The chief executive officer of the Minnesota Wild weighed in on St. Paul’s rent control ordinance Wednesday, as did a community impact director with the St. Paul and Minnesota Foundation and a real estate broker with a background in affordable housing.

With St. Paul’s housing construction numbers dragging lower last year than at any time since 2013, the three letter writers joined a cadre of others who say it’s time to end rent control for new housing construction, as well as buildings that received their certificate of occupancy after 2004, as the mayor and three council members have proposed.

“Prominent buildings at the core of our city are being vacated, abandoned and boarded up,” said Matt Majka, CEO of the Minnesota Wild, in a letter to the St. Paul City Council bemoaning the state of downtown. “We must do everything we can to reinvest in these properties and reposition them as housing.”

But Deborah Schlick, a resident of the city’s West Side, took the opposite tack, arguing that the city already watered down the 2021 voter-approved rent stabilization ordinance with a number of amendments and was poised to shred it to “Swiss cheese” with yet another, an affront to renters that now comprise nearly half the city.

“In this economy, there is time to do this right,” wrote Schlick, in her own letter to the city council. “Put a hold on any decision. Between interest rates and tariffs, no one is rushing to build anywhere. Build a thoughtful, effective strategy to ensure low wage workers and people unable to work can afford to find a home in St. Paul.”

The city council held public hearings Wednesday on two hot-button questions likely up for votes in early May. At the urging of St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, housing developers and certain affordable housing advocates who have called rent control a well-intentioned but failed effort, the council is contemplating exempting any construction that received its certificate of occupancy after 2004.

North End homeowner Adam Dullinger, left, speaks against a proposed amendments to the St. Paul rent control ordnance during a public hearing before the St. Paul City Council in council chambers at St. Paul City Hall on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Scapegoating rent control for the housing slowdown?

Carter and several council members have said those changes should move forward hand-in-hand with a raft of proposed tenant protections also vetted through a public hearing on Wednesday.

City officials have expressed alarm that only 293 housing units were constructed in St. Paul last year, down from more than 1,400 in 2019, and only a few dozen of last year’s new units were non-subsidized, market-rate housing. They’ve pointed out that multiple rent-controlled cities offer exemptions for new construction, including Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Matthew McMillan, a renter, noted that while St. Paul has struggled to draw interest from the development community, housing construction also plunged in cities that do not have rent control. Given high interest rates and other economic challenges, an attorney with the Housing Justice Center, based in St. Paul, told the council the city is “scapegoating” rent control for construction slowdowns increasingly evident throughout the Twin Cities.

On the city’s East Side, “one in three Ward 7 renters pay over half their income to rent,” said another speaker, who identified himself as a graduate student who studies the housing industry. “This is absolutely a supply issue. … It’s a downtown issue. But rent control is not the cause of those problems.”

Some critics expressed fear that creating a two-tier system will offer extra incentive to developers to tear down older, naturally affordable properties and replace them with pricey new units exempt from rent control.

“Trickle-down affordability is both grossly insufficient and … unjust,” said another renter, pointing to limited recent construction and high rents in Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Denver and other cities without rent control.

Opponents say goals not met

Rent control’s opponents have argued that the blanket policy has done more to protect wealthy renters from large hikes than to protect the poor, given that many owners of older properties have been granted exemptions to the rent caps because of high maintenance costs, inflation and property tax increases.

In a letter to the council, real estate broker Renee Spillum, a former director of real estate with the University of Minnesota Foundation’s Real Estate Advisors, said she once spent seven years struggling to find financing to build new apartments in a low-income Minneapolis neighborhood. St. Paul’s rent control ordinance has made a difficult slog even harder, she said.

“I want more competition in St. Paul between landlords, not less,” Spillum wrote. “The only way that happens is adding more units. And the only way we add more units in our city is not to make it impossible for developers to raise equity capital to build here.”

Scott Cordes, chief operating officer of affordable housing developer Project for Pride in Living, told the council Wednesday that rent control has had too many “unintended consequences,” such as limiting affordable housing production at the Highland Bridge development, where affordable units have only moved forward at three of 10 parcels.

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By MATTHEW DALY

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has long complained about modern rules that limit water flow for showerheads, making it harder for him to wash his “beautiful hair.”

In his first term, Trump directed that restrictions on showerheads be loosened, an action that former President Joe Biden reversed.

Now Trump is going to let the water flow — again.

An executive order he signed Wednesday calls for an immediate end to water conservation standards that restrict the number of gallons per minute that flow through showerheads and other appliances such as dishwashers, washing machines and toilets.

