While single-family home values have continued to increase in St. Paul, the estimated market value of commercial and industrial properties, as well as apartment buildings, dipped slightly in the past year. Partly as a result, everyday St. Paul homeowners are likely to feel some sting in their property tax bills.

How much of a sting? Brace for a $200 property tax increase next year to a median-value, single-family home in St. Paul, based on combined city, county and school district property tax levies, and then add at least another $100 in higher trash, water, sewer and recycling fees.

“Next year is going to be a hard year,” said Ramsey County Board Chair Victoria Reinhardt, addressing the county board during an Aug. 27 tax trends presentation. Tax burden “is shifting to residential, more so than industrial and commercial. It goes back and forth, depending on what the values are. And we’re looking at higher (tax levy) increases with the city of St. Paul, and our cities in the suburbs, as well. School districts play a huge role in this.”

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter’s budget proposal includes a 7.9% increase to the city’s tax levy — or $16.5 million — the sum total of all property taxes collected in the city limits from all property types. That’s a sizable levy increase, though there have been larger ones in the past decade, even without counting years in which legal challenges forced the city to drop street maintenance fees and pay for routine street repair through general property taxes.

The St. Paul City Council has until December to approve the city budget, and changes to the property tax levy are possible. Ramsey County officials plan to make their annual “Tax Trends” presentation to the council on Sept. 11.

Based on his budget proposal, the mayor’s office has estimated that a median value St. Paul home ($275,300 in 2025) will see the city portion of their property taxes go up $133 next year. Also impacting St. Paul homeowners will be fee increases to recycling, trash, sanitary sewer, storm sewer and water charges, which taken together could add another $109 to that total.

About $300 in new taxes and fees

Combined with Ramsey County and Metropolitan Council tax levies, that median-value St. Paul home can expect at least $196 in new property taxes next year — a 5% increase — on top of the $109 in fees. Those totals are subject to change as the levies are tweaked by the time budgets are finalized in December. The St. Paul School District will issue its preliminary levy proposal on Sept. 17.

St. Paul neighborhoods are likely to experience tax levy increases differently, given that average values in different parts of the city are increasing at different rates.

“People think that this is something that we just do arbitrarily, and that is not the case at all,” said Reinhardt, noting that county assessors survey every taxable property in the county at least once every five years. “You can’t purposely inflate or deflate the value of a property.”

In St. Paul, tax increases are expected to be the greatest in Highland Park, where home values are climbing more than 5%. Downtown condo owners could see some savings as a result of home values there declining .8%. Other neighborhoods fall in the middle.

For example, a $413,000 home in the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood is projected to have an estimated market value of $432,700 next year, which would be a 4.7% value increase. If the various proposed tax levies are approved in December as planned, that home’s property taxes would go up about $527, or about 8.5%.

Toward the low end, a $226,000 home in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood is projected to have an estimated market value next year of about $230,000, just a 1.5% increase. Unless proposed tax levies change greatly by December, its property taxes could go up $89, for a 2.8% tax increase.

Tax increases in the Sunray/Battle Creek/Highwood neighborhood are likely to be around $280, or 7%, while Dayton’s Bluff, which is also on the East Side, would experience a $100 increase, or 3%. Frogtown homeowners can expect property taxes to go up $178, or 6.2%. In Hamline-Midway, the tax burden would go up $276, or 7.7%.

Apartments and commercial/industrial values drop

While residential property values have picked up about 3.9% in St. Paul, commercial values have dropped 1.5%, industrial values have dropped 2.4% and apartment buildings have dropped in value by 4.5%, according to the Ramsey County assessor’s office.

The past year has been characterized by “steady growth in the residential market,” said County Assessor Patrick Chapman, in a presentation to the county board on Tuesday. Ongoing large-scale real estate development projects include Highland Bridge and The Heights in St. Paul, as well as more than 200 townhomes planned at Pioneer Commons in Little Canada.

“Development continues, and we’ve got several large projects all over the county,” Chapman said. “The industrial market is remaining strong (but) it’s kind of leveling out. Apartments are stabilizing after record growth. … Nobody is building a lot of retail lately. The office market, we’re still trying to figure out what it’s going to look like with the new hybrid work model. Conversions (from office) to residential are going to play a role in stabilizing this market scope.”

