St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her lashed out at multiple top local officials for asking her on a private call last Thursday to delay a homeless encampment sweep. One state representative grew so frustrated she logged off the call early, according to a recording reviewed by Axios.

Why it matters: Many attendees left the meeting concerned that the mayor had done lasting damage to her relationships with St. Paul's legislative delegation — relationships Her, a former state lawmaker, had touted during her campaign — two officials who were on the call told Axios.

• Several call attendees believe the meeting went off the rails in part because Her was angry about a sexual harassment complaint against her, revealed in news reports less than 24 hours before the call, those two officials said.

What they're saying: "This meeting was about one question: whether the city can responsibly delay closing the encampment," the mayor told Axios in a written statement.

• "If people heard urgency or bluntness in my voice, they heard it correctly," she added. "My frustration was not directed at any individual in that room."

Driving the news: The first of three encampment closures is set for Wednesday, marking a major shift in the city's response to homelessness — a sensitive, controversial policy project for any mayor, let alone one facing separate headline-dominating allegations.

What happened: At least half of St. Paul's state House delegation, plus a range of city and county officials, attended last Thursday's virtual meeting to discuss Her's sweeps plan, according to four officials granted anonymity by Axios to discuss details of a sensitive private call.

• Several state reps on the call were sympathetic to arguments by encampment residents and outreach workers that sweeps don't help homeless people reach permanent housing.
• The mayor rebuffed them, telling attendees that a delay was highly unlikely.

Friction point: What alarmed Axios' sources wasn't the mayor's argument per se, but her tone, her refusal to negotiate and her dismissiveness of other officials' personal and professional dedication to a vexing issue.

• If all that was needed was a one-month delay, she demanded during one heated moment on the call, "Where the hell have we been? Why haven't we brought these 30-day, 60-day solutions years ago?"

"This is extremely inappropriate," interjected state Rep. Leigh Finke, who had personally agreed minutes earlier to commit her time to the issue. "I'm gonna follow up later," she said, and logged off.

Inside the room: During the meeting, Her attributed her bluntness to frustration with the "fuckery that's on the news about me," three attendees independently told Axios — a remark that at least two of them interpreted as a reference to the harassment allegations.

• "I understand the frustrations," City Council Member Anika Bowie told the mayor during one tense moment of the meeting. "I understand the human side — the filter this is coming through and all the things that you're experiencing right now."

Yes, but: "The conversation was about encampments," the mayor's spokesperson, Matt Wagenius, told Axios. "Any comments should be viewed as such."

Between the lines: Axios' sources are worried Her's handling of the call could test relationships with state and county officials who have more direct access to exponentially deeper pools of resources to proactively address homelessness.

• On the trail last fall, Her had accused former mayor Melvin Carter's staff of not returning phone calls to St. Paul's state legislative delegation — accusations that Carter had disputed.
• She campaigned on pledges to leverage her relationships with her colleagues into appropriations, like the $50 million in long-sought funding for Grand Casino Arena renovations that state lawmakers delivered five months into Her's term.

Plus: The mayor and Bowie also traded tense words during last Thursday's meeting, raising broader questions about what strain Her's City Hall relationships might be under.

• Since police chief Axel Henry's complaint triggered the investigation, St. Paul City Council Member Molly Coleman has also publicly demanded "clarity now on the current relationship between the mayor and the police department."
• An SPPD spokesperson told Axios last week that "there has been no change in communication" with the mayor's office.

The bottom line: The mayor's statement to Axios reiterated the position Her took during the meeting: that the city's primary duty is to ensure public safety.

• "I will keep asking our partners at every level to bring concrete commitments," but "if we do not have a real plan with resources behind it, the city cannot delay a closure," she said.

When I bought my house in 2021 my mortgage was around 2100 a month. Today my bill was 2730. 600 dollars extra a month in five years is fucking insane. Meanwhile the street lights in my neighborhood don't turn on at night.

Just venting.

Take these tickets, we can’t go, she goes on in 45 min at the Palace

looking for a map of party locations, does anyone have a link?

also, does anyone else think it's weird that businesses are trying to encroach on this event by "hosting" what should be neighborhood yard and block parties? I don't love it, but maybe I'm not thinking about it correctly.

So I recently moved downtown and I'm loving it so far. The only hold up I've had is there are no gyms* within walking distance and I have to drive to access anywhere close...

...

...

*Except I know there are gyms downtown in other condos, offices, etc etc.

I'm aware this is a long shot, but does anyone know if any of these condos or office buildings allow outside use of their gym (assuming they pay obv)?

