Stillwater, MN- One of Minnesota’s First Settlements and Major Tourist Destination for Twin City Residents

The name derives from the St. Croix River’s calmness near the town center. Stillwater was one of the first settlements in Minnesota witnessing newcomers in the 1830s. And its official founding was in 1843. Stillwater was also the site for the selection of the State Capital and the University of Minnesota. Stillwater’s initial population boom was due to its strategic location to significant forest to the north along the St. Croix River. The settlement grew to 4K in 1870, 12K in 1900, but then began a rare population decline in the early 20th century, likely due to the collapse of the lumber industry in Minnesota. By 1940 Stillwater had contracted to just 7K residents. This, however, was not to last as Stillwater became an attract suburb in the Post War area. After significant suburb growth & annexation, along with becoming a popular tourist destination, Stillwater now has a population of nearly 20K whose daytime population swells in the height of the tourism season.

From an urbanist perspective Stillwater has a very intact Dwtn core, mainly focused on the St. Croix Scenic Byway. Several nearby blocks also have attractive historic commercial buildings as well. The surrounding residential streets are generally attractive late 19th and early 20th century single family housing and more and more denser apartments and luxury condos and townhomes are being built on the edge of Dwtn. Stillwater has a great array of local retail and boutiques and also contains many restaurants, bars and cafes. Stillwater has become a pretty exclusive place if one wishes to live here. Rentals are limited, for sale housing is pretty expensive and the bulk of the population is higher earning White families. Given its low density, I would like to see a lot more dense housing built, especially rentals available to working people. Schools are also generally located outside of the City core, and transit service is very limited.

Click here to view my Stillwater album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Overall very good sidewalk and ADA infrastructure. Just a handful of streets on the edge of this evaluation area lack sidewalks.
* Excellent tree canopy.
* Decent for sale options with a handful of 1-bed homes that sell in the 200KS & 300Ks, 2-beds sell btwn 200K-800K with higher end product concentrated in newer townhomes in Dwtn Stillwater. 3 & 4 beds sell btwn 300K-1M.
* Excellent waterfront trail and park space. Other than this are a couple of smaller parklettes, several ballparks, a public golf course, and cemetery.
* Great cultural amenities including tons of restaurants, bars & cafes. Also a handful of art galleries, a couple museums & live music venues, and several historic sites.
* Good retail amenities including a Co-op, a great array of locally owned boutiques, antiques, & gift shops, a couple bookstores. a local florists, plenty of dessert joints & bakeries, a couple gyms, a public library, several churches, and a local hospital.
* Overall Stillwater is a very a safe community.
* Good historic architecture, especially the commercial buildings along St. Croix Trail. Modern-infill is limited but some pretty urban apartments and townhomes in the Dwtn area.
* Great pedestrian activity in Dwtn Stillwater. Much quieter in the residential areas.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Some buses travel to Dwtn St. Paul and Minneapolis (40 mins and 60 mins) but other than that public transit is limited. One can still drive to Dwtn St Paul in 25 mins and 35 mins to Dwtn Minneapolis.
Very low density for an urban district but this is still a town seperated from the Twin Cities.
A couple scenic bike trails crossing St. Croix river or running alongside it but not terribly practical.
Not great diversity indicators.
Only a couple small schools within the walkable part of Stillwater but both a large public elementary and middle school sit just west of the Stillwater core.
Rentals are pretty limited in Stillwater.”

