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What I’m Excited About in 2025

Council Perspectives, St. Paul City Council Ward 2

I love the freshness of a new year. It gives you a chance to take stock, recommit to priorities and get excited about new projects. In 2025, the prospects for our neighborhood feel particularly bright. Here are a few things I’m especially excited to work on.

Riverview Corridor – Like many of you, I was deeply disappointed when the Riverview Corridor project was suddenly ended last year. Regardless of our views on the right mode of transit, we know West. 7th Street is desperately in need of street repair and redesign to ensure pedestrian and bike safety, transit efficiency and a pleasant walking experience. What’s been especially frustrating about the drawn-out Riverview process was the fact that those adjacent improvements have all had to wait while the new transit corridor was being designed. Now that the first process has ended, I’m committed to moving forward with a greater sense of urgency. City staff have been meeting with our partners at MnDOT, the Metropolitan Council and Ramsey County to develop an alternative proposal that can be released for public input early this year and I look forward to working with you to get this done.

Tree Preservation – A climate-resilient St. Paul is a green St. Paul. Our urban tree canopy staves off global warming and reduces the urban heat island that disproportionately affects low-income neighborhoods. However, as the gaping tree holes along West. 7th remind us, we can do more to prioritize tree planting and maintenance along our major roadways. I’ve introduced an ordinance that will require the preservation of trees whenever the City contributes to construction or maintenance work on any public right-of-way in St. Paul. The ordinance stipulates that trees need to be retained, replanted in place if they can’t be retained or replanted elsewhere in the city as a last resort. As we move more quickly toward an improved West. 7th Street, trees need to be in the picture and I’m hopeful that this ordinance will ensure that they’re given the priority they deserve.

Revitalizing Commercial Corridors – The pandemic may be in the rearview mirror, but the local businesses we depend on – our coffee shops, bars, bike stores and barbers – are still having a hard time. Last year, the Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) created a new fund to support small businesses along our commercial corridors. The $1.4 million fund will be distributed to business organizations or District Councils doing work to support neighborhood main streets. The funds can be used for events, marketing, signage, art, greenery and more. Unlike our Neighborhood STAR program, which can be cumbersome and which typically goes to individual businesses for specific projects, these funds will be easier to access and will encourage activities that support entire commercial corridors. I’m excited to roll this fund out in the first quarter of the year so our neighborhoods can start putting the dollars to work.

The Walnut Street Stairs – The longest outdoor stairwell in St. Paul has been closed since fall 2020 and it’s sorely missed. I hear regularly from constituents who relied on the stairs for exercise and for a convenient way to move between Summit Avenue and West. 7th The $9 million price tag to restore the stairway is daunting, but it represents a key opportunity for partnership. I’m grateful to Rethos, a nonprofit historic preservation organization, the St. Paul Parks Conservancy and the West. 7th/Fort Road Federation for coming together with the City to tackle this challenge. I especially love that we’re starting with storytelling – digging into our own history and telling the stories of those living both at the top and the bottom of the stairs over the decades. Collecting stories not only builds a case for the financial investment we need to restore the stairs, but it also builds our own sense of connection with one another and with our history. If you’re interested in learning more or joining the advisory committee, visit www.rethos.org.

Taken together, these projects are a microcosm of what makes our neighborhood a wonderful place today and what can make it even better in the future: a bustling commercial main street, good transit options, safe and pleasant biking and walking, trees and greenery, well-maintained public infrastructure and a strong sense of our own history. I’m looking forward to the work ahead together.

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