A few factors will help soften tax impacts or bolster city and county budgets. Among them, St. Paul received an $8.8 million increase in local government aid in 2024, which will stay fairly flat in 2025, increasing about $131,000. It’s still the highest allocation since 2002.

A metro-wide “fiscal disparities” program shares a certain amount of property tax revenue from commercial-industrial properties across counties. Ramsey County, which received about $50 million from the program last year, is expected to receive $56.8 million in 2025, a notable increase of 11.9%.

For the purpose of calculating taxes on their primary residence, the state allows homeowners to exclude up to $38,000 in property value on their homestead property on a sliding scale, with no exclusion for properties valued over $517,200.

Ramsey County officials noted this week that more property owners throughout the county are challenging their estimated market values in court, which is one way to seek tax relief. The number of tax petition filings has increased to more than 1,000 for taxes payable this year, compared to about 700 petitions filed for taxes payable in 2023. That’s partly a reflection of some sudden increases and decreases in commercial-industrial valuations over the past two years, Chapman said.

The city tax levy increased 3.7% last year and about 6.2% in 2022. In 2018, the city shifted how it covers routine street maintenance costs, moving some charges from individual right-of-way maintenance fees to property taxes, which are shared citywide, fueling the city’s 24% tax levy increase that year. The same shift in street maintenance continued in 2023, adding to a levy increase of 14.65%.

St. Paul levy increases by year

•2014: 0%

• 2015: 2.14%

• 2016: 1.9%

• 2017: 7.94%

• 2018: 23.93%

• 2019: 10.46%

• 2020: 5.85%

• 2021: 0%

•2022: 6.17%

• 2023: 14.65%

• 2024: 3.7%

• 2025: 7.9% (proposed)

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By ISABEL DEBRE and FATMA KHALED, Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — It was another day of war in Gaza, another day of what 19-year-old Palestinian TikTok star Medo Halimy called his “Tent Life.”

As he often did in videos documenting life’s mundane absurdities in the enclave, Halimy on Monday walked to his local internet cafe — rather, a tent with Wi-Fi where displaced Palestinians can connect to the outside world — to meet his friend and collaborator Talal Murad.

They snapped a selfie — “Finally Reunited” Halimy captioned it on Instagram — and started catching up.

Then came a flash of light, 18-year-old Murad said, an explosion of white heat and sprayed earth. Murad felt pain in his neck. Halimy was bleeding from his head. A car on the coastal road in front of them was engulfed in flames, the apparent target of an Israeli airstrike. It took 10 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. Hours later doctors pronounced Halimy dead.

“He represented a message,” Murad said on Friday, still recovering from his shrapnel wounds and reeling from the Israeli airstrike that killed his friend. “He represented hope and strength.”

The Israeli military said it was not aware of the strike that killed Halimy.

Tributes to Halimy kept pouring in Friday from friends as far afield as Harker Heights, Texas, where he spent a year in 2021 as part of an exchange program sponsored by the State Department.

“Medo was the life of the hangout … humor and kindness and wit, all things that can never be forgotten,” said Heba al-Saidi, alumni coordinator for the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study program. “He was bound for greatness, but he was taken too soon.”

His death also catalyzed an outpouring of grief on social media, where his followers expressed shock and sadness as if they, too, had lost a close friend.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians — according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants — and spawned a humanitarian disaster. It has also transformed legions of ordinary teenagers, who have nothing to do every day but survive, into war correspondents for the social media age.

“We worked together, it was a kind of resistance that I hope to continue,” said Murad, who collaborated with Halimy on “The Gazan Experience,” an Instagram account that answered questions from followers around the world trying to understand their lives in the besieged enclave, which is inaccessible to foreign journalists.

Halimy launched his own TikTok account after taking refuge with his parents, four brothers and sister in Muwasi, the southern coastal area that Israel has designated a humanitarian safe zone. They had fled Israel’s invasion of Gaza City to the southern city of Khan Younis before escaping the bombardment again for the dusty encampment.

Sparked by Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people and resulted in about 250 people taken hostage, the Israel-Hamas war has produced a torrent of images now numbingly familiar to viewers around the world: Bombed-out buildings, contorted bodies, chaotic hospital halls. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, and European Union.

Halimy’s content “came as a surprise,” said his friend, 19-year-old Helmi Hirez.

Turning his camera on the intimate details of his own life in Gaza, he reached viewers far and wide, revealing a maddening tedium that’s largely left out of news coverage about the war.

