Rebecca Noecker
Name: Rebecca Noecker
Public Office Sought: St. Paul City Council Ward 2
Email: rebeccaforsaintpaul@gmail.com
Campaign Phone: 651-314-9311
Campaign Website: www.rebeccanoecker.com
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/RebeccaNoecker
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Rebecca-Noecker-for-City-Council-1472534133020841
Candidate Bio
Rebecca is a proud resident of Saint Paul’s West Side, a community builder, a relentless optimist, a wife and mother. She is committed to working hard, to seeing all sides of a problem, to listening and to getting things done. From a young age, her Jewish tradition taught her the value of rolling up one’s sleeves and diving into community problems. Rebecca spent her early career teaching in Baton Rouge and working at non-profits in India and Uganda. Her experiences showed her the power of local government to make a positive impact on people’s lives, and the damage wrought by not having access to a responsible and accountable government. She ran for office to make St. Paul the best city in the world to work, to learn, to have fun and to raise a family. In her first two terms, Rebecca has been a leader on the Council on public safety, economic development, education and government accountability. Rebecca has been honored to serve the people of Saint Paul, and is thrilled to be running for another term.
What style of leadership would you bring to this position?
I try to model an inclusive and solutions-oriented leadership style. Over the last eight years, I have worked hard to make sure everyone is included in the process and has their voices heard in important city policy matters. Broad collaboration with people who think differently and have different life experiences creates better and longer-lasting policy with broader public support. I also focus on results and tangible action over abstract discussion. Local government is the level where we can get real results for our constituents and I’m constantly driving toward outcomes that make things better for people in their daily lives.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
Make it easier for working families to live in St. Paul by expanding access to quality child care, affordable housing and jobs
Invest in our infrastructure, especially where deferred maintenance has taken a toll - roads, bridges, bike lanes and city buildings and parks
Expand our tax base and find reliable new revenue models to stabilize our city budget so we can preserve our high-quality city services and add new programs without unsustainable tax increases year over year
What do you consider the biggest challenge and conversely, the biggest opportunity in St. Paul?
The biggest challenge in St. Paul is to accommodate growth while preserving what we love best about our city and making sure all our neighbors share in the benefits of growth. The biggest opportunity is to reinvent ourselves as we come out of the shadow of the pandemic. We can and must find ways to combat chemical addiction and hopelessness, help everyone in our community find a home, make it easier for working parents to afford child care, fill vacant office space with light manufacturing, co-working and other uses that reflect our new hybrid work reality and so on. In a city with abundant natural, historical, cultural resources and the thick network of social capital that binds us together, we can do all this and much more.
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?
The business climate in St. Paul is inconsistent. There is stagnation in some areas, as evidenced by vacant retail and commercial office space downtown. There’s immense creativity and growth in others, as seen by the number of new coffee shops, restaurants, light manufacturing and high-tech businesses that have opened and maintained strength during the pandemic. There’s also pervasive doubt as to whether the City truly values businesses and jobs. We need to counter that cynicism by more actively engaging with the business community and by demonstrating with actions, not just words, our commitment to economic growth. As a city with growing needs, we must attract new companies and jobs and we must pivot to new uses of commercial space, including residential conversions, co-working and light manufacturing, to respond to the new reality in which companies and workers don’t always go together. This means using our influence when possible and financial incentives where necessary. It also means treating our business leaders like the experts they are and coming to them for ideas, not just with asks.
What are your strategies to address public safety challenges in your community?
I believe public safety begins long before an individual comes into contact with a law enforcement officer. Safety means stable housing, quality child care and early learning, great schools, bike lanes and crosswalks and lower speed limits, commercial corridors full of businesses so there are constant “eyes on the street” and so on. Public safety means sending the right individual to each call - we’ve reformed our 911 system so that we can dispatch a mental health counselor, a crisis-intervention-trained officer, or a Street Team member depending on the need. Public safety means a police department that has at its foundation a commitment to trusted service with respect, and that’s held accountable through a civilian review commission and public feedback on each officer interaction. Public safety means a fully staffed police department, which is why I’ve supported funding for an additional police academy each year. Public safety means using proven methods like Group Violence Intervention (GVI) and gun regulations, like the safe storage ordinance I authored to prevent theft of guns from cars and to keep guns out of children’s hands. I look forward to continuing this work in a third term.
