Little Bohemia Neighborhood Association Meeting Minutes
The LBNA meets the first Thursday of each month to discuss issues and events that impact our neighborhood. The meetings are held from 7 to 8:30 p.m., and are held at rotating homes and businesses in the area. Meetings open to the public and are conducted in a constructive, positive and supportive manner! Plus, it is a great way to meet new friends and get to know our neighbors.
The following minutes summarize our discussion and activities.
The following minutes summarize our discussion and activities.
2017
2016
2015
2014
September 2014
Meeting hosted by JJ Fuentes and Brittney Schuller, 22 Douglas Street
7:00 PM
Co-chaired by Lindsay Kimball and Mark Fangmeier
Agenda:
*Tree Preservation Guidelines / 35E bike path tree and plants grant (Jennifer Gehlhar) —
1. First Citizen Pruner cleanup event is scheduled for October 7. Coordinated by St. Paul Forestry, MN Tree Care Advisor program and U of M. First training was held July 26, 2014. Sign up for online training by contacting Valerie Price (price301@umn.edu); visithttp://www.mntca.org/mcp-stpaul for more info.
2. Community Roadside Lanscaping Partnership Program. LBNA has applied for a grant to improve landscaping along the bike path. Next step is to meet with MNDOT and stakeholders. Names? Include ‘Little Bohemia.’ This is moving forward. Info? Contactjen@mnnature.org.
3. Tree ordinances / construction guidelines. At the July meeting, LBNA agreed to communicate city tree ordinances to builders/construction crews working on city-owned/Federation houses in our neighborhood. City foresters will inspect and make recommendations. Jen circulated a draft of a letter.
*St. Paul Neighbors Act on Alzheimer’s (Sharon Lynch) — this group has been meeting for approximately 18 months. Purpose is to make our communities friendly to people with dementia (70% of these folks live at home). Sharon circulated a bookmark and brochure with more information, including a one-hour training opportunity on recognizing and dealing with dementia. Contact Sharon for more information, sondouglas@hotmail.com.
*424 Goodrich arson benefit (Sunday, September 14, 3:00 to 7:00 PM; Sara Diedrich) — the fire occurred July 21. It was arson; neither the renters (senior citizens, brothers who were both injured) nor the homeowner have insurance. Sara circulated information about the benefit: there will be food and drinks for sale, raffles for gift cards, live music and an opportunity to support our neighbors. All proceeds will go to the homeowner and renters. Please come! See the Facebook page (424 Goodrich Ave. Arson Benefit) or emailsarajane@iphouse.com. If Sara needs items she will post those needs on Facebook.
*Housing Update (Tom Brock) — 29 Douglas and 280 Forbes are being worked on. We hope to see them for sale soon, as family-owned homes; 29 Douglas could be on the market this year. David noted that 290 Harrison has been purchased by a private contractor and work proceeds. Scope of work documents are complete for three other properties (282, 286, 290 Forbes Avenue, we think). Work on these three houses could start this fall. Three further properties (on 326 Harrison, 457 Smith and 301 Sturgis) remain on the Federation’s list. There are some houses in our area outside the Federation’s purview that the city may work on. Jen G. reports that a halfway house/sober house/rehab organization has looked at the large brick house on Sturgis, which is of some concern to her. Wouldn’t a variance be needed? There are also a couple of houses (on Goodrich and Banfil) that are for sale, presumably by Ramsey County (?)
*Bad Weather Brewing Company update (Mark Fangmeier) — Bad Weather’s owners have bought the old Northwestern Tire store on West 7th across from DeGidio’s. They have announced their plan to renovate and move in! Mark mentioned the $1,000 “unlimited beer for life” plan that is being offered. They’ll have a tap room. Tap rooms can legally be open on Sundays; it’s unclear whether Bad Weather will be, but we can hope. This will not be a production-scale brewery, so they can stay open while brewing. Plans include a meeting space available for community use.
*December meeting: social? — We did this at DeGidio’s last year, our fourth such event. Before that it was at neighbors’ homes. Is anyone willing to host in their home this year? How about Mark and Naomi’s garage? [Joke] Downstairs at Claddagh? The Ramsey House? Would Summit open their tap room for us?
*Problem properties / safety concerns — Who plows your alley? Do people arrange with private contractors? (Yes) There is talk about putting information about this on the Web site.
The bike path is getting really trashy, particularly behind the retirement condominiums. Homeless people are hanging out here and building fires. The city has a ‘clean-up’ day on Saturday September 27: we can collect and bring trash to the city’s site for free. Let’s arrange a community clean-up of the bike path around this date. Sara is willing to put a two-wheeler with a trash can out for our shared use, and suggests that we have a rotating schedule of bike path clean ups (like we do with the trash can in Pleasant Park). Can we ask for a bike cop to ride down the path once in a while?
Other business. The Federation has two openings. We expect to nominate Sharon to one of these.
Naomi notes that a new little shop has opened across from the Schmidt Brewery, next to Tradition Creek. Stop by!
Next meeting: October 2, 7:00 PM, Axel and Mikeya’s home, 437 Banfil Street
July 2014
Construction Update – Work is in progress at 29 Douglas and 280 Forbes. Plans are being written for the next houses to be developed along Forbes as part of the plan to complete 8 rehabs in the next 13 months.
Please complete the Inspiring Communities Priorities survey to weigh in on priorities for the next 9 properties to be sold for development. The first round of surveys has been sent back to the Planning and Economic Development department but there is still time to get your feedback in.
Journeys Update – Congratulations to Theresa Neal who will be the new principal at Como Senior High. Dan Wolff has been named the head of Journeys and the other related programs in Theresa’s place. Sarah Gleason and Marit Brock met with Dan to learn about his plans for the school and neighborhood involvement. He plans to continue the great work at the school and participating in the neighborhood. He also reported that several Saint Paul Public Schools staff who had offices in that building have moved to a different location, which should reduce the parking concerns.
National Night Out Planning – We will hold our National Night Out celebration at Pleasant Place on Tuesday, August 5th from 6:30-8:30. Please bring a dish to share, beverages of your choice and your own chairs. At this point we are looking for the following volunteer help – respond back to this email if you are up for either one:
- Someone to pass out flyers – particularly in the Erie/Oneida/Grace section of the neighborhood.
- Live music or a Karaoke machine.
Problem Properties/Safety – the 4th of July BBQ was successful in preventing the unruly behavior from past years. Thanks to all who participated.
If you have not already joined the “West 7th Health and Safety Issues” group on Facebook please consider joining. That group was started as a way for residents to report safety concerns without leaving a negative impression about the neighborhood for future residents or business owners.
We discussed issues with people dumping household trash and electronics in the Pleasant Place container and we will work with the city to see if there are solutions. As a reminder, the Pleasant Place trash can is part of the Adopt a Container program through the city and the trash is emptied by volunteers .
We discussed the panhandling issues happening along 35E and Randolph. Axel (Saint Paul Police) and Meredith (Catholic Charities) described what their organizations are doing to resolve issues with aggressive panhandling.
LBNA Structure – In order to encourage new ideas we are adjusting the structure of the LBNA to allow for more roles and smaller, manageable volunteer opportunities. More details will be coming out soon, but we have already identified a few areas where we can add participation:
- Meeting notes (starting in September) – David Sisk
- Attend Fort Road Federation Board meetings on behalf of the LBNA – Sharon Lynch
- Facebook Admin – Sarah Gleason (more are welcome)
- Hand out flyers – several volunteers for National Night Out
- Coordinate events – looking for volunteers
- Lead a committee (gardening, marketing, etc) or project – looking for volunteers
- Serve as co-chairs – looking for volunteers
Next meeting – National Night Out August 5th at 6:30 pm
Meeting hosted by JJ Fuentes and Brittney Schuller, 22 Douglas Street
7:00 PM
Co-chaired by Lindsay Kimball and Mark Fangmeier
Agenda:
*Tree Preservation Guidelines / 35E bike path tree and plants grant (Jennifer Gehlhar) —
1. First Citizen Pruner cleanup event is scheduled for October 7. Coordinated by St. Paul Forestry, MN Tree Care Advisor program and U of M. First training was held July 26, 2014. Sign up for online training by contacting Valerie Price (price301@umn.edu); visithttp://www.mntca.org/mcp-stpaul for more info.
2. Community Roadside Lanscaping Partnership Program. LBNA has applied for a grant to improve landscaping along the bike path. Next step is to meet with MNDOT and stakeholders. Names? Include ‘Little Bohemia.’ This is moving forward. Info? Contactjen@mnnature.org.
3. Tree ordinances / construction guidelines. At the July meeting, LBNA agreed to communicate city tree ordinances to builders/construction crews working on city-owned/Federation houses in our neighborhood. City foresters will inspect and make recommendations. Jen circulated a draft of a letter.
*St. Paul Neighbors Act on Alzheimer’s (Sharon Lynch) — this group has been meeting for approximately 18 months. Purpose is to make our communities friendly to people with dementia (70% of these folks live at home). Sharon circulated a bookmark and brochure with more information, including a one-hour training opportunity on recognizing and dealing with dementia. Contact Sharon for more information, sondouglas@hotmail.com.
*424 Goodrich arson benefit (Sunday, September 14, 3:00 to 7:00 PM; Sara Diedrich) — the fire occurred July 21. It was arson; neither the renters (senior citizens, brothers who were both injured) nor the homeowner have insurance. Sara circulated information about the benefit: there will be food and drinks for sale, raffles for gift cards, live music and an opportunity to support our neighbors. All proceeds will go to the homeowner and renters. Please come! See the Facebook page (424 Goodrich Ave. Arson Benefit) or emailsarajane@iphouse.com. If Sara needs items she will post those needs on Facebook.
*Housing Update (Tom Brock) — 29 Douglas and 280 Forbes are being worked on. We hope to see them for sale soon, as family-owned homes; 29 Douglas could be on the market this year. David noted that 290 Harrison has been purchased by a private contractor and work proceeds. Scope of work documents are complete for three other properties (282, 286, 290 Forbes Avenue, we think). Work on these three houses could start this fall. Three further properties (on 326 Harrison, 457 Smith and 301 Sturgis) remain on the Federation’s list. There are some houses in our area outside the Federation’s purview that the city may work on. Jen G. reports that a halfway house/sober house/rehab organization has looked at the large brick house on Sturgis, which is of some concern to her. Wouldn’t a variance be needed? There are also a couple of houses (on Goodrich and Banfil) that are for sale, presumably by Ramsey County (?)
*Bad Weather Brewing Company update (Mark Fangmeier) — Bad Weather’s owners have bought the old Northwestern Tire store on West 7th across from DeGidio’s. They have announced their plan to renovate and move in! Mark mentioned the $1,000 “unlimited beer for life” plan that is being offered. They’ll have a tap room. Tap rooms can legally be open on Sundays; it’s unclear whether Bad Weather will be, but we can hope. This will not be a production-scale brewery, so they can stay open while brewing. Plans include a meeting space available for community use.
*December meeting: social? — We did this at DeGidio’s last year, our fourth such event. Before that it was at neighbors’ homes. Is anyone willing to host in their home this year? How about Mark and Naomi’s garage? [Joke] Downstairs at Claddagh? The Ramsey House? Would Summit open their tap room for us?
*Problem properties / safety concerns — Who plows your alley? Do people arrange with private contractors? (Yes) There is talk about putting information about this on the Web site.
The bike path is getting really trashy, particularly behind the retirement condominiums. Homeless people are hanging out here and building fires. The city has a ‘clean-up’ day on Saturday September 27: we can collect and bring trash to the city’s site for free. Let’s arrange a community clean-up of the bike path around this date. Sara is willing to put a two-wheeler with a trash can out for our shared use, and suggests that we have a rotating schedule of bike path clean ups (like we do with the trash can in Pleasant Park). Can we ask for a bike cop to ride down the path once in a while?
Other business. The Federation has two openings. We expect to nominate Sharon to one of these.
Naomi notes that a new little shop has opened across from the Schmidt Brewery, next to Tradition Creek. Stop by!
Next meeting: October 2, 7:00 PM, Axel and Mikeya’s home, 437 Banfil Street
July 2014
Construction Update – Work is in progress at 29 Douglas and 280 Forbes. Plans are being written for the next houses to be developed along Forbes as part of the plan to complete 8 rehabs in the next 13 months.
Please complete the Inspiring Communities Priorities survey to weigh in on priorities for the next 9 properties to be sold for development. The first round of surveys has been sent back to the Planning and Economic Development department but there is still time to get your feedback in.
Journeys Update – Congratulations to Theresa Neal who will be the new principal at Como Senior High. Dan Wolff has been named the head of Journeys and the other related programs in Theresa’s place. Sarah Gleason and Marit Brock met with Dan to learn about his plans for the school and neighborhood involvement. He plans to continue the great work at the school and participating in the neighborhood. He also reported that several Saint Paul Public Schools staff who had offices in that building have moved to a different location, which should reduce the parking concerns.
National Night Out Planning – We will hold our National Night Out celebration at Pleasant Place on Tuesday, August 5th from 6:30-8:30. Please bring a dish to share, beverages of your choice and your own chairs. At this point we are looking for the following volunteer help – respond back to this email if you are up for either one:
- Someone to pass out flyers – particularly in the Erie/Oneida/Grace section of the neighborhood.
