One of the many things I love about St. Paul, MN is the parks. We have so many of them. Several have native wildflowers in them and many have water features that are either man made or the park is on one of our many lakes or the river. Then there are the tiny little neighborhood parks that are a green space and maybe a park bench or two.
A new city park is in the planning stages for the Victoria park neighborhood. It really doesn't seem like a neighborhood but maybe it is. The park will sit on 35 acres of the 65 acre Victoria Park development which used to be where the Koch refinery and Exxon Mobile storage tanks were located. The Victoria Park development was slated to be the largest single new housing development in the history of St. Paul but ended up being a few townhouses that are being rented out because no one will buy them. The project was an early victim of the housing market.
I think it is wonderful that some of the land will become a park and ExxonMobile is providing $5 million dollars for clean-up so that the former industrial site can be turned into park land. I am guessing because of the placement of the sign that the park will occupy the west half of the development.
The corner of West 7th Street and Otto looks very different than it did just a few years ago. The Mississippi Market went in as planned as did the much needed senior housing, The buildings are up close to the street and what lies behind them are a few townhouses and a lot of vacant land.
