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Neighborhood activists just sued Mayor Melvin Carter’s administration, while challenger Kaohly Her, who lives on Summit, won’t pick a side. By Josie Albertson-Grove The Minnesota Star Tribune October 23, 2025 at 11:00AM Blue sunny skies and temperatures in the high 50s brought many outdoors, sometimes struggling to distance themselves from each other as they enjoyed the Monument at the west end of Summit Avenue along Mississippi River Boulevard on Sunday afternoon. (Glen Stubbe/The Minnesota Star Tribune) The fate of a proposed bicycle lane on Summit Avenue has been one of the hottest issues in St. Paul’s mayoral election, and it got even hotter this week when a group fighting to stop the project filed a new lawsuit. The question of how to move forward on Summit has become one of just a handful of policies where the leading candidates, Mayor Melvin Carter and state Rep. Kaohly Her, truly differ. The suit, seeking public records, heavily criticizes the Carter administration. And while Her does not want to take a position on the bike lane, she lives on the stately boulevard. The 4 miles of Summit, out of St. Paul’s 500-some miles of roads, could play an outsized role as the campaign heads into its final weeks. Carter is in full support of the project, which over the course of several years would dig up the road, install new sewers and water mains, and move a bike lane up to the level of the sidewalk, similar to bike lanes on Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis. Her has repeatedly declined to take a stance on the project, but has questions about the process that moved Summit ahead of other major bike thoroughfares in less-affluent neighborhoods, and wants to find a way to take down the temperature of the debate. The 2018 death of a 75-year-old cyclist on Summit galvanized bicycling advocates around the need for safer infrastructure. But Summit Avenue residents have grown worried about the loss of trees, and are skeptical that a sidewalk-level bike lane would be safer. Some residents also worry about their property values, and about the tax assessments they would each have to pay to help fund the project. Passers by view the "ghost bike" at the scene of the wreck on Summit Avenue east of Snelling Avenue in St. Paul where Virginia Heuer-Bower died in 2008. Ghost bikes are painted white and left near the scenes where cyclists died in wrecks. (Elliott Polk (Clickability Client Services) — Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune) St. Paul estimates reconstructing Summit Avenue and all its subterranean infrastructure will cost $100 million, and city officials say the cost of the bike lane will not add or subtract from the cost. A green house divided Both sides in the Summit Avenue debate see themselves as progressive environmentalists fighting climate change. But they diverge on whether encouraging bicycle commuting is a better solution than preserving as many trees as possible. Her also said she had questions about the Summit process. “I’m not going to scrap everything that was done,” she said, especially where money has already been spent on the project. But she said she would take a hard look at the plan moving forward. Lawsuit over public records Save Our Street’s lawsuit is not seeking to block the Summit Avenue project, but is asking a court to make St. Paul officials turn over more records about how the trail project was planned. For Bob Cattanach, a leader with Save Our Street, the issue is bigger than this bike lane. The process included two years of public engagement, but Cattenach contends that feedback was not considered because so many people vocally opposed the project. The bike lane vote A special election held in August for the Ward 4 City Council seat suggests the issue is one that could turn out voters. Josie Albertson-Grove Reporter Josie Albertson-Grove covers politics and government for the Star Tribune. See More