“If you wonder what living in a tent is actually like, come with me to show you how I spend my day,” Halimy says in his first of many “tent life” diaries filmed from the sprawling encampment.

He filmed himself going about his day: waiting restlessly in long lines for drinking water, showering with a jar and a bucket (“there’s no shampoo or soap, of course”), scavenging ingredients to make a surprisingly tasty baba ganoush, the Middle East’s smoky eggplant dip (“Mama mia!” he marvels at his creation), and becoming very, very bored (“then I went back to the tent, and did nothing”).

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world were captivated. His videos went viral — some amassing more than 2 million views on TikTok.

Even when recounting tragedies (his grandmother died, he mentioned at one point, largely because of Gaza’s acute medication and equipment shortages ) or fretting over Israel’s bombardment, Halimy’s friends said that he found salve in channeling his grief and anxiety into deadpan humor.

“Very annoying,” he says with an eye roll when the buzz of an Israeli drone interrupts one of his TikTok recipe videos.

“As you can see, the transportation here is not five stars,” he says when crammed between men in a pickup truck heading to the nearby town of Deir al-Balah.

“We proceeded to play, anyway,” he says of his Monopoly game, when the whooshing of Israeli projectiles sounds in the skies above him and his friends. “Anyway, I lost.”

In his last video, posted hours before he was killed, Halimy films himself scribbling in a notebook, its pages covered with mysterious black redaction bars.

“I started designs for my new secret project,” he said from the tent cafe that would later be struck, in the same tone he always used, one part playful, one part serious.

Isabel DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

You’re just a reader, standing in front of a bookshelf, asking it to tell you what to read.

Luckily, it has answers — or at least we do. The last days of summer are the perfect time to check out a romantic comedy, whether on a still-warm (for now) beach or at a coffee house where you might just experience your own meet cute. 

SEE ALSO: Sign up for our free Book Pages newsletter about bestsellers, authors and more

We compiled a list of novels that are either out now or coming soon — but we needed a little help, so we turned (once again) to Leah Koch, the co-founder and co-owner of The Ripped Bodice, the romance bookstore in Culver City (and Brooklyn). Read on to discover a list of our, and Leah’s, picks for light-hearted rom-coms to get lost in this summer (or, if you prefer, in the wintry holidays).

We hope they’ll complete you.

“The Bump,” Sidney Karger

Love goes on the road in this rom-com from “Best Men” author Karger. In his latest, TC commercial director Wyatt and his partner, actor-turned-journalist Biz, decide to drive a ‘92 Volkswagen from Brooklyn to California to pick up their baby, who is being delivered via a surrogate. Things get … well, bumpy.

“Cash Delgado Is Living the Dream,” Tehlor Kay Mejia

“A heartwarming Queer romance set in a tight-knit small-town community, where long-time friends navigate the transition from friends to lovers, all while on a quest to save their bar,” says Koch of one of her summer favorites.

“The Design of Us,” Sajni Patel

Bhanu is sunny. Sunny, despite his name, is not. The two tech co-workers have opposite temperaments, and do not get along at all — but they’re forced to pretend to be lovers thanks to Bhanu’s impulsive lie when the two encounter each other in Hawaii. This is an enemies-to-lovers story with a tropical twist.

“Everyone I Kissed Since You Got Famous,” Mae Marvel

Leah Koch describes this novel as a Queer love story about childhood friends, one of whom is now a famous actress. She says of the author, “Marvel’s great writing brings to life the irresistible chemistry between characters, making it a must-read rom-com for the season.”

“The Friend Zone Experiment,” Zen Cho

Renee Goh seems to have it all — her own women’s clothing company in London and a pop-star boyfriend. After she gets dumped, her father offers her the chance to run the family business in Singapore, but there’s a complication — she reconnects with her college boyfriend, Ket Siong, throwing her future into doubt. 

“Hot Summer,” Elle Everhart

“Wanderlust” author Everhart’s latest follows Cas, who finds herself a contestant on a British reality dating show. She wants to win the series in order to gain a promotion at work, but her plans go awry when she falls for Ada, a contestant who pines for a real relationship.

“Just Some Stupid Love Story,” Katelyn Doyle

The latest from L.A. writer Doyle (who writes historical romances under the name Scarlett Peckham) is a meta-rom-com: It tells the story of Molly, a rom-com screenwriter who thinks love is actually a sham, but might have to change her mind after she reconnects with her high-school boyfriend. 

