Dental Implants Near St. Paul, MN

After saying tours of the historic St. Paul house would go on, officials reversed course later Friday.

The Minnesota Star Tribune

After receiving criticism for scheduling tours of the Alexander Ramsey House in St. Paul on Dec. 26, the Minnesota Historical Society reversed course Friday afternoon and canceled the events.

Tours of the historic mansion have been suspended for years on that date in recognition of the 1862 mass hanging outside Mankato of 38 Dakota men while Ramsey was governor.

But this year, officials with the Minnesota Historical Society, which owns the 19th century house and 25 other historic sites across Minnesota, said new staff members were unaware of that practice and tickets were sold for four tours.

Ben Leonard, the nonprofit’s vice president of historic sites, said in a statement earlier Friday that officials would go through with the booking and make note of the day’s significance during the tours. But later Friday, he said the tours would be canceled after receiving “very valuable feedback” and “out of respect for the Dakota community and to allow for a day of mourning on this painful anniversary.”

He said they will fully refund ticketholders and offer free tickets to Holidays at the Hill tours at the James J. Hill House.

It would have been the first time since at least before the pandemic that tour groups were set to go through the Ramsey House on Dec. 26. It had been the practice to suspend tours on that date because of Ramsey’s role as governor leading up to the mass hanging — and the later banishment of the Dakota from Minnesota.

According to Minnesota Historical Society records, in a special session of the state Legislature in September 1862, Ramsey said: “Our course then is plain. The Sioux Indians of Minnesota must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of Minnesota.”

Josie Bergmann, a tour guide at the Ramsey House for the last five years, was the first to raise concerns publicly about the tours being conducted for the first time in years.

“It is deeply disappointing,” she said before the tours were later canceled. “No. 1, that we didn’t recognize this error. And, then that it’s still going to go on. It sends a bad message.”

The Historical Society’s change of course came after the Minnesota Star Tribune sent emails Friday asking officials, including director and CEO Kent Whitworth, whether they consulted with Native American officials before deciding to continue the tours.

The Merry Market is in its second year of operation, and organizers hope it continues to grow.

ST PAUL, Minn. — If you live for last-minute Christmas shopping, the Minnesota Merry Market might be the holiday season’s best gift to you.

The indoor/outdoor market is located at the North End Event Center at the State Fair. The Merry Market has over 80 vendors, some food trucks, a train ride, live music, two bars, games, horse and carriage rides, and the most important person of all, Santa.

Last year, 18,000 people shopped at the market, so they added an additional weekend for their second year.

“It’s super fun for us because we get to take something that we make in our shop and then we can share that with other people,” said Travis Goerish, owner of Ricki and Son’s, a metal fabrication company.

Goerish and his wife started the business in 2012. Five years later, they quit their regular jobs to do this full-time.

“My wife does all the design work because I’m not good with technology… I do all the welding and metal work from there.”

He said he started working with metal in high school. When he came back to it years later, he started to make furniture. Eventually, they started to make smaller, more intricate signs they could ship around the country.

Goerish said being a part of shows and markets has helped their business grow.

“Especially around the holiday season where, you know, we get to be a part of so many Christmases where people open a present that we made and then they get to keep that in family for years to come,” Goerish said.

Missy Fisher along with her sister, Shelly, started Saintly Sisters a year and a half ago.

“We’re sisters and we both live in St. Paul, so as much as our mother would have liked us to be nuns we are not, but we’re good people, so you know Saintly Sisters it works,” Missy said.

They sell a variety of items online, but are showing off their shadow boxes at Merry Market.

“It gives me a chance to express things I think are funny or important. We have a lot of feminist type items that I’m very passionate about, so it gives us a chance to express ourselves but still make people smile and find things that connect with them,” Missy said.

The shadow boxes are based on popular culture ideas, things they find funny, or custom orders. Missy said they started their business after they both were laid off from their corporate roles. She said being in markets and shows has given their business a big boost.

“It’s huge, but we’re also on Etsy too, so having the exposure here, people see our boxes and then they can also go and see the other things we sell on Etsy, so it’s made our business grow quite a bit,” she said.

The Merry Market is run by Homespun Events. It will be open next weekend Dec. 21-22 from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. There will be some new vendors, but both Missy and Goerish will be there. You can buy your $5 ticket online or at the gate.

