SMaPl - Land Use Goals & Solutions

Land Use

Allie’s Story

Hiya, Frogtown! My name’s Alli. My friends call me Al Pal. I moved to Frogtown not too long after college.

I did most of my grocery shopping at Dragon Star, volunteered at St.Paul City School, and studies at Rondo Library when I needed a break from campus life. It wasn’t long before I fell in love with the people, the culture, and the overall charm of the area. There’s a vibe here I haven’t felt in many places, so after I graduated, I sauntered on down the road and found a place.

Not yet a homeowner, cause ya know.. life. But I’m renting with my gals, and we’re looking to buy a home in the area eventually.. hopefully sooner than later.

Though I didn’t major in environmental design.. horticulture.. or anything fancy like that, outside of academia, these subjects were my absolute jam.

While my friends were out raging and what not, I was in the school of hardknocks.. binge playing simcity, Feng shui’ing everything I could get my hands on, digging my fingers in dirt, Planting seeds, traveling, and studying people—which is my jammiest of jams.

So it’s truly serendipitous that I’ve gotten the chance to work on Smapl. It’s afforded me the opportunity to finally dive face first into the machinery that is City Planning, and I’m uber excited to share everything I’ve discovered with you guys!

My portion of the game plan was to think about how Frogtown’s zoning and infrastructure could be changed and/or revitalized to reach our Arts, Entrepreneurship, and Education centered - Urban Village vision. Keep in mind We’re a diverse bunch here in Frogtown, so I hope I did a decent enough job summarizing the variety of answers we heard during our community outreach.

Def let me know if I left anything out!

Here are the goals I’ve come up with:

Goals

1. Infuse more green space and parks geared toward cultivating community, health, and wellness into Frogtown.

Though St. Paul has more parks per capita than many other cities across the nation (2nd, behind minneapolis- go MN!), few of these parks exist within Frogtown, having only .006 acres of green space per child while boasting the highest concentration of children in St. Paul (with over 30% of residents being under 17). We intend on balancing our highly urban and culture rich environment with beautifully landscaped green space for residents to enjoy.  

2. We’d like to take a flexible, functional, and holistic approach to the design of public space, Ensuring that it reflects our neighborhood’s history, its stories, the cultures of its inhabitants, and Our pride of place, art, and community, All while meetING our sustainability goals.

Streets, sidewalks, alleys, and parking lots make up the bulk of our space here in Frogtown, yet very little thought has been put into how they’re designed.

These spaces activate our neighborhood. They not only need to be attractively designed, but functionally designed so they’re able to serve as extensions of our homes.. utilized to better bring community together. 

And lastly..

3. Make Frogtown a more walkable community.

Though we’d like our neighborhood to be more walkable for practicality’s sake, many of us Frogtowners are well aware of climate change and would like to work towards reducing our collective footprint. 

WE also understand we’d be much healthier humans if we were encouraged to move our bodies a bit more.

Solutions

Solution 1: Take a recreational approach to assessing potential use of empty lots.

After the infamous housing bubble of ‘08, Frogtown’s housing stock went ka put. 

Homes were foreclosed, boarded up, and demolished.. Leaving empty lot after empty lot dispersed throughout the neighborhood.

Over the years, some have become homes, extended yards, and gardens.

BUT FEW HAVE BECOME USEABLE GREEN SPACE OR PARKS. 

And many have remained nothing more than a patch of mowed grass with a sign on it or a fence around it. 

Wouldn’t little INFILL parks embedded within our neighborhood to liven things up a bit be great?

Picture this!

A Pocket Skatepark where kiddos can scrape knees, bumps fists, and learn to be the next tony hawk! 

orrr

A Multigenerational Playground where children and adults alike can break a sweat and get their play on!

Or, or, or

Or a nice quiet place to relax under the sun.. have tea with a neighbor.. maybe kick your shoes off and get some much needed one on one time with mother earth!

The possibilities are endless!

These places could serve as neighborhood nodes, unique to the cultures, ideas, and creativity of those who live around them!