Whose View? From Where? — March 2008

Congratulations to the individuals who got the answer correct to last months Whose View from Where? feature: Martin Schub, Eric Otterness, Kristina Smitten, and Ron Middlestaedt. Here are a few of the correct guesses we received:

That would be looking south from Kellogg at approximately Minnesota in Saint Paul. Its always tough to have a view permanently altered for the worse. Knowing the middle ground between progress and preservation takes wisdom and a great deal of soul-searching.

This is the railroad lift bridge between the Wabasha and Robert Street bridges. This view is from the downtown side. You can see the downstream tip of Raspberry Island and the boats of Harriet Island Marina in the background. I know this spot well because I row out of the Minnesota Boat Club on Raspberry Island. This rowing club has been rowing this stretch of the Mississippi since 1870!

Thanks for sharing your insights!

As our entrants indicated, the view pictured above is taken from Kellogg Park, atop the river bluffs in downtown Saint Paul. At the left is the Union Pacific lift bridge, monitored from a building on the bridge 24 hours a day during shipping season for barge traffic.

Part of the significance of the view is the role it plays as part of the sweeping river valley view around downtown Saint Paul. Pictured across the river from downtown is the citys West Side Flats and the bluffs behind.

This year, Saint Paul is revising its critical area zoning ordinance. That ordinance will have a profound effect on whether this panoramic view of the river valley is preserved for future generations, or permanently lost. These new critical area zoning rules will establish maximum heights for new buildings on the West Side Flats.

To understand whats at stake, take a look at one building in the photo. On the left hand side of the photo, above the top of the railroad bridge, you can spot the top of the US Bank Operations Center poking above the bridge. At about 80 feet tall, this building completely blocks the bluff line in this area. Critical area regulations are designed to minimize this kind of looming blockage. But whether zoning controls will actually limit such blockages depends on whether the City passes a strong critical area zoning code later this year.

Of course, these considerations were also at the core of the disagreement over developer Jerry Trooiens Bridges project, rejected last year by the Saint Paul Planning Commission and City Council. That project was to have been built primarily east of the Robert Street bridge, or about a block to the left of where the photo ends. Many groups worked to rein in the project, and the proposal caused the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota to name the river valley view one of the 10 Most Endangered sites of 2007.

Thanks to all who submitted entries, each of whom received a small prize for their correct entry.

About Whose view? From where?

Each month in this section, we feature a photo somewhere along the river corridor in the Twin Cities that is in some way significant or important or just plain scenic. Individuals may then e-mail us and identify the view and explain why they believe it is significant to the community or important to them personally. We publish some of your responses in the following issue of Mississippi Messages, where we also reveal the correct answer.

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