Welcome To St. Paul SAFeDATA

A variety of K-12 private, parochial and public charter schools are also represented in the city. In 1992, Saint Paul became the first city in the U.S. to sponsor and open a charter school, now found in most states across the nation. Saint Paul is currently home to 21 charter schools as well as 38 private schools.

Saint Paul is the capital and the second most thickly settled city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city and the adjacent city of Minneapolis, form the core of the Twin Cities metropolitan area, the fifteenth largest such area in the US with a populus of 3.5 1,000,000. As of the 2000 census, the city populus was 287,151. Saint Paul serves as the county seat of Ramsey County, the most built up county in Minnesota. Residents of Saint Paul are referred to as Saint Paulites.Saint Paul began as tavern started by Pierre Parrant, known as "Pig`s Eye", because he was blind in one eye, who sold liquor on the river flats below the current downtown area. The area around the tavern grew into a trading outpost known as Pig`s Eye or Pig`s Eye Landing, where Native USs, European explorers, and US soldiers stayed in close proximity. The city spans the Mississippi river, near the confluence of the Minnesota river. Later the city became a center for transportation and trading in Minnesota, as steamboats could not travel further upriver. In 1854, Saint Paul incorporated as a city and, in 1858, became the capital of Minnesota.

In the early years, the settlers stayed close to the fort along the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, but as a whiskey trade started to flourish, the military officers in Fort Snelling banned them from the lands the fort controlled, with one retired fur trader turned bootlegger, Pierre "Pig`s Eye" Parrant particularly irritating the officials. By the early 1820s the area had become important as a trading center, a destination for settlers heading west, and was known as Pig`s Eye or Pig`s Eye Landing. In 1837, a treaty between Henry Schoolcraft and about 200 Dakota Indians displaced the natives from the site. In 1841 Father Galtier established a Catholic chapel, Saint Paul`s Chapel, on the bluffs above the landing, naming it in honor of his favorite saint and because of the pairing with Saint Peter`s Church in Mendota, near Fort Snelling. About that time, the name of the settlement was formally changed to Saint Paul as a more worthy name than "Pig`s Eye" and in honor of the new chapel. In 1847 Harriet Bishop came from New York and opened the city`s first school. German-Jewish pioneers formed Saint Paul`s first synagogue in 1856.

The Minnesota Territory was formalized in 1849 with Saint Paul named as its capital. In 1850, the city narrowly survived a proposed law to move the capital to Saint Peter when territorial legislator, Joe Rolette disappeared with the approved bill. In 1854, Saint Paul incorporated as a city and, in 1858, Minnesota was admitted to the union with Saint Paul becoming the 32nd state capital.

Half of Minneapolis-Saint Paul residents work in the city where they live. Most of the citizens of Saint Paul utilize a car to move throughout the region, although the bus system, provided by Metro Transit, is also used by many. Metro Transit operates the Hiawatha Line, a light rail transit system, which connects downtown Minneapolis with the Mall of America. It serves Saint Paul via coordinated buses from the train stations. The Central Corridor, which would connect downtown Minneapolis to downtown Saint Paul via University Avenue is expected to be completed in 2014.

Five miles (8 km) of enclosed pedestrian bridges called skyways link over twenty-5 city blocks downtown. This allows pedestrians to walk from one building to another without going outside. Another mode of transportation gaining popularity in Saint Paul is biking, especially with the advent of additional bike lanes throughout the city and the metropolitan area. Bike trails interconnect with those of Minneapolis and other neighboring cities and Metro Transit buses feature bike racks for combination commuters.