The plan to bring 20,000 more residents to downtown St. Paul

[@shaun3537]

Great idea but what about rent prices. I love St Paul but live in Northern Minnesota and have a house for a quarter the price of a downtown 2 bedroom apartment.

[@lprice5583]

I have a few reasons for skepticism: 1. I looked at my last water bill. It was 3 times higher than one I recieved for a similar amount of water at a rental property I own in Faribault. My water bill had so many fees added to it that it looked like a cell phone bill. That is not a good sign. 2. The taxes continue to go up with no increase in quality of life for middle income residents. 3. The city has failed to align its zoning and building codes with its initiative to allow accessory dwelling units. This is a demonstration of regulatory laziness and/or incompetence. 4. The city council and the mayor did not have the longterm vision to see the wisdom in fighting rent control. This made Saint Paul an ugly place to invest in rental housing. The reason I see that it might work: 1. Shifts in the use of commercial property has lead to its decreasing value. If the comercial landlords can't keep their buildings full enough to pay the bills they may convert some of the space to residential. This will be a hard pill to swallow with the new rent cap on the books. Please let me know your thoughts. Am I not seeing some crucial factor?

[@paulstandaert5709]

Another means of skepticism is the crime, homelessness, and drug use. For fun for the last 20 years, I would binge browse for properties for sale in the metro area and compare them to around where I live in Chisago county. For about 18 years, I could always find something decent and cheap in Chisago, and properties gradually got more expensive as they got closer to the urban areas. Now, it seems to have switched. There are tons of properties in the metro area that are "cheap" and there is not jack squat in Chisago unless you hand over $big$. Not only does St. Paul need to attract people, they need to attract the right kind. I went for a walk in St Paul the weekend after Memorial day for the first time in 3 years. I started at Raspberry Island, up the Wabasha bridge, over and across the Smith bridge, and back. It was dirtier than I ever remember seeing it. I used to go there all the time, but they closed for a couple years, and I tried to gain interest again, and... Nope. It's gone. They have to do some major cleanup. Someone could be hacking off your catalytic converter with a hand saw as you watch, but the cops won't come and there's nothing you can legally do to stop them.

[@paulstandaert5709]

I went for a walk in St Paul a couple months ago for the first time in 3 years. At Raspberry Island, it looked nasty. The grass was never cut, garbage was everywhere, and there were ~18 year old girls on the stage rehearsing some kind of twerking dancing. Okay. Up the stairs, past the homeless guy's trash left on the stair landing to the Wabasha bridge, and across to the south side. There was a homeless tent set up in the little Gazebo shelter there. Across Harriet Island towards the smith ave bridge, and a couple more homeless tents. Up the hill to the smith ave bridge and there's obvious questionable activity underneath the bridge like there always has been. Across that and everything was good to around Irwing Park. Up the stairs by Eagle St to the Xcel and cousin eddy had his rancid looking RV parked next to thr Xcel on Kellogg. It was sunday, so free parking, right? Then past the Science museum and some perhaps questionable activity on thr bluff overlook there, and then back to Raspberry island. I dunno. It was the worst that I have ever seen it. Maybe this appeals to some people, but not me.

[@daytch9485]

Now st Paul city planner and council will pass a residential density plan that allows multi occupancy on one plot, gee I wonder who that's designed for

[@awfulrobot7500]

Or we could, idk, get the number of houseless people into housing

[@GrantSR]

Build more subsidized senior apartments. All we do is spend money. And we don't have to commute. If the buildings are locally owned, it's a great way to funnel federal dollars into the local economy.

[@katme8055]

More homeless in tents