Kerry Antrim

Executive Director, North End Neighborhood Organization(NENO)

Kerry Antrim has been leading the North End Neighborhood Organization for more than 2 decades. NENO works to serve, support, and promote our community as an equitable place for everyone to live, work, and play.

The organization leads and promotes community activities, and acts as a valuable resource for local residents business owners.

Amy Brendmoen

Ward 1 Representative, President of Saint Paul City Council

The North End is an incredible neighborhood. When we bring people in from the outside, they are always so amazed by the access to parks and the richness in history, culture and community. I’m really feeling a sense of family and community regrowing. We suffered some challenges with job loss and with the housing crisis but we are rebounding. You can definitely feel that.

Melvin carter III

Mayor of the city of Saint paul

We really need to put economic development dollars into Rice Street, and that means not just getting people to open businesses but also look like the type of place that people will want to be in, that will want to open a business ip in.

Ilean Her 

Executive Director, Hmong Elder Center

What makes the North End unique is just really the people. I think it’s the starting place for a lot of new Americans. I know that when the Hmong community first came here we loved this street. We loved Rice St. Along the way more Asian businesses opened up and that made the community feel comfortable. So now a lot of my Hmong elders comment when they see the Karen community. So to me the North End is unique because It’s really the starting place for anyone who wants to build a life here in the city.

Jennifer Nguyen Moore

2018 Candidate for Ramsey County Commissioner 

I think that sense of cultural community is engrained in a lot of cultures within this community. There is a lot of folks from different areas - from Vietnam, Burma, Laos to Germany. I think we all have the same bonding in that aspect - where we like to get to know one another. We are all friendly. I think when you have that friendly atmosphere it makes it easier to build that community and to feel welcomed.

Kim O’Brien

Director of Strategic Initiatives 

Saint Paul Area

Chamber of Commerce

Kim O’Brien has been advocating for the north end neighborhood for 15 years. She is a communications and public policy professional with demonstrated success in community and government relations, neighborhood economic development, project management, public policy, event planning, coalition-building, media relations, social media marketing, brand and promotional advertising, and nonprofit development.

Her most recent efforts have been with a tri-city collaboration between the cities of Saint Paul, Maplewood and Roseville called Let’s Revitalize Rice ^ Larpenteur, dedicated to supporting strong locally owned businesses and a quality of life for those who live in this neighborhood.

CHRISTOPHER SEYMORE

Minister &  2018 Candidate for U.S. Senate

This is a lower middle class neighborhood. So when you go shopping in this neighborhood the prices are right for the people that live here in this neighborhood. We got thrift stores, dollar stores, stores that are culturally specific to this neighborhood.

There is a large Hmong population, Somali population, Hispanic population. And when you walk in the North End area you can shop specific to those three cultures. Those three cultures overlap in spices and meats and price variance. Thats what’s important about this neighborhood.

DAI THAO

Ward 1 Council Member

I have some of my fondest memories of the North End neighborhood. It's a hard-working part of St. Paul and everybody there is gritty. People work hard and the neighborhood is filled with working class families. There is a lot of history and culture there too. I frequent that area and I love the people there. There is a history in the neighborhood that includes different cultures and that is actually our strength. We need the city to invest more in the North End because our community deserves a fair shake.

Mai Vang

Executive Director, Hmong Museum

I am excited about the possibility of permanently preserving Hmong history and share the ever-expanding history of our heritage.

Mai Vang is Collections Manager for the Minnesota Museum of American Art. She is a passionate museum enthusiast with extensive experience in collection care and curation, exhibit development, museum education, and grant writing.

Hmong Museum is the first and currently only museum dedicated to the preservation and education of Hmong culture, history, stories, and arts. We do this through the creation and collaboration of programs