For the past 5 years Metro Transit has been working to improve waiting facilities for customers and working with community to allocate facility and maintenance resources to best serve our customers with the Better Bus Stops program. This year there are 39 shelter improvements are planned in St Paul. These improvements include the installation of new shelters, as well as adding heat and light to existing shelters throughout the city. Please note some plans may change depending on final design and construction schedules. Additionally, 29 shelters have been identified for relocation due to low ridership (fewer than 15 people boarding the bus per day). Most of these shelters are located on University Avenue between Fairview Ave and Rice Street. Many of these shelters were added or kept for Route 16 service, but as Green Line has become the primary choice for transit customers in the corridor. Similar relocations were made with several of the west University (Minneapolis) bus stop locations in 2018. Bus service will continue at these bus stop locations. Summit-University bus stops getting a new shelter: RT 65 on Dale at Selby (North side) Summit-University bus stops getting heat and/or light: RT 65 on Dale at University (North side) Shelters that are being removed, but the stop will still exist: East sides on University at Victoria, Grotto, St. Albans, Kent, Mackubin, Arundel, Western, and Farrington. West sides on University at Arundel, Mackubin, Kent, St. Albans, Grotto, Avon, Victoria, Chatsworth, and Oxford.
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Enter for your chance to win a block party starter kit! The Saint Paul Police Department - Western District is sponsoring and Early Bird Registration Contest for National Night Out. Parties that register by June 30th will be entered. 1 party from each of the districts will win a party starter pack complete with banner, paper products, apron, balloons, coloring books, helium and more. Visit www.http://stpaul.gov/nno for more info! SPPD is hosting Safe Summer Nights events every Thursday through the end of August!
Stop by for games, food, and resources! MLK Rec Center 271 N Mackubin St. Thursday July 11, 2019 5-7 PM From NorthernLights.MN:
Join us at this year’s Northern Spark Festival in Rondo: Friday, June 14 and Saturday, June 15 Links to hours and events below! Northern Spark is a late-night, free, family-friendly arts festival that lights up the Twin Cities in three neighborhoods: the American Indian Cultural Corridor and Downtown East in Minneapolis, and in the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul. Festival activities are taking place a Hallie Q. Brown Community Center and Rondo Community Library. A bus that doubles as a Rondo story / history tour will shuttle people in between. Northern Spark is produced by Northern Lights.mn, and they have been working for over a year in partnership with Hallie Q. Brown, Penumbra Theater, Aurora St. Anthony Community Development Corp, and Model Cities to plan the festival in Rondo. At Hallie Q Brown Center attendees will find 10 projects by Rondo artists ranging from immersive sound and light installation to African drumming and dance to yard sign poetry to storytelling. There will also be a stage of performances with an Open Mic from 9-10 pm each night. Read more about the projects here. (Filter by “Rondo”) This year’s theme, We Are Here: Resilience, Renewal & Regeneration is drawn from community responses in the neighborhoods where the festival takes place and speaks to the power our communities have to claiming space through creative expression. If you have been busy this spring and you have some furniture/electronics/bikes/etc. that you need to clear out of your house, then you can't miss this event! This year, we will not have a Drop-Off Cleanup in Summit-University, but you are able to participate in any of the four held around the city. The best news is that Summit-University residents are invited to volunteer and volunteers get to drop off one load for free. Save some money, and give back to the community! The last one for the summer will be on June 22, from 8 am- 1 pm at the Washington Tech Magnet School. Visit this link for more information, or to sign up to volunteer: https://nenostpaul.org/volunteer/?fbclid=IwAR0frvFQhIdRD_8dXWQCWyumDEdFuBG_YADvXVEYz0FnEU1yUc9juf8pLvw The Metropolitan Council Housing and Redevelopment Authority (Metro HRA), the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, and the St. Paul Public Housing Agency will be accepting online applications for the section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program.
Online Applications will be available: 8:00 AM Wednesday June 12th 2019 through 12:00 PM Tuesday, June 18th 2019 Apply to each waiting list separately. Apply any time during the open period - applications must be submitted online by 12:00 PM, Tuesday, June 18th 2019. There is no advantage of applying early. To complete the applications (24 hours a day during the noted time period) visit the following websites: Minneapolis: www.waitlistcheck.com/MPHA The MPHA will place 2,000 applicants on the waiting list through a random drawing from all applications received. Minneapolis Public Housing Authority will award 95% of waiting list placements to applicants who live, work, or attend school full-time in Minneapolis. The remaining 5% of waiting list placements will be awarded to any other applicant. The residency preference does not have the purpose or effect of delaying or otherwise denying admission based on race, color, ethnic origin, gender, religion, disability, or age of any member of the applicant family. St. Paul: www.waitlistcheck.com/STPAUL The St. Paul Public Housing Agency will place 3,500 applicants on the waiting list through a random drawing from all applications received. ST. Paul PHA will award 95% of waiting list placements to applicants who live, work, or attend school full-time in St. Paul, or to applicants who have been deemed “homeless” through Ramsey County’s Coordinated Entry System. The remaining 5% of waiting list placements will be awarded to any other applicant. Plus: The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program provides rental assistance to households with very low income. In order to qualify, annual gross household income cannot exceed: 1 persons: $35,000 2 persons: $40,000 3 persons: $45,000 4 persons: $50,000 5 persons: $54,000 Applications will not be available in the agency offices, and fax or e-mail requests will not be accepted. Applicants may use any computer, tablet or smart-phone to apply, including free computers at public libraries and at the housing authority, if available. Applicants needing a reasonable accommodation, free language assistance, or who require this information in an alternative format are encouraged to submit a request to any of the agencies in advance of the waiting list opening. Translation will be available in 60 different languages. The Community Peace Celebration is coming up soon!