The agency says proposals to remake the freeway connecting the two downtowns with a parkway or road with at-grade crossings do not meet the goals for enhancing mobility, safety and connectivity, and should no longer be considered.

The Minnesota Star Tribune

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is recommending that Interstate 94 between Minneapolis and St. Paul remain a freeway, ruling out an ambitious proposal to fill in the trench and replace it with a parkway or boulevard with at-grade crossings.

MnDOT reached that conclusion after more than a year spent evaluating 10 options for the roadway, and taking input from the public and interested groups as it studies remaking one of the metro area’s busiest corridors.

“We are confident in our analysis,” said Melissa Barnes, director of the high-profile project dubbed Rethinking I-94. “This is a busy area. We have a lot to balance.”

An internal agency document obtained this week by the Minnesota Star Tribune spells out how MnDOT arrived at its decision. An agency spokesman verified the document’s authenticity.

Our Streets, a transportation advocacy organization, responded by accusing MnDOT of quietly eliminating alternatives that would reconnect Black neighborhoods like St. Paul’s Rondo that were split apart when the freeway was built 60 years ago.

A boulevard with at-grade crossings would create cleaner air, bring economic opportunities and provide easily accessible, affordable and sustainable transportation, the group said.

“This move, rushed before the holidays, effectively denies the public a chance to explore a transformative alternative that reconnects neighborhoods and addresses decades of harm,“ Our Streets said in a statement. “While this is a setback, we join thousands of Minneapolis and St. Paul residents in calling on MnDOT to restore the boulevard options.”

Rethinking I-94 has been on the drawing board for nearly a decade and marks the first comprehensive review of the freeway built in the 1960s. In 2016, then-Transportation Commissioner Charlie Zelle issued an apology for the harm the freeway has done.

That rings hollow, Our Streets said.

“MnDOT’s Rethinking I-94 team should be embarrassed to repeat a harmful history by removing these options without consent from those most impacted,” the Our Streets statement said. “MnDOT continues advancing plans to rebuild this emblem of white supremacy against the will of affected communities.”

In September, the Minneapolis City Council unanimously passed a resolution supporting Our Street’s push for a road with fewer lanes and the opportunity to repurpose highway land for public housing, affordable commercial space, parks, community gardens or uses determined by surrounding communities.

The resolution asks MnDOT to “improve the Rethinking I-94 project’s evaluation criteria to more accurately measure and prioritize the impacts on adjacent neighborhoods.”

Any redo of I-94 needs to improve the ability to move goods and people through the corridor, fix aging infrastructure, address safety issues and congestion, promote better health and enhance community and connectivity, MnDOT said.

What is out?

MnDOT’s analysis recommends the dismissal of two designs that would replace several overpasses and interchanges with at-grade crossings and signal lights and include a dedicated transit lane.

Another option that would shrink I-94 to two lanes with a dedicated bus in each direction and feature separate lanes for local traffic to get on and off intersecting streets should also be eliminated, the agency recommended. Essentially that would result in three sets of roads, according to the plans.

Another option not seen as worthy was adding an additional travel lane in each direction with bus lanes on the shoulder.

The at-grade options create additional safety hazards for pedestrians and bicyclists. The option also would “negatively impact mobility,” the document states.

In 2023, traffic consultant Jaimie Sloboden found that more than 50 million motorists used I-94 between the downtowns. If the freeway were to be reconfigured with at-grade crossings, the road could handle only about 12.8 million motorists, as roads with traffic signals have a much reduced capacity compared to a freeway.

That means 37 million trips would be displaced, and traffic “would have to go somewhere,” meaning moving to other local streets or shifting to transit, Sloboden said in a presentation to MnDOT.

Options with at-grade crossings “will have major impacts to the local system and regionally,” Barnes said. Filling in the trench with dirt and compacting it would carry a monumental cost and “take many construction seasons,” she said.

At the same time, expanding the freeway with more travel lanes could bring an additional 20 million trips a day, meaning more congestion, noise and air pollution, Barnes said.

For those reasons, MnDOT is recommending those options be nixed, she said.

What should be studied further

Options that should move forward include those that would add a transit lane west of Hwy. 280 and rebuild bridges between Hwy. 55 and Marion Street to make better and safer crossings for pedestrians and bicyclists. Another option to configure I-94 with three travel lanes in each direction with a dedicated E-ZPass and bus rapid transit lane should also move forward. Leaving the freeway as it is also an option.

