Yan Chen
Name: Yan Chen
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 6127183672
Campaign Website: YanChenMN.com
Twitter handle:
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572314556508
Candidate Bio
As a scientist, I identify root causes, and build solutions grounded in results. As a mother, I fight for a future where everyone can thrive and contribute. As an immigrant, I’ve learned resilience—turning challenges into opportunities and doing more with less. As a business owner and housing revitalizer, I invest in people while strengthening our community’s foundation.
What style of leadership would you bring to this position?
I am a research scientist, a PhD biophysicist with 59 peer-reviewed publications. I will bring that same problem-solving approach to City Hall: formulate hypotheses, test them through results, and adjust. I intend to be a hands-on mayor, focusing on the City’s priorities to identify where changes are needed to make our programs more effective. Just as in science, collaboration is key—I believe our city can achieve far more by working together across departments and with other government entities, using our resources more efficiently to serve residents better.
What would be your top three priorities if elected? How might these priorities be affected by the state's projected economic outlook?
These priorities are, indeed, informed the economic outlook is the coming cuts in federal dollars available to Saint Paul as COVID programs end and the present austerity policies of the Trump administration begin to be felt locally. We have to learn to do more with less, and I believe we can because so much of the city’s spending appears to have not been effective at achieving the results they were supposed to.
What do you consider the biggest challenge and conversely, the biggest opportunity in Saint Paul?
The biggest challenge is how to rebuild trust with people. Residents of, and visitors to, Saint Paul have become wary of our streets, public transit, businesses, parks, and skyways. This loss of trust is a result of many different issues, but ultimately affects people’s willingness to live and work here, which then affects the City’s growth.
The greatest opportunity for St. Paul lies in our immense resources—our engaged communities, our riverfront, and our naturally occurring affordable housing stock. The mayor’s role is an executive one: if we use these resources wisely and strategically, we can turn our city around in no time.
What is your perspective on the rent stabilization ordinance in Saint Paul, and how do you view its effect on housing availability, affordability, and the city's economic climate?
I think rent stabilization was a mistake and that rent control causes more poverty than it alleviates. It has also failed to be implemented, with rents actually rising higher in Saint Paul than in Minneapolis where rent stabilization policies are not in place. Overall, rents have not declined or stabilized, and the policy is not helping the people it was intended to.
As mayor,
What steps would you take to revitalize downtown Saint Paul and promote long-term economic growth in the area?
The potential of downtown is tremendous. Once we stabilize and revitalize it, we can unlock even greater opportunities—transforming our riverfront into a true “third space” where generations of residents can gather, connect, and thrive.
To revitalize downtown now, my administration will focus on three priorities:
Please characterize your perspective on the ideal collaboration between government and the business community when it comes to tackling challenges whether they be education, housing, or workforce development?
With businesses being successful, we can continue to engage the business community in public-private partnerships to assist with many of the aforementioned challenges the city faces regarding public safety, homelessness, housing, and other social challenges. I recently attended a playground-building event that was funded partly by a private company and largely staffed by neighborhood volunteers, which brought people together and kept costs low for the City.
How would you characterize the business climate in Saint Paul and what role do you think the city should have in attracting and retaining jobs and new businesses in Saint Paul?
The business climate in Saint Paul right now is poor for too many employers and potential employers. That’s evident by the empty offices and storefronts and the high numbers of businesses that have been closing and leaving the city. For this reason, it is important that the mayor take the lead in facilitating strategic discussions among Saint Paul’s existing employers about how to purposefully retain and expand their businesses in Saint Paul instead of closing or expanding elsewhere. As mayor, I would explore engagement with the University of Minnesota’s own successful Business Retention and Expansion programs to engage existing downtown employers and residents to identify the real bottlenecks businesses have and act on them quickly through city policy.
The recent closure of Cub Foods in Midway didn’t happen overnight—the warning signs were there for a long time. Yet, our mayor failed to engage with management to address shoplifting and safety concerns. Now, we risk seeing Walgreens in downtown St. Paul close as well, unless the city acts immediately.
