Housing! 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).

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.



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.

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: 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.

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…

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.

What saloon is this? Does this mean the scientists are from around the world, or the water they study is from around the world, or both?

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…

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!

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.”

Marijuana! Marijuana!

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!

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 Please tag yourself, your friend or someone who should never, ever have been appointed, how the $Q#%5w6!! did they get on there?

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 Here we go...

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. 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.”