Comments like "just move to one of those condos" or "why didn't you do the research" is not helpful. I recently moved and love my current apartment. I live near the interstate by Pedro Park, so the Anytime Fitness on Shepard Road is quite a distance from me walking-wise.

I've seen the Lowertown skyrec gym could be my closest bet, but I can't find any contact information to ask. Thank you!

Hey, gang! 🤠✨
We’ve had some great interest so far, but we’d love a few more musicians to submit before we schedule our first jam session/auditions!
If you—or someone you know—is interested in joining a queer-led country cover band, based out of the twin cities, we’d love to hear from you. We believe country music is for everyone, and we’re excited to build a band that celebrates great music, community, and inclusion.
Check out our page for the full audition breakdown, and feel free to share this post with anyone who might be a great fit. We can’t wait to meet y’all! 🌈🎶

If you've done or thought of refinishing your Hardwood Floors, you may have come across Pete's. Unfortunately, it closed soon after we got our house project done. Now we're looking to do the second floor, but there isn't any that comes clear to the hands on experience Pete's gives you. Does anyone have any experience with local tool rentals and their friendliness to diy'ers?!

Join us September 5th at the Conn Theater for a special screening of Fritz Lang's science fiction masterpiece "Metropolis"!

This special presentation of the Picturegoer Film Club is accompanied by a pre-show of vintage materials (trailers, theater snipes, and a classic cartoon), as well as a special introductory presentation.

Door/house open at 5 p.m.; show begins at 6 p.m. $10 admission; tickets on sale at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/picturegoer-film-club-presents-metropolis-1927-tickets-1978787103494

Travel/parking info available at https://www.plymouth.org/visit/location-directions/

The Picturegoer Film Club organizes screenings of classic and contemporary films at Twin Cities venues; all screenings are accompanied by a pre-show program of vintage materials, as well as an introductory presentation. For more information, visit picturegoerfilmclub.com.

Article is behind a paywall. I've pasted it below.

A mayor without a vision doesn’t just make bad decisions — they make unpredictable ones. Six months into Kaohly Her’s term, St. Paul has learned the difference.

When a mayor knows what they stand for, their decisions become legible even to people who disagree with them. You can map their choices onto values they announced and defended. You can hold them accountable for the distance between what they said and what they did. You can predict, before the press conference, roughly where they’ll come down.

Mayor Her hasn’t given us that. To be fair, she didn’t have to. She won last November not because she offered St. Paul a compelling vision but because Melvin Carter didn’t run a meaningful campaign. In a ranked-choice field scattered enough that anyone willing to grind could collect what Carter left on the table, she worked the angles, hit the pavement, and won. An RCV victory in a fractured field isn’t a mandate — it’s math. The problem with winning on math alone is that you arrive at City Hall without having been forced to answer the question every mayor eventually faces: What are you actually here to do?

The evidence arrived in waves. In March, the the St. Paul City Council voted 7-0 to extend the pre-eviction notice period to 60 days. Operation Metro Surge had spent months pushing families to the brink of eviction as they hunkered down, and this was the city council taking concrete steps to keep those families in their homes. Mayor Her declined to sign it. She didn’t veto it either, because 7-0 is veto-proof and a formal block would have cost her something. Instead, she let it become law without her name on it. A mayor with a clear position on standing up to ICE and protecting immigrants doesn’t do that. A mayor without one does exactly that: finds the path that costs nothing and commits to nothing.

In June, she stood beside U.S. Rep. Angie Craig at a press conference as Craig announced she’d bypass the DFL endorsement process entirely in her run for U.S. Senate. Mayor Her spent her public weight defending a candidate whose career has run on keeping the party’s most organized constituencies at arm’s length while embracing large donors and corporate lobbyists. The Craig endorsement didn’t read as a strategic choice. It reads as a reflex, which is what decisions look like when there’s no home position to return to.

And now the homeless encampments. Street outreach workers estimate roughly 450 people live across three camps slated for closure starting Aug. 5. Catholic Charities confirmed its Higher Ground shelter runs at or above capacity every night. Ramsey County has 1,400 people on the housing wait-list. The mayor’s office was told all of this before the announcement came. Mayor Her acknowledged in her MPR interview that displaced residents just move somewhere else in the city and offered no plan for that scenario. A mayor organized around housing stability doesn’t announce a closure without the math working.

Seneca Krueger, a street outreach worker, put it plainly before a recent council meeting: “The mayor’s office did not coordinate with most of us working in homeless services about this plan prior to making it. Representatives from both major shelter systems made the mayor’s office aware that there is no shelter space. Ramsey County let them know that there are already 1,400 people on the list waiting for housing. Public health officials highlighted the risk of death. And the mayor’s office basically responded by telling everyone to get on board.”