Downtown Saint Paul, MN

1841, Father Lucien Galtier established a Catholic chapel (near present-day Second Street and Cedar Street), on the bluffs above the Lower landing naming it in honor of his favorite saint. This is essentially where Saint Paul’s development first began although the Upper Landing Development near modern day Irvine Park was established soon over. Downtown Saint Paul naturally grew out of the Lower Landing site evaluating into the Lowertown District as shipping and commerce grew thanks to this being the first port of access to the Twin Cities. By the 1870s Lower landing grew into a major shipping and rail yard with more and more warehouses. Eventually by the late 19th century commercial buildings incrementally filled in the rest of current day Dwtn St. Paul. The next major development in Downtown was the creation of the Minnesota State House which was completed in 1905. The early 1950s saw the creation of the expansive State mall that currently surrounds the Capitol. This was in reality a major urban renewal project that razing several blocks of a deemed undesirable neighborhood north of Dwtn. This coupled with extensive highway and innerbelt construction left Downtown St. Paul with a significant amount of dead and underutilized spaces. Like Downtown Minneapolis, Downtown Saint Paul adopted an extensive skyway system consisting of 40 bridges and experienced a skyscraper-building boom beginning in the 1970s. Interestingly, because the City Center is directly beneath the flight path into the airport across the river there is a height restriction for all construction.

The scares of Saint Paul’s extensive highway and urban renewal projects are still very visible today and have left Dwtn with a low level of vibrancy on its streets. Nevertheless Downtown has seen a resurgence of Dwtn living and has grown from 5K to 10K between 2010 and 2020. Like most American dwtn’s Saint Paul also has a solid concentration of theaters and cultural/regional amenities, decent park spaces, plenty of Museums, a supermarket, and decent retail amenities. Dwtn hosts around 60K office workers (pre-pandemic), is a solid hub for transit and biking access across the City. But for this to be a great Dwtn, it needs not only more population but an improved urban realm erasing many of the mid-century development mistakes. Significant attention should be made to redeveloping dead spaces surrounding the Capitol Complex, adding more retail amenities, and creating a better sense of place Dwtn. Given St. Paul’s relatively modest size, I think this is a very doable proposition.

Click here to view my Dwtn St. Paul album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

Excellent ADA infrastructure. Good wide sidewalks and nearly every Dwtn intersection has modern ADA curbs.
“* Good density for a Dwtn area.
Solid public transit access throughout most of Saint Paul and especially good Dwtn and the surrounding neighborhoods. Decent transit service only extends a couple miles out to the suburbs north and south of the City.
Good amount of attractive historic architecture but less than most mid-western cities.
While Saint Paul only has a dockless bike share system Citywide it has a good array of bike lane connections including a couple lane seperated options within Dwtn, good connections to city neighborhood (especially to the west and north), and decent bike connections to the suburbs, especially to the south. Suburban connections are pretty fractured north and east of the City thanks to all the Minnesota lakes.
Cultural amenities include a good number of museums including family friend options like the Children’s Museum & Science Center.
Good diversity indicators among residents living dwtn and pretty friendly place for families to visit.
Decent skyline thanks to a good cluster of medium sized skyscrapers. Not many distinctive skyscrapers however.
Solid park amenities including Rice Park & Mears Park, which serve as Dwtn’s Civic Plazas, some decent riverfront parks along the water and up on the bluff, a couple small plazas, the extensive but dead mall space Infront of the Capitol Bldg, and Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, an extensive reclaimed industrial sight now run by NPS.
Excellent dwtn mark that is open on the weekends. This has been part of St Paul’s history for 165 years.
Solid # of rental options including plenty of studios leasing generally in low 1KS, 1-beds lease in the 1Ks, 2-beds btwn 1.5Ks-2.5Ks. Decent amount of dedicated affordable rentals as well dwtn.
Pretty good number of for-sale options that are generally moderately priced. 1-bed condos sell btwn 100K-350K, good diversity with 2-bed condos selling btwn 150K-600K, and some 3-bed condos selling btwn 330K-700K.
Solid cultural/regional amenities including a decent # of restaurants & bars, plenty of cafes, good array of Dwtn museums and a couple art galleries, a minor league sports arena/convention center & ballpark, a couple night clubs & live music venues, and several theaters mostly located near each other. Good concentration of governmental buildings Dwtn augment by all the state offices surrounding the Capitol Building.
Pre-pandemic Dwtn hosted around 60K, a respectable # considering Minneapolis hosted over 100K in a metro of 3.7 M
Decent retail amenities include a supermarket, a couple drug stores, some boutiques & gift shops, a couple book stores, a major Dwtn public library & historic post office, plenty of banks, several dessert joints & a couple gyms, a major hospital & several doctor’s offices.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Not a fan of much of Dwtn St. Paul’s modern in-fill. There is limited mixed-use residential and plenty of bland office towers and auto centric uses.
While there is a decent dwtn population, Dwtn Saint Paul feels pretty dead. This is likely due to a lower amount of cultural & retail dwtn amenities as most American Dwtn, lots of bland office towers, parking lots, and more autocentric urban renewal uses, and a local a strong civic center to Dwtn.
Dwtn grid is fine but too many boulevards and large 1-way streets. Its way too easy to drive to Downtown St. Paul.
Neither Mears Park or Rice Park are strong Civic Spaces. While they do a fair amount of programming they generally feel pretty dead and the design is nothing special.
Excellent Performing Arts High School Dwtn. But not much else schoolwide other than a couple small charter school and underperforming public middle school.
Two community colleges on the edges of Dwtn (St. Paul College and Metropolitan State) with a combined enrollment of about 7K. Given these are commuter colleges and not well connected to Dwtn, not sure if they add much vibrancy to Dwtn.
3-bed rentals are very limited.

