Monday, August 26, 2013

Previously on "The Rising Tide"


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

"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

"But as a practical matter it cannot be 'Now!'....."
- Post-Bulletin, August 26, 1963

"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?

...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.
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!'....."?

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




"...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


"...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

 "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


Mayo Clinic appears in three main places in the legislation that funded the Destination Medical Center. Not by name, but by definition as the "medical business entity."
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:..
(4) a representative of the medical business entity appointed by and serving at the215.19
pleasure of the medical business entity; .....
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.

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:
   (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 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.

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

"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:

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Furst things first



I was going to write about "boots on the ground" - and may yet still - but, Jay Furst has asked some fair questions on his FB page about "The nature of things". So, Furst things first:
Not sure what to make of this type of criticism of DMC and "building that thing": Should Mayo and Rochester only push for high-wage job creation? How would that happen? Are low-wage jobs worse than no jobs at all? What's the point of this argument?
First of all, though the Viva City post in question is intended to be part of the conversation we are having regarding "DMC" and what continues to gather around it, it is not a criticism of DMC per se. The post is based in part upon the "Destination Medical Center Jobs Impacts," a forecast of DMC job growth dated 03.15.2013. The post does appropriate the "let's build this thing" t-shirt, but more in service of a conceit than a critique. And yes, so far this may be a quibble, but perhaps in the quibbling comes a bit more clarity of intent.

Should Mayo and Rochester only push for high-wage job creation?

The short answer is, No. But, the question misconstrues the concern. The distinction that makes the difference that matters more is not between high-wage jobs or no jobs, or even simply high-wage jobs and low-wage jobs. What matters more is the difference between jobs that pay wages, provide benefits, and open opportunities that will sustain families and allow them to prosper and jobs that do not. Also, I would not place the implications of the question upon Mayo.

If the question can be rephrased: "Should Rochester only push for jobs that pay wages, provide benefits, and open opportunities that will sustain families and allow them to prosper?" the only answer is, "Yes." I would be especially interested in how an official of the city (or county or state) would justify answering otherwise.

How would that happen?

A fair question and the first answers will sound snarky, but are not. How would that happen? It would happen on purpose and can happen no other way. What comes of all this economic growth will come as the result of choices made (and being made daily) in this community. The only body that has (or should have) the authority to determine what these choices are is the city council. For more important to our common futures than having a choice, are the choices from which we have to choose. If we are lead to believe or assume that the only choice we have is that reflected in another of the questions above: "low-wage job or no job", then we are being ill-served.

What then might we ask of the city to do on purpose to push for jobs that pay wages, provide benefits, and open opportunities that will sustain families and allow them to prosper?
(1) Take seriously and defend jealousy its role in the approval process for any development plans brought before it.

(2) In the exercise of that role, balance the public and private interests as well as the common good of the community. The instrument available for it to do so is its own general plan for development to which all other plans must conform. In its own plans establish the alignment of urban growth and economic development with other vital community interests such as jobs that pay wages, provide benefits, and open opportunities that will sustain families and allow them to prosper.

(3) Carefully attend to the criteria and process for evaluating and underwriting development proposals in a manner that employs strategies such as community benefit agreements, health impact assessments, and poverty impact statements, and other planning and policy tools that address the consequences of the structure, policies, and practices of our local economy as it grows.

Of course, for "that to happen" we all must take on this purpose - or enough of us. Other parties in this planning of our futures might take it up as well, each in their way: the DMCC, the economic development authority, the county, the chamber, non-profits, neighborhoods, faith communities, etc.

Are low-wage jobs worse than no jobs at all?

Recall I said Jay asked some fair questions. Most of them are. This question is not. Perhaps in the abstract it is an interesting question for it is densely packed with moral implications that would serve well to elicit some very basic assumptions we hold. Perhaps it was posed in that way. If however, this question is posed as a serious question of policy, one whose answer would guide decisions, then there is no easy way to say this: as a serious question of policy, "Are low-wage jobs worse than no jobs at all?" is morally hazardous* in its implications and consequences. *(And, please, this is no characterization of the person posing the question.)

What's the point of this argument?

I take the question here to not refer to "argument" as a fight, but rather, "argument" as a discussion (see) If that is the case and we are speaking here of a conversation about topics about which reasonable people might have honest differences, in that context, with regard to these issues, the point of this argument is to have it.