Saint Paul, Minnesota
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Saint Paul is the capital and second-largest city of the state of Minnesota in the United States. It is the county seat of Ramsey County. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 287,151. Saint Paul and the adjacent city of Minneapolis form the core of the area known as the Twin Cities. The city is located just south of 45 degrees north latitude (the suburb of Roseville has a marker near an obscure intersection identifying the exact location of the 45th parallel).
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Sites of interest
Areas of interest include the Science Museum of Minnesota [1] (http://www.smm.org), the state Capitol, and RiverCentre, which serves as the city's civic center. Saint Paul is also home to the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, the St Paul Saints minor league baseball team, the Minnesota Thunder, professional soccer team, the Minnesota Swarm of the National Lacrosse League and the Minnesota Wild National Hockey League team, which plays at the city's Xcel Energy Center.
Nearby attractions include the Mississippi River which forms the southwest border of Saint Paul, the Mall of America in Bloomington, and the Minnesota State Fair's grounds. The fair is open during the two weeks prior to and including Labor Day. It takes place in northern Saint Paul next to the suburb of Falcon Heights, and just north of what is called the Midway, appropriately defining the midway point between downtown districts of the Twin Cities. Immediately west of the state fairgrounds is the Saint Paul Campus of the University of Minnesota (however, like the Fairgrounds, the campus is located in Falcon Heights). The Cathedral of Saint Paul is the co-cathedral with the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, and numerous other religious organizations exist in the metropolitan area. Bordering the southwest edge of Saint Paul and the southeastern tip of Minneapolis is the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. Also notable is the Fort Snelling National Historic Site, which lies on the bluff above the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers. Just below the bluff is Fort Snelling State Park [2] (http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/fort_snelling/index.html), which incorporates Pike Island named for the explorer Zebulon Pike. The Como Zoo and Conservatory is a free zoo with a year round inside garden and amusement park.
Saint Paul is the birthplace of renowned author, F Scott Fitzgerald, as well as cartoonist Charles M. Schulz (Peanuts). Because of the association with Schulz, Saint Paul regularly has events centering around the Snoopy family. For the past several years, local artists have painted and decorated giant Peanuts sculptures around the city. These have been very popular with tourists.
Major corporations headquartered in the Saint Paul area include 3M, source of products such as Scotch-Tape™, Thinsulate™ and Post-It™ notes; St Paul Travelers, a major insurance firm; and Lawson Software, a business software and support company.
Transportation
Ground transportation
Most of the citizens of Saint Paul utilize a car to move throughout the region, although the bus system, provided by Metro Transit, is also used by those with and without cars. Metro Transit also operates the Hiawatha Line, a light rail transit system, which connects down and south Minneapolis with the southern suburb of Bloomington and the Mall of America. It also serves Saint Paul through coordinated buses from the train stations. The expansion of the light rail system, when it occurs, is expected to connect downtown Minneapolis to downtown Saint Paul.
In the downtown area, buildings are connected by a skyway system in which buildings are directly connected to each other, and pedestrians may walk from one building to another without going outside. Another system of transportation gaining popularity in Saint Paul is biking, especially with the advent of additional bike lanes throughout the city and the metropolitan area. Bike trails interconnect with those of Minneapolis and other neighboring cities.
The layout of streets around downtown St. Paul has often drawn complaints. Jesse Ventura famously brought up the city's roadways during an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman in his days as Governor of Minnesota. Ventura drew a lot of criticism for his remark that the streets had been designed by "drunken Irishmen", although people had already been complaining about the fractured grid system for more than a century by that point. Some of the road structure comes from the curve of the Mississippi River, conflicts between leaders of different neighborhoods in the early city, and grand plans only half-realized. Outside of downtown, the roads are less confusing, but the city is also somewhat unusual in the fact that most roads are named rather than numbered.
Interstate Highways that serve the city are Interstate 35E running N-S, and Interstate 94 running E-W.
Air transportation
The Major airport for the area is the Minneapolis/Saint Paul International Airport. Its major provider is Northwest Airlines, although low priced discount airlines are beginning to gain strength in the area.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 145.5 km² (56.2 mi²). 136.7 km² (52.8 mi²) of it is land and 8.8 km² (3.4 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 6.07% water.
