GreeningFrogtownJanFeb17FinalTuesday

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017
Fenced Out
Exactly what Dale Street didn't need
You could argue that the spanking new $7,1 00 chainlink fence
is not the worst feature along Dale Street. It's just the latest in a
30-year experiment on how to turn a neighborhood
thoroughfare into a human-hostile urban environment.
That exercise started in the late
1 980s, when the city and county
worked together to widen Dale
Street to handle more traffic.
Buildings on the street's east
side got torn down, including a
coffee shop, bar, funeral parlor,
liquor store and homes. Left
behind was the wide pedestrian
hazard that is now Dale Street,
along with a number of lots,
many of which have remained
vacant for the past three
decades.
The new chainlink enclosure at 507 N. Dale is part of the
ongoing saga. Until 2009, the lot was the site of an imposing
brick church, built by a Lutheran German parish and taken over
by Rock ofAges Baptist Missionary Church in 1 974. Deferred
maintenance created a need for extensive and expensive repairs,
beyond the means of the small congregation. The city declared
the structure a nuisance and ordered its demolition.
Inevitably, the tear-down is now the subject of lawsuit between
Photo by Madalyn Rowell
the church and the city, with the church claiming it was
unfairly compensated for the property. The county plans to
auction the now tax-forfeited lot in 201 7.
Last summer the Frogtown Neighborhood Association and the
Community Stabilization
Project turned the space into a
tidy community garden — but
without securing permission
from the county. In the face of
what they called "unauthorized
use," county officials put up the
fence.
You can wonder why the
neighborhood groups and the
county couldn't come to an
agreement that side-stepped the
expense, not to mention the
alienating spectacle, of a
chainlink fence. But it's easy to get mired in the details while
ignoring the bigger picture.
Dale Street is great for cars and rotten for people. It could be
Frogtown's Main Street. Instead it's a traffic ditch. We don't
need more chainlink fencing. We need a coherent, shared
vision of a human-friendly street. And we need co-operation
among residents, government officials and the organizations
that represent us to get the job done. — Tony Schmitz
Inside…
The Rocky Path
to Success in
Small Business
Khadijia Green is
determined to build
a better life — P. 2
Meet Local
Greens Queens
Champ crowned in
church basement
cook-off— P. 7
Here's Help
for the Handy
Tool Library to offer
cheap access to
tools, classes — P. 3
From Frogtown
to Vietnam:
Donations for
Orphaned Kids
Tony Le at Trung
Nam Bakery has
organized support
for 26 years — P. 9

MY STORY
The Hard Road to Success
Khadijia Green's struggle to break into food catering
In case you wondered whether the path to
success is always straight and clear,
Khadijia Green has news for you. It’s not.
Green has been pushing forward, falling
back, rethinking and reorganizing in her
long effort to get together a catering
business of her own. Her struggle is a
story of how much faith, work,
persistence and raw hard-headedness it
takes to have a shot at small-business
success.
Some Frogtowners already know her as
the cook and counter person who until
recently occupied kitchen space at the
Thomas Deli, at the corner of Thomas
and Milton. She leased space there,
putting out a varied menu. “Jerked
chicken, soul food, greens, sweet
potatoes, pound cakes, you name it, I was
making it,” she says. She got replaced by
another food operation that was able to
offer more money for the space.
For Green it was the latest setback, and
left her wondering if it was time to give
up her small-business dream. “But I just
didn't want to do that,” she says. “I came
too far to give up. And other people who
are out there trying to do something for
themselves and for their own business —
I don’t want them to give up either.”
Green’s road has had more potholes than
many. She grew up in Springfield,
Illinois, where her parents, she says, were
involved in drug sales. After the FBI
started building a case against them, they
were offered a chance to plead and move
out of state. At the age of eight, having
lived a life of comparative luxury in
Springfield, Green found herself in
Minnesota, where the family was broke
and struggling.
By her own description, she turned into a
troubled, angry teen, even though she
looks back on her parents as considerate
and concerned. She was in and out of
juvenile court from the ages of 1 2
through 1 6 and associating with
gangsters, running back to Illinois, and
finally settling back in Minnesota.
Eventually she ended up in cosmetology
school, graduated in 201 0, then
completed a certified nursing assistant
program.
“Then I went chasing love,” she says. At
the age of 29, she moved back to
Springfield for a man. It turned out to be
a bad decision.
“He was content until
things weren’t
always going his
way. He became
abusive. I hadn’t
ever experienced
anything like it.
It started with a
push, then a
slap, then he
put a fist to
me.” She got
him
removed
from the
lease and
out of the
house.
Later
he let
himself
back
in and beat
Green, leaving her with
broken bones, injured hands and a
brain injury.
As she recovered, she enrolled in a life
skills class to help her
Continued, Page 11
PAGE 2 JANUARY/FEBRUARY JULY / AUGUST 2017
6

Imagining the Next 10 Years at Rondo
FROGTOWN NEWS
The chicken wings were gone, the kids
had disappeared right after the chicken,
and a little too much Play-Doh was
ground into the carpet. Rondo Library
director Rebecca Ryan, left cleaning up
after Rondo’s Nov. 30 tenth anniversary
celebration, took some time to reflect on
the past and the ten years to come.
