Live Chat Monday at noon on Growing Minneapolis: Jobs

Join our Live Chat on job creation in Minneapolis, the second in a series on "Growing Minneapolis." Commentary editor Doug Tice and editorial writer Lori Sturdevant will take your questions at noon Monday.

3rd & 7 37yd

Hello folks. Lori Sturdevant and Doug Tice will be here at noon. In the meantime, you can start posting your questions for them. To post a question: Click on "Make a comment." Give yourself a name where it says "display name." Then click "sign in."

Here's the editorial that will be the focus of today's live chat:

Growing Minneapolis: Jobs

by Susan Hogan 9/16/2013 2:48:05 PM
by Susan Hogan 9/16/2013 3:14:51 PM
Thanks, folks, for joining us. Doug and Lori are here and ready to take your questions. Let’s get started.

by Susan Hogan 9/16/2013 4:59:45 PM
We keep hearing about Millenials (myself included) desiring a more urban lifestyle than previous generations. Are corporations following this trend? Amazon is single-handedly transforming Downtown Seattle with multiple new towers and thousands of jobs. Meanwhile Target is expanding their campus in Brooklyn Park. Why do you think that is? Do more young Target employees want to work Downtown or in the suburbs? Do you forsee any large companies that left downtown a generation or two ago reestablishing a presence there to match the lifestyle preferences of the employees they hope to attract?

by Matt Brillhart 9/16/2013 4:59:53 PM
You make a fine point, Matt. My sense is that many corporations, and other institutions too, are still adjusting to a major demographic change.

by Lori Sturdevant 9/16/2013 5:01:25 PM
The stress point for business is shifting to a shortage of young skilled workers. Businesses are going to need to rethink their priorities to attract those workers.

by Lori Sturdevant 9/16/2013 5:02:29 PM
I think a lot of businesses are looking at what Amazon has chosen in Seattle, and wondering whether they need to reconsider cities.

by Lori Sturdevant 9/16/2013 5:02:58 PM
Aren’t businesses still cool to parts of Minneapolis because of crime?

by Paul Bunyan 9/16/2013 5:03:11 PM
Crime is always a concern, but often it is more of a perception problem.

by Doug Tice 9/16/2013 5:03:39 PM
by Susan Hogan 9/16/2013 5:04:02 PM
In fact, crime is down sharply in Minneapolis, as in urban areas around the country.

by Doug Tice edited by Susan Hogan 9/16/2013 5:04:14 PM
Downtown security has been a concern, and especially the “feeling” of safety. The city is working on that, and it needs to redouble those efforts.

by Doug Tice 9/16/2013 5:04:31 PM
How would you brand Minneapolis? MSP? Twin Cities? something else? why?

by dog whistle politics 9/16/2013 5:04:36 PM
I've always liked the label Minneapolis chose a few years ago, "City by Nature." But I'm not sure it's right for that Millenial generation that the city needs to attract.

by Lori Sturdevant 9/16/2013 5:05:20 PM
Maybe there's a better idea in a bumper sticker I saw the other day: The arts: they're what make the Twin Cities cool so we can stand the cold." It's too many words. but you get the idea: arts and amenities will matter a lot.

by Lori Sturdevant 9/16/2013 5:06:24 PM
With other cities offering subsidies to attract employers, won’t Minneapolis feel compelled to do the same?

by Taxpayer 9/16/2013 5:06:50 PM
G
ive-away strategies need to be kept in check.

by Doug Tice 9/16/2013 5:07:24 PM
That said, there are complications. It’s natural, for example, for land prices to rise in the urban core, producing an incentive for development on the fringe, especially if taxpayer-funded roads are built to those areas.

by Doug Tice 9/16/2013 5:07:49 PM
Do any of you see strong job growth in Minneapolis proper outside of Downtown or, perhaps, the U of M? With the loss of most of the industrial/manufacturing core, I'm not seeing much more room for corporate growth outside of, say, near north.

by Andy 9/16/2013 5:08:08 PM
There's a lot of interest in redeveloping old industrial sites. Our editorial mentioned the Upper Harbor Terminal, Shoreham Yards in Northeast and the industrial site between the two U of M campuses.

by Lori Sturdevant 9/16/2013 5:08:55 PM
by Susan Hogan 9/16/2013 5:09:06 PM
As for the rest of the city, the best hope for jobs lies alongside new and improved transit corridors. Bottineau light rail should be a boon to North Minneapolis.

