February 2011

Volume 17

Number 2

Your Community News & Information Source

Celebrating 125 Years of

Frigid FunBill KnightContributor

The St. Paul Winter Carnival is celebrat-ing its 125th birthday this year, so they are

gifting us with 125 events that kick-off on Jan. 27. The majority of them will take place in and around downtown St. Paul near Rice Park, at the adjacent Landmark Center, with others at Lake Phalen and Como Park.

Creating, coordinating and simply keeping track of that much activity is a full-time opera-tion for Beth Pinkney, the executive director of the Winter Carnival who is working on her third festival.

“About 40 percent of the events are stable, that is, they happen every year,” she said. “We begin in March looking for and creating new events, so it’s an all-year-long process. We start getting serious in June and July.”

Most of the events and activities are finalized in October and November. She said the parades, ice carvings and snow sculptures are the most popular Carnival attractions.

Winter Carnival / Page 2

Met Council survey reveals new details on area residents

Mary Diedrick HansenStaff Writer

 

The gloom and doom of 2010 is behind us

and economists have ten-tatively projected 2011

to be the year when em-ployment numbers start to climb and housing val-ues end their decline. But where does St. Paul fit in with all those numbers and projections? How is it faring compared to past years? The recent re-lease of the Metropolitan Council’s Community

Profiles statistics (2005-2009) gives a clearer pic-ture of what is happening in St. Paul today.

RaceSt. Paul’s population

has changed significantly over the last 20 years. In 1990, 80 percent of the population was Cau-

casian. By 2000 that number declined to 64 percent, and the latest figures from the Metro-politan Council show it just above 61 percent. African Americans have climbed to 13 percent from 7 percent in 1990. Asian Americans have increase by the same per-centages. Hispanic/La-tinos have grown from 4 percent in 1990 to 9 percent in 2009. Ameri-can Indians and residents who are of two or more races make up the rest. Of those of Hispanic ori-gin, 32 percent reside on the West Side.

The survey showed that 26 percent of St. Paul’s residents were of German heritage; 14 percent Irish, 8 percent Norwegian, 7 percent Swedish, and 6 percent English. People of Sub-Saharan African ancestry represented 4.2 percent of St. Paul’s pop-ulation. In the 1980s, the Thomas/Dale area of the city, known as Frogtown, became home to Viet-namese residents who had fled their war-torn country. Not long after, following an arrangement for a settlement program for Hmong refugees, the city became home to yet another group of immi-grants. By 2000, St. Paul had the largest number of urban Hmong in the United States.

Because of the changing

The Changing Face of St. Paul

Where do you fit in?

Community ProfilePage 7

INCOMEMedian Household Income$46,000

HOMEOWNERSHIP56% own their own home

Median value: $206,200Median gross rent: $758

HOUSEHOLDS38% live alone24% families without kids17% married with kids12% unmarried with kids9% other

RACE61% White13% Asian13% Black9% Latino

4% otherSource: American Community Survey, 2005-2009

Page 2 - Downtown St. Paul Voice - February 2011

Your community news and information sourceA rts & Culture

The Downtown St. Paul Voice is published monthly and delivered to every apartment, condominium and skyway drop in St. Paul’s historic urban village, as well as other locations throughout downtown St. Paul.

Publisher & Editor: Tim Spitzack Copy Editor: Leslie MartinReporter: Mary Diedrick Hansen Contributors: Roger Fuller, Don MorganLayout & Design: Mona ToftMasthead design by Nick GermanoAdvertising: Mario Polanco, Henry Torres Home Delivery: Independent Delivery Service Bulk Delivery: SC Distribution 651-285-1119

The Downtown St. Paul Voice assumes no responsibility for the opinions expressed by contributors and for the validity of claims or items reported. Copyright Downtown St. Paul Voice 2010. All rights reserved in compliance of Federal Copyright Act of 1978.

