Can Snelling-University area be fixed?

Audio

Can Snelling- University area be fixed_Jane McClure.mp3

Attachments

20241115-093112-ce8-V3_UniversitySnelling Corridor Resources.pdf

Open-air drug use, crime and loitering at and around the Snelling-University intersection have community members demanding change. The upcoming expansion of the troubled Kimball Court single-room occupancy building, and an officer-involved shooting have raised more red flags.
Area residents and business owners were to meet again Nov. 7, 2024 to discuss Kimball Court, where an expansion is planned on the former Star Market site. Behavior of some Kimball Court residents and visitors has become a flash point for neighborhood complaints. That meeting was held after the Monitor deadline.
The St. Paul City Council Oct. 8 okayed $335 million for owner-operator Beacon Interfaith Action’s expansion and renovation project. The council acted as the Housing and redevelopment Authority (HREA) Board.
Kimball Court expand from 76 to 98 units. The $19 million project will draw on a variety of financial resources including funds from Minnesota Housing Finance Agency, Metropolitan Council, Red Lake Nation and St. Paul Public Housing Authority Section 8 vouchers.
Area residents who attended the HRA meeting were unhappy that they didn’t get a chance to address the council. The action wasn’t a public hearing. Council President Mitra Jalali, whose fourth ward includes Kimball Court, said the renovation will provide improved security and facilities for residents. But she used the vote to comment on how St. Paul bears more than its share of issues of homelessness, as people come here from other areas.
“The city can’t do it by ourselves,” she said.
The demands for change escalated after Oct. 29, when reports of shots fired and a man walking and holding a gun to his head turned into an officer-involved shooting. Earl Bennett sustained life-threatening injuries in the incident. He refused to drop his weapon and pointed a gun at officers. Six police officers were placed on leave while the incident is being investigated.
Bennett is linked to two recent shootings in Minneapolis: a fatal shooting at a Minneapolis homeless encampment on Sunday and another incident at a Minneapolis sober house. Three of four people shot died of their injuries.
If turnout at an Oct. 17 meeting is any indication, area residents and business leaders were expected to turn out in force Nov. 7. More than 400 people packed a Hamline University ballroom to hear elected officials explain what they are going to do to change the situation. Jalali, County Commissioner Rena Moran and legislators Leigh Finke, Samakab Hussein and Sandy Pappas were on a panel answering questions.
One oft-repeated message Oct. 17 was that while problems are solvable, it will take time. But that met pushback from community members who said they don’t feel safe. That’s despite more police presence and stepped-up cleanup efforts.
Some attendees became frustrated with the meeting’s town hall format and prepared questions, calling out for more focus on the trouble Kimball Court single-room occupancy apartment building at 545 N. Snelling Ave. and issues along Snelling. They handed out a Sept. 19 St. Paul Police Department report, which stated that Kimball Court “is the hub of most of the narcotics traffic in the Western (police) district.” Stepped-up police patrols have only served to spread the activity throughout the Hamline-Midway neighborhood.
“Kimball Court has security, but it has done nothing to slow the traffic of narcotics from both inside and outside of the building. ... Business owners are afraid for their employees, residents are afraid for their children, and multiple people in the area are victimized on a regular basis. And everyone in my experience including myself is pointing at Kimball Court as the main case,” the report stated. The report called out fentanyl use in and outside of Kimball Court “multiple times on a daily basis.”
Kimball Court is just one problem spot, meeting attendees and panelists said. The other is Snelling and University, where a vacant CVS drugstore is a center of illegal activity.
“Snelling and University needs help,” said HMC Board Member Nate Roisen. Neighbors waited for a long time for the former Midway Center superblock to have redevelopment plans. They are now worried about the adjacent Midway Marketplace block’s future. He called for redevelopment to expand the property tax base.
Meeting attendees disagreed as to the CVS site’s future. A drive to stabilize the neighborhood has suggested a community center there, which has some people calling for future development to be property tax-paying. Moran’s suggestion about a possible county service center there drew a mixed response from the crowd.
Finke said more needs to be done to regulate out-of-state property owners, who buy rental houses and commercial properties on speculation.
Issues of drug addiction and unsheltered people were also a key topic. One focus needs to be on ending the cycle of opioid, especially fentanyl, addiction, said Moran. She called for more use of the drug Suboxone, which is used to treat withdrawal from opioids. “We can create opportunities to help people get off of drugs.” She and other panelists said that until there is stable housing, many problems cannot be solved.
The town hall recording is posted on the Hamline Midway Coalition Facebook page.