Northfield Downtown Development Corporation

Economic development can be undermined by a variety of natural disasters, including high winds, high water, bad plans, worse implementation, autocratic administrators or listless leaders. I have always had an interest in these types of events, because I truly believe that we can learn from history.

As you know from previous blog entries, I am of the opinion that the Arts can give a boost to Economic Development. In particular, I think music can help attract the technical and artistic innovators that can create our economic future.

As you also know from previous blog entries, I read a lot of media. I’m always looking for the random good idea in the wide variety of words that are served up daily, monthly quarterly or annually.

And finally, as you know from my now-discontinued column in the Northfield News, I’ve got a thing for New Orleans. It has an atmosphere that makes it an attractive destination to visit and in which to spend money.

In the November-December issue of No Depression (which I obtained at Fine Groove Records in downtown Northfield), a magazine dedicated to Alt.Country (whatever that is), there was an article about the progress in rebuilding New Orleans that pulled together these various threads. I’d like to quote a segment for you:

In an office in the School of Architecture, the University of Missouri at Kansas City…

Out here on the prairie, not far from where Mike West scans the flat, dry horizon, Jacob W. Wagner has been taking a lot of phone calls. A few weeks ago he was just an anonymous young professor of urban planning at UMKC, but suddenly he’s become the target of newspaper and radio interviewers because of qualifications that have turned him into an expert of extraordinary relevance.

Wagner wrote his dissertation in urban studies just last year at the University of New Orleans. His focus was New Orleans, how it worked and threatened not to work. When he wasn’t tapping on computer keyboards or poring over library records, he was usually on his way to play mandolin at the Cigar Bar, uptown on Tchoupitoulas Street, or at any number of clubs in the Quarter where he might pick up a gig with Ricky Castrillo’s band.

It wasn’t full-time, but Wagner knew how it felt to play for tourists as well as locals. “The thing is, people in New Orleans go out to hear music,” he says, almost incredulously. “Imagine that: Americans getting up from behind their TVs, going out, and participating in this celebration of life through music!”

It says something about both Wagner and his adopted city that romance and mystery are as important as academics in his view of New Orleans. “It has a seductive allure,” he suggests. “It turns people into natives, whether they like it or not, and they begin to appreciate the decay that’s all around them. They become what Malcom Heard, at the architecture school calls ‘optimistic activists’ - people who fight for preservation and are hopeful about the future.

“That,” Wagner insists, “is what we need right now. We don’t need more Wal-Marts. We don’t need suburbanization. We don’t need builders who would build another Houston. We need people who will build new structures that respect the history and urban fabric of New Orleans. I’m talking about lot sizes, the density of neighborhoods, and the orientation toward the street. This is a walking city and a street-car city from the 19th century”.

Beyond infrastructure, Wagner believes that attitudes about housing need to be revolutionized, based on pre-20th-century practices. “We’ve abandoned the idea, in the United States, of building arts and replaced it with building in mass production,” he says. “We don’t just mass-produce automobiles and hamburgers. it’s also buildings and neighborhoods now. But that’s exactly what can’t happen in New Orleans. You have to work house by house”.

Only then, Wagner believes, is it possible for the city’s culture to revive. “The issue is street culture, which is the engine of new creativity,” he points out.

Unfortunately, street culture, like so many sources of creativity, can be messy. It lacks the tidiness, or sterility, of mass production and suburbanization.

Our “Authentic Downtown” wasn’t created out of the tidiness of mass production. I’m sure, at some times and to some people, it seemed as messy as pure chaos. There might even have a few folks who wanted to hire out-of-town consultants to produce a plan where all the light poles were matching and all the sidewalks were paved with decorative masonry products.

Fortunately for us, at least those of us who love our authentic downtown, those technical and artistic innovators that created Northfield, also known as entrepreneurs, had ideas of their own. In the three-year period that we’ve managed to produce a Streetscape Plan, they built the Bjoraker Building, the Scofield Building and the Scriver Building, works of art, at least in my mind, that continue to inspire people over a hundred years later.

