Strong Local Economy : Buzz

A study of 361 metro areas gives the Twin Cities a third-place ranking for its resilience. Rochester, Minn., and Bismarck, N.D. top the list, according to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.

The Business Journal states that according to the study "there is no place better than the Upper Midwest at bouncing back from financial, natural or other disasters."

Cities in Texas and California were at the bottom of the list, whixh came out of the University at Buffalo Regional Institute.

Factors in the Resilience Capacity Index included voter participation, home ownership, economic diversity and income levels, the Business Journal reports.

Minnesota now ranks 7th in CNBC's annual ranking of the top places to do business.

For the past five years, the news firm has ranked all 50 states based on categories such as cost of doing business, workforce, transportation and infrastructure, education, access to capital, and quality of life.

Minnesota improved its rankings for cost of doing business and access to capital, and came in 8th for its quality of life. The state came out ahead of Iowa and Nebraska, which also placed in the top 10.

Overall, Virginia was the highest-ranked state, and Rhode Island was the lowest-ranked.

Saint Paul beat out hundreds of competitors to become a "top 10 city" for its quality of life and business-friendly environment.

The rankings were put together by FDi Intelligence, a division of the Financial Times Ltd., which tracks global business and investment trends.

The Cities of the Future process compares over 400 cities in North and South America, examining economic potential, human resources, cost effectiveness, quality of life, infrastructure, and business-friendliness.

In a comment on the Financial Times results, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman cited significant infrastructure investments like the Central Corridor Light Rail Line as well as a revitalized bar and restaurant scene in Lowertown. He noted, "[W]e are focused on making Saint Paul a destination for living, working and playing."

Minnesota ranks seventh among all 50 states in the area of clean energy, according to Clean Edge's clean energy leadership index.

States are ranked based on a number of factors falling into three major categories: technology, policy, and capital, according to a summary of the index online.

Minnesota's score of 57 ties it with New Mexico for seventh place. The number one state is California; the last is West Virginia.

While some have looked to Minnesota--and its lowest-in-the-nation unemployment numbers==as a beacon of hope in the recovery economy, those numbers may be misleading, writes Motoko Rich in a May 13 New York Times article.

While Minnesota's rate is 6.6 percent, "well below the 9 percent across the country," that number reflects "people giving up on the job hunt or retiring early, as well as an aging workforce with fewer young people competing for jobs," writes Rich.

Rich quotes local experts and officials and offers a point-by-point deconstruction of the state's employment trend currently and through the recent recession economy, including the fact that employers have added back only 27,000 of the state's 154,000 lost jobs.

Patisserie 46, a neighborhood bakery in Minneapolis opened less than a year ago, yet it already has a loyal following, a recent story in the New York Times states. Its French-style croissants "are crisp and light as air," while the macaroons evaporate in the mouth, the story says.

Patisserie owner John Kraus trained in Europe before teaching at the French Pastry School in Chicago, where he worked for over a decade. He opened up Patisserie last summer. In the story he observes,  "Minneapolis is becoming a phenomenal baking town."

Other local bakeries that are given a shout-out in the story include Sweets Bakeshop, which has locations in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Salty Tart Bakery in Minneapolis, and St. Paul's Bars Bakery.

A local chef and restaurateur was chosen by the James Beard Foundation as the best chef in the Midwest at a New York awards ceremony this week, the Star Tribune reports.

Props went to Isaac Becker, who is a chef and co-owner of a couple popular spots, including the 112 Eatery and Bar La Grassa in Minneapolis.

The Star Tribune notes that Becker is the third Minneapolitan in a row to receive the honor, which is considered by many people to be the "Oscars of the food world," it states.

Another Minneapolis 'who's who' among foodies, Sameh Wadi, the chef and co-owner of Saffron Restaurant & Lounge, cooked for the event's 2,000-plus crowd, the story adds.        
 
The story quotes Shay Goetzman, the general manager for the 112 Eatery: "We had people watching for us and texting us," adding,"Isaac called, too, and said to put the champagne on ice. We'll celebrate later. It's crazy busy here."

Following on the heels of National Geographic's top 10 list of summer places from around the globe, which put Minneapolis in fourth place, CNN recently published a first-person account from local journalist Chris Welsch about what makes the area such a draw.

He writes, "Yes, winters here tend to be on the chilly side of things, but the place has so much more to offer than a slick spot for ice fishers to set up their shanties."

A thriving arts community and a bike-friendly, foodie atmosphere make for an unbeatable combination.

For proof, Welsch names numerous local cultural institutions, including the Guthrie Theater, First Avenue, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, among others.  

Also, at restaurants such as the Aster Caf� in Minneapolis, outdoor seating is at a premium. He says: "Since winters here are so long, people--including yours truly--tend to come down with what I would call the worst cases of cabin fever known to man. When spring finally does arrive, it's like the gun's been fired and gates opened at the racetrack."

