August 15th, 2010 by Nieeta

Saturday, August 21, 10 to 11 a.m.

University between Western and Marion!

Public Assembly at Western Park 11:15!

We want a better University Avenue! We want a more unified University Avenue! The light rail is coming and we want to celebrate our community, and show our pride! And we want you to celebrate with us!

We will be going from Jackson School, along Thomas to Virginia, along Virginia to University, along University to Galtier and along Galtier to the Western Sculpture Park and the Hmong Arts and Music Festival!

After the parade, we will have a Public Assembly on the main stage at the Music Festival. We will be speaking about what brought us out from 11:15- 11:45!

This parade has been organized by concerned citizens and community groups, including the Metropolitan Interfaith Coalition on Affordable Housing (MICAH), the Aurora-St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation (ASANDC), the Center for Hmong Arts and Talent (CHAT), the District 7 Planning Council, the St. Paul Council of Churches, and more. We have been brought together by concerns over the light rail, and want to show our care, concern, and pride in the University Avenue communities.

We are still accepting registrations, if you wish to participate in the parade! (Contact Vaughn Larry at ASANDC at 651-222-0399 or by email. ) We would love to see you either in the crowd, in the parade, or at the Hmong Arts and Music Festival! For further information, contact John Slade at 651-491-2084 or by email.

August 2nd, 2010 by Nieeta

Transportation Equity Network, a national nonprofit, awarded Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff the 2010 Rosa Parks Award for defending civil rights through transportation policy. The video above begins with an introduction by Lonnie Ellis, lead transportation organizer with TEN member ISAIAH. In his speech, Rogoff credited the hard work of the community on East University Avenue for securing the three missing Central Corridor Light Rail stations at Hamline, Western and Victoria.

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.

July 5th, 2010 by Nieeta

From the Met Council:

The Metropolitan Council has awarded the first heavy construction contract for the Central Corridor light rail transit Project to Walsh Construction to build the seven-mile St. Paul segment of the line. Walsh’s $205.1 million award includes betterment work valued at $10.4 million that was requested by, and will be paid for, by cooperating agencies and utilities.

Construction is expected to begin in August east of the state Capitol on Robert and 12th streets north of Interstate 94, with utility relocation work there expected to start soon after July Fourth. Most of the heavy construction on University Avenue will occur in 2011 between Emerald Street and Hamline Avenue and in 2012 between Hamline and Robert. The work in downtown St. Paul will occur in 2011-2012.

The project is able to begin heavy construction due to advance funding commitments from its partners and federal approval of this arrangement. Under this same arrangement, the project began improvements in May on streets around the East Bank campus of the University of Minnesota and utility relocation work last year on Fourth Street in St. Paul. The FTA has agreed to reimburse the project partners for the federal share of this advanced work once it awards a Full Funding Grant Agreement this fall.

Work on the seven-mile St. Paul segment includes:

• Relocating utilities necessary for the LRT trackway
• Constructing nearly seven miles of embedded double track
• Fully reconstructing streets where track is being installed
• Building 14 stations from Westgate Station to Union Depot Station
• Modifying two bridges (on University over Highway 280 and on Cedar Street over Interstates 94 and 35E)
• Installing concrete paving for signalized intersections
• Building an infiltration trench for collecting storm water
• Constructing at-grade pedestrian crossings
• Demolishing the vacant Bremer Bank building and reconnecting the skyway

Steps to help businesses, property owners

The Central Corridor Project Office has taken steps to eliminate or reduce construction-related impediments to businesses and property owners. These steps include:

• Limiting construction of each segment on University Avenue to two-thirds at a time while maintaining a lane of traffic on the other third.
• Requiring contractors to restore the street in front of any business within 150 days and the sidewalk within 15 days.
• Implementing a contractor incentive program to encourage responsiveness, create a partnership between contractors and the community and promote cooperation. Evaluation criteria will include conformance with notification requirements, timely response to public concerns, maintenance of vehicle access and accessible pedestrian routes and cleanliness of construction sites.
• Issuing weekly emailed construction updates to provide the public with advance notice of routes that are closed and their alternates. To sign up for the emails, click here.
• Holding public construction meetings for businesses and the public to get updates and a look ahead from project staff and utilities.
• Setting up a construction hotline and posting the number, 651-602-1404, in prominent locations throughout a work zone.
• Assigning multilingual outreach coordinators from the community to be liaisons between the project and the public from the engineering phase through construction.
• Distributing a brochure to businesses on the corridor and nearby residents about how the project will communicate construction information and how it can be reached with questions and concerns.

