Preamble
Imagine a city that is a model for the rest of the world in sustainable, environmentally friendly living. A city that works not toward growth and sprawl at any cost but toward mutual support and quality of life for all its citizens. A city where all children have access to superb free public education that teaches not only the basic skills needed for living but gives them the incentive and confidence to become active, informed citizens of a democracy -- and of a peaceful global community. Imagine a city in which workers have the right to a living wage and where there is affordable housing and health care for all. A city of thriving neighborhoods, community-based small businesses and co-ops, and an economy weaning itself from dependence on fossil fuel. A city where buildings are lighted, heated, and cooled with renewable energy. A city where there is clean, low-fare mass transit night and day and where air and water pollution are things of the past. Imagine a city with a transparent and responsive government free of the corrupting influence of big money, with well-kept parks, scenic vistas, and streets free from violence and fear.
St. Paul can become such a city. It has roots beside the continent's greatest river. It has vital neighborhoods, a deep religious and spiritual life, powerful cultural institutions, and broad community consciousness. Since the 1850s it has been the gateway for wave after wave of people seeking new homes and new lives in Minnesota. It has truly great potential to become a green beacon for the rest of the world.
In the following pages we have outlined the main elements in realizing our vision. Those elements are based on the Green Party's four core values of Social and Economic Justice, Grassroots Democracy, Ecological Wisdom, and Nonviolence, localized to the unique character of our own home community. The main requirement is recognition that each step is not only the right thing to do but also practical and realistic, and that the long-term benefits are genuinely possible. We invite all citizens of St. Paul, no matter what their political affiliation, to join us in shaping this dream and suggesting the specific steps needed to make it come true by the year 2025.
Elements of the Vision
These elements are woven together like the threads of a tapestry, and they cannot be separated. Each rests on the others, just as the well-being of each one of us rests on the health of family, neighborhood, town, state, and the earth itself. St. Paul has already made some strides toward a Green future. Its comprehensive plan calls for careful land use, neighborhoods that are "urban villages," restoration of a healthy Mississippi River, and expanded public transportation. Its District Energy system has led the region in efficiently conserving resources and in reducing pollution that leads to global warming. These all point in the direction of our Green vision, but the existing plan assumes constant growth. In a world of diminishing natural wealth and imminent depletion of fossil fuels, perpetual growth is impossible. New visions and plans must address the need for sustainability within limits, and thus for broader community action, for equitable distribution of society's benefits, and for fair sharing of burdens. We recognize that some measures included in our vision will require not only action by the city but cooperation from the state and nation and from Ramsey County.
We can make our vision of St. Paul in 2025 happen by embracing and nourishing a local economy of independent businesses, co-operatives, and worker-run enterprises. Statistics are clear in showing that small business is the true engine for producing more jobs. An investment in the local economy is an investment that will continue to circulate from business to business in St. Paul, the Metro area, and the state of Minnesota. Our vision is to protect St. Paul against destructive national and global trends in economic development and to build a self-reliant new model for cities in the 21st century. We need a living wage for all workers. Other needs are creation and use of development funds to assist independent businesses in buying their buildings; keeping tax increment financing (TIF) to its original goal of healing blighted areas instead of bribing large corporations; and developing strong economic ties to rural Minnesota through farmers markets and purchase of local organic foods by schools and other city-operated institutions. An immediate need is a cap on the square footage of new retail stores to prevent big-box chains from putting local stores out of business.
The quality of public schools is a measure of a community's belief in its people and its future. The Green vision includes schools in which each child is nurtured and encouraged to develop to his/her full potential, not just as a member of the work force but as an informed citizen and a well-rounded human being. It honors teaching as one of the most important functions in the community and supports that function with adequate funding and small class sizes. It fosters creativity and appreciation for all forms of art. It includes instruction and practice in conflict-resolution and peaceful solutions to interpersonal and social problems. In a Green city that values nonviolence, programs such as ROTC and military recruitment would have no place in the schools, along with corporate influence over instructional materials. Participatory sports would be especially encouraged. Above all, in the Green vision education is a lifelong enterprise, and there will be abundant opportunities for adults to pursue it.
Greens believe that health care, like education, is a human right, and, also like education, it has broad community benefits. If no universal single-payer health care system is adopted on the national or state level, St. Paul will have a city/county-operated or regulated health insurance plan open to all residents. It will reimburse health providers directly (not through an HMO) and will cover basic health care services.
A better city will cost more, and as a matter of simple fairness taxes must be levied according to ability to pay. Therefore a progressive city tax structure is fundamental to our vision of a Green St. Paul. There will be no city sales tax, for sales taxes place a disproportionate burden on those with low income. All industrial and commercial property will be taxed at its true and fair market value. Taxation of homesteads will be on the basis of the owner's income rather than on the market value of the property, since market value often does not represent a homeowner's ability to pay. It has been clearly shown that this change in the property tax base would not reduce city revenues.
