St. Paul neighborhoods
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Saint Paul, Minnesota is noted for its neighborhoods; the city has been called "fifteen small towns with one mayor", owing to the neighborhood-based life of much of the city. Saint Paul is partially goverend by not fifteen but seventeen City Districts. Some City District boundaries overlap well-recognized neighborhoods.
Just in Saint Paul's largely blue-collar East Side, there are, in fact, more than two dozen well-known, historically-significant neighborhoods lumped together under the banner of four City Districts. District 4, for example, has not one but three historic neighborhoods: Dayton's Bluff, Swede Hollow, and Mounds Park. Districts 5 and 2, the most populous City Districts, have more than a dozen neighborhoods between them.
So while Saint Paul has long been recognized for its citizen activism, some neighborhoods receive more individual planning attention than others, because tax funds are doled out to annually-elected volunteer neighborhood boards based on City District boundaries, not neighborhood boundaries. These boards are collectively called District Councils. There are 19 District Councils for 17 City Districts because District 13 is divided into 3 District Councils.[1]
The District Council system was established in 1975 to encourage grass-roots involvement.[2] The Councils were also created to help spend federal funds through the recently created Community Development Block Grants. The District Councils share $1.2 million dollars from the city of Saint Paul. Money given to the District Councils ranges from $41,000 to $102,000.[3] The councils also have other revenue streams such as grants and donations.[4] Most councils have significant power on land use issues.[5]
[edit] Districts Councils
[edit] Battle Creek
A large, middle-class neighborhood on the southeast side of the city, featuring some spectacular views of the Mississippi River and Downtown Saint Paul. Traditionally a bedroom community for 3M, it's become much more diverse in the past 30 years.
[edit] Greater East Side
Greater East Side is a largely middle-class neighborhood which borders on (and traditionally supplied much of the workforce for) neighboring 3M Corporation, one of Minnesota's biggest employers, whose corporate headquarters is just across McKnight Road from the Greater East Side in the suburb of Maplewood.
[edit] West Side
West Side's [1] name is somewhat confusing to newcomers, as the neighborhood is actually somewhat east of the line bisecting the city; it's the neighborhood across the Mississippi River to the south of Downtown, but technically on the west bank of the predominantly north-south river. It is the home to the largest Hispanic neighborhood in the Twin Cities, based along César Chávez Boulevard and adjacent to the suburban cities of South St. Paul and West St. Paul.
[edit] Dayton's Bluff
Dayton's Bluff [2] is a neighborhood located on the east side of the Mississippi in the southeast part of the city of Saint Paul, Minnesota, has a large residential district on the plateau extending backward from its top. The name of the bluff commemorates Lyman Dayton (1810-1865), for whom a village and a township in Hennepin County also were named. On the edge of the southern and highest part of Dayton's bluff, in Mounds Park, is a series of seven large aboriginal mounds, 4 to 18 feet high, from which a magnificent prospect is obtained, overlooking the river and the central part of the city. Near the Mississippi River is the Indian Mounds Park. Dayton’s Bluff contains one of the widest varieties of history of any Twin Cities’ neighborhood. The landmarks found in its historic district and the community around it could tell the story of the development of St. Paul. Mounds Park, for instance, has the only six remaining burial sites of an early group that came to the area more than a thousand years ago. Dayton's Bluff is currently undergoing much renovation and restoration in past years.
[edit] Payne-Phalen
Payne-Phalen [3] ranges from a toughish, blue-collar area to the south, to a solid middle-class area north of Maryland Avenue, and includes some fairly upscale real estate around scenic Lake Phalen.
[edit] North End
North End [4] is a traditionally blue-collar neighborhood based on the Rice Street corridor, a long, straight street that has many fast-food restaurants, bars and clubs (and, until recently, junk yards and auto-wrecking lots). The State Capitol is also at the southern edge of the neighborhood, between Cedar and Rice Streets on University Avenue.
