Well, I might as well dive into the one that’s going to be the biggest pain in the ass to write about. Ward 1 has no incumbent (Dai Thao has moved on to other things — specifically, he’s moved to Florida) and eight people are running for this seat. That’s actually quite a lot of people. Also, FYI, St. Paulites can rank five candidates, which is also actually quite a lot of people. ETA: APPARENTLY WE CAN RANK SIX.

But OK. Here’s who’s on the ballot.

Omar Syed
Suz Woehrle
Anika Bowie
James Lo
Yan Chen
Travis Helkamp
Lucky Tiger Jack Rosenbloom
Jeff Zeitler

In researching candidates, I used the candidate websites; the East Metro Voter Guide, which did a questionnaire answered by many candidates; the MinnPost guide, which also did a questionnaire (but, note, they have the candidates for Minneapolis Ward 1 and St. Paul Ward 1 displayed together by default — if you select “St. Paul” from a drop-down the Minneapolis candidates vanish, but since the default shows both, just be aware that neither Elliott Payne nor Edwin Fruit will be on the St. Paul ballot because they are running in an entirely different city); and the LWV forum.

I’m going to start with the people you kind of don’t have to worry about.

Lucky Tiger Jack Rosenbloom

He’s a Trumper, a gun nut, and a weirdo. He also has no website. He did respond to the questions from MinnPost, but his answers are incoherent. (“Good policy is not about the pass and/or the present. Good policy is about the future and fighting for the rights of neighbors that have not in the pass, to have standing.”) Don’t vote for him. But also, don’t worry about him.

Travis Helkamp

Travis lists a website in his answers to the East Metro Voter’s Guide questionnaire, but the website doesn’t actually work. He has the Republican endorsement (and unlike some of the people listed on that site, he’s actually officially endorsed by his Senate District group, I think). He didn’t respond to the MinnPost questionnaire, which I find disappointing, because his answer to a question about rent control was “I don’t believe that property rights should be trampled on by city fiat. I would eliminate it entirely” and I was really curious how he would answer MinnPost’s question about single-family zoning (“Should St. Paul allow at least three units of housing on any residential lot? Why or why not?”) because single-family zoning also seems like it’s trampling property rights by city fiat, and yet a lot of Republicans are fans of single-family zoning. However, I’m not curious enough to track down his contact information to ask, given that there are eight people running in this race, he didn’t set up a website, and he’s not going to win.

Jeff Zeitler

Jeff Zeitler is a wine/cider maker and real estate agent who was in the news in 2020 because his business (which is on Lake Street in Minneapolis) got looted during the civil unrest. He thinks police officers need to know city government has their back. In the LWV forum, he described himself as a “social liberal, fiscal conservative,” which frequently means “Republican with gay friends.” I did agree with his answer to the walkability question asked during the LWV forum, which was to actually build sidewalks everywhere. (There are so many spots around St. Paul where there’s no sidewalk, and we should be installing sidewalks and making homeowners install sidewalks any time we’re doing work.) He’s also a fan of PILOT funding (PILOT is “Payment In Lieu Of Taxes,” when you encourage, or “encourage,” nonprofits and churches and educational institutions to make a contribution towards a fund that helps to cover all the services they need from the city, like road maintenance, snow plowing, etc.) However, he’s opposed to allowing triplexes on single-family lots, saying “some areas don’t have the infrastructure,” by which I’m guessing he means parking. His focus is on policing, road maintenance, and the business climate; he shows little or no interest in biking infrastructure, transit, affordable housing, etc. He has a website (and signs, even) but no endorsements, so I think he’s a long shot in any case.

Added because I noticed this while writing about the school board race: Jeff’s wife Gita is running for St. Paul school board. I find this a genuinely odd decision — running for office, unless you just completely check out of the race, is time-consuming and demanding. Potential political power couples who do not hate themselves generally try to stagger races so they’re not both running at the same time! It’s odd enough that I immediately wondered if they’re involved in some sort of reality TV show (probably not, but that was the first answer that came to mind to the question, “why would anyone do this to themselves.”)

The remaining candidates have both websites and some endorsements.

Yan Chen

Yan Chen got the second-choice nod from Service St. Paul (“a coalition of labor unions, business, and community leaders”) after James Lo, but doesn’t mention it on her website. She says she decided to run because of petty crime in her ward, but has broadened her focus to a broader definition of basics — public safety, roads, snow removal. In her Q&A in the East Metro Voter Guide she also talks about improved frequency on transit routes, and in the MinnPost Q&A she favors allowing triplexes and other changes to increase density. She describes herself as a scientist and talks a lot about data-driven decisions, but I am not sure what sort of science she does (or where). She is not a fan of either the “Twin Cities Boulevard” proposal or the “Reconnect Rondo” land bridge proposal (asked about by MinnPost). During the LWV forum she said that the land bridge was not supported by Rondo residents because they’re worried about gentrification (I have no idea how accurate this is, but avoiding displacing the current residents is definitely something that should be considered, regardless of the plan). She had a pretty brusque attitude toward solving snow removal issues, which I wrote down as “properly fund public works, then blame public works” (I think she said “hold them accountable”). In general, I would describe her as being on the conservative end of the candidates: focused on public safety and resistant to raising taxes. Her housing policy focus is on homeownership, which is potentially helpful to working families struggling to cope with rising rents, but less helpful to the chronically homeless (she acknowledged that, when asked about homelessness, but had no particular solutions to offer to the chronically homeless.)