“I like to take a nice shower, take care of my beautiful hair,” Trump said Wednesday as he signed an executive order at the White House. “I have to stand in the shower for 15 minutes until it gets wet. Comes out drip, drip, drip. It’s ridiculous.”

“What you do is you end up washing your hands five times longer, so it’s the same water,” he added. “And we’re going to open it up so that people can live.”

The order directs Energy Secretary Chris Wright to immediately rescind what Trump called the “overly complicated federal rule” that redefined the word showerhead under the last two Democratic presidents.

Biden and former President Barack Obama both imposed restrictions on water flow from showerheads and other appliances. The standards were intended to make dishwashers, showerheads, refrigerators, laundry machines and toilets use less energy and water.

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But the regulations “turned a basic household item into a bureaucratic nightmare,” the White House said in a fact sheet. “No longer will showerheads be weak and worthless.”

The Appliance Standards Awareness Project, which advocates for energy efficiency, said the Biden-era standards cut utility bills and protect the environment.

Showers account for about 20% of the average American family’s daily indoor water use, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Water-saving showerheads also save energy, since heating water accounts for about a fifth of the average home’s energy use.

Andrew deLaski, executive director of ASAP, said consumer reviews consistently show that most showerheads currently sold “provide a great drenching. So there isn’t a problem to be solved here with the showerheads available today.”

He called Trump’s order a gimmick designed to get around a 1992 energy efficiency law, and he predicted a similar result to Trump’s actions during his first term, when no major showerhead manufacturer made significant changes to their products.

Tamara Kangas Erickson is the new president and artistic director of Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, the company’s board of directors announced Wednesday.

She steps into the role left by Michael Brindisi, who died unexpectedly on Feb. 5, just days before CDT’s production of “Grease” opened.

Tamara Kangas Erickson has been named president and artistic director of Chanhassen Dinner Theatres. (Courtesy of Chanhassen Dinner Theatres)

“Tamara’s extensive experience, skills and vision are invaluable assets for Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, which will bring both continuity and innovative change to our amazing theater,” said Jim Jensen, CDT co-owner and board member, in a news release. “Her deep appreciation for the arts, coupled with her unwavering dedication to our staff, artists, employees and audiences, make her the perfect leader to continue and build upon the remarkable legacy established by Michael Brindisi.”

Erickson, who has served as CDT’s vice president for the past 15 years, began working with Brindisi in 2004, first serving as resident choreographer. The pair collaborated on more than 50 musicals at CDT as well as productions at the Pantages Theatre in Minneapolis and the national tour of “Sesame Street Live: Can’t Stop Singing.”

In March 2010, Brindisi, Erickson and Steven Peters formed a new ownership group alongside Doug Lennick, Jensen and other key players in the purchase of Chanhassen Dinner Theatres from its previous owner, Thomas K. Scallen. Since then, the dinner theater has employed more than 300 professional actors, musicians and staff.

CDT’s current production of “Grease” runs through Oct. 4. For the holiday season, the company will bring back last year’s hit “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas” for a run from Oct. 10 through Feb. 7. Erickson will direct the 2026 spring production of “Guys and Dolls,” which runs Feb. 13 through Sept. 26.

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By PAUL WISEMAN and CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, AP Economics Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump delivered another jarring reversal in American trade policy Wednesday, suspending for 90 days import taxes he’d imposed barely 13 hours earlier on dozens of countries while escalating his trade war with China. The moves triggered a powerful stock market rally on Wall Street but left businesses, investors and America’s trading partners bewildered about what the president is attempting to achieve.

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The U-turn came after the sweeping global tariffs Trump announced last week set off a four-day route in global financial markets, paralyzed businesses and raised fears the U.S. and world economies would tumble into recession.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt tried to characterize the sudden change in policy as part of a grand negotiating strategy. But to those outside the Trump administration, it looked like a cave-in to market pressure and to growing fears that the president’s impetuous use of import taxes — tariffs — would cause massive collateral economic damage.

“Other countries will welcome the 90-day stay of execution — if it lasts — but the whiplash from constant zig-zags creates more of the uncertainty that businesses and governments hate,” said Daniel Russel, vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “The Administration’s blunt-force tactics have rattled allies, who see the sudden reversal as damage control following the market meltdown, rather than a pivot to respectful, balanced negotiations.’’

Trump’s turnaround Wednesday capped a wild week in U.S. trade policy. On Wednesday April 2 — which Trump labeled “Liberation Day’’ — the president announced plans to impose tariffs on almost every country on earth, upending the world trading system. The first of his new tariffs -– a 10% “baseline’’ tax on imports from most countries – went into effect Saturday.