- Live music or a Karaoke machine.
Problem Properties/Safety – the 4th of July BBQ was successful in preventing the unruly behavior from past years. Thanks to all who participated.
If you have not already joined the “West 7th Health and Safety Issues” group on Facebook please consider joining. That group was started as a way for residents to report safety concerns without leaving a negative impression about the neighborhood for future residents or business owners.
We discussed issues with people dumping household trash and electronics in the Pleasant Place container and we will work with the city to see if there are solutions. As a reminder, the Pleasant Place trash can is part of the Adopt a Container program through the city and the trash is emptied by volunteers .
We discussed the panhandling issues happening along 35E and Randolph. Axel (Saint Paul Police) and Meredith (Catholic Charities) described what their organizations are doing to resolve issues with aggressive panhandling.
LBNA Structure – In order to encourage new ideas we are adjusting the structure of the LBNA to allow for more roles and smaller, manageable volunteer opportunities. More details will be coming out soon, but we have already identified a few areas where we can add participation:
- Meeting notes (starting in September) – David Sisk
- Attend Fort Road Federation Board meetings on behalf of the LBNA – Sharon Lynch
- Facebook Admin – Sarah Gleason (more are welcome)
- Hand out flyers – several volunteers for National Night Out
- Coordinate events – looking for volunteers
- Lead a committee (gardening, marketing, etc) or project – looking for volunteers
- Serve as co-chairs – looking for volunteers
Next meeting – National Night Out August 5th at 6:30 pm
June 5, 2014
Housing Development – Joe Musolf and Roxanne Young from PED discussed the status of city-owned houses and lots in our area. See the attached document titled Inspiring Communities Property List and Map that shows (in blue) the properties under contract for rehab by the Fort Road Federation and (in white) properties that will probably be part of a Request For Proposal process in the fall of 2014. While we had hoped to continue working with the Fort Road Federation so we can provide input/influence on the way these properties are redeveloped, it is unlikely that all of these properties will be redeveloped by the Federation.
In order to help guide the Request For Proposal process we have the opportunity to provide input about our neighborhood priorities for the future of these properties. In order to provide input, PED has provided a copy of the scoring criteria that they used in last year’s RFP.
Please review the attached Inspiring Communities Priorities questionnaire and add your comments and priority. Return your survey (anonymous) to Marit no later than Monday, June 16th and we will forward them on. (Please note, the total score can not be more than 95!) PED will collate our responses and provide them back to us later in the summer. Send responses to info@littlebohemiastpaul.org or drop a hard copy in our mailbox at 74 Garfield St.
Housing Development – Joe Musolf and Roxanne Young from PED discussed the status of city-owned houses and lots in our area. See the attached document titled Inspiring Communities Property List and Map that shows (in blue) the properties under contract for rehab by the Fort Road Federation and (in white) properties that will probably be part of a Request For Proposal process in the fall of 2014. While we had hoped to continue working with the Fort Road Federation so we can provide input/influence on the way these properties are redeveloped, it is unlikely that all of these properties will be redeveloped by the Federation.
In order to help guide the Request For Proposal process we have the opportunity to provide input about our neighborhood priorities for the future of these properties. In order to provide input, PED has provided a copy of the scoring criteria that they used in last year’s RFP.
Please review the attached Inspiring Communities Priorities questionnaire and add your comments and priority. Return your survey (anonymous) to Marit no later than Monday, June 16th and we will forward them on. (Please note, the total score can not be more than 95!) PED will collate our responses and provide them back to us later in the summer. Send responses to info@littlebohemiastpaul.org or drop a hard copy in our mailbox at 74 Garfield St.
| inspiring_communities_criteria.pdf |
Banfil/Problem Properties/Sprucing up the neighborhood
- Volunteer help – Emily Dombecke will coordinate volunteers and local experts who can help spruce up properties, advise about landscaping improvements. Interested individuals should contact Emily directly. More details will be posted on Facebook group.
- Safety discussion - discussed problem properties and specifically issues along Banfil street. Banfil neighbors are planning a block party on July 4th to prevent the disruption, partying and fireworks that has happened in past years on the 4th of July. Perhaps if the neighbors are out and watching then the problem rental properties will be less likely to be disruptive.
All neighbors are encouraged to report issues to police and to the city in order to prevent issues from getting out of hand.
- Parking violations, boats, trailers, parking on sidewalk – Consistent with our efforts to prevent criminal behavior by making sure our neighborhood looks cared for, please remember that illegal parking, junk vehicle on the street, boats and trailers left on the street for extended periods all make our neighborhood look uncared for.
There may be some action to address this at the City, but in the meantime please talk to neighbors and report issues through the Saint Paul Connect app or the city website so that issues are corrected promptly.
Gardening
Pleasant Place Garden Planting day – Sunday, June 8th
Beans on the Boulevard – We had an interesting and informative discussion about Beans on The Boulevard, a project that started on the West Side. Mary Hanson has agreed to coordinate interested households and we will work together to get supplies and instructions out. Contact Mary directly to sign up, and check out the Growing West Side facebook group to learn more about Beans on the Boulevard and other urban farming efforts.
MNDOT Landscaping project – Jenny is coordinating with MNDOT, Public Works and we will include Journeys later. Jenny provided an update and asked that we formally approve her moving forward with this project to providing landscape design and plants along 35E. Her recommendation was approved unanimously.
Next Meeting:
July 10, 2014
Jen Gehlhar’s house
295 Sturgis St
7:00-8:30 pm
April 3, 2014
Housing Development – There has been a delay in the start date for the construction on 29 Douglas and 280 Forbes. The contract between the city and the Fort Road Federation is expected to be signed by May 1st and construction will begin after that point.
Art Crawl – There will be a strong presence along West 7th for Art Crawl this year. The West 7th/Little Bohemia presence will be focused on Saturday, April 26th, but the Schmidt Artists Lofts and others will be open for the full weekend. Metro Transit will be giving out free bus passes so it will be easier for people to travel along West 7th and into Downtown.
We will be looking for volunteer greeters for Saturday, and the Schmidt Artists Lofts will also be looking for volunteers. Watch for more information to come.
Spring Clean Up – Meet at Pleasant Place (corner of Garfield and Harrison) at 9:00 am. We will focus on the park and bike path. We will have some trash bags and gloves, but bring more if you can. Also, bring a broom, rake or clippers to help clean up brush in the garden. A pooper-scooper or poop bags may also come in handy!
Journeys may be able to have students clean up the wooded areas of the path, which would be a big help!
Garage Sale – We will hold our 3rd annual LBNA garage sale on Saturday, June 14th , which is the same day as the West End Garden Tour. Contact Dani Fenn if you would like to have your house added to the garage sale list or would like to help with organizing. We also agreed to use some of our fundraising money to pay for signs and other supplies as needed.
T-shirts and buttons – Thanks to Jennifer Tacheny for ordering t-shirts and Lam and Meredith Nguyen for creating buttons with the LBNA logo. We agreed to sell the t-shirts for $10, which adds in about $3.50 extra that we can use for Art Crawl, Garage Sale and other expenses. We will sell buttons for a slight markup as well.
In addition to selling to neighbors, we will sell t-shirts and buttons at various events this spring.
The t-shirts are grey with black lettering. If we see a high demand or decide we want to order different colors and styles we can do that at a later date.
Order t-shirts online at http://www.littlebohemiastpaul.org
Pleasant Place – Jenny Gehlhar has been in contact with MNDOT and there may be new programs we can use to help with the landscaping and trees along the bike path. Jenny and members of the garden group will learn more and keep us posted.
Burger King Gardens – No progress connecting with franchise owners yet.
Northwestern Tire Store/Brewery – Marit Brock and Mark Fangmeier met with the owners of the brewery considering a move to the Northwestern Tire Store building. They are not a new brewery, and currently have a commercial facility in Minnetonka. They plan to open a Tap Room and will brew small batches to serve on site. They will come to our May meeting to respond to questions and meet the neighbors.
Although we are mostly supportive of the concept and this use of the building, the discussion of neighborhood concerns include
- parking, especially on the streets in the neighborhood that are not currently permit parking
- noise and hours of operation
- Expected number of people, especially for game or event nights
- truck traffic, particularly in the alley
- Odor from the brewery operation
- Future growth plans at that site
Problem Properties/Safety – For the most part things have been quiet. Concerns identified include:
- Neighbor who is leaving out excessive amounts of bread and other food for the birds. The amounts are too large for the birds, and the food is rotting and may be attracting rats or other undesirables. Sarah Gleason agreed to talk to the neighbor to see if he will stop.
- Concern about people trying to sleep in the large brick house on Sturgis. Police were called, but as always, keep an eye on the vacant properties.
- Concern about cars running red lights. The Fort Road Federation is working on a street safety project, but is there more that can be done?
Next Meeting:
5/1/14 – Social Event
7:00-8:30 pm
Ericka Hazelett’s house
March 6, 2014
Housing Development – Still on track for 29 Douglas and 280 Forbes to begin construction in late March/early April.
New Residents - We discussed how to connect with some of the newer residents of the neighborhood and agreed that we can each try to connect with new neighbors. Feel free to print off an information sheet to use as a conversation starter – or to leave behind if you knock on the door and no one is home.
Journeys Program/Parking Lot Construction update – Plans for a new parking lot have been suspended indefinitely. Journeys will be closed for other renovations over the summer. The school will proceed with adding new programs next school year, and the expected enrollment will be around 100-125 students as planned. Not all students will be on site at one time.
Art Crawl – The art crawl committee (Tom, Naomi, Nicki) met with others in the neighborhood and have plans to participate in the April art crawl for one day (not the full art crawl weekend). This will be practice to participate more fully in the October art crawl event. Everyone seems excited to get Little Bohemia and other parts of West 7th more involved in Art crawl, with the Brewery helping to draw more people from downtown.
Coming events:
Problem Properties/Safety – Some have noticed that the homeless couple from last year are back in the area. Visitors to the rental properties on Banfil street have been blocking the street with their cars and behaving in a somewhat threatening way. Other problem properties have been fairly quiet. The group agreed to report issues when they come up.
What do you wish we were doing? We discussed any other activities, problems etc that we are not currently working on. The following items were identified for now:
Getting the word out – Sarah Gleason and Tom Brock have each been select to presented our neighborhood story at different community development workshops in the Twin Cities. Our story is seen as a success in community organizing!
Meeting sign up – We are looking for hosts for the November 6th and December 4th meetings. Thanks to all who have signed up to host so far.
Next Meeting:
4/3/14
7:00-8:30 pm
Sarah Gleason and Malick Maria
271 Forbes Ave.
February 2014
Housing Development – The Fort Road Federation is now owner of the properties at 29 Douglas/267 Forbes, 280, 284, 286 and 288 Forbes, 326 Harrison, 301 Sturgis and 457 Smith. Construction is expected to begin between March 15-April 1st with 29 Douglas and 280 Forbes. The remaining properties will be rehabbed in phases with a timeline of 13 months to complete once construction begins. The remaining ISP properties will be included in the Request For Proposal (RFP) process with the city that is expected to begin in October 2014. The Fort Road Federation may choose to put in proposals for those properties, but it will be open to other developers as well. We will have to develop a way to connect with other developers and hope that they will share our neighborhood vision.
Journeys Program/Parking Lot Construction – Hans from Journeys presented the schools plans to add another program for high school children with mental health issues in the fall, in addition to their existing programs. This may increase the number of students to as many as 100 although many of the students do not spend the full day at the school.
The school currently has 40-50 “itinerant staff” who have offices in the school but are not there on a regular basis. These staff will be moving to other locations, but the new program will add some staff.
The school has plans to add a parking lot for approximately 32 cars. The plan is to remove the playground area and build a parking lot and they are looking for neighborhood input. We expressed concern about the need for a parking lot without first exploring how to make street parking work better for both staff, visitors and residents. In addition, we expressed strong concern that the school would remove the play area, which is something well used by the community when school is not in session.
I have attached the notes that Hans wrote up at the end of this email. I think that it accurately captures our discussions. Hans will bring back more information at our March 4th meeting.
3/6/14
7:00-8:30 pm
Nicki and Katherine’s house
73 Western Ave.
Notes from Journeys staff
Response/concerns to proposed parking lot at Journeys Secondary School
The neighborhood would prefer a parking lot not be added to Journeys thus preserving the green space and playground. Questions were asked about the need for a parking lot. Some issues mentioned were neighbors on Sturgis complaining about parking in front of driveways, congestion on Sturgis, snow removal problems on Sturgis, parking for staff during snow emergencies, and the number of vehicles parked in the neighborhood due to number of staff in the building and occasional training sessions that brings in additional traffic and parking.
Concerned about loss of green space and playground.
If parking lot is placed along Harrison Street community members would like to know if the playground would be relocated.
Suggested a parking lot be placed along side the building between Harrison and Sturgis Street to keep green space and playground. Entrance/exit on each street.
Would like to see spec drawings to see how it effects green space and playground.
Neighbors feel it gets much community use during the spring, summer and fall. Also mentioned there is a significant growth in the number of young children in the neighborhood due to neighborhood revitalization/housing rehabilitation efforts.
Do not want the basketball court back, would be used all night and disturbed neighbors. Neighbors appreciated school taking down backboard at their request.
