Hamline alum Cole Hanson formally announced his candidacy for St. Paul City Council at a launch event on Wednesday, Feb. 26 in a bid to represent Ward 4, which includes Hamline University and University of St. Thomas.
Hanson graduated from Hamline in 2013 and is currently the president of the Hamline-Midway Coalition, as well as a public health educator at the University of Minnesota. Having lived in the Hamline-Midway area for years, he emphasized that his familiarity with the neighborhood will give him good standing to represent it.
“Fundamentally, I want to be your City Councilor because I live here,” Hanson said during a speech at the event. “I’m a dad here. I work here. And I want to work for everybody in this room and everybody else in the neighborhood.”
Hanson’s campaign manager and Hamline alum Zev Nicholson attested to Hanson’s long-standing history of community leadership, extending back to his time at Hamline.
“He's always found a place in his community somewhere to make something better, some way to improve,” Nicholson said whilst introducing Hanson at the event. “Whether that was when we were in college, he would find ways to get involved with his community. He would find ways to take a position of leadership that was needed to help make things better.”
This sense of community is at the heart of Hanson’s campaign, steered by slogans such as “Your Neighbor’s Choice” and “For Neighbors, With Neighbors”. He reinforced this message regarding the many students in the area.
“Even if you’re new to the city, you’re new to Hamline-Midway, you’re new to the neighborhood, this is a place for you, and it should be a place for you,” Hanson said. “If you’re renting off campus or on campus, you should know your rights. And if you decide to live in the community afterwards, it should be a safe and wonderful place for you to grow up and raise your family.”
Affordable housing and rent were a key issue for Hanson; as a renter himself, he said, he believes it is City Council’s responsibility to communicate tenants’ rights.
“When we talk about how we make a more livable community, it needs to be an affordable community. And we need to talk about affordable for everyone,” Hanson said. “If we’re talking about housing, we need to be talking about the people who want to buy a house.”
Hanson said another one of his priorities is to tackle the opioid crisis in the community, using his public health expertise to improve the way those struggling with addiction are supported and treated. He believes neither a hands-off nor a law enforcement-heavy approach is the way to deal with the issue.
“We’ve got to find a middle path and we’ve got to take advantage of the spectrum of options we have available to us, and that’s my job. That’s what I do,” Hanson said.
Other matters he spoke on included fully funding libraries, increasing safety on public transit and reducing barriers to starting and maintaining businesses. Much of his motivation to improve such areas came from his experience not just living in but raising a child in the neighborhood.
“I'm happy to get in the way and cause trouble and kick the door open for my neighbors, because that's what I like doing,” Hanson said.
The winner of this special election will be sworn in in August, although the date of the election is yet to be announced. St. Paul City Council is currently taking applications for an interim representative for Ward 4 who will serve in the meantime.
