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18 Planning November 1997
<br /> P L A N N I N G
<br /> P R A C T I C E
<br /> St. Paul Overhaul
<br /> nce a robust blue-collar by $7 million a year and adds
<br /> area filled with facto $3 million a year to state in
<br /> O };
<br /> ries and heavy Indus- come tax receipts.
<br /> try, the East Side of St. Paul,
<br /> Minnesota, has lost 2,000 jobs Making it happen _
<br /> since the 1980s. But now a The Phalen Corridor Initiative,
<br /> decade-long effort at revitaliz- under way since the early
<br /> ing part of the East Side—the 1990s, has engaged more than
<br /> Phalen Corridor Initiative—is 1,000 East Side residents and
<br /> about to start paying off. business people and linked
<br /> The corridor's first tangible them with the city's planning
<br /> change is a 25 acre industrial department. Money for the ti -
<br /> park scheduled to open in Sep- project has come from state, _ f
<br /> tember 1998 at Williams Hill,a federal,and local government
<br /> parcel of land off I.35E just and nonprofit sources. "The
<br /> north of downtown that is now Phalen Corridor Initiative has
<br /> being leveled and cleaned up. been a major priority for the
<br /> More than 60 businesses, city,'says St.Paul Mayor Norm
<br /> nonprofits, and government Coleman. "This really repre-
<br /> agencies have been involved in sents public-private partner-
<br /> the Phalen Corridor Initiative, ship at its best."
<br /> whose goals are to restore the Creating the corridor has been In addition, the state De- ing ranging from 1930s bun-
<br /> corridor by retaining 4,000 jobs, a slow process. Today the area partment of Transportation has galows to 1960s ranches, tree-
<br /> creating 2,000 more, and re- is a patchwork of public and set aside $30 million to con- shaded streets, a golf course,
<br /> turning 100 acres of brown- private property filled with auto nect Phalen Boulevard to I- and a neighborhood lake big
<br /> fields-10 percent of the city's salvage yards, waste transfer 35E once the St.Paul city coun- enough to sail on. The area
<br /> polluted land—back to produc- stations, and vacant industrial cil decides between two has two vibrant retail strips,
<br /> tive use.The corridor itself will land.The new road,Phalen Bou- options, a new interchange or and it is contiguous with the
<br /> be carved from a 2.5-mile strip levard,cannot be built until an a link with an existing one. fastest growing suburbs in the
<br /> of land bordering the tracks of environmental impact statement Other state money will be Twin Cities. The 3NI Com-
<br /> the Union Pacific Railroad—with is complete—it is going out for needed to clean up the several pany's abrasives and tape plant
<br /> a new, $48 million road as the public comment in January— brownfields in the area—Will- employs 1,000 East Siders,and
<br /> centerpiece. and construction funds have iams Hill having been only Stroh's and other manufactur-
<br /> Another idea is to demolish been lined up.The city is seek- the first—and the city has com- ers employ hundreds.
<br /> a failed shopping center called ing $38.6 million of the $48 mitted 59.6 million for other No single entity created the
<br /> Phalen Village help relocate million cost from federal ISTEA improvements as well. blueprint for the Phalen Cor-
<br /> the few remaining businesses, funds, but ISTEA reauthoriza- ridor Initiative.It simply grew
<br /> and let the land revert to wet- tion is still pending in Congress. The concept from the efforts of neighbor-
<br /> lands. Commercial and retail Some money has already With a third of the city's land hood groups, union officials,
<br /> areas on or near the corridor been spent on smaller parts of mass and a third of its popula- the planning department, and
<br /> would be spruced up and hous- the corridor plan. More than tion of 272,000, the East Side local politicians working on
<br /> ing would be rehabbed or built $10 million from various gov- became a concern as it slid various East Side projects."It's
<br /> from scratch. ernment sources went into into poverty. Two-fifths of not just the city's idea it's not
<br /> To ensure the project's suc- cleaning up Williams Hill and Ramsey County's welfare re- just a neighborhood idea ant
<br /> cess, the city's Planning and creating infrastructure for the cipients live on the East Side, it's not iust a business co►n-
<br /> Economic Development De- new industrial park, and $1.2 and nearly two-fifths of the munity idea," says Craig
<br /> partment is working with non- million was spent for the neighborhood's workers are Johnson, manager of Norwest
<br /> profit community groups to corridor's environmental im- unemployed, according to the Bank Minnesota's Phalen of-
<br /> train workers and teach En- pact statement. Another $4.2 city's planning department.The fice. "The business commu-
<br /> glish, a necessity in a neigh- million is being used to re- percentage of residents in pov- nity and local government and
<br /> borhood where Hmong, Viet- store the wetlands at the now erty jumped from 13.6 per- community groups have e-
<br /> n a m e s e, and Hispanics defunct Phalen shopping cen- cent in 1980 to 29.5 percent in tided to work together to move
<br /> represent a growing portion ter, and $1 million more has 1990. things for%vard."
<br /> of the population. The result- gone into a bike and pedes- Yet the East Side is far from "If not us, who, and if no'
<br /> ing jobs are expected to re- trian path linking the East Side a basket case. Many sections now, when?" %vas the prevail'.
<br /> duce public assistance costs with other trails. still have solid,affordable hous• ing sentiment, says Curt
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