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Hey everybody, this is Lisa from the Greater East Side District 2 Community Council, and you're listening to the D2NU Podcast. The show that recaps everything happening on the East Side of St. Paul for people who love to be in the know. We have lots to talk about today, so sit back, grab a cup of coffee, or your favorite drink of choice, and let's get to it. Today we are talking to Wolfie Rallender. Wolfie is the author of the blog St. Paul by Bike, and also a co author on the blog Streets. min. So thank you very much for coming in today. Lisa, thank you very much. Been excited about this for, weeks. Great. Great. I know we had to do a little rescheduling. So, that's, what happens in the district council world. You never know what's going to hit you in the next couple of weeks. So I appreciate your patience and, taking the time to be with us today. let's start a little bit, talking about you. How long have you been writing the book? I started in 2011, the summer of 2011. Wow. It's been a long time. So that's 13 years? Yeah, approximately. At this point. I don't remember exactly what day it was or date, but 13 years. There was a year off, basically during Covid, the first year of Covid. Oh yeah. I did one ride Obviously, we weren't talking to people. They closed Interstate 94 for some bridge work, so I illicitly rode on Interstate 94 from the Frieden Avenue on ramp to, Lexington. Wow! I think about the State Fair when the fair is not there, and that kind of eerie, ghost town y. I can only imagine what that was like on 94. It was weird being on there on a bike. Yeah. I was watching to make sure that if there was a police car or somebody. And there were a couple that went by above, but they didn't notice me. So very good. Very cool. That would be a really interesting experience. and I'm not, I I'll be perfectly honest, real big biker and a little center of gravity issue. So, it always fascinates me, folks that are part of the biking community. and I'm really excited that you're promoting our city, via bike, because I think that, there are very many transit options today. And I don't think folks always think about biking as one of those transportation options. They think let's go for a ride with the kids on a Saturday, but they don't think about necessarily, taking that bike to work every day and really experiencing their neighborhoods via bike. So I commend you for that. Thank you. It is a good way to get to and from. I think it's, it works well, at least for me when I used to work. if you ride far, you need to take a shower typically in the summer. So that is kind of a hassle. It can be if your place of business doesn't have a shower. Right. It's a little more difficult. Yeah. Short runs to the grocery store are great. And like I said, if you have the facilities to clean up a little bit before you go to work, that makes it a lot more plausible to do too. Yeah. What is the most difficult part about creating the blog? That's really easy. It's writing. So writing is the most fun and meeting people is the most fun, but, I'm not the fastest writer. plus there's a lot of background research that I do if I take pictures of things that I see along the way. So it might be an old house or building. It might be somebody's lawn decorated, signs that somebody has done something to or something that's funny on somebody's yard or whatever. So and then I've got to go through the interviews and those can go anywhere from between 15. I've had one interview with somebody on the East side that went two hours. That doesn't surprise me. We like to chat over here. So that takes a lot of work and then I have to pull the quotes and then hunt down historical photos from the historical societies around the area. So it usually takes me about a month to get one post done by the time I'm, I start from the time I finish. Well, you're already More than a month ahead of me. So we're good there. so you mentioned your favorite part was getting to know people. Finding those unique areas possibly is the city. Oh, there are so many. This city. And probably any city, but I have never really done this before. This city is so varied. and every part of it is hilly. I don't think people who drive realize, I didn't. there's hills on Smith Avenue on the west side. I never was on large portions of Arlington on this side of town. Oh yeah. That is one long hill. Mm hmm. One of my daughters lives. Right off of White Bear and Minnehaha. That, from Dayton's Bluff, it just keeps going. It goes beyond White Bear before it finally starts heading a little bit down again. This city is hilly no matter where you go. Yeah, I heard that Rome was built on seven hills. Well, St. Paul was on 77 hills, that's for sure. what is one thing that people are surprised to find out about you? That's a great question. And I've never been asked that. And I actually couldn't think of anything last night. And so I talked to my wife, Sue, who's a big, helps me a lot with my blog. She's my proofreader. I have to give her credit. Anytime I talk about my blog, she proofs it and does some editing. So I couldn't do this without her. So I asked her and she said, I don't know. She said, why don't you, why don't you text the girls, our two daughters, both of whom live in St. Paul. And I did. And right away. It's so obvious, but my older daughter who lives downtown St. Paul said, well, you should mention how big of an introvert you were as a child. I was an extreme introvert