Downtown

More housing fewer businesses

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

The population of the downtown St. Paul neighborhood grew from about 4000 in 2010 2000 to over 10,000 today. There are apartment buildings and condos. There are office buildings and factories that have been converted to housing. In fact over all housing has done well downtown.

There is also a lot of vacant retail and office space. With fewer downtown workers the skyways are quiet with pockets of activity.  The co-working space I used to use downtown closed during the pandemic. The building is now vacant except for a restaurant on the first floor.

According to the Downtown Alliance, there are 55,000 downtown workers. Yet there are miles of mostly empty skyways. At street level, there are plenty of vacant buildings and empty storefronts.

The most activity downtown can be found near Rice Park and in the Lowertown area with the ball park Farmer’s market and Union Depot.

Over all downtown is looking clean and in good repair. The parks look amazing and thanks to the Downtown Alliance you won’t find any litter on the streets. There isn’t any kind of a police presence at the street level but Saint Paul PD can be found in the skyways.

Skyway near the Osborn building
Vacant storefront – St. Paul Skyways
5th and Wabasha
Former Dunn brothers coffee on 5th and Wabasha

 

Throwback Thursday – Pedro Park

Posted on by Teresa Boardman
Dots being painted on the wall
Pedro Park Painting 2014

The old St. Paul Public Safety Annex building on 10th Street in downtown St. Paul on 10th street is being demolished. Eventually, there will be a new park on the site. I think.

There was a small park on the old Pedro luggage site. There were flowers, chairs, and a mural. I still have a bag or two that I bought from Pedro Luggage.  The site was donated to the city for a park. The safety annex building is next-door and has been vacant for many years and the lot it sat on will be part of the park.

The Pedro Park saga is long and complicated but it is photogenic and because it is right across the street from the Lunds downtown I always seem to be in the right place at the right time to take pictures.

Demolition of the safety annex building
Demolition of the safety annex building

Happy Tax Day 2023

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

If your taxes are done and filed congratulations!

Today is the deadline for filing 2022 income taxes.

I have many memories of waiting in line to drop off my tax return at the post office on tax day.

Yes, it is true we used to line up on Kellogg and Jackson Street at the central post office to drop off tax returns. Postal workers had bins and would stand along the curb. There were protesters and people in costumes too.

The post office moved to 5th Street, and the old post office was converted into apartments and a hotel.

I also remember spending some beautiful spring weekends struggling to finish tax returns but that was before I got smart and hired a professional tax preparer.

Cars lined up to drop off taxes
Jackson Street Tax Day 2009
Mail boxes
Mailboxes on Jackson Street by the old main post office – 2011

I don’t imagine there are too many people who mail their tax returns these days. There aren’t nearly as many mailboxes on the streets either.

The sidewalks belong to lime

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

A sure sign of spring is walking on the sidewalk when two or three lime scooters come flying by.

Limescooter
No Sidewalk Riding

Each scooter has four stickers on it that say “No Sidewalk Riding”. Two of them are on the bottom as shown in the photo and two of them are on the stem. It is hard not to see them.

The scooters themselves are of course parked on sidewalks and walkways.  Some are located in places where it is just about impossible to ride them in the street and the scooters are only used on the sidewalks.

In fact, in the downtown area, it is rare to see anyone riding a scooter in the street.

I am not against electric scooters. I think they are a lot of fun. I just wish that there was a way to keep scooter riders off the sidewalks. Walking on the sidewalks presents many hazards even without scooters.

Perhaps instead of raising taxes or adding taxes to pay for pothole repair, the city could ticket and fine the people who are riding electric scooters on the sidewalk.

The Penfield – throwback Thursday

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

The Penfield is located on 10th street and Minnesota street in downtown St. Paul. Luxury apartments using the facade from the old HQ of the Saint Paul Police department. The picture was taken in November 2013 while the building was still under construction.

Light rail was still under construction in the fall of 2013 as was the Lunds store next to the Penfield.

Penfield during construction in 2013

Downtown is open and festive

Posted on by Teresa Boardman
Landmark Plaza
Landmark Plaza – Hamm building in the background

There were numerous holiday events downtown last weekend. There was a lot of traffic with people headed to the Xcel, to CHS Field for skating, to the Union Depot for the North Pole Express, and to the Holiday Market. (The picture was taken very early in the morning)

There is a lot of housing in downtown St. Paul too.  At last count, there were over 7100 residents and 4300 households.

Right now is a better time to buy a downtown condo. Median prices are around $235,000 and about 25% of all housing on the market in St. Paul is downtown.  There are 55 housing units to choose from. Some are in luxury buildings and some are lower-cost units in buildings that were converted from apartments. There are also rentals available in all price ranges, starting at $114,000 and going up to a million.

There is currently a 4.6-month supply of housing downtown. Not quite a buyer’s market but less competitive than the rest of the city where were are seeing less than a two-month supply.

Maybe you don’t want to live downtown but you really should visit during the holiday season. If you are into photography bring your camera.