What ideas do you have to address housing shortages and affordability?
As a city, one of our highest priorities needs to be improving access to affordable housing for working families. We can do this in a number of ways, starting by increasing funding for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and by making housing funding available for the full spectrum of housing types in the city - from emergency shelters for the homeless to supportive housing to subsidized rental to ownership. These are issues that I have championed at City Hall and will continue to advance.
Our solution to address the housing shortage and therefore, housing affordable, comes from increasing the supply of housing in Saint Paul. As a member of the Planning Commission, I was a consistent advocate for more dense construction, voting down projects that were not the “highest or best” use for a site – for example, when a developer wanted a permit to build a storage facility on land next to the river and the new Schmidt Artist Lofts.
We are currently working on a large scale change to our zoning regulations in Saint Paul through the 1-4-unit housing study. These changes would allow for construction of diverse range of housing options including duplexes and triplexes in more parts of the city. While the issue is still under debate, I believe this effort is a very good step toward expanded supply, a critical factor in housing affordability.
St. Paul candidates only: Do you support the rent stabilization ordinance in its current form? If not, what would you like to change?
Yes, I think the current ordinance is a good example of compromise and collaborative policymaking that protects tenants from unpredictable rent hikes while ensuring property owners and developers a return on their investment. Expanding the supply of housing is critical to ensuring tenant power and choice, so any effective rent stabilization policy must incentivize housing production along with tenant protection.
How would you work to improve transportation options in your community, including improved safety for transit riders, pedestrian/bike, and drivers alike?
I am a strong advocate for expanding our city’s bike network, including the Capital City Bikeway downtown. I speak regularly with my colleagues at Metro Transit Police about increasing safety on our buses and trains. I’m working closely with constituents on improving pedestrian safety by allocating additional dollars in our annual budget to crosswalks, bumpouts and other infrastructure and also supporting a citywide traffic/crash study to make pedestrian safety improvements more systematic. I’m proud that we’ve added sidewalks and bumpouts on Annapolis and Robert Streets and slowed speed limits on Cesar Chavez in response to community concerns. Each year during our budget process, I look for options to increase funding for street and sidewalk maintenance. All of these initiatives will diversify our transportation options and improve pedestrian safety.
What will you do to expand St. Paul’s tax base?
I am very concerned that our tax base is not sufficient to continue to deliver outstanding public services and build prosperity. To increase our tax base, we need to attract more commercial and industrial enterprises to the city, as these are the only land uses that pay more in revenue than they use in services. This can be partly done through policy change, such as expanding business incentive programs to cover more small businesses, giving priority to those businesses that pay a living wage. I’m very pleased that we are about to launch St. Paul’s answer to the B-TAP program in Minneapolis to provide better service and outreach to small businesses. We also need to pay diligent, proactive attention to where vacancies exist, both within Saint Paul’s commercial main streets and in areas suitable for industrial or manufacturing businesses, and recruit businesses that provide those services to fill the gaps. This is particularly true with regard to commercial vacancies downtown. As a Councilmember, I am constantly on the lookout for opportunities to attract new employers, I’m frequently in conversation with existing businesses about what’s needed to keep them in St. Paul and I’m paying close attention to the national conversation about the best strategies for downtown recovery.
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 believe we need to either divest ourselves of the responsibility to maintain and plow roads owned by the state and Ramsey County or insist on being paid the full cost of that work. We also need to make sure we’re recouping the full cost of providing police and fire services and training to surrounding jurisdictions. Overall, I believe strongly in the value of partnership and I believe we should first look to enhance the work of others before we take on new initiatives ourselves, especially in areas where our nonprofit or educational institutions are already doing good work.
