It’s the Minnesota left (and RINO-right)’s favorite club-over-the-head line; “if we don’t [fill in the desired spending proposal], the Twin Cities will become a cold Omaha”.

It’s kind of funny, really, since Omaha is thriving these days.

Steve Berg at the MinnPost takes a whack at analyzing the census data – and doesn’t like what he (and, more to the point, his various sources) see:

At first glance, the 2010 Census results seem satisfying and unremarkable. Only upon further review do they reveal unbalanced patterns of growth and wealth that spell trouble for Minneapolis-St. Paul as the metro economy tries to regain momentum.

The official count placed MSP’s 13-county metro population at 3,278,833, up 10.4 percent from a decade ago. That was enough for the Twin Cities to retain its rank as the nation’s 16th largest metro market. While the region grew 40 percent slower than during the go-go ’90s, it still outpaced the 9.7 percent national rate, and it grew faster than all other Midwestern and Northeastern metros in the top 20.

So far, so good.

But there’s “bad” news – or, as Republicans would see it, “reality” and “a changing market” – along with it:

How the region grew should deeply trouble Minnesota’s political, business and civic leaders. Virtually all growth was on the suburban edge, while the central cities and most inner suburbs lost both population and relative wealth. Not only did the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul fail to gain population, they are now fully 30 percent poorer than the metro region as a whole.

The important questions, of course, are “why?” and “what do we do about it?”

And the answers to both – at least as presented by Berg (no relation) are heavily dependent on ideology.

The Twin Cities metro is at a crossroads.  The suburbs – especially the commerce-heavy south and chock-full-of-business west – are thriving.  The latest census shows the Third and Sixth Congressional districts are booming, while Minneapolis and Saint Paul are stagnant at best – which is good news politically, as the DFL strangleholds on both congressional districts will be diluted, but bad news economically, as the urban areas require more and more life support from the parts of the state that actually work.

So what are the signs?  Is there hope?  Will Minneapolis and Saint Paul bounce back?  Or are they destined to become a cold Flint Michigan?

If you read Berg’s article – drawn from the state’s “urban planning” intelligentsia…:

That’s not a healthy trend. Unless a more balanced growth pattern emerges, one that also includes the metro area’s inner districts, and unless prosperity is shared more broadly, the MSP region will lag behind in competing for the young talent and high-quality jobs needed to keep pace as the economy recovers.

…the signs aren’t good.

More Monday.

I’ve been working with the Greg Copeland for Senate campaign, in the SD66 special election to replace Ellen Anderson.

This campaign is unlike any other Saint Paul GOP legislative campaign I’ve ever seen.  It’s raised money.  Lots of it.  And there are currently more volunteers than I have seen on every Saint Paul GOP legislative campaign combined for the past 15 years or so.

We need more, of course.  Mary Jo McGuire won the primary last Tuesday; she has the entire DFL machine behind her.  It’s David versus Goliath.

So we need more Davids.  An army of them, in fact.

If you’d be interested in volunteering for the Copeland campaign during these last one week and two critical weekends before the April 12 special election, here’s your information.

(And if you are more able to help in the money department, we can use that help right here).

I’ll be phonebanking, as well as my usual stuff.  I’ll hope to see you there!

That was  quote from a store owner in the Midway, on a Fox9 news piece on the closing of Porky’s this morning.

Porky’s, a drive-in burger joint that’s operated in the Midway since 1953, is closing up because of the light rail.  How can you run a drive-in with no cars?  Traffic is a burgeoning nightmare on University, and it’s going to get worse for the next three years, and then…it’ll stay bad.

The regional media, “urban studies” clacque and the DFL have been trying to paint a happy face on the destruction of the Midway – and the decay of the inner Twin Cities that it represents.

More on that starting either later today or Monday.

Victor Davis Hanson on Obama’s Libya strategy, or whatever it is:

The president spoke Monday night to clarify our intervention in Libya. Instead he made things worse, and could not explain the mission (are we/are we not after Qaddafi?), the methodology to achieve it (are we in a no-fly-zone or are we bombing ground targets essential to save the rebels?), and the desired outcome (who are the “rebels,” what do we wish from them, and are they better than Qaddafi?). Indeed, after almost two weeks, these questions still have not been asked much less answered.

So the omissions pose the question: how did Obama, the archetype war critic, find himself bombing—in optional and preemptive fashion, and without congressional authority — an Arab Muslim oil-exporting country, and one that posed no immediate threat to American national security, despite being governed by a monster who, nevertheless, had been recently courted by Western intellectuals, academics, universities, and diplomats?

Unfortunately, Obama has no principled or strategically logical foreign policy. So it is mostly loud declarations that he is not George Bush and making things up ad hoc as he goes along

Read the whole thing…

The K12 Education  bill is moving forward. The usual suspects are upset.  Bureaucrats are the big losers :

“Have we really made the decision that desegregation and integration isn’t a laudable goal for our schools?” said Sen. John Harrington, DFL-St. Paul.

The DFLbots are upset that the budget slashes “integration” funding for the urban school districts:

The Republican-supported education bill takes a new approach to the state’s racial achievement gap by moving money from integration aid for several large districts in favor of financial incentives for any district that can improve student literacy. It passed on a 36-25 party-line vote, but is far from the finish line.

Naturally, any progress is likely to be stymied by Dayton:

Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton has indicated he will not sign any budget bills until he and Republican legislative leaders strike an overall deal on a budget framework that erases a projected $5 billion shortfall.

“Frameworks”.

“Framework”, absent any sign of worthwhile ideals to fill the framework, is one of those weasel words, like “I’m a process person”, used to cover/stall/delay/obfuscate.  It’s a sign that your opponent is has a pair of threes with a six kicker.  It shows their tank is not full of premium.

His education commissioner said the governor doesn’t support the Senate bill, while Democratic critics said ending integration aid in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth would gut racial desegregation efforts and penalize poor and minority students the most.

I would like to challenge any DFLer to show any tangible benefit from “integration” and “desegregation” money.

Like this money here:

Much of the House crime debate focused on a 65 percent funding cut to the state Department of Human Rights, which investigates discrimination complaints in housing, education, public services and employment.

And which is redundant with city, county and federal offices that do exactly the same thing.  Since the Twin Cities have refused to cut their offices to consolidate these services, it’s time someone gave some ground.