Mayor proposes expanding Inheritance Fund to “finally own up” to City’s role in West Side displacement
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Aug 13 2024
On Tuesday, Mayor Melvin Carter proposed that Saint Paul “finally own up” to the City’s role in displacing residents from the West Side Flats neighborhood in the 1960s. In a victory for community organizers who have long fought to bring the history of the Flats neighborhood to light, the Mayor proposed expanding the city’s Inheritance Fund to provide down payment assistance for descendants of those displaced.
“I propose we finally own up to the injustice and harm caused by the displacement of our historic West Side Flats neighborhood by expanding our Inheritance Fund to include descendants of residents who were displaced from property ownership in our historic West Side Flats neighborhood,” Mayor Carter said.
Following 18 months of community-led research and strategy sessions, an 86-page report was released last month by the West Side Community Organization and Research in Action. The report found that over 2,000 people were displaced from the West Side Flats by the City of Saint Paul and the Saint Paul Port Authority in order to build the Riverview Industrial Park. The West Side was a landing place for immigrants and low income residents, with a rich heritage of Jewish, Mexican, Lebanese, Syrian, Black, Native, white, and other people calling the Flats home.
Linda Castillo, who lived on Minnetonka Street on the Flats, remembered, “Port Authorities came in 1959 and they told us they were going to buy up the land, and they were going to move us up the hill, and they were going to pay us for the houses, which they didn't. My mom and dad went back to our house and they already had the bulldozer in the middle of the house.”
“How many families were not fairly compensated for their homes?” Asked Monica Bravo, Executive Director of the West Side Community Organization. “What opportunities for generational wealth building were cut short? What was the cultural cost of dispersing one of the city's most diverse neighborhoods? Who benefited from this displacement? How will future development in our neighborhood avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, and work towards truly equitable opportunities for all West Siders?”
This is not the first time community members have pushed for reparations for the harm caused by so-called urban renewal projects that resulted in generations of economic disadvantages, particularly in communities of color. The Inheritance Fund, which the Mayor proposes expanding to cover the West Side, was established to offer forgivable loans to descendants of residents displaced from the Rondo neighborhood when I-94 destroyed the mostly African American neighborhood. Mayor Carter proposed expanding down payment assistance funding through the regional sales tax, “to guard against pitting two disadvantaged communities against one another in competition for resources.”
The West Side Community Organization welcomed the Mayor’s proposal to extend down payment assistance to West Siders, but pointed out that economic justice goes beyond individual assistance and should include investing in the future of the West Side to prevent further displacement. Economic justice is one of the five key community recommendations included in the Flats to the Future report:
- Acknowledgment and Memorialization of the West Side Flats Displacement;
- Economic remedies for families displaced from the Flats and economic justice for the entire West Side community;
- Neighborhood Belonging for historically displaced families, their descendants, and current residents on the West Side;
- Anti-displacement Organizing to advance affordability and prevent displacement from the West Side; and
- Environmental Justice on the West Side for hazards and contamination caused by industrial development
Mayor Carter recognized that the inheritance fund is just a first step. “Relying on recommendations from the joint report conducted by the West Side Community Organization and Research In Action, we look forward to taking the next steps among our West Side community and leaders, thank you for your leadership to make this happen.”
To learn more and read the full report on displacement on the West Side Flats, visit www.wsco.org/flatsresearch.
Photo: Left to right: Monica Bravo, Executive Director of the West Side Community Organization (WSCO), Elsa Vega Perez, member of the West Side Community Advisory Council, Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, Representative Maria Isa Perez Vega, and WSCO Board Chair Amanda Otis, on August 13, 2024 at the Mayor's Budget Address
Related news coverage: