The Saint Paul City Council approved the honorary co-naming of the corner of Milton Street and Iglehart Avenue on September 9, 2026, in honor of Mahmoud El-Kati, the historian and longtime Macalester College professor whose decades of teaching helped shape generations of Twin Cities civic leaders. The vote reverses a nine-year moratorium on street co-naming that Saint Paul's council had imposed in 2017. The City of Saint Paul said the official street-sign installation and unveiling would occur at a later date.
The measure, first reported by the Villager, formally passed as Resolution RES 26-1502, which amended the city's 2017 Resolution RES 17-1065 and reiterated the need for a future standard operating procedure on co-naming, according to the City of Saint Paul. Ward 1 Councilmember Anika Bowie brought forward the original proposals to allow co-naming and to honor El-Kati specifically, per the Villager's reporting. Bowie has said she considers El-Kati one of her mentors.
The city's 2017 decision to discontinue co-naming had been driven by concerns that dual street names would confuse drivers and emergency medical personnel, and by objections to naming streets after people still living, per the Villager. Ahead of Wednesday's vote, Bowie said fire and police departments told her that existing co-named streets had not, in fact, caused confusion in emergency responses.
A Contentious Path to Approval
The council's path to Wednesday's vote was not straightforward. Bowie first sought a vote on her original resolution, which would have immediately authorized the El-Kati co-naming without new administrative standards attached, but it failed by a 3-4 vote, according to the Villager. Council members Hwa Jeong Kim and Nelsie Yang supported that original measure, while Rebecca Noecker, Molly Coleman, Saura Jost and Cheniqua Johnson opposed it.
Saint Paul's city attorney's office then reviewed and amended a second version of the resolution, one that still allowed the honor for El-Kati but reiterated the need for a future standard operating procedure on co-naming, the Villager reports. That version passed 6-1, with Jost casting the lone dissenting vote. Jost said her opposition was not a rejection of El-Kati's work, but reflected agreement with the council's original 2017 reasoning for dropping street co-naming altogether, according to the Villager. Council members who backed the policy change understood they would still have a say in any future co-naming policy Bowie develops, per the same account.
Separately, Citizen Portal reported that opponents of the initial draft raised safety concerns, with police, fire and Public Works consulted about the issue. Bowie has said she plans to help develop that new citywide co-naming policy and bring it before a council committee.
Honoring a Mentor to State and City Leaders
The timing of the vote was deliberate. The City of Saint Paul announced that the co-naming celebration would be tied to the 2026 Selby Avenue JazzFest, held Saturday at Selby Avenue and Milton Street in the historic Rondo neighborhood — Saint Paul's historically Black community before it was displaced by Interstate 94 construction in the 1960s. The African American Leadership Council coordinated the change to coincide with the festival and had sought the co-naming honor for El-Kati, according to the Villager.
Minnesota Senate President Bobby Joe Champion and Bowie both publicly identified El-Kati as a key mentor who shaped their careers in elected office, the city's release states. Bowie had previously co-hosted educational public forums on restorative justice with El-Kati while an undergraduate student at Hamline University, according to the same city account.
Fabrication, materials, labor and installation costs for the new street signs will be fully funded by community sponsors, with no municipal taxpayer money involved, the city confirmed in its release.
A Six-Decade Career in Saint Paul
Born October 30, 1935, in Savannah, Georgia, El-Kati settled in Saint Paul in 1963 and taught Black history through the North Central Voters League and the Hallie Q. Brown Center before joining Macalester College's faculty, where he taught courses, according to the city and Macalester College. He retired as Professor Emeritus of History. The Villager describes El-Kati as a prominent educator, activist, historian and cultural commentator who has published many papers and articles about the African American experience and has won numerous awards.
His published books include The Myth of Race/The Reality of Racism: Critical Essays and The Hiptionary: A Survey of African American Speech Patterns, according to the Hennepin County Library. Macalester College's archival record also documents his legacy.
El-Kati's reach has extended well beyond the classroom. He has been linked to Minneapolis radio station KMOJ. The article also links to Unicorn Riot coverage of El-Kati. He has also received the National Association of Black Storytellers' Zora Neale Hurston Award and the Stairstep Foundation's Sankofa Award, per Macalester College, and was actively involved with the Stairstep Foundation, a Twin Cities organization focused on Black family empowerment.
What Comes Next for Co-Naming Citywide
Co-named streets in Saint Paul retain their original official names, with the honorary designation appearing on a special white nameplate mounted below the standard street sign, per the Villager's reporting. Existing co-named stretches are located mostly in Ward 1 and include portions of Marshall Avenue, Plato Boulevard, Saint Anthony Avenue, Concordia Avenue and Franklin Avenue.
With Wednesday's vote securing the honor for El-Kati, the council's attention now turns to the broader policy question left unresolved by the debate: what standardized criteria and review procedures will govern future co-naming requests across the city. Bowie has said she intends to lead that policy work and bring it to a council committee.