through all the way through high school. And it took me about. Until my second year of college before I became an extrovert. And I don't know what flipped the switch. I think it was maturity a little bit, cause I'm still lacking there. But, I wouldn't, this is the truth. I would not even call radio stations to request a song until like the second half of high school. So, that would probably surprise a lot of people. That is surprising. That is surprising. Because now I'll talk to anybody. And I've had my mother in law say, does he talk to everybody? Yes. Yeah. Yes, indeed. But you learn a lot. That's what I like is we can break down a lot of the barriers that we have in our society and I don't want to get all political, but if we just talk and listen to other people, we would learn an awful lot and find out we have a lot more in common than we do. Absolutely. Yeah, it's that I think a lot of folks ha what drew you to this question. Also, I, when w or walking, you can see a as I was biking around, I into biking and I would j People who had lawn signs, people who decorated their gardens or put up flags or whatever, just odd things, you know, maybe some plants that had grown out of control or and just caught my eye. And so I mentioned to Sue, my wife, that, well, maybe if I took pictures. And made a blog out of that and she said, no, no, that's not a good idea. So I thought about it some more and then I thought. I should ask people about why did you do this? Why do you have this? How did you get here? Tell me about your house or your, your business. And then I said, Well, what if I do this? And then she said, Yeah, that's a better idea. So that's how it started. Very cool. You know, I really I love this city. And I love when folks take the time to highlight some of those forgotten areas and those maybe not so forgotten. So visible. things that make the city unique. So I, I really, I appreciate your body. I went through a couple pages of it. And I was really, excited to see some of those things, like I say, we. We are very lucky to have the Cathedral, the Capitol, Summit Hill, but there's pockets of really interesting things that are happening right in our neighborhood. Yes there are. And so I appreciate that you are highlighting those little pockets. Those are some of the most interesting things. I'll be off the beaten track last week or I can't remember if it was last week or late the week before I was over here. I was on Ames Avenue right off of Johnson, just east. Which is, I guess, the border of the Greater East Side, and I'd never been on that section of Ames before, and it says dead end, and so I looked, and it looked like it just kept going, and it kept going, and the houses are more like typical city homes, I think they were, like late 50s, early 60s, rambler types of houses, and all of a sudden, the road widens. And then the houses are set farther back and the lots are huge. And all the houses have mailboxes out by the street, like suburbs. And I kept going and kept going. And finally it comes to an end and is that Hazelwood, I think? I believe so, yeah. Yeah, right by the, Roosevelt Homes. Yes. So, I had never been there, and these houses, and these lots, and it was like, oh my gosh. And these hidden areas like that, that you would have no reason to go down unless you chose to go down there. But they were beautiful homes, beautiful lots, wooded, it was a warm day, so I didn't go hiking through, but sometimes I do. It's just stuff like that, you won't find anywhere unless you walk around or bike around. And that kind of cool stuff is, really blows my mind that there's so much of that in a developed city like this. Right, finding those pockets, like you say, in developed cities is really difficult, I have a question about how do you choose your routes or where you go, where you look for stories? How do you choose your spot? Well, the whole point of my blog is to help people. eventually is to ride every block of every street in St. Paul. Wow. So, That's ambitious. It is ambitious. That's why I'm on 13 years. And maybe, I don't, I haven't computed lately how far I am, but I'm going to say maybe 70%, which sounds like a lot. Although I'm in no hurry to finish it. I just want to do it before I die. There you go. That's my goal. But I'm in no hurry because it's, that's the fun, is discovering it. and there's really no reason, even if I complete it, that I have to stop because there's going to be new stories. Yes, there are. I mean, you look at Hillcrest, now The Heights, becoming The Heights. I mean, Things change even in a developed city. So, back to the question, which was? How do you choose your favorite spot? Thank you. So I, originally when I had a lot of the city to ride, I'd just go. Sure. not the most efficient because, I might take a right here and then, another right and then a left and a left. And I, you know, no prescribed method to my madness. Right. Okay. I still do some of that, but I've completed Highland Park near where I live and most of McAllister, Groveland. I'm all but done with those areas. I got a lot on the west side, so now I kind of look for places where I haven't been, and that may just be one block of a street in some neighborhoods. The other thing that affects where I go is, for instance, Maria introduced me to a woman named Joan who lives on, what is her street? Hawthorne. So we set up an appointment and I went and visited her. So in that case, I had a time to be there, so I had a place to go. So I do some of