Rondo is a complicated environment,
Ryan observes. “The library, maybe the
grocery store,
these are some
of the few
places where
people are
around a lot of
other people
who aren’t like
them,” she says.
At Rondo, some
old schoolers
expect the
library to be a
quiet place for
reading and
study. Not
everyone agrees.
Others think it’s a place to exchange
ideas, sometimes by talking, and not
always in a whisper.
How to bridge that gap in the future?
Ryan proposes that the library will need
more flexible space that offers some areas
for quiet use and other areas for more
lively exchanges. Those types of changes
are likely to be part of a $500,000 redo of
the library that's already been funded.
Another change on her mind is to
discover more ways to let people know
about the programming that currently
exists at Rondo but is sometimes
unknown to potential users. In addition to
the English classes that pack recent
immigrants into Rondo, there are
programs throughout the day that offer
knitting classes, business development
workshops run by the
Neighborhood
Development Center,
clinics on how to
expunge criminal and
eviction records and
kids’ story time in
English, Karen,
Oromo and Somali.
Until Ryan figures
out a better way to
spread information,
you get a rundown
by checking the
Events and Classes
page at sppl.org.
By Ryan’s lights, the library will continue
to be a place that offers both physical
books and digital resources. Making both
accessible to everyone is another issue for
the next ten years. A recent step in that
direction was to provide all St. Paul
schoolkids with a free virtual library card
that allows them to check out up to five
books at a time, plus gives them access to
e-books and other digital services.
Organizer Delinia Parris: ready for customers at Frogtown's mobile food shelf.
What the Food Shelf Needs: Customers
What’s the problem with Frogtown’s food
shelf now? Oddly, not enough customers.
Organizer Delinia Parris says that the
mobile food shelf that’s currently filling
in for Sharing Korners, the now-shuttered
bricks-and-mortar food shelf that served
Frogtown for 26 years, is suffering from a
lack of patrons.
“We’ve been off to a slow start,” says
Parris, who urges residents with food
needs to stop at the colorful bus-sized
market run by Keystone Community
Services. In January you can find the
mobile food shelf from 1 -3 pm at St.
Stephanus Church, 739 Lafond Ave., on
Fri., Jan. 6; West Minnehaha Rec Center,
685 W Minnehaha Ave., on Fri., Jan. 1 3;
and at Como Place Apartments, 1 95
Edmund Ave W., on Fri., Jan. 20.
To sign up you’ll need an ID or a piece of
mail addressed to you at a Frogtown
address. Once you’re registered, you
qualify for 20 pounds of free food per
person in your household. Groceries
include meat, bread, eggs, cereal,
produce, rice and more. Need more info?
Call Parris at (651 ) 236-8699.
Open for business: Ben and Evelyn Horton take a ride down the sledding hill at
Frogtown Park, just west of Victoria Street and Blair.
Frogtown Park,
Finished in Spring
The bulldozers are silent, and the snow is
falling on Frogtown’s favorite sledding
hill. St Paul Parks Department planner
Brett Hussong reports that construction of
the Frogtown Park & Farm “naturebased”
play area on the east side of the
park has ended for the year.
“The project was delayed because of
unusually long play equipment lead
times, and wet site conditions throughout
September and October,” Hussong
explained.
Hussong anticipates completion during
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017
late spring of next year. “To ensure safety
throughout the winter, orange
construction fencing has been installed to
restrict areas of use,” he said. Black silt
fence will remain to control erosion.
Sledders are still welcome on un-fenced
portions of the hill. For more
information, contact Brett Hussong,
brett.hussong@ci.stpaul.mn.us., 651 -266-
6420.
Things are quiet at Frogtown Farm on the
top of the hill, as well, although plans are
underway for next spring. Staff of the
Farm (which leases five acres of the park
land) report plans for expansion of farm
fields, continuation of the group garden
called "The Commons" and a continued
focus on soil enrichment.
Tool Help for Do‐It‐Yourselfers
A new resource for Frogtown do-ityourself
types — the St. Paul Tool
Library — is scheduled for a February 25
opening at 755 Prior Ave.
The tool library will be companion to an
operation run by the Northeast
Minneapolis Tool Library. That library
offers about 2,500 tools available to its
330 members for a $55 annual fee. Tools
on loan include woodworking tools such
as circular and miter saws, electrical and
plumbing tools, and tillers, mowers and
weed-trimmers, in addition to numerous
hand tools.
Like the Minneapolis location, the St.
Arts and neighborhood organizations in
Ward One (which includes Frogtown)
will receive more than $30,000 in
funding from the city's Cultural STAR
program in 201 7. The public program
awards a percentage of proceeds from
sales tax to support cultural projects.
