The land use committee of the Dayton’s Bluff Community Council went on the record Monday night with its opposition to the proposed Dorothy Day Center relocation to 321 Groves St., near the Ramsey County Law Enforcement Center and Lafayette Road. The vote was unanimous, 4-0.
The Railroad Island Task Force basically did the same last Thursday night. The Payne-Phalen District 5 board passed a unanimous resolution to send St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman a letter of opposition on Feb. 25. From the Scoop’s perspective, that’s a bandwagon.
So who else is going to join the bandwagon?
Well, the St. Paul Police Federation, for starters. Here’s a voicemail message from federation president Dave Titus:
“You can add us to the list of (those) being very much opposed to the relocation of Dorothy Day over by the law enforcement center. We’re not opposed to relocating and upgrading facilities. However, there probably couldn’t be a worse place for it than what they’re proposing, at least for our members.”
In a follow-up conversation, Titus said the federation is worried about safety issues — civilian non-sworn staff and police officers in plain clothes with or without their guns, tripping across suspects they’ve recently arrested or dealt with “an hour later or an hour earlier.”
“It’s the safety of our members, it’s the safety of all the other union members that are not armed, that are not trained in dealing with … anything of a criminal nature,” he said.
Wait a second. Isn’t this really about the law enforcement center’s parking lot being overcrowded?
“We already have a parking issue. The parking issue that we have now is horrendous anyway. How much worse can it get? But no, it’s not a parking issue,” Titus said. “It’s purely a safety issue. We are not at all against helping, or the work that Catholic Charities does.”
“We deal with people in negative situations all day long,” Titus said. “We can’t have them right on top of our people and our personal vehicles.”
Representatives of the city and Catholic Charities have been meeting with neighborhood district councils to discuss the particulars of what a relocated Dorothy Day Center — or Dorothy Day “ReVision” — would look like, and they plan to continue trying to sway local residents.
Given that this is the coldest winter in 35 years, the weather kind of speaks for itself in terms of the pressing need for new services. Catholic Charities has built a facility in Minneapolis called “Higher Ground” that would serve as a model for the new Dorothy Day Center, which is dangerously overcrowded at its present downtown location across from the Xcel Center.
Sage Holben, chair of the Dayton’s Bluff Land Use Committee, said she did not vote against the proposal lightly. But the shelter would be on the edge of downtown near Dayton’s Bluff, a community that feels it receives few city services despite having so much need.
Said Holben on Tuesday:
“I was really torn. …. Dayton’s Bluff, we’re rebuilding our business area on Seventh Street. We’ve been working with Metropolitan State University to help make the university buildings and the activities there more part of the area. We have such a high number of vulnerable and at-risk people as it is. We have one of the highest rates of unemployment. We’re extremely fragile, and we need help from the city in regaining our stability economically.”
She continued: “Our rec center has been all but closed down — hours cut, staff cut. It certainly doesn’t have a water park or beautiful murals. It’s not protected by a magic wall … It’s one more stress that I don’t think Dayton’s Bluff can take.”
“I have gotten to know quite a few of the men who stay at the different shelters. I know that the East Side has been very welcoming to them. And they appreciate that. … The neighbors in the community that have come to me and I’ve talked with are not against Catholic Charities and the work they do. Many of them have worked with vulnerable populations.”