Kare11
St. Paul renters anxious over fate of Lowry Apartments
Residents say they’re worried about their health and safety at vintage St. Paul building.
ST PAUL, Minn. — Residents of the Lowry Apartments Building say they’re in limbo, awaiting word on whether they’ll get to stay in their building which is going through foreclosure proceedings and undergoing code enforcement efforts by the city at the same time.
The building has stood at the corner of 4th Street and Wabasha Street for nearly a century but has fallen on harder times of late. Homeless persons have been squatting in the building, trashing some rooms and stripping items out of the structure.
One of the front windows was shot out recently, and the door to the front lobby no longer locks. The mail room key fobs stopped working, and the elevators in the 11-story structure have intermittently been out of order.
The city has already issued an order revoking the building’s occupancy license by next April if conditions don’t change. Some residents have begun to move out, while others are hoping conditions will improve with City Hall’s intervention.
“It’s been really bad. People have been assaulting me. No security has been doing anything about it. People have been trying to walk into my unit. My kids have been scared,” Celia, a mother of three young children, told reporters Monday.
“A day before I went in for my C section my apartment got flooded out and I was slipping and falling, pregnant. And I’ve been slipping and falling after I had the C section on these stairs.”
She appeared at a press conference hosted by St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter III, immediately after he toured the building with tenants.
“We walked through there and saw trash. We saw flies, insect infestation, rodent infestation, feces just on the floor. They’ve just turned their backs on 100-plus residents who lived here.”
RELATED: St. Paul tenants blindsided by foreclosure, impending sale of affordable apartment building
The city says the building is owned by Madison Equities, the same company that is trying to sell six downtown office buildings including the First National Bank Building. A Madison Equities truck was parked outside the building Tuesday.
But the apartment building is doing business under the name of Lowry Building LLC. That company fell behind on the mortgage payments on the Lowry Apartments, which prompted the lender to seek foreclosure.
A sheriff’s foreclosure sale is set for Sept. 10, according to Mayor Carter, which could lead the building to go into receivership. But Carter wants to expedite the process.
The city filed a motion to initiate receivership as soon as possible. A hearing has been scheduled on that motion for 9:00 a.m. Wednesday in the Ramsey County Courthouse, which is right across the street from the Lowry.
“Once this building is under receivership, my understanding is the tenants will be paying their rent to a receiver, who will then have funds to address some of the issues that are going on inside the building.”
St. Paul attorney Kelly Hadac, issued a statement on behalf of the owners, which read, in part, as follows:
“Lowry has invested millions of dollars over the years to maintain and improve the building. Lowry has also evicted countless tenants from the property over the years who were causing damages.”
“Unfortunately, crime is out of control in downtown St. Paul where the Lowry Building is located. By way of one example, on Sunday, August 25, 2024, criminals ransacked the building causing all sorts of damage, and even stole master keys that the fire inspectors use for the building, among other things.”
Hadac also pointed out that the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, which had occupied two floors of the building for years, moved out last year creating a huge vacancy. A major first floor tenant, Grey Duck Tavern, abruptly closed in July.
Mayor Carter said he was initiating action to repair the elevators, contending that Madison Equities had the resources to do so but failed to do so. On Tuesday afternoon there was an orange sticker on the front entrance to the Lowry announcing that city crews would be removing trash from the building on Wednesday and billing the property owner.
“They are not off the hook. They are responsible. Their business decisions are responsible for the conditions these tenants live in,” Carter remarked.
Gary Peterson and his friends are collecting donations to help people in their community.
ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. — A St. Louis Park pumpkin display is raising money for their local food shelf.
Gary Peterson started carving and painting three pumpkins over a decade ago. It’s now grown to over 100.
“I’ve heard people say they’ve come from Hutchinson,” he said.
Peterson along with two of his neighbors have spent the last 14 years growing their display, turning it into a neighborhood event.
“It’s been incredible, I just can’t believe how much this has expanded,” he said. “We did it just because we like to and then people were asking to give us money to cover the cost.”
The trio refused to take people’s money, but then one of them had an idea.
“My neighbor, Steve Leensvaart, just mentioned how about we just do it for the STEP program and the STEP program is our local food shelf in St. Louis Park,” he said.
So, they started to collect donations to help families in need. They’ve raised hundreds of dollars and donated hundreds of pounds of food over the last few years, carving for a cause.
“It is more gratifying every year,” Peterson said.
He estimated they have over 100 unique pumpkins in their yard. They’ve created the displays and come up with new family-friendly concepts for people to enjoy. Peterson said about 30 of their neighbors carved their own pumpkins to be put on display, and it’s been a big hit.
“It’s great. In the last couple of years, it’s turned into more of a neighborhood event,” said Sarah Durch.