Those neighbors present at the meeting, who’ve lived in the neighborhood for more than five years, recall the district maintaining the playground and field by removing grafitti, repairing/replacing broken playground equipment, regular mowing and ball diamond grooming.
Some neighbors recalled significant improvements to the green space three and a half years ago including grading to improve run-off, new sod, fencing, elevated green space, trees, drainage ponds, etc.
Summer maintenance has slacked off, last summer grass was very long and some weeds were shoulder height, property became eyesore. Maintenance had been regular and green space, playground well maintained prior to last summer.
Would like a berm, hedge, or some form of landscaping around parking lot to separate from green space.
One neighbor works for Home Depot, he suggested the idea of writing for a $5000 grant for improvement to the green space/playground with landscaping, benches, etc.
Two sets of young couples present at the meeting purchased homes near Journeys this past summer with the proximity to the playground and green space a factor in buying.
All neighbors realize it is school property and the district can renovate as it sees fit. They fully appreciated the opportunity to give feedback on the parking lot issue. Also mentioned that our involvement in the Little Bohemia Neighborhood Association the past two and a half years is much appreciated.
October 2013
Housing Development – HRA meeting 10/23/14
The next phase of the housing rehab project will take place when the request for Tentative Developer Status goes to the Housing and Redevelopment Agency (HRA) meeting on October 23rd. Although this was originally expected to be a step in the procedure, it seems that it is not going to be routine and it will be helpful to have neighbors there to show support for the housing rehab. The HRA meeting is at 2:00 pm, 10/23/13. We will get together on Saturday, 10/19 at 4:00 for final preparations.
Saint Paul Forestry Department/Tree Survey
Brett from Saint Paul Forestry department attended the meeting to discuss how the Forestry department can work with the neighborhood for boulevard tree maintenance. Jenny will work with Brett to learn more about the “Citizen Pruner” training program, and will bring details to a future meeting. We are hoping for 10-12 participants.
Brett agreed to do an informal Pleasant Place tree assessment and provide some advice about the dead/unhealthy trees. There may be some restrictions to Saint Paul Forestry removing the trees, but we will continue to work with Saint Paul Public Works to develop a solution.
Jenny will follow up with Brett on replacing dead trees and planting new trees in vacant boulevard spots and report on expected planting dates to the group at next meeting // also will request forestry to review those trees where there was a "concern" (those in the inventory labeled "bad" or "dying," etc.) -- updates at Nov. mtg.
Pleasant Place/Bench update
The seats for the benches should be installed by the end of October. We would like to get some input from the Banfil/Duke street residents before we install the final bench. Lindsay/Mark/Meredith agreed to ask some neighbors for their input.
Christmas Decorations
We were approached about adopting the Christmas decorations from the Friends of Mears Park. Tom Brock will find out the details such as how much storage space we need, how expensive it will be to have them up during the holidays and so on.
Community Neighborhood Housing Services
Community Impact Survey - Scheduling a doorknocking day for Saturday, October 19th from 2:00-4:00 pm to get more surveys completed. Meet at Claddagh to get the surveys and other information. CNHS will donate $1,500 to our Pleasant Place fund in exchange for our work. If you have not yet completed a survey please go to http://www.communitynhs.org/survey .
Electronic Fundraising
We agreed to a tiered focus for our fundraising efforts – with a priority places on getting water installed. We will aim for $15,000 for water, but the money can be used for other things. More to come when the electronic fundraising site is available.
Marketing/Logo – Craig Favorito will send out options
Problem Properties/Safety
The problem properties are somewhat quieter than in the past and the landlords seem more involved. Remember to report issues to the police or to the city problem properties office. Applying consistent pressure on the owners of problem properties has proven to be a very effective way to get issues addressed, although we still have to be patient!
You can access an online form at the city website or call (651) 266-8989 to report a problem. There is also a new smart phone app called Saint Paul Connect where you can easily report even small issues to the city. Here is a link to the apple version, or use your smart phone’s app store to find the version that works for your phone.
Next Meeting:
11/7/13
7:00-8:30 pm
455 Banfil Street
September, 2013
SAVE THE DATE – the Saint Paul Police
department will be hosting a Public Safety event in Pleasant Place on September 21st from 11:00 – 1:00. We also hope to coordinate our final
garden project of the year on this day – building the Gabion Benches. Watch for more details in the next few days!
Development
Becca Hine presented the results of a historic study for four of the more difficult houses in our area that are part of the ISP/NSP program. These also include scope of work documents that will be used for the future rehab of the houses. Please take a look and offer any suggestions to enhance the documents (I attached the reports to this email).
We briefly discussed the vacant lots in the area, and some of the homes that have been torn down. We learned that in our area getting the sewer and water
hooked up to vacant lots may be cost prohibitive for future development. Pat Lindgren will get more information about possible programs available to
assist buyers interested in purchasing lots, such as financing the cost of the sewer/water connection over 20 years.
The nonconforming use permit for the Mobil station at Grand/Smith was approved by the city. We do not have any information yet about the branding of the gas station or a projected opening date.
Community Neighborhood Housing Services Survey
The CNHS community survey is going well, and involved online surveys, visual observations of properties (completed by the Odd Couple team volunteers)
and more. At this point, more Resident surveys are needed which also includes door to door surveys. We agreed to complete door to door surveys over the next few weeks and in exchange Community NHS will contribute $1,500 to our Pleasant Place development funds!
Volunteers for the door to door survey so far include Tom and Marit Brock, Sharon Lynch, JJ Fuentes and Sarah Gleason. We would like to have a
total of 10 volunteers – please contact Marit if you are interested in volunteering. We will set some dates for group door-knocking or you can go on your own.
Neighbors who have not yet completed the online survey can go to communitynhs.org/survey. You will receive a $5 Coopers Gift Certificate for completing the survey. However, only one survey can be completed per household.
Electronic Fundraising
Community NHS has agreed to open up the Pleasant Place site on GiveMN.org again and we want to develop a more targeted fundraising campaign this year. Two large items on our wish list include a water source for the Pleasant Place garden and neighborhood signs at Grand and St Clair. Each project will cost around $15,000. We will discuss fundraising priorities at our October meeting.
Marketing/Logo
Craig Favorito volunteered to develop a logo for the neighborhood and presented four possible designs. We offered feedback and Craig will refine the design for our October meeting.
Problem Properties/Safety
The property at 295 Harrison has gone through a remarkable turnaround and is now for sale as a single family home. On behalf of the LBNA, Marit sent a thank you note to the Department of Safety and Inspections (DSI) workers responsible for holding the owner accountable to correcting housing code violations.
The property at 275 Erie has continued to have problems, but the neighborhood is hearing rumors that it is now in foreclosure and the tenants will have to move out in October. We will continue to monitor this street. No recent updates about the two rental properties on Banfil street – Banfil neighbors – please let us know how things are going.
Remember to report issues to the police or to the city problem properties office. Applying consistent pressure on the owners of problem properties has proven to be a very effective way to get issues addressed, although we still have to be patient! You can access an online form at the city website or call (651) 266-8989 to report a problem. There is also a new smart phone app called Saint Paul Connect where you can easily report even small issues to the city. Here is a link to the apple version, or use your smart phone’s app store to find the version that works for your phone.
Tree Survey
Jen G gave an update of the healthy tree survey completed earlier this summer. About 30% of the boulevard trees were evaluated and there were many concerns about the health of the trees. These issues will be reported to the City Forestry department. Jen will work with the city as the Forestry department completes their evaluation of the trees in our area. We may choose to work directly with them or may want to get the rest of the trees surveyed if we feel that the city is not responding quickly enough.
Next Meeting:
10/3/13
Location
TBD – looking for a host!
July, 2013
Development – Mobil Station application – we discussed the Non-conforming Use Permit application and the owner’s representative was present to discuss their plans. Based on the discussion the group in attendance developed the attached recommendation to go to the Fort Road Federation board. Please offer your suggestions to the attachment.
Parking Permit request – There was an application to the city to change the permit parking on Douglas as follows:
National Night Out planning – We will hold National Night Out in Pleasant Park starting at 6:00 pm. It is a potluck – please bring a dish to share, your own drinks and a chair to sit in. The city is encouraging the color blue as a theme for National Night Out to recognize police officers throughout the city.
Lam Nguyen, Sarah Gleason, Ericka Hazelett and Jennifer Tacheny volunteered to pass out flyers. Others are welcome to pass out flyers – please contact me if you are interested.
Community Neighborhood Housing Services Survey – Please complete the electronic survey if you receive it. In addition, there will be other components to the survey, including a property conditions survey. Volunteers will be observing selected properties to determine their maintenance needs: is the roof in good condition? Is the yard kept up? Is there pride of ownership? These same parcels will be observed again in three years to measure improvement in the community. A volunteer work day will take place on Tuesday, July 23.
4:30 – 5:30 Happy Hour at DeGidio’s
5:30: brief training
5:45 – 7:00: property observations.
Marketing – Craig Favorito has volunteered to develop a logo for the Little Bohemia Neighborhood Association. He will work with Tom Brock and expects to have a sample for the September 2013 meeting.
Problem Properties/Safety – We have a handful of problem properties in the neighborhood to keep an eye on. We have been successful in the past when many people are watching properties and calling issues in to either the police non-emergency line (651) 291-1111, calling 911 or reporting property or safety issues to the city either online or by calling (651) 266-8989.
The addresses to watch currently include:
295 Harrison – violent behavior, arguments, safety issues such as junk in the back yard.
449 Banfil and 429 Banfil – the residents of these properties appear to know each other. Recent issues have been large groups of people congregating at both properties and in the street and vacant lot with some neighbors feeling intimidated, many cars with people hanging out in them, complaints of fire works.
275 and 279 Erie – the residents of these properties also seem to know each other and issues include many of the above behaviors.
Next Meeting:
National Night Out 8/6/13, Pleasant Place
May 2013
Expanding our boundaries – We have had a request from neighbors on the other side of Saint Clair to expand our boundaries to include them. We discussed pros and cons and the feedback was positive. We will keep talking as neighborhood groups to figure out the next steps.
CIB Update – Although we got good feedback about our project and presentation, our project ranked quite low in the end which makes it seem unlikely that it will get funded in this budget cycle. We will continue to pursue other sources of funding and may also apply for the next CIB cycle in two years.
Housing Rehab/Update - The home tour went well and we expect the two ISP/NSP homes to sell quickly. The proceeds from the sale of 22 Douglas will help to fund the next rounds of rehabs at 29 Douglas and 280 Forbes.
Nicole Curtis, who hosts the TV show Rehab Addict has contacted Dave Thune’s office and is interested in purchasing the house at 69 Douglas, which is currently being considered for demolition. We agreed that it would be great to have the house go through a good quality rehab, but considering that it has been vacant for several years, and was a problem property before that, we asked that some timelines for turnaround be built in to any sale.
Community Clean Up – The city is encouraging neighborhoods to host their own clean up events this year. We scheduled a clean up for Saturday, May 18th. We will focus on the bike path, particularly where it runs behind the houses. Plan to meet at Pleasant Place at 9:00 and we will fan out from there.
LBNA Garage Sale June 8th (and 9th?) - Dani Fenn has organized a neighborhood garage sale and is interested in recruiting households who want to participate and also volunteers to help with signs, maps and other communications. Find out more on Facebook or contact Dani at danielle.fenn@gmail.com
Boulevard Trees – Jenny Gehlhar is concerned about the state of the new boulevard trees. In order to make sure that they last, she plans to schedule a project to inventory the new trees planted by the city and provide recommendations for improvement or replacement. Jenny will coordinate the details, so please watch for more.
Pleasant Place sign dedication – On June 1st we will have a party to dedicate the new Pleasant Place sign installed last November. The Odd Couple Team will be providing a Pizza Party with the Green Mill Pizza truck as a thank you for the support we have provided to help sell the Banfil Houses last year and the Douglas and Harrison houses this year.
The garden group will also be scheduling a clean up for the morning of June 1st. More details to come about all of this.
Pleasant Place trash schedule - We still need help with a few weeks of trash duty this summer. Please sign up for Pleasant Place Trash duty - here's how it works in 3 easy steps:
1. Click this link to go to our invitation page on VolunteerSpot:http://vols.pt/fFga6T
2. Enter your email address: (You will NOT need to register an account on VolunteerSpot)
3. Sign up! Choose your spots - VolunteerSpot will send you an automated confirmation and reminders. Easy!
Note: VolunteerSpot does not share your email address with anyone. If you prefer not to use your email address, please contact me and I can sign you up manually.
Hour Dollars – Jenny brought up hourdollars.org a new, local barter service that is worth checking out.
April 2013
Saturday, April 6th - 10:00-11:00 am The CIB bus is coming! What's that? The Capital Improvement Budget (CIB) task force members will be touring the city to view all of the projects that have requested money from the City. We have requested approximately $350,000 for improvements to the bike path including water for the Pleasant Place gardens, new lighting, resurfacing and cross walks at Grand and St Clair. We want the CIB committee to see how much we LOVE our neighborhood, and how much we will appreciate having our project get the funding we requested.
