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St. Paul and Ramsey County have given away more than $12.7 million in emergency grants to about 1,300 small businesses hit hard by the pandemic, with leaders emphasizing the need for both speed and equity in distributing those funds.
Despite efforts to be fair St. Paul used a blind lottery system, Ramsey County funded every qualified applicant in the first two rounds and both promoted their programs in multiple languages some historically underserved areas of the capital city still came out behind.
A Star Tribune analysis of city and county data found that while businesses throughout St. Paul benefited from the St. Paul Bridge Fund for Small Businesses and the Ramsey County Small Business Relief Fund, awards were sparser in some of the city s poorest areas, including the East Side and North End.