Advanced Search
Minnesota Commons
There is much talk about the Commons and “Death of the Commons” these days. A basic library journal search shows more writing on the subject in the past two years than the dozens (and hundreds) that preceded them. A brief primer for those unfamiliar to the concept of Commons: The initial concept applied to land used for the good of the whole community, and that it ought to not be enclosed to benefit the good of a single person.
The oppositional next leap (because there is always an oppositional next leap) was the inalienable right of people to property. With that counter-argument, supporters of each view set into motion a chronic debate. It is the stuff of lawsuits and keeping a veritable army of lawyers in abundant salary. Over the years, the commons has come to encompass a great deal more than land use issues, though they remain (forgive me) the foundation. The present era argument for the commons has come to include everything from genetic material, diseases, and radio bandwidth to the languages we create.*
In Minnesota, our Commons have the same range of issues and disagreements. Is a stadium worth publicly financing if I can’t pop by to use it at my own leisure? If trucks hauling sand in Winona wreck the roads ten times faster than normal wear and tear, shouldn’t the company paying for the movement of the materials also repair the roads? Also, there are the limited versions of the commons: I help pay for the streets, but they are maintained, policed and managed by other entities (most of which I also help pay for with my tax money).
In his article “The Future of the Commons,” CUNY Professor David Harvey examines the role of work, value, and property rights, among other topics. In his article, Harvey correctly points out the history of enclosure (i.e. creating a commodity from what was previously held in common) fails to fulfill common interests.
If you’re thinking all of this sounds vaguely familiar in a “99 percent versus one percent” fashion, it is. Here are a few recent examples: ALEC at the Minnesota legislature; the Koch brother’s disproportionate influence in Wisconsin; the housing bubble and anything related to Wall Street, to name a few.
Harvey goes on to say, “….that the unified effect addresses the spiraling degradation of common labor and common land resources…. The point is not to fulfill the requirements of accumulation for accumulation’s sake….the point is to change all that and to find creative ways to use the powers of collective labor for the common good.”
Of this point the Minnesota legislature should be acutely aware as they all face re-election in 2012. The 99 percent are watching and by my count, no matter how much influence can be obtained by the one percent, my public school taught me that 99 is greater than one.
*Commonwealth, by Thomas Hardt and Antonio Negri.2009
Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: European models City Management Minnesota Sports
Granting Preservation and Development
A Connecticut foundation has made a $15,000 grant to Preservation Alliance of Minnesota (PAM) for the St. Paul-based group to study how a revolving fund might help communities preserve historic properties and spur economic activity.
The money is coming from the 1772 Foundation which supports preservation programs nationwide and the preservation of properties in New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island. The grant to PAM allows the Minnesota group to study how a revolving fund would help efforts to identify historic properties and the issues or barriers to their reuse. The grant will also help identify how a revolving fund and PAM could help the process.
All one needs to do is look at scenic St. Croix and Mississippi River towns and the visitors and shoppers they attract, says Will O’Keefe, PAM’s communication and program director.
Data assembled for PAM’s Minnesota Main Street Program in 2011 found a three-to-one relationship between private and public investment for improvements and business development in historic buildings, O’Keefe said. In five participating cities in the program, 61 full-time jobs were created, 24 new businesses were started, 47 rehab improvements were undertaken, and three public improvements were started.
In the first seven months of the Minnesota Main Street Program, PAM found that preservation improvements returned $9.20 to the state for every $1 invested, and that 14 projects underway are projected to create nearly 3,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs.
A private foundation grant that might improve on PAM’s preservation record will pay dividends to the state, our communities and our individual quality of life.
Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: Business Growth Small Business Minnesota Cities
VIDEO: Right to Freeload
When we look deeper into the proposed constitutional amendment to make Minnesota a "right-to-work" state, it's important to know what could be stripped away by proposed legislation. As we've highlighted over the past two weeks, removing benefits provided by unions would compromise safety, shortcut training programs, even eliminate voices in contract negotiations.
It is also important to listen to workers who would be directly impacted by weakening collective bargaining policy in the workplace.
Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: Union Working / Middle Class Issues
EnergyScoreCards
It is difficult to imagine any market that has yet to be explored for cost savings opportunities. However, many of us wake up in one daily: Multifamily rental properties, also known as apartment buildings. CenterPoint Energy and the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund are in the process of rolling out a new program that will study this very issue. According to their website, “[EnergyScoreCards™] program aims to demonstrate that engaging multifamily owners, property managers and tenants in actively managing energy use can measurably reduce utility spending, energy and water consumption and carbon emissions.”
While the program is in a pilot stage here, it borrows from a program established by Bright Power, Inc., an energy consulting firm based in New York. About two years old, EnergyScoreCards™ are catching on for use by both companies and municipalities across the country.
EnergyScoreCards™ is a database that benchmarks the utility and water use of one building against comparable buildings. The pilot program is scheduled to last two years in Minnesota, after which the two funding partners of CenterPoint Energy and Greater Minnesota Housing Fund will sort through the data.
For example, if a water heater is both inefficient and electric, the energy use will add up quickly. But what inspiration, if any, does a property owner have for investing in an efficient appliance?
Additionally, participants in the pilot program have access to a portfolio analysis tool that can tell them what building, if they own several, will give them the best return on investment if made more efficient.
Pam Schmidt, Vice-President of Minneapolis-based Sherman Associates signed on early to the study. “Utility costs are usually the largest single expense for our properties. Benchmarking has enabled us to reduce or control our utility costs. This process of collecting, analyzing, and reviewing energy data performance has enabled us to drive more energy savings across our portfolio of all property types market rate rental, affordable rental, commercial, and hotel,” Schmidt said.
“What’s in it for the building owner is a sense of ‘Where do I stand?’” said Janne Flisrand, the Program Coordinator at Minnesota Green Communities. “By looking at the benchmarking the property owner can tell what to invest in to save money. Is it water or electric? It provides the groundwork for effective utility management in buildings.”
Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: Energy Sustainability
Debunking Myths of Affordable Housing
Affordable housing in Minnesota still is getting a bad rap, but this might change with a new public television documentary airing on Sunday: Homes for All.
Evidence of continuing NIMBY challenges facing families needing housing surfaced in the community outreach process the state went through in preparation of the 2012-16 Consolidated Plan. This is a document that is required to be completed every five years in order to receive various federal housing resources.
For the Plan, state agency staff completed extensive interviews with community leaders to determine the need for housing as well as barriers to creating housing affordable to people with incomes too low to be served by the private market.
Shortage of resources to cover the gap between what people can pay and the cost of housing ranked as the number one barrier. But barriers related to social perception are still prevalent.
One individual surveyed said in his community there was a prevailing sentiment that by creating housing for homeless individuals, homeless people would move into the community.
Another survey responder identified community ignorance of the struggles many families face in surviving on low incomes, particularly when housing costs are increasing faster than incomes as they have for renters over the past decade.
Many participants in the state survey said that public education on challenges faced by low income people would be beneficial and, in particular, information about the quality of affordable housing now being produced in Minnesota.
Many people have a very limited understanding of affordable housing and form opinions, pro or con, from a narrow base of experience. And for older Minnesotans that understanding was based on outdated images of massive, crime ridden, poorly-funded public housing projects here and elsewhere.
To bring this understanding of affordable housing up to date, TPT Minnesota has produced a one-hour documentary, titled Homes for All. The documentary offers an insider’s view of affordable housing in Minnesota and the people and communities that rely on it. The documentary profiles residents, developers and community members in three Twin Cities affordable housing developments.
Homes for All is being shown on TPT’s Minnesota and Life channels. After the show premiers February 19 (8 pm on TPT MN) it will be available “on demand” at tpt.org.
I encourage people to bring an open mind to the topic affordable housing and watch the TPT program. I think that you’ll find Minnesota’s affordable housing to be architecturally pleasing, durable and well run. And, I believe that you will find the residents of affordable housing the good neighbors we want in Minnesota.
Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: Housing Market
A Healthy, Nonpartisan Caucus
There is general excitement in the Red Wing area about the startup of the Riverbend Market Co-op, which has been a carefully developed community food system linking consumers with producers. As part of that excitement, and about as nonpartisan as anything can get in an election year, organizers of Riverbend advanced a resolution through at least one precinct caucus that merits attention by both major political parties statewide.
Clarence Bischoff, president of Riverbend and a farmer in Goodhue County (Vasa Gardens Farm), shares the following resolution that was passed a week ago at the Vasa Township DFL precinct caucus:
"Be it resolved that the State of Minnesota form a Local Foods Council to provide a vehicle for networking, communication, research related to the Minnesota food system, and reporting recommendations to improve the food system in Minnesota, specifically security issues and local-sustainable food production."
Pretty simply and straight forward. But it can be complex as people around Red Wing, Duluth, Minneosta River towns and Minnesota college towns have discovered as they build local food systems. A helpful way of overcoming initital problems is sharing information.
Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: Minnesota Cities Co-ops Small Business
We got what we wanted…now what?
It seems in environmental work that we are generally fighting against businesses. We oppose a smelter proposed for next to a grade school. We oppose a retailer’s parking lot expansion when it threatens a trout stream. We oppose the Chamber of Commerce’s efforts to roll back regulations that protect clean water.
Could this be a rare occasion environmentalists are FOR something a business does?
Last fall, many Minnesota environmental groups opposed Lutsen Mountain Corporation’s request for a permit to draw water out of the drought-stricken Poplar River for snowmaking. These groups demanded that Lutsen stop withdrawals from the river completely.
If they can’t make snow, the Corporation said, business will take a big hit, and the Cook County economy will suffer. The Minnesota DNR approved Lutsen’s permit but with a strict requirement that Lutsen get out of the Poplar River in three years.
Four months later, Lutsen Mountains Corporation is back with a proposal to do just what the DNR and environmental groups asked them to do. They have a proposal for a $4.8 million pipeline that will bring water straight out of Lake Superior up to the ski hill for snowmaking and other uses.
While the Corporation will find $1.2 million to contribute to the pipeline, they are asking for $3.6 million from the state bonding bill.
The bill is known as the Lake Superior-Poplar River Water District. It’s House File 1810 and Senate File 1511.
Some environmental groups, including Conservation Minnesota, are already supporting the proposal. Yes, the project primarily benefits one private business. But it will also benefit the fish and habitat of the Poplar River.
Are the public benefits of ample water in the river and a strong tourist economy worth the $3.6 million public investment? Are you for this or against it? Whether you support this bill or not, it can be nice sometimes to be in support of a good thing and not always in a fight against bad things.
Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: Lakes & Rivers
Graph of the Day: A Bigger Picture of RTW
There's more ways to look at so-called “right to work” (RTW) legislation than simply examining Oklahoma (though there is value in that case study). Most states have either been RTW or non-RTW for decades, which means we have a large national data set to examine to see if there are systemic differences between the two approaches.
Pulling from this store of information, we get today's graph.
![[Graph: click title to view in browser]](/assets/uploads/article/Bigger_Picture_RTW.png)
(Data from St. Louis Federal Reserve)
The website for the St. Louis Federal Reserve allows me to combine up to 10 different data sources in a single line, which means I could look at 10 RTW states and 10 non-RTW states. To approach random selection, I took the first 10 states from an alphabetical list of RTW states and combined them to get the red line; I then took the first 10 states from an alphabetical list of non-RTW states and combined them to get the blue line.
Both sets of states are broadly representative of the larger RTW and non-RTW populations. RTW states tend to skew towards the South, with decent representation in the Midwest and the Mountain West. Non-RTW states also spot the Midwest and Mountain West, but are otherwise weighted towards the Northeast and the West Coast. The random collections of states reflect these general patterns.
This graph compares the two groups on unemployment rate to see if there are serious differences between the two groups. With the exception of the late '80s, the two lines are very, very close. During the late '90s, RTW states experienced higher unemployment rates than non-RTW states, though I'm willing to bet that's a result of other economic factors and not solely RTW laws.