St. Paul Publishing Co.1643 So. Robert St., West St. Paul, MN 55118

Phone: (651) 457-1177 sppc@stpaulpublishing.comwww.stpaulpublishing.com

What’s new?Here is a sample of

some of the new events this year. For details on these and all of the events, visit www.winter-carnival.com.

• “Get Out and Go St. Paul” – a family festival celebrating outdoor win-ter sports, such as Nordic skiing, ski jorging and snowshoe races, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Sat., Jan. 29 at Lake Phalen.

• Salute to Canada – Celebrating our friends to the north with music and fun, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Sat., Jan. 29 in Rice Park.

• Winter Fest 2011 at the Germanic-American Institute, 301 Summit Ave. – Enjoy German hospitality and fun with beer, brats, live enter-tainment and tradition-al “German Karneval” games, 3-7 p.m., Sat., Jan. 29.

• Hot Irish Music in a

Cool City - “COMPAS’ Art of Cuisine on Tour,” hits The Liffey, 175 W. 7th St., for a night of Irish food and music, 6-10 p.m., Sat., Jan. 29.

• Securian Winter Run - A new race, a 10k, and a new course for both the 5k and half marathon run have been added to the Securian Winter Run. Events begin at 9 a.m., Sat., Jan. 29 at Sixth and Jackson streets.

• Much More than Ice in Rice – In addition to the spectacular ice carv-ings, Rice Park will host live music from local art-ists daily, a 125-foot ice wall depicting highlights of Winter Carnival’s his-tory, and an ice bar serv-ing various adult bever-ages. Hours vary from Jan. 28 through Feb. 5.

• A True Royal Wed-ding – celebrate the marriage of King Boreas (1983) and Aurora, Queen of the Snows (1955), (Charlie Hall and Dorothy Arneberg Furlong, respectively) in

the winter wonderland of Rice Park at 2 p.m., Sat., Feb. 5.

• Snow Plow Compe-tition - One new event is offering some serious fun when it comes to push-ing around a few piles of snow.

Imagine a typical rid-ing lawn mower with a snow plow blade mount-ed on the front end, but no driver behind the wheel. Then you’ll have a pretty good picture of the remote control vehi-cles that will be slugging it out in the first Autono-mous Snow Plow Com-petition. These robotic snow plows are quite different from typical remote controlled vehi-cles, according to Suneel Sheikh, the owner of a Shoreview company that does research in aero-space navigation and one of some 25 volunteers putting on the event.

“The seat has been stripped out and that space is used for the con-trol mechanisms, com-

puters and sensors,” he said. “Think of it as re-placing a human being with electronic devices.”

Two “competition fields,” which are 30-foot long piles of snow and about the width of a city sidewalk, will be set up on Fourth Street, which will be blocked off between Market and Washington streets from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

On Sat., Jan. 29, each competing vehicle will at-tempt to plow snow from the competition field. Then on Sun., Jan. 30, the same plows will go back to work on a more challenging U-shaped course. Organized by the Satellite Division of the Institute of Navigation, the two day event brings to St. Paul one-of-a-kind snow plows, put together

by students at six colleges and universities in Min-nesota, Michigan and Ohio. The “human part” of the robotic competi-tion is the students’ de-sign of the vehicle, the instructions they have written for the on-board computer and the control algorithms.

“After getting a sig-nal to go, no humans will interact with the

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Your community news and information sourceA rts & Culturevehicle,” Sheikh said. “Students will have pre-programmed a route for the vehicle, telling it which way to go. Some (snow plows) will have vision processing devices and the plow will ‘watch’ where it has gone and where it needs to go.”

Sheikh said each ve-hicle will have up to 20 minutes to plow the snow from the competition field. The goal is not nec-essarily to move the snow but to create the unique algorithms, the naviga-tional guidance and the remote controls.

Economic impactWith all the people

and events happening each year, gauging the

economic impact of the Winter Carnival is no easy task. According to research on the 2007 event, the most recent statistics available, most of the people coming to Winter Carnival events live within 15 miles of St. Paul and they made the visit as a family group. People were evenly split between first time and repeat visitors.

