For the Twin Cities, housing access and “economic inclusion” promise to be the twin themes of 2019.
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said the city’s $15 minimum wage, a new affordable-housing trust fund and an effort — still in its infancy — to connect every student to a college savings account all aim to include more workers in the region’s economic growth.
In the Twin Cities, “we have an incredible amount of prosperity, we have an incredible amount of progress,” Carter said Tuesday, addressing an audience at the University of St. Thomas. “And we have an enormous amount of people who for too long have been locked out of that prosperity.”
Carter on library fines: “My wife always says … not to read the Tweets. … My favorite Tweet said ‘next week St. Paul will be like that movie ‘The Purge’ where it’s legal to kill people.’ I feel like that escalated quickly. That was four steps down the road. That wasn’t next!” pic.twitter.com/9257x3a6XS
— Frederick Melo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) January 29, 2019
Across the river, Minneapolis recently decided to allow triplexes to be built virtually everywhere, a first-in-the-nation rethinking of long-standing single-family zoning rules.
When it comes to housing, “right now, we are way short. You have (rental) vacancies around 1.5 to 2 percent,” said Minneapolis Major Jacob Frey. “Density is a good thing. It’s not a four-letter word.”
Carter and Frey delivered remarks at St. Thomas’ Anderson Student Center in St. Paul as part of the annual “Breakfast with the Mayors” tradition.
The event, started by former St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak more than a decade ago, was organized by the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce in cooperation with the Minneapolis Regional Chamber.
Carter brought up a long-standing theme of regionalism, noting Minneapolis and St. Paul are stronger when they team to promote themselves. He discouraged “the old Midwestern value that we have that says when you’re really, really excited about something, make sure nobody knows it.”
The St. Paul mayor said the city’s new $71 million, three-year housing initiative will focus as much on keeping existing housing affordable as building new housing. While acknowledging that $50 college savings accounts won’t cover tuition on their own, Carter said a push this year to connect students to the accounts aims to get low-income families thinking about schooling early and seeing college as attainable.
To a lesser extent, he said, his decision to eliminate fines for overdue library materials also aims to bring families that have felt locked out of the library system back into a learning environment.
“I’m glad that makes you happy,” said the mayor, in reaction to applause, “because it didn’t make everybody happy. My wife always says not to read the comments, not to read the tweets. My favorite tweet (said): ‘Next week, St. Paul will be like that movie “The Purge” where it will be legal to kill people.’ ”
“I feel like that escalated quickly,” Carter joked. “That was four steps down the road. That wasn’t next!”
With an eye to economic inclusion, Frey said his priorities in Minneapolis this year include highlighting “Cultural Corridors” where ethnic businesses have a “unique presence” and exploring ways to help them remain in place over time, such as streamlined licensing.
Frey said housing efforts have too often left out the poorest of the poor. He made note of a large homeless encampment that the city recently dismantled after moving residents to a burgeoning “navigation center” — three large living pods housing nearly 120 people on Cedar Avenue.