With zero backyards and a population nearing 10,000, not having basic park amenities is an emergency!

Who We Are

Our group formed as an emergency response to former Mayor Chris Coleman's break from city policy & donation agreement with the Pedro family. When the Annex Building was put for sale in 2017, 20 years of planning, effort, and resolutions to bring a community park to the northern most neighborhood of downtown were tossed aside.

We are home owners, business owners, renters, and neighborhood employees, children and grandparents united in our commitment to see the promise of Pedro Park and the Fitzgerald Park neighborhood fulfilled.

What We Believe

Strong communities are built around shared spaces.

Successful communities are built from smart, careful, collaborative planning.

What We Know

1. An office building in a park is a bad idea. An 11th hour plan behind closed doors - even worse.
2. Converting the Police Annex Building into parkland is the only way to affordably expand the parkland downtown:
   • 2 acres of additional downtown parkland will cost $2.5 million dollars if we use land we already own. Pg 41, 2011 Pedro Park Study Presentation
   • 2 acres of additional downtown parkland not using land we own - $18 million dollars. Staff Report to HRA, Nov. 2017
3. Raising $3 million dollars is easier than raising $10 million.
   • Private funds are available to expand Pedro Park.
   • Even if we could raise $10 million extra for the 'benefit' of going around an office building, there are unacknowledged, impossible logistics of removing an alley, and the tragedy of losing an operating daycare center.
4. Converting the Police Annex Building into parkland is the only way to honor the donation contract with the Pedro family.
   • Pedro Park is landlocked between two roads, an alleyway, and city-owned land. Expanding Pedro Park must be through the city-owned property. Alternatives to expand park space will result in two separate parks.
   • In 2014, St. Paul was sued for breaking a contract. It cost tax payers $800,000.

Bigger Issues That Affect All of St. Paul

Loopholes must be closed or an appeal process instated so that deviations from the Comprehensive Plan - and the 1000's of volunteer and staff hours, the task forces, planning commission effort, city council votes, neighborhood buy in, and district council support it represents - cannot be dismissed before city owned land is offered for sale.

What you can do

1. Email or call city leaders with your opposition to selling designated park land to private interests.
2. Join our Facebook Page: Pedro Park Expansion - Saint Paul
3. Sign up for updates and event notices by emailing: friendsofpedropark@gmail.com
4. Learn More
5. Alert us to any inaccuracies. Our goal is to be factual.
6. Visit our What You Can Do Page.