The corner of Rice and the Surveyor has two big things going against it. First of all, almost every building nearby is a mall or drive-thru, set back from the street and preceded by parking lots that engulf pedestrians like a frog eating a fly.

Second, the intersection is a rare place where three towns come together: St. Paul, Maplewood and Roseville. For most people, the intersection is literally and figuratively marginal, a place that disappears on a city map, occupying the extreme limit of anyone’s attention.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. For five years now, a group of residents, traders and elected officials have been changing the story and the landscape of the neighborhood. Called on Riz-Larpenteur Alliance, a project run by the Saint-Paul Region Chamber of Commerce, they slowly tried to change parking lots, sidewalks, streets and stories to improve both the area and the lives of the people who depend on it.

“Three cities together, each… their own communities,” said Trista MatasCastillo, who represents the northern part of St. Paul on the Ramsey County Board of Directors. “There is quite a large ethnic diversity. It’s a white neighborhood, it’s a black neighborhood. It is a Karen, Nepalese and Burmese district. There are also a lot of Latinos in the area. It’s quite diverse.

Any glance at shopping centers confirms this feeling. At the corner of St. Paul, Thai Street Market and Hearthside Pizza frame a large thrift store. On the Maplewood side, you’ll find fried seafood joints and Nepalese restaurants among pawn shops and chiropractors. Roseville brings Burmese coffee to the table, between dollar stores, tobacco shops, and drugstores.

The Rice-Larpenter Alliance has been trying to change people’s perception of the area by focusing for years on economic development and small-scale improvements that have encouraged people to re-imagine the area.

“I came here to honor the community”

“There’s still a lot of work to do, and we all know that,” said Roseville Mayor Dan Roe, who was one of the politicians gathered at the celebration last weekend at Lake McCarrons Park. The event was to celebrate the completion of a mosaic by South Asian-American artist Shakun Maheshwari, which now shines on the wall of the main park shelter building.

McCarrons is one of the few suburban lakes in the Twin Cities that is easily accessible by public transit. Its beach has been an escape for everyone from rice and university to the heights of Vadnais for a hundred years. Today, the lakeside park remains a popular community gathering place; it is one of the greatest assets of the Rice-Larpenteur district.

At first, compared to the windswept tarmac feel of the neighboring corner, McCarrons Beach’s new mural looks small. Once you get close to it, the ceramic details are revealed. Dozens of colorful flowers bloom in a lush green field, as a delighted bee roams a landscape of opportunity.

For two months, Maheshwari worked on the mural in the public surroundings of the park. As she describes, the mosaic turned into a public engagement project as passers-by stopped to chat and possibly help make the mosaic.

“I have come here to honor the community,” said Shakun Maheshwari. “I got the idea, but everyone helped me. “

With her other work nearby – a decorative rose sculpture and the painted pillars of a picnic shelter – the flowers represent the diverse people of the neighborhood.

“So many people stopped and participated,” said Maheshwari. “I don’t even know their names. Some have become friends. They came every day, stopped, talked to me. I said ‘would you like to do it [work on the mural]? ‘ And they said, ‘I would love to do that; can you teach me? ‘”

In this way, dozens of people put the mural together, altering the design through conversation and experimentation. It’s similar to how, step by step, leaders like the executive director of the Rice-Larpenter Alliance, Kim O’Brien, hope to change the neighborhood.

A changing corner

There is a long way to go. If you ask most people about Rice-Larpenteur, they’ll only think of the lamp room. Today it is the last strip club in Saint-Paul, a town once synonymous with whiskey-soaked ribaldry (albeit in the 19th century). Neighbors have campaigned for years for city regulators to shut it down over allegations of criminal activity in the club and parking lot.

But Lamplighter’s presence is more than offset by the other companies setting up shop around the corner. The last and greatest incarnation of The Blues Saloon by Willebski – a legendary St. Paul’s spot – is just across the street, and nearby a dozen restaurants and markets mingle with pharmacies, affordable housing and parks.

A step forward for the region has been the traffic calming work on Larpenteur Avenue, led by Commissioners MatasCastillo and MaryJo McGuire. After a fatal accident two years ago, when two people were killed by a driver while crossing the street, the county has removed a vehicle lane to improve pedestrian safety.

The leaders hope to continue the effort and refocus public spaces around people who live nearby.

“It’s a dense and diverse community,” said MatasCastillo. “Is there a way to work together and with the neighbors of McCarrons and Maplewood. Does the manager of the Larpenteur Village district need better security? Do they need investments?

Make public space

I’m not sure the local “placemaker” Max Musicant ever had a greater challenge than working on the Rice-Larpenteur project. His company, The group of musicians, was hired by the House to make improvements to the public domain around the corner. Compared to refining the lobby of an office building in downtown Minneapolis, that’s a tall order. (Disclosure: Musicant is on the board of MinnPost.)

“We helped bring the first food trucks to the intersection as a proof of concept,” Musicant said. “The new public space [on the corner] provides a name recognition opportunity for the district in general, and also provides a staging ground for small-scale activation, for transit users, and stuff like that.

Any sort of attention to dark public space is an improvement. Max’s company has launched a creative and ambitious mix of tactics to beautify public space: mobile furniture, games in the parking lot, painted flowerpots, outdoor seating and micro-grants for businesses.

The highlight was a big event last year – The LarpenTOUR – where, for a day, the parking lots were filled with community activities. Again, it was a “proof of concept”, a chance to illustrate that the area could have a different future.

“I think something that we also heard going into this work: it was an intersection, the only public narrative was negative,” Musicant explained. “[People talk about it] only when something bad happens. It is, but there was nothing to offset it, no community narrative. “

Getting the most out of the mall

If you are passing at 45 mph on the arteries, you may not have the opportunity to pause and look at the area around the intersection of Rice and the Surveyor. Most people don’t. But since this will be a key milestone in the announced Metro Transit aBRT project – line G – one of the biggest transit investments planned in Ramsey and Dakota counties, maybe it’s time to give it another look.

The Rice-Larpenteur Alliance has ambitious redevelopment plans, mixed-use infill projects and much-needed investments in this area. If you look at the renderings, it’s easy to get excited that a different future is possible.

Considering the economic climate in the region, I would have no hope for new buildings in the short term. It’s more likely that this will continue to be the linear mall for another decade. But that’s what makes the work people do here so impactful. If you can improve the public space here, you can improve the public space anywhere.

“The summer block party served to show people that there are already a lot of wonderful things here, wonderful people who are already here,” Musicant said. “Working within the existing context, the pedestrian seating and transit improvements all take place within the existing suburban context. This place deserves to have great experiences for the people who use it everyday.

If you want to experience a different future for the corner in person, stop by Winter warm-up on Saturday December 4. There will be market, food, activity and art vendors. If you go, I guarantee you will never look at the parking lot in front of the thrift store in the mall the same way again.