September 2010

Volume 16

Number 9

Your Community News & Information Source

The Allure of Lowertown Residents are attracted to the neighborhood for a number of reasons

Bill KnightContributor

For some of Lower-town’s newer resi-

dents, the timing of their move seems to be a de-ciding factor in their sat-isfaction with the quality of life in downtown St. Paul’s urban village. For example, Troy Parkin-son and his young family moved to Lowertown last July, attracted by the new restaurants, the artists’ community, the St. Paul Farmers’ Market and the coming light rail. How-ever, people like Greg Pe-terson, who moved here 10 years ago, were sold on a quiet neighborhood that is close to transpor-tation and their job.

“For a newbie in Low-ertown, what excites me is all the new energy coming in here,” said Par-kinson. “Everything that Lowertown has to offer is exciting for our family.” Parkinson, 32, his wife, Chandra, and their two children relocated from St. Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood to a condo overlooking Mears Park.

Peterson and his wife chose Lowertown mainly for access to entertain-ment venues and its small town charm. He is a re-tired veterinarian who worked at the Pomeroy Animal Hospital in Low-ertown in the 1970s, but during most of his career traveled throughout rural Minnesota and Wiscon-sin doing regulatory work

for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He retired in 2001.

“Most people go from living and working in the big town and then retire in a smaller community. I did just the opposite,” he said with a laugh. “At the time we were looking, there were only about three choices — the Galtier Towers, Market House and City Walk — so there has been a big expansion, especially in the last five years.”

Peterson said Lower-town is shaped by the people who have been liv-ing here for several years.

“The people (moving) here have made it a stron-ger neighborhood,” he said. “Over the past five years we’ve hit a critical mass of people moving and living here.”

Ironically, both new and long-time Lower-town residents cite many of the same reasons for moving to the neighbor-hood, according to Bud

Kleppe, a Lowertown re-altor and downtown resi-dent.

“People in their 30s don’t have time to deal with a yard,” he said. “They want a mainte-nance-free home and to be close to work, so liv-ing in Lowertown makes perfect sense to them. And the empty-nesters are buying for just about the same reason. They have mowed the lawn for many years and they don’t want to do that anymore.

“But many of those who bought (more recently) were sort of promised a great, vibrant city and the nightlife,” he added. “They want to be close to the restaurants and to our quasi-nightlife, although we’re not quite like Min-neapolis, yet.”

And for some, Lower-town is a yet-to-be dis-covered urban gem.

“People who were here from Uptown in Minne-apolis for a recent Low-ertown rock festival were saying, ‘What is this Low-ertown and why do I like it so much?’ and that was refreshing,” said Kleppe. “Lowertown hasn’t been attacked by change yet. It still has a nice, indepen-dent vibe to it.”

Hot-button issuesTwo topics – down-

town retail shopping and public safety – reveal that residents are not shy with their suggestions on how

Downtown Living /Page2

Get involved in America’sGreat Outdoor InitiativePage 6

Sample St. Paul Event GuidePage 4

Friendship made in rehableads to CD releasePage 7Photo by Marina Castillo

Greg Peterson moved to Lowertown 10 years ago for its small town charm and entertain-ment venues.

Page 2 - Downtown St. Paul Voice - September 2010

Your community news and information sourceH ousing

The Downtown St. Paul Voice is published monthly and delivered to every apartment, condominium and skyway drop in St. Paul’s historic urban village, as well as other locations throughout downtown St. Paul.

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to make Lowertown more liveable.

More retail, especially a grocery store, is the most common comment Pe-terson hears from others who attend First Friday social events hosted by the CapitalRiverCouncil (CRC), Lowertown’s dis-trict council. That senti-ment is also supported by

CRC surveys.“The reason I live in

a condo is that I don’t want to get in my car and have to drive every time I want a gallon of milk,” Peterson said. “I like to walk and I want to walk to the store.”

Kleppe said he fre-quently hears the lament about not having a gro-cery store, but tends to discount it because most people drive to a grocery

store since they may have several bags to carry out.

“To say you are not go-ing to live here simply be-cause of no grocery store is kind of weak,” he said.

Downtown currently has one grocery store, Rivertown Market at 437 N. Wabasha, and will have a Lunds gro-cery store next year, if plans come to fruition for the new store that is scheduled to open in the

Downtown Living /from page 1

Penfield development on Minnesota Street.

Public safetyIn the seven years

he’s lived downtown Ed Coleman said that pub-lic safety has improved. Since 2008 he has been the manager of the Spectacle Shoppe in the Lowry Building. Outside of work he’s a musician playing percussion.