This annual event is free and open to everyone. There's lots of great family-friendly activities, food, and local entertainment. June 21 3-7 PM Ober Community Center, 376 Western Call Taz at 612-234-5159 for more information This winter was too much, wasn’t it? For many in Summit-University, the burden was greater than you may imagine.
We know that February was a record-breaking month, and the city handled it as well as they could. They pulled together extra resources and used alternative resources creatively to address the overwhelming amounts of snow. That said, climate change is creating more extreme weather conditions and considerable thought will have to go into plans to manage snow and make sure the community is safe and accessible for everyone. We also need to make sure that when restrictions are created, the rules are predictable and easy to understand for everyone in Saint Paul. We can anticipate that some people may not have been able to access the information needed to avoid tickets or tows, and those people are some of the most likely to be burdened by those costs. The parking ban map was only available online, and it was subject to change without notice. That means that people had to be able to check in regularly to park without issue. Saint Paul issued over $1,000,000 in tickets during the snow emergencies alone, and over $650,000 in tows (not including lot fees). The impact of the parking ban is yet to be shared with us, as that was tracked by the police department, but these numbers are enough to tell us that we need to be absolutely sure that neighbors aren’t hit with this cost just because they can’t access information. Looking ahead to 2020, we also want people to remember that everyone in the community doesn't get around by car. A large number of people use other means of transportation. Making sure people can safely move around the community falls on residents and business owners for the most part, so we want everyone to do their part to make sure the neighborhood is accessible. We encourage neighbors to help each other out! We will be organizing interested neighborhood blocks to create agreements to work together to clear sidewalks of snow, find resources for elders, adopt storm drains and fire hydrants, and get out the word about parking restrictions. We know that our communities are Saint Paul’s greatest resource, and we can accomplish so much working together. Read an article from the Pioneer Press here: https://www.twincities.com/2019/03/23/for-st-paul-some-lessons-from-a-tough-winter/ Working together, we can ensure that this community is safe and accessible for everyone throughout the remainder of the winter and spring thaw.
Here are a few ways you can lend a hand: 1. Make sure the sidewalks and ramps are shoveled. Clear fire hydrants. Saint Paul City Ordinance says that snow must be removed within 24 hours. Take a moment to check in on neighbors who may not be able to remove the snow themselves, you could make a big impact in someone's day by shovelling a little further than you normally do. Make sure ramps are cleared enough to allow a large wheelchair through. 2. Support youth offering to shovel for a small fee. We have a lot of motivated youth in the neighborhood who are happy to help. 3. Clear storm drains! Let's say NO to giant puddles at the street corners this year! For more information, visit our blog post about clearing drains HERE. 4. Check on neighbors who may have stuck cars. That car down the street that hasn't moved for a week? It might be iced in. Get a team together and help push them out. 5. Start cleaning up trash as the snow melts. Once the snow starts to melt we are going to see all of the litter that was hidden for months. We are happy to help you organize a clean-up in your neighborhood! We are also hosting a community clean up on April 27 at People's Park. More information to come soon!
A warmup is coming, and maybe a little rain. Soon enough, our neighborhood is going to become the land of 10,000 lake-sized puddles.
These enormous pools of ice cold sludge are typical this time of year. They can be an annoyance for able-bodied people carrying little more than a backpack, but for many of our community members these extra large melt puddles make it impossible to navigate the neighborhood. We need everyone to step up in Summit-University and help us clear storm drains. Check on the drains on your block today! They are typically found at street intersections near ped ramps, and sometimes they are also found mid-block. See the link to the city's map below. Check on the drains on your block today! If you are able to clear them, please do. Even just clearing off some of the snow allows the sun to help with the melting process. If residents are seeing pooling water on the streets, and you are not able to open up your catch basin, please call Saint Paul Public Works Sewer Division at 651-266-9700 (press 7) or call 651-266-9850 and a crew can come out to steam the storm drain open. |
about usThe Porchlite is a monthly newsletter and blog that is developed by the SUPC Communications Committee. Archives
March 2020
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