{"id":19116,"date":"2011-04-01T11:01:53","date_gmt":"2011-04-01T17:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=19116"},"modified":"2011-04-01T10:47:21","modified_gmt":"2011-04-01T16:47:21","slug":"a-cold-flint-part-i-winners-and-losers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=19116","title":{"rendered":"A Cold Flint? Part I: Winners And Losers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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”.<\/p>\n

It’s kind of funny, really, since Omaha is thriving these days<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So far, so good.<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The important questions, of course, are “why?” and “what do we do about it?”<\/p>\n

And the answers to both – at least as presented by Berg (no relation) are heavily dependent on ideology.<\/p>\n

The Twin Cities metro is at a crossroads.\u00a0 The suburbs – especially the commerce-heavy south and chock-full-of-business west – are thriving.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

So what are the signs?\u00a0 Is there hope?\u00a0 Will Minneapolis and Saint Paul bounce back?\u00a0 Or are they destined to become a cold Flint Michigan?<\/p>\n

If you read Berg’s article – drawn from the state’s “urban planning” intelligentsia…:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…the signs aren’t good.<\/p>\n

More Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,2,51,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-minneapolis","category-minnesota-politics","category-liberal-tyranny","category-st-paul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19116"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19149,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19116\/revisions\/19149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}