After 175 years, downtown Saint Paul’s storied Rice Park continues to draw visitors and special events, as does Lowertown’s popular Mears Park and nearby CHS Field.

The space in between?

Not so much. Even diehard Saint Paul advocates acknowledge that Fifth Street in particular has become a bit of a dead zone dotted by dark windows and empty storefronts, a symbol of the challenges holding back the area’s potential.

“We don’t have to make every block-face amazing downtown, but we have to get these key connector streets right,” said Joe Spencer, president of the Saint Paul Downtown Alliance, in a recent interview. “Rice Park is amazing and Mears Park is amazing, but there’s very few people walking between those two spots.”

Carter's decision to deliver his speech at the Xcel Energy Center reflects the $2 million request from the city to the Legislature for the initial design work for a multi-million dollar renovation of the arena.

The hockey arena's transformation is part of a larger vision for downtown that the city has been crafting with the nonprofit Saint Paul Downtown Alliance.

As part of that work, Carter said the city will look to incentivize the conversion of office buildings into housing. Saint Paul already hired a consultant to consider selling its City Hall Annex to a developer — a move that would mean relocating hundreds of city workers to other parts of downtown.

Alt-rock mainstays Weezer will kick off their next tour Sept. 4 at Saint Paul’s Xcel Energy Center.

The upcoming tour celebrates the 30th anniversary of their self-titled debut (known as the “Blue Album”). Produced by Ric Ocasek of the Cars, it launched a trio of power-pop hits in “Undone — The Sweater Song,” “Buddy Holly” and “Say It Ain’t So.” They’ll be playing the album in full along with a selection of other songs drawn from throughout their career.