“The police officers in

St. Paul do a great job,” he said. “You’ll always have a few problems and sometimes people forget, hey, it’s a city. But we don’t have the problems other big cities have. Where I grew up there were gangs, and it wasn’t uncommon to hear shots from an UZI and then someone yell, ‘Halt, po-lice.’”

Coleman gives the city an overall grade of C.

“I’m looking for it to get to a B and I think they can do it,” he said. “It’s in the incubator of nightlife now and I’d like to see the city do more.”

As a musician, Cole-man suggests the city could do more with the students at the McNally Smith School of Music.

“There are some great clubs so let’s utilize them and put the students in different venues,” he said.

Many Lowertown resi-dents say they value the

ability to walk through-out the downtown area and they feel safe on the streets.

Parkinson said he and his seven-year-old enjoy playing at a nearby Tot Lot that is just a block from their condo, al-though he said the park needs help.

“It’s a bit run down, so I want to help and be one of the voices for young families in Lowertown,” he said. “But it’s excit-ing to have a park close by and be able to walk just a block to work. And my son loves having the swimming pool (in the building).”

Kleppe and his wife have two children and they walk all over the downtown area.

“I walk to and from my home and office at all hours of the day and night,” he said. “I may get panhandled once or twice but I don’t consider that a security threat.”

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Your community news and information sourceF uller Files by Roger Fuller

CRC names new officers

Andrew Schlack is the new chair of CapitolRiv-er Council/District 17. Renee Skoglund is chair -elect. Other new officers include Rosemary Reger-Rumsey, treasurer; JoAnn Hawkins, secretary; and Paul Mandell and Jim Miller, vice presidents.

Schlack named Bill Thurmes, Michael Hee-lan and Tara Mattesich to the board as chair ap-pointments. In addition, seven downtown organi-zations will have repre-sentatives named to the board, including St. Paul Building Owners and Managers Association, St. Paul Design Center, Unity One Credit Union, Visit St. Paul, Capitol Area Architecture and Planning Board, Down-town Building Owners Association and the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce. Three other organizations will be in-vited to name members to the 35-member board, which has 22 at-large members, 10 organiza-tional members and three chair appointments.

Lifetime Fitness looking to relocate downtown

Lifetime Fitness is leav-ing the University Club, 340 Cedar, after 13 years because the club could not agree on terms for a new lease with its land-lord, John Rupp. Life-time Fitness plans to look for another downtown site. Rupp is looking for another fitness center for the space.

Brick vs. concrete street debate

Bob Spaulding asked the CapitolRiver Coun-cil/District 17 to recon-sider a decision by the Environment, Movement and Public Realm Com-mittee, which supported the plan of the city to replace brick pavers with stamped concrete on Wa-basha Street. Spaulding, a former District 17 mem-ber, said brick pavers better complement the historic quality of down-town. He added that Duluth has been able to manage brick pavers in

its downtown for the past several decades.

Tim Griffin of the St. Paul Design Center said the Public Works depart-ment prefers the stamped concrete because the brick pavers have mainte-nance problems.

First FridayCapitolRiver Council

will host a First Friday social gathering 4-6 p.m., Fri., Sept. 3, at Station Four, located at Fourth and Sibley. The event is held to encourage down-town residents to become better acquainted.

Publication partySt. Paul Almanac will

hold a publication party at 7 p.m., Thurs., Sept. 16 at the Black Dog Café, 308 Prince St. The annual publication con-tains information about St. Paul and articles writ-ten by local residents.

Poetry Slam attracts 15K

Attendance at the re-cent National Poetry Slam was about 15,000, according to Matt Ruck-er, director. He said the event had a budget of about $60,000 and re-ceived an equal amount in in-kind contributions. The St. Paul team, which won last year at the na-tional finals in Palm Beach, Fla., repeated as champions. A team from New York City finished second.

New café planned for Central Library

The Central Library in downtown St. Paul is accepting applications from interested parties to run a small café in the space of the former Zelda’s Café, located on the ground level near the front entrance. Sheree Savage of the library said the café will feature pri-marily soup, salads and sandwiches. For more in-formation, call 651-266-7000.

Central Library events

Central Library Book Club will discuss “The Tattooed Girl” by Joyce Carol Oates at 10:30 a.m., Thurs., Sept. 9 at the library, located at 90

W. Fourth St.The History Book Club

will review “The Great Influenza” by John Barry at 2 p.m., Thurs., Sept. 23. The book explores the worldwide plague of 1918.

Nancy Pearl, who has written about libraries and books, will appear at 2 p.m., Sat, Sept. 25.

City Passport events

City Passport senior citizen center, located on the mezzanine level of the Alliance Bank Build-ing, is hosting the fol-lowing events: Baby Hat Club, 1 p.m., Thurs., Sept. 9; Happy birth-day party, 2 p.m., Mon., Sept. 13; Writer’s group, 10:30 a.m., Fri., Sept. 17; Current events dis-cussion, 11 a.m., Fri., Sept. 17; Ladies tea, 2:30 p.m., Mon., Sept. 27; Free hearing screenings, 10 a.m., Tues., Sept. 28.