Once again, we see that RTW doesn't do anything for new job creation. It just makes conditions worse for those that do have jobs in the industries most affected by RTW. Minnesotans should question whether weakening our workers for no reason really reflects our values.
Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: Job Growth Unemployment Working / Middle Class Issues Graphs
23 Comments ->
Big Wind Meets Small Town
Across the border in St Croix County, WI, Emerging Energies of Wisconsin, LLC and residents in the town of Forest are fighting over the proposed 41-turbine Highland Wind Project. Although studies have indicated that the area would be well suited for wind energy generation approaching 102 megawatts, residents fear the potential health impacts from close proximity to the turbines and strongly resist the permanent changes to the geographical landscape surrounding the town.
Some people might call this a classic case of NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard) and push forward with the project in the name of some greater cause (jobs, clean energy, free market, money, etc.). Personally, I am a staunch supporter of wind energy and consider the turbines I see while driving down the freeway to be elegant and beautiful. But how would I react if someone told me that my St. Paul neighborhood was soon to include a backdrop of unavoidably visible aluminum turbine blades?
Luckily I don’t have to answer that because St Paul doesn’t register too high on the wind potential scale. But fellow MN2020 Fellow Roopali Phadke at Macalester College has looked at the impacts on rural landscape identities due to physical landscape changes from wind energy development in great detail.
In a recent article Phadke discusses the “social gap” that separates the broad state and nation-wide calls for advancing renewable energy, from the local, rural and increasingly organized resistance to that advancement. In particular, she highlights an important historical dichotomy that has run throughout American history. We cherish and want to preserve the pastoral, bucolic and sometimes wild landscapes that have dominated the American rural identity; but at the same time we value industrial progress above all else. Not surprisingly we often want it both ways, but the nature and growth of wind energy generation is forcing these two views to directly confront each other more and more in wind-suitable yet cherished landscapes.
So can we have our cake and eat it too? Can we say ‘yes’ to the industrial advancement of “Big Wind” and say ‘no’ to the permanent alteration of our rural landscapes? To discredit the former as evil corporate greed and the latter as selfish hypocritical NIMBYism doesn’t move us toward any viable solutions. The issue requires early and effective communication between both sides at highly local levels to avoid the entrenched battles that can rage in small towns facing big development, to create mutually beneficial outcomes, and to determine if there are areas we simply consider too sacred, too cherished to develop.
The situation in Forest, WI is a microcosm of this confrontation that is worth watching (Phadke uses recent events in Searchlight, Nevada as another case study). Lawsuits have been threatened and the entire Forest Town Board was booted for backing the project. But both sides are talking and that's a good step towards progress where everybody wins.
Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: Energy Wind Energy
1 Comment ->
Locally Sourced Valentine’s Day
On Valentine's Day, most people chose one of three traditional themes to celebrate with a loved one:
- The Classic: Crappy chocolates in a heart shaped box, roses, romantic comedy. Done.
- The College Try: Send the loved one an a cappella group at work for a serenade, use cute Christmas lights to decorate the room, and get interrupted by a room-mate to cap off the night.
- The "It's a Hallmark™ Holiday:" The holiday is just a construct of the holiday card industry, so why bother celebrating?
But I'd like to suggest a fourth option for those really hoping to impress their loved one: The Locally Sourced Valentines Day. And, it just so happens, Minnesota 2020 has a great buy local gift guide to help! Fancy that. So here is the Jake Levy-Pollans designed perfect, local Valentine's Day plan for a great night:
- First, pick up a box of chocolate from Just Truffles (St. Paul). Honestly, I'm a pretty big snob when it comes to chocolate and their truffles are wonderful.
- Then, off to dinner at Lucia's Restaurant and Wine Bar, the menu changes every week based on what's locally available but one things for sure: The food will be fantastic.
- Finally, at dinner, be a romantic and give that special someone beautiful, local, jewelry.
That sounds great, right? Because nothing says romance like making socially responsible purchasing decisions.
Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: Buy Local