Among the groups funded are the Hmong
1 8 Council ($8,000 for Hmong cultural
integration efforts): Hmong Cultural
Center ($5,000 for a permanent exhibit of
Hmong folk arts); Ka Joog ($7,500 for
Somali youth programming): and
Frogtown Green, partnering with
Hmongtown Marketplace ($5,000 for a
fall arts/science festival at the market).
Paul shop will also offer a workshop with
table and band saws, drill presses, sewing
machines and other heavy tools.
Director Thomas Ebert says that
electrical, plumbing, woodworking and
sewing classes will be available to
members at a 20 percent discount.
Hours will probably include two
weeknights and Saturday hours, similar
to the Minneapolis location.
If you’ve got tools you want to donate,
Ebert is eager to hear from you at 61 2-
440-TOOL. You can check out the
group’s website at nemtl.org.
Local Arts Groups Get STAR Bucks
Larger awards went to institutions which
serve the entire city, such as the St Paul
Public Library and the Science Museum
($1 75,000 each). This year's awards
totaled $706,000.
Frog fest at Hmongtown Marketplace.
PAGE 3

Map to the Future?
District Plan Aired
A first draft of Frogtown’s roadmap to the
future got aired out at a late November
meeting that drew about 70 people. In a
program sponsored by the Frogtown
Neighborhood Association, the
organization unveiled its draft version of
the Small Area Plan — a document that
will become part of the City of St. Paul’s
Comprehensive Plan. The Small Area Plan
is a once-every-ten-years opportunity to
dream about what the neighborhood
should become and outline a means to get
there.
Generally these plans are word-heavy,
with a few maps and charts thrown in as
visual relief. This time around the idea is
to create a hybrid magazine/comic-book
that’s easy to read and comprehend. Basic
ideas for the plan sprang from a series of
community meetings held over the
summer and fall. Now they’re being
turned over to artist Mychal Batson to
convert into a final document.
At the November meeting, Batson ran
through a still-rough version of a plan
that’s due for completion in January. It’s
broken into eight categories — housing,
land use, transportation, education, arts,
resource allocation, economic health and
FROGTOWN NEWS
quality of life. Here’s a rundown on basic
points in each category.
Housing: Assure that neighbors at all
income levels have quality housing.
Create more live/work spaces to boost
entrepreneurship,
plus more options
for people short on
income. Solutions
could include a
tiny house village
development, and
more housing units
that include retail
and office space
for residents.
Land Use: Create
more green space
that builds health
and wellness.
Bring more
development to
Dale St., the
Minnehaha Mall
and Pierce Butler.
Plan author Mychal Batson.
Transportation: Make Frogtown more
walkable and bikeable, while increasing
access to public transportation. Undertake
street beautification to encourage
walking, build on the Charles Ave.
bikeway, add more murals and flowers,
and consider adding short, frequent intraneighborhood
bus routes.
Education: Encourage life-long learning
to ensure that residents have the basic
skills to hold a good job. Create places
where residents can share knowledge with
each other.
Arts: Build on the
energy of artists
already in the
neighborhood by
creating a showcase
at the rehabbed
Victoria Theater.
Engage artists in
beautification
efforts. Build more
artist/business
partnerships.
Resource
Allocation:
Encourage
investment without
displacing current
residents.
Economic Health:
Foster small
business growth. Increase the number of
high-paying neighborhood jobs. Add jobs,
skills training and new business support
opportunities for younger residents.
Quality of Life: Improve the physical
environment with better lighting and more
trash and recycling bins. Scatter frog
statues throughout the neighborhood (in
the manner of the Peanuts-character
statues once displayed throughout St.
Paul). Add beat cops. Work on growth
and development of the Frogtown
Neighborhood Association.
At the meeting, Sherburne Ave. resident
Jonathan Vang raised the obvious
question: “How do we make this into
something other than a dream?”
The elusiveness of these goals is revealed
by looking at the Small Area Plan
completed in 2005. That version
advocated for more development of wellpaying
jobs with benefits, bolstered by
redevelopment of the Minnehaha Mall,
Dale St., University and Como. There
should be an increase in home ownership,
plus careful consideration of the
opportunities offered for more recreation
and community space at the Kroc Center
— a huge redo of the West Minne Rec
Center site that was to be fueled by
McDonald’s restaurant money with
oversight by the Salvation Army.
How did all that work out? Between 1 999
201 4, Frogtown's median household
income dropped from $39,603 to $32,377
in 201 4 (expressed in 201 4 dollars, with
the median being the level at which half
earn more and half earn less). The
percentage of Frogtown homes that are
Continued, Next Page
PAGE 4 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

Frogtown Plan, Continued
rental units increased from 53 percent in
2000 to 57 percent in 201 4. Plans for the
Kroc Center evaporated as residents
examined the details of a Christianfocused
community center more closely.
Meanwhile, developments not foreseen in
that small area plan defined the
neighborhood in new ways. The light rail
line — unmentioned in the 2005 plan —
was built and opened. Frogtown Park and
Farm got dreamed up, funded and built,
dramatically increasing the amount of
neighborhood green space.