The technical and artisitc innovators that can create our economic future are not inspired by Wal-Mart, suburbs or Houston. They are inspired by the Cigar Bar, dynamic downtowns and New Orleans. If we wish to jump-start our economic development, our “Investment Document” should be guided by the innovators’ inspirations.

In today’s (11/25/05) Star Tribune there were several entries that caught my attention. They all fell into the rather loose category of “Good Ideas from Other Places”.

First, there was the story about the Liquor Pigs playing a Happy Hour gig at the Viking Bar. Having worked a couple of jobs on, and thoroughly investigated the night life of, the West Bank of Minneapolis for almost ten years, there’s a soft spot in my heart for that neighborhood. In fact, I’ll have to head down to the Fine Groove and ask Brian to order me a copy of their new release, Last Album. Any album with a tune named “Jesus at Palmer’s”, where Spider John Koerner bartended for years, is, at least in my opinion, worth checking out.

Spider John Koerner

But that’s not why I bring it up. It’s the concept of the Happy Hour gig that caught my attention. My friend, fellow musician and brother-in-law twice-removed(?) Jon Bjork raised the idea to me a few weeks ago. He pointed out that as many of us get well north of thirty, those shows that start at nine or ten and go ’til midnight or so get to be a bit of a challenge. Sure, there’s the thrill of now and then going out to prove that you’ve still got it in you but more often than not, it wouldn’t be a bad thing to pop in to a local establishment, say hello to a few friends, grab a beverage and hear a few tunes…and be home with the better part of the evening yet in front of you. That five to seven show is an idea that I think is worth pursuing.

And speaking of “third places”, those gathering spots other than home or workplace where community is built, there was a mention of a Hurricane Relief Benefit concert at the Cedar Cultural Center. It is a cool collaboration between local musicians, a local restaurant and a local music venue. Although I’ll admit that familiar names Butch Thompson, New Riverside Ramblers and Willie Murphy caught my eye, it was another reminder of this old movie theatre being turned into a community resource.

My friend, fellow community developer and Zen Master, Bardwell Smith and I have set up the Ad Hoc Coffee Klatch to Save the Social Life of 20-Somethings (and Older) from Cultural Dearth and Despair and thus Promote Economic Vitality throughout Our Beloved Town. Don’t be intimidated by the impressive name, it’s an informal group that seeks to get greater leverage out of existing assets.

The idea is to pump a little more excitement into our community through casual conversation about and low-key encouragement of additional programming on so-called “dark nights” downtown. Although we’ve really only held one official meeting, ideas already generated include “Tuesday Night Films” (one guess who’s idea it was for this night’s theme), “Wednesday Night Dinner Theater or Comedy Cabaret” (Bardwell and I have yet to find consensus on this night’s programming theme) and “The Thursday Night Klub Krawl featuring Regional Heavy-weights on their Slow Nights” (we’re still working on a catchier title). As you might guess, one of my first goals is to have Spider John Koerner play in town.

Koerner, Ray and Glover back in the Sixties

Then there was a, in my opinion, brilliant Guest Column by a Shop Owner about the effect of seemingly small decisions on both the local and world economies by “contributing to the economic flow”. Referencing George Bailey in “It’s A Wonderful LIfe”, she describes her philosophy:

I believe that even the smallest actions, practiced often, make things flow. It means leaving an extra dollar or two when tipping a waitress, it means buying the tree at the lot down the street, it means balancing trips to the big box superstores with visits to charming neighborhood stores are are owned by small-business people like me.

By the way, I hope someone has informed the Press Police that the Strib has committed an apparently unnatural act of allowing a nonprofessional to write a column instead of a letter to the editor. As we Northfielders can attest, if you give those mere citizens a chance to express their opinions in such an official capacity, soon they’ll start expecting it as a basic right in a free society.