“About one third of the visitors spent money on food and beverages and the average amount was just over $13,” said Ingrid Schneider, direc-tor of the University of Minnesota Tourism Cen-ter which conducted this visitor profile. Other av-erage expenditures by vis-

itors were $11 on Winter Carnival buttons, $10 on tickets and almost $7 on parking, which totals $41.

By comparison, visitors to the 2006 Cinco de Mayo festival spent an av-erage of just over $28 on food, $27 on tickets and just under $4 on parking, totaling $59. Schneider said there are challenges in comparing numbers from one event against

another because some are only one day long and others are multi-day festivals, and some focus more on food and bever-ages. She said that local visitors are not bringing “new money” to St. Paul, so expenditures on Win-ter Carnival events do

not have a significant lo-

cal economic impact. “But that said, (carni-

val organizers) are doing many things right be-

cause people keep coming

back each year, as well as the event attracting new visitors,” she said.

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Your community news and information sourceS ample St. PaulScience Museum

“Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs” opens Feb. 18. This new exhibit,which features over 100 artifacts of the treasures of King Tut, ex-plores the time of the pha-raohs and what scientists have recently discovered regarding the unexpected death of King Tut. To complement the exhibit, the Onmintheatre is fea-turing “Mummies: Se-crets of the Pharaohs,” also opening Feb. 18. In the late 19th century 40 royal mummies, includ-ing 12 Kings of Egypt, were discovered together in the same tomb. To-day, scientists continue to explore the process of ancient Egyptian mum-mification using modern technology. See the first modern mummification in the Egyptian style since the time of the pha-raohs, and find out what mysteries scientists hope to unravel by studying ancient DNA. Tickets are $25 for adults and $22 for children ages 4-12,

and $29 for seniors age 60 and older. Price in-cludes all Science Muse-um exhibits.

Omnifest 2011 - Om-nifest features five films showing daily in the Omnitheater through Feb. 17. Shows include: “Hubble,” “Old Man and the Sea,” “Sea Monsters,” “Wild Safari” and “Trop-ical Rain Forest.”

Museum tickets are $11 for adults and $8.50 for children ages 4-12 and seniors age 60 and older, or $17 and $14.50 respectively with admis-sion to the Omnithe-ater. Omnitheater tickets alone are $8/$7. The Sci-ence Museum is located at 120 W. Kellogg Blvd. For more information, visit www.smm.org, or call 651-221-9444.

Ordway Center for Performing Arts

Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience will perform at 7:30 p.m., Sun., Feb. 13 at the Ordway Center, 345 Washington St., St. Paul. Grammy Award-win-

ning musician Terrance Simien, an eighth gen-eration Louisiana Creole, incorporates a hypnotic blend of Zydeco, New Orleans funk, and reggae-flavored Afro-Caribbean sound. Tickets are $15-$25. For more informa-tion, call 651-224-4222 or visit www.ordway.org.

Xcel Energy CenterChris Tomlin, with

special guests Louie Gi-glio, Christy Nockels and Rend Collective, will present the “And If Our God Is For Us” tour at 7 p.m., Wed., Feb. 16. Tickets are $25-$35. For more information, call 651-726-8240 or visit www.xcelenergycenter.com.

History Theatre“Adrift on the Missis-

sippi” is presented Feb. 10-27 at the E.M. Pear-son Theatre at Concor-dia University, St. Paul. Told through memories, prayers and spirituals, “Adrift on the Mississip-pi” is the powerful true story of Reverend Rob-

ert Hickman, who led a group of slaves out of Mis-souri, up the Mississippi river on a raft in search of freedom. Guided by their faith in one another and the hope of a bet-ter life, these courageous men and women formed a fellowship that carried them through their long and dangerous journey. They made their way to St. Paul, where many of them settled and founded Pilgrim Baptist Church, the first Black church in Minnesota. Tickets are $25-$30 for adults, $22-$28 for seniors and $10 for children.