Please join us at Pleasant Place (Garfield/Harrison) at 10:00 am. We will have some coffee, bring a pastry or donuts to share if you like. Other things to bring that might help show us off:
Sunday/Monday - Need some volunteers to hand out flyers for the clean up. We have some copies that I can give you, or I can send you a pdf to make your own copies. Please email back if you are interested!
Saturday, April 13th, 9:00 am - Citywide spring cleanup. Meet at Pleasant Park and we will spread throughout the neighborhood to clean up what the snow has left behind (We always find some weird stuff!). We want our neighborhood to be tidied up to welcome the Minneapolis/St Paul Home Tour participants at the end of April.
Wednesday, April 24th, 7:00 pm - Fort Road Federation annual meeting at Summit Brewery. Enjoy free tap root beer, $2 Summit taps, learn about what is new in West 7th and VOTE for the Fort Road Federation board members -there are at least 2 LBNA members on the ballot for different positions this year!
Saturday and Sunday, April 27-28th - Minneapolis/ St Paul Home Tour - Three LBNA homes will be on the tour this year along with others in the West 7th neighborhood. The homes in our area are 22 Douglas, 26 Douglas and 286 Harrison. This is a great opportunity to view these fabulous rehab efforts!
Thursday, May 2nd, 7:00 pm, LBNA Monthly meeting at 295 Sturgis.
February 2013
We submitted an application for the city of St Paul Capital Improvement Budget (CIB) funding to complete many of our plans to improve the 35E Bike Path. The next stage is a presentation on March 26th. We discussed the organizations that could provide us with letters of support for our efforts, including Journeys, West 7thCommunity Center, Fort Road Federation, MacDonald Montessori School, the Salvation Army, Healthy West 7th and possibly United/Childrens hospitals. The Gardening committee (Tom, Naomi, Nicki, Sarah) will be working on the details over the next few weeks. We will keep you posted about next steps!
Problem properties at 292 Sturgis and 287 Sturgis – the parties have stopped and things seem to be quieted down for now. These houses are in the foreclosure process and we discussed options for how we might get involved. Tom will talk to Dave Thune’s office to see if there are any programs through the city that we don’t yet know about. At this point we are hoping that a private developer or individual looking for a great rehab project will purchase one of these properties. There may be support available for individuals through CNHS programs.
Neighborworks Week Grant/Social Activities/Survey – We will apply for a Neighborworks Week grant again this year, and are requesting funding for 1)additional plants/trees for Pleasant Place, 2) funding for a Pleasant Place dedication event that will get people out and socializing. If we receive the grant the event must take place during Neighborworks Week in June, and we are proposing Saturday, June 8th.
CNHS has funding to do a survey of the area and will complete the survey activities during Neighborworks Week as well. We can use the survey data to help guide future activities as well.
Election information : FYI. Watch for more information about city caucuses and conventions! The Mayor of St Paul is up for re-election in 2013. As in past years, we want to make sure that the LBNA is visible and active in the political process. More to come!
Next Meeting will be a social activity such as a meet & greet at one of the great businesses in the area:
March 7th
7:00-8:30 pm
Location TBD
January 2013
Rehab and Development Discussions
CIB Application
We are submitting an application to the City of Saint Paul’s Capital Improvement Budget (CIB) process. The application is intended to cover the large improvements that are beyond the scope of our volunteer work or fundraising. At this point, we are requesting funding for resurfacing the path, new lighting between Goodrich and St Clair and possibly other features of our bike path 5-year plan such as benches, water, additional path improvements and more fitness stations. Please provide suggestions for the application if you have them, and we will keep you posted about the progress.
Small Area Plan
Our project manager with the City has suggested that we request city planning support to complete a Small Area Plan for Little Bohemia. This will help us to make decisions about what to do with vacant lots, and will also provide guidance for activities like traffic calming, walking and biking, lighting and other safety features. If approved, we will look for 3-4 volunteers to work with the city to complete the plan over the next few months.
Becca Hine is a local architect working with Community Neighborhood Housing Services (CNHS) to develop scope of work documents for 310 Sturgis and 69 Garfield. These houses are the oldest of the properties to be rehabbed, and are also the most difficult. Becca has also received historical information from West 7th historian Jim Sazevich, and has a general idea of the direction of the scope of work documents. However, she is looking to us to provide additional input. A small group volunteered to participate and Becca will contact them directly to arrange a time to view the properties and discuss options. We will look forward to seeing the recommendations that the group creates.
Jenny Gehlhar brought up problem properties at 292 Sturgis and 287 Sturgis. We will discuss these properties in more detail at a future meeting.
Election information : FYI. The Mayor of St Paul is up for re-election in 2013. As in past years, we want to make sure that the LBNA is visible and active in the political process. More to come!
2013 Meeting schedule : We distributed the 2013 meeting schedule and several people signed up to host in 2013. We will also mix in several social events with the business meetings throughout the year. Watch for more!
Next Meeting:
February 7, 2013
7:00-8:30 pm
Location Nolen’s
73 Western Avenue South
November 2012
Logo Update
Thank you to Sharon Lynch for getting a volunteer to help design a logo for the LBNA. Sharon and Tom Brock will work on some options to bring forward to the group at a future meeting. We should have a logo soon! Thanks to the others who worked to find a designer who would be willing to work for free.
Pleasant Park update
The sign should be installed by the end of the week of November 5th. We had considered doing some kind of event, but considering the weather has gotten quite cold we agreed to wait until spring.
We are exploring a Capital Improvement Budget (CIB) request to get funding for the larger improvements to the park. More to come.
Housing/Commercial Development
Unfortunately we do not have any updates about houses for sale, the next phase of rehabs, or the status of the gas station and other commercial development. We will forward any information as it comes.
Safety Concerns
Please continue to keep an eye out for any safety concerns. The neighborhood seems quiet for the right now however.
October 2012
ISP/NSP Housing Updates
286 Harrison and 22 Douglas are going through the final checklists and are preparing for sale. They will be staged for sale as with the Banfil street houses and should sell quickly. We are already getting inquiries from potential buyers!
The scope of work plans for 29 Douglas (brick house moved from Smith Avenue) and 280 Forbes are in the final stages of approval. The contracts for rehab bids should be posted by the city soon after the scopes are approved. 29 Douglas will also have the foundation secured for the winter so that the house can not be accessed.
Gas Station - Smith/Grand Mobil
As follow up from last month's meeting, the new owner has not yet received enough signatures to request a variance to open as a gas station. They did not indicate how close they are, but the sale of the property is contingent on being able to operate as a gas station. It is possible that if the new owner is not able to get the variance in the near future, the sale will fall through.
This continues the discussion that we have been holding for the past year or so, similar to the Tire Store building. We talked about what we would like to see at the Grand/Smith/West 7th intersection and what might be involved to reach our vision. For example, if we do not want a gas station at Grand/Smith are we willing to have a vacant, blighted building at that intersection for several years until the right buyer/project happens?
We will continue this discussion at future meetings. We also discussed trying to get a relationship with the hospital and the current owners of the properties in question. Some of the ideas for development we would like to see on that block in general (gas station, Krause Anderson property, tire store) include:
Office/retail building - not strip mall style but perhaps 1-2 story building
Brew pub
Craft/art spaces
Start up businesses that local residents can invest in as shareholders
Higher end retail (Patina, toy store) that would be attractive to the visitors to the hospital as well as residents
Housing
Skate park/indoor play space like "Pump it Up"
Pleasant Park
We have completed the fundraising, and will try again in the future when we have specific projects to be funded.
The sign will be installed in the next few weeks, ideally by the end of September. As a reminder, we have been asked to change the name from Pleasant Park to something that does not have Park in the name. For that reason we will change the name on the sign to Pleasant Place.
We would like to schedule a "dedication of the sign" and are tentatively looking at the first weekend in November for an afternoon gathering in the park. Watch for more details.
Journeys will host the November 1st meeting at the school. They will give us a tour of the school as well as providing space for us to meet.
Finally, congratulations to DeGidio's for a great write up in the Pioneer Press on Thursday! I know that many of us have already discovered the addictive qualities of their red sauce, and I hope this article brings in many more customers!
May 2012
Housing Rehab Update –Big news!
455 and 459 Banfil Street were on the Minneapolis/St Paul home tour and looked great. Even better – they are both
SOLD!
The Brick Krause Anderson house on Smith will be moving in the next couple of weeks or so. The house is up girders and ready to
move, but 29 Douglas has not yet been demolished. The house will be moved at night so the impact on traffic and utilities will be limited. The utility lines will need to be cut and the neighbors impacted will be notified. The small trees on the Salvation Army side of Forbes will be removed and replaced to make room for the house to pass. Jim Sazevich, our neighbor in Uppertown and the
famous House Detective shared some history of the house. We learned that it was built by Peter and Paulina Thauwalt in 1904. The family also owned a prominent bakery on West 7th street that has since been torn down. Peter Thauwalt also built the Paulina building nearby and named it for his wife. The house has some important neighborhood history so it is great that it will be moved rather than demolished.
The scope of work documents for that property will be at an upcoming meeting so that we can see how it will be used.
As discussed at the last meeting, we will get more updates about the plan for the remaining homes on Forbes to be rehabbed, discuss the next phase of rehabs, and we expect to have a discussion about what to do with the vacant lots at a future meeting.
Pleasant Park/Garden update – The first round of gardening happened even though it was raining. We know that we received $1,000 from CNHS
and have also applied for other grants for improvements to Pleasant Park. More to come.
We were joined by Theresa Neal and Anne Byer-Rajput from Journeys. We got an update about the school program, and were pleased to hear
that Theresa Neal is no longer the Interim principal – she has been named as the principal going forward. We will continue to work with the school as they settle in.
Garage Variance Request- Mark Hegenauer and Naomi Austen at 90 Garfield Street discussed their plans for a new garage. They will need a minor variance and are asking for our endorsement. I will send out a separate email with plans and a letter of support. Please review that when you get it.
April Meeting Minutes
Ramsey County Operation Medicine Delivery –
Presentation by Ramsey County Public Health regarding Operation Medicine Delivery, which is a test of the emergency delivery system which will deliver
empty pill bottles to homes in zip code 55102 on (date). There will be a lot of information out in the media, separate mailings etc. in order to inform people
of what is happening. Consider passing the word on to neighbors who may be elderly or immigrant groups so that they understand that the pill bottle is only
a test. There is nothing for us to do if we receive a bottle. It can be recycled in regular recycling.
Spring Clean Up – Details discussed. It should be a good day!
Garage Sale – We set a deadline of May 31st
to get commitments for households to commit to participating in the garage sale. We would like to have 10 sales in our area. If we do not get commitments for 10 sales we may reconsider holding the sale.
Garden Tour/Pleasant Park
Update – The garden group has been working hard to get plans moving for summer gardening.
Grants: We have applied for several grants to continue our work in Pleasant Park. In addition, we may want to consider holding some
kind of fund raising in the future. These include:
Community Neighborhood Housing Services has applied for several grants on our behalf. If approved, this would provide a minimum of $500 in goods/services and up to $15,000 in goods and services.
We have applied for a grant from Greening the Avenue that will allow John Yust to design, build and install a sign in Pleasant Park consistent with the existing fitness stations and design plans. This will be approximately $2,500.
Design plans: Sarah G., Naomi and Nicki met with Ruth Dantuma who has volunteered to do some general garden plans for Pleasant Park.
We will have a good outline and can hire Ruth to do more detailed plans if/when we get some grant dollars.
Pat Lindgren will approach the city to see if we can have access to some of the grey Platteville limestone that is being excavated from the downtown light rail project. We can use the rocks for garden edging, benches or other purposes.
Maintenance: An updated trash schedule will be posted on the website www.littlebohemiastpaul.org. Please let me know if you are not interested in participating, or if you will be out of town the week you are assigned. As a reminder, the trash schedule involves emptying the container in Pleasant Park 1-2 times during the week, including replacing the trash bag. Any trash that is removed will go in your own household trash.
Housing Update – Funding has been secured for the next round of house rehabs and scope of work documents should be coming forward
in the next few weeks. Tom and Ed also suggested that at one of the summer meetings we hold a serious discussion about future phases of the rehabs,
including discussions about infill housing on the vacant lots. The group agreed.
Pat Lindgren reported that Dave Thune’s office has secured a grant to allow Historic Saint Paul (HSP) to develop scope of work documents
for 301 Sturgis and 69 Garfield. As these are the oldest houses in the neighborhood and also in very bad shape, they will be able to provide documents
that maintain the important elements of a historic house.
Please note that 455 and 459 Banfil have been assigned a realtor and should be on the market soon. In addition, they will be on the
Minneapolis St Paul home tour April 28-29th. If you know of anyone who is in the market for a great house in the city please suggest they look at these houses. The sooner these houses sell, the more likely we are to have access to funding for future rehabs!
Zoning update – The group reviewing possible overlay district or other zoning rules has made the decision to move forward with an update of the District 9 (Fort Road Federation) Small Area Plan summary to give better guidance to the city in response to permit requests. The two areas that the updated plan will address are: Specific design guidelines to help maintain the historic character of the area. This will supplement the existing zoning regulations.
Include language strongly discouraging tearing down buildings to build surface parking lots.
There will be a time for public input if you have any concerns about the guidelines.
The Burger King/Mobil zoning will be going to the city council for approval soon.