 

Investors Mark Marlow and Sean Casey "are putting up $10m each of their own money to fund Minnesota startups for no other reason than they see a real opportunity here and now," according to a story at Tech.mn.

The pair formed Omphalos Venture Partners in November and have since invested $1.7 million in four companies, writes Jeff Pesek: Zipnosis, Rapid Diagnostic, Bavia Health, and Steady State Imaging.

Marlow and Casey were together previously at the successful startup Virtual Radiologic.

In a recent Business Journal study of 100 metro areas across the country where small businesses flourish, the Twin Cities placed 12th. The Business Journal is a national online affiliate of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, a story states.  

It's a big leap from the past couple of years, when the Twin Cities came in 39th. The Business Journal evaluated cities "on their ability to create and develop small businesses."    

Austin, Texas, topped the list, while Modesto, Calif., is at the bottom.

G. Scott Thomas, who analyzed the data, says in the story, "We used a six-part formula to analyze the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas, searching for the places that offer the best climates for small businesses."

Fairview Health Services in Minneapolis is singled out in a yearly analysis by Thomson Reuters as one of the top 10 health systems in the country, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reports.

The study, which has been done every year since 1993, hones in on 2,914 short-term acute-care, non-federal hospitals, using public information, according to the Business Journal.

"These award-winning facilities demonstrate that high-quality patient outcomes can be achieved while improving efficiency," the Thomson Reuters website states.

Several other Minnesota hospitals are recognized on the list, which breaks down the data into various categories. Included are the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, the Mayo Foundation, and Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park, the Business Journal states.

When it comes to bicycle commuting, Minneapolis is a leader nationwide, according to a map from a recent analysis that came out of the Environmental Studies program at the University of Oregon.

The map is pictured on the League of American Bicyclists website, which a City Pages blog also picks up on. 

On a national level, Minneapolis comes in second place for its number of bicycle commuters, the map illustrates. In terms of its general bicycle-friendliness, the city similarly earns "silver." (Number one is Minneapolis' perennial two-wheel rival, Portland, OR.)

Kory Northrop, the master's student who created the map, is studying GIS and bicycle transportation. He combined public data, ArcMap, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, to visually represent the data, the blog states.

Kory, a bicycle commuter himself, did the project because he wanted to raise awareness about bicycle transportation.

Reporter John McCormick details some of Minnesota's census and economic data in a March 17 Bloomberg Businessweek article.

Minnesota's population grew 7.8 percent from 2000 to 2010--80 percent of that increase from minorities, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released March 16.

Non-Hispanic whites account for 83.1 percent of the population (down from 88 percent in 2000). The Hispanic population grew by 74.5 percent, the black population by 59.4 percent, and Asians by 51 percent.

That "economic diversity has helped Minnesota weather economic downturns that have hurt other cold-weather states," writes McCormack.

The state's two largest cities saw slight population declines: Minneapolis fell by a mere 40 residents to a population of 382,578, while St. Paul fell 2,083 to 285,068.

Minnesota's unemployment peaked at 8.4 percent in May and June 2009, and never rose above the national average during the recent recession. Minnesota stocks perform better than the national average as well, as measured in the Bloomberg Star Tribune 100 Index, a price-weighted measure of Minnesota companies.

He notes that Minnesota companies exported a record $4.6 billion in products in the fourth quarter of 2010.

In the April issue of Men's Journal, the magazine touts Minneapolis's longstanding love affair with water and woods, which makes it, says the magazine, an ideal place to hang outdoors.

Parks, rivers, and lakes have been taken into consideration in the city's development from the get-go, it states. As a result, residents are always within six miles of a city park while an expanding bike and walk path system has more recently spurred a record number of bicyclists. Running, skiing, and canoeing are also popular recreational activities, says the article.

Despite the cold that's known to last half the year, the magazine notes that natives find plenty of ways to enjoy the outdoors. Stephen Regenold, a local who has a website called Gear Junkie, is quoted, saying, "You put on some winter gear and snowshoes and trek into the woods at Three Rivers Park. Staring up at the stars, you might as well be 400 miles north."  

On March 9, the city of Minneapolis was recognized as a top 'bike-friendly business' with a Gold Award from the League of American Bicyclists at a National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C., according to city information about the honor.

The city was one of six employers, and the lone government body, to get the Gold Award for what it's doing to create a bike-friendly and green work atmosphere, the city web page states. 

Among its strides in this area, Minneapolis has offered all kinds of biking classes on everything from navigating busy downtown streets to bike care, according to the city information. It hosted some special events for Bike Walk Week, while an internal group from the Department of Health and Family Support is working to make the city more supportive of employees who walk and bike to work.

The city also subsidized part of the cost for employees to purchase an annual membership in the Nice Ride Minnesota bike-sharing program.