WSCO report calls for public apology, economic redress

Jake Spitzack
Staff Writer

The West Side Community Organization (WSCO), St. Paul’s planning council for District 3, has released an 80-page report laying out five main recommendations for redress of the displacement of 2,147 people – or their descendants – who were forced to abandon their homes on the West Side Flats in the 1960s due to annual flooding.

First and foremost, it calls for an official public apology from the City of St. Paul and St. Paul Port Authority, which forced the displacement. The apology would ideally include a commitment to making future investments in the West Side neighborhood, such as helping create new gathering spaces and funding memorials such as art and plaques.

Second is determining the actual wealth that residents lost due to displacement and having the entities responsible provide financial compensation to the affected families. A West Side Inheritance Fund could also be established to provide eligible West Side residents with downpayment assistance and homeowner rehabilitation, making it easier for them to return to the West Side and buy a home. A similar fund was established last year in the Rondo community, which saw more than 600 families displaced by the construction of Interstate 94 between 1956 and 1968.

Other recommendations include better educating new and existing residents about the neighborhood, repairing environmental harm caused by the industrial development that eventually replaced the housing, and allocating funds to create more affordable housing to help prevent future displacement and gentrification.

The report was completed over the past 18 months by the consulting firm Research in Action, and the effort was guided by the West Side Community Advisory Council, which was formed specifically for this project and met monthly. The council included descendants of those displaced, current West Side residents, and representatives from the City of St. Paul, St. Paul Port Authority, and the St. Paul & Minnesota Foundation.

“We are bringing back into public memory what was publicly forgotten, with the ‘Flats To The Future’ report,” said WSCO executive director Monica Bravo in a statement. “It is our intention and purpose that this report will serve as a tool and catalyst for overdue recognition and repair of the racist policies and practices of the past that continue to harm our community, health, economy, and environment today…. Local officials have suggested they would support redress, but no official acknowledgement has been issued.”

Effects of displacement
The catalyst for displacement was the worst flood on record, which came in 1952 and devastated the neighborhood’s already fragile infrastructure. By 1960, government authorities had the green light to appraise, claim, and demolish homes and build the industrial park in the neighborhood’s footprint. Since the Minnesota Legislature had passed a law authorizing the city to condemn homes in marginal areas, homeowners had no legal option to fight to keep their homes. When the last was razed in 1964, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers immediately built a 3-mile-long floodwall to protect the land, and the city completed construction of the Riverview Industrial Park the following year. It should be noted that St. Paul Public Housing Agency completed construction of Dunedin Terrace on the West Side in 1966 and it was available for low-income families who were displaced.

Although, the displaced residents lost more than just their homes; they also lost a tight-knit sense of community rooted in their ancestry. Many were descendants of immigrants who settled there in the mid- to late-1800s and looked out for each other to find success. What was once Dakota land, the West Side attracted Russian and eastern European Jews, and immigrants from Ireland, Germany, Syria, Lebanon, Mexico and Africa, many of whom opened family businesses. According to the Minnesota Historical Society, at one point the neighborhood had more than 100 family businesses, which gave it an internal economy of sorts.

“My experience with the razing of the West Side was pretty traumatic as a 10 year old kid,” said Larry Lucio during a press conference in mid-July. “We came home from school and my mom and dad said we had two weeks to move. Back then there was no recourse and no opportunities to ask or clarify about how or when he was going to get paid. He was pretty much just told, ‘you have to leave, and this is how much we’re going to pay for your home,’ and that’s it…. After we moved, I was riding my bike down on the lower West Side and saw bulldozers raze our home. As it was being taken down, I could see my bedroom and the TV room.” Lucio noted that his parents had a dozen kids, 10 of which were born in the home.

According to the report, the industrial park brought in much revenue for the city, nearly doubling of the St. Paul Port Authority’s assets by 1968. On the flipside, about half the homeowners displaced only received about $50,000 in today’s dollars for their homes, and renters only received between $35 and $1,000 in today’s dollars to assist with relocation. Overall, the site displaced the owners of 547 homes and businesses, including what is thought to be the first Mexican restaurant in Minnesota. Today, the industrial park is home to more than 200 businesses. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency says the land is a hotspot for toxic and hazardous sites, although a formal study is needed to determine specific environmental harms that have taken place and assess current health risks.

Today, the West Side remains racially, ethnically and economically diverse. More than half the residents are people of color and more than half of them are Latino. WSCO reports that 40% of the residents have incomes at or below 185% of the federal poverty threshold. About 20% were born outside the United States and one third speak a language other than English at home. For more information, visit wsco.org.

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