January 2012 Meeting Minutes
Zoning update:The majority of the meeting was led by Lucy Thompson, City Planner regarding last year’s zoning survey and the current commercial zoning study for the Burger King and Mobil Station properties.After a good discussion we proposed that this section be considered as either a Traditional Neighborhood 2 (TN2) to match last year’s commercial zoning recommendation or possibly Traditional Neighborhood 3 (TN3).For specifics of what that means, please take a look at the zoning guide from the city of St Paul. (If the hyperlink doesn’t work for you please go directly to the City of St Paul website and look under the Zoning section for a lot of information about zoning.)
If you have concerns or comments, there will be a public comment period in late January/February before it is voted on by the City Council.More details to come. We are also participating with residents of Uppertown and Irvine Park to create additional guidelines for future building at the Grand/Smith/West 7th intersection.Our February 2nd LBNA meeting will be dedicated to that purpose.I think this will be an interesting exercise and a chance for us, once again, to help determine the future of our neighborhood!
Housing Rehab Update: While we had hoped for continued good news in this area, we recently learned that the funding for our plan to rehab as many as 8 properties in 2012 is not available.At this point, we will be able to rehab additional houses as the current properties go up for sale.Considering there are 14 more city owned properties to be rehabbed in LBNA, that pace will not be adequate.We are currently working with the Fort Road Federation and Dave Thune to determine if there are alternatives that will allow us to rehab the properties more quickly.
We also learned that Krause Anderson is ready to tear down the brick house on Smith Avenue that we had hoped to move the 29 Douglas.We are working with Dave Thune to see if we can get a commitment of the necessary fund from the city and go back to Krause Anderson with a clear plan.If we are not able to get that commitment it is very possible that Krause Anderson will tear down the house in order to sell their property more easiy.
These housing rehab issues are a concern and there may be a role for all of us to make phone calls, write letters or show up at the meetings to get things
moving.I will keep you posted.
Next meeting is February 2nd at 7:00 pm. Location: Fort Road Federation
Submitted by Marit Brock
November 2011 Meeting Minutes
Our last meeting was filled with great news and an exciting timeline for planning. Thank you to Mary at the Claddagh Coffee Café for hosting. The next few meetings will include a lot of opportunity for community input to housing and other plans, so please mark your calendars! On a side note, don’t forget to vote on Tuesday, November 8th. If you are not sure where to go to vote, use this website http://xnet.co.ramsey.mn.us/elections/precinct_finder/
Invest St Paul (ISP)/Neighborhood Stabilization (NSP) report
2011 Rehabs
The construction has been going full force on the first round of houses. The status of the current houses includes:
455 and 459 Banfil ready for sale mid-November, 326 Harrison and 22 Douglas ready for sale mid-December.
Houses will be“staged” for showcasing and will be sold by realtors selected by the city to market and list ISP/NSP houses.
City is offering first time buyer deferred loan, other financial incentives for qualified buyers.
City has created a new website to list houses and provide information to potential homebuyers at www.stpaulcommunities.com.
We will include links to this website on our neighborhood site www.littlebohemiastpaul.org and will also work with real estate agents to help get these homes sold to responsible new neighbors.
2012 Rehabs
The goal is to rehabilitate another 8 houses in 2012 with 280, 284, 286 and 288 Forbes Ave will be rehabbed beginning in the spring. The Scopes of Work will be
reviewed by our group at our December meeting, and the previous committee members will provide feedback to the Fort Road Federation after that point.
An additional 4 houses are scheduled to begin in the fall and we hope to provide feedback about which houses are a priority. 69 Garfield and 301 Sturgisare the two most difficult rehab projects due to structural issues. The Fort Road Federation recommends that the remainder of the ISP/NSP houses are rehabbed prior to addressing these houses.
Smith House
Fort Road Federation is prepared to move Smith Ave house to 29 Douglas Street, pending final approval from the LBNA. Other neighborhood groups object to the
move, thinking the Smith house could anchor additional residential construction on the Krause Anderson lot. We agreed that Tom Brock will contact the Fort Road
Federation to see if there is any option to keep the Smith house at its current location. However, if there are no other alternatives, we would like to see the
house moved to 29 Douglas as planned rather than see it demolished.
Community Neighborhood Housing Services
Representatives came by to discuss that our neighborhood is now designated as an affiliate of their program, which means that they can apply for grants on behalf of our
neighborhood. They have some very exciting programs that will benefit our neighborhood and the homeowners in the neighborhood, including: ·
A loan program available with low interests rates to help rehab homes for health, safety, livability and green purposes. Applications for the loan program will be
sent out soon. They have also asked a member of our group to serve on their loan committee and Sharon Lynch has agreed to serve on that committee.
·
A leadership program that includes training for neighborhood leaders as well as a neighborhood project to be completed, and if you are interested in participating in this program or submitting a project please let me know. We would like to submit an application to this program for next year.
·
Grant for improvements to green spaces. We will apply for a grant to help with some of the Pleasant Park projects.
West 7th Enhancemen Coalition/West 7th Business Association
Presented us with two certificates of recognition for our efforts with Pleasant Park, and for the efforts of the LBNA overall to improve the area. Thank you to the West
7th Enhancement Coalition for your recognition. If anyone is interested in becoming a member of the West 7th Business Association please visit their website at www.west7thbusinessassociation.com/
West End Neighbors Garden Tour
The Tour is beginning planning for the next tour scheduled on June 16th, 2012. They are looking for people who are interested in talking to visitors to their garden and
telling a story, not looking for show gardens. If you are interested please contact Kent Petterson at terrace@winternet.com or attend a planning meeting on
Wednesday, November 9th, 6:30 pm at the Fort Road Federation office.
We are planning to suggest Pleasant Park as an option for 2012, so will be looking for volunteers to help prepare the garden and talk to volunteers if we are
selected.
Smith/Grand Mobil license application
Although the owners of the gas station have withdrawn their application for a liquor license and plans for a large scale car wash on the site, there is some neighborhood
objection to the license application for the gas station because it appears that the previous owners are still involved with the new gas station. This makes is likely that the past practices of the gas station (over priced gas, out of gas, limited items in the convenience store, loitering etc) will continue. There is a public hearing to be held on Thursday, November 17that 2:00 pm at City Hall. I have attached the notice, and please let me know if you are interested in participating in the public hearing.
Volunteer Opportunities
We have signed up for Bell ringing for the Salvation Army on Saturday December 3rd at Cooper’s. Please let me know if you are interested in signing up for a one hour shift – it is fun and kind of a nice way to generate some holiday cheer!
Next Meeting
There is no meeting in December, our next meeting will be January 5, 7 to 8:30 p.m. at a location to be determined. If anyone is interested in hosting a monthly meeting of the LBNA, please contact info@littlebohemiastpaul.org for more information.
- Volunteer help – Emily Dombecke will coordinate volunteers and local experts who can help spruce up properties, advise about landscaping improvements. Interested individuals should contact Emily directly. More details will be posted on Facebook group.
- Safety discussion - discussed problem properties and specifically issues along Banfil street. Banfil neighbors are planning a block party on July 4th to prevent the disruption, partying and fireworks that has happened in past years on the 4th of July. Perhaps if the neighbors are out and watching then the problem rental properties will be less likely to be disruptive.
All neighbors are encouraged to report issues to police and to the city in order to prevent issues from getting out of hand.
- Parking violations, boats, trailers, parking on sidewalk – Consistent with our efforts to prevent criminal behavior by making sure our neighborhood looks cared for, please remember that illegal parking, junk vehicle on the street, boats and trailers left on the street for extended periods all make our neighborhood look uncared for.
There may be some action to address this at the City, but in the meantime please talk to neighbors and report issues through the Saint Paul Connect app or the city website so that issues are corrected promptly.
Gardening
Pleasant Place Garden Planting day – Sunday, June 8th
Beans on the Boulevard – We had an interesting and informative discussion about Beans on The Boulevard, a project that started on the West Side. Mary Hanson has agreed to coordinate interested households and we will work together to get supplies and instructions out. Contact Mary directly to sign up, and check out the Growing West Side facebook group to learn more about Beans on the Boulevard and other urban farming efforts.
MNDOT Landscaping project – Jenny is coordinating with MNDOT, Public Works and we will include Journeys later. Jenny provided an update and asked that we formally approve her moving forward with this project to providing landscape design and plants along 35E. Her recommendation was approved unanimously.
Next Meeting:
July 10, 2014
Jen Gehlhar’s house
295 Sturgis St
7:00-8:30 pm
April 3, 2014
Housing Development – There has been a delay in the start date for the construction on 29 Douglas and 280 Forbes. The contract between the city and the Fort Road Federation is expected to be signed by May 1st and construction will begin after that point.
Art Crawl – There will be a strong presence along West 7th for Art Crawl this year. The West 7th/Little Bohemia presence will be focused on Saturday, April 26th, but the Schmidt Artists Lofts and others will be open for the full weekend. Metro Transit will be giving out free bus passes so it will be easier for people to travel along West 7th and into Downtown.
We will be looking for volunteer greeters for Saturday, and the Schmidt Artists Lofts will also be looking for volunteers. Watch for more information to come.
Spring Clean Up – Meet at Pleasant Place (corner of Garfield and Harrison) at 9:00 am. We will focus on the park and bike path. We will have some trash bags and gloves, but bring more if you can. Also, bring a broom, rake or clippers to help clean up brush in the garden. A pooper-scooper or poop bags may also come in handy!
Journeys may be able to have students clean up the wooded areas of the path, which would be a big help!
Garage Sale – We will hold our 3rd annual LBNA garage sale on Saturday, June 14th , which is the same day as the West End Garden Tour. Contact Dani Fenn if you would like to have your house added to the garage sale list or would like to help with organizing. We also agreed to use some of our fundraising money to pay for signs and other supplies as needed.
T-shirts and buttons – Thanks to Jennifer Tacheny for ordering t-shirts and Lam and Meredith Nguyen for creating buttons with the LBNA logo. We agreed to sell the t-shirts for $10, which adds in about $3.50 extra that we can use for Art Crawl, Garage Sale and other expenses. We will sell buttons for a slight markup as well.
In addition to selling to neighbors, we will sell t-shirts and buttons at various events this spring.
The t-shirts are grey with black lettering. If we see a high demand or decide we want to order different colors and styles we can do that at a later date.
Order t-shirts online at http://www.littlebohemiastpaul.org
Pleasant Place – Jenny Gehlhar has been in contact with MNDOT and there may be new programs we can use to help with the landscaping and trees along the bike path. Jenny and members of the garden group will learn more and keep us posted.
Burger King Gardens – No progress connecting with franchise owners yet.
Northwestern Tire Store/Brewery – Marit Brock and Mark Fangmeier met with the owners of the brewery considering a move to the Northwestern Tire Store building. They are not a new brewery, and currently have a commercial facility in Minnetonka. They plan to open a Tap Room and will brew small batches to serve on site. They will come to our May meeting to respond to questions and meet the neighbors.
Although we are mostly supportive of the concept and this use of the building, the discussion of neighborhood concerns include
- parking, especially on the streets in the neighborhood that are not currently permit parking
- noise and hours of operation
- Expected number of people, especially for game or event nights
- truck traffic, particularly in the alley
- Odor from the brewery operation
- Future growth plans at that site
Problem Properties/Safety – For the most part things have been quiet. Concerns identified include:
- Neighbor who is leaving out excessive amounts of bread and other food for the birds. The amounts are too large for the birds, and the food is rotting and may be attracting rats or other undesirables. Sarah Gleason agreed to talk to the neighbor to see if he will stop.
- Concern about people trying to sleep in the large brick house on Sturgis. Police were called, but as always, keep an eye on the vacant properties.
- Concern about cars running red lights. The Fort Road Federation is working on a street safety project, but is there more that can be done?
Next Meeting:
5/1/14 – Social Event
7:00-8:30 pm
Ericka Hazelett’s house
March 6, 2014
Housing Development – Still on track for 29 Douglas and 280 Forbes to begin construction in late March/early April.
New Residents - We discussed how to connect with some of the newer residents of the neighborhood and agreed that we can each try to connect with new neighbors. Feel free to print off an information sheet to use as a conversation starter – or to leave behind if you knock on the door and no one is home.
Journeys Program/Parking Lot Construction update – Plans for a new parking lot have been suspended indefinitely. Journeys will be closed for other renovations over the summer. The school will proceed with adding new programs next school year, and the expected enrollment will be around 100-125 students as planned. Not all students will be on site at one time.
Art Crawl – The art crawl committee (Tom, Naomi, Nicki) met with others in the neighborhood and have plans to participate in the April art crawl for one day (not the full art crawl weekend). This will be practice to participate more fully in the October art crawl event. Everyone seems excited to get Little Bohemia and other parts of West 7th more involved in Art crawl, with the Brewery helping to draw more people from downtown.
Coming events:
- Spring Clean Up – We will participate again this year. Journeys may do a clean up during the week as a service project.
- Adopt a Trash Can electronic sign up will be sent out again in late March/early April. Please sign up for a week or two!
- Little Bohemia Neighborhood Garage sale – there is interest in holding a garage sale again and Dani Fenn has agreed to coordinate. We will shoot for Saturday, June 14th
- Minneapolis/St Paul Home Tour 2015 – We will not have any homes on the home tour this year, but hope that we will have some city rehabs as well as private homes on the 2015 tour. Start thinking about getting YOUR house signed up!