And some recommendations, such as
completing the long-discussed extension
of Pierce Butler to 35E, are as moribund
now as they were in 2005.
Batson, the Small Area Plan’s principal
author, says you can keep posted on his
progress by checking the Frogtown
Neighborhood Association’s website at
frogtownmn.org. He projects that the final
product will be a 30 to 40-page magazinestyle,
widely-distributed document that
will also be available online.
At best the plan will be “a living
document,” says Batson, an expression of
a vision that’s consulted often, not just
dropped and forgotten on a shelf.
FROGTOWN NEWS
Dale St. Bridge: The Redo
No one argues that the Dale St. bridge crossing 1 -94 is a
thing of beauty. Traveling north on the east side of the street,
pedestrians navigate a steep slope that passes a vacant
building, vacant parcels and parking lots. It’s a stretch that
lacks eyes on the street or much of anything in the way of
visual relief. The bridge itself is a block of concrete bounded
by a hurricane fence, with the roar of traffic below.
But all that could change with a rebuild of the 56 year-old
bridge, tentatively set for 201 8. The bridge project will be
fueled by $5.6 million of federal funding, with another $1 .5
million to come from Ramsey County.
Since July a group of about 30 citizens and officials have
been working on a more neighborhood-friendly design for
the aging structure. The latest version, seen at left, is a
roadway with a 50-foot wide plaza on each side. The bridge
wings would help separate pedestrians and bikers from
traffic, and would provide a space where plantings and art
could create a less alienating environment.
At a December meeting, the small planning group discussed
additional treatments between the freeway and University
Ave. that could make the street more hospitable to walkers
and bikers. The options offered by the county’s planners
included planters, trees and crosswalks. They urged
participants to glue cut-outs of these prospective amenities
down on large maps of the area.
This type of exercise occasionally yields unanticipated
results. Looking at the map, some meeting goers noted that
the problems go beyond correction with planters and trees.
The long stretch of unoccupied or underutilized land raised
— Continued Page 6
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017
PAGE 5

FROGTOWN NEWS
Help Design the New Scheffer Rec Center
Despite the prospect of a $9 million renovation of a recreation center and playing
fields desperately in need of renovation, fewer than a dozen Frogtown residents
appeared at a community input session about Scheffer Park last month.
The event was sponsored by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department in
November, and designed to gather attendees' preferences about nearly every
aspect of the park’s redesign. Anticipated amenities of the new facility include a
community room, arts room, senior room, teen room, kitchen, Rec Check after
school space, a new gym, and parking. JLG Architects has been hired to come up
with a design, informed by community input.
“As the project moves forward there will be web updates, online surveys,
formation of a Community Design Advisory Committee, and other public meetings
about the project’s design and direction,” according to project manager
Christopher Stark.
Stark and other park planners have vowed to hold additional listening sessions,
although the renovation process will keep rolling.
If these images make you want to weigh in, contact Christopher Stark,
christopher.stark@ci.stpaul.mn.us, or 651 -266-641 9.
Bridge, Continued
an obvious question: Who would want to
be here? What ought to be changed?
Among the possibilities suggested was
higher-density economic development at
the southeast corner of Dale and
University. Street level retail at the busy
intersection would put more eyes on the
street and create a sense of safety that
might inspire further development to
move northward.
If you’ve got bigger or better ideas, bring
them to upcoming meetings as the design
group presents its plans to the larger
community. To stay up-to-date, check out
dalestreetbridge.com, or
ramseycounty.us/residents/roadstransit/future-projects.
Straight Talk, Local Sources
Highlights from WFNU Interviews with Karen J. Larson
St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell, Nov. 29
Traffic stops are an income generator for cities. Do St. Paul police
have quotas?
First of all, it’s against state law to have police quotas in the state of Minnesota.
But we know it still happens, right?
No, we do not operate that way, absolutely not. I take quality police work over quantity
in revenue generation any time. I’m not in the business of making money. I’m in the
business of serving all of our communities in St. Paul.
What are you focusing on now?
One thing is de-escalation training. How we can de-escalate situations and use a
minimal amount of force? If we have to use force it has to be reasonable, necessary and
done with respect. And that’s the baseline of our training, to make sure that we are deescalating
as much as possible and that there are minimal uses of force.
Curt Favors, new owner of Willard’s Liquors in spring, 2017, Nov. 22
What’s your philosophy ofa neighborhood bar?
Willard's would have to be it. A neighborhood bar is very inviting. It has a culture. It
has its own community. It has norms. There’s a regular cast of characters that goes to
Willard’s.
Any plans to make it a more family-friendly establishment?
That already happens. A lot of the neighbors do come in and they bring their kids and
they get a kiddie-cocktail. I bring my kids. I have six kids. There’s a lot that goes on at
Willard's that doesn’t get a positive light shined on it. If anything negative happens in
the communities, then they say it happened down at Willard’s. We could do a better job
at reaching out to the immediate neighbors for sure.
