St. Paul's newest council member must hit the ground running
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St. Paul's newest City Council member takes office Wednesday, and Molly Coleman tells Axios she knows she won't have much time to get up to speed.
The big picture: City leaders will immediately launch a budget-writing process that could involve gut-wrenching trade-offs — all as St. Paul faces huge challenges with housing, homelessness, retail vacancies and a fragile downtown office market.
- "There's not going to be a lot of time before you're having to make very big decisions," she told Axios shortly before her election on Aug. 12 for a three-year term. She represents Ward 4, which spans St. Anthony Park, the Midway, Merriam Park and parts of Macalester-Groveland.
Fun fact: She is the daughter of former Mayor Chris Coleman.
Coleman gave her take on St. Paul's biggest issues:
💰 Next year's budget will force St. Paul officials to "do too much with too little," Coleman said, with costs likely outpaced by modest property value growth.
- Coleman is "optimistic" this year's process will go more smoothly than last year, when council members attempted to rewrite Mayor Melvin Carter's budget proposal only to miss a deadline for overriding his vetoes.
🏗️ St. Paul's "foundational challenge," Coleman said, is a decline in revenues stemming from a "small" and "shrinking tax base."
- One antidote: She supports more housing density, which "grows our city's tax base and makes us an exciting place to live."
🤨 Yes, but: "I want people building here and I want it done on our terms," Coleman said, emphasizing she favors some limits on development.
- For example, she said she would have voted against the Highland Bridge developer's request for less density at the former Ford plant site.
🗳️ The rent control intrigue: Coleman voted for the referendum in 2021, calling it "an important way to try something big in order to address a problem."
- Coleman also now supports the city's new permanent exemption from the rent caps for all new construction, saying she was moved by "nonprofit developers who build the affordable housing that our community needs."
🗺️ What we're watching: The closure of the Smurfit Westrock mill and Luther Seminary's plan to sell its campus will create two potential major redevelopment projects in Coleman's ward.
- In addition to the sites' possibilities for new housing and green space, Coleman said, "We also want that light industry. We also want there to be those jobs," which also grows the city's tax base.
🎓 One friction point: "There is a close to universal sense that [the University of] St. Thomas has basically been a pretty bad neighbor to community members," Coleman said.
- She opposes a moratorium on multi-unit housing development near campus — but also says city and school officials should address neighbors' concerns around issues like parking.
- Coleman wants St. Thomas to consider requiring third-year students to live on campus, saying a 2022 change that moved sophomores into the dorms took some pressure off the neighborhood.
🏚️ The Midway: After years of concern about crime, homelessness and vacant buildings, Coleman sees reasons for optimism about the troubled transit hub at Snelling & University.
- "We are not seeing the challenges the neighborhood did last year" around the supportive housing facility, Kimball Court.
- "We have long-promised construction happening" on a hotel, restaurants and an office building near Allianz Field.
👀 Plus: "There's very good reason to think we will be able to force the owner of the [long-vacant] CVS building to sell," Coleman said.
- How? A proposed city charter amendment that would give St. Paul officials the ability to issue punitive fines if voters approve it in November.
- "We live in a democracy, and you can't have this many people who are this angry about something without having change come," Coleman said.