Va-Megn Thoj sees more than just a glimmer of both poverty and opportunity around the Green Line light-rail station at Western and University avenues.

The heart of St. Paul’s Little Mekong business and cultural district, the quarter-mile from Marion to Mackubin streets is home to roughly 100 small businesses, most of them run by Southeast Asian immigrants.

The “Little Mekong” branding — an effort of the Asian Economic Development Association, which he oversees — represents a potential blueprint for other business districts throughout the city, especially in areas that have struggled to draw and retain new shops and residents.

“It’s giving us an opportunity to bring people from across the region to the neighborhood,” said Thoj, pointing to the popularity of the association’s Little Mekong Night Market celebrations and a new public plaza.

Even in Little Mekong, however, challenges remain apparent. Thoj said half of business owners rent their spaces, about 15 to 20 percent of which sit vacant.

Two formal efforts seek to cement the city’s commitment to Little Mekong and other existing or potential St. Paul business districts like it. Both could mean greater public and private investment in existing cultural districts, from the District del Sol on St. Paul’s West Side to the Creative Enterprise Zone at Raymond and University avenues, as well as the creation of new ones.

Most immediately, the 2019 city budget proposal that will be voted upon by the city council Wednesday sets aside $1.8 million in new funding for “cultural destination areas,” with the goal being to support street improvements, signage and other “place-making” activities, as well as general business growth.

The funding includes $1.5 million for the city’s Neighborhood STAR grant program, $100,000 for the Cultural STAR program to support an artist showcase downtown, and $200,000 in flexible Housing and Redevelopment Authority spending.

NEIGHBORHOOD NODES

A second effort is at once more general, more long-term and more reaching. The city’s draft 2040 Comprehensive Plan, which was opened up to public comment in early November, calls for a new citywide focus on 64 “neighborhood nodes,” or significant street intersections and destinations, most of them along existing or potential transit corridors.

The Comp Plan, which is expected to be approved by the St. Paul City Council in mid-2019, recommends easing zoning restrictions on construction height, density and parking while encouraging a broader mix of uses within each node, from housing and recreation to commerce.

Beginning in 2016, a city outreach effort drew some 4,000 comments on potential changes to the comp plan, the majority focused on land-use issues. “People wanted to be able to walk from their home to places that have amenities — a park, a library, restaurants were really big, shopping,” said Anton Jerve, a city planner who authored the comp plan’s land-use chapter.

The draft comp plan references the urban design concept of “20-minute cities,” in which all residents live within a 20-minute walk of daily services and amenities.

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Minnesota Department of Revenue commissioner to step down Largely located along old streetcar routes or near established civic anchors such as parks and libraries, the neighborhood nodes range from noted commercial centers, such as Grand Avenue at Victoria Street, to emerging destinations such as the former Ford campus in Highland Park.

Principal city planner Lucy Thompson said a public comment period opened Nov. 2, and a public hearing is scheduled before the St. Paul Planning Commission on Jan. 11. The St. Paul City Council will review the draft comp plan in late May or early June before forwarding it to the Metropolitan Council, the metro’s regional planning agency.

FROM LITTLE AFRICA TO SOHO

To date, official feedback has been limited but supportive, with some asking the city to move or even add a node here or there on the citywide map.

“When I go to other cities, it’s because you can just walk down the street. There’s a shop there,” said Thoj, who lives near a potential node along Maryland Avenue. “I’m really glad the city is focusing on this concept. … People tend to think for a destination we need to go to a major shopping center like a downtown or the Midway. It doesn’t have to be like that.”

Cultural districts are not entirely without criticism. When organizers launched the Little Africa business district near Snelling and University avenues a few years ago, at least one Realtor expressed concern that potential commercial or residential tenants who were not of African descent would feel out of place and shy away.

Thoj said in low-income areas like Little Mekong, filling storefronts and improving social cohesion draws foot traffic to non-Asian store owners, as well. “Whether or not you identify with that particular branding, it benefits you,” he said.

In fact, some cultural districts have had the opposite problem. In Lower Manhattan, wealthy new tenants and investors found the SoHo arts/warehouse district so attractive, the neighborhood became upscale and unaffordable to the very artists who had made a once-derelict area hip. Artists who have lost lofts in St. Paul’s Lowertown neighborhood to new housing redevelopment worry about similar signs of gentrification.

The “neighborhood node” is one aspect of the draft 2040 Comprehensive Plan, which encompasses seven chapters. More information about the comp plan is online at stpaul.gov/saintpaul4all.

The chapters focus on:

Transportation

The plan puts new emphasis on walking and biking, elevating them as travel modes equal to driving. “Equity” is added as a criteria for projects requesting funding, in reference to whether the project represents a fair distribution of resources to low-income and high minority areas of the city.

Housing

While home ownership stability is still referenced, the new draft shifts focus to exploring ways to promote stable rental housing. The chapter highlights a need for “missing middle” housing — 6- to 20-unit structures. Unlike Minneapolis, which opted for citywide triplex zoning in its comp plan, Thompson said St. Paul’s is more of a general vision.

Land use

In addition to 64 “neighborhood nodes,” the chapter highlights 32 “opportunity sites” that are currently or will soon be ripe for redevelopment. That includes the Sears store on Rice Street, the Hillcrest golf course site and land around the Central Station downtown light-rail stop.

Heritage and cultural preservation

This is the second comp plan to include such a chapter — a guide for the preservation of historic structures and the Heritage Preservation Commission. The chapter notes historic preservation can be used as a tool for economic development.

Parks, recreation and open space

The new comp plan calls for an equitable investment in city parks and open spaces across neighborhoods, as well as improved river access for everyday residents.

Water resources management

The most technical chapter in the comprehensive plan references a series of studies required by the Met Council on water management, from groundwater to wastewater, and “thinks about water as an integrated system,” Thompson said.

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