that because not everybody can just have me pop in. They're not available to have me just randomly stop and pop in. So sometimes I have to plan where I'm going in cases like that. sometimes not knowing where you're going is a good thing. That is fun because then I'll see something to go. Oh, I better check this out. Again, like Ames Avenue the other day. So what are some of your favorite places so far that you've ridden on the east side? Favorite places on the east side, I'll tell you, there are some really cool spots. I like the, the Bruce Vento Trail. Now that is obviously not a street, but I have ridden parts of that and I love it. It's so beautiful and it's just such a nice gentle slope and it's trees and there's benches., it's just a fabulous spot. Yeah. Whether you're walking or biking. I love that. the thing I like best about the east side is the diversity. And I know that may sound cliche, but there's so much diversity. It's first of all, I like talking to different people and hearing their stories again. And I think the east side, like, Like Sweet Hollow that's not part of the east side, I realize, but Oh, well in a way, but yeah. Yeah. Yes. And I, I'm trying to go by your map. Oh, so greater East side versus the east side. Yeah. Yes, exactly. Semantics. Yes. Thank you. But you know, the Sweet Hollow area, many immigrants came through, but I think the east side is where a lot of people have settled as well. It's one of the first stops, so I like getting those stories and just a sidelight to that. And this is at the, not Mung Village, which I know is on the Greater East Side, which I love, but the Mung Marketplace, which is, I met a gentleman who owns, he and his wife own the first and only Mung bookstore in the world. That's exciting. And that's coming up. I've done the interview and I've taken photos, but that's in, as we say in the business, it's in the can. In the can. So ready to go. It'll probably be something I get to as the weather cools because I don't ride in the winter. I don't ride when it gets cold or snowy because nobody's around and nobody wants to talk to me. I don't want to ride in snow anyway. So I, I like that diversity, but it's not just people. It's the diversity of homes. It's the diversity of the topography of, just things to see. you know, from industry to parks, to bigger homes, to smaller homes, to these lots. And then, of course there's the people think of St. Paul and other cities, I think as being old. But again, on the east side with, the heights, you're getting some new streets in there. The grid is changing. And that is something that doesn't happen. A lot in St. Paul, but it happens where you think Highland Bridge, they're again, extending some streets over there now. And, as I ride around, I've spotted some little areas where all of a sudden there's this little cul de sac or something with a new little development. So there's, there's even brand new streets amongst all the streets that have been here, like Ames, 150 years. I think Ames. Was part of the Stillwater Trail at one time. I was told by somebody on the streetcar line. I think, the streetcar came through on 7th and then, it kind of slid over a little bit because eventually it went up for Ness Parkway out to White Bear Lake. Oh, another one other thing I did a little looking and I haven't been on some of these streets, but I thought this kind of summed it up for me a little bit. So within three blocks of Nokomis. is an Ojibwe name. Yes. Y which is very anglicized obviously. Then you have pronounced petterson or p you talk to you, but we a coming off again of, Nekomis is, I haven't been on this street yet. I just saw it on the map, but it was near where I was, Tawana place, which may be African in origin, according to some reading I did. So that just two blocks or three blocks sums up kind of the diversity of the East side and it was really at St. Paul. Yeah, absolutely. I think, as you're talking about historically, this part of the city is relatively new. Hillcrest Center wasn't built till 48. this is Originally the bedroom community per se of the downtown. and then of course we had 3M come in and the railroads. And so this was almost like a little suburb over here, within the city limits. So very interesting. What are you hoping to achieve with this blog? What, what is your grand plan for this blog? ultimately, like I said earlier, I would hope that I can ride every block of every street, that I stay healthy, and, that I can do that. I see no reason why that won't happen, but life curveballs sometimes, don't we know? I just am thankful that I am healthy and hope I stay that way. other than that, I hope it gives people a little bit of an insight into our, the city. I love the city. I'm not native to St. Paul. No, I'm from, the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. And weirdly, I grew up in a suburb without sidewalks, with long, winding, curving, streets. Yeah. With, the typical suburb. I guess of all things, I hope that people will look around their neighborhood or wherever it is they're walking or biking and look around and just notice things because you can learn so much. about wherever you are, just if you take a little more time, but even more than that, what I've found is if you greet people, just a smile and a wave or a hello, it's, you just don't know what that might mean to somebody or to yourself. And you might make a new friend or just a new acquaintance I'm humbled by the number of people that have opened up to me