David Greenwood-Sanchez
Name: David Greenwood-Sanchez
Public Office Sought: St. Paul City Council Ward 5
Email: votedavidgs@gmail.com
Campaign Phone: 651-528-4077
Campaign Website: www.votedavidgs.com
Twitter handle: N/A
Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/votedavidgs
Candidate Bio
I am excited to serve as a St. Paul City Councilmember, and I think I will be a terrific candidate. Professionally, I’ve dedicated my career to public policy. I work as a political scientist, specializing in environmental politics and Latin American politics. I have a PhD in political science (UW-Madison), a master’s in public policy (UofM Humphrey School), and a bachelor’s degree in Economics (Whitman College). I’ve also worked as an economic researcher for Poverty Action Lab in Santiago, Chile, a program evaluator for the MN Office of the Legislative Auditor, and have been a Fulbright scholar in Mexico and Peru.
I have a long record of standing up for my community. I helped lead the effort to reverse Falcon Heights’ ban on front yard gardening, I was part of the fight to protect Pig’s Eye Lake, and I worked to defend historic buildings across the city. I grew up and currently live in the Como neighborhood, and I’ve spent most my life here. I also attended Central High School and MMSA. Finally, I am Peruvian-Minnesotan, and will be the first Latino councilmember in St. Paul’s history. I’m excited to help give voice to our Latino communities across the city.
What style of leadership would you bring to this position?
I lead by example. I am an honest, hardworking, and committed person, and fortunately, people see this. I approach policy problems with an open mind, and I’ve devoted my professional career to solving them. People also see that I have been very successful in what I do – I’m a professor, musician, Fulbrighter, Eagle scout, world traveler, and most importantly, a devoted community member. I try to do my best and plant a seed of inspiration wherever I go.
The other part is that I love my community. I am naturally a very outgoing and social person, and I plan to bring this to my role as a Councilmember. I want Ward 5 residents to know they are a part of something, that they can always reach out and share their story.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
1 – Returning voice to our neighborhoods. So many people across St. Paul feel like they don’t really have a voice, as though the city’s decisions are being made without them. My top priority is to help create spaces of meaningful engagement for our citizens, spaces where our residents can speak and be heard. This is vital to the political legitimacy of our city, and to our ability to find effective and reasonable solutions to our problems.
2 – Generating a sustainable revenue base. Since city leaders have not been able to effectively generate the revenue needed to sustain expenses, they have relied on continuous tax increases to fund the gap. For example, property taxes are increasing nearly 15 percent this year, and the city is also proposing a 1 percent sales tax to repair the roads (a basic responsibility of government). We can’t continue down this route. I will advocate for real, structural solutions to this problem, and it begins by addressing our revenue base.
3 — Expanding “real” affordable housing. The city is suffering from a housing shortage, and this is making it difficult for people to contemplate homeownership, and often simply to pay the rent. We need to address this by moving beyond the model of condo-led development, and finding ways to prioritize real affordability.
What do you consider the biggest challenge and conversely, the biggest opportunity in St. Paul?
Currently, the biggest challenge is our budget. Saint Paul has serious budgetary problems, and they aren’t being addressed in sustainable ways. Leaders have effectively punted these problems to the new council, which will be confronted with difficult challenges, among them, how to fill our increasingly vacant and insecure downtown area.
The biggest opportunity in St. Paul is more conceptual. We are still in search of our identity and brand. Until now, we have been “the most livable city in America,” but this is increasingly feeling outdated. Instead, there is a great opportunity to re-brand in a way that makes use of our natural beauty and location on the Mississippi, our diverse communities, and our great recreation opportunities. Thinking on this level of identity and brand is vital for attracting business and people.
How would you characterize the business climate in St. Paul and what role do you think the city should have in attracting and retaining jobs and new businesses in St. Paul?
St. Paul has historically been a wonderful place for business – we have smart, educated, and increasingly diverse residents, strong and supportive communities, amazing parks and recreational opportunities, and a reputation of being good for business development. There are lots of reasons to love St. Paul, and we are fortunate to have many features that attract both people and businesses to our city.
That said, this image and reputation of our city is rapidly deteriorating. When the city repeatedly proves itself incapable of delivering basic services at reasonable levels of quality – trash collection, snow removal, and road maintenance, for example – it sends a signal to businesses (and residents) that they would be better off elsewhere. Further, we have growing challenges of homelessness that the city has not prioritized. Until we begin to show that we can offer a stable environment, and deliver these essential services, we will continue to miss out of businesses, many of whom are opting to locate in neighboring cities across the metro area and first-ring suburbs.
What are your strategies to address public safety challenges in your community?