Sample Night Live, a sampling of local pro-ductions, is featured at 7 p.m. the first Wednesday of each month, except February. The format features 12 acts per night, including theater, film, dance, improv, visual arts, folk and opera. The next performance is Mar. 2. Tickets are $20. The History Theater is locat-ed at 30 E. Tenth St., St. Paul. For more informa-tion, call 651-292-4323.

Photo ©2010 Sandro Vannini

This shabti, or funerary figure, of King Tut was found in the antechamber to his tomb. Made of wood and painted gold, it was meant to perform labor in the afterlife so that the king himself could rest. The shabti is one of 100 artifacts from Tut’s tomb and other no-table ancient sites that will make their way to Minnesota for the first time when the “Tut-ankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs” exhibition opens at the Science Museum of Minnesota on Feb. 18.

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Your community news and information sourceS ample St. Paul

Children’s MuseumLEGO Castle Adven-

ture opens Sat., Feb. 5. Visitors help design a new castle for the king and queen using one of the coolest building ma-terials of all time: LEGO bricks. Visitors can con-struct castles, learn about real-world castles and

their building secrets, and plan their ideal cas-tle’s defenses. Families can explore the inside of the royal castle, test their fortress designs with a catapult, spot a dragon and climb a battlement wall.

Tickets are $8.95. The museum is located at 10

W. Seventh St., St. Paul. For more information, call 651-225-6000.

History Center“Winter Carnival

Weekends” are offered noon-4 p.m., Jan.  29-30,  and Feb. 5-6, featur-ing stories, activities and a History HiJinx craft. Participants will create miniature versions of King Boreas and Vulca-nus Rex using clothes-pins, fabric, fake fur and sparkles and place them in their own Winter di-orama scene.

“The Value of One Life” is presented through April 10. This exhibit highlights por-traits of eight people who survived life-altering events and went on to lead inspiring lives.

Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and college students, and $5 for children ages 6-17. The center offers free ad-mission on Tuesdays, 5-8 p.m. For more informa-tion, call 651-259-3000 or visit www.mnhs.org.

Park Square Theatre

“The Odyesy” is pre-sented through Feb. 6. Legendary warrior Odys-seus fights tides, beasts and his own arrogance — often with no weapon ex-cept his passion. But it’s not just his adventure, his wife fights the urge to give up on the world and his teenage son wres-tles with the journey to adulthood.

“The Diary of Anne Frank” is presented Feb. 26. In this extraordinary account of eight Jews hiding in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, Anne Frank emerges from history as a lyrical and intensely gifted young woman. Be inspired by this timeless account of a girl whose imagination and hope would not be stifled by adversity.

Tickets are $20-$60. Tickets for ages 30 and under are $15. A $5 dis-count is offered for peo-ple age 62 and older. The theater is located in the Historic Hamm Build-

ing, 20 W. 7th Place, St. Paul. For more informa-tion, call 651-291-7005.

Artists’ QuarterThe Artists’ Quarter,

located in the Historic Hamm Building at Sev-enth Place and St. Peter in downtown St. Paul, offers live entertainment throughout the month, including jazz bands, po-etry nights and the popu-lar B-3 organ night, held at 9 p.m. every Tuesday. For a complete schedule of events, call 651-292-

1359 or visit www.artist-squarter.com.

La Korneta performance

La Korneta, a rock quintet from Mexico that covers Rock ’n’ Roll clas-sics in both English and Spanish, will perform at 7 p.m., Thurs., Jan. 27 at Neighborhood House, 179 E. Robie St., St. Paul, and Sun., Jan. 30 at McNally Smith College of Music, 19 Exchange St. E., St. Paul.

“Adrift on the Mississippi,” the powerful true story of Reverend Robert Hickman, who led a group of slaves up the Mississippi river on a raft in search of freedom, is presented Feb. 10-27 by the History Theatre at the E.M. Pearson Theatre at Concordia University.

