GreeningFrogtownJulyAug

JULY/AUGUST 2018
Inside…
WHERE DO SHOTS GET FIRED IN FROGTOWN? SEE MAP, PAGE 9
Getting Behind Garbage
The new system isn't perfect, but it's a start
I’m one of those people who should be steamed about St. Paul’s
new garbage collection system, now set to start up in October.
My wife and I don’t create much waste. We compost and recycle
like nuts. We don’t buy a lot of packaged food. So we get by
with a peewee-size garbage can. That costs us $22 a month for a
weekly trash pickup. We share that can with a neighbor, a recent
immigrant who can use a break. Under the new system we’ll get
our garbage hauled every two weeks for $20.28, plus an annual
$25 administrative fee. So we’ll pay about the same amount but
get our garbage hauled half as often. Our neighbor,
meanwhile, will need to pay for his own cart.
We loved the local hauler we hired. He was a
talkative, responsive small business guy. But in the
midst of the city/hauler negotiations, he sold out to a
large national firm.
As for my big garbage issue — the amount of illegal
dumping in Frogtown — the new system won't really
solve the problem. We’ll all get two or three bulky items,
depending on our contract, picked up free each year. After that,
you’ve got to pay. The predictable result: some people looking at
bulky item number four, five and six will head for that familiar
destination, the alley, to solve their solid waste troubles.
Despite all of the above, I’m behind this change. Here’s why.
1 . The current system is a marvel of inefficiency. Last year 1 5
licensed haulers prowled the alleys. It’s not unusual for six or
seven to work a single alley. One study showed that for every
can picked up, haulers drove past an average of seven. The
noise, pollution, and folly of such waste is simply offensive.
2. Everyone should pay something for garbage collection.
This isn’t the Wild West. We have chosen to live in a city. We
participate in a society. By doing so, we’re agreeing to certain
things. For instance, we pay for services like the library, schools,
roads and the fire department, even if we don’t read, have kids,
drive or routinely burn down our house. Paying to get your
garbage hauled is one more price of living in a city and
participating in civilization. That St. Paul previously applied a
cow-town standard to a fundamental function of government isn’t
a point of pride, nor a precious freedom that must be preserved.
3. It’s a start. The city should have negotiated a tougher deal on
bulky items, but it beats the current non-system,
which invites scoff-laws to dump all their TVs,
mattresses and sofas in the alley. At least everyone
will get a couple items hauled at no additional
charge. In the inevitable contract renegotiation with
haulers, the city’s team should take another hard
look across the river, where Minneapolis residents
can get two bulky items picked up each week, plus
six vouchers per year to drop off up to six tons of
construction debris and other garbage at a city dump.
With a 96-gallon cart, their monthly fee is $30.67.
4. Garbage is another equity issue. Describe the alleys full of
junk in Frogtown, and people in Mac Groveland or Highland
don’t know what you’re talking about. In those neighborhoods,
TVs and mattresses don’t linger for months in festering heaps. In
Frogtown, let’s face it, they do. Does a garbage-clogged alley add
value to your home? Does it cost you something emotionally to
concede that you’re living in a type of garbage dump? This is
another of those inequities that harms those with less money but
doesn’t affect the well-to-do.
The new system won’t be perfect. But this is another case where
the perfect shouldn’t be the enemy of the good. It's a foundation,
on which something better can be built.
— Tony Schmitz
After 34 Years,
She Passes
the Torch
An exit interview
with Model Cities
director Dr.
Beverley Hawkins
— P. 10
Get the Drop on
County Board
Candidates
Grill all three
contenders at forum
set for July 31
— P. 3
The Newest
Entrepreneurs
A Filipino/Mexican
restaurant opens at
Western and
Unversity Ave.
— P. 5

STAYING SAFE
Three Per Week, Whapped by Cars
Frogtowners suffer a disproportionate number ofthe city's walker, biker accidents
If you knew that every year in Frogtown,
20 people who are not in cars could be hit
by people driving cars, what would you
do? That’s the urgent question facing St
Paul police commander Jeremy Ellison.