[edit] Thomas-Dale
Dominated by University Avenue, Thomas-Dale is traditionally (and more commonly) known as "Frogtown" to the locals,[5] and has been regarded as a neighborhood in transition for decades. Frogtown experienced massive problems as the center of Saint Paul's drug and prostitution trades in the 1980s and 1990s. Notorious 1930s gangster and John Dillinger gang member Homer Van Meter met his end in this neighborhood, during a police shootout at a University Avenue intersection.[6] See the neighborhood web site.
[edit] Summit-University
"Summit-U" is an extremely diverse community, with no majority racial group and with a wide range of incomes and ethnicities[7]. Among the many groups living in Summit-University are the Hmong community as well as the city's other Asian communities, of whom Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians are represented in large numbers. Summit-University also includes the historic and gentrifying Cathedral Hill neighborhood, as well as what remains of old "Rondo" - once a full-fledged neighborhood of the city in its own right. Lower Rondo (known to the locals as "Cornbread Valley") served as the center of St. Paul's tiny but thriving African-American community dating back to the Civil War, but was nearly obliterated by the construction of Interstate 94 in the 1960s. Lesser-known Upper Rondo (aka "Oatmeal Hill"), a once largely middle-class Jewish neighborhood, still remains intact to this day, although the old name is largely forgotten, and the demographics are entirely different. Famous Summit-University natives include baseball great Dave Winfield. Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald was actually born in this neighborhood, although he's more commonly associated with more prestigious Summit Hill. Neighborhood website
[edit] West Seventh
West Seventh [8] is officially known as the Fort Road area due to its location on old Native American and fur trader paths along the Mississippi from downtown to Fort Snelling. Known as "The West End" by locals (as distinguished from "the West Side", more on that below), the West Seventh neighborhood is a traditional immigrant neighborhood located below Summit Hill and along the western bluffs of the Mississippi River, spanning the entire length of West Seventh St.(Old Fort Rd.) The West End is the historical center of the Twin Cities' Irish, German, Polish, Italian and Bohemian immigrant communities, and is currently the center of Saint Paul's Russian immigrant population.
[edit] Como Park
Como Park [9] is a cozy upper-middle-class neighborhood situated around Lake Como, the city's main recreational lake. The Como Park neighborhood has many recreational facilities, including a golf course, bike path, various open fields, a pavilion, a municipal pool, and the Como Zoo, one of two zoos in the Twin Cities (the other being the Minnesota Zoo). The Como area is also home to many of the city's gingko trees. There are several schools in Como Park, the public schools in the area being the well-regarded Chelsea Heights Elementary School and the Como Park Elementary School, the only school in the city to have its own planetarium. The primary secondary school in Como Park is Como Park Senior High School, one of the highest rated schools in the state according to Newsweek[10].
[edit] Midway
Midway [11] is a middle-class neighborhood which derives its name from being midway between the downtowns of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Includes the city's primary warehouse district, passenger rail terminal, Hamline University and Concordia University, as well as "Midway Center", one of inner-city Saint Paul's key shopping districts. Famous Midway natives include Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schultz and the band Heiruspecs.
[edit] Saint Anthony Park
Saint Anthony Park [12] is a tree-shaded, upscale, middle-to-upper-income neighborhood adjacent to the University of Minnesota Saint Paul campus, bordering Northeast Minneapolis on the west and the Minnesota State Fairgrounds on the east. It was the home to three Minnesota governors (William Marshall, 1866-70; Andrew McGill, 1887-1889; and Elmer L. Andersen, 1961-63). Originally set out as estates for the wealthy of Minneapolis in the late 1800s, it has become a neighborhood of college professors, professionals, international students and ordinary working people. It is centrally located in the Twin Cities, providing a quaint, pedestrian-friendly business district that contains many services - including many independently owned shops and restaurants. A Carnegie Library, with an excellent new addition for its children's collection, and the top-rated St. Anthony Park Elementary School are the focal points of the neighborhood. St. Anthony Park, known to residents as SAP, is home to two colleges, the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota and the Luther Seminary, and thus home to graduate students from across the world. The largest area park is named for former St. Anthony Park resident Nathaniel P. Langford, who was responsible for the world's first national park (Yellowstone).
