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Recent violence prompts call for change within community

St. Paul mayor Melvin Carter is calling on a community approach—investing in neighborhoods and spaces for people to go and grow.

ST PAUL, Minn. — This is the deadliest year St. Paul has seen in a decade. This weekend, the city hit a milestone it would rather not have.

There were two more murders.

That brings the total this year up to 26.

That surpasses the number of people killed just two years ago. Mayor Melvin Carter will host three community meetings in November for community members to join conversations about public safety in Saint Paul. The meetings come following recent gun violence. Carter is considering proposing a supplemental public safety budget to the City Council.

The community meetings will be free and open to the public:

  • Thursday, Nov. 7, 6:30-8 p.m. at Central Baptist Church, 420 N Roy Street
  • Tuesday, Nov. 12, 6:30-8 p.m. at Rice Recreation Center, 1021 Marion Street
  • Saturday, Nov. 16, 1-2:30 p.m. at Arlington Hills Community Center, 1200 Payne Avenue

“We will never accept violence as the norm," Carter said in a press release sent out on Monday. “Building the safe city we deserve will require new, proactive approaches to public safety, which must be built together.”

Mayor carter is calling on a community approach—investing in neighborhoods and spaces for people to go and grow.  And while Carter is pleading for the community to work together and set positive examples, one youth is already on the right track. And Cherokee Christopher, 23, says his business is part of the recipe to nourish youth. He opened The Igloo Café, 477 St. Peter St, in downtown St. Paul one month ago.

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“Show  a different route and hopefully that can reduce the violence. I am one person leading by example. I want to own a business so I can become a sustainable and bring youth in and train them about how to keep a job and maintain a job and not just work a job,” he said. “It isn’t an overnight process. I was blessed to have a mentor. He took me under his wing. He seen something a lot of people said they seen in me, but they didn’t really give me the opportunity. I want to be something like that to the next person.”
The violence hits home for Christopher and his family. His brother Phil Christopher, who works with him at the café, said his friend, Jeriko Boykin, was shot and killed earlier this month. He also said his son was shot in the foot.

The opening of the café comes seven months after Cherokee Christopher said Nipsy Hussle inspired him to use entrepreneurship to stop violence. He took the rappers death to heart and is trying to make a different in St. Paul.

 He believes everyone can create a recipe for a safer community.

“Stay positive and at the end of the day we can probably reduce some of that violence and make some more positive things happen instead of all of the negativity in the city,” he said.

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