“I’ve been a police officer for 1 8 years,”
Ellison says, “but I never realized how
many people are struck—and hurt or
killed—by cars in a given year.”
As the city’s “Toward Zero Deaths”
enforcement grant coordinator, which
focuses on traffic safety initiatives,
Ellison knows the stats: every week, at
least three people—walkers and
bikers—are hit by a car. And Frogtown
streets account for “a high percentage of
those crashes,” Ellison reports. According
to police records, 20 pedestrian/bike
versus auto crashes in 201 7 were within
Frogtown’s boundaries. That’s 1 0% of
the total crashes reported throughout the
city last year, even though Frogtown's
population is 5% of the city's total.
It’s not that the law is unclear.
Pedestrians have the right of way. Drivers
must stop for pedestrians at ALL
crosswalks, whether marked or
unmarked. Failure to obey the law is a
Police commander Jeremy Ellison brings up the rear on peds crossing Dale St.
misdemeanor. A second violation within
one year is a gross misdemeanor. Bikers
must obey all traffic control signs and
signals, just like motorists.
The problem is that Frogtown is
bisected—make that quadri-sected—by
roads like Marion, Dale, Minnehaha and
Western, roads explicitly designed for
people in cars. Take Dale Street, where 6
of those 20 people were hit by cars last
year. Formerly a neighborhood avenue
lined with commerce and housing, Dale
was drastically widened by county and
city fiat in 1 998, which ripped out a swath
of business and houses. The result: what
one traffic engineer at the time called “a
traffic ditch.” Every day, more than
11 ,000 cars and trucks zoom down Dale's
lanes. Look around at street level: there’s
very little to indicate that someone on foot
or a bicycle might want to cross Dale,
much less anything to slow the traffic that
is often traveling nearly 40 miles per hour.
Recently, Commander Ellison led a group
of civilians across Dale Street at Charles,
where a median makes it at least possible
for pedestrians to take refuge if they get
halfway across. The gaggle of walkers
crossed the street over and over. Some
cars stopped. Drivers who didn’t stop
were pulled over by Ellison’s colleagues a
block away and given a stern talking-to.
But it will take a lot more than that to get
closer to zero traffic deaths in Frogtown,
much less in St Paul. Ellison is optimistic
about the potential of simple engineering
tweaks, like changing the timing on a
walk sign to give pedestrians a 5-second
head start across the street, making them
more visible to drivers making turns.
The commander is also involved in
ongoing University of Minnesota research
to study the impact of similar changes,
like "advanced stop" bars that warn
drivers of an upcoming crosswalk.
Continued, Page 11
PAGE 2 JULY/AUGUST / 2018
6

Don't Miss July 31 Candidates Forum
for Open Seat on County Board
Wondering who to vote for in the
Tuesday, August 1 4 County
Commissioner primary? (This vote
whacks the line-up of candidates down
to the two who will face off in the
November election.)
FROGTOWN NEWS
Moore and Trista MatasCastillo. You can
read more about all of them online at
GreeningFrogtown.com/archive). Or visit
mixcloud.com/karen-j-larson/ to hear
interviews Larson has conducted with all
three candidates on WFNU.
Here's an easy way to find out more:
attend a candidates forum organized by
Frogtowner and WFNU radio host Karen
Larson at Kolap Restaurant, 601 Dale St
N, Tuesday, July 31 , 7-9 pm.
Twenty-year incumbent Janice Rettman
is running against Jennifer Nguyen
Board members have immense sway over
health, safety, roads, jails, parks and
much more. But few people will vote in
the generally ill-attended primary,
meaning your vote counts all the more.
Get info about getting registered and your
polling place, at ramseycounty.us. Click
on Residents, then Elections.
