Frederick Melo, Reporter/Axolotl Profile picture
St. Paul Pioneer Press (@pioneerpress) Urban Life/City Hall/transit/fun eats. Swear at me=blocked! My comics: https://t.co/2ENPysvORs
Feb 21 18 tweets 12 min read
Housing! Image Housing Director Tara Beard: 3 focus areas are Production (increasing supply), Preservation (keeping affordable units safe and affordable, homeownership rehab ), and Access (downpayment assistance for homebuyers, Inheritance Fund, etc). Image
Sep 26, 2023 6 tweets 4 min read
The energy crisis of the 1970s inspired then-Mayor George Latimer to explore a downtown St. Paul energy facility that heats (and eventually cools) downtown — separate from Xcel Energy. District Energy heats over 30 million square feet, or 85% of downtown.

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District Energy, which derives 50-55% energy from biomass (wood waste like Emerald Ash Borer) and a growing number of other sources, dropped coal in 2019. Solar is 1%. Gas: 44-49%z Carbon-neutral cooling. Goal: Carbon free by 2040. On horizon: hydrogen! Lease approved today. Image
Apr 20, 2023 5 tweets 2 min read
Lead pipes… The state of Minnesota is going to make more money available to cities to get private water pipes removed and replaced, free of charge to homeowners. Several homes on St. Paul’s Front Street are already on this: ImageImage You own the lead pipe running from your water meter. Gov. Walz says city of St. Paul has been “visionary…This is important work. It’s great construction work.” It takes about a day to open the street and make the connection. Image
Apr 18, 2023 13 tweets 5 min read
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter's "State of the City" Address begins today at 1 p.m...What would you ask hizzoner after the address? Better yet, watch it live on Facebook and then pose me at least a semi-informed question beyond vitriol, crackle and claptrap: facebook.com/cityofsaintpaul AFSCME is protesting civil service rights, grievance rules, more than I can summarize here in 10 seconds… We will circle back… ImageImageImage
Sep 20, 2022 18 tweets 8 min read
This is a 3- car train….. I guess the 3-car trains are back. Anyhoo, the bus to Como Park is a short bus. This took me by surprise…I’m one of 3 passengers at Lexington Parkway/Univ heading north at 4:58 pm.
Sep 18, 2022 5 tweets 4 min read
What saloon is this? ImageImage Does this mean the scientists are from around the world, or the water they study is from around the world, or both? ImageImageImage
May 14, 2022 15 tweets 5 min read
Unpopular opinion: “Everything must be data-driven and data is the final word” is stupid. In the following thread, I will illustrate how data in multiple fields should be a starting point, not an ending point for journalistic, legal and even medical inquiry… 1. Renowned law professor Danya Reda just tore apart the “data-driven neutrality” behind the rule making around federal civil procedure. I’m no attorney, but she is… courtslaw.jotwell.com/data-driven-pr…
May 13, 2022 4 tweets 3 min read
It’s all-electric (boogie woogie woogie woogie). Monthly membership rates start at $0, to $30 for hardcore car-sharing aficionados. The first all-renewable-energy municipal car-sharing network in the nation launches in #StPaul-#Minneapolis. twincities.com/2022/05/13/st-… #carshare Found ya ya right lovely little bugger. I’m a coming for ya!
May 13, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
Mayors Jacob Frey and Melvin Carter just drove an electric Evie Spot car into the press event launching an all-electric car-sharing network for Minneapolis and St. Paul. It’s live now: facebook.com/cityofsaintpau… Monthly membership ranges from $0 to $30. There’s 70 charging stations now. Frey: “We’re going to be expanding the number of charging stations, the number of vehicles in the fleet, because to be honest we don’t really have an option right now.”
May 11, 2022 8 tweets 3 min read
Marijuana! Marijuana! Image
Feb 19, 2021 16 tweets 10 min read
Water. Infrastructure matters, though that’s tough to appreciate until it breaks down. Everything in red must go. St. Paul Regional Water to tear out 2/3rds of 100-year-old water treatment plant (softening, clarification, pre-carbonation, but not filtration that’s new enough to stay) and replace it with modern tech. Largest treatment plant project in state history!
Feb 17, 2021 9 tweets 3 min read
None of these Planning Commission/Port Authority/Advisory Committee on Aging/Neighborhood Star/Board of Zoning Appeals/CAAPB appointments ever strike me as "front page" worthy but I always feel like I should tell somebody when they get made. You're somebody. Now you know! #Stpaul Image Please tag yourself, your friend or someone who should never, ever have been appointed, how the $Q#%5w6!! did they get on there?
Feb 17, 2021 9 tweets 7 min read
St. Paul is home to a relatively new seminary/grad school next to @TheLabMinnesota Brewery on Eustis Street. Actually, it’s a 60-year-old seminary/grad school. And it’s growing by leaps. #Stpaul Image Here we go... ImageImageImage
Nov 24, 2020 11 tweets 4 min read
Chief Nursing Officer Chris Boese has been incident command at Region’s Hospital, St. Paul and wearing a mask at groceries/everywhere since March. Hasn’t gotten infected. Her attitude? Protective equipment/protocols work. Image As a new nurse in 1988, she wanted to heal people. Instead, hospitals were inundated with young men dying of a disease few understood — AIDS. Some colleagues “wanted nothing to do with them.” Her unit said “Being them to us.” Image