Given the area’s poor infrastructure, heavy flooding along the Mississippi River in 1952 swept through homes and nearly devastated the Mexican-American community that lived between what is now roughly U.S. 52 and Robert Street, along the St Paul’s West Side Flats.
In the next few years, the city, St. Paul Port Authority, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and others cleared the area of homes. Then, the same authorities installed a major flood wall, followed by new infrastructure for industrial businesses.
Larry Lucio, 74, remembers that time with sadness. The dozen members of his family shared a duplex, and when it came down, they received $6,000 from the Port Authority for the double lot in 1961, which would be the rough equivalent of $63,000 today — nowhere near the actual value of the property. Renters he knew fared even more poorly, some pocketing just $35 after being forced to move from one of the more affordable areas of St. Paul.
Larry Lucio, 74, points out what the streets near his St. Paul childhood home once looked like before having to move out in 1961 on Monday, July 1, 2024. (Devanie Andre / Pioneer Press)
Homeowners who complained that their property assessments had been undervalued soon found their homes condemned. One woman came home to a bulldozer in her living room. Families scattered. A newspaper survey in 1963 found that more than half of some 334 displaced households had left the West Side, and at least a couple dozen former residents had left the city.
Still, those who were able to stay connected to the West Side neighborhood found it “was a great experience,” said Lucio, a former director of the West Side Youth Service Bureau, youth guidance counselor, youth sports coach and school principal. “I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. On the West Side, everybody was family. When I got a directive from one of the elders in the community, it was ‘yes, ma’am’ and ‘yes, sir.’”
More than 2,100 displaced
In all, more than 2,100 residents were displaced, spanning some 436 families, according to the West Side Community Organization and neighborhood researchers. Not long after the population of the West Side Flats had fallen by half, the Port Authority saw its asset values double, according to neighborhood advocates.
Where homes had once stood, the Port Authority installed a business park, which drew a flurry of industrial users — including a metal shredding company — near the Holman Field airport. Prepping the infrastructure for their arrival cost the city and Port Authority more than $8 million from 1963 to 1965 alone.
West Side advocates say more than just an apology is overdue to the residents and descendants of the area, which is still 35% Latin. Decades of lost home value would have added up to millions of dollars in equity today.
After convening a community advisory group for a year and a half, the West Side Community Organization and consultants with Research in Action are putting the finishing touches on an 80-page report on the history of the flats, which will include 13 recommendations for redress for historical displacement, or potential efforts to prevent future displacement in the face of gentrification and rising housing costs.
Five of the most general recommendations were shared Monday when WSCO advocates released an early draft of the report, which will be issued in its final form to the public on July 18.
Five recommendations
They’re calling for an official public acknowledgement and memorialization of the history of the West Side Flats and its displaced families, as well as “economic remedies” and “economic justice for the entire West Side community.”
WSCO Executive Director Monica Bravo said her organization was still determining what the scope of those financial remedies might be.
The report calls for promoting “neighborhood belonging” for historically displaced families, their descendants and current residents, and for organizing against displacement while advancing affordability on the West Side. It also calls for “environmental justice” for hazards and contamination caused by industrial development.
For new housing developments, instead of studio and one- and two-bedroom apartments, “do you have four- or three-bedroom apartments for families?” Bravo said. “We’ve talked to developers who say they’re marketing to young professionals across the river.”
Todd Hurley, president and chief executive officer of the St. Paul Port Authority, said Monday he had not yet received a copy of the report and could not comment on its specifics, but he would review it when it became available.
Too often, said Bravo and other advocates, efforts to bring housing back to the community has resulted in ironic consequences. A Sherman Associates building dubbed the West Side Flats apartments at 84 Wabasha St. bills itself as luxury housing, with two-bedroom apartments currently renting for $2,100. Among its ground-level commercial tenants is a Starbucks.
Another developer, Buhl Investors, just opened two apartment buildings on Water Street and Plato Boulevard in the Farwell-on-Water development, across the street from the river, propped up by some $27 million or more in tax incentives known as tax increment financing. One of the buildings spans more than 220 units of market-rate luxury housing, with one-bedrooms starting above $1,800.
The other building, the Harbourline Apartments, includes 63 one- and two-bedroom units for renters earning no more than 50% area median income, including seven units for residents who were previously homeless.
Bravo called that a start, but she said the area needs equally affordable housing for families. Her organization sent the city a letter opposing the use of tax increment financing, which she said would be better suited to propping up struggling corners of Robert Street.
The developer has “renamed that area Farwell-on-Water,” said Bravo on Monday. “Actually, it’s the West Side Flats. They’ve renamed the district. That never went to the district council.”
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