July 25th, 2010 by Nieeta

Central Corridor light rail station rendering

Monday, July 26th
1:00-2:30pm
Central Corridor Resource Center
1080 University Avenue West (south side of University, just east of Lexington)

Come hear about preliminary Saint Paul staff recommendations and provide your ideas, comments and questions on zoning in the Central Corridor area and possible changes to Traditional Neighborhood zoning regulations that would apply citywide. We are engaging in an informal public discussion process to get community input prior to finalizing staff recommendations to the Planning Commission. This session is targeted to developers and other involved in the development process.

Buses #16 and 50 stop near the Central Corridor Resource Center.

If you have any questions, please visit the city web site and click on ‘Central Corridor Zoning Study’ or send an email.

April 28th, 2010 by Nieeta

Parents have until the end of May to submit an application for fee assistance credits that can be used towards most recreational sports and activities offered by St. Paul Parks and Recreation. The city of St. Paul Fee Assistance Program program was established to help parents/guardians with fees for youth programs. To be eligible for the program, participants must live in Saint Paul, be 18 years of age or younger and meet family income requirements, which are based on federal guidelines.

Parents/guardians must fill out one form per child and submit it directly to the recreation center.  Mailed, faxed or late applications will not be accepted. Proof of residency must be shown when submitting the application. Proof of residency can include a current driver’s license, current utility or phone bill. The name on the document must match the name of the individual applying for the assistance.

Due to limited funds, an application does not guarantee being awarded fee assistance credits. The application selection process will be a lottery. Participants who are selected will receive $75 in fee assistance credits. The credits can only be used only for future programs and not applied to past programs. Unused credits will be forfeited at the end of the year. A participant can receive fee assistance credits only once during a calendar year.

For more information, call 651-266- 6377 or e-mail brad.meyer@ci.stpaul.mn.us.

April 15th, 2010 by Nieeta

Wing Young Huie

Go to  http://www.theuniversityavenueproject.com for more info….

Public Art Saint Paul Presents Wing Young Huie’s The University Avenue Project — The Language Of Urbanism: A Six-Mile Photographic Inquiry

From May through October, 2010 Wing Young Huie’s photographs will transform Saint Paul’s University Avenue into a six-mile public gallery, revealing the everyday realites of the diverse neighborhoods connected by this urban thoroughfare. Hundreds of images will be displayed in windows and on buildings from the KSTP tower to the State Capitol. Each night at a landmark project(ion) site Wing’s images will be shown on 40-foot screens, accompanied by a soundtrack from local musicians.  Monthly cabarets will feature live community performances and new media presentations. A two-part book from The Minnesota Historical Society Press documents this extraordinary project.

Get Involved:

VOLUNTEERS We are currently recruiting volunteers that will be an essential part of producing this exciting large-scale project. Volunteer opportunities include project outreach, exhibition set-up, installing the photographs along the avenue, nightly running of projection site, community events and exhibition strike. If you are interested in participating, click here to register online.

BUSINESSES along University Avenue, offer your storefront window or building wall to exhibit Wing Young Huie’s photographs. Offered space must be available until the exhibition end in Mid-November. Click here to offer space at your business.

MUSICIANS, submit your music to be a part of the University Avenue Project! Images will be shown nightly on billboard-sized screens at the Project(ion) site, accompanied by prerecorded music by local musicians from an array of genres and cultures to create a musical soundscape that reflects the diverse and unique sound of the city. Take a look at the gallery of images and imagine which of your songs would add layers of meanings to this significant community project. Download this form for more information and to submit your music.

PERFORMERS Once a month The University Avenue Project(ion) site will host a community event to showcase the talents of local individuals, organizations and community groups. Information on how to register for a performance slot at a community event coming soon.

March 3rd, 2010 by Nieeta

About 30 people attended the Organizer Roundtable on the Building Sustainable Communities project.

