Why this St. Paul business owner is voting ‘yes’ to amend the city charter – Twin Cities

I have lived in the Midway neighborhood of St. Paul for nine years now, and the business I own, the queer soccer bar The Black Hart of Saint Paul, just celebrated its seventh anniversary. On my three-block walk to work, on one of the busiest streets in the city, I pass by three empty lots and I stare at a wall of empty storefronts. Just a few more blocks away is the derelict CVS that has become a lightning rod of neighborhood fury, a monument to gross neglect.

Most of us who live and work in Midway can imagine so much better for our neighborhood: vibrant streets filled with more housing and more dynamic, locally owned business. There is no single panacea that will spur more development and investment, but there are a few tools to bring about that vibrant future that are incredibly basic and simple.

The fact is that our local government has been deliberately handcuffed from being able to take action on derelict spaces in our neighborhoods.

Unlike all other big cities in Minnesota, when a commercial property owner leaves their property to crumble, St. Paul cannot fine them. The city can send them a sternly worded letter and then eventually take the owners to criminal court. There is nothing in between.

In the spring, our City Council finally voted to give the city tools to operate between the harsh warnings and criminal charges: financial penalties that can be right-sized for the situation — and don’t go on anyone’s criminal record — called Administrative Citations. The city was finally going to be able to address the owner of the CVS building or others like it in the future. But then a small group of loud voices took those tools away and forced us to wait for a citywide vote to implement them.

Most small businesses owners like me are community-minded and do our best to play by the rules. Let me give you an example. In 2023, Black Hart built a patio next to our bar (it’s gorgeous, you should visit) after a long approval process. Around the same time, we saw another patio created without a single construction permit. Likewise, a major hardware store installed an illegally tall fence that also cuts off pedestrian access. I spoke to an inspector about the hardware store who said they had no luck getting beyond an automated phone service to get anyone to address the situation — meaning that, just like the CVS building, nothing was going to happen.

They broke the rules, with absolutely no consequences. Let me clarify — no consequences for them, but lots for the community. The city’s inability to enforce its ordinances for bad actors brings down the surrounding neighborhoods, makes the city less safe and less pedestrian- and transit-friendly, all of which are a drag on the city’s image and the small businesses on University Avenue.

The current system incentivizes scofflaws and penalizes people who obey the law. What incentive do business owners like me have to follow the rules?

This November, we have the opportunity to change this. In the current St. Paul city election, if we vote yes to approve an amendment to our city charter, we can give our local officials the authority to fight back against bad actors who make our neighborhoods suffer. That will kick off a public process in which the City Council will carefully consider which violations warrant the use of of administrative citations and how the fines will be scaled. They will be established by new, specific ordinances, each one evaluated by an equity committee and adopted through a public process that allows residents to weigh in. This approach will ensure that this tool is aimed at giving the worst offenders a financial incentive to operate by the same set of rules as the rest of us.