On August 27, the City of Saint Paul reopened the Grand and Snelling intersection to one lane of traffic in each direction, closing out a two-summer construction project that ran the length of Grand Avenue from Fairview to Snelling. If you live in Macalester-Groveland, you already know this stretch. It's the one that runs past Macalester College itself, and for two straight construction seasons it's been the reason your commute, your bus route, or your walk to campus took longer than it should have.
The street reopening is one piece of neighborhood news. The Macalester-Groveland Community Council also helps shape the public calendar, judging your alley garden in July, running your neighborhood garage sale in June, co-sponsoring your Tuesday night concert in August, and throwing your fall festival in September.
Two Summers of Construction, Right at the Front Door
The city split the Grand Avenue rebuild into phases: the Fairview-to-Snelling stretch was rebuilt in 2025, and the Snelling intersection itself was the focus this year, with crews targeting a late-August finish. That timeline held. As part of the project, the city set aside $40,000, one percent of construction costs under Saint Paul's public art ordinance, for artwork to be installed along the corridor.
If you ride the bus, you felt this more directly. The Snelling and Grand stop closed in mid-July, and Route 63 spent the back half of summer detoured off Grand between Fairview and Hamline, with temporary stops on Summit at Snelling and Pascal Street. All of that ended with the August 27 reopening.
Here's why the location matters beyond the inconvenience: this exact stretch of Grand Avenue, past Macalester College, is also where the neighborhood hosts Music on the Lawn every summer. The same blocks that spent two years under construction are the blocks where the community gathers for its most consistent recurring event.
The Community Council's Role in Neighborhood Events
The Macalester-Groveland Community Council is technically Saint Paul's District 14 planning body, the group that fields resident input on zoning, land use, and traffic before it reaches the city. Its committee calendar this summer included a Housing and Land Use meeting on July 22 and a Transportation Committee meeting on July 27. That's the council's official job.
The council also organizes or supports several recurring neighborhood events:
- The Alley Garden Awards, with this year's judging period running July 9 through July 19, sends volunteer judges out to award flags to the neighborhood's best alley gardens.
- The Great Garage Sale Extravaganza, held June 12 and 13 this year, combined Mac-Groveland with Summit Hill and Highland into one joint sale, with a $25 household or $30 business registration fee that funds the council's programming.
- The council's environmental committee runs community cleanups every spring and fall.
- Mac-Grove Fest returns to Edgcumbe Recreation Center on September 12 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Vendor registration closed August 15, but the event itself is free and open to everyone, with live music, food trucks, and kids' activities built around celebrating the neighborhood's own businesses and residents.
- Frost Fest, held at the Groveland Ice Rinks each January, is co-produced with the rink's own volunteer organization.
That last one is worth a closer look, because it shows how tightly the council's calendar bends to actual Minnesota weather rather than a fixed date. When this January's Frost Fest ran into a forecast nobody wanted to skate through, the rink's volunteers put it plainly:
"Due to the extreme cold forecast for this coming Saturday, the annual Frost Fest event has been postponed."
The event moved a week, to January 31, and went on as a free afternoon of skating, hot chocolate, and a bonfire. The council doesn't just pick dates. It adjusts them in real time when the neighborhood's actual conditions demand it.
The Business Association Shows Up Too
Music on the Lawn, the free Tuesday evening concert series on Macalester's own lawn, is presented by the Grand Avenue Business Association in partnership with the city's Commercial Corridor program and Ambit Media, with the Macalester-Groveland Community Council and Macalester College among its sponsors. The series ran weekly from June through August this year and wrapped its final show on August 18 with performer Laura MacKenzie.
The Grand Avenue Business Association has also been running Grand Old Day since 1973.
Upcoming Dates on the 2026 Calendar
If you're mapping out the rest of the year, here's the short version: Mac-Grove Fest on September 12 is the next fixed date, followed by the council's fall community cleanup sometime in the coming weeks, and then Frost Fest returns to the Groveland Ice Rinks in January, conditions permitting.
Groveland Tap on St. Clair Avenue
Groveland Tap, the beer-and-burger fixture on St. Clair Avenue, operates independently of the council and business association. It recently added a rain-or-shine patio and refreshed its look while continuing to serve the Juicy Lucy and cheese curds that have made it a neighborhood institution for years.
Julie Doolittle and the team at Arbor Residential Group keep track of what actually drives daily life in Macalester-Groveland, from the construction schedule to the community calendar. If you're curious what any of it means for your own corner of the neighborhood, get your instant home valuation or reach out to talk it through.
