Happy to be here-in the Crossroads of North America

Polaris expanding R&D plant-aims to hire up to 350; Apogee…stock soars; Target to hire…90K holiday workers; Boston Scientific buys local medical device company Bridgepoint; UM launches record 12 start-ups in Fiscal ‘12; MN companies named finalists in 13^th Annual Tekne Awards; Mpls boast highest average credit scores in the nation…

All that good news packed into the TCB Briefcase yesterday afternoon, and yet I’m sure the Minnesota naysayers still started this morning filled with gloom and doom-most likely fueled by the one negative in that recap:  the loss of 2000 jobs puts MN unemployment rate at 5.9%.

It’s the old story…is the kettle half full or half empty.  Ever the optimist, when I saw the job loss, I wondered two things.  Was that the impact of the end of student summer jobs?  How does that amount of fluctuation measure up to pre-recession fluctuation?  Neither question was addressed in the article.

In any case, the headlines certainly reminded me of many of the positive things in the news over this last month about Minnesota.  I’ve called out a few of them on Facebook as they crossed my desk:

•          Twin Cities is the 10^th largest export market in 2011
•          Minnesota is # 1 state in credit-worthiness
•          GDP is higher today than prior to the 2007-2008 collapse with increases of $6.4 Billion
•          Minnesota has low unemployment rate of 5.9% relative to the country as a whole
•          More jobs were available in MN on August 30 than any time since 2007
•          UM/MN business collaboration on improved technology for fracking industry
•          A recent naturalization ceremony of 1500 recent immigrants was the largest in MN history
•          A slow but positive recognition in MN that our “jobs” issues are education-related
•          MN Millennial preference for “walkability” and urban life over the burbs
•          MN education system in process of transformation integrating new technology that   supports today’s revised learning theories

Week after week, the good news in Minnesota outweighs the bad.  This week, for instance, has been especially positive:

•          Minneapolis 1 year growth rate for jobs outpaced the state 2.1% to 1.7%
•          MN has recovered 98% of all jobs that existed when the recession began in 2007
•          Private sector jobs stand at 99% of 2007 levels
•          Building permits are increasing; traditional housing sales doubled between the first and     second quarter of 2012
•          Median housing prices increased 15% for traditional sales; 30% for lender-mediated sales
•          Income average of $57,000
•          Poverty stands at 12% – not great, but better than most
•          MN just received $16 million grant from Department of Labor to support high tech training to meet demands for advanced manufacturing skills (no degree needed) with salaries averaging $42,000 nationally.

All this, and if we don’t remind ourselves differently, we are pulled down into gloom and doom when listening to national news.  While improving, our national economy was in far worse shape than Minnesota, and is recovering a bit slower. If we are not careful, the national picture becomes our individual excuse for not moving forward at a pace we want….we cannot let that happen.

Instead, I prefer to focus on our realistic local picture, and I try to remember some powerful statements I quoted in my August 10 blog entitled “the Opportunity of the Century”.  Both are the words and optimism of the author of that article, Guy Eggers:

The Midwest with its reputation for ingenuity, hard word and common sense will be at the helm of the recovery of the American Dream.

Rather than keep supporting a system that is fundamentally broken, we should harness the collective spirit and creative energies that so define this great nation to create a new business paradigm that truly reflects our values and vision for the world and that will lead to renewed growth and sustainable prosperity…let’s not leave this to the banks, the oil companies and the Chinese to build…Let’s get back to creative, innovative and smart.  Let’s build the world that we would like to see, together.  We have done it before and we can do it again.

To that I only add…let’s stop thinking of ourselves as the “flyover zone” and dream that as we once were, we can become again, the Crossroads of North America.