Nate Nins
Name: Nate Nins
Public Office Sought: St. Paul City Council Ward 5
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 612-990-8363
Campaign Website: nins4ward5.com
Twitter handle:
Facebook Page:
Candidate Bio
I’m a married father of 4. I graduated from Humboldt H.S., then later Hamline University, where I studied Philosophy and Political Science, with a focus on community building.
I served on active duty in the Marine Corps and with the MN Army National Guard as an intelligence analyst and squad leader.
I’m a former librarian and worked at every library in the city when I worked for the St. Paul Public Library, and was also the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Librarian at Anoka County library.
I was previously on the board of directors at the North End Neighborhood Organization (NENO)/District 6 community council and the MN Dispute Resolution Center.
I presently serve on the steering committee for the St. Paul Investment Network (a real estate co-op), the Computer Science program advisory committee at St. Paul College, the curriculum staff for Leadership St. Paul, and as the Vice Chair of the Neighborhood STAR board in the city.
I currently work in Government Technology, where my job revolves around helping government organizations communicate and engage with their residents.
I believe my experience in government communication, public service, and leadership make me a good fit to serve on the City Council.
What style of leadership would you bring to this position?
I’m a servant leader and team builder for sure. My overarching focus would be on improving communication between the city and residents, in hopes that it helps build more trust and confidence. From there, we can keep building our city, but together.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
Economic Development, Housing, and Public Safety. For me these are all very highly intertwined such that solutions in one area can mean improvements in others.
What do you consider the biggest challenge and conversely, the biggest opportunity in St. Paul?
For me the biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity are the same thing: existing systems. I currently work in Government Technology helping organizations make the most from a variety of communication, engagement, and management tools. This gives me a unique perspective not just from a communications standpoint, but from a systems and user experience standpoint.
The “user experience” or resident experience with the city can be very convoluted and hard to understand even for savvy users, but with some creativity we can deliver an experience that makes it easy to for one-time question/answers, but also for returning users.
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?
I would say the business climate in the city is “ready to thrive”. As the Vice Chair of the Neighborhood STAR program in St. Paul, I see that St. Paul has a lot of folks who want to start and maintain a business here. The difficulty is always overcoming the challenges business owners face, not least in light of COVID recovery.
I think the city is compelled to reduce the barriers to success for both employers and employees in order to foster a thriving business community. Though we do also have remember that there is some responsibility to ensure that jobs created here are largely able to be filled by people who already live here.
What are your strategies to address public safety challenges in your community?
We need to keep in mind that results of public safety initiative are oftentimes most accurately measured around 5-10 years after implementation, but we know that’s not an acceptable measure when we have issues right now.
For the short term, we should ensure we provide our law enforcement with enough staff to patrol and respond quickly to incidents.
In the long term, we need to make sure we’re preventing crime from being committed in the first place by promoting and expanding youth employment opportunities, and reinforcing paths to re-entry into the workforce for those who’ve served their time.
What ideas do you have to address housing shortages and affordability?
I think this is an opportunity for creativity. We saw this when St. Paul allowed residents the ability to add accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to their properties, and we can build on this momentum by helping facilitate housing and real estate co-ops to try and supplement traditional housing developments.
We also have a need for emergency and medium-term housing. I ‘d like to see consideration made to using existing city buildings as emergency housing, particularly during the winter months. I also see an opportunity to have conversations with local colleges and hotels around longer-term options for folks who are looking to get back on their feet or establish themselves while also providing income to businesses.
St. Paul candidates only: Do you support the rent stabilization ordinance in its current form? If not, what would you like to change?
As a former renter, I do support the rent stabilization ordinance, and as a relatively new homeowner, I can appreciate the implications that could have on landlords.
This is a tough situation for everyone, and I think the main driver for me is that stability for renters can mean an economic benefit for the city by way of attracting and retaining folks who will spend their money and make a life here.
How would you work to improve transportation options in your community, including improved safety for transit riders, pedestrian/bike, and drivers alike?
I think the Dale St. and Rice St. road work projects will do a lot to improve transportation variety and safety, particularly in Ward 5.
The work between the City and Ramsey County has demonstrated how this kind of project can be implemented across different organizations, so now may be a good opportunity to see how this collaboration can be replicated in other areas.
What will you do to expand St. Paul’s tax base?
A multi-pronged approach focusing on supporting existing business, incubating new ones, and providing opportunities for residents to acquire and practice skills that can be used to gain employment with St. Paul companies.
For me, this looks like making it easy for business to find a receive assistance if they need it, expanding opportunities for job skills training, and identifying opportunities for apprenticeships at local businesses.
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?
I don’t want to come in with too many presumptions or assumptions, so my first order of business won’t be to make a lot of changes to services. What I want to do instead is to identify the ways in which we can better deliver the services we currently have, which will absolutely involve working with others who might already have expertise in a particular area of need.