Movies shown at 1 p.m. on Thursdays, include: “Avatar” on Sept. 2; “The Proposal” on Sept. 9; “Days That Shook the World 1940-59” on Sept. 16; “New in Town” on Sept. 23 and “Eric Clap-ton in Concert” on Sept. 30.

European Table closes

European Table on the skyway level of the Alli-ance Bank building has closed due to lack of business, according to co-owner Kathryn Sever-ance. The business will continue to sell products on the Internet. Mer-chandise such as French and Belgian towels, lin-ens, mustards, jams and skin care products may be ordered at www.Gallic-tradition.com and www.TouchofFrance.com. The store was located in the Hamm building for two years before it came to the Alliance Bank Center last year.

Enrollment up at downtown colleges

More students will be seen downtown this fall as two downtown colleg-es are predicting higher enrollment.

McNally Smith College of Music plans to enroll about 700 students for

the upcoming year. This includes 506 students studying for a bachelor’s degree and 163 for an as-sociate degree. Through-out the year the college offers musical programs from faculty and stu-dents. These performanc-es are open to the public.

The College of St. Scholastica expects to increase enrollment by seven percent for the up-coming school year. The college usually enrolls about 500 students at its St. Paul campus, located on the ground floor of the University Club. St. Scholastica offers degrees in five undergraduate and three graduate programs. The college has a main campus in Duluth and four extension centers in addition to St. Paul.

HHW collection Ramsey County’s

household hazardous waste collection site at Bay West, located near the State Capitol at 5 Empire Dr. in St. Paul, is open year-round. Drop-off is free for residents of Ramsey, Washington, Dakota, Hennepin, Ano-ka and Carver counties with a photo I.D. If you drop off an old mercury thermometer, you can re-ceive a new digital ther-

mometer for free. You can also receive a free, reusable 2.5-gallon con-tainer to hold used motor oil. Items accepted in-clude, but are not limited to, aerosol cans (no emp-ty cans), paint (no empty or dry cans), antifreeze, paint stripper and thin-ner, batteries, fluorescent lights, used motor oil and oil filters, gasoline, kerosene, weed killer, products with mercury, such as thermometers, and wood preservatives. Appliances and electron-ics are not accepted. For hours of operation and more information, call the Ramsey County Re-cycling & Disposal Ho-tline at 651-633-EASY (3279) or visit www.co.ramsey.mn.us/ph.

Saturday Live The popular Saturday

Live series will continue in September with week-ly performances at the St. Paul Public Central Li-brary, 90 West Fourth St. The following programs begin at 11:15 a.m. For more information, visit www.sppl.org.

Sept. 11 - Schiffelly Puppets will bring a frac-tured fairy-tale to life.

Setp. 18 - Magical Mia will mystify and entertain with sleight of hand and

illusions involving flow-ers, umbrellas, scarves, gems, pearls, butterflies and more.

Sept. 25 - Musical guests the Okee Dokee Brothers will engage the audience with interactive songs and activities.

Ballet TuesdayLandmark Center and

St. Paul City Ballet will present Ballet Tuesdays at noon the second Tues-day of the month, Sept. 14-May 10, 2011, at the Landmark Center, 75 W. 5th St. The free per-formances will feature the St. Paul City Ballet’s Company of dancers per-forming excerpts from their holiday show, The Enchanted Toy Shop, The Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. For more in-formation, visit www.landmarkcenter.org.

‘Thrill Me’ at Lowry Lab

Lowry Lab Theatre, located at Fifth and St. Peter, will present “Thrill Me” Sept. 17-18. The performance is a joint faculty-student produc-tion from Gustavus Adol-phus College.

Brazen Theatre will perform “The Lady in Question” on Sept. 24-26 and October 1-3.

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Page 4 - Downtown St. Paul Voice - September 2010

Your community news and information sourceS ample St. PaulXcel Energy Center

Dave Matthews Band’s “Summer Tour 2010,” with special guests Black Joe Lewis & The Honey-bears, is coming to Xcel Energy Center at 7 p.m., Wed., Sept. 15. Tickets are $65. The Xcel Center is located at 199 W. Kel-logg Blvd., St. Paul. For more information, visit www.xcelenergycenter.com.

Children’s Museum“The Wizard of Oz,”

the first officially licensed and sanctioned travel-ing educational exhibit based on the beloved film classic, is featured through Sept. 12. Visi-tors will journey through child-size reproductions of memorable sets from the movie, such as the colorful Land of Oz, the Witch’s Castle and Em-erald City. Tickets are $8.95. The museum is located at 10 W. Seventh St., St. Paul. For more in-formation, call 651-225-6000.