Candidates from left: Janice Rettman, Jennifer Nguyen Moore, Trista MatasCastillo
'Zero Waste' Neighbors Have Bone to
Pick with New Trash Hauling System
St. Paul’s new organized trash collection
system has some residents roiled—even
before it begins. Frogtown resident
Kristen Becker, a “zero waste” advocate,
is one of them. Becker believes the new
system—which requires every city
residence to have a trash cart—unfairly
penalizes households such
as her own by charging
every home for garbage
collection, even if they
generate negligible
amounts of trash. (Becker,
who was profiled in the
November/
December 201 7 issue of
Greening Frogtown, can
fit a month’s worth of
garbage in a small ziplock
bag.)
Becker’s concern extends
to renters in multi-unit buildings, since
each unit in a duplex, triplex or fourplex
will now be required to have its own cart.
“(Landlords) have told me that they will
have to pass on the cost by increasing
rent,” Becker claims.
But it’s not just about the money, Becker
says. “Most zero-wasters and cart-sharers
are not against doing their part for the
community by putting some money into
keeping our city clean,” she explains.
“But the current plan would have the
highest cost for those who waste the least.
And that money goes to pay the haulers,
not to helping the community clean up. At
the bare minimum, trash service should be
based on the price per gallon, so that
residents can see a clear advantage to
improving their recycling, bringing items
to Goodwill or supporting decreased
packaging.”
Becker proposes alternatives including
payment of an ‘opt out’ fee that could be
collected into a fund, and used to clean
up dumped trash. She and others with
complaints about the newly instituted
system met recently with chief resilience
officer Russ Stark, to air their issues.
Although sympathetic with
Becker’s overall goal of
reducing solid waste
production, Stark said that
the newly negotiated
contract will not be
changed, at least for now.
“I’m not in fundamental
disagreement with
(Kristen)” Stark said. “It is
definitely in the city’s
interest to have residents
help reduce the solid waste
we produce, by recycling,
composting and other means, and it is
possible that at some point down the road
the haulers or the city may want to
amend the contract to make it even better
for everyone. But this contract with the
haulers was negotiated over a long
period, and now it is signed. It is a fiveyear
contract.”
Along with other city residents,
Frogtowners will get their new carts in
October, when the new trash system
begins. Residents who responded to citymailed
postcards will get the size of cart
and frequency of pick-up that they
selected. Non-responders will get a cart
that is the same size as their current cart.
For more information about coordinated
collection, visit the city website at
stpaul.gov/departments/publicworks/garbage/coordinated-collection,
email allinprogram@ci.stpaul.mn.us or
call 651 -266-8866.
At the Victoria Theater, Lots of
Progress, and Plenty of Work Ahead
What’s the latest on the project to restore
the Victoria Theater at 825 University
Avenue into a neighborhood gathering
and art space? In mid-May, project
director Julie Adams-Gerth organized a
show-and-tell session at next-door
neighbor Demera Ethiopian Restaurant to
sketch out progress to date.
The big news:
• Likely time span to completion of the
renovation — about three years.
• The theater group has already raised
$1 million of the approximate $3
million that will be necessary to rehab
the building.
• The group has a new purchase
agreement with the Land Bank Twin
Cities that calls for the theater
organization to buy the property for
about $300,000. Half of that will be
city money, but the city deal requires
matching funds from other sources.
• Work has begun to repair the leaking
roof, to keep out vermin and the
elements.
• A team of development consultants is
meeting with big funders in an attempt
to nail down more money.
The board that runs the non-profit theater
operation now includes area residents
Denise Mwasyeba, Aki Shibata, Dameun
Strange, Sara Nichols, Tyler Olsen, Ward
One city council aide Mai Chong Xiong
and historic preservationist Aaron
Rubenstein. Adams-Gerth says the board
wants to build out its committee structure,
and is looking for people who will serve
on building and community engagement
committees. Interested? Call Adams-
Gerth at 651 -368-8451 to find out more.
The organization is searching now for
both a project manager and architect.
Adams-Gerth staged a tour through the
theater building that served to make two
points: the big space offers a host of
possibilities to house art, a 1 50-seat
theater, classes and other neighborhood
events; and, there’s a lot of work ahead.
