Cities 07

Downtown Saint Paul is a typical urban area strongly occupied by corporations. Many of these corporations purchased space formerly occupied by entertainment centers and small businesses like grocery and printing copy stores. Ultimately, prior to downtown Saint Paul’s mass replacement of entertainment and activity centers, this former urban area, once vital, is now low in density. My research strongly supports Sharon Zukin’s writing “Whose Culture? Whose City?” In consequence, downtown Saint Paul’s is a very quiet and has little vitality, potentially creating a potentially dangerous and unsafe area. Despite its lack of activities for visitors who do not work for these corporations, many people still visit downtown Saint Paul. My research will carry out the question of whose city downtown Saint Paul is and who occupies the area. In my research, I will generally focus on the downtown area consisting of the corner of Kellogg Boulevard and 7th Street to as far as 7th Street and Wall Avenue.
When I lived in downtown Saint Paul, it was clear to me that there is little to do there and whenever I had free time, I stepped out and went to places like downtown Minneapolis for its variety of activities that downtown Saint Paul did not provide. Although downtown Minneapolis is strongly occupied by big corporations, there still were a variety of activities that people of all ages, and income to do. Things like, active parks with basketball courts and playgrounds, movie theatres, hip contemporary bars, and arcade centers.
Working at a Dunn Brothers coffee shop, located on the ground floor near a major bus terminal, we get customers of all types, some visitors and some regulars. People like office workers, teachers, retirees, construction workers, students and public servers like police officers ad fire fighters, and EMT. Many of these people occupy downtown Saint Paul and enjoy it for what it has to offer, but many of those who I interviewed agree that the city could have more to favor their entertainment needs.
Many of my interviewees preferred to remain anonymous for my research paper. X, a retired resident of downtown Saint Paul quotes, “there’s nothing to do here in the city. The only thing you can really look forward to are concerts and new exhibits at the Science museum. Other than that, there’s nothing in between.” Many of the activities that downtown Saint Paul has to offer are things that are done between long periods of time. For instance, the Science Museum will have about two to three exhibits a year. For those who visit the museum regularly, they offer yearly membership for either a household that consists of two adults, a senior citizen, and children under the age of 18, for a membership for two adults.
David Crady, a coworker of mine, owns a one year membership and visits mostly when there is a new exhibit up or if a friend wants to go; aside from that, he doesn’t. Other facilities like the Ordway, the Fitzgerald, the Xcel Energy Center, and occasional business and art conventions, mostly held on the weekends in hotels and apartment lobbies, similar to the science museum are places to visit in between long periods of time. In consequence, there are long periods of time when the city is very quiet. According to Jane Jacobs, people generally like to follow the crowd, due to our social behaviors as humans.
Since the downtown Saint Paul is strongly occupied by corporations, the majority of the population is office workers during typical office times of 6am to 6pm. After the officers workers retire for the night, the remaining occupants of the downtown area are generally people who are transferring from one bus to another and the homeless. The Dorothy Day Center, located in the outskirts of downtown Saint Paul, is a center that shelters a massive amount of homeless people. In between the times that the shelter serves the homeless, they dwell around the downtown Saint Paul streets and sit at parks like Mears, Rice, and Kellogg Park. When in the downtown area during any time of day or night, whether sitting in the park or walking down the streets, occasionally, I’d be confronted by panhandlers who are very often very passive when you reject their request. A classmate of mine, who is a fan of the downtown Saint Paul area, is discouraged to visit because of her parents who are fearful of the quiet area that is occupied by many homeless people. According to Jane Jacobs, because of the lack of sidewalk traffic and ground level businesses, there is a lack of surveillance from the eyes on the streets. One morning, when opening the coffee shop, I was in the backroom gathering the materials I needed to serve customers and while I was doing so, a man walked up to the main entrance, saw our newspaper stack that is delivered daily, swiped it and ran off. When returning to the front, I saw a man sprinting and by the time I realized what happened, he was several blocks away. Despite the fact that the coffee shop opens at 6 a.m., and the swiping occurred minutes prior to opening, had there been eyes on the street, this could have been prevented.
