St. Paul is Minnesota’s state capital, recognized as one of the most livable cities in America. It is a national leader in education, safe streets, thriving local commerce, healthy living, state‐of‐the‐art infrastructure and eclectic character. The St. Paul/East Metro area is consistently ranked as one of the best places to live, most recently by Kiplinger's Personal Finance as # 2 on its list of the “50 Smart Places to Live.” It is the second most populous city in the state.

St. Paul has seen the number of foreclosures increase from 503 in 2005 to 1,819 in 2007 to 2,289 in 2009. The number of vacant buildings rose above a record 2,000 last year, as well. To combat the trend, St. Paul is leading the formation of a group of cities from across the United States to share legal strategies in dealing with mortgage lenders in an effort to reverse the effects of the foreclosure crisis. St. Paul and Baltimore are co‐chairing the group announced in January 2009, which so far has signed on 13 cities with major populations, including Atlanta, Chicago and Memphis. The goal is to share information, coordinate legal strategies and pool resources and legal clout to get lenders to be "part of the solution."