The building is currently a shell, with
exposed beams and studs, plus the ruins
of old plaster walls that are painted with
murals left over from early in the last
century, when the building functioned as
a restaurant and cabaret. For now, it's a
big empty space with lots of possibilities.
EYES ON THE SKY: A couple of dozen eager birdwatchers visited Frogtown Park
& Farm in May to catch a glimpse of some of their migrating feathered friends.
Expert birder Sally Heuer (right) led groups on three separate excursions into
Birdland, with reported sightings of bluebirds, buntings, great crested flycathers,
and swifts, along with the more commonly seen robins and cardinals. The
birdwalks were co-sponsored by Frogtown Green and the Trust for Public Land.
JULY/AUGUST 2018 PAGE 3

She's Big Winner
at WFNU, Free
Food Fundraiser
FROGTOWN NEWS
739 Lafond. Like the Friday, 3-4:30 pm
City School giveaway at Western and
Lafond that offers a changing array of
meats, bread, frozen food, canned goods,
produce and deli items, it’s open to all
comers with very few questions asked.
Frogtowner Norma Hakizimana was the
big winner at the June 1 0 pancake
breakfast fundraiser for local low-power
radio station WFNU and the twice-weekly
Feeding
Frogtown
food
giveaway.
She took
home both
the Little
Free Library
and the
station t-shirt
pictured
above. The
fundraiser
netted
$1 ,300, to be
split between
the two groups.
Both the Feeding Frogtown and WFNU
have new programs that can use new
funding. Feeding Frogtown has expanded
to include a Tuesday food pantry of fresh
produce. The pantry will operate from 5-7
pm, Tuesdays, at the St. Stephanus
Church parking lot, behind the church at
At WFNU, the latest news includes a
Frogtown news program, to be produced
in conjunction with St. Paul
Neighborhood Network. The idea behind
these broadcasts, says station manager
Katey DeCelle, is to train neighborhood
residents to produce ultra-local news.
Interested in becoming an on-air
reporter? Call her at 651 -398-7334.
They're Building It!
Here's the latest on new construction
developments hitting Frogtown:
The Ain Dah Yung project to house
potentially homeless Native youth moves
forward, with groundbreaking on July 11
at the University Ave. lot between Avon
and Grotto. The 42 units of affordable
housing is for young people ages 1 8-24,
all of whom will be working with case
managers to get their lives on track. The
$11 .3 million space will include
classrooms, a computer lab, fitness room,
training kitchen, space for cultural
ceremonies and a basement workshop to
Continued, Next Page
THE NEW ENTREPRENEURS: Mi Casa Su Casa Eatery is the new occupant of the
restaurant space at 383 University Ave., at the corner of Western and University.
During the last days of June, husband/wife entrepreneur team Juvelyn and Saul
Mellado were rushing to get the space ready for a June 29 opening.
The restaurant will feature Filipino and Mexican food, plus a list of fusion items
that mix the two styles. There’s also a bar with wine and beer, including some
Mexican classics and brews from the Minneapolis-based Inbound BrewCo.
The couple have a good idea what they’re getting into. “My family was in the
restaurant business since my childhood,” says Saul, while juvelyn’s professional
background is in bookkeeping.
Filipino food is a mostly unfilled niche in the Twin Cities, says Saul. “It’s savory
but not spicy. A dish like our pork adobo is almost like witchcraft. It’s very simple
to make, but it’s important to hit the right balance. We don’t want to just open a
regular place. We’re here to educate palates and fulfill dreams.”
Mi Casa Su Casa is open from 7 am to 9 pm, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.
JULY/AUGUST 2018
PAGE 5

FROGTOWN NEWS
Left: A rendering of the Ain Dah Yung complex. Right, Scheffer director Torria Randall with plans for the new building.
DEVELOPMENT, CONTINUED: pass on
traditional crafts and skills. Ain Dah
Yung, long located at 1 089 Lexington,
describes itself as a “healing place for
American Indian youth and families,”
with programs that include an emergency
shelter, youth transitional housing, street
outreach and family education.