Other things that disturb the “sidewalk ballet” are skyways. Office workers have the option of traveling through these elevated tunnels that bridge buildings and can avoid the outside sidewalks all together. Restaurants, barber shops, and department stores all accessible when traveling through skyways. This could cause segregation between the street dwellers and the travelers of the skyways. Fast food restaurants are also located on the street level for street dwellers to utilize. This minimizes the interactions between those of the streets and those who work in the offices. The problem with this is that when people separate themselves from other communities, according to Mike Davis, white middle-class [in this case, not just the whites] imagination … magnifies the perceived threat through a demonological lens”.
Aside from the skyways, I also noticed that from across the street of Rice Park, located on 5th street, there is a separate park. Between these parks, from my observation, it appears that Rice Park is often occupied by generally the homeless while the park across the street is occupied by office workers. However, there are some acceptions where office workers would also share Rice Park with the homeless and students who are waiting for their bus. With the thought of segregation in mind, when traveling between buildings, I noticed that there are courtyards located in the center of these office buildings. With these areas available, preferably for the office workers, the parks can be avoided completely.
Because downtown Saint Paul businesses strongly favor the office workers, and generally discourage visitors from stopping by due to the lack of activities, small businesses like “Hoskies”, an independent painters shop suffers. Many of his paintings are landscape paintings of downtown Saint Paul buildings and some others of the Cathedral close by. Because of the little business transactions made, the “Hoskies” artist was forced to relocate into a smaller area in the skyways. Prior to the move, “Hoskies” was located on the street level of 5th street between Robert and Jackson Street. The size of the space was noticeably larger than his present store location. His shop has paintings that range from $20 to $300+. Independent artists also have competition with mega-stores like Target and Walmart that also sells paintings for a very competitive price.
I then ventured off to search for teenagers to ask them how they felt about downtown Saint Paul and whether if there are activities there that they like to do. Many of them were located at bus stops but can be found scattered throughout the downtown area. Kevin, a 3rd year junior who attends high school at Humboldt, located in West Saint Paul, and his friends, who all agreed to being apart of the hip hop culture, all strongly insisted on answering my questions. They all agreed that the downtown Saint Paul wasn’t designed to suit the youth. He states, “As a black man, I feel little to no access in downtown Saint Paul. There’s nothing to do here. I can’t dine at Fhima’s because I can’t afford their prices. I’d go to Footlocker [located in downtown Saint Paul] sometimes but other that that, I transfer from the 68 to the 16 [metro transit buses] from school and go home.” None of them have ever attended any events at the Ordway or watched any Wild or Swarm games or any concerts at the Xcel Energy Center. When asking why, Kevin replies, “black people for the most part don’t watch or play hockey or lacrosse and the concerts there don’t work for us.” Looking at the Xcel Energy Center calendar, it appears that the concerts by Rod Stewart, Billy Joel, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, and TOOL, and the republican convention don’t suit the young hip hop community. It seemed like all they really had was the major bus stops located on 5th Street and Minnesota Street, and 6h Street and Robert Street only to stop in and immediately leave as soon as their transferring bus arrives. Their situation reminded me of a piece by Sharon Zukin’s “Whose Culture? Whose City?” where she mentions Bryant Park on 42nd Street in New York City being redesigned, in support of local property owners and their major corporate tenants, the park to suit business people and discourage people of other, mostly lower class groups.
Many large cities have parks for sports activities like basketball, baseball, and handball and playgrounds for the younger children. When visiting Chicago, the many parks I’ve walked passed were very active and occupied. Growing up in New York City, my friends and I visited Manhattan strongly for the playgrounds. We didn’t have jobs for much of an allowance but we had enough to buy a racket ball, or blue ball so we called it, to play at the park. When playing in parks like Grand Park in Chinatown or “14th Street Park”, we always bumped into all kinds of people like the professional office workers, fellow high school students, college students, and even the elderly. Everybody was able to participate in the game and we all had a great time. It was great because newcomers would always wander in and play and most of the time became regular visitors. The parks of downtown Saint Paul are all walking parks.