- Citizen Pruner class will be scheduled in August. Contact Jenny Gehlhar if you would like to participatejengehlhar@yahoo.com
Problem Properties/Safety – Some have noticed that the homeless couple from last year are back in the area. Visitors to the rental properties on Banfil street have been blocking the street with their cars and behaving in a somewhat threatening way. Other problem properties have been fairly quiet. The group agreed to report issues when they come up.
What do you wish we were doing? We discussed any other activities, problems etc that we are not currently working on. The following items were identified for now:
- Pursue the Community Garden concept at Burger King – Sarah Gleason and Brittney Schuller will investigate further.
- Community building/identity /logo – We agreed to purchase a banner or two with some of the fundraising money, but it was suggested that we pursue other ideas such as small flags for yards, t-shirts or other items with our logo. Lam volunteered to create buttons for the group to wear at the Art Crawl and other events. Jennifer Tacheny agreed to look into other printed options.
Getting the word out – Sarah Gleason and Tom Brock have each been select to presented our neighborhood story at different community development workshops in the Twin Cities. Our story is seen as a success in community organizing!
Meeting sign up – We are looking for hosts for the November 6th and December 4th meetings. Thanks to all who have signed up to host so far.
Next Meeting:
4/3/14
7:00-8:30 pm
Sarah Gleason and Malick Maria
271 Forbes Ave.
February 2014
Housing Development – The Fort Road Federation is now owner of the properties at 29 Douglas/267 Forbes, 280, 284, 286 and 288 Forbes, 326 Harrison, 301 Sturgis and 457 Smith. Construction is expected to begin between March 15-April 1st with 29 Douglas and 280 Forbes. The remaining properties will be rehabbed in phases with a timeline of 13 months to complete once construction begins. The remaining ISP properties will be included in the Request For Proposal (RFP) process with the city that is expected to begin in October 2014. The Fort Road Federation may choose to put in proposals for those properties, but it will be open to other developers as well. We will have to develop a way to connect with other developers and hope that they will share our neighborhood vision.
Journeys Program/Parking Lot Construction – Hans from Journeys presented the schools plans to add another program for high school children with mental health issues in the fall, in addition to their existing programs. This may increase the number of students to as many as 100 although many of the students do not spend the full day at the school.
The school currently has 40-50 “itinerant staff” who have offices in the school but are not there on a regular basis. These staff will be moving to other locations, but the new program will add some staff.
The school has plans to add a parking lot for approximately 32 cars. The plan is to remove the playground area and build a parking lot and they are looking for neighborhood input. We expressed concern about the need for a parking lot without first exploring how to make street parking work better for both staff, visitors and residents. In addition, we expressed strong concern that the school would remove the play area, which is something well used by the community when school is not in session.
I have attached the notes that Hans wrote up at the end of this email. I think that it accurately captures our discussions. Hans will bring back more information at our March 4th meeting.
- Signs – We have explored whether or not we can get Saint Paul neighborhood signs for the streets in the area. The city does not use those signs any longer, and they have rules that might prevent us from adding signs to the busier streets like Smith, West 7th and even Saint Clair and Osceola. We agreed to use some of our fundraising money to purchase banners that we can use for events and will still consider sign options in the future as we get more money to use.
- Art Crawl – Tom is working with the Saint Paul Art Crawl and would like to get Little Bohemia involved, especially since the Schmidt brewery will be part of the Art Crawl. The group agreed that we should have a small committee to work on bringing the Art Crawl into our neighborhood this year. Anyone else who is interested should contact Tom directly at tjbrock651@yahoo.com.
- Tree Update- Jenny passed around a signup sheet for the Citizen Pruner course where neighbors learn how to properly care for boulevard trees (among others). In order to have this exclusively for our neighborhood we will need around 10 people to sign up. The cost is approximately $20 and the date is TBD. If you are interested please contact Jenny directly at jengehlhar@yahoo.com
- HIA – Jenny introduced the Health Impact Analysis (HIA) project and discussed some options. This may be a good fit with the We Are West 7th program.
- We are West 7th – Marit and Ericka have been involved in a new program called We Are West 7th that is working on an Asset Based Community Development program, initially focused on programs for youth, but also working with United Family Medicine, the West 7th Business Association and others on mapping and connecting the different types of assets in the community in an easy to use way. This is a new group and all are welcome. We meet the first Saturday of the month at the Mississippi Market.
- Problem Properties/Safety – No issues reported.
- West 7th Development – We discussed community development topics including the fate of the 7 Corners Hardware building and Dairy Queen as well as the Streetcar proposal. Also a reminder to attend the Fort Road Federation annual meeting 4/23 at Summit Brewing, the West End Garden Tour 6/14 and GermanFest 6/21-22.
- Meeting sign up – We are looking for hosts for the April 3rd, November 6th and December 4th meetings. Thanks to all who have signed up to host so far.
3/6/14
7:00-8:30 pm
Nicki and Katherine’s house
73 Western Ave.
Notes from Journeys staff
Response/concerns to proposed parking lot at Journeys Secondary School
The neighborhood would prefer a parking lot not be added to Journeys thus preserving the green space and playground. Questions were asked about the need for a parking lot. Some issues mentioned were neighbors on Sturgis complaining about parking in front of driveways, congestion on Sturgis, snow removal problems on Sturgis, parking for staff during snow emergencies, and the number of vehicles parked in the neighborhood due to number of staff in the building and occasional training sessions that brings in additional traffic and parking.
Concerned about loss of green space and playground.
If parking lot is placed along Harrison Street community members would like to know if the playground would be relocated.
Suggested a parking lot be placed along side the building between Harrison and Sturgis Street to keep green space and playground. Entrance/exit on each street.
Would like to see spec drawings to see how it effects green space and playground.
Neighbors feel it gets much community use during the spring, summer and fall. Also mentioned there is a significant growth in the number of young children in the neighborhood due to neighborhood revitalization/housing rehabilitation efforts.
Do not want the basketball court back, would be used all night and disturbed neighbors. Neighbors appreciated school taking down backboard at their request.
Those neighbors present at the meeting, who’ve lived in the neighborhood for more than five years, recall the district maintaining the playground and field by removing grafitti, repairing/replacing broken playground equipment, regular mowing and ball diamond grooming.
Some neighbors recalled significant improvements to the green space three and a half years ago including grading to improve run-off, new sod, fencing, elevated green space, trees, drainage ponds, etc.
Summer maintenance has slacked off, last summer grass was very long and some weeds were shoulder height, property became eyesore. Maintenance had been regular and green space, playground well maintained prior to last summer.
Would like a berm, hedge, or some form of landscaping around parking lot to separate from green space.
One neighbor works for Home Depot, he suggested the idea of writing for a $5000 grant for improvement to the green space/playground with landscaping, benches, etc.
Two sets of young couples present at the meeting purchased homes near Journeys this past summer with the proximity to the playground and green space a factor in buying.
All neighbors realize it is school property and the district can renovate as it sees fit. They fully appreciated the opportunity to give feedback on the parking lot issue. Also mentioned that our involvement in the Little Bohemia Neighborhood Association the past two and a half years is much appreciated.
October 2013
Housing Development – HRA meeting 10/23/14
The next phase of the housing rehab project will take place when the request for Tentative Developer Status goes to the Housing and Redevelopment Agency (HRA) meeting on October 23rd. Although this was originally expected to be a step in the procedure, it seems that it is not going to be routine and it will be helpful to have neighbors there to show support for the housing rehab. The HRA meeting is at 2:00 pm, 10/23/13. We will get together on Saturday, 10/19 at 4:00 for final preparations.
Saint Paul Forestry Department/Tree Survey
Brett from Saint Paul Forestry department attended the meeting to discuss how the Forestry department can work with the neighborhood for boulevard tree maintenance. Jenny will work with Brett to learn more about the “Citizen Pruner” training program, and will bring details to a future meeting. We are hoping for 10-12 participants.
Brett agreed to do an informal Pleasant Place tree assessment and provide some advice about the dead/unhealthy trees. There may be some restrictions to Saint Paul Forestry removing the trees, but we will continue to work with Saint Paul Public Works to develop a solution.
Jenny will follow up with Brett on replacing dead trees and planting new trees in vacant boulevard spots and report on expected planting dates to the group at next meeting // also will request forestry to review those trees where there was a "concern" (those in the inventory labeled "bad" or "dying," etc.) -- updates at Nov. mtg.
Pleasant Place/Bench update
The seats for the benches should be installed by the end of October. We would like to get some input from the Banfil/Duke street residents before we install the final bench. Lindsay/Mark/Meredith agreed to ask some neighbors for their input.
Christmas Decorations
We were approached about adopting the Christmas decorations from the Friends of Mears Park. Tom Brock will find out the details such as how much storage space we need, how expensive it will be to have them up during the holidays and so on.
Community Neighborhood Housing Services
Community Impact Survey - Scheduling a doorknocking day for Saturday, October 19th from 2:00-4:00 pm to get more surveys completed. Meet at Claddagh to get the surveys and other information. CNHS will donate $1,500 to our Pleasant Place fund in exchange for our work. If you have not yet completed a survey please go to http://www.communitynhs.org/survey .
Electronic Fundraising
We agreed to a tiered focus for our fundraising efforts – with a priority places on getting water installed. We will aim for $15,000 for water, but the money can be used for other things. More to come when the electronic fundraising site is available.
Marketing/Logo – Craig Favorito will send out options
Problem Properties/Safety
The problem properties are somewhat quieter than in the past and the landlords seem more involved. Remember to report issues to the police or to the city problem properties office. Applying consistent pressure on the owners of problem properties has proven to be a very effective way to get issues addressed, although we still have to be patient!
You can access an online form at the city website or call (651) 266-8989 to report a problem. There is also a new smart phone app called Saint Paul Connect where you can easily report even small issues to the city. Here is a link to the apple version, or use your smart phone’s app store to find the version that works for your phone.
Next Meeting:
11/7/13
7:00-8:30 pm
455 Banfil Street
September, 2013
SAVE THE DATE – the Saint Paul Police
department will be hosting a Public Safety event in Pleasant Place on September 21st from 11:00 – 1:00. We also hope to coordinate our final
garden project of the year on this day – building the Gabion Benches. Watch for more details in the next few days!
Development
Becca Hine presented the results of a historic study for four of the more difficult houses in our area that are part of the ISP/NSP program. These also include scope of work documents that will be used for the future rehab of the houses. Please take a look and offer any suggestions to enhance the documents (I attached the reports to this email).
We briefly discussed the vacant lots in the area, and some of the homes that have been torn down. We learned that in our area getting the sewer and water
hooked up to vacant lots may be cost prohibitive for future development. Pat Lindgren will get more information about possible programs available to
assist buyers interested in purchasing lots, such as financing the cost of the sewer/water connection over 20 years.
The nonconforming use permit for the Mobil station at Grand/Smith was approved by the city. We do not have any information yet about the branding of the gas station or a projected opening date.
Community Neighborhood Housing Services Survey
The CNHS community survey is going well, and involved online surveys, visual observations of properties (completed by the Odd Couple team volunteers)
and more. At this point, more Resident surveys are needed which also includes door to door surveys. We agreed to complete door to door surveys over the next few weeks and in exchange Community NHS will contribute $1,500 to our Pleasant Place development funds!
Volunteers for the door to door survey so far include Tom and Marit Brock, Sharon Lynch, JJ Fuentes and Sarah Gleason. We would like to have a
total of 10 volunteers – please contact Marit if you are interested in volunteering. We will set some dates for group door-knocking or you can go on your own.
Neighbors who have not yet completed the online survey can go to communitynhs.org/survey. You will receive a $5 Coopers Gift Certificate for completing the survey. However, only one survey can be completed per household.
Electronic Fundraising
Community NHS has agreed to open up the Pleasant Place site on GiveMN.org again and we want to develop a more targeted fundraising campaign this year. Two large items on our wish list include a water source for the Pleasant Place garden and neighborhood signs at Grand and St Clair. Each project will cost around $15,000. We will discuss fundraising priorities at our October meeting.
Marketing/Logo
Craig Favorito volunteered to develop a logo for the neighborhood and presented four possible designs. We offered feedback and Craig will refine the design for our October meeting.
Problem Properties/Safety
The property at 295 Harrison has gone through a remarkable turnaround and is now for sale as a single family home. On behalf of the LBNA, Marit sent a thank you note to the Department of Safety and Inspections (DSI) workers responsible for holding the owner accountable to correcting housing code violations.
The property at 275 Erie has continued to have problems, but the neighborhood is hearing rumors that it is now in foreclosure and the tenants will have to move out in October. We will continue to monitor this street. No recent updates about the two rental properties on Banfil street – Banfil neighbors – please let us know how things are going.
Remember to report issues to the police or to the city problem properties office. Applying consistent pressure on the owners of problem properties has proven to be a very effective way to get issues addressed, although we still have to be patient! You can access an online form at the city website or call (651) 266-8989 to report a problem. There is also a new smart phone app called Saint Paul Connect where you can easily report even small issues to the city. Here is a link to the apple version, or use your smart phone’s app store to find the version that works for your phone.