“Lavash at First Sight,” Taleen Voskuni

The second novel by San Francisco author Voskuni follows Ellie and Vanya, two Armenian American women from rival Bay Area families who can’t help but be drawn to each other. Expect some mouth-watering food content in this one.

“Let the Games Begin,” Rufaro Faith Mazarura

The games might be over, but you don’t need to let go of your Olympics fever just yet. Mazarura’s debut follows two strangers who (literally) run into each other at the summer games: Olivia, an ambitious intern, and Zeke, a star runner for Great Britain’s team. Talk about carrying torches.

“The Lost Story,” Meg Shaffer

“A fairy tale for grown-ups!” raves Koch. “Inspired by C.S. Lewis’s ‘The Chronicles of Narnia,’ best friends Jeremy and Rafe, once lost in a magical realm, must confront their mysterious past to help vet tech Emilie find her missing sister, with Schaffer’s masterful storytelling weaving together enchantment and adventure.

“Miranda in Retrograde,” Lauren Layne

The latest from “Made in Manhattan” author Layne focuses on the title character, a young physics professor who, after losing out on a promotion, decides to spend a year following her horoscope. She ends up meeting two intriguing men — but which one do the stars think she’s fated for?

“Name Your Price,” Holly James

In the latest from Southern California author James, a public fight between actor Chuck and Hollywood scion Olivia leads to the couple’s breakup — and lands them on a reality show where they’ll have to live with each other for a month for the chance to get a million dollars each. Of course, there’s a twist: they’re not allowed to touch each other, and the house only has one bed. 

“The Royals Upstairs,” Karina Halle (out Sept. 10)

Prolific author Halle, who lives in L.A. and Canada, returns with a rom-com about James, who takes a job as a protection officer for a Norwegian prince, only to find that the nanny for the royal children is his ex-girlfriend. Sparks fly, even in frigid Scandinavia.

“Sunshine and Spice,” Aurora Palit (out Sept. 10)

Palit’s debut novel follows brand consultant Naomi, who agrees to fake-date Dev, whose mother is desperate for him to get married as soon as humanly possible. It doesn’t take long for the faux couple to realize they have actual feelings for each other.

“The Truth According to Ember,” Danica Nava

The debut novel from Southern California-based author Nava follows a Chickasaw woman who pretends to be White in order to score an accounting job. She meets and falls for a fellow Native coworker, Danuwoa, but their employer forbids intra-office dating — which sets the pair up nicely for a blackmailing colleague. 

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By MATT O’BRIEN

Artificial intelligence researchers said Friday they have deleted more than 2,000 web links to suspected child sexual abuse imagery from a database used to train popular AI image-generator tools.

The LAION research database is a huge index of online images and captions that’s been a source for leading AI image-makers such as Stable Diffusion and Midjourney.

But a report last year by the Stanford Internet Observatory found it contained links to sexually explicit images of children, contributing to the ease with which some AI tools have been able to produce photorealistic deepfakes that depict children.

That December report led LAION, which stands for the nonprofit Large-scale Artificial Intelligence Open Network, to immediately remove its dataset. Eight months later, LAION said in a blog post that it worked with the Stanford University watchdog group and anti-abuse organizations in Canada and the United Kingdom to fix the problem and release a cleaned-up database for future AI research.

Stanford researcher David Thiel, author of the December report, commended LAION for significant improvements but said the next step is to withdraw from distribution the “tainted models” that are still able to produce child abuse imagery.

One of the LAION-based tools that Stanford identified as the “most popular model for generating explicit imagery” — an older and lightly filtered version of Stable Diffusion — remained easily accessible until Thursday, when the New York-based company Runway ML removed it from the AI model repository Hugging Face. Runway said in a statement Friday it was a “planned deprecation of research models and code that have not been actively maintained.”

The cleaned-up version of the LAION database comes as governments around the world are taking a closer look at how some tech tools are being used to make or distribute illegal images of children.

San Francisco’s city attorney earlier this month filed a lawsuit seeking to shut down a group of websites that enable the creation of AI-generated nudes of women and girls. The alleged distribution of child sexual abuse images on the messaging app Telegram is part of what led French authorities to bring charges on Wednesday against the platform’s founder and CEO, Pavel Durov.