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Your community news and information sourceF uller Files by Roger Fuller

CapitolRiver appointments

CapitolRiver Coun-cil/District 17 (CRC) has nominated JoAnn Hawkins, Chris Beck-strom and Karl Karlson to serve on the Capital Improvement Budget (CIB) task force. The task force reviews applications for capital improvements submitted by neighbor-hood groups and city departments and ranks them for review by the CIB committee. The CIB committee then submits its budget for capital im-provements to the mayor and city council.

The Executive Com-mittee of CRC nomi-nated three people to the citywide Annual District Council Honor Roll, which recognizes people for their contributions to the community. They are Ellen McPartlan, chair of the Lowertown Mas-ter Plan Task Force; John Mannillo, co-chair of the District 17 Development Review Committee; and Karl Karlson, Downtown Communication Com-mittee for light rail con-struction.

CRC named four mem-bers to the Advisory Sky-way Committee, which has oversight responsi-bilities for the downtown skyway system. They are Geraldine Balter, a Secu-rian employee and down-

town resident; Shawn Wiski of the Alliance Bank Center; and Gin-ny Harris and Jim Ivey, downtown residents.

Minnesota SinfoniaMinnesota Sinfonia

will present a program of “Music from Around the World” at 7 p.m., Fri., Feb. 11 at Metro State University. Cellist Dmi-try Kouzov will perform Concerto in D Major for cello by Haydn. Other selections include Con-certo Grosso in D mi-nor by Scarlatti, Jewish Sketches by Jay Fishman and Slavonic Dance No. 3 by Dvorak.

Lowry Lab performances

Gonzo Group Theatre will present “No Exit” by Sartre at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 3-12 at Lowry Lab The-atre, located in the Lowry building at Fifth and St. Peter, St. Paul.

“Lowry Lab Laugh,” featuring stand-up com-edy, will be held at 7:30 p.m., Wed., Feb. 9 and every other second Wednesday

Table Salt Theatre will present “Nest” by Ra-chael Brogan Flanery Feb. 24 through Mar. 12.

Events at the Black Dog

Springboard for the Arts will host a happy

hour 5-8 p.m., Mon., Feb. 7, at the Black Dog Café, 308 Prince St., St. Paul. It is an informal gathering for artists to network.

Science Museum of Minnesota will present, “Beaker and Brush,” a discussion of the inter-section of science and the arts, 6:30-8 p.m., Tues., Feb. 8.

An event featuring Bal-kan music will be held at 7:30 p.m., Thurs., Feb. 17.

Central Library events

Central Book Club will feature “Days of Rondo” by Evelyn Fairbanks at 10:30 a.m., Thurs., Feb. 10 at the Central Library. It traces the history of the old Rondo neighborhood in St. Paul, which was disrupted when the I-94 freeway was built.

The History Book Club will discuss “Open-ing Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season” by Jonathan Eig at 2 p.m., Thurs., Feb. 24.

City Passport Center

City Passport senior citizen center has the fol-lowing activities in Feb-ruary: Ice cream float so-cial, 1:30 p.m., Fri., Feb. 11; Happy Birthday Par-ty, 2 p.m., Feb. 14; Cur-

rent events discussion, 11 a.m., Fri., Feb. 18; Writers Group, 10 a.m., Fri., Feb. 18; Commu-nity acupuncture, 9:30 a.m., Tuesdays; Songs from the ’50’s and ’60’s, 10:45 a.m., second and fourth Friday; Baby Knit Club, 1 p.m., Thursdays; Blood pressure checks, 10 a.m., Mondays; Mov-ies are shown at 1 p.m., Thursdays.

Embassy Suites seeks new bus parking area

Embassy Suites wants to establish a parking area on East Tenth Street for buses that serve its residents, saying the pres-ent location on Jackson Street is less convenient. However, St. Paul Pub-lic Works said the park-ing on East Tenth Street might interfere with the sightlines of motorists and pedestrians. Resi-dents have objected to noise from the buses.

Nice Ride expands to St. Paul

Nice Ride Minnesota, a bike rental service, plans to expand its base in Minneapolis and serve St. Paul and other areas. Spokesman Bill Dossett said about $5.8 million is needed to expand the number of stations from 65 to 130. Nice Ride Minnesota established

the program to encour-age bike use in the metro area. If the bike is used more than 30 minutes a fee may be charged.

