Angelia McQuillan and other neighbors grew tired of the slippery snow and ice in front of the vacant property at 54 Hatch Ave. in St. Paul’s North End, so one of them took it upon himself to shovel the sidewalk.
That was March 2018. Then, in July of that year, McQuillan snapped pictures of the overgrown front and back yards, as well as the boulevard.
“I have also seen a group of kids parking their bikes in the back yard and going into the house,” McQuillan said at the time. “I’m pretty sure they broke in through a window and now they just keep the back door open and come and go as they please.”
Adding to the frustration for some residents is the fact that the registered property owner runs City Hall.
Property records show St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter purchased the single-family home in 2004 with his former wife, Alecia Carter. The mayor, a former city council member, won election in November 2017 on a platform of equity, or distributing public resources more fairly across neighborhoods, races and incomes.
The North End in particular has been a subject of debate centered on disparities, with some residents demanding greater police presence and noting escalating poverty levels. Minnesota Compass, a project of Wilder Research, found that nearly half of all North End households lived on less than $38,000 as of 2017.
HOUSE GENERATED AT LEAST 5 COMPLAINTS TO CITY
The 54 Hatch Ave. property generated at least five complaints to the St. Paul Department of Safety and Inspections in 2018 and 2019, most recently on Monday for a report of tall grass.
A crew from the city’s Parks Department went to the home to remove snow and ice in 2018, though the exact date and resulting assessment to the property owners was not immediately available Thursday from DSI. Ramsey County property tax records for 2019 show, however, the homeowners were assessed $338 for “clean up.”
And there’s been a boatload of discussion on Facebook.
The mayor, through his spokeswoman, forwarded a written statement explaining that previous tenants left the rental house in need of serious work.
“This property was originally purchased as a family home, and it has been rented out over the past several years,” Carter said. “It is currently empty, due to damages caused by its most recent occupants. Significant repairs are in planning, and should be underway soon.
“In the meantime, we have engaged a new property management company, and will ensure that each of the neighbors knows who to contact with concerns,” Carter’s statement continued. “I regret any frustration and inconvenience this process has caused for our neighbors.”
In neighborhood Facebook groups, some residents have found irony in the city’s embattled efforts to organize trash collection and crack down on illegal dumping. The city received a complaint of dumping at 54 Hatch Ave. in January 2018.
Hatch Avenue resident Nick Bieter wrote on a Sunday post: “I suspect Mayor Carter is too busy dealing with everyone else’s garbage to mow the lawn of his rental property on my block.”
A similar complaint arose a year ago.
“It’s not the fact the house is vacant that bugs me,” McQuillan said in the summer of 2018. “It’s that it’s not taken care of. It was mowed one time in the beginning of summer. I just feel like if you’re the mayor you should lead by example and this is not the right example.”
As of Tuesday morning, the lawn had been freshly mowed.
