As Mike noted in an email a few days ago, energy prices no doubt will go up substantially in the future, and that ought to force us to take another look at the way we live. To my mind, one essential to addressing the issue is build new housing and other development that increases our density.
District Energy, which heats my home downtown, uses alternative energy sources to heat and cool downtown, through a heating and cooling plant, and a network of underground hot and cold water pipes. It is cost-effective downtown precisely because the density downtown makes it cost-effective in the current market, but it fast becomes cost-prohibitive (currently) to expand to a larger market.
In terms of transportation, we also need to provide the choices that provide alternatives to the 1 person, 1 car model - a model which is increasingly costly as well as energy inefficient. We should be creating major parts of the City that are dense enough to sustain transportation alternatives: walking, bus and rail transit, biking, and car-sharing. Right now, downtown is the only area that can broadly sustain these choices in Saint Paul. Meanwhile, Uptown and downtown, Cedar-Riverside and NE/St Anthony all can sustain these choices in Minneapolis. See the list below to see where St. Paul could focus efforts.
There are also tax benefits to higher density, a fact Mayor Kelly has successfully tapped to help hold down taxes citywide. Denser developments require less City infrastructure per person, and get more tax-generating capacity out of the same land.
Yet at the same time, there are certainly pitfalls and downsides to overbuilding, as well. In building the density, we don't need to annoy existing residents and dramatically impact existing neighborhoods. We need to carefully avoid creating out-of-place developments that cram in too many units per acre, or build out of scale - developments which give density a bad name. The benefits of density must be balanced against the need for open space - for environmental, aesthetic, livability and recreational reasons.
At times in recent years, the City's goal of density has begun to conflict with environmental, aesthetic, recreational concerns. New development proposals for the West Side Flats conflicts with a variety of environmental and livability concerns. A new development that is slated to be perched above the new Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary near Lowertown has threatened to overpower this significant new natural and historic resource by Lowertown. New development in the downtown core needs to be complemented with significant investments in public green space - the only "backyard" downtown residents have. We need to not only increase density, but create density that is workable in the long term, and reinforces the benefits of dense development.
Still, there is a TON of undeveloped land in a few key corridors of the City that is either entirely vacant, or close to it:
a) Infill downtown - in the many empty lots that aren't yet developed, including some major sites near the Capitol.
b) Riverfront in downtown/Lowertown - Lowertown Redevelopment Corp's "River Garden" / Union Depot Plan
c) West Side Flats & Riverfront - guided by the adopted West Side Flats Master Plan. In the long-term the opportunity here goes on further than people think, and could ultimately wrap south from downtown toward South St. Paul.
d) Old industrial sites along West 7th and the river area to the airport - Brewery, Koch Mobil, etc...
e) University Avenue Transit Corridor - key undeveloped sites at Rice, Dale, Lexington, near Snelling, and more.
f) Phalen Corridor - some housing opportunity sites.
g) Others, in a few years.
Keeping a long-term urban vision in mind, these could be exciting years for St. Paul. But we need to make sure we keep the attention focused on the long-term goal, so that all the small decisions that get made in the intervening years build support for the kinds of development that will make St. Paul a liveable, energy-efficient, sustainable city. A city that draws people in from around the region to experience the unique flavor of St. Paul.
Bob Spaulding Downtown
On Apr 18, 2005, at 1:03 PM, Mike Schoenberg wrote:
Has anybody noticed the gasoline prices lately? There rising. But they don't rise in a vacuum. They rise somewhat in tandem with other fuel prices, such as fuel used for home heating. This means higher cost for heating our homes in St. Paul. We probably don't have short term alternatives. But in the 5- to 10- year range, when petroleum production maxes out worldwide, today's prices of heating our homes and fueling our cars will seem like chicken feed. So, other than being like Chicken Little and bemoan that the sky is falling, what do you as other St. Paul forum members, think that St. Paul should do to keep our community an affordable and livable place?
Possible options could include the development of district heating on an area-wide basis, modus operendi yet to be determined. It could start to include city-wide education about redevelopment of high efficiency neigborhoods. Perhaps, to borrow from science fiction, we could dome our city and create a sustainable microclimate. Whatever it is, will probably involve a change as significant as going from a horse-and-buggy economy to an automobile dominated economy.
I'd like to hear the thoughts of forum members. I'd particularly like to hear from people claiming to have the ears of mayoral candidates.
Whereas we can take the dystopic view of the Chicken Littles of the world or the utopian views of some currrent day political and judicial theorist, the solution will probably end up as a muddle: we'll make it somehow in a tolerable fashion. It won't be great but it won't be terrible.
Mike Schoenberg MacGroveland
P.S. Dann Dobson: I've tried to send you e-mail twice using the address you use to post on the forum. My message have bounced twice. Please check the e-mail address you use on the Forum
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