Public safety is at the top of my priorities. We must not only address crime but also provide real rehabilitation so people are less likely to harm businesses or their own community. A safe and stable city is the foundation for strong neighborhoods and thriving local businesses.
What are your strategies to address public safety challenges in your community?
The Twin Cities have experienced a crisis of confidence in our public safety professionals by many citizens, and I want to prioritize repairing that trust.
Public safety requires coordination among state agencies, county services, and our police department – each with a distinct role.
To keep our city safe, every level of government must do its part. As mayor, I will work tirelessly to ensure coordination across agencies while developing smart, adaptive policies with the city council—making our police force more effective and responsive to all levels of threats to safety, including quality of life criminal behavior..
I’m hoping to explore a number of experimental policy changes that have been successful in other cities that could increase the effectiveness of our public safety laws in Saint Paul, while simultaneously reducing the negative impacts those laws have on those who are already struggling in our city.
How would you work to improve transportation options in your community, including improved safety for transit riders, pedestrian/bike, and drivers alike?
First, I will focus on improving what we already have. That means working closely with Metro Transit to make the Green Line safer and to increase the frequency and reliability of our bus service. At the same time, our city must strengthen its infrastructure by adopting best practices from other cities that have successfully done more with less.
Next, we need a comprehensive transit plan—not just a bike lane plan. This plan must integrate all modes of transportation and be aligned with housing development, since transit and housing are inseparable in creating a livable city.
My approach to transportation will prioritize convenience and safety for everyone, no matter how they travel. Research shows that focusing only on cars is shortsighted and harms cities in the long run. That’s why I will champion multi-modal corridors—streets designed for cyclists, pedestrians, and reliable, clean public transit, while still accommodating cars in a smarter way. Reducing unnecessary car trips will remain a top priority, because that is how we build healthier, more connected urban infrastructure.
Cities have addressed many ongoing needs with temporary, federal COVID relief dollars, what are your plans to ensure fiscal stability with the uncertainty surrounding future federal funding and the expiration of temporary COVID relief dollars?
When I studied our city budget back in 2022, it was clear to me that the city had no shovel-ready projects for COVID relief funds and no plan to use that unique resource for one-time improvements that could have strengthened our financial future.
That opportunity is gone—but what can we do now? We must take a hard look at our spending, starting with the 2008 budget I first analyzed. For every program, we will ask: has this delivered real results for our residents? Programs that work will continue. Programs that fail to meet expectations will be reformed and sometimes eliminated, with resources and employees moved to more productive priorities.
At the same time, we will prepare for the future by developing shovel-ready projects so that if one-time stimulus money ever becomes available again, we can seize the opportunity to invest in long-term improvements that truly benefit our city.
Uber/Lyft wages and proposed childcare subsidies funded by local property taxes are just a few areas where local units of government are wading into policy debates that may be best suited at the state. Please articulate the different scopes of work between state and local government (City/County). Are there specific areas of policy that the city should lead on in lieu of the state or county government?
I believe local experimentation is important in some cases, but not all cases — for example, Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is a policy currently tested at the city level if the intention is to understand how to make it work effectively.
But not every policy works well locally. When a policy is tied to state-level economic interests, a city acting on its own can unintentionally drive jobs and businesses away, even if the goal is to help workers. Instead, our city should support workers in ways that strengthen both families and the economy—such as expanding opportunities for affordable housing for renters and homeowners alike.
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 6127183672
Campaign Website: YanChenMN.com
Twitter handle:
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572314556508
Candidate Bio
As a scientist, I identify root causes, and build solutions grounded in results. As a mother, I fight for a future where everyone can thrive and contribute. As an immigrant, I’ve learned resilience—turning challenges into opportunities and doing more with less. As a business owner and housing revitalizer, I invest in people while strengthening our community’s foundation.
What style of leadership would you bring to this position?