Because corporate offices are not open on the weekends, the office workers, who make up the majority of the population of downtown Saint Paul, are not around, ultimately creating a ghost town-like feel. But to my surprise, despite the absence of office workers, there were visitors all over. I followed the small crowds to see where they were going. I ended up at the Science museum which was to my surprise very full and busy. There also were buses in front of the building full of visitors entering the museum. Restaurants in the area were full of people chatting away and having their lunch. I also noticed that there were people in the lower town area shopping at the farmers market for fresh, straight from the farm, produce and meat, and flowers. On my way to lower town, there were roller bladers and bikers joy-riding around. This was all on a Sunday when parking is free all over downtown Saint Paul. In contrast, on Saturday, when parking is enforced, there were noticeably less people in the area.
The rates of public transportation are affordable and many of them stop in downtown Saint Paul. Kenneth T. Jackson explains in his piece, “The Drive-in Culture of Contemporary America” that people generally enjoy the convenience of driving and has formed a preference of distancing themselves from other people and drive in their own vehicles. Somehow if the city could encourage people to ride the buses, perhaps for cheaper on the weekends, people may use them more often. The State Fair makes a deal every year with the Metro Transit Company and many shuttles are available for people to ride for free. If downtown Saint Paul could have something as good, perhaps more people will come on non-eventful days.
In addition to Jackson’s writings, downtown Saint Paul has many residential buildings all over the city. Contemporary America is fixated with cars and enjoys their privacy within their cars. Jackson states, “The drive-in structure that is closest to the hearts, bodies, and cars of the American family is the garage. It is the link between the home and the outside world.” When these residents return to downtown Saint Paul, there are indoor garages that enable people to enter their apartment buildings, park their cars and go home without even stepping on the streets. Jacobs states that people prefer being in crowds and are drawn to join groups of people but because of the lack of pedestrians and activities, people mostly don’t walk around.
Throughout the year, there are parades and special events that occur. The St. Patrick’s Day parade this year attracted many visitors and even after several hours after the parade ended, many of the visitors stayed to walk around the city and socialize with one another. Many businesses like the Dunn Brothers I work for benefited greatly from this. Despite many of the visitor’s conditions of intoxication, they were very well mannered and content. Several of the bars around the downtown area also benefited from the visitors. Walking around the city after work, there were many people walking around. To the distance, all you can see is a sea of green worn by the visitors. Similar to last years Winter Carnival, many people visited the city all throughout the event which lasted as long as the month of December.
It appears that despite the strong influence of the corporations of downtown Saint Paul, these special events bring in large crowds of people. Although the streets are quiet in between these big events, there are residents who prefer it this way. Cassandra, a coworker of mine who lives in the downtown area enjoys living in downtown Saint Paul because it’s generally quiet. She states, “I like to party in Minneapolis [at places like friends houses] and like to return to downtown Saint Paul where I can get some sleep. I couldn’t live in Minneapolis [mostly the busier districts] because it’s very noisy.” She also prefers downtown Saint Paul’s quietness because she enjoys the fact that it is a less crowded area and urban at the same time.
Downtown Saint Paul is generally a low density city throughout the year because of the presence of corporations. Smaller businesses in the area try to work with the office workers with fast food restaurants grouped in food courts located in the skyways. Because of the luxury of not having to step outside, many street level businesses take big hits. The residents of the downtown area contribute to low density due to privatization which separates people from the outside world; especially with indoor garages. Despite the low density, the city surprisingly gets a lot of attention and draws in big crowds when the weather improves and if there are special events going on. The museums and performance centers brings families into the downtown Saint Paul area for some culture and entertainment. Unfortunately, some of these activities discourage lower working class people from visiting. Other facilities like the Xcel Energy Center can possibly discourage certain racial communities because of their lack of the activities that favor them. Certain parks potentially segregate people. Rice Park occupies a space along with a neighboring park right across the street allowing people to have a choice to sit with a diverse crowd or with fellow office workers. Although downtown Saint Paul is a low density city, even with the lack of eyes to monitor street activity, crimes do not occur often. From my experience and reading of local news, the biggest crimes that seem to occur are pan-handling and newspaper swiping. The downtown area may not have much to offer on a regular basis but is still a very beautiful and relatively safe area for people to visit and relax.