St. Paul’s Rice Park is downtown’s community gathering spot. From dazzling holiday decorations and celebrations to outdoor concerts and summer lunch gatherings, Rice Park is like an inviting and impressive front porch. Its fountain, benches, gardens and tables are surrounded by downtown landmarks – the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, George Latimer Central Library, Landmark Center and the Saint Paul Hotel.
The city owns Rice Park, but plenty of groups and individuals keep it special. The Rice Park Association, made up of about 25 of the park’s “neighbors,” is one of the key keepers of the park – along with the St. Paul Garden Club and the Saint Paul Parks Conservancy.
The Rice Park Association’s Amy Mino and Kristine Johnston were honored by the Saint Paul Parks Conservancy as volunteers of the year for 2024 for their dedication to the park.
Mino is executive director of Minnesota Landmarks, which manages Landmark Center, the former federal courthouse and post office that looms castle-like over the park. Johnston has worked 20 years downtown and digs in on Rice Park blooms and beautification with the St. Paul Garden Club.
Mino jokes that once Johnston started working with the park as a member of the garden club, the next step to the Rice Park Association was inevitable. “We reel them in and never let them go.”
Both were involved in the revitalization of Rice Park, which was completed in 2019 and cost $2.42 million.
“Rice Park had started to show its age,” Mino says. “We’d long talked about it. The park needed a refresh.”
The redesign added green space in the park, new paving, better pathways and tables and chairs. Artistic features and a lighting sculpture were added to the historic fountain in Rice Park.
The COVID shutdown changed Rice Park, Johnston says, with fewer events and visitors.
“We really want this place to be vibrant,” she says. “A lot of people live down here.”
“More all the time,” Mino says, adding that Landmark is a big part of the neighborhood.
“I really like the neighborhood connections,” Mino says.
Proposed development along the river bluff in downtown St. Paul will enhance the area and appeals to “the little bit of planner in me,” Mino says. She has an urban planning background and worked as an urban planner while she was in college.
Sitting at one of Rice Park’s tables on a summer morning and sampling a sweet treat from the new coffee shop at the Saint Paul Hotel, Johnston and Mino watched a few downtown workers passing through the park.
“This is just the gem of downtown St. Paul,” Johnston says.
They admit that there are problems with damage to the park, but add that all urban parks have to deal with this.
There was concern when trees were removed from Rice Park as part of the revitalization, Mino says. “But it opened up the park and feels like a safer space.”
St. Paul’s Community Ambassadors program also helps keep Rice Park cleaner and safer, she adds. “The city really cares about this park, too.”
It’s obvious the two feel their involvement in park projects is worth the effort.
In her work with the St. Paul Garden Club, Johnston says there’s a connection in planting and tending flowerbeds and the giant urns in the park with other gardeners – spending time together and being outdoors. A maintenance endowment funds a crew that does day-to-day work in Rice Park.
“There are lots of things that draw people’s time nowadays,” Mino says. Volunteering lets her associate with people who are really committed.
And that includes the young people who are moving into the city core and need to go beyond social media.
“Social media isn’t quite as social,” Mino says. “It’s not the same.”
“When you know people, you feel more connected,” Johnston adds.
Inspired? Volunteer in Saint Paul parks! From Wildlife Monitors to Park and Garden Stewards, there are ways to make a difference that connect you to nature. Learn more
Article and photo by Kathy Berdan.