After months of work Mayor Carter introduced his budget proposal for 2020 yesterday. While he highlighted the need for additional investments in our streets, I am excited that downtown remains a top priority for street and sidewalk paving and repairs. Like all of you, I look forward to more details in the budget, and the Mayor invited all of us to continue engaging in the process. Look for specific opportunities in the weeks ahead.
This week we also learned about yet another exciting new construction project and investment that just adds to the momentum in downtown. Keep an eye out, more details will be available on our development tracker soon.
Finally, check out the statistics and results from the month of July below (2,300 pieces of gum removed!). Thanks to everyone who has already completed the survey, and if you haven’t, please consider adding your voice to the evaluation.
See you all around (down)town,
Joe Spencer
President
The Saint Paul Downtown Alliance
Saint Paul food truck festival this Saturday
More than 40 food trucks will be downtown this weekend as the Saint Paul food truck festival gets underway in Lowertown. Whether you're looking for something sweet or something savory, something spicy or something special you're sure to find something delicious. There will also be craft beer, music, games, giveaways and more. This event is free and family friendly.
Earlier this week the historic Jax Building in Lowertown officially reopened. The building was sold in 2016 and reconstructed to house 48 market-rate residential units and features the work of local artists throughout the space. Notably, the multi-story mural by Ta-Coumba Aiken remains in tact on the western wall.
The July hospitality and cleaning stats from the Street Team are now available online! Our five ambassadors continue to do amazing work in the two pilot zones including power washing away more than 2,300 gum spots last month! Check out the full July report here. And if you missed it, you can read about June as well.
Please also take a few minutes to complete the Streets of Summer survey if you haven't had a chance to yet, then pass it along to downtown colleagues and neighbors. Your input is critical as we plan for year round programming downtown!