About the project

The Central Corridor Light Rail Transit Project will link downtown St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis along Washington and University avenues via the state Capitol and the University of Minnesota. Construction will begin in 2010 on the planned 11-mile Central Corridor line, with service beginning in 2014. The line will connect with the Hiawatha LRT line at the Metrodome station in Minneapolis and the Northstar commuter rail line at the new Target Field Station. The Metropolitan Council will be the grantee of federal funds. The regional government agency is charged with building the line in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The Central Corridor Management Committee, which includes commissioners from Ramsey and Hennepin counties, the mayors of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota, provides advice and oversight.

May 23rd, 2010 by Nieeta

Gordon Parks. Courtesy Los Angeles Times photographic archive, UCLA Library

You’re invited to the first annual Media Arts Premier for the “Transitions: University Avenue” project.  Meet the students, interview subjects, community members and teachers who are making this project possible. The event will begin at noon May 26 at Gordon Parks High School, 1212 University Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55102. Driving Directions

The “Transitions” project combines audio interviews and photography to document the before, during and after of Central Corridor Light Rail Transit development on University Avenue. The project has  interviewed more than 10 community elders.  The project’s “soundslides” will be featured on a website created by the Minnesota Historical Society.

Community listening/brainstorming sessions last winter sparked numerous ideas about how best to serve the needs of students and community through this project. At this premier students will show off a portion of their completed soundslides; the production crew (made up of students, teachers, community members) will describe the production process they’ve used for the project; and we’ll share lunch together, catered by Arnellia’s and Golden Thyme.

April 28th, 2010 by Nieeta

Nieeta Presley of ASANDC and Joan Vanhala of Alliance for Metropolitan Stability

Please join us for the 2010 Allies for Justice Awards Dinner and Celebration on Wednesday, May 19, from 5:30 – 8:30 p.m. at Nicollet Island Pavilion (40 Power Street, Minneapolis).

Join us to honor this year’s Allies for Justice Award recipients, chosen because they embody Headwaters Foundation’s conviction that, together, we can create social and political conditions that guarantee justice for all.

GRANTEES: MOVING JUSTICE FORWARD ON TRANSIT EQUITY
For the first time, the Allies for Justice Awards will honor a group of organizations for their collective impact in the local community. Through their collaboration with each other and numerous other community organizations on Central Corridor Light Rail Transit development in St. Paul, these Headwaters grantees have brought attention to the issues of affordable housing, maintaining bus service in this transit-dependent community and, in a recent victory, the need to add stops in three high-density neighborhoods. The 10 organizations being recognized for moving forward on transit equity are:

• Alliance for Metropolitan Stability
• Community Stabilization Project
• District 7 Planning Council
• Got Voice? Got Power! / Aurora St. Anthony NDC
• ISAIAH
• Jewish Community Action
• JUST Equity
• Metropolitan Interfaith Council on Affordable Housing
• Somali Action Alliance
• TakeAction Minnesota

March 16th, 2010 by Nieeta

Here are a couple of opportunities for women- and minority-owned businesses to take part in a pair or large public projects:

Union Depot Renovation

Central Corridor LRT construction

DBE/Small business owners  are invited to meet with the six prime contractors that were pre-qualified to bid on the Central Corridor Light Rail / Civil East construction project between Union Depot in St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis.

The Meet & Greet will be held Thursday, March 18, 2010 from 2 to 5 p.m. at 375 Jackson Street, 2nd floor (Directly across from the Metropolitan Council), Saint Paul, MN 55101 (Map).

RSVP to Lynnette at 651-602-1769 or by email.

One of these six prime contractors present will be selected to construct the first half of the Central Corridor:

• C.S. McCrossan and Ames Construction (joint venture)
• Graham Construction Services and Kraus-Anderson (joint venture)
• Kiewit Western Company
• PCL Construction Services
• Walsh Construction
• Granite Construction Company

This is your opportunity to make an impression and to discuss what your company can bring to the table as a partner and team member. The DBE goal on this project is 15 percent.

March 16th, 2010 by Nieeta

University Avenue

Small businesses that can change and adapt to the challenges and opportunities of light rail transit will be more successful than those that can’t. They will survive light rail construction and make more money if they know how to prepare. How do small businesses and entrepreneurs adapt? What are the challenges? How do you prepare and increase your revenue?