I am a research scientist, a PhD biophysicist with 59 peer-reviewed publications. I will bring that same problem-solving approach to City Hall: formulate hypotheses, test them through results, and adjust. I intend to be a hands-on mayor, focusing on the City’s priorities to identify where changes are needed to make our programs more effective. Just as in science, collaboration is key—I believe our city can achieve far more by working together across departments and with other government entities, using our resources more efficiently to serve residents better.
What would be your top three priorities if elected? How might these priorities be affected by the state's projected economic outlook?
- We must reduce crime and petty offenses while ensuring real rehabilitation opportunities. Safety and security must remain a top priority for city government, because trust is the foundation of a strong community.
- I will hold the line on taxes by keeping city levies flat and urging the County and School Board to do the same.
- I will give residents a stronger voice—engaging the community early to prevent conflicts and shape smarter, lasting solutions for St. Paul.
These priorities are, indeed, informed the economic outlook is the coming cuts in federal dollars available to Saint Paul as COVID programs end and the present austerity policies of the Trump administration begin to be felt locally. We have to learn to do more with less, and I believe we can because so much of the city’s spending appears to have not been effective at achieving the results they were supposed to.
What do you consider the biggest challenge and conversely, the biggest opportunity in Saint Paul?
The biggest challenge is how to rebuild trust with people. Residents of, and visitors to, Saint Paul have become wary of our streets, public transit, businesses, parks, and skyways. This loss of trust is a result of many different issues, but ultimately affects people’s willingness to live and work here, which then affects the City’s growth.
The greatest opportunity for St. Paul lies in our immense resources—our engaged communities, our riverfront, and our naturally occurring affordable housing stock. The mayor’s role is an executive one: if we use these resources wisely and strategically, we can turn our city around in no time.
What is your perspective on the rent stabilization ordinance in Saint Paul, and how do you view its effect on housing availability, affordability, and the city's economic climate?
I think rent stabilization was a mistake and that rent control causes more poverty than it alleviates. It has also failed to be implemented, with rents actually rising higher in Saint Paul than in Minneapolis where rent stabilization policies are not in place. Overall, rents have not declined or stabilized, and the policy is not helping the people it was intended to.
As mayor,
- I would like to see more new construction be of market rate housing while affordable housing be focused on rehabilitation of existing homes.
- I will conduct a deep analysis of St. Paul’s housing data over the past 50 years to fully understand housing affordability trends. Particular attention will be given to the years when rent control was enacted. Based on the evidence, we will determine whether the ordinance should be repealed or maintained in its current form—if the data shows it does not create negative financial impacts for our residents.
What steps would you take to revitalize downtown Saint Paul and promote long-term economic growth in the area?
The potential of downtown is tremendous. Once we stabilize and revitalize it, we can unlock even greater opportunities—transforming our riverfront into a true “third space” where generations of residents can gather, connect, and thrive.
To revitalize downtown now, my administration will focus on three priorities:
- Ensure safety—because nothing else works until people and businesses feel secure.
- Fix parking—explore options to provide free parking in empty downtown ramps for employers, as well as a few hours of visitor parking in those lots, while continuing metered parking on streets downtown.
- Support residents and businesses—meet the immediate needs of our 9,000 downtown residents by bringing in essential shops and services, create more open-street venues in the summer, and attract additional businesses to serve the wider community.
Please characterize your perspective on the ideal collaboration between government and the business community when it comes to tackling challenges whether they be education, housing, or workforce development?
With businesses being successful, we can continue to engage the business community in public-private partnerships to assist with many of the aforementioned challenges the city faces regarding public safety, homelessness, housing, and other social challenges. I recently attended a playground-building event that was funded partly by a private company and largely staffed by neighborhood volunteers, which brought people together and kept costs low for the City.
How would you characterize the business climate in Saint Paul and what role do you think the city should have in attracting and retaining jobs and new businesses in Saint Paul?
The business climate in Saint Paul right now is poor for too many employers and potential employers. That’s evident by the empty offices and storefronts and the high numbers of businesses that have been closing and leaving the city. For this reason, it is important that the mayor take the lead in facilitating strategic discussions among Saint Paul’s existing employers about how to purposefully retain and expand their businesses in Saint Paul instead of closing or expanding elsewhere. As mayor, I would explore engagement with the University of Minnesota’s own successful Business Retention and Expansion programs to engage existing downtown employers and residents to identify the real bottlenecks businesses have and act on them quickly through city policy.