Public Office Sought: St. Paul City Council Ward 5
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 612-990-8363
Campaign Website: nins4ward5.com
Twitter handle:
Facebook Page:
Candidate Bio
I’m a married father of 4. I graduated from Humboldt H.S., then later Hamline University, where I studied Philosophy and Political Science, with a focus on community building.
I served on active duty in the Marine Corps and with the MN Army National Guard as an intelligence analyst and squad leader.
I’m a former librarian and worked at every library in the city when I worked for the St. Paul Public Library, and was also the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Librarian at Anoka County library.
I was previously on the board of directors at the North End Neighborhood Organization (NENO)/District 6 community council and the MN Dispute Resolution Center.
I presently serve on the steering committee for the St. Paul Investment Network (a real estate co-op), the Computer Science program advisory committee at St. Paul College, the curriculum staff for Leadership St. Paul, and as the Vice Chair of the Neighborhood STAR board in the city.
I currently work in Government Technology, where my job revolves around helping government organizations communicate and engage with their residents.
I believe my experience in government communication, public service, and leadership make me a good fit to serve on the City Council.
What style of leadership would you bring to this position?
I’m a servant leader and team builder for sure. My overarching focus would be on improving communication between the city and residents, in hopes that it helps build more trust and confidence. From there, we can keep building our city, but together.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
Economic Development, Housing, and Public Safety. For me these are all very highly intertwined such that solutions in one area can mean improvements in others.
What do you consider the biggest challenge and conversely, the biggest opportunity in St. Paul?
For me the biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity are the same thing: existing systems. I currently work in Government Technology helping organizations make the most from a variety of communication, engagement, and management tools. This gives me a unique perspective not just from a communications standpoint, but from a systems and user experience standpoint.
The “user experience” or resident experience with the city can be very convoluted and hard to understand even for savvy users, but with some creativity we can deliver an experience that makes it easy to for one-time question/answers, but also for returning users.
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?
I would say the business climate in the city is “ready to thrive”. As the Vice Chair of the Neighborhood STAR program in St. Paul, I see that St. Paul has a lot of folks who want to start and maintain a business here. The difficulty is always overcoming the challenges business owners face, not least in light of COVID recovery.
I think the city is compelled to reduce the barriers to success for both employers and employees in order to foster a thriving business community. Though we do also have remember that there is some responsibility to ensure that jobs created here are largely able to be filled by people who already live here.
What are your strategies to address public safety challenges in your community?
We need to keep in mind that results of public safety initiative are oftentimes most accurately measured around 5-10 years after implementation, but we know that’s not an acceptable measure when we have issues right now.
For the short term, we should ensure we provide our law enforcement with enough staff to patrol and respond quickly to incidents.
In the long term, we need to make sure we’re preventing crime from being committed in the first place by promoting and expanding youth employment opportunities, and reinforcing paths to re-entry into the workforce for those who’ve served their time.
What ideas do you have to address housing shortages and affordability?
I think this is an opportunity for creativity. We saw this when St. Paul allowed residents the ability to add accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to their properties, and we can build on this momentum by helping facilitate housing and real estate co-ops to try and supplement traditional housing developments.
We also have a need for emergency and medium-term housing. I ‘d like to see consideration made to using existing city buildings as emergency housing, particularly during the winter months. I also see an opportunity to have conversations with local colleges and hotels around longer-term options for folks who are looking to get back on their feet or establish themselves while also providing income to businesses.
St. Paul candidates only: Do you support the rent stabilization ordinance in its current form? If not, what would you like to change?
As a former renter, I do support the rent stabilization ordinance, and as a relatively new homeowner, I can appreciate the implications that could have on landlords.
This is a tough situation for everyone, and I think the main driver for me is that stability for renters can mean an economic benefit for the city by way of attracting and retaining folks who will spend their money and make a life here.
How would you work to improve transportation options in your community, including improved safety for transit riders, pedestrian/bike, and drivers alike?
I think the Dale St. and Rice St. road work projects will do a lot to improve transportation variety and safety, particularly in Ward 5.
The work between the City and Ramsey County has demonstrated how this kind of project can be implemented across different organizations, so now may be a good opportunity to see how this collaboration can be replicated in other areas.
What will you do to expand St. Paul’s tax base?
A multi-pronged approach focusing on supporting existing business, incubating new ones, and providing opportunities for residents to acquire and practice skills that can be used to gain employment with St. Paul companies.
For me, this looks like making it easy for business to find a receive assistance if they need it, expanding opportunities for job skills training, and identifying opportunities for apprenticeships at local businesses.
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?
I don’t want to come in with too many presumptions or assumptions, so my first order of business won’t be to make a lot of changes to services. What I want to do instead is to identify the ways in which we can better deliver the services we currently have, which will absolutely involve working with others who might already have expertise in a particular area of need.