PAGE 5
Living Loud is live Tues. & Thur. , 9 - 11 am, replayed Sat. , 7-9 pm, on WFNU 94. 1 FM,
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

The Greens Queens
FROGTOWN FLAVOR
A church basement cookoffreveals the champ — and a path toward healthy eating
Who’s the Frogtown/Rondo Queen of
Greens? That question got settled in early
December in the Pilgrim Baptist Church
basement, when 1 3 contestants went
head-to-head for the cooking title.
The community meal and cook-off was
part of an Art of Food in Frogtown and
Rondo initiative, intended to explore
neighborhood food access issues.
In the church basement, the big picture
got obscured by a more immediate
concern — which of the many vats of
greens really delivered? The gang of
church ladies and neighbors brought in
crock pots of greens. Greens smoldering
with jalepenos. Greens with andouille
sausage. Greens with smoked hocks.
Green with neck bones. Not to mention
the ingredients that contestants referred to
vaguely as “spices” — obviously not
interested in giving too much away.
The crowd — roughly 70 people packed
around folding tables — loaded up plates
with small paper containers that held a
tablespoon or so of each entry. The judges
filled up their own plates and retired with
their rating sheets. The contest was on.
The larger idea behind the project is to
create a neighborhood food plan that
builds health and wealth with an eye
toward the cultural traditions already in
place. Locally the effort is organized by
Asian Economic Development
Association (AEDA), Frogtown Farm, the
Urban Farm and Garden Alliance, the
Twin Cities Agricultural Land Trust, and
Public Art Saint Paul.
At the meals held so far — the greens
cook-off, a kick-off event at Frogtown
Farm and a home-style cooking Asian
meal follow-up at AEDA’s University
Ave. offices — neighbors were asked to
talk about familiar meals from their
childhood, how they eat now, where they
shop and whether they can easily get the
foods they want.
Cook-off winner Keya Tabor, left, with runners-up Beverly Long and Vivian Mims.
The answers have pointed to the strong
link between food, family and
community, says Valentine Cadieux, a
Hamline University professor who’s
working on the project. At the meals,
residents talked about their desire to have
more community garden space to work
together, along with a community kitchen
where they can prepare and eat meals
together. Another common point
concerns the memory of childhood meals
— who cooked what and how, and how
that knowledge was passed along.
But another frequent observation, says
AEDA organizer Aki Shibata, is the gap
between the desire to serve healthful
meals and the difficulty in doing so.
People are running to their jobs and
dashing back home. “They know they’re
not always preparing the most healthy
food, but at the end of the day they’re
struggling to get any food on the table.”
Back in the Pilgrim Church basement, the
crowd had moved on from the green
sampler to a full meal of chicken wings,
mac and cheese, corn bread, peach
cobbler and more. Music and dancing
filled the time while the judges
deliberated. Teacher/drummer Jesse
Buckner offered the crowd a testimonial,
saying that he snapped to after his doctor
noted his high blood pressure and told
him to start eating more greens. The
result? “Five years later, my blood
pressure is 11 7 over 75,” he said —
exemplary numbers for an older adult.
The judges returned with their verdicts.
They made the usual declarations: it was
a tough choice, everybody was a winner.
But when it came right down to it, they
gave the title to Keya Tabor, praising the
texture, the light dash of salt and the hint
of sugar that she brought to the dish.
Hoping to get the details of her recipe,
we cornered her as she loaded up her
crock pot.
Photo by Seitu Jones
Here's how she does it:
• 5-6 bunches of greens, washed, stems
removed, rolled and cut into 1 inch strips.
• Smoked hocks, ham shanks or pork
belly, simmered in about six cups of
water for 45 minutes. Remove bones.
• Add greens to remaining water in pot, a
handful at a time. Cook down for several
minutes, add more greens in small
batches. Stir from bottom.
• Season with a tablespoon of minced
onion, garlic or garlic salt, crushed red
pepper, salt and pepper to taste.
• Simmer, covered, for about two hours,
stirring occasionally and checking water
level.
• Secret ingredient: bacon drippings.
Frogtown Flavor is a healthy living,
healthy eating initiative for Frogtown
sponsored by the Blue Cross Blue Shield
ofMinnesota Foundation.
Start with five or six bunches of greens.
For her winning recipe, she used purple
and green collards, plus some dino kale.
She washed these four or five times to get
out the sand and dirt. She also got a pot
going with about six cups of water and a
member of the pork family — smoked
hocks, ham shanks, or salt pork will do.
She put this at a simmer wh
The beauty here is that there’s a lot of
room for experimentation, and a lot of
ways you can be right. You don’t have to
wait for next summer: you can find
King of the Greens, Jim Kuralle, came
dressed for the occasion.
is published six times per year by
Health Advocates Inc.
843 Van Buren Ave., St. Paul,
and is distributed door-to-door in the area from
Lexington Pkwy. to 35E, University Ave. to Pierce Butler.
