Friday, November 15, 2013
Neighborland: "I want ____ in my neighborhood"
Friday, October 18, 2013
The city we could be
Dave Beal: Vision for DMC must go beyond buildings and jobs
Post-Bulletin | Posted: Saturday, October 12, 2013 8:49 am | http://bit.ly/GUhOHjAt its recent meeting, the Destination Medical Center Corporation governing board reviewed a slide deck containing the current plan for planning the plan for a destination medical center in Rochester. In the plan’s "Statement of Public Purpose", the first DMC goal is: “Create a comprehensive strategic plan with a compelling vision that harnesses the energy and creativity of the entire community.”
There was much discussion among the board members about this compelling vision. It is no small task to craft a vision sufficiently compelling to harness "the energy and creativity of the entire community". One suspects it will require more than streetscapes and Gantt charts. More even than the promise of jobs.
The promise of jobs by itself falls short of "compelling” not because jobs are not important or necessary. On the contrary, it is because jobs are necessary that they are not sufficiently compelling to ignite of aspirations of an entire community. A job is so important an expectation, so necessary, that it rests at the base of our needs like food and shelter. As such, jobs alone do not offer a community the sort of far horizon that calls us toward it with a long desire and a high heart.
Instead, in addition to the promise of jobs, we require a vision for Rochester that encompasses the connections between social and economic progress. A path for development that understands that markets are defined by human needs other than, and in addition to, economic ones.
The economic case for the DMC and city/county planning now being planned is pretty clear and well-rehearsed. But more is required. We require a vision that will raise our eyes from the work in front of us toward a full and better life that inspires all of us to see the "shining city on the hill" that has captured the American imagination for nearly 400 years.
At the DMCC meeting, board member Bill George suggested that health and wellness might serve as the basis for this compelling vision. He is not alone in thinking so. Health and wellness do hold the kernel of a vision fitting for a city that is the home of Mayo Clinic and intends to become a world destination for medicine. Others are concluding that aspiring to be "the healthiest city in the world" provides the vision that can join the economic potential of DMC, and the prosperity it forecasts, with the social promise of a full and better life for all of us who reside here. This vision of a better life in the world’s healthiest city possesses the breadth of purpose, scope, and scale that can enlist the entire community in its pursuit.
According to Healthy People 2020, “Health starts in our homes, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, and communities.” Health requires that we take care of ourselves, eat right, keep active, avoid bad habits like smoking, and get regular check-ups. But: “Our health is also determined in part by access to social and economic opportunities; the resources and supports available in our homes, neighborhoods, and communities; the quality of our schooling; the safety of our workplaces; the cleanliness of our water, food, and air; and the nature of our social interactions and relationships”
A recent report from the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation observes, “An individual’s health is affected by much more than medical care.” Social interaction, education, safety, shelter, food, transportation, and financial stability all play determinative roles. In other words, becoming the world’s healthiest city requires more than building a world center of health care. It requires a community that places health at its center and cares about it like no other city in the world.
Consider this vision: the world's destination medical center residing in the world's healthiest city. It conceives an achievement well within the reach of this city poised as we are for an even greater abundance of talent, resources, assets, and a habit of concerted effort. It anticipates a future few other cities could dare even to contemplate. It calls to all sectors of our economy and public life. It requires attention to all our communities and neighborhoods for all will be required. This vision brings to the next two decades of development a shared horizon toward which all of us can journey for it requires all of us to get there.
This vision is a compelling one of Rochester as a destination worthy of all our destinies. Common destinies that embrace all who live or will come to live here, harnessing our energy and creativity to build and sustain a better life in a city committed to becoming the healthiest in the world.
We are not that city yet, but we could be.
Friday, October 11, 2013
Coordinates of a common destination
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| "...by virtue of free and sincere promises." - Hannah Arendt |
In America I encountered sorts of associations of which, I confess, I had no idea, and I often admired the infinite art with which the inhabitants of the United States managed to fix a common goal to the efforts of many men and to get them to advance to it freely.
