St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter celebrated progress in public safety and housing in his annual State of the City address Monday — and vowed to keep up progress in the midst of federal funding cuts and policy changes.
He gave the speech at the new North End Community Center, a $30 million project that celebrated its grand opening last week.
Carter pointed to decreases in violent crime among last year’s successes. He noted a drop in non-fatal shootings, and zero gun-related homicides in the city so far this year. He credited the city’s new non-fatal shootings unit and other crime prevention projects.
“Our teams don’t just show up in crisis,” Carter said. “They build trust every day as neighbors and partners.”
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Carter said challenges remain. He named the fentanyl crisis as a major threat to public safety, and announced an upcoming fentanyl summit with doctors, policymakers and people with lived experience.
Carter spoke on another major goal: revitalizing the city’s downtown. He said his priority is to get more housing downtown, with a goal of bringing in 20,000 new residents. With workers sticking to remote work, he said more housing will do more to bring back people and businesses.
“A third of our downtown office space lies vacant right now, but our housing is over 90 percent full,” Carter said. “That gap shows us exactly where the opportunity is.”
He also backed Gov. Tim Walz’s recent controversial order that state employees return to their offices — many of which are in downtown St. Paul.
On housing, Carter said he wants the City Council to pass proposed changes to the city’s rent control ordinance. Carter wants to soften the city’s rent control policy; he’s supporting an exemption for any building built later than 2004. It would be another change to the stringent policy passed in 2021, which caps rent price increases at 3 percent.
Carter said the proposed exemption will encourage new developments. He’s also supporting a renter protection ordinance.
“These proposals reflect the urgency of the moment,” Carter said. “They protect renters, give builders clarity and help us keep growing the homes we need without losing the protections many of our neighbors count on.”
Affordable housing advocates pushed for the initial rent control ordinance. An amendment passed in 2022 exempts buildings that are less than 20 years old.
Carter’s speech came amid recent debacles including a temporary appointment to the city council and a declaration of a state of emergency for trash collection.
Carter cited federal policy changes as a major challenge for the year ahead. He reiterated his promise that St. Paul police won’t work with federal immigration enforcement. And he said he’ll continue pushing to keep federal dollars.
“We will fight threats to our city’s federal funding in court and in Congress and everywhere in between, and we will keep using every tool we have to build a world that is safer, more promising and fairer for our children,” Carter said.
