"Why do I live here again?"

After the third snow emergency (and, for some, the second trip to the chiropractor), who doesn't ask this question? But even in the winter of our discontent, it turns out that the Twin Cities has plenty of answers to this big question.

How do we know that? The Knight Foundation has been working with Gallup for the last three years to figure it out via the Soul of the Community Survey. For the last three years, they've been asking people in 26 metro areas about what they value in where they live--and whether it makes them want to stay. Twin Citians, it turns out, love their towns for many reasons, including the availability of major amenities like a flourishing arts scene, parks and other recreational perks, and an improving transit picture.

And make no mistake: Loving your town has bottom-line pluses. The survey found that in cities where people wanted to stay, the economy tended to be stronger. "Across the 26 Knight communities, those whose residents were more attached saw more local GDP growth," said the final report for the 2010 findings. In an economy like this, that ain't chopped liver. Fortunately, the Twin Cities has done its homework for years, and it's one of those cities where residents plan to stay.

Of course, there's a new political climate in the new year, and fiscal challenges at every level of government, and these amenities that keep us loving our towns, and staying in them, have to be paid for and fought for. I decided to check in with some local experts to get their take on whether we're going to be able to keep enjoying these advantages. Their conclusions? We can, if we are willing to act on our own behalf.

Arts As Magnets
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Minneapolis-St. Paul has plenty of native-born Twin Citians, and many of them stick around because their families and friends from second grade are here. But that's not all it takes to keep a city vibrant and populated. The well-loved city also has plenty to do. And respondents to the survey seemed to know it; 52 percent rated the area highly for its arts and cultural opportunities, and said that one of the reasons they stay around is that the artistic community is so extensive.

In part, that's because many of us voted for it. Remember the Legacy Amendment? It was on the ballot in the 2008 presidential election, and it raised the sales tax by 3/8 of a percent. That tiny increase may mean as much as $250 million a year, and it all goes to sustaining the arts, parks, and environment. Legacy money has already been a godsend to the arts, as the worsening economy has led to big drops in funding from other sources like foundations and corporate giving.

"More people voted for the Legacy Amendment than for Obama, and that's because in the middle of winter we know it's important to support the things that make it a livable place," says Laura Zabel, executive director of Springboard For the Arts, a St. Paul nonprofit that helps artists make a living at their art. "That's why we have incredible world-class institutions like the Guthrie and the Walker and also a strong culture of neighborhood-based community art."

10,000 Rollerbladers

We also have a strong culture of public ownership of natural assets. The Soul of the Community survey showed that the area's natural beauty helps to keep people here, and it's not hard to see why. When you're stuck shoveling out a doorway through the wall of snow the plows lead behind, it doesn't hurt to fantasize about rollerblading around Lake Calhoun or kayaking on Lake Phalen come summer. There are 55,000 acres of parks in the seven-county Twin Cities regional park system overseen by the Met Council, they draw 33 million visitors a year, and the Legacy Amendment yielded nearly $25 million for improvements to those parks in the 2010-2011 legislative session.

Judith Martin says that while there are always concerns about budgets, parks in the area just aren't likely to lose funds the way other areas might. And again, that's because people in the area care a great deal. "The fact that there are contested seats for the [Minneapolis] park board suggests that people are engaged, care, and want those resources maintained," says Martin, a professor of geography at the University of Minnesota and director of the master's in urban planning program there.

Especially in Minneapolis, she says, the commitment to outdoor enjoyment is unmistakable, even unique. "I can't think of anywhere else in the country where an elected park board is the norm," Martin says. "Advocacy around parks here is really high, because people know who to call and who to lean on when something isn't going the way they want it to."

But Do We Care?

Is Minnesota nice? The question is arguable, but it might come as a surprise that this is one of the areas in which  survey respondents rated the Twin Cities area poorly. Just 12 percent rated the cities highly on people caring about each other. Polly Talen thinks this represents a great opportunity for the area.

"In the category of things called social offerings, we did really well on arts and culture and on places to meet one another, but we didn't do as well on people caring about one another," says Talen, the Knight Foundation's program director for St. Paul. That finding fits neatly with that of other cities and smaller communities; on the whole, larger cities did well on social offerings but not so well on caring, and smaller cities and towns did the opposite.

"There may be a lesson here for folks in the arts and other offerings: To the extent that you can help people feel less anonymous and create opportunities for folks to get to know one another as they share those experiences, then you can really hit a home run," Talen says. "That's what I'm hoping will happen with things like the Central Corridor, with businesses building near the light rail stations, more pedestrian traffic, and more connectedness."

Getting There

And what about Central Corridor, and our other big transit plans? Former Representative Jim Oberstar had 15 minutes to get to the floor of the House for a vote, but he spent 13½ of those minutes talking about light rail and other transit. He knows that the politics has shifted since the 2010 midterm election, but he believes that the demand for transit and the will to get it done are both there. "Funding is available for these projects, and they offer a safe, secure, dependable way to get to work, cultural events, and other activities," he says.

Plans for bus rapid transitways down the middle of 35W and Cedar Avenue are in the works, and depending on political will, a Southwest Corridor linking Eden Prairie and other southwest suburbs to Minneapolis could be complete by 2017. Lee Munnich points out that the network effect--the ability to get to many places by having many lines open--makes light rail and other transit options more valuable. "People are looking for alternatives and choices other than just getting in your car and driving alone," says Munnich, director of the Humphrey Institute's State and Local Policy Program. "That is the easiest option, but people like having alternatives at times when congestion is a factor--for example, people like going to Twins games by rail."

Although the political climate has shifted since the midterm election, Munnich says that it's less a question of whether transit can happen than whether people have the will to make it happen, and he thinks the will is there. "The money's not going to drop from heaven," Munnich says. "People will have to go out and get it."

The same is true of anything that keeps people here, whether it's the Winter Carnival, the Greenway, or the St. Paul Art Crawl. The dollars we spend on arts, parks, and ways to get there will come back to us, but only if we keep spending them.

Holly Dolezalek's most recent article for The Line looked at the growth of green jobs in Minnesota, in our September 22, 2010 issue.


Photos, top to bottom:

Skating in the shadow of Saint Paul's Landmark Center

Big art at the U of M's Weisman Art Museum

The Central Corridor line under construction in downtown Saint Paul

Winter as an advantage

All photos by Bill Kelley