Grid2 Gazette

By any reasonable measure, Saint Paul is a safe city and we can feel especially secure in the Macalester Groveland neighborhood. Keeping it that way depends on public awareness and sensible caution. This data is presented with that purpose in mind.
Saint Paul Police reporting grid 142 contains our own Mac Grove planning grid 2 but includes the neighborhood between Cretin and the river, as well. The police report masks the final digit of the address with an “X”. The last entry is an abbreviation for the outcome:
‘A’ = Advised by officer, ‘G’ = Gone on arrival, ‘R’ & ‘RR’ = Report
More detail on these events is available from the Ramsey County site but you must search for reports for our neighborhood from among all those under “CRIMES outside of the community watch area.” For reports from previous months, select the “Police reports” category or browse back in the blog entries.

07/24/2008 - 07/30/2008 NOTHING TO REPORT IN OUR AREA BUT LOTS HAPPENING AROUND US.

07/18/2008 9:00:00 BURGLARY FORCED ENTRY RESIDENCE, DAY, 19X MISSISSIPPIRIVER BD S RR

07/14/2008 10:52:06 THEFT EXCEPT AUTO THEFT 142 7X CLEVELAND AV S A

07/09/2008 9:44:29 BURGLARY 142 217X LINCOLN AV A

Macalester Groveland Community Council recently sponsored a public meeting on noise control. We had representatives from the City Attorney’s office, Animal Behavior office and the Department for Safety and Inspections. I learned that the common thread in a complex web of ordinances is that intrusive noise between 10 PM and 7 AM that is heard more than 50 feet from point or origin or property line is subject to enforcement.

I compiled a list of references and phone numbers before the meeting. Probably the easiest short cut is the city’s general complaint line: (651) 266-8989. In revised form, here is my list of references and numbers:

St. Paul Noise Regulations http://www.ci.stpaul.mn.us/web/CityCode/lc293.html

West Summit Neighborhood Association. User Guide to Neighborhood Relations.
http://www.wsnac.net/committeedocuments/userguide/default.html
from the Guide:

Ramsey County Property Tax Information   651-266-2000
http://rrinfo.co.ramsey.mn.us/public/characteristic/index.asp

Saint Paul Dept. of Safety and Inspections. DSI phone contact: 651-266-1900
Housing Complaint: http://www.ci.stpaul.mn.us/index.asp?nid=1061

Saint Paul Parking Enforcement 651-266-5585 (Monday – Friday business hours)
651-291-1111 (alternate number and for use on weekends)

Saint Paul “One Place to Call” 651-266-8989

University of St. Thomas, John Hershey, Neighborhood Liaison, 651-962-6123

Macalester College, Jim Hoppe, Dean of Students, 651-696-6220

City Attorney Community Prosecutor for Western District: Yamy Vang, (651) 266-8749

St. Paul Animal Control, Supervisor’s office, (651) 266-1100

St. Paul Code Enforcement, Manager’s Office, (651) 266-1900

St. Paul Police emergency, 911; non-emergency (651) 291-1111

UST Public Safety 24-hour dispatch (for follow-up) (651) 962-5100

Macalester Groveland Community Council (651) 695-4000

I was most disappointed in our City Council on this one. Fortunately, our council representative, Russ Stark, recognized the salient issue and voted his conscience. The other Council members? Not so much.

Here is the issue. The Better Ballot people collected enough signatures to meet the threshold for placing the question of whether to use Instant Runoff Voting in municipal elections on the ballot for our consideration this fall. By city ordinance, City Council is supposed to approve such a petition for a ballot question unless it is “manifestly unconstitutional.” The Council majority simply distorted a City Attorney opinion that a court probably would rule against it into a meaning of “manifestly unconstitutional.” This defies common sense and makes Council into a body that decides constitutional ambiguities, which is just plain wrong.

This conclusion stands in spite of Melvyn Carter’s compromise resolution obligating Council to place IRV on our ballot if the law suit underway in Minneapolis is resolved in IRV’s favor.

The question of why the majority of Council would take this route is debatable. I see no reason not to believe the obvious answer: Council was elected under a system that this proposal would change. So — guess how they feel about changing that system?

So the Better Ballot people have been shut out of the St. Paul governance system. That makes it more reasonable for them to open a law suit or join the one underway in Minneapolis.

It is most unfortunate that our Council seems to be dominated by a preference for self-preservation over fair enforcement of the law.  It is most fortunate that Macalester Groveland is represented by a Council member who is above that. Thanks, Russ.

You can track University of Saint Thomas construction projects at a new Web page, logically entitled Construction Projects. Check there for the typically fast-breaking bulletins on Cretin Avenue road work and the like. In addition, there is a cool Web camera, aimed at the parking ramp construction from atop the adjacent Science Center. FYI, the structure is called “Anderson Parking Facility.”