Publisher: Patricia Ohmans
Editor: Anthony Schmitz
Contact us at 651 .757.5970 (Patricia) patricia.ohmans@gmail.com
651 .757.7479 (Anthony) apbschmitz@gmail.com
Ad rates & more at GreeningFrogtown.com
Next issue, March/April. Ad deadline February 1 5.
Health Advocates also sponsors Frogtown Green,
an initiative that promotes green development
as a means to increase the health and wealth of Frogtown residents.
PAGE 8 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

BIG-HEARTED FROGTOWN
The Local Link to Vietnam Orphans
At Trung Nam bakery, Tony Le also works to support kids halfa world away
Bao Le is proud of his parents, Tony and
Edna Le. Not just for the hundreds of
crusty French baguettes they bake fresh
every day. Not just because Tony Le gets
up six mornings a week at 4 AM to bake
those baguettes, along with a
mouthwatering array of sweet croissants,
banh mi sandwiches and steam buns. And
not just because the couple has supported
their large family of six kids for decades,
working 60-hour weeks at their modest
Frogtown bakery-restaurant, Trung Nam.
A handful of photos pinned to a bulletin
board hints at the source of Bao’s pride.
Pictured are groups of smiling children,
adults in wheelchairs, and nuns in simple
gray and white habits standing outdoors
under palm trees, carefully posed among
boxes of canned and dried food. Curling
and sun-bleached, pinned to precisely
handwritten letters, the photos represent
26 years of ‘thank-yous' from an order of
nuns who live in Nhan Ai, Vietnam.
Since 1 990, Tony and Edna Le have
collected money to help support the Mai
Am Nhan Ai orphanage, a home for
children and disabled adults in a village
not far from the city of Na Trang, where
Tony Le was born. The orphanage was
founded by Sister Nguyen Thi Bao
Quyen, whom Le met on a visit to
Vietnam in 1 990.
“My dad served as a kind of ‘godfather’
to her
when she
was in
school, by
sending
her money
to help buy
her school
books and
uniforms,”
Bao
explains.
“When she
graduated,
my dad got
involved
with the
orphanage she helps to run.” The
orphanage houses 1 30 kids and adults.
Tony Le and Bao Le at Trung Nam Bakery
“I’ve been there,” Bao says. “It’s quite an
eye-opener. There are a lot of poor and
hungry people everywhere. Kids are not
always literally orphaned at the
orphanage. Parents leave their kids there
because they just can’t take care of them.
They want their kids to have a better life.
Just like my parents did—only they left
their homeland to do that.”
All year long, a small wooden donation
box sits
off to the
side of the
Trung
Nam cash
register.
Customers
sometimes
add their
change to
the box.
Friends
and family
pitch in
what they
can.
Every
December, Tony opens the box, counts the
money he has collected, adds a generous
check of his own, and mails it off to the
sisters. Though the total annual
contribution often exceeds $1 ,500, Le
doesn’t worry about making a taxdeductible
donation, or getting credit for
his own contribution.
Tony’s motivation is clear. A longtime
member of St. Columba Catholic Church
on Lafond Avenue, he helps the nuns
because he feels he has been blessed
himself. “I am healthy. My family is
happy. God has been good to us. I want to
help other people,” he says simply.
Bao elaborates. “I think this shows my
parents’ character. My mother remembers
a time when she was so hungry she stole
an egg—just a single egg, after a long
time of want—because she was pregnant
and really craving protein. They both fled
the war in Vietnam and made a new life
here. But even here, it wasn’t always
easy. They suffered a home robbery,
where my sister was badly hurt.”
“My parents have been through a lot,”
Bao continues, “but they consider
themselves happy and fortunate. It
doesn’t surprise me that they want to
share that good fortune.”
Contemplate your own good fortune over
one of those golden croissants, Monday
through Saturday, from 8 AM to 1 PM, at
Trung Nam 739 University. Bring cash
(no credit cards accepted). And maybe
drop your change in the donation box.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017
PAGE 9

WHO SPEAKS FOR FROGTOWN?
'My Role Is to Represent'
Councilman Dai Thao is the elected link to city government
In the wake of a very surprising
presidential election, Frogtown residents
are looking with new interest (and
sometimes concern) to see who represents
them at every level of government. For
the first in a year-long series of profiles of
local elected leaders, Greening Frogtown
caught up with Ward One City
Councilmember Dai Thao.
Thao—who, after winning his council seat
decisively in 201 5, recently announced his
candidacy for mayor—is one of seven
elected members of the St. Paul City
Council. The Council determines changes
in city law, monitors agencies and
approves the budget (more than a half
billion dollars in 201 7). Council members
are paid for 40 hours’ work every two
weeks, for a total annual salary of about
$56,000.
Thao, 51 , first won the Ward One city
council seat in 201 3.Ward One is a diverse
district, encompassing Frogtown, Summit-
University, and parts of the Union Park,
North End, and Hamline-Midway
neighborhoods. It was Thao’s first run for
elective office, and he became the first
Hmong-American on the city council.