- Alexis de Tocqueville, "On the Use That the Americans
Make of Association in Civil Life," Democracy in America
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Previously on Viva City:
Instead, in addition to the promise of jobs, we require a vision for Rochester that encompasses the connections between social and economic progress. A path for development that understands that markets are defined by human needs other than, and in addition to, economic ones.
Consider this vision: the world's destination medical center residing in the world's healthiest city. It conceives an achievement well within the reach of this city.....
This vision: a rationale in brief
- The "vision" will be "compelling" to the entire community to the extent it is broad and inclusive.
- For "health and wellness" as a vision to be broad and inclusive it will require a view aligned with social determinants of health, health equity, etc.
- A vision compelling to the community would best arise from that community with priorities already reflective of its concerns.
- Though this vision is seen as integral to the DMCC strategic planning, the DMCC should position itself not as its source or author, but as one among other community partners committed to its actualization.
- There are already state and local assets in place and in process that align with this vision and a nascent, loose collaboration that can expand and coalesce around it.
How might we begin? A compact.
We should compose a compact among willing partners that takes the form of a memorandum of understanding committing signatories to a short set of broad goals and participation in a collaborative process. An open invitation for signatories that includes state and local partners, private, public, and non-profit groups. Among the early signatories it is hoped would be DMCC.
On this basis would a "compelling vision" be brought into view and focus; and, in this way would the energy and creativity of the entire community be harnessed.
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In democratic countries the science of association is the mother science; the progress of all the others depends on the progress of that one.Among the laws that rule human societies there is one that seems more precise and clearer than all the others. In order that men remain civilized or become so, the art of associating must be developed and perfected among them in the same ratio as equality of conditions increases.
- Tocqueville, ibid
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
50 ideas for the new city: #6 | "The healthiest city in the world"
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| "In some ways, it's almost like building a new city." |
"The healthiest city in the world"
At its third and most recent meeting, the DMCC governing board spent some time discussing the importance of a "compelling vision that harnesses the energy and creativity of the entire community" in pursuit of the destination medical center they would make of Rochester, MN. (They are not alone in thinking so, nor are they the first e.g., Viva City, April 30, 2013 http://bit.ly/GzMlJS). Board member Bill George offered that "health and wellness" might serve as the basis for this "compelling vision." Surely a vision apropos of a city that has long been the home of Mayo Clinic and a city that now intends to be one of the world's destinations for medicine.
Mr. George is not alone in thinking "health and wellness" hold the kernel of a "compelling vision". Others have and are concluding that harnessing "the energy and creativity of the entire community" will require a "a vision for Rochester that encompasses the connections between societal and economic progress. A plan that enhances social as well as economic value. A path of development that understands that markets are defined by societal as well as economic needs."
Aspiring to be "the healthiest city in the world" might provide the vision that encompasses the economic potential of DMC, the prosperity it forecasts, as well as the social promise of a better life for all who reside here. This vision of a better life is one to which all sectors of our community can be called to contribute and that all, in their entirety, would likely find sufficiently compelling to embrace - more on this later. For now consider:
The world's destination medical center residing in the world's healthiest city.
Not only is this vision - this aspiration - a substantial good in and of itself, it is well within our reach to achieve. It is also an achievement few other cities would dare to contemplate (and among those that might would one not include either Cleveland or Baltimore).
Friday, September 27, 2013
A worthy destination
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| A destination for all our destinies |
...and we might realize that real service and contribution come more from the choice of a worthy destination than from limiting ourselves to engaging in what we know will work.
- Peter Block, The Answer to How is Yes
A destination for all our destinies
The destination must embrace the common destinies of all who live or will come to live here.
We require a vision for Rochester that encompasses the connections between societal and economic progress. A plan that enhances social as well as economic value. A path of development that understands that markets are defined by societal as well as economic needs.
