I’m working through some podcsts from last month’s Aspen Ideas Festival.
My first pick is Richard Florida on “The Great Reset”.
We have inherited an economy – and a set of institutions, management principles, a way of life – which at every level reflects the old industrial order, which has been collapsing before our very eyes. . . .
I’m not totally convinced of Florida’s theses about the creative class, etc. but he has some thought-provoking statistics and conclusions about the nature of economic development, job creation, urban planning, community strengths, what drives the economy, and how to move forward.
Click here to listen. If you bog down, don’t miss the Q&A at the end (beginning around the 42 minute mark ).
I had intended to say a few words about ArtsPlan06 to follow up on this week’s podcast; instead I’d like to respond to Ross Currier’s blog post in which he criticized my aversion to mediocrity, because it’s relevant to the implications of the Arts Plan.
I maintain that there IS a difference between fostering “an environment that gives emerging talent an opportunity to perform”, and a community that achieves the distinction of being recognized as an Arts Town. It is to be hoped that Northfield can do both. But to accomplish that, we need to recognize the difference. My point is that if we want to be seen as an arts town, we need to foster a standard of excellence, and not confuse it with our egalitarian desire to boost everyone’s self-esteem.
My daughter’s performance in the high school play was brilliant, but it’s NOT the Guthrie, and no one would confuse the two. That’s okay. I would suggest that emerging talent and demonstrated talent might best be served by different venues, rather than jumbling them together and making Northfield look like it can’t distinguish its ass from its elbow (or critically recognized art/artists/artisans over hobbyists who paint ersatz-impressionist landscapes for hotel lobbies, or make sock dolls with button eyes to sell on eBay.)
Having a community that provides opportunity for residents to perform or exhibit can contribute to our community vitality and quality of life. The NAG is an excellent example. On the other hand, we’re not likely to generate much of interest to the “creative class” you’re so fond of, Ross, unless we also have artists and performers who rank on at least a regional scale, if not nationally or internationally. (Spider John Koerner, anyone?)
Again, I don’t think this is an either-or situation (either we foster an environment for emerging talent, or we promote excellence); ideally it would be both-and. But in order to do that, I believe we need to distinguish which is which, and not confuse the two. My concern is that too many people in Northfield won’t know the difference, or won’t care; my fear is that, in our desire to gain “Arts Town” status, we’d instead end up looking like the cast of “Waiting for Guffman”.
By the bye… the local rug merchant might supply examples of material culture that are more ethnographically significant, or contemporary carpets designed with a higher level of artistry, than the child-labor-factory stuff sold by the bale at RugMart. But in Northfield, we lack a critical mass of people who can tell the difference.
This morning, the EDA met with the board of the Northfield Enterprise Center for a strategic planning meeting.
A little history may be in order. From the earliest days of the EDA’s existence (early 1990s), part of its vision was for a “business incubator” or service/facility to encourage businesses in their initial stages of startup and growth. An organization independent of the EDA would be able to operate faster and more flexibly than a municipal entity is able to do, and it was determined that an organization with non-profit status would be in the best position to accomplish some of the EDA’s goals. Due to a change in Minnesota state law in the late 90s, the City/EDA was unable to incorporate a non-profit entity, so the decision was made to establish the NEC as a fully independent organization with only the loosest possible (informal) affiliation with the EDA. The NEC was spun off from the EDA in 2001 and incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, and the EDA has contributed the major portion of funding for the NEC since that time. The allocation for 2006 is $45,000.
This morning’s meeting focused on the future direction of the NEC. Over the past three years, the NEC has achieved several notable accomplishments, among them partnering with Carleton, St. Olaf, First National Bank, Community National Bank, and Wells Fargo Northfield to establish a $1.5M community investment fund. Along the way the NEC also provided many businesses and individuals with management and technical assistance as a U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) partner; coordinated the efforts of student interns in Northfield’s College Board of Business Consultants (CBBC); and worked closely with City staff to provide information and service to companies requiring certain kinds of assistance.
It is to be hoped, and seems likely, that the NEC and the EDA will continue to partner in promoting the economic health and vitality of Northfield. I’ll be blogging on new developments as they occur. For now, suffice it to say that there may be some exciting new directions for both organizations as we continue refining and reshaping our goals and objectives in response to the community’s changing needs.
Full disclosure:
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Okay, here by popular demand is the preliminary Northfield “Community Assessment” document from TIP Strategies. Feel free to comment here, or start a discussion on the Issues list.
Last week, TIP Strategies, the firm retained by the EDA to create an economic development plan for Northfield, returned for their second “context mapping” session in which we met with local officials and business representatives to present and discuss TIP’s findings to date. I put up a very ugly HTML version of the PowerPoint presentation from the meeting. I’d welcome any questions or comments, with the caveat that the full analysis is not complete, and the specific recommendations will not be known for another month or two. (You can follow the developments and timeline on TIP’s project website for Northfield.)
Don’t touch that dial! More to follow, Real Soon Now.
Questions have been raised recently about the EDA’s hiring of TIP Strategies from Austin, TX to produce an economic development plan for the City of Northfield.
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