when I talked to them that have told me stories from I've met, I interviewed a couple of homeless people who were living right, basically beneath the Hill house, a little bit over off of just above 35 E for example. And these two people opened up to me about their situation and why they were living as they were living. it's just humbling and amazing that people will share their stories. I'm thankful for that. I hope that people will not just, will perhaps look at some of the things I've written and think, well, okay, maybe this isn't. Quite what I thought, maybe there's a little more to this person's story, make it a little more human. Yeah, and I think too, by, looking at, your blog and seeing the stories there, hopefully that will encourage people to do the same. I think there's so much to this city. and I admire your commitment to write every block, but hopefully it will also encourage and motivate folks take a look at their blocks, right? and start thinking about how, the. homes look, the gardens,, and then take that next step and maybe get to know their neighbors a little bit better. That's good for everybody. It's good for the neighborhood because when neighbors are know each other, it's a safer place. It's a better place. And I think too, post COVID, that's been really slow to happen. Yes. so hopefully this will pop more people out those front doors and start talking to their neighbors over the fences. I would agree that is important. You did ask me before if I can go back to this quickly about some of the places on the east side that I like, especially, and I did mention the Gateway, but Bruce Vento Trail is another winner. You mentioned Ames School. I love that building. In fact, uh, you mentioned Don, Don Empson, that is his favorite school and it's a beautiful one. I have not had that in the blog yet because I haven't quite, I mean, I've been by it many times on White Bear, but I've not stopped there and taking pictures. I'd really like to get inside. Wheelock Parkway, especially now that they've fixed it up Yes. Is fantastic. Yes. That is a great place for anybody to go bike riding or walking. Mm-Hmm. Especially if you have younger kids. Mm-Hmm. who you're maybe concerned about riding on streets. Right. Even side streets. Wheelock Parkway is fantastic. It's so gorgeous. Mung Village. If you haven't been to Mung Village, that Mung Village and Mung Marketplace are, they're such gems. I mean, the food, just the atmosphere. It's just beautiful and so interesting. And it feels like you're in a foreign country. Oh yeah. It's so beautiful. I love going there. I love going to those places. I love getting lost in there. Because it's not only easy to do, but also, I mean, you find all these new places that you didn't notice before. Uh, and like you said, the food, you can't get better food than at Mug Village. If you met someone who had never been to the east side before, where would you send them and why? I'd send them, I'd send them to the places I just mentioned. Yeah. I like the little oven. One of my daughters lives right near there. It was just there yesterday. Oh, yum. that place is really good. Mm-Hmm. I do admit I need to. Explore a little more in terms of some of the other restaurants. I know my daughter speaks highly of, it's on Maryland. Is it called Iffa? Oh yeah. Iffa two, I think it might be. Mm-Hmm. She speaks highly of that. Falon Park of course, although that's kind of the edge of the Greater East Side. But that, of course, that's a beautiful park and that's very well known. Yeah. But it's, I love, I love Falen Park. Mm-Hmm. What are some other places that are just wonderful on the east side? There's so many. Yeah, there are. That's the thing. And again, I don't know if we, if I mentioned this since we've been talking, but of the places in St. Paul, the districts, the areas, the east side is the one that I'm least familiar with, even though I've been here a number of times, because it's about the farthest from my house. to get to the east side on my bike pretty much like a minimum of eight miles just to get yeah to the east side and then to explore it obviously so i'm looking at 25 to 35 miles of riding yeah anytime i come over which i'm not complaining about but it does mean that i have been here a little bit less but now I'll be over here more because it's one of the last parts of the city that I have to explore. Well, we will gladly go out with you anytime. Some of us may be walking versus biking, but, like I say, that's an air gravity issue. But, I think that it's. Always exciting from my perspective as well as I think, I can speak for my staff too, to bring people who aren't familiar with this neighborhood to some of our hidden gems over here. it kind of harkens back to, why I really impressed with your blog is that, thank you, so many folks just go about their days and they don't stop and look and You know, here, here's an opportunity to stop and look and then maybe encourage and motivate folks to stop and look a little bit more. Absolutely. There's great places. And you know, um, my daughter, my underdaughter, Amy is the one that first mentioned this. She's the one that lives over here on the east side, but she would get comments from people at work or friends. And when she'd, they'd ask, where do you live? Oh, I live on the east side of St. Paul. And people go, Ooh, the east side. And she. Was really offended by that. Absolutely. As well she should be. As well as anybody in any neighborhood should be when you get a