Springboard for the Arts will remake
one of the former Saxon Ford locations,
this one at 262 University Ave. The
organization, now based in Lowertown,
sees itself as an “economic and
community development organization for
artists and by artists,” and says that artists
can help build stronger neighborhoods.
Springboard bought the former car
dealership site for $1 .5 million. The
overall renovation budget will hit $5.1
million, including acquisition costs, a
redo of the space and start up
programming. Construction, set to begin
in 201 9, should wrap up by 2020, says
director Laura Zabel. The finished
product will include space for offices,
workshops and career counseling for
artists, as well as room for indoor and
outdoor markets, events and meetings.
Interested in using the space? Call
Springboard at 651 -292-4381 . The
inevitable question: is this a harbinger of
gentrification? Says Zabel, “This is a
project driven by and created for the
neighbors who live here already. We hope
to prove that this is an example of
community-centered development that
brings together assets that already exist in
the neighborhood.”
Moving to the macro-level, parts of
Frogtown were recently declared
Opportunity Zones under a federal
program designed to offer tax incentives
to investors who pump money into lowincome
neighborhoods. The idea here is
that big money types can defer or avoid
capital gains taxes — taxes they would
pay on the increased value of their
investments when they sell them off — if
they reinvest the money in Opportunity
Zones. The Wall Street Journal — not
quite the mouthpiece of flaming liberal
politics — observes that a similar
enterprise zone program aimed at lowincome
neighborhoods had “a near-zero”
impact on employment. The new batch of
tax breaks “will accrue to projects that
would have been completed in any case,”
said a Brookings Institution researcher,
who predicted happy developers and
politicians, but added, “we won’t really
know if it’s an improvement for the
people who live in those areas.”
Nonetheless, some St. Paulites spot a
window of opportunity. With front-end
planning and coordination, projects such
as an international marketplace could be
packaged and pitched to investors with a
philanthropic bent, says Chuck Repke,
director of the East Side’s District 2
Community Council. That type of project
could benefit new immigrants and people
of color, building wealth for would-be
entrepreneurs who might not otherwise
qualify for bank loans or non-subsidized
investment. Don’t start spending that
money quite yet, say local watchdogs.
Rules for these deals are only vaguely
defined at the moment, and how it will all
play out remains a big question mark.
Bulldozers are rolling and construction
has begun on a new recreation center to
replace the existing 1 970’s-era building at
Scheffer Park. Funding through the city’s
Capitol Improvement Budget is paying
for about $9 million in improvements to
the park, including the new building. Park
designers managed a community
engagement process that included
community surveys, open house meetings,
pop-up meetings, and a community
advisory committee. The result: plans for
the new facility that include community
rooms, an arts room, seniors space, a teen
room, kitchen, Rec Check after school
space, a full-size gym, fitness room,
walking track and parking, according to
Continued, Page 11
PAGE 6
JULY/AUGUST 2018

Rat's Art
Civilization's debris, transformed
If you ask Rick “Rat” Kukkonen to
explain his theory of art to you, he doesn’t
have to think long and hard. He’s standing
now in his garage off Dale, in the alley
between Blair and Van Buren. The sun is
smacking down on the concrete apron.
He’s leaning up against his latest
treasures; four massive oil pumps that he’s
just salvaged from a school. But the
pumps are the least of it. There are boiler
parts stacked up near the rafters, a vintage
bike hung from the ceiling, signs of every
description, a 1 929 Model A in the
process of being transformed into what he
calls a Rat Rod, not to mention a grinning
robotic figure made from a muffler,
welding gear and various tools. The whole
of it is such a dizzying array that your
mind reels and it’s easy to forget whatever
it is you just asked him.
About art…. Okay, so picture a guy
approaching Rat. He’s standing beside a
totem pole that Rat has made, a junkyard
sun god fashioned from fence posts, a car
hood, machine gears, corrugated roofing
and a couple dozen other cast off bits and
pieces.
“So the guy comes up and says, ‘What is
that?’” Rat explains.
