Descendants of the West Side Flats in St. Paul could receive money from the inheritance fund
Over 60 years ago, after recurring flood problems, the city of St. Paul demolished houses in the West Side Flats neighborhood and displaced around 25,000 people to make way for a new industrial area and a flood protection wall.
But according to the West Side Community Organization, most of these families were immigrants, and many did not receive fair market value for their properties or received nothing at all.
Now Mayor Melvin Carter is proposing a financial reinvestment on the West Side for the descendants of those families displaced from the West Side Flats.
“I propose that we finally own up to the injustice and harm caused by the displacement of our historic West Side Flats neighborhood by expanding our inheritance fund to include the descendants of residents who were displaced from their property in our historic West Side Flats neighborhood,” Carter said. “We established the inheritance fund just a few years ago to offer up to $110,000 in fully forgiven loans to help the descendants of property owners in old Rondo – our vibrant, predominantly African-American community that was uprooted for the construction of the freeway – build wealth through homeownership.”
Jazmin Glaser-Kelly is one of these descendants.
She told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS she was happy with the mayor’s offer, but the loss of generational wealth and much of her family’s history and culture in the neighborhood still hurts.
“Personally, I get very angry about it sometimes,” Glaser-Kelly said. “It’s not the same. I feel like if it was here, there would have been so much rich heritage and culture and things to share.”
Larry Lucio Jr. told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that his grandparents’ and father’s house was demolished and he, too, still feels a tremendous loss.
“Now to see where they came from is emotional. It’s emotional,” Lucio Jr. said. “Before we knew what it was, it was taken away from us. That set us back.”
No specific dollar amount was given, but the inheritance fund could provide loans of up to $110,000 to the descendants of people who were displaced when the Rondo neighborhood was divided to make way for a new highway.