A livable city will be arranged so that the daily needs of people can be met efficiently, conveniently and economically. Land use will encourage vital, compact neighborhoods where people can live, work, shop, study, worship, and play without traveling great distances. It will encourage walking, bicycling, and getting to know each other. It will preserve the beauty of the land itself in green open spaces, in wooded bluffs, in lakes, rivers, and sweeping views. Wise and conservative land use underlies many other elements of the vision -- housing, business, transportation, public services, energy, and environment. St. Paul has already moved in the direction of better land use by making some zoning code changes in accordance with a plan for traditional neighborhood districts (TND).
St. Paul is today a city of homeowners, wide lawns, large garages -- and crowds of homeless people who overflow emergency shelters. Many are working full time yet cannot find affordable housing. The urgent need for more low-income housing as well as less automobile use will move the city gradually toward greater density. Another factor will be the conservation of energy for heat and cooling that comes with attached housing and multi-family buildings. An aging population will also add to the demand for rental and lower-maintenance housing. In the Green vision increased density will be balanced by public green space, community gardens, and more opportunities for outdoor recreation. The dignity of home ownership will be preserved through wider use of co-housing communities, co-operative apartments, and land trusts.
Transportation in a Green St. Paul will reinforce wise land use to strengthen vital neighborhoods and encourage suburbs to become urban villages in their own right, rather than bedroom communities tributary to the city. Most travel to the center city will be by light rail. It will be supplemented by smaller and more numerous buses, serving areas of small business. Powered by electricity, hydrogen, or gas/electric motors, they will be quiet, convenient, and will reduce pollution and oil consumption. New technologies, such as PRT, which are still experimental, may be tested in limited, high-density situations. With periodic shortages and steadily increasing prices for gas and oil, reducing automobile use will become a necessity, and the stresses, wasted time, and choking pollution of traffic gridlock will be a thing of the past.
St. Paul has already established a model for conservation with its Neighborhood Energy Consortium, which addresses a wide spectrum of local issues, and with its highly successful District Energy system. In a Green St. Paul, all public utilities will be locally owned and managed. Electricity will be purchased from clean, sustainable sources, and co-generation by small producers will be encouraged. Local energy production will increase employment; the quality of local service will be locally accountable. The city will participate in the economic advantages of public or co-operative ownership, which have been repeatedly demonstrated.
Clean air, clean water, and land free from toxic substances are keys to quality of life and fundamental to the health of our citizens, especially children. As a Green city, St. Paul will work to reduce all local sources of air pollution, including automobile traffic and coal-burning power plants. It will eliminate lawn chemicals that poison the Mississippi and will follow up on the great step it made in separating the storm and sanitary sewer systems by constantly monitoring and upgrading its waste-treatment facilities. But there are factors that St. Paul alone cannot wholly control: agricultural chemicals from upstream farms pollute the Mississippi, while mercury and fine particulates from unregulated power plants to the west contribute to its increasing number of air-quality alerts. These will require active work on the state and national level.
Strict campaign finance laws will limit the power of money in city elections. Fairness to smaller parties and nonpartisan candidates will be achieved by city-wide instant runoff voting. IRV will also save the unnecessary cost of primary elections. Neighborhood organization and the input of district councils will be encouraged. Grassroots power leads to community involvement and in turn to a loyal and active citizen body.
St. Paul is rightly proud of its present police and fire protection. In our Green vision there would be direct citizen participation in overseeing the St. Paul police department, and that department would cover the county, eliminating the Ramsey County SheriffĂs office. We also envision steady progress toward treating chemical addiction of all kinds as a health problem rather than a crime, thus freeing the streets of the city from much of the violence and fear associated with the so-called war on drugs. Likewise we envision a society free from the pervasive presence of guns and a city that will do everything legally in its power to bar handguns and assault weapons.
Maintenance of parks, streets, sewers, and the city's water system, along with inspections of buildings and of businesses that may affect the public health and safety are necessary in any functioning city. In a Green future, waste disposal will also be handled by the city and contracted to independent local companies. Nonreturnable containers that cannot be recycled will be banned from the city, and the present efficient recycling system will be expanded and supported. While social welfare services are largely administered by the county, a Green city will do all in its power to maintain the dignity and productivity as functioning citizens of the disabled and those who are handicapped in any way or are unable to provide for themselves and their families. The city will take a positive role in promoting enlightened and humane treatment of the animals that live in our midst.
St. Paul's fine libraries, museums, art galleries, theaters, and notable examples of architecture, such as the Cathedral of St. Paul and the State Capitol, draw visitors from many places. These, and the efforts that have preserved the city's historic milieu will enhance realization of the Green vision. They will be treasured as the priceless assets they are -- not only for tourist dollars, but for giving new citizens, both children and immigrants, a sense of the city's past as a sacred Dakota site, a French-Indian settlement, a frontier boom town, and a hub for transportation and government. Those who have no past can lay no claim to the future. St. Paul has both.