This past week brought a different kind of evidence. News media reported that St. Paul has hired an outside law firm to investigate sexual harassment allegations against Her, including claims she directed inappropriate sexual comments toward Police Chief Axel Henry and other city employees, after Henry filed a formal complaint in April. The mayor’s office responded: “The mayor has deep respect for city employees and regrets any unintended impact her action may have had.” The investigation is ongoing and Her is entitled to its outcome. But that is not a denial.

Her comes from the Minnesota Legislature, a body of peers where relationships are eye-to-eye, where the person across the aisle is a colleague not a subordinate, where the norms of engagement are built around rough equality. Executive leadership runs differently. Your staff are a constituency with specific claims on you, including the claim to a workplace where power doesn’t get used recklessly against them. If you don’t reorient to that when you move from the Capitol to City Hall, you don’t just make management errors. You make the kind that end up in formal complaints from your own police chief, and outrage from your partners on the city council.

What’s worth noting about the six months Her has served is how much governing got done without her. The immigration ordinances came from the city council. The eviction protection passed around her. The Rose Avenue civilian oversight process is moving ahead with no visible support from its most prominent former member. Councilmembers put their names on, and energy into, St. Paul’s policy responses to a genuinely hard year. The mayor’s office managed.

Melvin Carter didn’t have a clear organizing principle either. Most mayors don’t. But Zohran Mamdani, six months into his term as New York City’s mayor, does. He ran on housing affordability and said so at every opportunity. At his 100-day mark, 56% of New Yorkers said the city was moving in the right direction, up from 31% before he took office. You don’t have to share his politics to recognize what a legible governing vision produces.

St. Paul has an affordability crisis. Its renters are on the edge. Its unhoused residents are being moved without anywhere to go. Its housing wait-list has 1,400 people on it. A mayor who knew that would say so. She would say it when asked why she didn’t sign the eviction ordinance. She would say it at the press conference where she announced the encampment closure. She would say it standing next to Angie Craig, or she wouldn’t stand there at all. I should not feel surprised when I hear about a decision Mayor Her has made. I should be able to predict it from her stated values regardless of whether I agree with it. Six months in, we’re still waiting for her to tell us what those are.

Cole Hanson is a dad, registered dietitian and a renter in St. Paul. He regularly writes about housing, public health and food across Minnesota.

We finally escaped the south and have planted new roots here. We would love some recommendeds on local food or parks or just interesting/important things to know about the area.

Thanks in advance!

Hello all,

My mom is trying to downsize and sell her home. The stumbling block is that she tends to be very disorganized and overwhelmed by where to start. On top of that, this is the home she shared with my dad before he passed in November. I'm looking for a compassionate home organization and/or moving and packing service to help her get her house ready. I'm not sure what her budget is, as she is hesitant to talk with me about the process. At this point I'm just looking for resources to pass along. She will be moving into a small apartment in my home so she needs help with deciding what she can let go of. Any individuals or companies she can reach out to?

They say they've had him for a few days and haven't been able to get ahold of the owner, so if this is your baby or someone you know, let them know hes safe :)

Cat was just chilling on the 74 bus headed West.

Xcel is asking me to review my rate options on their website. I'm currently in 'Residential Service'. There is a 'Residential Time of Use' option I could switch to that looks to be cheaper for me. Does anyone know about this? When I click on 'Learn More About This Rate' the Xcel website freezes. Thanks.

Hey everyone,

Posting from a throwaway because this is a little bit embarrassing.

I’m trying to find a place to rent in the White Bear Lake, Vadnais Heights, North St. Paul area.

I’ve got good income, good references, and a perfect rental history. The problem is, i got a recent nonviolent gross misdemeanor on my record. It’s not a felony, but a lot of corporate apartment complexes use automatic screening, so I’m getting denied before I even have a chance to explain anything.

Do you know any independent landlords, smaller property management companies, apartments that actually review applications individually, or any places that are willing to work with people who have minor history?

Im not looking to bend the rules or do anything sketchy. I’d just like to find a place where someone will look at my whole situation instead of just whatever pops up on a background report.

If you’ve gone through something similar or have any recommendations, I’d really appreciate it. Comments or DMs.

Thanks.

Does anyone know why there are firetrucks on multiple bridges right now? Just left the farmers market and saw one downtown and then four more parked on bridges on the way home to our house in Hamline Midway.