by Lori Sturdevant 9/16/2013 5:09:42 PM
Where was I on that subsidy question

by Doug Tice 9/16/2013 5:10:06 PM
What I wanted to say was that some incentives, in some circumstances, to level the competition may be defensible. They key is to see all of the “subsidies” for what they are.

by Doug Tice edited by Susan Hogan 9/16/2013 5:10:43 PM
Shoreham Yards and Roundhouse, Minneapolis, one of the last vestiges of the city's railroad history. The northeast Minneapolis maintenance yards and 48-stall roundhouse are no longer used. The site received city historic designation in the year 2000, but the owner, Canadian Pacific, resisted demands to preserve it.

by Susan Hogan 9/16/2013 5:11:03 PM
"Give-away strategies need to be kept in check" -- Why? Because you say so? What negative impacts do incentives have?

by Jerry edited by Susan Hogan 9/16/2013 5:11:08 PM
The trouble with special incentives is that there is no net gain for the region or state for a whole.

by Doug Tice 9/16/2013 5:11:40 PM
It's just moving jobs around at great expense.

by Doug Tice 9/16/2013 5:11:56 PM
Much better to focus on keeping costs competitive for ALL businesses

by Doug Tice 9/16/2013 5:12:16 PM
If you're going to discuss jobs/economy/TC, I feel like an important thing to consider is outside talent and how/why it is so hard to keep it here.

by CPeters 9/16/2013 5:12:21 PM
I haven't seen evidence that Minneapolis has more trouble than other cities in keeping outside talent.

by Lori Sturdevant 9/16/2013 5:12:47 PM
But maximizing homegrown talent has always been Minnesota's strength, and needs to be emphasized going forward.

by Lori Sturdevant 9/16/2013 5:13:16 PM
That's why there's such concern about the achievement gap, and lagging educational attainment overall in recent years.

by Lori Sturdevant 9/16/2013 5:13:49 PM
Minnesota's business trademark is its well-educated workforce. We can't let that slip.

by Lori Sturdevant 9/16/2013 5:14:11 PM
A University of Minnesota student at a job fair in 2013.

by Susan Hogan 9/16/2013 5:14:15 PM
What’s to keep new businesses from choosing Minneapolis but hiring workers from the suburbs?

by Nancy 9/16/2013 5:14:17 PM
Well, what’s wrong with that?

by Doug Tice 9/16/2013 5:14:41 PM
Minneapolis residents will get suburban jobs, too.

by Doug Tice 9/16/2013 5:15:00 PM
Of course the city wants jobs for its own.

by Doug Tice 9/16/2013 5:15:28 PM
But the key is for the region as a whole to prosper and create opportunities.

by Doug Tice 9/16/2013 5:15:45 PM
I'm a fan of Mayor Rybak's Grow North program. New employees in new North Side businesses get help with housing costs if they move to the North Side.

by Lori Sturdevant 9/16/2013 5:16:28 PM
Is there empirical evidence to support the claim that "best hope for jobs lies alongside new and improved transit corridors" or is it just wishful thinking for lovers of expensive mass transit?

by Jerry 9/16/2013 5:16:37 PM
"The 19th- and 20th-century industrial era is winding down at the Minneapolis Upper Harbor Terminal. Grain shipments, once its lifeblood, ended a decade ago. Employment at the terminal has dwindled to 12, down by nearly two-thirds since 1990. Barge traffic at the port is scheduled to end in December 2014, when the city’s lease expires with terminal operator River Services Inc. When that happens, a prime opportunity to pivot to the 21st century will present itself to the next Minneapolis mayor and City Council and the city’s economic development apparatus." -Star Tribune Editorial (Sept. 15, 2013)

by Susan Hogan 9/16/2013 5:16:40 PM
The evidence is along Hiawatha -- er, the Blue Line, as they call it now -- and from other cities.

by Lori Sturdevant 9/16/2013 5:17:06 PM
Come to think about it, we've always known that transportation corridors lead to economic development. It's one of the reasons Minnesota subsidized railroads in the 19th century!

by Lori Sturdevant 9/16/2013 5:17:37 PM

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Live Chat Monday at noon on Growing Minneapolis: Jobs

Join our Live Chat on job creation in Minneapolis, the second in a series on "Growing Minneapolis." Commentary editor Doug Tice and editorial writer Lori Sturdevant will take your questions at noon Monday.

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