At Wednesday’s meeting, the St. Paul City Council will decide whether or not to place the question of switching to instant runoff voting (IRV) for municipal elections on the ballot for voters’ decision in November. On the one hand, they have a petition, signed by more than 7,000 St. Paul voters, legitimately demanding that they do so. On the other, they have a written opinion from the St. Paul City Attorney’s office, saying that the inevitable legal challenges might prevail in court and so the Council should ignore the petition. The Council should decide in favor of the people’s petition and let the court challenges play out.The petition signatures presented to Council are more than sufficient to support a ballot entry for a charter amendment allowing IRV in Saint Paul. This simply means that the people will decide the fate of this proposition in the election. IRV elections would allow voters to rank their choices of candidates and ensures that nobody wins an election without 50% of the votes. In a written opinion that can only be described as peculiarly one-sided, the St. Paul City Attorney points to ambiguities and contradictions in the law and consistently comes down on the side of preventing this question from being placed before the people. The opinion would leave in place the method by which Council incumbents were elected.

We should not fear change and we should embrace election reform that promises improved participation over the current 5-15% participation in primary elections as well as better dynamic among candidates, who would be competing for our second place votes as well as our choice for first place. The Council should grant the people’s wish to place the question on the ballot.

This is from the new construction Website at St Thomas and refers to disruption Wednesday - Friday this week:

Construction Advisories

Grand Avenue will be closed to through traffic heading west from Cleveland to Cretin Avenue.The left turn lane from Grand Avenue to Cretin Avenue will be closed.Traffic on Cretin Avenue will be pushed to the east, allowing a lane to remain open for both north bound and south bound traffic.

Pending weather or other unknowns, the road will be open by Friday evening.

For Additional Information

Please contact:

John Hershey
Neighborhood Liaison
(651) 962-6123
jwhershey@stthomas.edu

In 2006, the City notified community councils that it planned to combine fire department inspections with other property and safety enforcement. We were suspicious of this news because the fire inspectors were so effective and we feared a dilution of their assignment. The Housing & Land Use Committee recently met with Dept of Safety and Inspections head Bob Kessler and this, combined with everyday experience, makes me think that things are actually going well.

This is important for us because rental and commercial properties are a significant presence in Mac Grove and constant vigilance of safety and capacity ordinances is necessary. If you suspect a safety violation or too many unrelated individuals in a dwelling, call DSI at 266-8989. You can also look at the property’s history on their Web site.

The merger in March, 2007 was roughly coincident with a policy change demanding inspection of 1- and 2-family unit structures, as well as the traditional 3 and up. That was an expansion of 11,000 structures for them, of which they have done about 3,500. They deserve some slack because of the foreclosure crisis but it is clear that they are effcient. The frequency of inspections changed, as well, with properties visited each year, or every three or five, depending on their track record, whereas, before, they adhered to a rigid schedule. These changes make sense to me.

I am not aware of evidence that these programs at DSI are not doing what they intended. The department was very responsive to a recent complaint about a property here in Grid 2. It is always nice to report on a city program that is working!

It is summertime and we have pried our windows open again. At the same time, folks for whom loud noise is an integral part of the outdoor experience are increasingly in evidence. Thus, we have conflict. The best option is always a friendly request for quiet. When that fails or is impractical, what do you do?

Mac Groveland Community Council will hold an open meeting on the problem at the Edgecombe Recreation Center, Wednesday, June 25 at 6 PM. We will have representatives from the city attorney’s office to review the ordinances, animal control folks and others. Come and learn your options!

We are rounding the clubhouse turn in the race among competing technologies to power the Rock Tenn plant on Vandalia. You will recall that they lost their power source in the form of a steam pipe from the High Bridge plant when that facility switched to natural gas. You can still see the pipe crossing over Shepard Road, Snelling Avenue, Fairview Avenue, I94 and other places. The Port Authority aims for a recommendation to City Council this Fall, in consultation with the Rock Tenn Community Advisory Panel and under the jaundiced scrutiny of Neighbors Against the Burner.

The Port Authority is tracking it’s technical data on the options in a handy chart. You can follow the proceedings on the RCAP Website and grab the data. The next meeting is at 7 PM on July 7 at Wilder Center.

My own priorities are (a.) to keep Rock Tenn in business and (b.) minimize neighborhood impacts. Harmful combustion by-products and fuel-laden truck traffic are examples of the latter, to me. That thinking led me to the natural gas option but I have learned a bit more. A critique posted on this blog was useful in that regard. It appears that the anaerobic digestion option provides most of the advantages I seek and can be burned in a natural gas furnace fairly easily. Like natural gas, the result of the off site digestion process (sometimes described as bacterial flatulance) can be transported by pipeline. I hope our elaborate process is flexible enough to give such a cutting edge idea an honest hearing.

Land use around this busy intersection is an object of debate. You may recall that, before the McNeely Hall construction by St. Thomas, we had two gas-and-go franchises, a traditional gas and repair station and Davanni’s. Development since then has generally been an improvement, in my estimation. The Oasis gas-and-go was replaced by a parking lot masked by landscaping but St. Thomas promises to fill in with a building. Davanni’s renovated and expanded itself in a pedestrian-friendly manner. Super America is still Super America.

The owner of the traditional gas station on the southeast corner was not making a go of it and proposed to sell to Holiday, meaning another gas-and-go. Citizen input showed high resistance to high-traffic car-centered development and, ironically, regret at losing a popular mechanic (who subsequently relocated to the Grand Avenue Sinclair station).

Other developers are enquiring and the smart ones are asking what will the neighborhood accept? What shall we say? Continue Reading »