Last summer, I moved from Northeast Minneapolis to the West 7th neighborhood in Saint Paul. For many people, the Twin Cities often get lumped together as one unit, but there are some important differences between them.
The city of Minneapolis plows alleys, Saint Paul does not. Minneapolis is part of Hennepin County which includes the surrounding suburbs while Saint Paul’s Ramsey County just contains the city. Ask people who live here though, and one thing that is sure to come up is the difference between the downtowns.
Downtown Minneapolis is much busier than downtown Saint Paul for many reasons. One simple reason is that Minneapolis is the larger city of the two, with over 100,000 more residents than Saint Paul. Also, Minneapolis is home to more of the metro’s pro sports teams (football, basketball and baseball against Saint Paul’s hockey and soccer teams).
Depending on who you ask, you might begin to get the impression that downtown Saint Paul (and Minneapolis for that matter) is on the verge of collapse. I would argue that the truth is not so dire.
My home is about a mile and a half from downtown. I like to walk there with my dog along the river to go to a couple of breweries when the weather is nice. During hockey season, I try to make my way for a few games if I can.
Anyone who goes to downtown Saint Paul for something will tell you that it can get extremely crowded. Getting a table in a restaurant around the Xcel Energy Center* before a Wild game is just as hard as finding one before a Timberwolves game in Minneapolis. After the game, the bars around the arena get just as crowded as people wait for the crowds to dissipate in order to find an easier ride home.
The biggest challenge facing downtown Saint Paul is how it operates when nothing is going on.
Right now in Saint Paul, the future of the downtown is a major talking point. A big reason for this is that since 2020, many of the office buildings that historically brought workers into downtown are sitting vacant. If you walk through downtown on a Wednesday at 1:00 pm, you probably won’t see many people at all.
Because this is a mayoral election year, lots of policy ideas have been tossed about for how to address this. There are lots of policies being discussed, but I wanted to talk about one particular idea that I haven't really considered before.
Saint Paul is Minnesota’s capital, and home to a lot of state offices. One idea that people have been mulling over is trying to work with the state government to bring their workers back to downtown instead of having them work from home.
This type of idea is more focused on reinvigorating the existing infrastructure of downtown, though it certainly wouldn’t fill every office building.
I think this is interesting because I don’t think there is anything wrong with organizations deciding they want to work in an office space. We live in a world now where that is a feature rather than an expectation of certain professions, but if an employer decides that provides value to their business greater than the cost of rent, then they should require people to come into the office.
This situation with state workers is a little more interesting. Instead of the state deciding if the cost of rent and worker dissatisfaction is worth the additional efficiency benefit, they can consider the broader social benefits of having office space occupied downtown. I don’t know if this tradeoff is worth it, but it is interesting to think about the idea of public employees using where they work as a policy tool to benefit certain areas.
*Now called the Grand Casino Arena. Old habits die hard.