Suz Woehrle

Suz is distinctive for being one of two people in the race who’s been vehemently and consistently in favor of the Summit Avenue bike lane reconstruction (the other is Syed) (Anika Bowie has also said she favors it; I’ll get to her response on this later, because she’s been less vehement and less consistent). Suz has a lot of endorsements from people I like (Bill Lindeke, Ian Buck) but none that I saw from organizations. Her East Metro Voter Guide responses emphasize affordable housing. Her MinnPost responses say that her top priority is “making our streets safer for pedestrians, cyclists and people who use wheelchairs.” She’s a supporter of the “Twin Cities Boulevard” proposal (which would replace I-94 between the two downtowns with a slower street), saying “just getting rid of 94 would be hugely beneficial and transformative” and citing Vancouver as an example of a city that doesn’t have a highway passing through it. After looking this up, I contacted Suz because Vancouver has the Trans-Canada Highway/BC1 running right through it. She clarified that Vancouver does not have a highway running through downtown. I looked up the big road that runs into Vancouver’s downtown, 1A, on Google Street View, and it’s divided with many lanes but not a highway — it kind of reminds me of Chicago’s Lakeshore Drive:

Here’s an article Suz sent me that talks about various cities that removed a highway, FYI.

Suz was also one of the only candidates to support both the 1% sales tax for roads (on the ballot this year) and the additional property tax levy for early childhood education (proposed for next year — I think she was the only one of the eight candidates who supported this.) (Worth noting: it’ll be on the ballot, it’ll be up to the people voting, but if you want it to pass, you probably want City Council reps who are going to campaign for it. The city has done almost nothing to campaign for the 1% sales tax other than to basically say, “hey, if you want us to do anything about the potholes, better vote for this!”)

During the LWV forum, she got some laughs when she pointed out that the phrase “unexpected snowfall” (the city’s excuse for last year’s plowing) should literally never be uttered in St. Paul. She pushed for PILOT (“Payment In Lieu Of Taxes,” when you encourage, or “encourage,” nonprofits and churches and educational institutions to make a contribution towards a fund that helps to cover all the services they need from the city, like road maintenance, snow plowing, etc.) Overall she was probably the leftiest lefty of the progressives running.

James Lo

James Lo has a bunch of union endorsements, the Chamber of Commerce endorsement (I’m kind of wary of that one), and a historical preservation PAC. He’s also endorsed by (new Florida resident, former City Council member) Dai Thao, (former School Board rep) Keith Hardy, and (ripped, shirtless, professional kickboxer) Kou Lee.

He’s a school counselor at Harding. On the MinnPost questionnaire, he says his top priority is “to ensure efficient and high-quality core functions of the city, providing excellent services to our residents. This means prioritizing essential services such as public safety, infrastructure maintenance, and effective administration.” He’s a supporter of the land bridge but not the boulevard (because people will just opt for other routes through the city and create congestion on in-town streets) (this is also why I’m skeptical of the boulevard proposal).

At the LWV forum, he came across as notably warm and comfortable in front of a group (the other candidate who struck me as good at that particular thing was Anika Bowie). He supported the 1% sales tax back when MinnPost asked about it (“While I don’t want to burden our residents with additional taxes, it is essential to consider the long-term benefits. By spreading the responsibility to non-St. Paul residents who utilize our roads, we can ensure a fair and equitable funding mechanism.”) He must have changed his mind, because he said at the LWV forum that he opposed the 1% sales tax (because it will hurt the most vulnerable, and small businesses) and gives sort of a mixed response on his website (“I believe we are putting our city at risk for even more shopping being done outside this city. It would have been wiser to have been more cautious in spending. This decision is on the ballot and will be decided by the voters. As a new city council person, I will make that decision work.”)

His answer to the question about homelessness at the forum focused on jobs, although he also supports building more multifamily housing. His stance on rent control was, “We need to revisit this issue in every aspect.” I did appreciate the fact that his public safety stance (on his website) talks about snow removal (because if you’re falling down crossing the street you are UNSAFE, thank you for noticing!)

Omar Syed

Omar Syed has worked on the planning commission and the zoning board, which is the sort of experience I really value in candidates. He’s endorsed by Jane Prince (who’s not my favorite). His central issue is affordable housing — he’s approved a lot of housing on the planning commission, and he talked about housing more than any other candidate (and more than he talked about any other issue).