It’s worth asking what can be done to enrich the destinies of all who now or will come to live and work in Rochester, Minnesota.
- the inaugural post on Viva City, April 30, 2013
At its most recent convening (9/6/13), the DMCC governing board received from an embryonic DMC "economic development agency" (at this time little more than a zygote composed of a board president and an interim executive director) a slide deck containing the development plan overview which is pretty much the current plan for planning the plan.
Though the entire "Statement of Public Purpose" is worth a look, the first DMC goal on a list of five reads:
Create a comprehensive strategic plan with a compelling vision that harnesses the energy and creativity of the entire community.
There was much discussion among the members of the board about this "compelling vision" that it is so very important to the endeavor. No small task to craft a vision sufficiently compelling to harness "the energy and creativity of the entire community". One suspects it will require more than the bodegas and boulevards to which we have been treated thus far. More even than the promise of jobs.
The promise of jobs by itself falls short of "compelling" as do any forecasts of economic growth. These fall short not because they are not important or necessary. On the contrary, it is because jobs and economic growth are necessary that they are not sufficiently compelling to ignite the inspiration or encompass the aspirations of a community. Work is so basic an expectation, so necessary that it rests at the base of our needs like food and shelter. As such, it does not offer a person or a community the sort of far horizon that calls us toward it with a long desire and a high heart.
Instead, in a return to where Viva City begins, "[w]e require a vision for Rochester that encompasses the connections between societal and economic progress. A plan that enhances social as well as economic value. A path of development that understands that markets are defined by societal as well as economic needs."
The economic case for the planning now being planned is pretty clear and well-rehearsed. But, to become "a compelling vision that harnesses the energy and creativity of the entire community" more is required. We require the case for the societal progress and social values that will raise our eyes from the work in front of us toward a better life that beckons from that "city on the hill" that has captured the American imagination for nearly 400 years.
We require the "compelling vision" of a destination for all our destinies. A destination that embraces the common destinies of all who live or will come to live here, harnessing their energy and creativity in service to it and the community it promises.
The economic case for the planning now being planned is pretty clear and well-rehearsed. But, to become "a compelling vision that harnesses the energy and creativity of the entire community" more is required. We require the case for the societal progress and social values that will raise our eyes from the work in front of us toward a better life that beckons from that "city on the hill" that has captured the American imagination for nearly 400 years.
We require the "compelling vision" of a destination for all our destinies. A destination that embraces the common destinies of all who live or will come to live here, harnessing their energy and creativity in service to it and the community it promises.
Monday, August 26, 2013
Previously on "The Rising Tide"
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| A rising tide lifts all boats - or so we have been asked (repeatedly) to believe. |
A testable hypothesis offered in a recent exchange of views:
...the force that's going to push up wages and income levels locally is aggressive job creation that pushes us closer to full employment -- that's the promise of DMC as proposed. Reason to be encouraged....
Consider:
(a)
- Rochester has experienced double digit average hourly wage growth in every month in the last two years (as of 02/2013). http://bit.ly/18WyMxB
- Rochester is nearing full employment. Unemployment at 4.3% as of 05/2013 (down from a high of 7.3% in 03/2010) http://1.usa.gov/1dkvSsr where full employment is generally considered to be 4% unemployment.
(b)
- At roughly the same time, the number of children receiving free and reduced lunches has increased from 6,874 to 7,698 (30.9% to 34.3%). http://bit.ly/19Iyv21
- Children receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has increased from 5,268 to 6,192 (14.7% to 17%). http://bit.ly/1din84W
(c)
- The tide seems to be rising: more people are working at a higher average wage.
- Yet, there is an increase in the number of children needing food assistance.
For further inquiry:
Even without DMC, the tide has been rising, yet all boats are not being lifted. It may be prudent to revisit the faith one has in rising tides. Likewise, of the hypothesis "...the force that's going to push up wages and income levels locally is aggressive job creation that pushes us closer to full employment..." one might usefully ask, "Is that so?"