This is an area where “voice” matters – in order to craft effective policies to address public safety, our leaders need to be in touch with the people, and create spaces where they can respond effectively.
I would push for proactive youth programs and interventions to reduce juvenile crime, and support expanded access to free and reduced breakfasts and lunch so that children don’t go hungry. I would also pursue a comprehensive approach to address public safety. This includes advocating for mental health professionals to play a role for those in crisis, along with public safety partnerships with communities, and a fully staffed police force that is accountable to the public.
What ideas do you have to address housing shortages and affordability?
There are two answers to this. First, to address housing shortages, we need to create more housing. This can come through new construction, new multi-plex options, and through repurposing / office conversions. The housing shortage is real, and collectively, we need to be open to all of these policy tools. However, we also need to be very cognizant of the type of housing that we create. I think most people, myself including, are tired of seeing expensive condos presented as the best solution to address the housing shortage. Instead, the city needs to be proactive in brokering deals that prioritize real affordability. Second, we need to explore more policy solutions that incentivize office conversions, particularly in our downtown.
The second solution is more direct – we need to reduce our reliance on property tax increases. When we increase property taxes by 15 percent, like we have done this year, we are also making the cost of homeownership even higher. The hurts both homeowners as well as renters; landlords respond to their own cost increases by raising the rents. If we are serious about addressing housing affordability, the most immediate solution is for the city to halt the use of steep property tax increases.
St. Paul candidates only: Do you support the rent stabilization ordinance in its current form? If not, what would you like to change?
I do not support the rent stabilization ordinance in its current form. On one hand, the city has an obligation to respect the will of the people. At the same time, I recognize that many of the details within the ballot measure were not fully understood at the moment of the vote, and they have since been interpreted by the city in somewhat unclear ways. Ultimately, I think no one is happy about this, and most importantly there is a general sense of uncertainty that has chilled investment and housing construction in the city.
If I could change anything in the ordinance, I would make a distinction between the types of rental price increases that the ordinance addresses. For me, the largest problem is to hedge against predatory rental hikes – the horror stories where a particularly bad landlord inexplicably increases the rent by hundreds of dollars a month. I believe we have a responsibility to create policies that limit this type of activity. However, not all landlords do this: there are many excellent landlords that invest in improvements to their properties and treat renters with dignity. We need to have a clear mechanism that supports them and incentivizes property maintenance and improvement.
How would you work to improve transportation options in your community, including improved safety for transit riders, pedestrian/bike, and drivers alike?
St. Paul, on balance, has a great record in the area of transit. I would promote a stronger support of the bus system, which has consistently been shown to be the best bang for our buck, and responsive to the changing transportation patterns in the city and metro area. I also support efforts for improved safety, in keeping with the latest evidence and best practices.
I support safety through a variety of environmental designs that provide safer pedestrian crossings by slowing down traffic, increasing visibility, and improved right of way. Electric bikes and scooters have become a popular means of transportation in St. Paul. I would advocate for grants and other matching funds to expand transportation options that reduce carbon emissions, and would advocate for updated safety measures in affected neighborhoods.
What will you do to expand St. Paul’s tax base?
Expanding the tax base needs to be a top priority for the council and the mayor. Here it is important to address the wider context – that without addressing the tax base, the city is resorting to continued property tax hikes, which are hurting everyone. It is in our interest to find a stable and sustainable solution.
To expand the tax base, I will begin by proposing a more delicate use of TIF (tax increment financing). While this has been helpful to attract some developments, we also have to recognize that it has also pushed out tax revenue generation decades into the future. For the fiscal health of our city, we need to become less dependent on TIF, and begin to explore other policy strategies that allow us to generate more immediate revenue.
I will also work to find ways to transform the downtown into a more prosperous area for business, and a more stable source of revenue. Currently, the downtown suffers from a problem of image/perception – people generally don’t perceive it as the place where you want to go unless you need to. Unfortunately, neither TIF nor other commercial development strategies do much to solve this problem (and we have a few decades of evidence to support this). Instead, we need visionary leadership – coalitions of community leaders, business leaders, and political leaders who can craft and articulate a new vision for the downtown. Filling the vacant lots and transforming the downtown into an attractive space for business and people needs to be a top priority for our city.
Are there any services currently provided by the city that you believe should be cut back or eliminated? Are there new opportunities to share services with other entities?
In recent years, the city has begun to take a more aggressive approach to the demolition of historic buildings. Given our precarious financial situation, it does not make sense to continue to adopt an approach that uses public dollars to destroy buildings that are often very serviceable. We are currently observing this, for example, with the Hamline-Midway Library, a very functional building listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which the city plans to demolish and replace with a modern building. Instead, we can save money, reduce carbon emissions, and support our city’s history by halting these demolition projects, and pursuing more sensible approaches based on renovation.