“I say, ‘That’s art. What do you see in it?’
“And he goes, ‘I see a lot of things in it.’
“So I say, ‘Like what?’
“He says, ‘It’s telling me to come to the
pole. Talk about it. Is it like a prayer?’
“‘You can take it any way you want it,’ I
say. ‘Maybe it is a prayer.’
“He says, ‘I see different things in it.’
“And I say, ‘That’s what it is. It makes
you want to focus on looking at it. Then
you look at it again and you see
something different than what you saw the
first time. It goes back and forth, that’s
how I think about it. That’s art.’”
Rat's house is festooned with his creations.
There are the muffler guys, and the 3-D
portraits fashioned from shovels, rakes
and horseshoes, the fat little yellow pig
cobbled together from a propane tank, the
mechanical man built from an electrical
junction box. Which is only to get started
on an inventory. Move inside his house
and there’s another surprise. He’s ripped
out the living room ceiling, vaulted it,
braced it with logs and paneled with
knotty pine, making a northwoods retreat
out of a modest Frogtown worker’s home.
A brace of chainsaws are strung up in the
ceiling to make some kind of point.
Rat allows that he has always been a
tinkerer. “I’ve been messing around all my
life with cars and metal work,” he says.
But since he retired four years ago from
Metal Matic, a Minneapolis steel pipe
supplier, he’s been able to turn up the
volume on his art operation.
So I ask him, Why? Most people are
happy enough to watch TV, mow the
lawn, go fishing or golfing and let the
minutes dribble away. “This is what
makes me happy,” he says. “When I’m
doing this, I’m doing something I want to
do. I’m creating something. I’m just being
myself.”
This raises another question. What is the
nub of the distinction between him and all
the other people who may have a similar
vision, but go light on completion?
“Oh, a lot of people, they don’t have the
ambition to follow through. Let me tell
you about the bells I make. I cut an
acetylene tank in two. I put a tang on it to
hang it, then I put a big dongle on to make
it ring. So a guy comes up to me with his
wife and says, ‘How much do you get for
them bells?’
“I say, ‘A hundred fifty.’
“He says, ‘I can make that.’
“So I looked at him and said, ‘Really?’ I
said, ‘How long have you been telling her
you can make that?’
“And she said, ‘Honey, I hate to tell you
this, but I’ve been waiting on a bell for 1 2
years.’
“And I was thinking, ‘I should make up a
sign that says, You say you could do it,
but you ain’t never going to really do it.’”
This being another reason why Rat is an
artist. You can pay him to make you a
sculpture, but you probably couldn’t pay
him enough to make him stop.
JULY/AUGUST 2018 PAGE 7

WHAT'S HAPPENING
PAGE 8
JULY/AUGUST 2018

Was That Gunfire?
Ifyou aren't sure, call it in
BY THE NUMBERS
Gunshots reported to police,
Jan. 1 though June 25, 201 8;
locations are approximate.
Summer’s here, windows are open... so
Frogtown residents are once again asking
each other: ‘Was that gunfire we just
heard?’ The question appears repeatedly
on the neighborhood’s Facebook page.
Gunshots peak in warmer months, says
St. Paul Police department crime
prevention specialist Patty Lammers,
herself a former Frogtown resident. But
reports of shots fired within Frogtown
boundaries so far this year are slightly
down, compared to the same period last
year, she notes. In 201 7, police reported
a 66 shots fired from January 1 to June
25, while 56 were documented in the
same 201 8 time period.
Lammers observed that shots reported are
broadly distributed throughout the
neighborhood, from Lexington to I-35.
“There are some pockets but there are a
lot of single incidents,” she said. “Some
of the gunshots are gang-related, if one
gang member happens to pass another one
they might take a shot at each other.
Others seem to be random.” Shots are
fired during the daytime as well as at
night, Lammers said. “On recent days
there’s been gunfire at 7 pm and even
3:30 in the afternoon,” she said.
Police are working to tamp down gun
violence, using a three-pronged approach
of visibility, outreach and enforcement.
