Your Daily Guide

Where Can St. Paul's Encampments Go From Here?

The Thing That Everyone Said Was Going To Happen happened after the city of St. Paul closed the homeless encampment at Pig's Eye Park: over 100 residents moved on to other encampments with very few people transitioning to indoor shelters. On today's episode of the podcast, we spoke with Kat Hunter of Rising Water Mutual Aid about the current state of St. Paul's encampments and what a path forward could look like. [🎧 City Cast Twin Cities]

• A failed plan: St. Paul Assistant Mayor Cedrick Baker said that even though the city invested almost $1 million to open up 49 new shelter beds prior to the closing of the Pig's Eye encampment, the city only tracked seven encampment residents that moved into those shelter beds. [KARE 11 / 🎧 City Cast Twin Cities]
• Moving forward: Hunter says that the kind of short-term housing offered by shelter beds isn't a fit for most residents of encampments. They instead advocate for providing stable, permanent housing for residents and providing basic necessities like porta-potties and handwashing stations that will make life significantly safer for encampment residents. Hunter also warns against further encampment sweeps, arguing that sweeps will put residents in greater danger during the winter rather than making them safer. [🎧 City Cast Twin Cities]

Shooting in Loring Park: Our hearts go out to those affected by the mass shooting near Loring Park on Wednesday. Two people plus the shooter were killed, and six people were injured – including three police officers. It has been a hard year for residents of Shoreline Plaza, as there was another shooting in the lobby of the building just under one year ago. Wednesday's shooter was reportedly undergoing eviction proceedings from the apartment building and had a court record of aggressive behavior. This shooting comes less than two months after a St. Paul man shot and killed three apartment workers following an argument over a garage parking contract. [Minnesota Reformer]

Who gets cut? St. Paul Ward 7 Councilmember Cheniqua Johnson called Mayor Kaohly Her's proposed closure of the Dayton’s Bluff Library and scaling back of other public services a "pattern of concentrated disinvestment" in the East Side of St. Paul. Her's proposed budget for 2027 includes a property tax levy increase and a number of cuts in order to close the city's $26 million budget gap. [Star Tribune]

New coffee, same hollow: St. Paul coffee shop Swede Hollow closed its doors on Monday, and a new tenant is already lined up to occupy the space. Finn Hollow plans to open in October as a Finnish themed coffee shop and sauna retreat center. Never fear though, Swede Hollow fans – the owners of the cafe plan to continue to sell their signature flavors at various markets and pop-ups going forward. [Pioneer Press]

More charges for ICE: Federal prosecutors have charged ICE agent Christian Castro with making false statements about the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis in North Minneapolis. DOJ prosecutors had attempted to charge Castro with more serious charges – similar to the federal charges brought against Derek Chauvin in George Floyd's killing – but the Trump administration reportedly quashed those plans. Castro still faces state-level charges for the shooting in Minnesota. [Minnesota Reformer]

Immune system challenge: Tomorrow, DFL Congressional Candidate Matt Little is attempting to break the world record for most hands shaken by a politician. Little will have to shake roughly 30 hands per minute for eight hours straight at the State Fair in order to meet his goal of 15,000 handshakes. [Star Tribune]

Trial date set: Despite pleading guilty to federal murder charges in the killings of Melissa and Mark Hortman, Vance Boelter has pleaded not guilty to state-level murder and attempted murder charges, and a trial date is set for Nov. 2. Boelter says he plans to mount a "justifiable taking of life defense" because he feared for his life while making a citizen's arrest. Prosecutors have asked the judge to prohibit Boelter from raising these defenses "because the case is devoid of any facts or evidence to support either of these statutory defenses in good faith." [MPR News]