User:Cewb23/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
West St. Paul, Minnesota

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I moved to West St. Paul in 2022 and I want to learn more about it. My initial impression of the article is that it is pretty minimal, and has some opportunities for improvement.

Evaluate the article
(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

The lead section of the West St. Paul, Minnesota article is extremely concise. It doesn't include an overview of all the notable sections that are included in the article, but it also doesn't include any information that should not be there.

The content of this article is not up to date. It could include more sections and expand some of the existing sections. The Demographics section could be updated to include more details about the 2020 census. The Geography or the History section could include details about what Native American tribes lived on the land in the past. The Economy section could include a breakdown of the other number of minority-owned/operated businesses within the city. The Government section could include which US Congressional district the city resides. The education section is misleading and incomplete. It is worded in a way that implies Two Rivers High School is in West St. Paul, when it is actually in Mendota Heights. The section also mentions the nature-based preschool at Dodge Nature Center but does not mention any of the other preschools. West St. Paul is also home to a Chabad Lubavitch House, which could maybe be included in the education section or in a a new section about faith centers or culture(s). There is also a very large Net Ministries property in West St. Paul that could be mentioned in a faith centers or culture(s) section(s). I also think there could be sections about the types of amenities the city offers, and the range of architecture in the city.

The tone of the article appears to be neutral. The existing content only shows bias by way of omission, as mentioned in the previous paragraph about content.

Some additional citations are needed in the History section. Reference number 10 appears to link to an article about Garlough Environmental Magnet School, but it links to a page about the Star Tribune, and it is placed in the article after Dodge Nature Center's preschool, not after mention of Garlough. Most of the sources in reference list are government sites. Links throughout the content of the article are mostly to Wikipedia pages. The external link for 1881 History of West St. Paul is not valid.

The article is organized appropriately aside from lacking some sections as mentioned earlier. I did not detect any errors for spelling or grammar. The images and other media included in the article are very limited and could include captions to make them more impactful. More images could also be included to better demonstrate the geography and perhaps the diversity of the businesses and population. I am not sure if it is appropriate to add to this article, but there is a viral video that a local artist Carolyn Swiszcz produced about West St. Paul that in many ways is more informative than the article itself.

The talk page does point out some of the article's shortcomings, particularly on the confusion over the geography description and whether there should be a religion section, and if some religious centers are mentioned, perhaps there should be complete documentation of all that are within West St. Paul. Other mentions in the talk page are about previous edits. The article is part of two projects; WikiProject Cities, rated as Start-class for the content assessment, and WikiProject Minnesota, rated as Start-class for the content assessment and Mid-importance for importance.

Overall, this article would benefit from more editor attention. The content is incomplete for Wikipedia standards. It does at least address one of the most unique things about West St. Paul, the geography, but it could better illustrate this with better maps. As mentioned previously, there are other significant gaps of information. I think the demographics section does show how diverse the city is, and what that means for the culture.