Housing, downtown get top billing in Carter's State of the City address

Yahoo

21-04-2025

Mayor Melvin Carter during his annual 'State of the City' address Monday urged the city council to adopt a legislative package intended to spur new housing in the city while still protecting tenants from spikes in rent.
Carter thanked Council Members Rebecca Noecker, Saura Jost and Anika Bowie for proposing to eliminate 'rent stabilization' for residential buildings that received their certificate of occupancy after 2004, which he called a key step toward boosting housing production. He also thanked Council Member Cheniqua Johnson for leading the way on a series of proposed tenant protections. The council likely will vote on both efforts next month.
The mayor has been calling for the rent control changes since his budget address in August. There's no easy solution to stable, affordable housing in a high-poverty city, Carter said Monday, framing housing as not only a citywide crisis but an opportunity for downtown St. Paul, where over 90 percent of residences are occupied, even as a third of the area's office space sits vacant.
'We're facing a real challenge,' Carter told a supportive crowd of onlookers at the city's new North End Community Center. 'The shift to hybrid work has emptied out offices. Commercial values are down. Key buildings sit dark. And downtowns across the country are still figuring out what comes next. But we're not waiting to see what happens. We're acting — with urgency, vision and a plan.'
The mayor doubled down on a goal he set mid-2023 to draw 20,000 more residents downtown, calling attention to office-to-housing conversions such as the Stella, a 174-apartment project at the former Ecolab University building on Wabasha Street. Landmark Tower will begin leasing soon, and the city is studying converting the annex building across from City Hall on 4th Street into a combination of housing and public space. Another plan would add homes and street-level retail at the Green Line's Central Station stop.
The city has offered $1 million in incentivizes for office-to-housing conversions while cutting permitting fees and red tape. There's $1.4 million to support business growth downtown and across neighborhoods. And another $1 million or so this year will pay for extra downtown patrols, cameras, public art and additional signage, trash cans, lights and tree trimming.
Carter promoted few new initiatives Monday, focusing instead on ongoing efforts to stabilize downtown St. Paul, including a proposal to renovate the Xcel Energy Center.
The mayor gave his address in the gleaming gym of the long-awaited, $31 million community hub and recreation center that debuted this month at Rice Street and Lawson Avenue — an example, he said, of the city's commitment to its under-resourced neighborhood spaces.
The backdrop for the mayor's progressive policies has changed dramatically from just a year ago, when Minnesota enjoyed a sizable state surplus and a Democrat held the White House. Without calling out President Trump by name, Carter acknowledged new levels of political and financial uncertainty for the city under the new administration.
'Especially today when violent and hateful rhetoric seeks to permeate our public sphere … let's resist the urge to yell back,' Carter said. 'Our police officers will not become federal immigration agents, no matter how loud the clamor rises. We will fight threats to our city's federal funding in court and in Congress and everywhere in between.'
The mayor opened and closed his speech with references to the importance of 'showing up' for one another — perhaps a jab at a city council beset by inconsistent meeting attendance and in-fighting that recently led to a former legislative aide's defamation suit against a council member and the city.
Carter on Monday highlighted the city's progress on violent crime, emphasizing that as a result of targeted interventions, St. Paul has yet to record a gun-related homicide this year, after a recent high of 40 such killings in 2022. And non-fatal shootings are down 73% from the same time last year.
Likewise, auto thefts have dropped from 859 in early 2022 to 236 as of March, and carjackings from 23 to five.
The mayor attributed those gains to a new non-fatal-shooting unit within the police department that seeks to prevent retaliative shootings. The department this year has cleared 71% of its shooting cases, up from 38% last year, he said. The city's Office of Neighborhood Safety promotes programs like 'Familiar Faces' and 'Project PEACE,' which have targeted services and interventions to frequent fliers in the criminal justice system.
Meanwhile, Carter noted the city's first responders have expanded the use of suboxone and Narcan for fentanyl users 'to help people begin recovery the moment they're ready.' The mayor said 840 Minnesotans died from opioid overdoses last year, including an 18-month-old St. Paul child on Christmas Day.
Boosted by a new 1% citywide sales tax, St. Paul has completed more than 70 long-deferred Parks and Recreation improvements, including new courts, fields and playgrounds. 'That's $11.5 million already delivered and another $11.8 million on the way,' the mayor said. Another $24 million will be spent improving 50 miles of roads, including resurfacing streets and repairing sidewalks and signage.
The city will launch a pilot program called The Loop, a free after-school transportation route that helps young people get to libraries, rec centers and other safe spaces.
At no cost to property owners, the city last year replaced 1,000 lead-based water lines, and the mayor said he hopes to double the pace.
Despite a last-minute zoning dispute with the council, the city launched citywide garbage collection with a new trash hauling partner — FCC Environmental — to empty carts for some 60,000 residential accounts. About 10% of the city — the hardest-to-service routes — is now handled by Public Works workers, who will also focus on clearing out hotspots for illegal dumping. Later this summer, a new furniture recycling program will aim to 'responsibly dispose of some of the most commonly dumped items in our city,' Carter said.
The city also is launching an online, one-stop portal where residents and business owners can schedule and pay for inspections — PAULIE, the city's new Permitting and Licensing Utility Inspection Engine. The goal is to work alongside 'virtual inspections,' where the city's Department of Safety and Inspections conducts select building inspections remotely using video and mobile platforms.
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