reputation. Now, the east side, from my understanding, is the biggest district in the city. So, by volume. Yeah, Payne Phalen is actually a little bit bigger than we are. Thank you for correcting me. That's okay, but if you think about the east side, so often is anything east of 35E, and that's a third of the city. Right. Population wise as well as geography wise. Actually, it's More like half the city geography wise. so yeah, we, I, and I think too for a long time district councils and neighborhoods were kind of siloed, but we've really changed to this more regional thought of things. so when you say Eastside, it's like it's all us. We're all together. And that's great. But when people say a neighborhood is bad, the east side is bad. Are you telling me that everything in a third to a half of the city is bad? That's ridiculous. And I can tell you that every place I've ridden in this city and that is every neighborhood from Highwood. Battle Creek, Greater East Side, Paine, Phelan, Railroad Island, Frogtown, Highland, McAllister, Groveland, Crocus Hill, the West Side, whatever. I have not gotten any hassle from anyone. Okay? I want to be very clear that that is not true. One of the most important things sort of label a neighborhood a whole maybe there's a block where some things have happened. Maybe there's two blocks, but that happens everywhere. And I'm not defending it. Yes, indeed. But, but the idea that the east side or the west side or Highland or whatever neighborhood. St. Anthony Park is bad or the whole neighborhood is good or whatever is that's ridiculous. I'm sorry. That's a generalization and you need to come and see for yourself. It's worth exploring every neighborhood and you never know what you're going to find. And there, yeah, and it's going to be good. It's going to be good. Exactly. So it's not, I just, Do not like hearing people say that the east side is not a good neighborhood because it is. Yeah, it sure is. and thank you for championing us because, perception of this area is not always great. Sometimes we shoot our own selves in the foot too. but highlighting those. And I think that, having those gems, really helps towards changing those perceptions and encouraging folks to, you know, go out and change their perceptions. So any final thoughts for neighbors out there? Again, just go out and explore. Take a little time to look around and like I said, greet people. Smile at people, wave at them. And most of the time you'll get a smile and a wave back. Get out there. Get out there. you'll feel better and so will people you meet. True. And you'll learn something, too. Well, thanks again, Wolfie. I, thank you for joining us today. How do people find the blog? Where do they go? Oh, yes. Thank you for, for asking that. I never thought to promote it. Yes, please do. The URL, the address is Saint Paul by bike dot com. Saint spelled out as a I N T by bike dot com. Perfect. And we will also add that to our notes too. So folks can hopefully click right over and take a look at what you've got on there. is there a way to email you from that blog and say, Hey, I've got this amazing house on my block. You should come see it or, Hey, I would love to take a ride with you and show you a park in our neighborhood. Is there a way to get ahold of you that way? There is a way to comment or contact me on, on the blog. Otherwise, the email address is pretty easy to remember, St. Paul by bike. at gmail. com and I love it. If people would contact me with story ideas, I would appreciate that greatly. I've had a couple of people suggest, but I haven't gotten too many. Most of them, are things I've stumbled on or well, like Maria talking to me about Joan that we talked about earlier. So, which I, again, I appreciate very much. So any suggestions and I know, I guess Minnesotans we don't self promote, but I'm all, but if you've got a story and every it's cliche again, but most of us have a story. Oh, yeah. Even if we don't think we have a story, there's a story there. Yeah. I'll ask enough questions to maybe pull it out of you. Perfect. Perfect. Well, thanks again for coming. looking forward to seeing where your bike trail leads. Over here. I've got a couple over here on the east side ready to start riding soon. Fantastic. Well, thanks again. Thank you, Lisa. I really appreciate it. Thank you for listening to today's episode of And you you're new here. Welcome. And be sure to hit followers subscribe. So you never miss an episode. Check out our website@greatereastside.org. For further information on what is happening in the neighborhood. We have a special announcement. I was spooky season upon us. We will be doing a special series during the month of October. Called nightmare on Ivy street, the spooky and dark history of the greater east side. We will be sharing ghost stories and some of the darker history on the east side, such as the ham kidnapping and Edward Fallon. Yes. That Edward Fallon and his many run-ins with the law. But we also want to hear from you, whether you are from pain, failing Dayton's bluff Conway, battle Creek. Or anywhere on the east side of St. Paul, do you have a tale of witches wood and Hayden Heights? Or from one of our haunted spaces, like month's park theater. Or growing up, did you encounter things that went bump in the night? Send your spooky story to greater east side d2@gmail.com. And we may be able to play it on our pod. Send your spooky story. To greater east side d2@gmail.com. Thanks again. We'll chat with you next time.