Photo by Connie Shaver

Concrete and Grass Lowertown Music FestivalThe fourth annual Concrete and Grass Lowertown Music Festival will return to St. Paul’s Mears Park Sept.

9-11. The festival will feature classical, indie rock, opera, hip hop, jazz, punk rock and blues on two stages. The festival kicks off on Thurs., Sept. 9 with a Club Crawl, featuring live music in a number of Lowertown

clubs. The Mears Park performances will take place on the permanent stage and a second acoustic stage on Sixth Street, beginning Friday afternoon and continuing through Saturday evening. The music will continue after the park closes at 10 p.m. with additional performances on stages of neighboring clubs in the Lowertown Entertainment District. The Festival includes Thursday happy-hour music beginning at 3:30 at various Lower-town clubs. Music begins in Mears Park at 5 p.m. on Friday and noon on Saturday. Food, wine and beer from restaurants in the Lowertown Entertainment District will be available for purchase. For more information, visit concreteandgrass.com.

Ordway Center for Performing Arts

“Evita” is featured Sept. 30-Oct. 31, at the Ordway Center for Per-forming Arts, 35 Wash-ington St., St. Paul. This performance details the life of First Lady of Ar-gentina Eva Perón, who was a legend in her time. A country girl, she rose to become the most powerful woman Latin America had ever seen—a potent symbol of hope and change. The Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice opera is the pow-erhouse telling of her brief and fascinating life. Tickets are $19-$39. For more information, call 651-224-4222 or visit www.ordway.org.

History Center“The Beatles! A One-

Night Stand in the Heartland”  is presented through Sept. 12 at the Minnesota History Cen-ter. The Beatles perfomed only once in Minnesota,

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Downtown St. Paul Voice - September 2010 - Page 5

onstrations, butter sculp-tures, animals, parades and much more. Tickets are $11 (free for kids 5 and under). Bargain days and discounted tickets bought before the Fair are available. For more information, visit www.mnstatefair.org.

Comedian Steve Hofstetter comes to Station 4

Comedian Steve Hof-stetter will be appearing Wed., Sept. 29 at Sta-tion 4, located at 201

Your community news and information sourceS ample St. Paulon Aug. 21, 1965. This exhibit  features images taken by  Bill Carlson of frenzied fans, close-up images of the band and concert images, some of which have never before been seen.  The exhibit also tells the story of a young photographer who got the experience of a lifetime, a local concert promoter who chose not to advertise the concert for fear of crowds that might get out of control, and the lucky fans who did attend.

“Minnesota’s Greatest Generation: The De-pression, The War, The Boom” - This exhibit features more than 6,000 square feet of artifacts, interactive displays and innovative multimedia experiences that reveal the lives and stories of the men and women who came of age during the Depression and World War II, and who went on to create the phenomenal postwar boom. The exhi-bition features first-per-son narratives in recorded

interviews, images, film and audio.

“MN 150”- Meet 150 people, places, events and things that sparked significant change within Minnesota and beyond.

Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and college students, and $5 for children ages 6-17. The Center offers free admission on Tuesdays, 5-8 p.m. For more in-formation, call 651-259-3000 or visit www.mnhs.org.

History TheatreSample Night Live,

a sampling of local pro-ductions, is featured at the History Theatre at 7 p.m. the first Wednes-day of each month, ex-cept February. The for-mat features 12 acts per night, including theater, film, dance, improv, vi-sual arts, folk and opera. Tickets are $20. The His-tory Theater is located at 30 E. Tenth St., St. Paul. For more information, call the box office at 651-292-4323.

Science Museum“Dead Sea Scrolls:

Words That Changed the World.” This exhibit, featured through Oct. 24, offers a rare opportu-nity to witness one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century. The Dead Sea Scrolls in-clude the earliest known Biblical writings. The 2,000-year-old authentic text fragments are steeped in scientific, religious and cultural significance. Complementing the ex-hibit is “Arabia,” showing in the Omnitheater. This film offers a look at Ara-bia’s culture, history and religion. Tickets are $28 for adults and $22 for children ages 4-12 and seniors age 60 and older, or $34 and $28 respec-tively with admission to the Omnitheater.

The Science Museum is located at 120 W. Kellogg Blvd. For more informa-tion, visit www.smm.org, or call 651-221-9444.

Artists’ QuarterThe Artists’ Quarter,

located in the Historic Hamm Building at Sev-enth Place and St. Peter in downtown St. Paul, offers live entertainment throughout the month, including jazz bands, po-etry nights and the popu-lar B-3 organ night, held at 9 p.m. every Tuesday. For a complete schedule of events, call 651-292-1359 or visit www.artist-squarter.com.

