Overall, St Paul has a much higher Catholic population and Highland was where the up an coming Jewish folks liked to live in the whole area, traditionally Democratic, union town. Riots that caused deaths during the 1930's were at Minneapolis employers. Minneapolis is more Protestant, more cosmopolitan. We always referred to Minneapolis as sin city but only because vice was grandeur over there. St Paul had the period of time where we were a hands-off resort for criminals. "Come stay here and rest and relax but don't do your work here." That worked until a new rawer group of criminals came on the scene and the FBI was started. The St Paul bargain was over when the son of a banker was kidnapped for ransom after escalating incidents.
The neighborhoods have now changed with the influx of Asian and African immigrants. But traditionally, immigrant waves came in at places like Swede Hollow, the levee and the East Side. The East side became lower middle class. The levee was cleared for warehousing. Frogtown, working class and poor, the area they now refer to as Rondo was where the black folks lived all income levels but there was always a buffer zone of mixed families on the north side of that. Highland was the upper middle class, Summit the upper class with the Midway and its colleges being whatever class those folks fall into. You didn't used to have to go very far to be in a better or worse area of town. But except for some bad few months you could pretty much go anywhere during the day and be safe but you might run into jerks like anywhere.
I lived in Frogtown from 1976-1990. Went in to "urban homestead" but circumstances kept us there. Our neighbors were a mix of people like us and people who were sometimes third generations born into the houses*. They were neighborly, people helped each other out, looked out for each other and banded together to persuade, drug dealers and really mean folks, to move somewhere else, When I moved to the MIdway of St Paul from Frogtown it was already about half Asian immigrant families, but there was not the gang activity that has developed on those who felt they got stuck in that area. Mom had cousins living on the East Side and one of my Aunts families moved on up to Highland in the 1950's so I got to be in those places a little more often. My grandparents moved here in the early 1920's from two other states and moved back and forth between Minneapolis and St Paul until 1939 when they chose St Paul to stay in the mixed border area so I also had access to other cultures and probably the most tolerant neighborhood in St Paul. My parents generation moved to first ring St Paul suburbs by the 1960's
I know it is rose colored glasses but I still believe that I grew up in one of the best places in the world 1951-1970. People did care about one another even if there was some rivalry, crime and other troubles. Bullies were dispatched not cultivated and we all hoped for a better future for not only ourselves but our neighbors and those less fortunate. You could come in as an immigrant and retire wealthy if you wanted to go into business or at least comfortable unless there was substance abuse, personality defect or mental illness. Your kids would be educated, taught to be polite and respectful but also to think and stand up against bullies and there was hope for something better. You could chose not to be that way but now I am not sure you can chose to be that way. By the time my Kids were in High School everything was becoming adversarial, medicine, schools, and especially the "New" businesses.
There I go on a tangent again. Probably not much help because I was too far into my own perceptions at the time but I always observed and remembered.
*They still stayed in ethnic groups by local churches. Within walking distance were Catholic churches 1)the Polish Church, 2) the German Church 3) The Irish Church 4)American Indian Church, two Lutheran churches one Scandinavian, one German. A few small black churches, Methodist, Baptist and other. We were also with in a medium walk of the Capital and the St Paul Cathedral where some people held weddings and occasionally important funerals. The Evangelicals began sending buses to take the kids to surrounding neighborhoods for youth actives. Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Boys and Girls Clubs were popular and each neighborhood had a playground that by the 1960's also hosted senior dining, community problem solving and outreach, some had daycares for Moms starting to work and of course sports and kid activities. Until about 1980, they had staff that was there from 8am to 9pm and kids over 7 could be safely dropped off or walked down to the playground and return on their own. By that time they were walking back and forth to school for at least a year in line with crossing guards and you hoped they would have enough sense to look out for cars and creeps. In 1981 somebody in the St Paul government was deliberately ending community groups that were not funded by the Council and they were to promote business and top down problem solving in the area with enough community involvement for cover. They also slashed playground support and left it understaffed evening and weekends making it unsafe for younger kids and eventually older kids.
I went to Roseville Schools, and generally suburban kids were cocooned (pre-helicopter) a lot longer than city kids so the city kids were more mature earlier. In the city the new kid would probably get into one or two fisticuffs with locals at which time pecking order would be established (the local kids did not always win) and the new kids would be accepted. When my boys started attending Suburban schools in the 1990's when the locals and the new kids met they did a who do you think you are my Dad does___ and we have a house and a cabin and ___ and go on vacations to ___. So you told them your credentials and the pecking order was established but you could move up and down as your family circumstances changed. Girls had a pecking orders too but not nearly as wide and rigid as today. I remember being helped and helping people navigate social situations and horrors, clothing faux pas. (Hi Jane, I thought I should let you know that you should not under any circumstances bend over to pick something up from the bottom of your locker in that skirt.) Don't they just laugh and point or heckle today? But, If you chose to be square, mod, hippie, jive or just weird so be it was the 60's
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