History
Saint Paul began its life in the early 1800s when a collection of fur traders, explorers and missionaries came to the area for the protection that Fort Snelling offered. Many of these people had come south from Canada and were of French descent, others had come from the East after treaties with Native Americans officially opened the area. In the early years the settlers lived close to the fort along the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, but as a whisky trade started to flourish the military officers in Fort Snelling banned them from the lands the fort controlled with one retired fur trader turned bootlegger, Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant particularly irritating the officials. By the early 1820s the area had become important as a trading center and a destination for settlers heading west and was known as Pig's Eye Landing. In 1841 Father Galtier established the St. Paul Church and that same year the name of the settlement was formally changed to Saint Paul in honor of the newly constructed church and Father Galtiers favorite saint. The next 10 years saw continued growth in the area and in response to that, Minnesota was named a territory in 1849 and St Paul was named its capitol. In 1854 St Paul incorporated as a city and in 1858 Minnesota was admitted to the union with St. Paul becoming the 32nd state capitol.
Politics
The city's current mayor is Randy Kelly, a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Mayor Kelly caused controversy when in 2004, he endorsed US President George W. Bush for re-election. Mayor Kelly has created an initiative to add 5000 housing units during a 4 year period, while maintaining St. Paul's 20% affordable housing target.
Participants in a political discussion list maintain background information relevant to Saint Paul Politics.
Demographics
As of the census2 of 2000, there are 287,151 people, 112,109 households, and 60,987 families residing in the city. The population density is 2,101.0/km² (5,441.7/mi²). There are 115,713 housing units at an average density of 846.6/km² (2,192.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 67.02% White, 11.71% African American, 1.13% Native American, 12.36% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 3.84% from other races, and 3.87% from two or more races. 7.91% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 112,109 households out of which 29.1% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.1% are married couples living together, 13.9% have a female householder with no husband present, and 45.6% are non-families. 35.9% of all households are made up of individuals and 9.4% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.46 and the average family size is 3.32.
In the city the population is spread out with 27.1% under the age of 18, 12.5% from 18 to 24, 32.0% from 25 to 44, 18.0% from 45 to 64, and 10.3% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 31 years. For every 100 females there are 93.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 89.5 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $38,774, and the median income for a family is $48,925. Males have a median income of $35,111 versus $29,432 for females. The per capita income for the city is $20,216. 15.6% of the population and 11.7% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 23.2% of those under the age of 18 and 9.7% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
Schools
- Arlington Senior High School [3] (http://www.arlington.spps.org/)
- Battle Creek Middle School
- Capitol Hill Gifted/Talented Magnet [4] (http://capitolhill.spps.org)
- Central Senior High School [5] (http://central.spps.org/)
- Cleveland Quality Middle School
- College of Saint Catherine
- Community of Peace Academy
- Como Park Senior High School [6] (http://comosr.spps.org/)
- Concordia University, Saint Paul
- Cretin-Derham Hall [7] (http://www.cretin-derhamhall.org/)
- Creative Arts Senior High School [8] (http://alc.spps.org/cra.htm)
- Hamline University
- Harding Senior High School [9] (http://harding.spps.org/)
- Highland Park Senior High School [10] (http://highlandsr.spps.org/)
- Highland Park Junior High School
- Humbolt Senior High School [11] (http://humboldtsr.spps.org/)
- Humboldt Junior High School
- Johnson Senior High School [12] (http://governors.spps.org/)
- Macalester College
- Murray Junior High School
- Open School
- Ramsey Junior High School [13] (http://ramsey.spps.org/)
- Saint Paul Academy and Summit School
- Saint Paul College
- University of Minnesota Twin Cities link (http://www.umn.edu/)
- Washington Technology Middle School
- Saint Paul Public Schools official web site [14] (http://www.spps.org/)
Media
Main article: Media in the Twin Cities
Television stations in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area:
- KTCA 2 (PBS) - St. Paul
- WCCO 4 (CBS) - Minneapolis
- KSTP 5 (ABC) - St. Paul
- KMSP 9 (Fox) - Eden Prairie
- KARE 11 (NBC) - Golden Valley
- KTCI 17 (PBS) - St. Paul
- KMWB 23 (WB) - St. Paul
- WFTC 29 (UPN) - Eden Prairie
- KPXM 41 (Pax) - St. Cloud
- KSTC 45 (Independent) - St. Paul
- St. Paul Pioneer Press - St. Paul
- Star Tribune - Minneapolis
See also
External links
- Official city website (http://www.ci.stpaul.mn.us/)
- Official tourism site (http://www.stpaulcvb.org)
- Housing 5000 Initiative (http://www.housing5000.com/about.html)
- Saint Paul E-Democracy discussion list (http://forums.e-democracy.org/stpaul/groups/stpaul-issues/messages/view_threads)
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