Summit Hill- Historically Home to Saint Paul’s Wealthiest Citizens and Retains one of the Largest Collections of Victorian Homes in America

Summit Hill developed in the late 19th century and early 20th century and is best known for having one of the best preserved collections of old, Victorian homes in the United States concentrated along Summit Avenue and the eastern edge of the neighborhood. Summit Hill also hosts one of the best and intact urban business districts running along many blocks of Grand Avenue. Thanks to the high incomes of the neighborhood there are many great shops, restaurants, and bars along Grand. Plenty of early 3-story brick apartments and condo mixed into much of the neighborhood too.

Unlike Summit-University to the north, Summit Hill never experienced any major urban renewal or disruptive highway projects and was able to retain its wealthy and Caucasian populations. Thanks to this, most of Summit Hill is in tact from its pre-WWII days and Grand Avenue has seen limited autocentric infill. I would certainly like to more racial and economic diversity in Summit Hill with a focus of targeted densification along Grand Ave and affordable housing contraction. Summit Hill could use more dedicated bike lanes and more schools and park amenities.

Click here to view my University Hill album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

Decent public transit, especially the northern half of the district.
Center of the Summit Hill is only 2.5 Miles from Dwtn St. Paul. Only a 20 minute bus/bike ride or 10 minute drive. However other than by Car, its pretty difficult to get to Central Minneapolis.
Good ADA curbs along the Grand Ave (the biz district). More hit or miss on residential streets but good sidewalks are throughout all the district.
Pretty consistent high quality of historic homes. Homes are a bit more most along Summit Hill western edge but still nice. Nothing specially about the commercial architecture along Grand.
Solid tree canopy throughout.
Some urban infill along Grand mixed of urban and autocentric form.
Very safe neighborhood. One of the safest in Saint Paul.
Pretty good for sale diversity. Some 1-bed condos that sell btwn 150K-350K, 2-beds are mostly condos/townhomes and sell anywhere from 200K-1M, 3 & 4 beds sell 200K-1 M. Plenty of SF homes selling in the western edge of the neighborhood.
A good # of rentals with studios & 1-beds leasing btwn 900K-2K, 2-beds in the 1Ks. 3-bed rentals are limited.
Decent Cultural amenities include a good number of restaurants, bars, & cafes, a dance club, a couple historic houses, including good access to Dwtn’s cultural amenities.
Great retail amenities mostly focused on Grand St. Plenty of boutiques and gift shops, a couple book stores, a couple toy stores a hardware store, plenty of bakeries & dessert joints, several gyms, a major hospital just southeast of Summit Hill. One supermarket on the western edge of the district and a couple drug stores

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

So so bike access. Nice east-west bike lane along Summit. But not north-south route.
Decent but not great urban density.
Generally a White and affluent neighborhood. Not great diversity indicators in Summit Hill.
Only a handful of schools in Summit Hill with mixed ratings.
Linwood is a nice park and has a recreation center but only a handful of other small parks throughout.
Missing churches, a post office, public library, and only a handful of doctor offices.”