MnDOT has conducted surveys and held community meetings and spoke with “thousands and tens of thousands of people” in recent years, Barnes said, and will continue to do so. Another round of engagement will kick off Jan. 17.

Barnes stressed that nothing is final, and won’t be until spring 2026 at the earliest. And for now, eliminating concepts featuring at-grade crossings are only recommendations. MnDOT won’t be alone in coming up with a final plan, she added.

“A lot of federal agencies will review the plans as well,” she said. “We do our best to communicate and show trade-offs [with each plan] to the public.”

about the writer

Tim Harlow

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Tim Harlow covers traffic and transportation issues in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and likes to get out of the office, even during rush hour. He also covers the suburbs in northern Hennepin and all of Anoka counties, plus breaking news and weather.

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Venezuelans are the largest group protected from deportation through Temporary Protected Status, which President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to curtail.

Snowplows were back on the road Friday across much of Minnesota, clearing freeways, streets and sidewalks after Thursday’s winter storm that dropped more than a half-foot of snow on parts of the state.

The National Weather Service received a report of 8.9 inches near Faribault, 8.7 inches at Bird Island, 8.5 inches near Blakely and 8.3 inches at Elko New Market.

Rochester received 5.9 inches, a record for the date. The official total at the Twin Cities airport was 5.5 inches.

Some cities across Minnesota — including Minneapolis, St. Paul and several Twin Cities suburbs — declared snow emergencies, meaning special parking rules are in effect to allow plows to full clear streets. Find a list of those communities below.

In Minneapolis, snow emergencies last three days. To start, there was no parking on snow emergency routes from 9 p.m. Thursday until 8 a.m. Friday — or until streets were fully plowed. Find a map showing snow emergency routes here.

Starting at 8 a.m. Friday, there’s no parking on the even-numbered side of non-snow emergency routes — or on either side of parkways — until 8 p.m. Friday or until that side of the street is fully plowed.

And starting at 8 a.m. Saturday, there’s no parking on the odd-numbered side of non-snow emergency routes until 8 p.m. Saturday, or until that side of the street is fully plowed.

St. Paul Snow emergency infoMinneapolis Snow emergency info

In St. Paul, vehicles not removed from night plow routes — that includes all downtown streets and other streets with “night plow route” signs posted — by 9 p.m. Thursday would have been ticketed and towed. Find a map of night plow routes here.

Then, starting at 8 a.m. Friday, there’s no parking on day plow routes — that’s any street NOT marked with “night plow route” signs. Vehicles left on those streets after 8 a.m. Friday, and before they’re cleared to the curb, will be ticketed and towed.

The snow emergency remains in effect in St. Paul until 9 p.m. Monday.

Check here How much snow fell?

Snow emergencies issued Thursday, Dec. 19

Some of these snow alerts or emergencies will extend through the weekend; check city websites for more information on snow emergency parking rules.

ST. PAUL - The Minnesota Wild (20-9-4) are in their first real funk of the season. They have lost three straight games and five of their last seven. They are swamped with injuries and are facing their first bit of adversity this year.

“Yeah, frustrated. This is the joy of an 82-game season," Marcus Foligno said. "You’re going to have some losses where you just scratch your head. Did we deserve better? Yeah, for sure. But a loss is a loss. You gotta soak it and you gotta get ready for tomorrow and maybe that’s the best thing. We got tomorrow just to go right back at it. just stay positive. We got two games left before a little mental reset. Tomorrow could be a good character win, and that’s what we gotta look forward to now. But yeah it’s frustrating.”

Up until Wednesday, the Wild had yet to lose back-to-back games in regulation. They followed every loss with a win and have been at the top of the league's standings all season.

They have now lost three straight but for Foligno, that is better than what his former team is going through.

“It’s tough. There’s no easy games, and we’re fighting through it right now. We’re in a little bit of a sludge and just gotta go through it and it takes all of us to get ourselves out of it," Foligno said. "I’d rather be in this position than Buffalo. So, you know what? It’s not that bad.”

Foligno, 33, spent his first six years with the Buffalo Sabres before he came to Minnesota via a trade. He played in 347 games with the Sabres and recorded 49 goals, 116 points, and 1,023 hits.

A three-game losing streak is tough but like Foligno said, at least it isn't 12 straight.

Let us know what you think by commenting below or on the Forum.

Make sure you bookmark The Hockey News' Minnesota Wild page for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns and so much more.

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