Minnesota State Fair

The Great Minne-sota Get-Together, held through Sept. 6 in St. Paul, draws more than 1.6 million visitors an-nually and showcases Minnesota’s finest agri-culture, art, industry and people-watching. Every-thing edible on a stick can be found at the fair, along with a giant Mid-way, a kidway, free mu-sic, Grandstand concerts, giveaways, product dem-

E. Fourth St., St. Paul. Hofstetter has been on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and E! True Hollywood Sto-ry, Comics Unleashed, Comedy All-Stars, Quite Frankly, White Boyz in the Hood, Countdown, and more. He is a former columnist for Sports Il-lustrated and the NHL, and has also written for Maxim and the New York Times, among others. For more information, visit www.stevehofstetter.com.

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Page 6 - Downtown St. Paul Voice - September 2010

Your community news and information sourceR iver ConnectionsAmerica’s Great Outdoors Initiative

Our President wants you to explore the Mississippi River…and other natural amenities

Tim SpitzackEditor

This spring, my son Jake, 14, and I took

a weekend canoe trip on the Mississippi River and one of its tributar-ies: the Zumbro River. As we dipped our paddles into the river, it quickly became evident that the vast number of supplies we had along — tent, cooler, Coleman stove, etc. — would require

us to use more strength in each stroke. We dug in hard until we finally found our rhythm, and once our muscles were warmed and cooperative we were able to enjoy the beauty of the landscape.

As we glided along a bushy bank, which cooled us from the warm afternoon sun, we were able to peer into the for-est to see the different foliage, wildflowers and birds and animals that

lived there.“Look! A bald eagle,”

Jake called out as we ap-proached the mouth of the Zumbro. We let the canoe drift quietly along as we closely examined our National bird, which was perched only yards away on a dead branch of a nearby tree. As we stroked further upstream, we saw another eagle, and then another. Suddenly, four bald eagles were playing hop-scotch with us as we paddled a hand-ful of miles to a remote sandbar, which would be our campsite.

That night, after we had scavenged enough driftwood for a campfire, we talked of the day. We lamented the difficulty of the paddle, we marveled at the number of eagles we had seen and we spoke

of the thrill of rounding each river bend. As the flames flickered in the night, we heard strange noises in the forest, fish jump in the river, and secretly wondered about our safety from the wild animals. We were out of our comfort zone, and we were happy.

A trip such as ours is exactly what the organiz-ers of the new Great Out-doors Initiative hope to see happen more often. The goal of the federal program, which was re-cently instituted by Pres-idential Memorandum, is simple: to get more people outdoors and to spark a national dialogue on how we can protect and conserve our natural resources. According to the Council on Environ-mental Quality (CEQ), 80 percent of Americans live in cities and suburbs. Coalition members, in-cluding the departments of the Interior and Agri-culture, the Environmen-tal Protection Agency and the CEQ, want to see better access to our rivers, parks, lakes and other na-tional amenities, which in turn will hopefully promote better conser-vation and preservation practices. To get the ball rolling, they are hosting listening sessions across the country. The first one was held in St. Paul on Aug. 4. The event began with more than 40 youth paddling a voyageur ca-noe to Harriet Island, the site of a press conference. The youth are part of the

Let’s Move Outside Ju-nior Ranger Program of the National Park Ser-vice, held in partnership with Wilderness Inquiry, Inc. and Urban Wilder-ness Canoe Adventure. A youth listening session was held at Mill City Museum in Minneapolis that day, and the com-munity listening session took place at the Ted Mann Concert Hall in Minneapolis.

Regional discussions

Locally, the National Park Service has been hosting a Mississippi River Forum series since April 2009, which en-courages discussion on how to protect and pre-serve the river. These discussions fit perfectly into this national initia-tive. Some of the topics have included the value of open space, improv-ing water quality with innovative stormwater techniques, drinking the Mississippi River, and the Mississippi Makeover Project. For more infor-mation and future forum dates, visit http://www.nps.gov/miss/nature-science/rfmonthly.htm or call the National Park Service at 651-290-3030.

The St. Paul Riverfront Corporation recently began its next round of discussions to update the Great River Park Master Plan, which is a planning document used to help connect people to the Mississippi River and to

promote recreation and conservation. The plan was developed in 2006 as a way to link new and existing park land to-gether, thus making the area “more natural, more urban and more connect-ed.”

“America’s Great Out-doors Initiative will play an important role in confronting the serious challenges our natural resources face today: cli-mate change, air and wa-ter pollution, landscape fragmentation and loss of open space,” said Ag-riculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a prepared statement.  “This effort will bring Americans from across the country together to look for new approaches to protect our national treasures, and it will highlight the impor-tance of working across ownership boundaries to restore and conserve both private and public lands in a way that recognizes that conservation and economic vitality are in-extricably linked.”