Workshops to be held this week will teach small businesses and entrepreneurs how they may benefit from light rail transit. You will learn:

• What you can do to prepare for LRT construction
• What you can do to keep revenues up during construction
• What you can do to bring in new customers when the light rail is running

When: Thursday, March 18, 2010
2:30- 4:30 PM (Vietnamese interpretation available)
6:00-8:00 PM (Hmong interpretation available)

Where: Lao Family Community, 320 University Ave W, St. Paul, MN

Lunch and dinner will be provided. Free and open to the public. For more information call 651-222-7798 or email

The “Creating Successful Businesses with LRT” workshops are led by Mr. Tran T. Nhon, MBA. Mr. Tran is a nationally noted expert on supplier diversity and an advocate for minority owned businesses.  He is chair of the Ramsey County Small Business Enterprises Advisory Board and a board member of the State Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans.

These workshops are supported by a grant from National CAPACD. AEDA is supported by the B.C. Gamble and P.W. Skogmo Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation, Twin Cities LISC FRAN Project, and The Saint Paul Foundation.

More information:

Asian Economic Development Association
712 University Ave W Suite 105
Saint Paul, MN 55104
651-222-7798 | www.aeda-mn.org

February 14th, 2010 by JenHosterman

Vic Rosenthal, Executive Director of Jewish Community Action, knows how beneficial it is to partner with other organizations to meet a common goal. That is why he and other dedicated, passionate people at JCA are collaborating with Frogtown Rondo Action Network, not only during the upcoming construction on the Central Corridor Light Rail project, but also well beyond that for the health of a multicultural community a long way down the road.

Vic Rosenthal of JCA

JCA is one of 10 community-based organizations working together as FRAN. With a heart and passion all their own, JCA makes up a key element to this group. JCA’s members have strategically placed themselves inside and outside of synagogues for all Jews who are interested in social justice, no matter where they are. The door is open to everyone, Rosenthal said. The hope was, when they started 14 years ago to be a “Jewish voice for social and economic justice in the community … to be able to put their values and religion into action,” said Rosenthal. “There were a lot of other religious voices in the community and this seemed to be missing.”

JCA’s very mission plays perfectly into what they have begun doing with FRAN, building power within Frogtown and Rondo by forming alliances or collaborations with other organizations and government. By creating and being a part of these alliances, “people who think alike and care about the same issues, are able to work together to advance a common agenda,” Rosenthal said.

To read more about Rosenthal and the JCA, pick up the Aurora/St. Anthony spring newsletter, which should hit the streets in about a week.

February 14th, 2010 by Jake Kulju

Nieeta Presley and Metric Giles of ASANDC celebrate with Stops for Us Coalition at Arnellia's

The community along the Central Corridor in St. Paul has been asking for extra train stops at key intersections since the light rail expansion was conceived. Just a few weeks ago, they got them. Community groups, neighborhood organizations, local elected officials and individuals have been working with federal, state and local officials to find funding and political support for the stops. A celebration was held at Arnellia’s on University Avenue on Feb. 8 to enjoy the sweet success of good old-fashioned community organizing.

With local businesses worried about revenue during construction, lawsuits being filed against the proposed light rail route and an inadequate amount of train stops, many community members have been hesitant to welcome the transit project. This victory was one felt deeply by those who worked hard to achieve it, and the party at Arnellia’s was well deserved.

The local pub was full of community members, leaders and organizational representatives. People from Isaiah, CSP, Jewish Community Action, Alliance for Metro Stability, ASANDC and more were there to cheer the funding of the new stops. City Councilmembers Russ Stark and Melvin Carter III were there as well. The party filled the back room of Arnelia’s with laughter and noise: specifically singing. A song written for the occasion was chanted by everyone, and was definitely the highpoint of the evening. “We’ve been hoping for this for a long time,” said Metric Giles, a board member of the Aurora/St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation.

The Stops for Us Coalition: »Alliance for Metropolitan Stability »Asian Economic Dev. Association »ASANDC »Community Stabilization Project »District Councils Collaborative »Got Voice, Got Power! »Hmong Organizing Program, TakeActionMN »Housing Preservation Project »ISAIAH »Jewish Community Action »JUST Equity »Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy »Model Cities »MICAH »Preserve and Benefit Historic Rondo Committee »Saint Paul NAACP »Saint Paul Urban League »Transit for Livable Communities »UFCW Local 789 »University UNITED »University Ave. Business Association.