I am Mary Gaasch, Mayor of the City of Lauderdale.  I am running for my fifth term as Mayor and hope to have your vote on Tuesday, November 5th, 2024!  

doajor Accomplishments:

The Fern: Affordable Senior Housing! Lauderdale worked hard for several years to make sure that this property would be developed in a way that would most benefit our residents. Not only do seniors have a safe place to live, but the development provided some $350,000 in park fees, which will be used to improve our park infrastructure. The project also provided roughly $200,000 up front in fees. This money goes to our general fund and will offset the rising costs that are causing other nearby cities to levy double digit tax increases. And when the project is complete, the taxes it generates will help keep Lauderdale affordable for generations to come.

We rebuilt Skyview park with help from Lauderdale kids! We designed meetings so Lauderdale kids could help design this little gem of a park! It was fun to have the kids involved in civic life, and it is so fun to see the park filled with kids having a good time!

We protected our Lauderdale Nature Area (some folks in St. Anthony call it the Breck woods). With tremendous community engagement, we passed an ordinance that will preserve and improve these woods so they are there for generations to come!

We launched a new website, which makes it easier for you to stay in the know.  
And we invested in technology for hybrid meetings.  Our city hall is still not very swanky, and the hybrid meetings don't always work seamlessly. But my goal is to make it as easy as possible for you to share your vision and ideas for Lauderdale.

After over 30 years of negotiation, we were able to buy back Eustis north of Larpenteur and Roselawn from Ramsey County.  We were able to do this with adequate funding to rebuild these streets so that they will be an asset to our city for decades to come. We were able to negotiate the cost so that it cost homeowners no more than other folks paid when they were assessed for street improvements. 

We purchased homes on Eustis Street as part of a long term plan to improve our housing stock and offer a variety of housing options to meet the needs of our Lauderdale residents. This set the price for lots in Lauderdale. We now have many new homes, and our property values have risen as a result!

    Yes, but will we still be able to offer affordable housing?
    We are partnering with Ramsey County to pilot a program to offer First          Generation homeowner grants.

We made improvements to our Dog Park. I love this wonderful amenity and the community it has created.

We added an on-line volunteer system, to make it easier for our citizens to participate in the life of our community.  

We piloted the Smallest Cities Race and Equity Cohort, designed to help us ensure that we are providing a safe and welcoming environment for all of our citizens. 

We work closely with St. Anthony Village police, our citizens and (voluntarily) with the Department of Justice to provide mission driven, community oriented policing for the City of Lauderdale.

Community Engagement:
 is my favorite part of serving you as Mayor.  I love democracy and I love hearing what people think.  I know how how hard it is to participate in city government when we all have such busy lives.  So when you come to a meeting, I welcome you, explain the process, show you where to get a drink of water or the best place to sit if it is hot!

Not every one has the ability to come to meetings, so I seek community feedback in other ways.  When there is an issue that we know people nee to weigh in on, I do surveys, host open houses and go door to door to hear directly from you when there are big issues.  And of course you can always write or call or stop me when we are out walking.

I want to hear from all voices and I want to support civil and courageous conversations. I believe it is in unity that we will get through these challenging times together.

​Please email me with questions or concerns or ideas at [email protected]. I would love to hear from you!

Mary Gaasch, first female mayor of the city of Lauderdale.

The monkey bars at the old Lauderdale School/Chinese Christian Church in an undated photo. We had a wonderful open house to welcome people back to visit the old school before it is demolished. We had 300 people attend!

Top Priorities:

- Developing a commercial district at Larpenteur and Eustis
- Funds for first time homebuyers
- Maintaining and improving our housing stock
- A coffee shop!
-Equity and inclusion
-A climate-resilient city