VolunteeringIf you are interested

in helping preserve the river, contact one of the following area St. Paul-based organizations:• Friends of the Missis-sippi River - www.fmr.org, 651-222-2193• Great River Greening - www.greatrivergreening.org, 651-665-9500• Mississippi River Fund - www.missriverfund.org, 651-290-3030.

Photo courtesy of National Park Service

The National Park Service offers many programs to engage the com-munity in exploring the great outdoors, including a youth program with Wilderness Inquiry and Urban Wilderness Canoe Adventure.

Once in a lifetime a story will change your heart and your perspective...

John Jenkins, a young journalist, is marking off time at the small-town Marquette Messenger until he can get into the big-league newspapers. After all, nothing significant ever happens in a farming community, he thinks. Then one day Jenkins is given a routine, dull assignment—to write the obituary of an elderly local farmer, Alfred Gutzman. The remarkable untold story Jenkins uncovers through his investigation, happenstance en-counters with people who knew Gutzman, and covert visits to his farm, challenge everything the young reporter holds dear...

A poignant glimpse of the heart wounds of WWII vets on both sides of the line

Available at:

Common Good Books165 Western Ave. N., St. Paul • 651-225-8989

other retail outlets and major online retailers, including:www.amazon.com / www.barnesandnoble.com

NEW RELEASE

For more information, visit www.timspitzack.com

HUGE GARAGE SALENext-to-New Garage Sale sponsored by the Junior League of St. Paul on Saturday, October 2 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Dairy Building on MN State Fairgrounds. New and gently-used clothing, toys, books, household, furniture, collectibles, and much more! Half price sale starts at 1 p.m., followed by $5 per bag sale at 3 p.m.

www.jlsp.org

GRAN VENTA DE GARAJERopa, juguetes, artículos para el hogar, muebles y otros artículos ligeramente usados! Vestidos de novia nuevos! Sábado 2 de octubre, desde las 8 a.m. a las 4 p.m. en el Edificio Dairy en las instalaciones donde funciona la Feria Estatal de Minnesota. Venta a mitad de precio desde la 1 p.m. y desde las 3 p.m. todo lo que pueda poner en una bolsa costará $5.

Patrocinado por la Liga Júnior de Saint Paul. www.jlsp.org

Downtown St. Paul Voice - September 2010 - Page 7

Your community news and information sourceN ews Briefs

Friendship made in rehab leads to CD releaseWhen Johnny Park and Dan DeMuth met for the

first time in 2008 they realized they had two things in common: they loved to make music and they both struggled with substance abuse, which kept them from their first love. That meeting took place in a St. Paul sober house and was the beginning of the road to recovery for both.

The duo, who grew up as musicians in the Twin Cities, recently released their first self-produced CD, “Greater Than Magnets,” under the band name The Oh Eeks’. The tracks were cut in the basement of the sober house but were professionally mixed by Justin Schwartzbauer at Toefist Studios. Joining them on the tracks were Al Vorse, of Sirens of Titan, on bass and Jimmy Bayard on guitar.

Both Park and DeMuth admit that their substance abuse nearly squelched their passion for music. However, during recovery, that desire was rekindled and the two began to record and perform songs Park had written during his time on the street, in jail and in rehab. The songs on the CD include honest lyrics that reveal a checkered past and a step toward redemption.

The band performs its punk inspired, country-laden folk-rock music around the Twin Cities. For more information, contact Paul DiMartino at 612-860-9928, or visit www.theoheeks.com.

Lowertown master plan recieves $165k

The Greater Lowertown Master Plan Task Force has received $165,000 in grants to hire an urban planning consultant to develop a master plan for the greater Lowertown area. Over the past 30 years, $750 mil-lion in largely private investments have transformed Lowertown from a collection of empty warehouses to a thriving urban village known for its arts community, loft housing and Farmers’ Market. Today, Lowertown is on the brink of another transformation. The Central Corridor light rail line and creation of a multi-modal transportation hub at the Union Depot will create dramatic changes in the Lowertown historic district, offering opportunities for transit-oriented revitaliza-tion and development. This and other developments, including a proposed regional ballpark, the Lafayette Bridge redesign and Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary improvements, are estimated to bring $1.5 billion in infrastructure projects to the area.

Formed in July 2009, the task force has 14 members and includes Lowertown residents, artists, business owners, a real estate development specialist, urban planners, a local architect, the city of St. Paul’s Art-ist-in-Residence and others. Five members are on the CapitolRiver Council Board of Directors. Because the project area extends into St. Paul’s East Side, members of the Dayton’s Bluff Community Council are includ-ed, as are people working on the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary as part of the Lower Phalen Creek Project.

