Greater East Side Community Council (GESCC)
AIRNET resources for the Greater East Side neighborhood
GESCC is a community partner hoping to learn more about the impacts from the Northern Iron Foundry, the Heights Development project, and vehicle traffic. Learn more about the community below.
Presentations
Workgroup session 1, May 22, 2025, Richard Kramer community room (view presentation): First community meeting that discussed the project goals and objectives as well as timelines. The participants received a brief air quality introduction and discussed the main concerns related to air pollution in their neighborhood. The top three air pollution sources of concern were identified to further narrow down and identify specific pollutants to monitor for the project.
Workgroup session 2, June 23, 2025, Richard Kramer community room (view presentation): Second community group meeting that built upon the sources discussed in the first session. Top pollutants to monitor were identified, and two to three options, along with suitable sensors and associated costs, were presented based on previous source discussions. A tabletop mapping exercise was conducted to identify potential sites for placing monitors.
Quarterly reports (forthcoming 2026)
Deployment plans (forthcoming 2026)
Introduction to the community
The Greater East Side Community Council (GESCC) is the District 2 planning council in St. Paul, Minnesota. GESCC strives to strengthen and support the Greater East Side through inclusive community engagement, advocacy, and collaborative leadership that amplifies the voices of all residents. The council’s aim is to promote a connected, empowered, and thriving community—where every resident has the opportunity to shape a vibrant and equitable future for the Greater East Side.
The neighborhood currently has no publicly available air quality monitoring data. The nearest regulatory air monitor run by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is about 1,400 feet south of the neighborhood at Harding High School, measuring volatile organic compounds (VOCs), carbonyls, total suspended particulate, metals, and fine particulates (PM2.5).
There is also a temporary regulatory station located at the Northern Iron facility to the west, measuring total suspended particulates, metals, and lead. The nearest site measuring nitrogen dioxide is at the MPCA’s Near Road I-35/I-94 site in the Phillips/Ventura Village neighborhood in Minneapolis, about 11.1 miles from the southwest corner of the Greater East Side neighborhood. The Greater East Side currently has four active air permits within the neighborhood. MPCA’s records going back to July of 2021 show that none of these permits have been violated.
Air monitoring objectives
The Greater East Side neighborhood sees a large amount of transportation on its multiple major roadways and has one of the largest populations of residents under age 18 of any community in the Twin Cities. We want to monitor transportation pollution in the neighborhood to understand where traffic pollution is coming from and how it impacts youth. Our main concerns focus on passenger vehicles and light-to-medium duty trucks (non-diesel). This project will extensively monitor NO2 and PM2.5 at locations of high traffic near schools, daycare centers, and parks. We will also site a monitor in a location further from high traffic areas as a comparison site.