Public Office Sought: St. Paul City Council Ward 5
Email: votedavidgs@gmail.com
Campaign Phone: 651-528-4077
Campaign Website: www.votedavidgs.com
Twitter handle: N/A
Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/votedavidgs
Candidate Bio
I am excited to serve as a St. Paul City Councilmember, and I think I will be a terrific candidate. Professionally, I’ve dedicated my career to public policy. I work as a political scientist, specializing in environmental politics and Latin American politics. I have a PhD in political science (UW-Madison), a master’s in public policy (UofM Humphrey School), and a bachelor’s degree in Economics (Whitman College). I’ve also worked as an economic researcher for Poverty Action Lab in Santiago, Chile, a program evaluator for the MN Office of the Legislative Auditor, and have been a Fulbright scholar in Mexico and Peru.
I have a long record of standing up for my community. I helped lead the effort to reverse Falcon Heights’ ban on front yard gardening, I was part of the fight to protect Pig’s Eye Lake, and I worked to defend historic buildings across the city. I grew up and currently live in the Como neighborhood, and I’ve spent most my life here. I also attended Central High School and MMSA. Finally, I am Peruvian-Minnesotan, and will be the first Latino councilmember in St. Paul’s history. I’m excited to help give voice to our Latino communities across the city.
What style of leadership would you bring to this position?
I lead by example. I am an honest, hardworking, and committed person, and fortunately, people see this. I approach policy problems with an open mind, and I’ve devoted my professional career to solving them. People also see that I have been very successful in what I do – I’m a professor, musician, Fulbrighter, Eagle scout, world traveler, and most importantly, a devoted community member. I try to do my best and plant a seed of inspiration wherever I go.
The other part is that I love my community. I am naturally a very outgoing and social person, and I plan to bring this to my role as a Councilmember. I want Ward 5 residents to know they are a part of something, that they can always reach out and share their story.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
1 – Returning voice to our neighborhoods. So many people across St. Paul feel like they don’t really have a voice, as though the city’s decisions are being made without them. My top priority is to help create spaces of meaningful engagement for our citizens, spaces where our residents can speak and be heard. This is vital to the political legitimacy of our city, and to our ability to find effective and reasonable solutions to our problems.
2 – Generating a sustainable revenue base. Since city leaders have not been able to effectively generate the revenue needed to sustain expenses, they have relied on continuous tax increases to fund the gap. For example, property taxes are increasing nearly 15 percent this year, and the city is also proposing a 1 percent sales tax to repair the roads (a basic responsibility of government). We can’t continue down this route. I will advocate for real, structural solutions to this problem, and it begins by addressing our revenue base.
3 — Expanding “real” affordable housing. The city is suffering from a housing shortage, and this is making it difficult for people to contemplate homeownership, and often simply to pay the rent. We need to address this by moving beyond the model of condo-led development, and finding ways to prioritize real affordability.
What do you consider the biggest challenge and conversely, the biggest opportunity in St. Paul?
Currently, the biggest challenge is our budget. Saint Paul has serious budgetary problems, and they aren’t being addressed in sustainable ways. Leaders have effectively punted these problems to the new council, which will be confronted with difficult challenges, among them, how to fill our increasingly vacant and insecure downtown area.
The biggest opportunity in St. Paul is more conceptual. We are still in search of our identity and brand. Until now, we have been “the most livable city in America,” but this is increasingly feeling outdated. Instead, there is a great opportunity to re-brand in a way that makes use of our natural beauty and location on the Mississippi, our diverse communities, and our great recreation opportunities. Thinking on this level of identity and brand is vital for attracting business and people.
How would you characterize the business climate in St. Paul and what role do you think the city should have in attracting and retaining jobs and new businesses in St. Paul?
St. Paul has historically been a wonderful place for business – we have smart, educated, and increasingly diverse residents, strong and supportive communities, amazing parks and recreational opportunities, and a reputation of being good for business development. There are lots of reasons to love St. Paul, and we are fortunate to have many features that attract both people and businesses to our city.
That said, this image and reputation of our city is rapidly deteriorating. When the city repeatedly proves itself incapable of delivering basic services at reasonable levels of quality – trash collection, snow removal, and road maintenance, for example – it sends a signal to businesses (and residents) that they would be better off elsewhere. Further, we have growing challenges of homelessness that the city has not prioritized. Until we begin to show that we can offer a stable environment, and deliver these essential services, we will continue to miss out of businesses, many of whom are opting to locate in neighboring cities across the metro area and first-ring suburbs.
What are your strategies to address public safety challenges in your community?
This is an area where “voice” matters – in order to craft effective policies to address public safety, our leaders need to be in touch with the people, and create spaces where they can respond effectively.