Providing grants to the task force were The Lower-town Future Fund, the Central Corridor Funders Col-laborative and The St. Paul Foundation.Children’s author at

Central LibraryChildren’s author and

illustrator Rosemary Wells will be at the St. Paul Central Library at 3 p.m., Sun., Sept. 26, to read from her new bunny story “Max & Ruby’s Bedtime Book.” A short puppet play of Rosemary Wells’ beloved story “Bunny Cakes” will follow the reading, and the costumed char-acter of Max will be in attendance. Books will be available for purchase-and Wells will sign cop-ies. Advance registration is required for this free program. For more in-formation, call 651-266-7034, visit www.sppl.org, or visit the library, 90 W. Fourth St., St. Paul.

Volunteer opportunities

• Ramsey County Community Human Services has volunteer opportunities for peo-ple age 18 and older. For more information, contact 651-266-4090 or volunteerservices@co.ramsey.mn.us.

• Minnesota Literacy Council - Volunteers are needed to tutor adult learners, assist in an adult

classroom and teach basic English and GED classes. For more information, contact Allison at 651-645-2277, ext 219, or volunteer@themlc.org.

• St. Paul Public Schools - Volunteers are needed to tutor elementa-ry students in the St. Paul Public schools in read-ing and math. Under the guidance of a classroom teacher, volunteers assist students one-on-one or in small groups. For more in-formation, contact Con-nie at 612-617-7807 or e-mail cerickson@voamn.org. Volunteers age 55 and older are eligible to receive free supplemental insurance, mileage reim-bursement and other ben-efits through the Retired and Senior Volunteer Pro-gram (RSVP), sponsored by Volunteers of America of Minnesota.

• The Minnesota Reading Corps is seek-ing  reading tutors for the 2010/2011 school year. The program provides free, one-on-one tutor-ing to children age three through third grade. Min-nesota Reading Corps members receive a living stipend, reimbursement for college (up to $5,350) and health insurance (for

full-time members). For more information or to apply online, visit www.MinnesotaReading-Corps.org or call 1-866-859-2825.

Rice Park toursRice Park tours are of-

fered at 10 a.m., Wednes-days Sept. 1 and 15, at Landmark Center’s visi-tor information center. The tours feature an ex-clusive look inside each building surrounding the park, including the St. Paul Hotel, the St. Paul Central Public Library, the James Jill Hill Refer-ence Library, 317 on Rice and The Ordway Center for Performing Arts. The tours are free but space is limited and reservations are required. To reserve space, call 651-292-3276 or email jhernandez@landmarkcenter.org.

Documentaries sought for ‘1968 Film Festival’

Amateur and profes-sional filmmakers alike are invited to share their stories about one of our country’s most turbulent years — 1968. The Min-nesota Historical Society is seeking 10-minute doc-umentaries for its “1968

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Plans are available for viewing at:Minneapolis Builders Exchange, St. Paul Builders

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Film Festival” competi-tion, which is open to filmmakers of all levels and includes $10,000 in prize money. Topics may be local, national, per-sonal or political.

Interested filmmakers must register at www.the1968project.org by Sept. 10. There is no fee to register. Films will be judged by a panel of his-torians and film profes-sionals. Winning films and awards will be pre-sented at the “1968 Film Festival,” held Sept. 25 at the Minnesota History Center. Registrants re-ceive special discounts on the “Documentary Nuts and Bolts” classes of-fered by IFP-Minnesota and access to and use of photographs, video foot-age and documents from the Society’s archives and collections. Award-win-ning films will be posted at www.the1968project.org. Winners from the 2009 Film Festival can be viewed there as well. “The 1968 Project” is developed by the Min-nesota Historical Society in cooperation with the Chicago History Muse-um, the Atlanta History Center and the Oakland Museum of California.

Page 8 - Downtown St. Paul Voice - September 2010

Your community news and information sourceB ack in Time

Don MorganContributor

Lots of fun things can happen in September.

With luck, the steamy days of summer are over and the cold of winter is still far away. In Sep-tember 1929, folks in St. Paul had some appealing entertainment options. There was a grand wel-come home for a local hero and the city’s big theater was redone. If only everyone didn’t have to keep looking over their shoulders at that darn stock market.

The Labor Day holiday that year featured great weather. It was quite warm with temperatures in the mid-90s, but low humidity and a nice breeze made for record crowds at the opening weekend of the State Fair. That same week featured the state horseshoe pitch-ing championship held on 24 new courts set up in a city park. Two hun-

dred thirty entries from around the state proved that a lot of Minnesotans took their horseshoes seriously. At the end of the three-day tourney, a crowd of over 1,000 would see a Minneapolis man take the title. He won no money, just state bragging rights.