“We love this Halloween display, we come every year to see it. We love that the whole community gets involved to craft and carve the pumpkins,” said Jami Gordon-Smith.
“The shading and the details are unbelievable,” said Elizabeth Hanson.
Hanson hopes to take her 2-year-old son trick or treating for the first time but is worried the cold temperatures might keep them indoors.
“We’re going trick or treating hopefully,” she said. “He’s going to be a firefighter, but we’re probably going to have sweatshirts maybe like two pairs of sweatpants underneath. We’re going to be bundled up.”
Gordon-Smith said her family will be out Halloween night no matter the weather.
“Halloween only comes once a year, so you really have to take advantage and enjoy the evening no matter what the weather brings,” she said. “Guess it’s not totally unheard of in Minnesota to have a cold Halloween, but we are going to try and modify and do a lot of layers underneath our costumes and then we might add some hats and maybe some warmer socks.”
Durch also isn’t surprised they’re in for another chilly night.
“Well, what would Halloween be without Minnesota cold? I feel like every time you plan a costume you have to plan for how you can make this work if it’s snowing,” she said.
Peterson said they will have a bonfire and some hot chocolate and cider on Halloween to keep trick-or-treaters warm while they look at their pumpkins.
Click here to learn where you can see the pumpkins and how you can donate.
Jeremy Jourdain was 17 when he was last seen on Halloween 2016.
BEMIDJI, Minn. — The search for Jeremy Jourdain, who was last seen on Halloween in 2016, continues now eight years later.
Jourdain was last seen at a family member’s house in Bemidji, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior Indian Affairs. He left the residence near the 500 block of Wood Avenue after midnight and while people followed him, no one was able to find him.
Jourdain was 17 at the time.
Officials said he was wearing a blue and grey sweatshirt, and blue jeans when last seen. He is Native American and is described as 6 foot 5 and 175 pounds.
If you have any information on his whereabouts, you can contact the Bemidji Police Department at (218) 333-9111. Tips can also be sent to 1-833-560-2065, or you can email ojs_mmu@bia.gov.
The organizations say many Asian Americans are planning to vote despite lack of candidate outreach.
ST PAUL, Minn. — Most people have been contacted in some way shape or form by a campaign in the last few weeks. And if the polls are right and the race for president is a dead heat, every vote will matter.
That’s why this is a head scratcher:
According to a September 2024 voter survey by Asian American Pacific Islander Data, 27% of Asian-American voters said they hadn’t been contacted by either political party trying to get their vote. Last spring, earlier in the voting season, it was even more – 42%.
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are the fastest growing racial or ethnic group nationwide.
Their voter participation levels are growing too, with 60% of eligible Asian-American voters turning out in 2020. And AAPI Data reports as many as 90% of Asian Americans they surveyed said they plan to vote this cycle.
“Candidates are not reaching out to Asian Americans, which is a huge mistake,” said ThaoMee Xiong, executive and networking director of the Coalition of Asian American Leaders.
She says even though there are more than 200,000 eligible Asian voters in Minnesota, the Asian vote is under-appreciated.
“Neither the Democratic or Republican parties have been reaching out in huge numbers,” Xiong said. “They’re sending general mailers to everyone but … they need it in their native language.”
That’s why CAAL is partnering with two more organizations to keep voter turnout high and reach anyone candidates or advocates missed.
Xor Xiong is from Asian American Organizing Project, which focuses on engaging metro-area teens and young adults.
“Many of our communities are still facing barriers to go to vote,” he said. “There’s been more times than I like to admit in terms of when I was having a conversation over the phones of voters being surprised that they can take time off to go and vote, or they can bring the kids to the polling locations, or they can even bring someone to translate for them.”
“In Ramsey County, because of the large Hmong American population there, the polls in Ramsey County are federally required to provide interpreters and translated materials,” ThaoMee added.
Their nonpartisan campaign, Get Out the Vote for Asian Minnesotans, aims to get people registered and well-informed.
“Throughout Covid, there was a lot of anti-hate around the AAPI community and we are still feeling the impact of that to this day,” said Amanda Xiong, a community organizer with a group known as CAPI USA. “Even if folks are afraid to go to the polls, due to that, we try our best to then educate them around absentee ballots, voting early.”
“And so yes, there is a huge increase in terms of voter turnout, but then why is it still 70% feel as though they don’t belong?”
In 2021, the FBI reported a 168% increase in anti-Asian hate crimes.
In Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center, the groups knocked on at least 700 doors in one session alone while keeping safety top of mind.
“We make sure that there’s a car following all the door knockers,” ThaoMee said. “We put everyone on text chain … and we are putting a lot of precautionary measures in place for the day of voting.”
After the election, the CAAL plans to conduct surveys and send the results to county election officials. They’ve done this before and say it led to policy changes this year at the legislature including measures to ensure people have easier access to interpreters.