Tree Survey
Jen G gave an update of the healthy tree survey completed earlier this summer. About 30% of the boulevard trees were evaluated and there were many concerns about the health of the trees. These issues will be reported to the City Forestry department. Jen will work with the city as the Forestry department completes their evaluation of the trees in our area. We may choose to work directly with them or may want to get the rest of the trees surveyed if we feel that the city is not responding quickly enough.
Next Meeting:
10/3/13
Location
TBD – looking for a host!
July, 2013
Development – Mobil Station application – we discussed the Non-conforming Use Permit application and the owner’s representative was present to discuss their plans. Based on the discussion the group in attendance developed the attached recommendation to go to the Fort Road Federation board. Please offer your suggestions to the attachment.
Parking Permit request – There was an application to the city to change the permit parking on Douglas as follows:
- In the stretch of Douglas in front of DeGidios parking lot change from “No Parking 7 am – 8 pm Except by Permit” to “2 Hour Parking 7am-8pm except by permit”
- Add 101 Douglas to the current Area 7 permit parking “No Parking 7am-8 pm except by permit”
National Night Out planning – We will hold National Night Out in Pleasant Park starting at 6:00 pm. It is a potluck – please bring a dish to share, your own drinks and a chair to sit in. The city is encouraging the color blue as a theme for National Night Out to recognize police officers throughout the city.
Lam Nguyen, Sarah Gleason, Ericka Hazelett and Jennifer Tacheny volunteered to pass out flyers. Others are welcome to pass out flyers – please contact me if you are interested.
Community Neighborhood Housing Services Survey – Please complete the electronic survey if you receive it. In addition, there will be other components to the survey, including a property conditions survey. Volunteers will be observing selected properties to determine their maintenance needs: is the roof in good condition? Is the yard kept up? Is there pride of ownership? These same parcels will be observed again in three years to measure improvement in the community. A volunteer work day will take place on Tuesday, July 23.
4:30 – 5:30 Happy Hour at DeGidio’s
5:30: brief training
5:45 – 7:00: property observations.
Marketing – Craig Favorito has volunteered to develop a logo for the Little Bohemia Neighborhood Association. He will work with Tom Brock and expects to have a sample for the September 2013 meeting.
Problem Properties/Safety – We have a handful of problem properties in the neighborhood to keep an eye on. We have been successful in the past when many people are watching properties and calling issues in to either the police non-emergency line (651) 291-1111, calling 911 or reporting property or safety issues to the city either online or by calling (651) 266-8989.
The addresses to watch currently include:
295 Harrison – violent behavior, arguments, safety issues such as junk in the back yard.
449 Banfil and 429 Banfil – the residents of these properties appear to know each other. Recent issues have been large groups of people congregating at both properties and in the street and vacant lot with some neighbors feeling intimidated, many cars with people hanging out in them, complaints of fire works.
275 and 279 Erie – the residents of these properties also seem to know each other and issues include many of the above behaviors.
Next Meeting:
National Night Out 8/6/13, Pleasant Place
May 2013
Expanding our boundaries – We have had a request from neighbors on the other side of Saint Clair to expand our boundaries to include them. We discussed pros and cons and the feedback was positive. We will keep talking as neighborhood groups to figure out the next steps.
CIB Update – Although we got good feedback about our project and presentation, our project ranked quite low in the end which makes it seem unlikely that it will get funded in this budget cycle. We will continue to pursue other sources of funding and may also apply for the next CIB cycle in two years.
Housing Rehab/Update - The home tour went well and we expect the two ISP/NSP homes to sell quickly. The proceeds from the sale of 22 Douglas will help to fund the next rounds of rehabs at 29 Douglas and 280 Forbes.
Nicole Curtis, who hosts the TV show Rehab Addict has contacted Dave Thune’s office and is interested in purchasing the house at 69 Douglas, which is currently being considered for demolition. We agreed that it would be great to have the house go through a good quality rehab, but considering that it has been vacant for several years, and was a problem property before that, we asked that some timelines for turnaround be built in to any sale.
Community Clean Up – The city is encouraging neighborhoods to host their own clean up events this year. We scheduled a clean up for Saturday, May 18th. We will focus on the bike path, particularly where it runs behind the houses. Plan to meet at Pleasant Place at 9:00 and we will fan out from there.
LBNA Garage Sale June 8th (and 9th?) - Dani Fenn has organized a neighborhood garage sale and is interested in recruiting households who want to participate and also volunteers to help with signs, maps and other communications. Find out more on Facebook or contact Dani at danielle.fenn@gmail.com
Boulevard Trees – Jenny Gehlhar is concerned about the state of the new boulevard trees. In order to make sure that they last, she plans to schedule a project to inventory the new trees planted by the city and provide recommendations for improvement or replacement. Jenny will coordinate the details, so please watch for more.
Pleasant Place sign dedication – On June 1st we will have a party to dedicate the new Pleasant Place sign installed last November. The Odd Couple Team will be providing a Pizza Party with the Green Mill Pizza truck as a thank you for the support we have provided to help sell the Banfil Houses last year and the Douglas and Harrison houses this year.
The garden group will also be scheduling a clean up for the morning of June 1st. More details to come about all of this.
Pleasant Place trash schedule - We still need help with a few weeks of trash duty this summer. Please sign up for Pleasant Place Trash duty - here's how it works in 3 easy steps:
1. Click this link to go to our invitation page on VolunteerSpot:http://vols.pt/fFga6T
2. Enter your email address: (You will NOT need to register an account on VolunteerSpot)
3. Sign up! Choose your spots - VolunteerSpot will send you an automated confirmation and reminders. Easy!
Note: VolunteerSpot does not share your email address with anyone. If you prefer not to use your email address, please contact me and I can sign you up manually.
Hour Dollars – Jenny brought up hourdollars.org a new, local barter service that is worth checking out.
April 2013
Saturday, April 6th - 10:00-11:00 am The CIB bus is coming! What's that? The Capital Improvement Budget (CIB) task force members will be touring the city to view all of the projects that have requested money from the City. We have requested approximately $350,000 for improvements to the bike path including water for the Pleasant Place gardens, new lighting, resurfacing and cross walks at Grand and St Clair. We want the CIB committee to see how much we LOVE our neighborhood, and how much we will appreciate having our project get the funding we requested.
Please join us at Pleasant Place (Garfield/Harrison) at 10:00 am. We will have some coffee, bring a pastry or donuts to share if you like. Other things to bring that might help show us off:
- Ride your bike/have your kids ride their bikes
- Signs - messages like "We love Little Bohemia" "Fix this path" "We need water" etc. have been suggested. Make your own sign with your own message!
- Recruit your neighbors - a big crow will be really helpful and it may not be a very nice day. See if you can coax your neighbors to join you in this effort. We will all love the path when it gets warm out!
Sunday/Monday - Need some volunteers to hand out flyers for the clean up. We have some copies that I can give you, or I can send you a pdf to make your own copies. Please email back if you are interested!
Saturday, April 13th, 9:00 am - Citywide spring cleanup. Meet at Pleasant Park and we will spread throughout the neighborhood to clean up what the snow has left behind (We always find some weird stuff!). We want our neighborhood to be tidied up to welcome the Minneapolis/St Paul Home Tour participants at the end of April.
Wednesday, April 24th, 7:00 pm - Fort Road Federation annual meeting at Summit Brewery. Enjoy free tap root beer, $2 Summit taps, learn about what is new in West 7th and VOTE for the Fort Road Federation board members -there are at least 2 LBNA members on the ballot for different positions this year!
Saturday and Sunday, April 27-28th - Minneapolis/ St Paul Home Tour - Three LBNA homes will be on the tour this year along with others in the West 7th neighborhood. The homes in our area are 22 Douglas, 26 Douglas and 286 Harrison. This is a great opportunity to view these fabulous rehab efforts!
Thursday, May 2nd, 7:00 pm, LBNA Monthly meeting at 295 Sturgis.
February 2013
We submitted an application for the city of St Paul Capital Improvement Budget (CIB) funding to complete many of our plans to improve the 35E Bike Path. The next stage is a presentation on March 26th. We discussed the organizations that could provide us with letters of support for our efforts, including Journeys, West 7thCommunity Center, Fort Road Federation, MacDonald Montessori School, the Salvation Army, Healthy West 7th and possibly United/Childrens hospitals. The Gardening committee (Tom, Naomi, Nicki, Sarah) will be working on the details over the next few weeks. We will keep you posted about next steps!
Problem properties at 292 Sturgis and 287 Sturgis – the parties have stopped and things seem to be quieted down for now. These houses are in the foreclosure process and we discussed options for how we might get involved. Tom will talk to Dave Thune’s office to see if there are any programs through the city that we don’t yet know about. At this point we are hoping that a private developer or individual looking for a great rehab project will purchase one of these properties. There may be support available for individuals through CNHS programs.
Neighborworks Week Grant/Social Activities/Survey – We will apply for a Neighborworks Week grant again this year, and are requesting funding for 1)additional plants/trees for Pleasant Place, 2) funding for a Pleasant Place dedication event that will get people out and socializing. If we receive the grant the event must take place during Neighborworks Week in June, and we are proposing Saturday, June 8th.
CNHS has funding to do a survey of the area and will complete the survey activities during Neighborworks Week as well. We can use the survey data to help guide future activities as well.
Election information : FYI. Watch for more information about city caucuses and conventions! The Mayor of St Paul is up for re-election in 2013. As in past years, we want to make sure that the LBNA is visible and active in the political process. More to come!
Next Meeting will be a social activity such as a meet & greet at one of the great businesses in the area:
March 7th
7:00-8:30 pm
Location TBD
January 2013
Rehab and Development Discussions
CIB Application
We are submitting an application to the City of Saint Paul’s Capital Improvement Budget (CIB) process. The application is intended to cover the large improvements that are beyond the scope of our volunteer work or fundraising. At this point, we are requesting funding for resurfacing the path, new lighting between Goodrich and St Clair and possibly other features of our bike path 5-year plan such as benches, water, additional path improvements and more fitness stations. Please provide suggestions for the application if you have them, and we will keep you posted about the progress.
Small Area Plan
Our project manager with the City has suggested that we request city planning support to complete a Small Area Plan for Little Bohemia. This will help us to make decisions about what to do with vacant lots, and will also provide guidance for activities like traffic calming, walking and biking, lighting and other safety features. If approved, we will look for 3-4 volunteers to work with the city to complete the plan over the next few months.
Becca Hine is a local architect working with Community Neighborhood Housing Services (CNHS) to develop scope of work documents for 310 Sturgis and 69 Garfield. These houses are the oldest of the properties to be rehabbed, and are also the most difficult. Becca has also received historical information from West 7th historian Jim Sazevich, and has a general idea of the direction of the scope of work documents. However, she is looking to us to provide additional input. A small group volunteered to participate and Becca will contact them directly to arrange a time to view the properties and discuss options. We will look forward to seeing the recommendations that the group creates.
Jenny Gehlhar brought up problem properties at 292 Sturgis and 287 Sturgis. We will discuss these properties in more detail at a future meeting.
Election information : FYI. The Mayor of St Paul is up for re-election in 2013. As in past years, we want to make sure that the LBNA is visible and active in the political process. More to come!
2013 Meeting schedule : We distributed the 2013 meeting schedule and several people signed up to host in 2013. We will also mix in several social events with the business meetings throughout the year. Watch for more!
Next Meeting:
February 7, 2013
7:00-8:30 pm
Location Nolen’s
73 Western Avenue South
November 2012
Logo Update
Thank you to Sharon Lynch for getting a volunteer to help design a logo for the LBNA. Sharon and Tom Brock will work on some options to bring forward to the group at a future meeting. We should have a logo soon! Thanks to the others who worked to find a designer who would be willing to work for free.
Pleasant Park update
The sign should be installed by the end of the week of November 5th. We had considered doing some kind of event, but considering the weather has gotten quite cold we agreed to wait until spring.
We are exploring a Capital Improvement Budget (CIB) request to get funding for the larger improvements to the park. More to come.
Housing/Commercial Development
Unfortunately we do not have any updates about houses for sale, the next phase of rehabs, or the status of the gas station and other commercial development. We will forward any information as it comes.
Safety Concerns
Please continue to keep an eye out for any safety concerns. The neighborhood seems quiet for the right now however.
October 2012
ISP/NSP Housing Updates
286 Harrison and 22 Douglas are going through the final checklists and are preparing for sale. They will be staged for sale as with the Banfil street houses and should sell quickly. We are already getting inquiries from potential buyers!
The scope of work plans for 29 Douglas (brick house moved from Smith Avenue) and 280 Forbes are in the final stages of approval. The contracts for rehab bids should be posted by the city soon after the scopes are approved. 29 Douglas will also have the foundation secured for the winter so that the house can not be accessed.
Gas Station - Smith/Grand Mobil
As follow up from last month's meeting, the new owner has not yet received enough signatures to request a variance to open as a gas station. They did not indicate how close they are, but the sale of the property is contingent on being able to operate as a gas station. It is possible that if the new owner is not able to get the variance in the near future, the sale will fall through.
This continues the discussion that we have been holding for the past year or so, similar to the Tire Store building. We talked about what we would like to see at the Grand/Smith/West 7th intersection and what might be involved to reach our vision. For example, if we do not want a gas station at Grand/Smith are we willing to have a vacant, blighted building at that intersection for several years until the right buyer/project happens?