Nervous investorsThose with money were

getting a little nervous about it. The Dow aver-age had climbed steadily throughout the decade, from about 64 in 1921 to a new high of 381 on the day after Labor Day. Late that same week, though, came a sharp drop. Some began to worry that they were seeing a replay of the Florida land boom of the early 1920s, a clas-sic speculative bubble with the usual sorry end-ing. But the market soon bounced back.

Even investors’ thoughts turned mostly to golf the second week of

September as news came that local favorite Harri-son R. “Jimmy” Johnston had won the U.S. Ama-teur golf title at Pebble Beach in California. In recent years this title has gone to teenage phenoms on their way to a big pro career (Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods each won the title at the age of 19) but the 1920s were the age of the gentleman am-ateur. Johnston, age 33, a World War I veteran with a wife and two children, was a St. Paul native and well-known in Midwest golf circles. The Amateur was his first time play-ing in California. Then as now, the eighteenth fairway at Pebble Beach ran along with the Pacif-ic Ocean on its left and Johnston hooked his sec-ond shot down onto the beach. With waves lap-ping at his feet, he calmly hit his third shot onto the green, and went on to win the 36-hole match play. Plans were imme-

diately started for a big welcome home celebra-tion.

Movie innovationsThat same week, local

moviegoers found out that one of their favor-ite houses would be un-available for a couple of weeks. The Capitol, on Seventh Street (now Sev-enth Place) in the Hamm Building, had been the city’s biggest and fanci-est movie house since its opening nine years ear-lier, but it had been built to exhibit live concerts, vaudeville shows and si-lent movies. After finish-ing the St. Paul run of “The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu” with Warner Oland and Jean Arthur, the theater closed for a full renovation. Included were new seats, carpet and a new sound system geared to talking pic-tures. Theater regulars seeking quality entertain-ment didn’t have to go far. Right across Seventh

Street the St. Paul Or-pheum had booked one of America’s most popu-lar touring orchestras: Fred Waring’s Pennsyl-vanians. They played to good crowds all week.

The welcome home for Jimmy Johnston was a major success. An air es-cort guided his train into St. Paul’s Union Depot, and Johnston was con-veyed in style up Fourth Street to a reviewing stand in Rice Park to see the downtown parade of civic and golfing organi-zations, bands, confetti, etc. It was a big enough deal to attract the may-ors of both of the Twin Cities and the governor. That evening at a cozy dinner for 500 at the St. Paul Athletic Club on Cedar Street, John-ston reviewed the tour-nament, complete with a slide show. Before the days of TV and the Golf Channel, few Minneso-tans had ever seen Pebble Beach, so the evening was part golf, part travelogue.

The Capitol reopened the following week, but not as the Capitol. In the 1920s, movie stu-dios were still allowed to own theater chains. The Capitol had been sold and would reopen as the Paramount, with a 65-foot electric sign that would be a downtown landmark for the next few decades. The new in-terior and box office were deemed big successes and the ushering staff got snappy new uniforms of cadet grey with red braid trim. The Marx Brothers’ first movie, “The Coca-nuts,” would have been a natural for the open-

ing. It was a satire based on that same early 1920s Florida land boom. A new Paramount release, it was a filmed version of the Marx’s’ Broadway hit and featured music by Irving Berlin. But the brothers were not yet es-tablished in Hollywood so the Paramount opened with “The Dance of Life” (also a filmed version of a Broadway play), and “Cocoanuts” was rele-gated to a smaller house downtown. Even so, the new theater drew over 10,000 for the first day and was off to a great start.

September 1929 ended with its second big mar-ket dive, this one de-scribed in the Pioneer Press as a “stock selling storm.” Once again the market came most of the way back in just a couple of days. But nervous in-vestors had turned very nervous.

The Paramount and the Orpheum remained cross-street rivals and downtown’s two main outlets for first-run stu-dio releases until the mid-1960s. By then, many downtown movie houses were in decline. The Paramount closed for good in 1965. The Orpheum (now back to its original name, the Palace) is still there on Seventh Place: vacant.

Harrison “Jimmy” Johnston continued to be active in amateur golf, playing on four Walker cup teams and leading the 1930 British Amateur before losing out to his good friend Bobby Jones. In 1950, he was named Minnesota’s best golfer of the half century. The hickory shafted spade-mashie (seven iron) with which he hit his historic shot from the beach is in the USGA museum at Far Hills, NJ. Johnston died in Florida in 1969.

A month after the September selling storm came the big stock market crash of 1929. It would take the Dow nearly 25 years and a World War to get back to where it had been that day after Labor Day.

September 1929 – Fun times, but stock market jitters

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