Zeitgeist at Studio Z

Zeitgeist will pres-ent “Playing It Close to Home” at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 11-12 at Studio Z, 275 E. Fourth St., St. Paul. The Zeitgeist quartet will per-form winning selections from past Eric Stokes song contests and works by Carei Thomas.

Plug into St. PaulPlug into St. Paul so-

cial gathering for new downtown residents, will be held 5:30-7:30 p.m., Thurs., Feb. 17 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Town Square. Several downtown retailers will be present.

Fourth of July festival applicants denied

St. Paulites will have to settle for a Fourth of July fireworks show at Harriet Island this year because there will be no food and entertainment festival on Harriet Island. Brad Meyer of Parks and Recreation department said four applications to replace the Taste of Min-nesota were turned down because the promoters could not afford to pay

the city for security and other associated costs. Meyer said the city will attempt to find a pro-moter for 2012 that can offer food, entertainment and fireworks.

Minnesota Building converted to apartments

The Minnesota Build-ing at Fourth and Cedar has been converted from a commercial building to a 137-unit apartment building. Sand Co. devel-opers plan to rent studios at $575, one-bedroom units at $740 and two bedroom apartments at $1,094. The rents are be-low market rate due to a low-income tax credit program. Renters must meet income restrictions, which are $35,280 for singles and $40,320 for two people.

McNally Smith concert

Jen and Shon Parker are the featured perform-ers at Live at Five, held at 5 p.m., Tues., Feb. 15 at McNally Smith College of Music. Faculty mem-bers will perform pop, jazz and original works.

An Open House will be held 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Sat., Feb. 19 at the college.

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Downtown St. Paul Voice - February 2011 - Page 7

Your community news and information sourceC ommunity

demographics, schools have seen a rise in Eng-lish language learners and students qualifying for a free hot lunch. Education has always been a top pri-ority in St. Paul, which is second in the United States in the number of higher education institu-tions per capita. In 1992, it became the first city in the U.S. to sponsor and open a charter school, now found in most states across the nation. The St. Paul Public School district has become ex-tremely diverse, with 70 different languages rep-resented by students, although only four lan-guages are used for most school communication: English, Spanish, Hmong and Somali. In spite of a variety of challenges, the school district has seen a decline in the number of high school dropouts over the past 20 years, from 19 percent to 13 percent. St. Paul resi-dents with some college have remained steady at 19 percent. Likewise, those with associate de-grees have remained at 6 percent. Bachelor degrees rose from 17 percent in 1990 to 23 percent in 2009. Graduate and pro-fessional degree numbers rose from 9 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2009.

HouseholdsHousehold types with-

in the city have remained relatively steady since 1990. Married families

declined slightly to 17 percent; unmarried fami-lies with children rose slightly to 12 percent. Families without chil-dren dropped slightly to 24 percent. Those liv-ing alone rose slightly to 38 percent. Non-fam-ily households have re-mained steady at 9 per-cent.

EmploymentOver the past 10 years

health care and social services have become the major employment sector in St. Paul, rising from 16 percent 22 percent. Pub-lic administration comes in next at 12 percent, fol-lowed by educational ser-vices, 10 percent; finance and insurance, 8 percent; retail trade, administra-tive and waste services, manufacturing, profes-sional and technical ser-vices, all at 5 percent.

Over the past 20 years the highest unemploy-ment rate in the city was just over 5 percent, oc-curring in 1991-1992 and again in 2003. Until recently, that is. The Re-cession has taken a toll on St. Paul residents with a sharp uptick in unem-ployment numbers of 8 percent between 2008 and 2009, the most re-cent figures available.

IncomeIn 1990 St. Paul had

a median household in-come (the mid-point between the highest and lowest incomes) of $26,500 compared to Ramsey County’s $32,000. By 2000 it had climbed to $38,800

with Ramsey County at $45,700, and in 2009 was $46,000 in St. Paul and $52,300 in Ramsey County.