Public Office Sought: St. Paul City Council Ward 2
Email: rebeccaforsaintpaul@gmail.com
Campaign Phone: 651-314-9311
Campaign Website: www.rebeccanoecker.com
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/RebeccaNoecker
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Rebecca-Noecker-for-City-Council-1472534133020841
Candidate Bio
Rebecca is a proud resident of Saint Paul’s West Side, a community builder, a relentless optimist, a wife and mother. She is committed to working hard, to seeing all sides of a problem, to listening and to getting things done. From a young age, her Jewish tradition taught her the value of rolling up one’s sleeves and diving into community problems. Rebecca spent her early career teaching in Baton Rouge and working at non-profits in India and Uganda. Her experiences showed her the power of local government to make a positive impact on people’s lives, and the damage wrought by not having access to a responsible and accountable government. She ran for office to make St. Paul the best city in the world to work, to learn, to have fun and to raise a family. In her first two terms, Rebecca has been a leader on the Council on public safety, economic development, education and government accountability. Rebecca has been honored to serve the people of Saint Paul, and is thrilled to be running for another term.
What style of leadership would you bring to this position?
I try to model an inclusive and solutions-oriented leadership style. Over the last eight years, I have worked hard to make sure everyone is included in the process and has their voices heard in important city policy matters. Broad collaboration with people who think differently and have different life experiences creates better and longer-lasting policy with broader public support. I also focus on results and tangible action over abstract discussion. Local government is the level where we can get real results for our constituents and I’m constantly driving toward outcomes that make things better for people in their daily lives.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
Make it easier for working families to live in St. Paul by expanding access to quality child care, affordable housing and jobs
Invest in our infrastructure, especially where deferred maintenance has taken a toll - roads, bridges, bike lanes and city buildings and parks
Expand our tax base and find reliable new revenue models to stabilize our city budget so we can preserve our high-quality city services and add new programs without unsustainable tax increases year over year
What do you consider the biggest challenge and conversely, the biggest opportunity in St. Paul?
The biggest challenge in St. Paul is to accommodate growth while preserving what we love best about our city and making sure all our neighbors share in the benefits of growth. The biggest opportunity is to reinvent ourselves as we come out of the shadow of the pandemic. We can and must find ways to combat chemical addiction and hopelessness, help everyone in our community find a home, make it easier for working parents to afford child care, fill vacant office space with light manufacturing, co-working and other uses that reflect our new hybrid work reality and so on. In a city with abundant natural, historical, cultural resources and the thick network of social capital that binds us together, we can do all this and much more.
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?
The business climate in St. Paul is inconsistent. There is stagnation in some areas, as evidenced by vacant retail and commercial office space downtown. There’s immense creativity and growth in others, as seen by the number of new coffee shops, restaurants, light manufacturing and high-tech businesses that have opened and maintained strength during the pandemic. There’s also pervasive doubt as to whether the City truly values businesses and jobs. We need to counter that cynicism by more actively engaging with the business community and by demonstrating with actions, not just words, our commitment to economic growth. As a city with growing needs, we must attract new companies and jobs and we must pivot to new uses of commercial space, including residential conversions, co-working and light manufacturing, to respond to the new reality in which companies and workers don’t always go together. This means using our influence when possible and financial incentives where necessary. It also means treating our business leaders like the experts they are and coming to them for ideas, not just with asks.
What are your strategies to address public safety challenges in your community?
I believe public safety begins long before an individual comes into contact with a law enforcement officer. Safety means stable housing, quality child care and early learning, great schools, bike lanes and crosswalks and lower speed limits, commercial corridors full of businesses so there are constant “eyes on the street” and so on. Public safety means sending the right individual to each call - we’ve reformed our 911 system so that we can dispatch a mental health counselor, a crisis-intervention-trained officer, or a Street Team member depending on the need. Public safety means a police department that has at its foundation a commitment to trusted service with respect, and that’s held accountable through a civilian review commission and public feedback on each officer interaction. Public safety means a fully staffed police department, which is why I’ve supported funding for an additional police academy each year. Public safety means using proven methods like Group Violence Intervention (GVI) and gun regulations, like the safe storage ordinance I authored to prevent theft of guns from cars and to keep guns out of children’s hands. I look forward to continuing this work in a third term.