Sunday, August 25, 2013
50 ideas for the new city: #5 | Sarvodaya
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"In some ways, it's almost like building a new city." |
Sarvodaya: the practice of economic, political, and moral justice.
All creatures are included in a quest for universal well-being; all take their just share of the abundance of our Mother Earth. There is enough for every being’s needs and not enough for a single person’s greed. All enjoy the dignity of sharing their skills and talents. We are interdependent, made of each other, inextricably interconnected.For the most part, the conversations around economic growth are driven by a "market rationality" that determines what we say yes to and what we say no to. "The market" is the privileged reason given for the way things get done.
- What if a "social rationality" were permitted to become part of the conversation?
- What if we would allow, encourage, invite, and incorporated talk that concerns itself with justice and inclusiveness?
- What would the conversation allow then.?
- How might it change?
- Who would be included who might not otherwise be included?
- What might we say yes to?
- What might we say no to?
(3) Dream + 50 | untamed king
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| "But as a practical matter it cannot be 'Now!'....."
- Post-Bulletin, August 26, 1963
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"They were on the right side of history," concludes a recent Post-Bulletin editorial about an editorial on a civil rights march that took place in Rochester, MN fifty years ago. [ "Eric Atherton: P-B erred with 'go-slow' approach to civil rights" http://bit.ly/17av5mu ].
We seem to have made a kind of peace with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's calling to civil rights. At least it is a portion of his message we have managed to tame. Yet, there was much more over on his side of history, much we choose not to recall. Dr. King also called upon us to embrace what he called a "dangerous unselfishness". His message of equality and justice was more than the dream. Five years later he would still call forth to the "promises of democracy". He would say in Memphis in March, 1968:
Now our struggle is for genuine equality, which means economic equality. For we know now, that it isn't enough to integrate lunch counters. What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn't have enough money to buy a hamburger? What does it profit a ...man to be able to eat at the swankest integrated restaurant when he doesn't even earn enough money to take his wife out to dine? What does it profit one to have access to the hotels of our cities, and the hotels of our highways, when we don't earn enough money to take our family on a vacation? What does it profit one to be able to attend an integrated school, when he doesn't earn enough money to buy his children school clothes?History will simply not let us be. Dr. King's time is still our time. Forty-five years later his "now" remains present. This portion of his message we have yet to tame, so it is mostly overlooked. But it is timely. Shall we step back into that "now", choose differently, regarding economic inclusiveness? Or, will we in city hall hear the echo of those words from an editorial 50 years ago, "...as a practical matter it cannot be 'Now!'....."?
...We are saying, 'Now is the time.' Get the word across to everybody in power in this town that now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to make an adequate income a reality for all of God's children, now is the time to make the real promises of democracy. Now is the time to make an adequate income a reality for all of God's children, now is the time for city hall to take a position for that which is just and honest. Now is the time for justice to roll down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream. Now is the time.
Half a century later, Dr. King still calls to us from the mountain top. Half a century from now, will an editorial again lament he was unheeded?
(2) Dream + 50 | like a mighty stream subject to city requirements
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| "...now is the time for city hall to take a position for that which is just and honest." |
Subject to city requirements: All projects are subject to the planning, zoning, sanitary, and building laws; ordinances; regulations; and land use plans that apply to the city.
HF667, Article 10, Sec. 6, Subd. 3, May 21, 2013
We are saying, "Now is the time." Get the word across to everybody in power in this town that now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to make an adequate income a reality for all of God's children, now is the time to make the real promises of democracy. Now is the time to make an adequate income a reality for all of God's children, now is the time for city hall to take a position for that which is just and honest. Now is the time for justice to roll down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream. Now is the time.
- Martin Luther King, Jr., March 18, 1968
(1) Dream + 50 | Jericho Road, an infrastructure parable
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| "...the whole of Jericho Road must be transformed..." |
The infrastructure required to support this growth and employment will need a different scope and scale than what’s been supported previously in Rochester.