The average income for St. Paul residents in 1990 was $13,700, a few thousand less than the Ramsey County average, which has remained the case over the years. In-come jumped in 2000 to $20,200 in St. Paul. In 2007, the year the hous-ing bubble burst, num-bers were at $24,300 in St. Paul and rose by the next year to $26,000. In 2009, it was $25,600 in St. Paul and $29,000 in Ramsey County.

HomeownershipHomeownership

has been holding at around 55 percent since 1990. Home sales dur-ing the year 2000 show 25 percent selling for under $100,000. By 2008, homes selling for $149,000 and less ac-counted for just 16 per-cent of all home sales. With home values ris-ing, 23 percent sold in the $200,00 to $249,000 range,12 percent in the $250,000 to $299,000 range and 15 percent in the $300,000 to $499,000 range.

Vacancy rates were highest in 2008 with 10,780. Interestingly enough, in 1990 there were 7,334, and that number dropped to 3,604 by the year 2000. The latest figures for 2009 show vacant prop-erty at 9,736.

Since 1990, the num-ber of single-family de-

tached homes has re-mained steady at around 58,000. Townhomes have increased from 3,501 20 years ago to 4,295. In the last 20 years, duplexes and triplexes declined by about 2,000 to 15,387. Multi-family (5 units or more) units are up from 37,342 to 42,592 over 20 years.

A considerable amount of redevelopment oc-curred between 2003 and 2006. In 2003, 753 permits were issued for multi-family housing units of 5 or more; 1,504 were issued the next year. Although permits have nearly been shut down since 2007, of the per-mits issued, most have been for multi-family units.

Historical perspective

To put this informa-tion in context, here’s a snapshot of the preced-ing decades. St. Paulites touted  their “hale and hardiness” by organiz-ing the Winter Carni-

val in 1886. During the Roaring Twenties,  the city became  a hide-out for gun-totin’ gangsters. It suffered through the Depression, rallied dur-ing World War II and prospered in the post-war years. Suburban growth took its toll on St. Paul proper in the 1960s and ’70s. Businesses began to migrate to the more mod-ern shopping malls, tak-ing residents with them. As luck would have it, growing commuter head-aches that have worsened with sprawling suburbia, are beginning to bring residents back to the city and closer to their place of employment. Busi-nesses are beginning to take a closer look at lo-cating in downtown. The city seems to be coming full circle with a rising population. Metropoli-tan Council data con-firm changes in St. Paul, including a revival of downtown.

When “The Town of St. Paul” came into ex-istence in 1849, it occu-

pied approximately 280 acres. Today it covers 56 square miles, or 35,826 acres. Parks, recreation and preserves comprise 4,472 of those acres.

The city’s population hit its peak in 1970 with 309,866 residents. It dropped substantially by 1980 to 270,230. Since then a slow but steady in-crease has occurred with population figures ris-ing to 287,501 in 2009. 2010 estimates show St. Paul’s population rising to above 300,000 for the first time in 40 years.

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Community Profilefrom page 1

Page 8 - Downtown St. Paul Voice - February 2011

Your community news and information sourceB ack in Time

Don MorganContributor

By February, things can start to drag

along in Minnesota. The fun part of winter is long past, yet warm weather still seems very far away. Cabin fever was worse in the days before in-door gyms and malls or efficient car heaters. In February 1923, folks in St. Paul braved some bad weather to fight the win-ter blues.

In 1923, the Roaring Twenties were finally starting to roar. The first couple of years of the decade had seen a seri-ous economic downturn, with considerable unem-ployment and an annual deflation rate of over 15 percent. Industrial production had fallen off greatly and the low prices were very tough on farmers. But by the start of 1923, things had turned around and the country was headed for

six years of prosperity. Not that there were no problems. That Febru-ary would see disasters in Hawaii (tidal wave), New Mexico (mine explosion; over 100 dead) and New York (fire in an asylum; 25 patients dead). The big overseas news was the opening in Egypt of King Tut’s tomb, and the discovery of the famous golden funeral mask.