More than 30 attendees from 22 organizations gathered at the Model Cities Communities Room on University Avenue on February 24, 2010, to hear impassioned community leaders share their raw experiences — the triumphs and the difficulties — in realizing the true meaning of collaboration.

Collaboration, in this case, meant creating neighborhood-centric, multi-partner coalitions aligned with the Building Sustainable Communities initiative supported by Twin Cities LISC.

As part of a monthly roundtable series organized by the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability, the event, titled “Community Partnerships for Success,” drew excellent attendance according to Joan Vanhala, coalition organizer with AMS.

“I appreciated the different leaders who talked honestly about their challenges in working with coalitions towards one common goal,” said Vanhala.

Those leaders included Mari Bongiovanni, executive director, East Side Neighborhood Development Company; Staci Horwitz, program director, City of Lakes Community Land Trust; Cathy Maes, executive director, ICA Food Shelf; Judy Elling, executive director of ResourceWest in Hopkins; and Nieeta Presley, executive director, Aurora/St. Anthony Community Development Corporation.

During the two-hour session, leaders outlined the formulation of their collaborative, conveying both excitement and frustration in the challenges and rewards of developing cross-sector partnerships.

“I can see that in the different presentations, we’re at different levels of maturity, and we all came out in completely different ways,” said Bongiovanni. “We [St Paul’s East Side] needed to sit at the table for quite a while.”

After four years, Bongiovanni admitted her collaborative is still working on finding a comprehensive voice, which has slightly fragmented recently due to resident churn in a tough economy. That said, she noted the effort put forth in a multi-year process that started with informational meetings and evolved into 64 organizations sitting at a table calling each other to ask for advice and referrals.

“That was a big step,” she said. “Before we were all in our little silos and hoping that we would get funded and others wouldn’t because that would be more money for us.”

The next Organizer Roundtable will be “Race, Power and Organizing,” which will address the dynamics of race in day-to-day life, and how to integrate racial equity in campaign focus.

Race, Power and Organizing

Noon – 1:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 31
Rondo Community Library
461 N. Dale St.
St. Paul, MN 55103

February 7th, 2010 by Nieeta

The City of Saint Paul will begin its 2010 Neighborhood Sales Tax Revitalization (STAR) Loan and Grant Program with a workshop on Wednesday, February 10th.

Non-profit, for-profit, and public entities are invited to apply for a standard repayment loan and/or grant assistance over $5,000.  For-profit applicants must include in their proposal a standard repayment loan equal to 50 percent or more of the total STAR dollars being requested.

STAR provides funding for capital improvement projects within the City of Saint Paul and requires a minimum $1 to $1 match with private resources.

2010 Program Schedule

• Feb. 10: Orientation workshop: 10:30 a.m. – noon, St. Bernard’s Parish Hall, 170 Rose Avenue West.
• April 1: Applications are due by 4 p.m.
• May: Proposals reviewed by the Neighborhood STAR Board.
• June: Recommendations forwarded to the Mayor and City Council.

Guidelines and application forms will be available at the Feb. 10 workshop, by calling (651) 266-STAR or online.

January 31st, 2010 by Nieeta

Nieeta Presley and Joan Vanhala of the Stops for Us! Coalition

Please join us for a Stops for Us Victory Celebration and Potluck at 1080 University Avenue, St. Paul, MN on Friday, February 5th at 4pm.

Bring your favorite victory food and beverages to share as we celebrate the inclusion of the three stations at Western, Hamline, and Victoria into the Central Corridor LRT project.

Also feel free to bring your favorite music and a story to share.

Not to be missed! See you there!

In case you missed the news reports, here are details from Joan Vanhala, Coalition Organizer, Alliance for Metropolitan Stability:

The 3 stations at Western, Victoria, and Hamline will be included in the Central Corridor LRT project budget and be built by the completion of the Central Corridor LRT line!!

At a historic press conference at Model Cities with Mayor Chris Coleman, Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Congressman Jim Oberstar, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Congressman Keith Ellison, City Councilmember Melvin Carter, Commissioner Toni Carter, and Commissioner Jim McDonough it was announced that all three stations at Western, Victoria and Hamline will be included and built by the completion of the Central Corridor LRT line.