We will continue this discussion at future meetings. We also discussed trying to get a relationship with the hospital and the current owners of the properties in question. Some of the ideas for development we would like to see on that block in general (gas station, Krause Anderson property, tire store) include:
Office/retail building - not strip mall style but perhaps 1-2 story building
Brew pub
Craft/art spaces
Start up businesses that local residents can invest in as shareholders
Higher end retail (Patina, toy store) that would be attractive to the visitors to the hospital as well as residents
Housing
Skate park/indoor play space like "Pump it Up"
Pleasant Park
We have completed the fundraising, and will try again in the future when we have specific projects to be funded.
The sign will be installed in the next few weeks, ideally by the end of September. As a reminder, we have been asked to change the name from Pleasant Park to something that does not have Park in the name. For that reason we will change the name on the sign to Pleasant Place.
We would like to schedule a "dedication of the sign" and are tentatively looking at the first weekend in November for an afternoon gathering in the park. Watch for more details.
Journeys will host the November 1st meeting at the school. They will give us a tour of the school as well as providing space for us to meet.
Finally, congratulations to DeGidio's for a great write up in the Pioneer Press on Thursday! I know that many of us have already discovered the addictive qualities of their red sauce, and I hope this article brings in many more customers!
May 2012
Housing Rehab Update –Big news!
455 and 459 Banfil Street were on the Minneapolis/St Paul home tour and looked great. Even better – they are both
SOLD!
The Brick Krause Anderson house on Smith will be moving in the next couple of weeks or so. The house is up girders and ready to
move, but 29 Douglas has not yet been demolished. The house will be moved at night so the impact on traffic and utilities will be limited. The utility lines will need to be cut and the neighbors impacted will be notified. The small trees on the Salvation Army side of Forbes will be removed and replaced to make room for the house to pass. Jim Sazevich, our neighbor in Uppertown and the
famous House Detective shared some history of the house. We learned that it was built by Peter and Paulina Thauwalt in 1904. The family also owned a prominent bakery on West 7th street that has since been torn down. Peter Thauwalt also built the Paulina building nearby and named it for his wife. The house has some important neighborhood history so it is great that it will be moved rather than demolished.
The scope of work documents for that property will be at an upcoming meeting so that we can see how it will be used.
As discussed at the last meeting, we will get more updates about the plan for the remaining homes on Forbes to be rehabbed, discuss the next phase of rehabs, and we expect to have a discussion about what to do with the vacant lots at a future meeting.
Pleasant Park/Garden update – The first round of gardening happened even though it was raining. We know that we received $1,000 from CNHS
and have also applied for other grants for improvements to Pleasant Park. More to come.
We were joined by Theresa Neal and Anne Byer-Rajput from Journeys. We got an update about the school program, and were pleased to hear
that Theresa Neal is no longer the Interim principal – she has been named as the principal going forward. We will continue to work with the school as they settle in.
Garage Variance Request- Mark Hegenauer and Naomi Austen at 90 Garfield Street discussed their plans for a new garage. They will need a minor variance and are asking for our endorsement. I will send out a separate email with plans and a letter of support. Please review that when you get it.
April Meeting Minutes
Ramsey County Operation Medicine Delivery –
Presentation by Ramsey County Public Health regarding Operation Medicine Delivery, which is a test of the emergency delivery system which will deliver
empty pill bottles to homes in zip code 55102 on (date). There will be a lot of information out in the media, separate mailings etc. in order to inform people
of what is happening. Consider passing the word on to neighbors who may be elderly or immigrant groups so that they understand that the pill bottle is only
a test. There is nothing for us to do if we receive a bottle. It can be recycled in regular recycling.
Spring Clean Up – Details discussed. It should be a good day!
Garage Sale – We set a deadline of May 31st
to get commitments for households to commit to participating in the garage sale. We would like to have 10 sales in our area. If we do not get commitments for 10 sales we may reconsider holding the sale.
Garden Tour/Pleasant Park
Update – The garden group has been working hard to get plans moving for summer gardening.
Grants: We have applied for several grants to continue our work in Pleasant Park. In addition, we may want to consider holding some
kind of fund raising in the future. These include:
Community Neighborhood Housing Services has applied for several grants on our behalf. If approved, this would provide a minimum of $500 in goods/services and up to $15,000 in goods and services.
We have applied for a grant from Greening the Avenue that will allow John Yust to design, build and install a sign in Pleasant Park consistent with the existing fitness stations and design plans. This will be approximately $2,500.
Design plans: Sarah G., Naomi and Nicki met with Ruth Dantuma who has volunteered to do some general garden plans for Pleasant Park.
We will have a good outline and can hire Ruth to do more detailed plans if/when we get some grant dollars.
Pat Lindgren will approach the city to see if we can have access to some of the grey Platteville limestone that is being excavated from the downtown light rail project. We can use the rocks for garden edging, benches or other purposes.
Maintenance: An updated trash schedule will be posted on the website www.littlebohemiastpaul.org. Please let me know if you are not interested in participating, or if you will be out of town the week you are assigned. As a reminder, the trash schedule involves emptying the container in Pleasant Park 1-2 times during the week, including replacing the trash bag. Any trash that is removed will go in your own household trash.
Housing Update – Funding has been secured for the next round of house rehabs and scope of work documents should be coming forward
in the next few weeks. Tom and Ed also suggested that at one of the summer meetings we hold a serious discussion about future phases of the rehabs,
including discussions about infill housing on the vacant lots. The group agreed.
Pat Lindgren reported that Dave Thune’s office has secured a grant to allow Historic Saint Paul (HSP) to develop scope of work documents
for 301 Sturgis and 69 Garfield. As these are the oldest houses in the neighborhood and also in very bad shape, they will be able to provide documents
that maintain the important elements of a historic house.
Please note that 455 and 459 Banfil have been assigned a realtor and should be on the market soon. In addition, they will be on the
Minneapolis St Paul home tour April 28-29th. If you know of anyone who is in the market for a great house in the city please suggest they look at these houses. The sooner these houses sell, the more likely we are to have access to funding for future rehabs!
Zoning update – The group reviewing possible overlay district or other zoning rules has made the decision to move forward with an update of the District 9 (Fort Road Federation) Small Area Plan summary to give better guidance to the city in response to permit requests. The two areas that the updated plan will address are: Specific design guidelines to help maintain the historic character of the area. This will supplement the existing zoning regulations.
Include language strongly discouraging tearing down buildings to build surface parking lots.
There will be a time for public input if you have any concerns about the guidelines.
The Burger King/Mobil zoning will be going to the city council for approval soon.
January 2012 Meeting Minutes
Zoning update:The majority of the meeting was led by Lucy Thompson, City Planner regarding last year’s zoning survey and the current commercial zoning study for the Burger King and Mobil Station properties.After a good discussion we proposed that this section be considered as either a Traditional Neighborhood 2 (TN2) to match last year’s commercial zoning recommendation or possibly Traditional Neighborhood 3 (TN3).For specifics of what that means, please take a look at the zoning guide from the city of St Paul. (If the hyperlink doesn’t work for you please go directly to the City of St Paul website and look under the Zoning section for a lot of information about zoning.)
If you have concerns or comments, there will be a public comment period in late January/February before it is voted on by the City Council.More details to come. We are also participating with residents of Uppertown and Irvine Park to create additional guidelines for future building at the Grand/Smith/West 7th intersection.Our February 2nd LBNA meeting will be dedicated to that purpose.I think this will be an interesting exercise and a chance for us, once again, to help determine the future of our neighborhood!
Housing Rehab Update: While we had hoped for continued good news in this area, we recently learned that the funding for our plan to rehab as many as 8 properties in 2012 is not available.At this point, we will be able to rehab additional houses as the current properties go up for sale.Considering there are 14 more city owned properties to be rehabbed in LBNA, that pace will not be adequate.We are currently working with the Fort Road Federation and Dave Thune to determine if there are alternatives that will allow us to rehab the properties more quickly.
We also learned that Krause Anderson is ready to tear down the brick house on Smith Avenue that we had hoped to move the 29 Douglas.We are working with Dave Thune to see if we can get a commitment of the necessary fund from the city and go back to Krause Anderson with a clear plan.If we are not able to get that commitment it is very possible that Krause Anderson will tear down the house in order to sell their property more easiy.
These housing rehab issues are a concern and there may be a role for all of us to make phone calls, write letters or show up at the meetings to get things
moving.I will keep you posted.
Next meeting is February 2nd at 7:00 pm. Location: Fort Road Federation
Submitted by Marit Brock
November 2011 Meeting Minutes
Our last meeting was filled with great news and an exciting timeline for planning. Thank you to Mary at the Claddagh Coffee Café for hosting. The next few meetings will include a lot of opportunity for community input to housing and other plans, so please mark your calendars! On a side note, don’t forget to vote on Tuesday, November 8th. If you are not sure where to go to vote, use this website http://xnet.co.ramsey.mn.us/elections/precinct_finder/
Invest St Paul (ISP)/Neighborhood Stabilization (NSP) report
2011 Rehabs
The construction has been going full force on the first round of houses. The status of the current houses includes:
455 and 459 Banfil ready for sale mid-November, 326 Harrison and 22 Douglas ready for sale mid-December.
Houses will be“staged” for showcasing and will be sold by realtors selected by the city to market and list ISP/NSP houses.
City is offering first time buyer deferred loan, other financial incentives for qualified buyers.
City has created a new website to list houses and provide information to potential homebuyers at www.stpaulcommunities.com.
We will include links to this website on our neighborhood site www.littlebohemiastpaul.org and will also work with real estate agents to help get these homes sold to responsible new neighbors.
2012 Rehabs
The goal is to rehabilitate another 8 houses in 2012 with 280, 284, 286 and 288 Forbes Ave will be rehabbed beginning in the spring. The Scopes of Work will be
reviewed by our group at our December meeting, and the previous committee members will provide feedback to the Fort Road Federation after that point.
An additional 4 houses are scheduled to begin in the fall and we hope to provide feedback about which houses are a priority. 69 Garfield and 301 Sturgisare the two most difficult rehab projects due to structural issues. The Fort Road Federation recommends that the remainder of the ISP/NSP houses are rehabbed prior to addressing these houses.
Smith House
Fort Road Federation is prepared to move Smith Ave house to 29 Douglas Street, pending final approval from the LBNA. Other neighborhood groups object to the
move, thinking the Smith house could anchor additional residential construction on the Krause Anderson lot. We agreed that Tom Brock will contact the Fort Road
Federation to see if there is any option to keep the Smith house at its current location. However, if there are no other alternatives, we would like to see the
house moved to 29 Douglas as planned rather than see it demolished.
Community Neighborhood Housing Services
Representatives came by to discuss that our neighborhood is now designated as an affiliate of their program, which means that they can apply for grants on behalf of our
neighborhood. They have some very exciting programs that will benefit our neighborhood and the homeowners in the neighborhood, including: ·
A loan program available with low interests rates to help rehab homes for health, safety, livability and green purposes. Applications for the loan program will be
sent out soon. They have also asked a member of our group to serve on their loan committee and Sharon Lynch has agreed to serve on that committee.
·
A leadership program that includes training for neighborhood leaders as well as a neighborhood project to be completed, and if you are interested in participating in this program or submitting a project please let me know. We would like to submit an application to this program for next year.
·
Grant for improvements to green spaces. We will apply for a grant to help with some of the Pleasant Park projects.
West 7th Enhancemen Coalition/West 7th Business Association
Presented us with two certificates of recognition for our efforts with Pleasant Park, and for the efforts of the LBNA overall to improve the area. Thank you to the West
7th Enhancement Coalition for your recognition. If anyone is interested in becoming a member of the West 7th Business Association please visit their website at www.west7thbusinessassociation.com/
West End Neighbors Garden Tour
The Tour is beginning planning for the next tour scheduled on June 16th, 2012. They are looking for people who are interested in talking to visitors to their garden and
telling a story, not looking for show gardens. If you are interested please contact Kent Petterson at terrace@winternet.com or attend a planning meeting on
Wednesday, November 9th, 6:30 pm at the Fort Road Federation office.
We are planning to suggest Pleasant Park as an option for 2012, so will be looking for volunteers to help prepare the garden and talk to volunteers if we are
selected.
Smith/Grand Mobil license application
Although the owners of the gas station have withdrawn their application for a liquor license and plans for a large scale car wash on the site, there is some neighborhood
objection to the license application for the gas station because it appears that the previous owners are still involved with the new gas station. This makes is likely that the past practices of the gas station (over priced gas, out of gas, limited items in the convenience store, loitering etc) will continue. There is a public hearing to be held on Thursday, November 17that 2:00 pm at City Hall. I have attached the notice, and please let me know if you are interested in participating in the public hearing.
Volunteer Opportunities
We have signed up for Bell ringing for the Salvation Army on Saturday December 3rd at Cooper’s. Please let me know if you are interested in signing up for a one hour shift – it is fun and kind of a nice way to generate some holiday cheer!
Next Meeting
There is no meeting in December, our next meeting will be January 5, 7 to 8:30 p.m. at a location to be determined. If anyone is interested in hosting a monthly meeting of the LBNA, please contact info@littlebohemiastpaul.org for more information.
