4 October 2023
Nelsie Yang was elected to the St. Paul City Council in 2019, winning a six-way race with nearly 60% of the vote. Yang, a former union steward with the progressive action group TakeAction Minnesota, became the first Hmong woman and, at 24, the youngest member ever elected to the council. She’s also been one of the most vocally intent on moving the council, which is officially non-partisan, to the left of its Democratic-Farmer-Labor majority.
Yang, who is running for re-election to the Ward 6 seat representing ethnically diverse corners of the city’s East Side, faces a single challenger in the Nov. 7 election. Gary Unger, 82, a lifelong East Sider, master gardener and former 3M employee, has presented himself as the more moderate choice and a longtime participant in municipal government, including an organizing role with the now-defunct Ramsey County Fair.
Undated courtesy photo, circa September 2023, of Gary Unger, candidate for St. Paul City Council, Ward 6, in the November 2023 election. (Courtesy of the candidate)
Yang has been a steady supporter of rent control, or the city’s rent stabilization ordinance, which won approval at public ballot in 2021 despite criticism from the council majority that the 3% rent cap was one of the strictest in the nation. She’s participated in protests against charter schools and criticized the council’s role in approving pass-through funding, known as conduit revenue bonds, toward charter school construction.
She’s also backed or proposed free public transit, municipal sidewalk shoveling and alley-plowing, a tenants rights platform and a public ballot initiative that will be presented to voters in 2024, which would raise property taxes over the course of 10 years to provide childcare subsidies for low-income families.
“My top priorities are housing justice, economic development, and securing community-based programming and resources,” wrote Yang, in a candidate survey for the Pioneer Press.
In a separate survey for the Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America, Yang said she supported “no new money for cops,” and preferred a gradual disinvestment in traditional responses to public safety while increasing funding for diversion programs.
“I am an aspiring abolitionist,” she wrote. “This means I believe in the abolition of policing and other carceral, punitive institutions.”
Yang also was a supporter of the St. Paul Port Authority’s efforts to redevelop the Hillcrest Golf Course with a master plan calling for a mix of affordable housing, market-rate housing and low-barrier jobs such as assembly work.
Endorsements, rent control
Her candidacy for re-election has been endorsed by the St. Paul DFL and 12 labor unions, including the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFSCME Council 5, Teamsters Joint Council 32, the St. Paul Federation of Educators Local 28, and LIUNA as well as Women Winning, TakeAction Minnesota and the Twin Cities DSA.
Undated courtesy photo, circa July 2023, of St. Paul Ward 6 City Council member Nelsie Yang. (Courtesy of the City of St. Paul)
Unger said he has not sought any endorsements as he only recently launched his campaign.
“My first priority would be to improve public safety in St. Paul,” said Unger, in a candidate survey for the Pioneer Press.
“I’d fight to properly fund the police department, so it is able to meet the city’s needs,” he wrote. “But, I would also work to reform the culture of the department and to embed policing within a more proactive policy framework that aims to treat underlying problems which cause higher crime rates.”
On rent control, Unger said he was “not fully against rent stabilization as a concept” as it could be effective as a sanction used by an oversight body “on landlords who continue to raise rent but do not provide an acceptable standard of housing.”
Still, he said, “the current ordinance would likely just decrease the overall supply, so I would amend the ordinance to expand and extend exemptions.”
Sale tax question
Yang has supported a proposed city sales tax on the Nov. 7 ballot that could raise nearly $1 billion over 20 years for parks and roads. “Our city infrastructure is crumbling, and we must begin making investments back into our city to meet our backlog of repairs,” wrote Yang, in the Pioneer Press survey. “It is imperative that we take urgent action for current and future residents of our city.”
Unger said he plans to vote no.
“Increasing the sales tax risks driving businesses away from St. Paul,” he wrote. “If we need to raise taxes to pay for infrastructure spending, a gas consumption tax would be fairer and more effective. This would tie the amount that someone pays for new roads and infrastructure more directly to the amount that they use the roads.”
He’s also been critical of the possibility of raising property taxes for childcare subsidies, given the projected impact on housing costs.
Ward 6 spans much of Maryland, White Bear and Payne avenues, as well as Arcade Street, including the neighborhoods of Frost Lake, Hayden Heights, Hazel Park, Payne/Phalen, Phalen Village and Prosperity. It is also home to Phalen Regional Park, the city’s largest park and lake.
Early voting opened Sept. 22. General information about the Nov. 7 election is online at twincities.com/tag/elections.
In addition, Twincities.com/news/politics/elections will have a full voters guide with candidates for Ramsey, Dakota and Washington county races online next month.
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