Trained in computer and military science
at Montana State University, Dai Thao
also works part-time as an IT specialist
for the Minnea-polis Crisis Nursery.
Before running for office, Thao was involved
with Take Action Minnesota, joining in efforts
to defeat
the state’s
voter-ID
and
marriage
amendments.
Thao was
re-elected
in 201 5,
winning
84% of
the vote.
Since reelection,
he has
successfully promoted a family sick-leave
policy, and been a strong supporter of the
St. Paul soccer stadium. He is married
with five children, and lives in Frogtown.
In December 201 6, with vigorous citizen
lobbying, Thao managed to win over a
majority of his fellow council members to
the position that police officers should no
longer serve as members of the Police-
Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission.
The commission reviews misconduct
complaints against the city’s police officers.
When we sat down for an interview, Thao
joked that a
colleague
had
warned
him that
he better
not be
caught
speeding
“for at
least the
next five
years.”
What is
your role
as Ward
One’s City Councilmember? My role is
to represent the voices and concerns of
the ward. I work with ward leaders and
community organizations to improve the
quality of life in Ward One.
What made you want to run for the
office? I’ve seen that our ward has a lot
of issues. The community is very
segregated. People live in their own little
silos. I have the audacity to want to bring
everybody together.
When I decided to run for city
councilperson, I wanted to be much more
than “just a city council member.” My
life experience is one of poverty and
struggle. My first eight years were spent
in a refugee camp, where I witnessed two
of my siblings die. When we were living
in the refugee camp, America was
Paradise. But when we got here, that
wasn’t exactly true. We lived the projects
on the North side (of Minneapolis) in an
apartment infested with cockroaches and
mice. We were bullied in school, on the
bus. We experienced racism firsthand.
Now, 38 years later, I look around and I
still see families living like that.
I chose to be in city government because
the city council office is the first line of
defense, the first stop on the path of
navigating the government’s systems. I’m
able to help people navigate. We get all
sorts of calls here in the office, but it’s
mostly when people feel like they have
reached the end of the line, when they
have tried to fix things themselves and
not been able to.
What has surprised you about the job
since you have taken office? I was
surprised to learn how hard people work
here in city government, I mean the staff
of city council members, and the other
city employees. The stereotype is that
people in government don’t get anything
done. But really, partly that is because a
city is a big organization and so things
move slower sometimes.
I’ve also learned that this job is not a
part-time job, even though it is supposed
to be. And it’s not a 9-to-5 job. There are
a lot of community events and evening
meetings. And being a Hmong-American,
I find that there are expectations of me
from my own ethnic community, as well.
What are your two top priorities for
the next year? My number one priority is
getting more jobs for youth, more
economic development. We have a
program called Right Track, which offers
job opportunities for low income youth
and kids of color ages 1 6 and up.
Some of those jobs require office skills,
and there aren’t enough youth of color
filling those jobs. I’m planning something
called “Lean Into Right Track,” which
will groom 1 4- to 1 6-year olds to be
prepared for these Right Track jobs.
I’ve been working with the city’s Human
Rights Department, to encourage vendors
who contract with the city to offer
employment for youth. If they don’t have
Continued, Page 11
PAGE 10 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

Speaking Out through Fashion
Amarie Original finds a way to make his voice heard
Amarie Original lives up to his name.
Tall and slender, the 1 8 year-old high
school student cuts a striking figure. With
his face adorned in gold nose rings and
heavy gold earrings, a sequined choker
around his long neck, a silvery pea jacket
over his shoulders and giant white
sneakers on his feet, he’s unmistakably
devoted to making a fashion statement.
He’s been this way since childhood,
Amarie explains. “I always liked to dress
myself,” he recalls. “My mom and I
would go to thrift stores and I would pull
out clothes and pieces of fabric that I was
drawn to. Gradually I started designing
clothes, layering fabrics on one another
or adding cutouts to existing
clothes. My mom was very
supportive, and she still is,
even though she wouldn’t
wear my designs herself. She
considers them art pieces.”
For Amarie, fashion is both
art and a powerful form of
self-expression. “I’m softspoken
sometimes,” he explains. “And
I’m young, so sometimes people won’t
take me seriously. They say I’m just a
kid. So my fashion is a way for me to
speak up, especially when my voice is
not being heard.”
His first solo fashion show, held two
months ago at City Wide Artists, a gallery
in Minneapolis, strengthened his
conviction that he, and his clothes, have
something to say. The show drew a
capacity crowd, according to gallery
spokesperson Teqen Zéa-Aida. “To us,
Amarie represents the bold nonconformist
attitudes of the American
Millennial,” Zea-Aida said. “The
collection was a modern mix of gender
non-conformist street fashion, with a nod
to 90’s Gaultier tribal chic. His ideas
have great potential.”