What ideas do you have to address housing shortages and affordability?
As a city, one of our highest priorities needs to be improving access to affordable housing for working families. We can do this in a number of ways, starting by increasing funding for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and by making housing funding available for the full spectrum of housing types in the city - from emergency shelters for the homeless to supportive housing to subsidized rental to ownership. These are issues that I have championed at City Hall and will continue to advance.
Our solution to address the housing shortage and therefore, housing affordable, comes from increasing the supply of housing in Saint Paul. As a member of the Planning Commission, I was a consistent advocate for more dense construction, voting down projects that were not the “highest or best” use for a site – for example, when a developer wanted a permit to build a storage facility on land next to the river and the new Schmidt Artist Lofts.
We are currently working on a large scale change to our zoning regulations in Saint Paul through the 1-4-unit housing study. These changes would allow for construction of diverse range of housing options including duplexes and triplexes in more parts of the city. While the issue is still under debate, I believe this effort is a very good step toward expanded supply, a critical factor in housing affordability.
St. Paul candidates only: Do you support the rent stabilization ordinance in its current form? If not, what would you like to change?
Yes, I think the current ordinance is a good example of compromise and collaborative policymaking that protects tenants from unpredictable rent hikes while ensuring property owners and developers a return on their investment. Expanding the supply of housing is critical to ensuring tenant power and choice, so any effective rent stabilization policy must incentivize housing production along with tenant protection.
How would you work to improve transportation options in your community, including improved safety for transit riders, pedestrian/bike, and drivers alike?
I am a strong advocate for expanding our city’s bike network, including the Capital City Bikeway downtown. I speak regularly with my colleagues at Metro Transit Police about increasing safety on our buses and trains. I’m working closely with constituents on improving pedestrian safety by allocating additional dollars in our annual budget to crosswalks, bumpouts and other infrastructure and also supporting a citywide traffic/crash study to make pedestrian safety improvements more systematic. I’m proud that we’ve added sidewalks and bumpouts on Annapolis and Robert Streets and slowed speed limits on Cesar Chavez in response to community concerns. Each year during our budget process, I look for options to increase funding for street and sidewalk maintenance. All of these initiatives will diversify our transportation options and improve pedestrian safety.
What will you do to expand St. Paul’s tax base?
I am very concerned that our tax base is not sufficient to continue to deliver outstanding public services and build prosperity. To increase our tax base, we need to attract more commercial and industrial enterprises to the city, as these are the only land uses that pay more in revenue than they use in services. This can be partly done through policy change, such as expanding business incentive programs to cover more small businesses, giving priority to those businesses that pay a living wage. I’m very pleased that we are about to launch St. Paul’s answer to the B-TAP program in Minneapolis to provide better service and outreach to small businesses. We also need to pay diligent, proactive attention to where vacancies exist, both within Saint Paul’s commercial main streets and in areas suitable for industrial or manufacturing businesses, and recruit businesses that provide those services to fill the gaps. This is particularly true with regard to commercial vacancies downtown. As a Councilmember, I am constantly on the lookout for opportunities to attract new employers, I’m frequently in conversation with existing businesses about what’s needed to keep them in St. Paul and I’m paying close attention to the national conversation about the best strategies for downtown recovery.
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 believe we need to either divest ourselves of the responsibility to maintain and plow roads owned by the state and Ramsey County or insist on being paid the full cost of that work. We also need to make sure we’re recouping the full cost of providing police and fire services and training to surrounding jurisdictions. Overall, I believe strongly in the value of partnership and I believe we should first look to enhance the work of others before we take on new initiatives ourselves, especially in areas where our nonprofit or educational institutions are already doing good work.