoor educational spaces, walking and hiking trails, and a nature-themed playground. The River Oaks Golf Course and Event Center would see $6 million for pickleball courts, indoor multi-sports simulators, a winter mountain biking course, upgrades to the building and patio, and a nine-hole putting green course.
City leaders are asking residents to continue a 0.5% local sales tax until $23 million has been collected. They hope to pay for improvements to Excelsior Commons Park, including walkways, beaches, picnic areas, tree preservation and erosion control efforts.
The city of Oakdale is asking taxpayers to support an extension of an existing 0.5% sales and use tax for five more years, from 2048 to 2053, to help pay for inflationary costs of constructing a new public works facility. The extension would last until an additional $6 million has been raised or for five years, whichever comes first.
Voters will see three questions asking them to approve 0.5% sales and use taxes to fund up to $65 million in park and recreation projects. City leaders hope to bring in $45 million to build a new community center that includes gyms and sports courts, an indoor walking track, meetings rooms and other spaces. They’re seeking $9 million to help update Veterans Park, including replacing the pool liner and basin, upgrading the ice arena and resurfacing trails, among other projects. They also hope to build a new $26 million educational facility at the Wood Lake Nature Center, a project that would also be covered with state and federal funds. More information can be found at www.ourlegacyourfuture.org.
Bethel University officials announced this week that the school will cut tuition for all undergraduate students to about $26,000 — about $18,000 less than this year — starting in the fall of 2025.
The reduction won’t cost the university much to implement. Because of scholarships and aid, the new discount reflects what most students would already have paid.
“This really is driven around transparency and being clear with our students and families,” Ross Allen, president of Bethel University, said in an interview.
Private colleges have gotten into a “pricing game” where there’s a high sticker price, but many discounts or scholarships are available to students who qualify. But that can be frustrating and confusing to navigate for families, Allen said.
Some people rule out private colleges altogether because of their perceived cost, said Paul McGinnis, Bethel University’s vice president of marketing and enrollment.
“Very few people pay the full sticker price and we want to just be clear and simple,” he said, adding that much of the national conversation around whether college is worth it uses colleges’ sticker prices, which can be deceiving.
Students will also still be eligible for federal financial aid and scholarships from the Arden Hills school, which enrolls roughly 2,000 undergraduates and 2,000 students in its graduate, online and seminary programs combined.
This year, the cost for tuition, room and board and fees is about $57,000, McGinnis said, but that will drop to about $39,000 for everything next year. Room and board costs roughly $12,600, he said.