“I like to design clothes that fit women
and men of all shapes and sizes,” Amarie
explains. “And the clothes could be worn
by anyone. A lot of people restrict certain
clothes for a woman or a man. They say
heels are for women, or that men can’t
wear colorful things. I don’t agree with
that! I design clothes for curvy women,
for skinny men. I even make cutouts on
"Ifsomething
seems beautiful
to you, why not
wear it? You
shouldn't have to
feel deprived. "
dresses to highlight beautiful stretch
marks on someone’s belly.”
For Amarie, gender-free clothing is not
about cross-dressing or drag. “It’s more
of a natural statement, a statement of
what you love. If something
seems beautiful to you, why
not wear it? You shouldn’t
have to feel deprived. You
embody you, and my fashion
is about helping you show
your self respect.”
Not everyone appreciates the
message implicit in his style,
Amarie concedes. “If I’m not wearing my
headphones and I’m on the bus or the
train, I can hear people talking about me
and sometimes it’s not nice what they are
saying. But I just ignore them. We need
to levitate away from all the negativity
and hate.”
After graduating in spring, Amarie has
big plans. He’s hoping to move to New
York City, to make it as a designer and
fashion model. He’s learned to sew,
having advocated for sewing classes at
Creative Arts High School, and he is
honing his drawing skills. “After I make
it in New York, I”ll move to an exotic
country,” he muses. But wherever he is,
he’ll follow his own advice. “Look in the
mirror, whatever you are wearing, and
see that you are a work of art,” he says.
Khadijiah Green, Continued
understand what had happened. Needing
more time to recuperate, she moved back
to Minnesota again.
As she healed she got more schooling.
She signed up for cake decorating classes,
learning how to work with piping, filling,
buttercream and paste. Cooking was a
passion for her. Throughout her childhood
she had prepared meals for her siblings. “I
can go anywhere, and if I cook, people are
going to remember that meal,” she says.
She started dreaming about a catering
business.
Looking for direction on how to set up a
successful business, Green contacted the
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017
Neighborhood Development Center,
above the Western Bank building at
University and St. Albans. There she met
with business adviser Bee Vang, who
helped Green put together a plan that
outlined the steps necessary to build a
successful business. In Green’s case, it
was a complicated package of realistically
estimating costs and expenses, creating a
reasonable marketing plan, satisfying the
Department of Health’s requirements for
food handling licensure, nailing down
space in a commercial kitchen and more.
Green got her license, leased kitchen
space and even lined up paying customers.
But other demands of life caught up with
her. She works at an assisted living
facility, has hairdressing customers, takes
care of her disabled parents, has a sister
who recently moved in with her, plus
nieces and nephews living in the home she
rents. “I have to work hard to keep a roof
over our heads, help provide for the kids
and make sure we have enough to
survive,” Green says. The $600 per month
lease on the kitchen was too much on top
of everything else. She had to give it up.
Her next stop was the Thomas Deli, which
was a success and then a setback when
she lost the space to a higher bidder.
“Right now I’m at a standstill,” she says.
“If everything worked out perfectly, I’d
find some nice kitchen space where I
wouldn’t have to worry about it being
affordable. I’d keep my business and my
home.” Until then, she’s taking more
entrepreneur classes at NDC, and
working on her credit score, which took a
tumble as she recovered from her abusecaused
injuries. Better credit is a
necessary step to open up the possibility
of a small business loan.
This isn’t the typical business-page story,
where a striver overcomes some obstacles
and ends up on top. For now, as the
conclusion hangs in the balance, it’s more
of a tale about the tremendous drive,
desire and resourcefulness necessary
when you’re trying to build a business
without a safety net.
At NDC, adviser Bee Vang says that
while the outcome for entrepreneurs is
never certain, Green has the qualities that
make success more likely. “You need
persistence,” he says. “You have to be
coachable. You need to be resourceful.
When you come to a dead end you have
to know how to deal with that. True
entrepreneurs don’t give up. They look
for the next viable option.”
Despite the walls that Green has smacked
up against, no one who’s met her would
bet against her. “I don’t let my situation
take anything from me,” Green says. “A
lot of people will let others get to them,
let the situation get to them. I have a
strong head. I don’t abide by that.”
Dai Thao, Continued
positions for youth, maybe they should
create some!
My number two priority is to make sure
we continue to work on affordable
housing. Vacant lots and houses around
the neighborhood need to be turned into
livable homes. And number three (I know
you only said two…) is getting rid of red
tape for would-be small business people.
We need to make the permitting and
licensing process easier to follow.
How do you communicate with
constituents? How can people reach
you? People can always call or email. We
also have a quarterly newsletter that is
sent out electronically. When I first took
office, I set up monthly open meetings at
local coffeeshops, but they were not wellattended.
I am always accepting of phone
calls, emails, and face-to-face meetings. I
take people’s calls seriously. We have a
strict policy to respond to email —
anything that isn’t spam—within 24
hours.
To reach Councilmember Thao on city
business, call 651-266-8610 or email
ward1@ci. stpaul. mn. us
PAGE 11

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