- Infrastructure Master Plan Rochester, Minnesota, April 2, 2013
On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.
- Martin Luther King, Jr., April 4, 1967
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Boots on the ground
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| "When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen." - A.A. Milne |
The adventure awaits
Article 10 Sec. 3. Subd. 8. Medical business entity. "Medical business entity" means a medical business entity with its principal place of business in the city that, as of the effective date of this section, together with all business entities of which it is the sole member or sole shareholder, collectively employs more than 30,000 persons in the state.Safely excluding any other party in the Universe except Mayo Clinic, the definition assigns to the medical business entity two important functions:
The first function regards the creation of the Destination Medical Center Corporation and its governing board:
Article 10 Sec. 4. Subd. 2. Membership; quorum. (a) The corporation's governing board consists of eight members appointed, as follows:..This function was accomplished in the appointment of William (Bill) George, Professor of Management Practice, Harvard Business School, Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Medtronic, Inc.
(4) a representative of the medical business entity appointed by and serving at the215.19
pleasure of the medical business entity; .....
The second function regards the creation of a nonprofit economic development authority [EDA]:
Article 10 Sec. 4. Subd. 6. Nonprofit economic development agency. (a) The medical business entity must establish a nonprofit economic development agency organized under chapter 317A to provide experience and expertise in developing and marketing the destination medical center. The corporation must engage the agency to assist the corporation in preparing the development plan. The governing board of the agency must be comprised of members of the medical community, city, and county. The agency must collaborate with city, county, and other community representatives. The nonprofit agency must provide services to assist the corporation and city in implementing the goals, objectives, and strategies in the development plan.....As of this writing this has yet to be accomplished. There was little new information about the EDA at the inaugural meeting the DMCC governing board other than its popular description by folks at Mayo Clinic as "boots on the ground". The EDA has long, wide-reaching, and varied list of its responsibilities:
Article 10 Sec. 4. Subd. 6.(cont'd) ...including, but not limited to:For all the ceremony attending the inaugural meeting of the DMCC governing board, for all of that board's Important Persons, the action will be with the EDA. The governing board is theatre. The EDA will be all that the idiomatic military phrase used to describe it suggests. "Will be" because it remains at the moment, yet to be.
(1) facilitating private investment through development of a comprehensive
marketing program to global interests;
(2) developing and updating the criteria for evaluating and underwriting development proposals;
(3) drafting and implementing the development plan, including soliciting and evaluating proposals for development and evaluating and making recommendations to the authority and the city regarding those proposals;
(4) providing transactional services in connection with approved projects
(5) developing patient, visitor, and community outreach programs for a destination medical center development district;
(6) working with the corporation to acquire and facilitate the sale, lease, or other transactions involving land and real property;
(7) seeking financial support for the corporation, the city, and a project;
(8) partnering with other development agencies and organizations, the city, and the county in joint efforts to promote economic development and establish a destination medical center;
(9) supporting and administering the planning and development activities required to implement the development plan;
(10) preparing and supporting the marketing and promotion of the medical center development district;
(11) preparing and implementing a program for community and public relations in support of the medical center development district;
(12) assisting the corporation or city and others in applications for federal grants, tax credits, and other sources of funding to aid both private and public development; and
(13) making other general advisory recommendations to the corporation and the city, as requested.
For all the pronouncements at the inaugural meeting of the DMCC governing board about "the fun" now beginning, be reminded of A.A. Milne's pronouncement above:
"When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen."
It will be of interest to see upon whose feet the Big Boots are put, not to mention what happens when they at last hit the ground. Then will the DMC adventure really begin.
Furst things first, cont'd
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| "Never argue with a man who buys ink by the barrel" |
Jay Furst responded to the post Furst things first on Facebook. Despite the proverbial warning about doing so, I appreciate very much the exchange. The thread appears below:
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