Summit-University: Home to Saint Paul’s Historic African American Community “Rondo”

Summit-University was settled in the 1880s and 1890s with a nice mixed single family houses, duplexes, apartment building mansions concentrated along Summit Avenue and the southern half of Cathedral Hill just north of Summitt Avenue. Further west are more modest-larger single family homes mixed in duplexes, triplexes, and quads. Closer to University Avenue housing is more working class. The wealthiest families started to leave the neighborhood in the 1920s with the advent of the automobile. The great mansions along Summit declined somewhat but were fortunately subdivided and mostly remain to this day. In the 1950s-1960s Summit-University experienced several disruptive highway and urban renewal projects greatly disrupting the urban form of the neighborhood and leading to thousands of displaced African-Americans from the Rondo enclave. The highway in fact obliterated the Rondo Avenue business district, a once vibrant African American center in Saint Paul. These projects also accelerated White Flight from Summit-University and led to decline in many parts of the neighborhood especially the western and northern areas. But because of the White Flight of the western and north edges of the neighborhood Summit-University became Saint Paul’s most diverse neighborhood welcoming a large Hmong community, other Asian groups, and Hispanics. Many African American families have also remained in the neighborhood and all in all areas affected by White Flight and Urban Renewal are in decent condition and starting to benefit from the gentrification of Summit Hill and Catedral Hill. ReConnect Rondo, a neighborhood CDC, has also done a great job keeping this historic Black Neighborhood in tact and helping local residents open up businesses along Shelby Ave.

For Summit-University to be a top tear urban district it needs to re-urbanize its northern edge most affected by Urban Renewal along University Avenue and abutting Capitol District. Just to the northeast of the neighborhood is an nearly abandonded Mall that marks a great opportunity for quality urban in-fill and a way to better connect the neighborhood to Dwtn. Summit-University could also use more bike lanes, much more urban-infill along University Ave, and better schools.

Click here to view my Summit-University Album on my Flickr page

URBAN STRENGTHS:

Excellent access to Dwtn St. Paul only 1.5 Miles away. Only a 20-15 minute bus/bike ride or 8 minute drive. Central Minneapolis is 45 minutes by transit & 15-20 minute drive.
Solid Urban Density.
Solid public transit access throughout all of the district.
Generally consistent sidewalks by ADA curb cuts are hit or miss.
Generally good urban form along Shelby and for most of the district.
Some incredible historic homes especially with the large mansions in the Cathedral Hill section of the neighborhood. Some excellent historic buildings along the main portion of Shelby Ave. More modest historic homes along the eastern half of Summit-University in the Rondo portion of the neighborhood.
Solid tree canopy in most of the district.
Generally a pretty safe area. Safety has appeared to improve the past decade in some of the historically rougher patches of the neighborhood (Rondo and along University Ave).
Good for sale housing diversity. Lots of 1-bed condo options selling btwn 100K & 200Ks, tons of 2-bed options including condos, townhouses, and SF homes selling btwn 150K-700K, 3 & 4 beds sell btwn 200K-1 M . A good amount of 3-beds are condos and town homes and plenty of single family homes selling in the 300KS in the western edge of the neighborhood.
Tons of rentals with studios & 1-beds leasing btwn 800K-1.6K, 2-beds btwn 1.5K-3K. Decent number of 3-bed rentals too. Lots of affordable housing options.
Lots of small & medium parks well distributed throughout the neighborhood. Also two recreational centers and an indoor pool.
Good Cultural amenities include a good number of restaurants, bars, & cafes, a community performing arts theater, a couple art galleries, a couple historic houses and museums, and good access to Dwtn’s cultural amenities and Grand Ave in Summit Hill.
Good retail amenities including tons of ethnic groceries along University Ave, an Aldi’s, a Co-op, a couple drug stores, a couple boutiques & gift shops, a couple bookstores, plenty of bakeries & dessert joints, tons of salons, several gyms, tons of churches, a couple public libraries.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Large autocentric stretches along University Ave. Slowly this is getting better with mixed-use infill but new development is slow to this stretch of University.
So so bike access. Nice east-west bike lane along Summit. But not north-south route.
The Northeaster corner of the neighborhood has seen a lot of urban renewal resulting in bland mid-century buildings, Saint Paul College (commuter school). project housing, and lots of autocentric uses.
Some good urban in-fill along Shelby but lots of autocentric infill along University Ave.
Excellent racial and economic diversity with both large minority white and black populations. Decent Asian and Hispanic populations too.
Okay access to schools. Several private schools but they are small. Some public schools but generally not rated well except Central Senior High School.
Missing a local post office, major supermarket, only a handful of doctor offices”