The recent closure of Cub Foods in Midway didn’t happen overnight—the warning signs were there for a long time. Yet, our mayor failed to engage with management to address shoplifting and safety concerns. Now, we risk seeing Walgreens in downtown St. Paul close as well, unless the city acts immediately.
Public safety is at the top of my priorities. We must not only address crime but also provide real rehabilitation so people are less likely to harm businesses or their own community. A safe and stable city is the foundation for strong neighborhoods and thriving local businesses.
What are your strategies to address public safety challenges in your community?
The Twin Cities have experienced a crisis of confidence in our public safety professionals by many citizens, and I want to prioritize repairing that trust.
Public safety requires coordination among state agencies, county services, and our police department – each with a distinct role.
- The state and county social services serve as the doctors, helping to rehabilitate people.
- Our police department and community act as the first identifiers, spotting harmful behavior and addressing problems before they escalate.
To keep our city safe, every level of government must do its part. As mayor, I will work tirelessly to ensure coordination across agencies while developing smart, adaptive policies with the city council—making our police force more effective and responsive to all levels of threats to safety, including quality of life criminal behavior..
I’m hoping to explore a number of experimental policy changes that have been successful in other cities that could increase the effectiveness of our public safety laws in Saint Paul, while simultaneously reducing the negative impacts those laws have on those who are already struggling in our city.
How would you work to improve transportation options in your community, including improved safety for transit riders, pedestrian/bike, and drivers alike?
First, I will focus on improving what we already have. That means working closely with Metro Transit to make the Green Line safer and to increase the frequency and reliability of our bus service. At the same time, our city must strengthen its infrastructure by adopting best practices from other cities that have successfully done more with less.
Next, we need a comprehensive transit plan—not just a bike lane plan. This plan must integrate all modes of transportation and be aligned with housing development, since transit and housing are inseparable in creating a livable city.
My approach to transportation will prioritize convenience and safety for everyone, no matter how they travel. Research shows that focusing only on cars is shortsighted and harms cities in the long run. That’s why I will champion multi-modal corridors—streets designed for cyclists, pedestrians, and reliable, clean public transit, while still accommodating cars in a smarter way. Reducing unnecessary car trips will remain a top priority, because that is how we build healthier, more connected urban infrastructure.
Cities have addressed many ongoing needs with temporary, federal COVID relief dollars, what are your plans to ensure fiscal stability with the uncertainty surrounding future federal funding and the expiration of temporary COVID relief dollars?
When I studied our city budget back in 2022, it was clear to me that the city had no shovel-ready projects for COVID relief funds and no plan to use that unique resource for one-time improvements that could have strengthened our financial future.
That opportunity is gone—but what can we do now? We must take a hard look at our spending, starting with the 2008 budget I first analyzed. For every program, we will ask: has this delivered real results for our residents? Programs that work will continue. Programs that fail to meet expectations will be reformed and sometimes eliminated, with resources and employees moved to more productive priorities.
At the same time, we will prepare for the future by developing shovel-ready projects so that if one-time stimulus money ever becomes available again, we can seize the opportunity to invest in long-term improvements that truly benefit our city.
Uber/Lyft wages and proposed childcare subsidies funded by local property taxes are just a few areas where local units of government are wading into policy debates that may be best suited at the state. Please articulate the different scopes of work between state and local government (City/County). Are there specific areas of policy that the city should lead on in lieu of the state or county government?
I believe local experimentation is important in some cases, but not all cases — for example, Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is a policy currently tested at the city level if the intention is to understand how to make it work effectively.
But not every policy works well locally. When a policy is tied to state-level economic interests, a city acting on its own can unintentionally drive jobs and businesses away, even if the goal is to help workers. Instead, our city should support workers in ways that strengthen both families and the economy—such as expanding opportunities for affordable housing for renters and homeowners alike.