He is also much more supportive of rent control than some of his opponents (although I think he’s in favor of tweaking the current policy) and he’s also very into transit, including bike infrastructure. He strongly supports, and in fact voted for (on the planning commission) the Summit Avenue trail, and when asked about city walkability he talked about bike lanes. On the snow question, he mentioned that he has a cousin who drives a plow who has mentioned how helpful GPS equipment would be on snowplows (I’ve heard this other places, I’m for it).

(You know, I swear I remember Jane Prince being terrible on bike infrastructure, so it’s very funny that she’s backing Omar, but a lot of the endorsements in this race don’t really make a ton of sense to me. James Lo is against the property tax increase to fund early childhood education, but he’s endorsed by the teacher’s union.)

Omar’s website emphasizes affordable housing (including rent control, he’s much more supportive of rent control than some of his opponents) and transit (including bike infrastructure). During the LWV debate, I appreciated that he provided really specific answers to most of the questions, rather than platitudes or generalities.

Anika Bowie

Anika ran four years ago. She was my second choice at the time — I was not blown away by her website, which had a lot of platitudes rather than actual policy proposals. Once again, she has far and away the most impressive endorsements: Take Action MN, Erin Murphy, Melvin Carter (and many more). (No one got the DFL endorsement. At the convention, it was pretty close to an even split between Anika, Omar, and James, and ended the day with a messy walk-out.)

So, OK. This time, her website offers a lot more specifics about policy, but she also gives a lot of genuinely confusing answers. And I feel like her stance on the Summit Avenue bike lane illustrates what I mean! At the LWV forum (on September 28th), the moderator asked (near the very end), “Do you support the Summit Avenue regional trail plan, as passed by the St. Paul city council?” Anika went last and answered simply, “No.”

On October 4th, MinnPost ran an article about candidates’ stances on this and quoted her comments as being kind of waffly: “Bowie said she supports repairing the current road surface on Summit, and ‘was 100% — and still am — on board with ensuring we have more safer measures on our bike trails.'” I would not read that as an unambiguous stance for the plan with the trail! The anti-bike-lane crowd is in favor of repairing the current road surface rather than excavating and rebuilding the road (and the extensive century-old infrastructure underneath — the primary risk to the trees is actually not from the bike trail but from the work on stuff like the very old sewer lines under there, some of which may have tree roots intertwined with them, it’s really hard to know until we’re under there.) And “I’m on board with ensuring we have more safety measures on our bike trails” is not “we should build the trail, as planned,” that could mean a wide range of things, from bollards to Yan Chen’s proposal to just widen the Summit bike lane by 10 inches or so in a couple of spots where it gets really narrow.

On October 5th, Anika tweeted, “I want to make it abundantly clear that my position remains unchanged, and I am fully in favor of the Summit Avenue trail plan that prioritizes the greater good, improved accessibility, and safety for all.” She said that she’d found the question confusing and had made the mistake of not asking for it to be repeated. Which is fair. But her response to MinnPost was also pretty weird.

And this sort of confusing inconsistency is something I found other places, like on her website where she talks about snow removal. She advocates there for an ordinance that would provide, among other things, “Clear Responsibility: The city should have the primary responsibility for snow and ice removal from sidewalks, particularly in high-traffic areas like schools, public transportation stops, and commercial districts. Property owners should also be held responsible for snow and ice removal from sidewalks adjacent to their property.” …so hold up, whose responsibility is it? What are you actually saying here should happen?

But: she also provides a lot of less-mystifying progressive policy proposals on her website, including providing city support for worker cooperatives, implementing fines and fees that are based on ability to pay rather than being the same $30 parking ticket whether you’re a lawyer or a barista, and a long list of other stuff. I find it kind of funny that when (at the LWV forum) she got asked about the land bridge proposal vs. the Twin Cities Boulevard proposal vs. leaving the road as it is, she said that she’s a Rondo resident, that she has asthma, that we need experts in the room when we decide what to do, and as far as I caught she didn’t actually answer the question, when in the MinnPost questionnaire she says she supports the idea of a land bridge.

So — OK. If I were casting a ballot in Ward 1, I would list Omar Syed first and Anika Bowie second. I like them both, but I really like Omar’s focus on affordable housing, his experience on the planning commission, and the specificity of a lot of his ideas. I also like Anika’s energy and she has a really impressive set of endorsements; I think a lot of people could look at those two and come down with Anika first. I would list Suz Woehrle third. Since St. Paul lets you pick five, I would go ahead and list James Lo fourth and Yan Chen fifth. I actually think it’s likely to be a contest between Omar, Anika, and James, and probably if Omar or Anika doesn’t get it, James would win without my help, but you might as well list five. ETA: Six! Turns out it’s six! For my sixth candidate, I would list Jeff, because I would definitely take him over either the actual endorsed Republican, or the gun nut.

If you are sold on the Twin Cities Boulevard idea, you probably want to list Suz first. On the other hand, if you hate the Summit Avenue bike trail, you might want to go with James.

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