At midnight Wednesday, he upped the ante by slapping what he called “reciprocal’’ taxes on countries he accused of unfair trading practices and adding to U.S. trade deficits. Those are the tariffs he suspended for 90 days, saying the pause would give countries time to negotiate with him and his trade team.

There was one exception to the reprieve: He raised the tariff on Chinese imports to a staggering 125%, punishing Beijing for announcing retaliatory tariffs on the United States. Meanwhile, the 10% baseline tariffs – a substantial act of protectionism in their own right – remain in place.

COMPANIES CUT BACK, DELAY PLANS

Trump’s ever-changing trade war tactics — which include earlier levies on cars, steel and aluminum, and Mexico and Canada — have already done damage, forcing dazed companies to delay or cancel plans as they tried to figure out what Trump was doing and how they should respond.

Some companies temporarily laid off workers after Trump’s widespread tariffs were announced, while there were signs that many firms held off on hiring amid the widespread uncertainty the tariffs created.

Carmaker Stellantis temporarily cut 900 jobs at factories in Michigan and Indiana after production was halted at two plants in Canada and Mexico in the wake of Trump’s 25% duties on imported cars.

And Cleveland-Cliffs laid off 1,200 workers at a factory in Michigan and an iron ore mine in Minnesota in response to a drop in demand from auto companies. Cleveland-Cliffs said it would resume production at the two facilities once auto production returned to the U.S.

Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s March 18-19 meeting, released Wednesday, showed that many of its policymakers said that their business contacts “reported pausing hiring decisions because of elevated policy uncertainty.”

And Delta Air Lines said earlier Wednesday that demand for domestic leisure trips and corporate travel has stalled because of the uncertainty around global trade. In a conference call with investors, the company said it was cutting capacity. It also declined to provide a full-year financial forecast.

“Right now, it’s hard to know how this is going to play out, given that this is somewhat self-imposed,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said. “I’m hopeful that sanity will prevail and we’ll move through this period of time on the global trade front relatively quickly.”

DESPERATELY SEEKING CLARITY ON TRUMP’S TARIFFS

Businesses have sought greater clarity around Trump’s ultimate tariff policies for weeks. It’s not clear that the 90-day pause has reduced their uncertainty.

Jeff Jaisli, CEO of the New Jersey-based importer/exporter Jagro, said Trump’s Truth Social post on Wednesday had made things “even worse’’ and more confusing. He was trying to figure out which tariffs applied to which countries.

“We’re scrambling to find correct information and procedures for entries we’re processing NOW in real time,’’ he said by email. He could find no guidance on the websites of the White House or the Customs and Border Protection agency, which collects tariffs. Earlier, Jaisli called Trump’s tariffs “a grenade that was thrown into the room that’s going to cause chaos.”

TRUMP’S TRADE WAR WITH CHINA ESCALATES

Trump’s tariffs have set off a tit-for-tat trade war with China, the world’s second-biggest economy. Even before Trump upped his taxes on China to 125%, the Chinese had set their own tariffs on the United States at 84%.

The World Trade Organization’s director-general, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, warned that the rising tension could reduce U.S.-China merchandise trade by 80% and “severely damage the global economic outlook.”

“Of particular concern is the potential fragmentation of global trade along geopolitical lines,” she wrote in a statement late Wednesday. “A division of the global economy into two blocs could lead to a long-term reduction in global real GDP by nearly 7%.”

Citing WTO projections, she warned the negative effects could ripple through to other economies, especially developing ones. She urged countries to ensure an open global trading system and resolve differences through cooperation.

Meanwhile, U.S. companies struggled to figure out how to respond to huge levies on Chinese products they’d come to rely on.

Jessica Bettencourt is CEO of Klem’s, a third-generation store in Spencer, Massachusetts that sells everything from lawn and garden items to workwear and gifts. She said that the escalation of tariffs from China have made her stop ordering any new fourth-quarter product that is holiday, gifts or toys. She is also reconsidering any fall apparel and footwear orders that aren’t already placed.

“The worst thing is uncertainty and we have massive uncertainty,” said Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy officer at Publicis Groupe, a global marketing and communications company. “No one can make any moves. Everybody is trying to save as much cash and defer any unnecessary expense. People are getting laid off. Orders are getting cancelled. Expansion plans are being put on hold.”

Robert Bumsted and Anne D’Innocenzio in New York, Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this story.