I would push for proactive youth programs and interventions to reduce juvenile crime, and support expanded access to free and reduced breakfasts and lunch so that children don’t go hungry. I would also pursue a comprehensive approach to address public safety. This includes advocating for mental health professionals to play a role for those in crisis, along with public safety partnerships with communities, and a fully staffed police force that is accountable to the public.
What ideas do you have to address housing shortages and affordability?
There are two answers to this. First, to address housing shortages, we need to create more housing. This can come through new construction, new multi-plex options, and through repurposing / office conversions. The housing shortage is real, and collectively, we need to be open to all of these policy tools. However, we also need to be very cognizant of the type of housing that we create. I think most people, myself including, are tired of seeing expensive condos presented as the best solution to address the housing shortage. Instead, the city needs to be proactive in brokering deals that prioritize real affordability. Second, we need to explore more policy solutions that incentivize office conversions, particularly in our downtown.
The second solution is more direct – we need to reduce our reliance on property tax increases. When we increase property taxes by 15 percent, like we have done this year, we are also making the cost of homeownership even higher. The hurts both homeowners as well as renters; landlords respond to their own cost increases by raising the rents. If we are serious about addressing housing affordability, the most immediate solution is for the city to halt the use of steep property tax increases.
St. Paul candidates only: Do you support the rent stabilization ordinance in its current form? If not, what would you like to change?
I do not support the rent stabilization ordinance in its current form. On one hand, the city has an obligation to respect the will of the people. At the same time, I recognize that many of the details within the ballot measure were not fully understood at the moment of the vote, and they have since been interpreted by the city in somewhat unclear ways. Ultimately, I think no one is happy about this, and most importantly there is a general sense of uncertainty that has chilled investment and housing construction in the city.
If I could change anything in the ordinance, I would make a distinction between the types of rental price increases that the ordinance addresses. For me, the largest problem is to hedge against predatory rental hikes – the horror stories where a particularly bad landlord inexplicably increases the rent by hundreds of dollars a month. I believe we have a responsibility to create policies that limit this type of activity. However, not all landlords do this: there are many excellent landlords that invest in improvements to their properties and treat renters with dignity. We need to have a clear mechanism that supports them and incentivizes property maintenance and improvement.
How would you work to improve transportation options in your community, including improved safety for transit riders, pedestrian/bike, and drivers alike?
St. Paul, on balance, has a great record in the area of transit. I would promote a stronger support of the bus system, which has consistently been shown to be the best bang for our buck, and responsive to the changing transportation patterns in the city and metro area. I also support efforts for improved safety, in keeping with the latest evidence and best practices.
I support safety through a variety of environmental designs that provide safer pedestrian crossings by slowing down traffic, increasing visibility, and improved right of way. Electric bikes and scooters have become a popular means of transportation in St. Paul. I would advocate for grants and other matching funds to expand transportation options that reduce carbon emissions, and would advocate for updated safety measures in affected neighborhoods.
What will you do to expand St. Paul’s tax base?
Expanding the tax base needs to be a top priority for the council and the mayor. Here it is important to address the wider context – that without addressing the tax base, the city is resorting to continued property tax hikes, which are hurting everyone. It is in our interest to find a stable and sustainable solution.
To expand the tax base, I will begin by proposing a more delicate use of TIF (tax increment financing). While this has been helpful to attract some developments, we also have to recognize that it has also pushed out tax revenue generation decades into the future. For the fiscal health of our city, we need to become less dependent on TIF, and begin to explore other policy strategies that allow us to generate more immediate revenue.
I will also work to find ways to transform the downtown into a more prosperous area for business, and a more stable source of revenue. Currently, the downtown suffers from a problem of image/perception – people generally don’t perceive it as the place where you want to go unless you need to. Unfortunately, neither TIF nor other commercial development strategies do much to solve this problem (and we have a few decades of evidence to support this). Instead, we need visionary leadership – coalitions of community leaders, business leaders, and political leaders who can craft and articulate a new vision for the downtown. Filling the vacant lots and transforming the downtown into an attractive space for business and people needs to be a top priority for our city.
Are there any services currently provided by the city that you believe should be cut back or eliminated? Are there new opportunities to share services with other entities?
In recent years, the city has begun to take a more aggressive approach to the demolition of historic buildings. Given our precarious financial situation, it does not make sense to continue to adopt an approach that uses public dollars to destroy buildings that are often very serviceable. We are currently observing this, for example, with the Hamline-Midway Library, a very functional building listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which the city plans to demolish and replace with a modern building. Instead, we can save money, reduce carbon emissions, and support our city’s history by halting these demolition projects, and pursuing more sensible approaches based on renovation.