Editorials: Building community: Invest St. Paul

Much-needed help is on the way to improve St. Paul's neediest neighborhoods. Taking a leap of faith, this week St. Paul City Council members voted 5-1 to approve $25 million in bonding authority for Mayor Chris Coleman's effort to spruce up several communities.

Under his Invest St. Paul plan, some blighted properties will be demolished and replaced, and others will be rehabilitated. Homeowners will get help to avoid foreclosures, and family services will be reinforced.

Here in the metro area, and in other cities across the nation, similar investments in blighted urban areas have paid off. Property and streetscape improvements tend to be contagious. When neighbors see spruced up surrounding properties, they are more willing to invest in their own. And better looking blocks encourage responsible families to move in.

Efforts will be focused in four of the city's most economically challenged neighborhoods, all in central-city areas surrounding downtown. Frogtown, North End, Lower East Side and Dayton's Bluff were selected on the basis of property values, home vacancies, mortgage foreclosures, crime rates and even water utility shutoffs.

Clearly, the city needs the boost. St. Paul has about 1,200 vacant buildings, and more than 1,100 homeowners have been in foreclosure since the beginning of the year.

By putting nearly $25 million on the table in bonded city investment, officials hope to attract more than double that amount in private sector investment. Additional funding will come from the Minnesota Housing Financial Agency, from the city's small community development corporations, the Family Housing Fund (of the McKnight Foundation) and other nonprofit and government agencies.

Bonds for Invest St. Paul will be sold in the coming weeks and paid back through 2030, using a special half-cent sales tax known as STAR or Sales Tax Revitalization.

The program is a logical extension of former Mayor Randy Kelly's Housing 5,000 program launched in 2002. Also a combination of city and other funding sources, that nearly $1 billion effort financed 5,000 new units of housing.

But Coleman's plan is wisely not just about regentrification or displacing all current residents. Rather, it includes rehabilitation of current housing stock and ways to help neighbors stay put. Beyond bricks and mortar, the funds will help residents keep up with their mortgages, beautify neighborhoods and provide shuttle service to transport youth to recreation programs.

Overall, the plan addresses important city needs. At the same time, there are risks. The city investment depends upon yet to be determined private investment that may (or may not) materialize. As skeptical council members point out, the initiative commits the city to bonds based on sales-tax proceeds for another 25 years. That could lead to significant property-tax increases.

And as the plan unfolds, city leaders must be sure to include current residents in development decisions. Invest St. Paul should not be a series of top-down directives that are imposed upon communities without their consent.

Done well, however, this targeted infusion of resources can reduce blight and built stronger communities for people of all incomes.