With the changes at the federal level, the federal government will now match the city of St. Paul’s commitment of $5.2 million, which will pay for two stations. The third station’s funding was pieced together with local funds from the Counties Transit Improvement Board, Ramsey County and the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative and will be matched by federal funds.

DOT Secretary Ray LaHood was quoted as telling the Stops for Us organizers, “You’ve made a difference and we will use you as an example across the country…that if you hang together, have a great project that’s for the people, and work with your delegation, you can make things happen.”

Congratulations to the to the East University Avenue community members, the Stops for Us coalition and supporting partner organizations, and elected officials who worked hard together to make this happen!!

To quote Councilmember Carter’s press release:

This is a HUGE victory, but our work to ensure that this project will serve those of us who chose this community long before light rail, is far from done. I’m glad to know our federal partners understand the importance of this project and its impact on our community, and I look forward to our continued work together to:

• Mitigate the loss of on-street parking;
• Help small businesses survive construction; and
• Ensure that we will build our future here by supporting our diverse set of residents and businesses, not by allowing them to be displaced.

December 15th, 2009 by Jake Kulju

Community members turned out for opening of new center.

By Jake Kulju

September 22, 2009 may have seemed like any other day, but on University Avenue, it was a day of celebration. Hundreds of people gathered for free food, entertainment and speeches from local politicians, including a welcome from mayor Chris Coleman, at the new Community Solutions Center at 712 University Ave.

The event marked the grand opening of the center, a joint effort of the University Avenue Business Association (UABA), the Asian Economic Development Association (AEDA), University UNITED and U-Plan.

The open house was held from 3 to 6 p.m., with a welcome by the mayor and program beginning at 4:30 p.m. Special guests included City Council members Russ Stark and Melvin Carter III, County Commissioners Toni Carter and Janice Rettman, state Reps. Alice Hausman, Erin Murphy, Phyllis Kahn and Cy Thao and state Sens. Mee Moua and Dick Cohen.

Several large tents spanned the parking area in front of the new Community Solutions Center, covering tables full of free food from local businesses. Food and beverages were provided by Abundant  Catering, China One, Chindian, Mai Village, Ngon Vietnamese Bistro, Saigon Restaurant, Shuang Hur Supermarket and SugaRush.

The grand opening of the center was sponsored by US Bank, Update Company, Impressive Print, Lao Family Community and Lifetrack Resources.

City Councilman Russ Stark, right, speaks with a constituent at the grand opening.

November 9th, 2009 by Nieeta

Photo courtesy St. Paul Parks & Rec Department

The St. Paul Parks and Rec Department is accepting applications for Fee Assistance for many Parks and Recreation programs, including athletics, swimming lessons and classes. Fee Assistance may not be used at Como Town or for concessions or for programs sponsored by agencies other than St. Paul Parks and Recreation. Applicants must be 18 or younger and live in the city of St. Paul.
Some additional info:

• Parents/guardians need to fill out one form per child. This is a  change from last year.
• Parents need to bring the completed application plus some documentation that proves residency in St. Paul to a City of Saint Paul recreation center.
• Recreation Center staff review the application to make sure it is complete.  The name and address on the proof of residency must match the name and address of the parent/guardian filling out the form. Staff do not need to keep a copy of proof of residency.  The city is not accepting mailed, faxed or late applications.
• The applications will be reviewed to see which ones meet the family income requirement.  There will be a randomly drawn lottery if the city receives more requests than the available funding.
• Applications will be accepted November 1-30 and May 1-31.  All applications of participants who do not receive fee assistance in January will be kept and put back into the pool for the July 1 awards.

Information about the fee assistance program is available here.  Parents can download the application form here.

If you have questions, contact Linda Flynn at (651) 292-6508 or Acooa Lee at (651) 266-6365.