February in the 1920s meant the return of a fa-vorite event in St. Paul, the Twin Cities Auto Show. It was held that year in St. Paul’s Over-land Building on Uni-versity Avenue. The American love affair with automobiles was already well underway. Local editorials noted that au-tomobiles were obviously not just a fad, nor just toys for the rich. Folks flocked out University, mostly by streetcar, to check out the latest mod-els and developments. The exciting new fea-

tures that year were roofs and windows. Among the exhibitors were now long gone manufactur-ers like Willys-Knight, Reo, Peerless, Gardner, Packard, Essex, Auburn, Marmon, Pierce-Arrow, Durant, Chalmers and Oakland.

With the show set up and ready, all that was needed was some good travel weather. Fat chance! The evening before the opening the temperature suddenly dropped nearly 30 de-grees in just five hours – down to seventeen be-low zero. It would take a strong soul (or a real auto

buff ) to get on a poorly heated streetcar and head out for the day. And, if you were coming from Minneapolis you had to pay another fare when you crossed the city line, which was just two blocks from the show. Howev-er, people were used to tougher conditions then, or maybe it was just more boring at home than it is now. In any event, over 13,000 made it out there the first day, and the show went on to be a great suc-cess. Local radio WLAG (later WCCO) had a live broadcast from the show giving many their first look at radio as well as at automobiles.

The other big show that month wasn’t lucky, weather wise, either. The Building Show, held downtown at the Audito-rium on Fifth (where the Ordway is today), was al-most as popular an attrac-tion as the Auto Show. The show featured the latest in home design and improvements. For ex-ample, the new self stok-ing (via a gravity powered screw) coal furnaces were on display. Anyone with-out full time help could

appreciate how nice it would be not to have to get up in the middle of the night to stoke their furnace. Also on display were many home items powered for the first time by electricity, includ-ing sump pumps, waffle irons, phonographs and portable table lamps.

Building Show organiz-ers hoped for better luck with the weather than the Auto Show, but fat chance there, too! Temps not only stayed below zero, but a full-fledged blizzard blew in on Val-entine’s Day (opening day for the exhibits), with winds over 40 miles per hour and heavy snow. Nonetheless, folks still managed to get down-town and make the show a success.

The weather finally im-proved the second half of the month, in time for the opening of a few good silent movies, in-cluding “Robin Hood” with Douglas Fairbanks, “A Blind Bargain” with Lon Chaney, “Drums of Fate” with Mary Miles Minter and “The Coun-try Flapper” with Doro-thy Gish. There were also two good live shows in St. Paul that February. At the Orpheum (the old Orpheum, next to the Landmark Center where the skating rink is today) you could see the stage act of famous escape art-ist Harry Houdini. Full houses watched as, twice a day for a week, Houdini got out of locked trunks,

strait jackets and, for his big finish, did the up-side-down-in-the-water-tank-while-chained bit. He always came up un-chained and wet but still breathing.

The next week, at the Metropolitan on Sixth, featured the road produc-tion of the hit Broadway play “The Bat” by Mary Roberts Rinehart. It was an exciting detective play and a classic story of a group of strangers facing murder, one by one, in an old house. The pro-duction went so far as to require ticket holders to sign a pledge not to re-veal the “whodunit” end-ing. Enough people kept the pledge to guarantee good audiences for the entire one-week run of the show.

The Auto Show is still a winter favorite, although it has been moved to March and is now housed at the Minneapolis Con-vention Center. The Overland building, where the 1920s shows were held, is still right there off University Avenue. It’s now a commercial of-fice building known as Court International. The Building Show (now the Home and Patio show) is still on for February at RiverCentre and still features lots of cool stuff. Hopefully, no weather crisis will disturb either show this year, but don’t rule it out. But even if that happens, folks will undoubtedly get there somehow.

February 1923: Shows and Snows

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Local editorials noted that automobiles were obviously not just a fad, nor just toys for the rich.

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