Macalester-Groveland- Affluent Early 20th century Neighborhood in the Westside of Saint Paul

Macalester-Groveland began to develop in the 1890s as streetcars were extended into the area. The neighborhood filled out in the 1920s with more autocentric friendly development as the Twin Cities continued to grow. Tangletown is the most suburban subdistrict with large single family homes situated on curvilinear streets. Charles Schulz , created of Peanuts, also grew up in the neighborhood.

Macalester-Groveland is similar to many Saint Paul neighborhoods. A comfortable leafy early 20th century neighborhood with mostly single family homes, some apartment buildings, and pockets of urban commercial. The best urban business district runs along Grand Avenue, which also serves as the business district for Macalester College. The neighborhood is generally affluent and Caucasian and has convenient access to Dwtn Saint Paul across all modes of transportation.

To elevate Macalester-Groveland into a high quality urban district it needs more density and in-fill housing especially along the more autocentric stretches of Snellings and Randolph Streets. The southern half of the district could also use more frequent public transit access.

Click here to view my Macalester-Groveland Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

Convenient access to Dwtn St. Paul. Only 10 min drive and 30 min bike/transit trip. Dwtn Minneapolis is still pretty conveninet too..
Good generation diversity thanks to the Unversity of St. Thomas students and plenty of family households
Good dedicated bike lanes but not protected.
Great connectivity. Very good sidewalks and ADA standard curb cuts on about 65% of all intersections
Decent for-sale options but on the expensive side. A handful of 1-bedrooms that sell in the 100K & 200K, 2-bedrooms sell btwn 200K-550K and 3 & 4 beds sell between 300K-1M. Some mansions sell btwn 1-2 M.
Good number of apts and pretty moderately priced. 1-bed rent btwn $900-1.7K, 2-bed lease in the 1Ks, and some 3-beds that lease btwn 1.5K-3K.
Great riverfront park along the Mississippi running the north to south length of the neighborhood. Several smaller parks pretty well dispersed throughout the neighborhood and a couple recreation Center including a pool.
Cultural amenities include a good number of restaurants, bars & cafes, the Macalester College Art Musuem and Performing Arts Center, and a historic movie theater.
Very safe community.
Execellent early 20th century historic homes. Urban infill is limited, a mixture of decent mixed-use & autocentric developments.
Okay retail amenities including several supermarkets, several boutiques, plenty of salons, a Patagonia store, a butcher, a couple drug stores, a hardware store, a couple bookstores, a floristist, several bakeries, a local post office and library, several churches.
Good urban massing and streetscaping along Grand Avenue.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Only a handful of schools and mixed ratings.
So so economic and racial diversity.
Dedicated affordable housing seems very limited.
Good public transit access in the northern half of the district but so so in the southern half.
Decent urban density but not great.
No local public library of post office.
Mix of good and autocentric urban form along the biz districts outside of Grand Ave (Snellings & Randolph).
So so pedestrian activity.