For serious cases, city police are
partnering with federal officials “to bring
people up on federal charges,” Lammers
said. Police officers have appeared at
many community gatherings, and are
especially visible at the city’s recreation
centers, where they participate in “Safe
Summer Nights” events. Officers and
community outreach staff are also
checking in with families of known
shooters in the neighborhood, “to visit
with moms about their kids.”
What can concerned residents do? “If you
hear something, call it in at 911 ,” advises
Sheila Lambie, commander of the guns
and gangs unit for the St Paul Police.
“You don’t have to figure out yourself
whether it was gunshots or fireworks. Let
us figure it out. If you call, we will ask if
you can tell what direction the shots were
coming from, whether you simply heard
shots or you saw something. If you want a
call back later from officers to know what
happened, we are happy to do that. But if
you don’t want to talk further, that’s okay.
Just call it in. We need the assistance!”
Residents are also invited to attend police
informational meetings on the third
Tuesday of each month. Meetings are
open to the public at the Western District
office at 389 N. Hamline Avenue, and are
held at 9:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.
JULY/AUGUST 2018
PAGE 9

PAST & FUTURE
Beverley Hawkins: The Exit Interview
After 34 years she's handing over leadership at Model Cities
After 34 years, Dr. Beverly Oliver
Hawkins in retiring from Model Cities,
the Frogtown-based non-profit that’s
dedicated to building up families and the
greater community. The organization
grew out ofa church-basement health
care operation in the late 60s, morphed
into a federally-funded War on Poverty
clinic, and later became a free-standing
development organization housed in a
combination retail/office/apartment
complex at University and Victoria. We
asked Dr. Hawkins to take stock ofher
tenure, and asked the incoming director,
Kizzy Downie, to describe what the future
will bring.
Looking back on 34 years at Model Cities,
what do you count as the biggest things
that got done?
BH: I don't know where to start. I think
the biggest thing was the original
breaking from the city. We were all
community volunteers back then, and I
was the youngest thing on the block. At
that time the federal government said the
Model Cities health clinic needed to move
out from under the city and become a
separate non-profit organization. Which
we managed to do. And that I thought was
Kizzy Downie, Dr. Beverley Hawkins in the reading room at the Model Cities office
on University at Victoria. The room features displays honoring railroad porters.
a very big deal.
The second big deal for us was building
our first building. It was a newconstruction
clinic building, which is still
there at 430 Dale. It’s owned by the
Muslim community now. We had a
pharmacy, a dental lab, x-ray, 11 medical
rooms, community space, a little day care.
That first building was a major thing. It
taught me that you’ve got to have a lot of
faith. You have to be willing to walk on
water. Sometimes people get scared. They
don’t want to get out of the boat. You
have to have dogged tenacity. You have to
refuse to give up because things take a
long time to get built.
Ordinarily what happens, particularly in
communities of color, is the developer is
not the African American, or the Latina,
or the Asian. It’s a big group like Project
for Pride in Living, or Aeon, or a private
guy. I said no, we can do it. I figured if we
could do it, any other group can do it. If
Model Cities can do it, then there’s
nothing to stop Native Americans, or
Asians, or Hispanic people, They can also
do the same thing. And they should be
encouraged by that fact.
What comes next?
I need to decompress. I’m going to see
where God sends me. I’ll do things
around the house I haven’t had time to do
I need to clean my garage. I got stuff in
my closet. I want to take voice lessons.
Doing things for my enjoyment and not
having to study something.
Kizzy, you’ll be taking over. What ought to
happen next? What are the significant
things that should be done?
KD: I think being in the community and
having our building here at Victoria and
University sets the tone — it says we’re
going to be here for a long time.
Continued, Next Page
PAGE 10 JULY/AUGUST 2018

HAWKINS, CONTINUED: We’re not just in the process of
building buildings for the heck of it. We want the community to
see that we’re here to support their needs. There will be
opportunity for more development projects — to insure that we
have more affordable housing, and that we also address the
parking concerns that are bubbling up.