[edit] Merriam Park
Merriam Park [13] is a well-to-do residential neighborhood featuring a large stock of early 20th-century housing, boutique-dominated commercial strips on Selby, Cretin and Cleveland avenues, and spectacular views of the Mississippi River, the neighborhood's western border.
[edit] Macalester-Groveland
Macalester-Groveland [14] is a wealthy neighborhood with two post-secondary institutions (Macalester College and the University of Saint Thomas), with scenic Mississippi River Boulevard and a gorgeous view of the Mississippi River as its western border. The neighborhood's western border, Mississippi River Boulevard (and West River Parkway, on the Minneapolis side) is public park land, and features walking and biking paths atop the 100-foot-tall bluffs that make up the riverbank. These roads are residentially zoned and have very high property values due to the view of the river.
[edit] Highland Park
Highland Park [15] became the city's primary Jewish neighborhood after most of the Jewish population moved from the Summit-University neighborhood in the mid-1900s, and it is home to most of the city's synagogues. This neighborhood is also home to the College of Saint Catherine as well as two private preparatory schools, Cretin-Derham Hall High School [16] and St. Paul Academy and Summit School [17]. The neighborhood also currently hosts the Ford Motor Company Twin Cities Assembly Plant where the Ford Ranger and Mazda B-Series pickup trucks are produced. In April 2006, Ford announced the closure of the plant in 2007, and what will become of the ¼ square mile of prime real estate along the Mississippi is yet to be decided.
[edit] Summit Hill
Summit Hill [18], also called "Crocus Hill" by locals, the neighborhood's focal point is Summit Avenue, the traditional home of the city's Robber Baron aristocracy; the boulevard was originally conceived as a broad, Gilded Age showcase street, and is lined with the mansions named after Saint Paul's "old money", most notably that of railroad tycoon James J. Hill. At Summit's east end, overlooking Downtown, is the massive Cathedral of Saint Paul, home of the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Summit's terminus, several miles to the west, is at the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River valley. With its vistas of downtown and the Mississippi River, Summit Hill is among the priciest neighborhoods in the Twin Cities, and is considered to be a prime candidate for the longest stretch of preserved Victorian mansions in North America. It has been home to artists as diverse as F. Scott Fitzgerald (who once quipped that Summit Avenue's gaudy estates collectively were "a museum of American architectural failures"), his wife Zelda, Sinclair Lewis, August Wilson and, currently, Garrison Keillor. More notorious residents have included 1930s-era gangsters such as John Dillinger and members of the Barker-Karpis Gang.
[edit] Downtown
Downtown Saint Paul [19] for the most part is a ghost town after 5 PM. Its glory days were in the 1940s, and the neighborhood is constantly trying to regain jobs and prestige. Home to Xcel Energy Center, home of the Minnesota Wild hockey team, Galtier Plaza, McNally Smith College of Music, Minnesota's newest professional basketball team, the Minnesota Ripknees and the Minnesota World Trade Center. When the Wild are playing or there is some other event, downtown can become brimming with people but generally people are scarce and sidewalks are clear. The extensive skyway system connecting most of the office buildings has also contributed in removing foot traffic from the streets.
[edit] References
- ^ Neighborhood info and District Councils. City of Saint Paul. Retrieved on 2009-10-05.
- ^ McClure, Jane (2007-09-26), “LMV report seeks more support and supervision for city's district councils”, Villager 55 (9): 1,2
- ^ Nelson, Tim (2007-09-11), “Report: Councils 'Need Some Help' Citizen Group Makes Recommendations”, Saint Paul Pioneer Press: B3 Local
- ^ Medcalf, Myron P. (2007-09-11), “St. Paul's neighborhood councils scrutinize their financial status”, Star Tribune: B4 Local
- ^ Saint Paul Participation. Citizen Participation Project Case Studies. Citizen Participation Project. Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