How do you do development without gentrifying?
You’ve got to hit a certain balance in shifting how a community
looks and feels. But at the same time, people who have lived in the
community, who are invested in the community, they deserve to
have access to things that should be found in these neighborhoods.
You shouldn’t have to go to high-priced areas to have cultural
spaces or nice restaurants. If you live in Uptown, or near Grand
Avenue, you don’t think twice about that.
You have to look at the big picture, to make sure you’re
contributing to the neighborhood, that you’re trying to take care of
people on a continuum, and not just focus on one group of people.
BH: I’m a believer that the light rail can bring in a market of
peope that we didn’t have here before. I hope I’m not made a liar
on that. We have to take these key intersections — Victoria,
Western — and we need to create a destination for people. We
shouldn’t just limit our market to people in the neighborhood. We
should become a place for culturally diverse arts, for food, a
unique business district. We want something here that everyone
can celebrate.
STREET CROSSING, CONTINUED: In-road street signs can also
create a narrowing, 'gateway' effect, slowing cars down and
making them more likely to stop for pedestrians. Engineers will
test other low-cost engineering solutions throughout the year,
looking for those most likely to increase safety.
Ideally, Ellison says, he’d like to see the maximum speed limit
lowered city-wide, to 25 miles per hour. “If someone is hit by a car
going 25 miles an hour they are much less likely to be seriously
injured or killed,” he explains. But that’s a big change that requires
state legislative approval.
Meanwhile, Frogtown residents have a role to play. We can
advocate for design changes on our neighborhood streets that will
make them safer for pedestrians and bikers, like median strips and
plantings, roundabouts, and other traffic calming tactics. For
drivers, the key is awareness; pedestrians have the absolute right to
cross at any intersection. Bikers must follow the same traffic rules
as people in cars, stopping at stop signs and signaling turns. As for
walkers, Ellison has a bit of sage advice, delivered with a smile:
“Know your rights, but…never step in front of a moving vehicle.”
DEVELOPMENT, CONTINUED: the park website. Construction
will take two years, with building construction in this year, and
park land remodeling next year. Programming at Scheffer
continues all this summer, says manager Torria Randall. For
updates, visit the Scheffer webpage, stpaul.gov/departments/parksrecreation/design-construction/current-projects/scheffer-recreationcenter-project.
Out of the Box
Ask the Animal Humane Society Outreach Trainers
He's Shaking — "My dog paces, shakes, and hides when he hears loud noises at night.
What can I do to help him?
There are many products available that can help ease anxiety —
Thundershirt, Adaptil, calming treats, and anti-anxiety medication.
How effective they are depends on the dog and their level of anxiety.
You can work on desensitizing your dog to Scary Things by exposing
them to the noise at a level where they notice it but are not stressed.
Then begin pairing them noticing the noise with a generous, special
treat — a decadent food they only get when the Scary Thing
happens. It works best when the dog is never exposed to the Scary Thing if it will be
too loud or too close to remain relaxed. If your dog stops eating, starts pacing, or tries
to run and hide, the Scary Thing is too much and his mind is only in survival mode,
not learning mode. Gradually you will be able to increase the exposure level. It is a
slow process but will really help your dog! AHS Outreach trainers are available to
help with this process. Call us at 651-802-8246.
is published six times per year by Health Advocates Inc.,
843 Van Buren Ave., St. Paul, Minnesota, 551 04,
and is distributed door-to-door from Lexington Parkway to 35E,
and from University Avenue to Pierce Butler Route.
Publisher: Patricia Ohmans • Editor: Anthony Schmitz
651 .757.5970 • patricia.ohmans@gmail.com
651 .757.7479 • apbschmitz@gmail.com
Ad rates & more at GreeningFrogtown.com
Next issue, September/October • Ad deadline August 1 5.
Health Advocates also sponsors Frogtown Green, an initiative that promotes
green development to increase the health and wealth ofFrogtown residents.
JULY/AUGUST 2018
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