Finally, since I’ve been completely turned into Barbara Flannigan by this exercise, how about creating a ice skating rink on Ames Mill Park. I know that some folks have rejected what I believe to be a Brilliant Idea by Mary Rossing to create the Cereal Bowl Bandshell and Giant Cow Icon in this park because for one week out of the year we have out-of-town carneys come to set up rides on this city-owned land. However, the carneys aren’t here in the winter so why not get more use of that park than a toilet for geese. Perhaps we could give an additional boost to our economic development plan by stimulating the sales at both Village on the Cannon and The Crossing to Retired Lutheran Ministers who Used to Play Hockey by the creation of the downtown skating rink.

…and did you know that Spider John Koerner had a reputation on the West Bank for being a darn good hockey player in the pick-up games down at Riverside Park on the West Bank? (Better get the official fact-checkers looking into that statement.) Yet another opportunity for celebrating our rich and varied culture here in the North Star State.

Oh my, I’m well over 800 words…time to go. Look for another self-indulgent blog entry, coming soon, this time on fascinating facts about the two finalists for the City Administrator job gleaned by my service on the Citizens’ Interview Group.

The City Staff and Consultants announced their recommendations for the 2006 Downtown Improvement Projects yesterday. The list contains the Library Plaza, Decorative Fencing for Parking Lots, Arches at the Entrances to the River, Wayfinding Signage and more Benches and Planters. Notably absent are the Bike Racks and Newpaper Corrals.

In our opinion, all of the things on the list are fine. Some of them are even great. However, the total cost the list of recommendations will probably be over $200,000; it’s already at $164,000 and an estimate for the Decorative Fencing has not yet been obtained. The Bike Racks and Newspaper Corrals together, including installation, would be under $10,000.

The NDDC has been advocating for Bike Racks and Newspaper Corrals since 2003. Although there are certainly some downtown building and business owners that are no doubt enthusiastic about a number of the items on the list of recommendations, nothing gets mentioned to me more often in person, by phone or through e-mail than the bikes being chained to signs or trees and the unsightly huddle of newspaper boxes in front of business entrances.

We’re talking about spending less than 5% of one year’s Downtown Improvement Project budget on the two items that are most often requested. Don’t make us launch a “5% for Bike Racks” campaign, we’ve got better things to do with our time. Please, just install them.

At the November 17th EDA Meeting, consultant John Slack presented his findings on the potential development of the so-called “Q Block“. He told the group that one of the ways that he got a sense of the iimportant issues was to read the various community blogs. EDA Member Rick Estenson said, “If you read the blogs, you must be aware of the discussion on the possibility of a traffic light at 3rd and 3. Do you have an opinion on that light?”

John Slack then spent nearly 15 minutes discussing the importance of installing a traffic light at that location. He cited economic development, the connection of the Westside neighborhoods with downtown, the improvement of east-west transportation and pedestrian safety.

He described a similar situation in downtown Minneapolis where a new residential neighborhood had been created and the people wanted a traffic light installed. At first, MNDOT resisted, 1500 e-mails later, they installed the light…on their dime.

He concluded by saying, “You can talk all you want about pedestrian friendly but unless you actually do something, that’s all it is…talk”.

I’m sure that EDA Member Tracy Davis will also mention this topic in her blog entry on the meeting…

While doing research for a recent project (more on that later), I discovered something of interest to me. I thought it might be of interest to you too.

According Clifford Clark, Professor of History at Carleton College, in his outstanding essay “Evolution of a Community” in the book Northfield: The History and Architecture of a Community, John North graduated from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. As some of you may remember from a previous blog entry, I, too, am a graduate of Wesleyan.

Commenting on North, Clark says that “at Wesleyan, he was swept up in the abolitionist crusade and became an agent for the Connecticut Anti-Slavery Society, traveling through New England and lecturing against slavery.” Clark goes on to say that North moved to this area of Minnesota motivated by “his hope to establish a new community whose citizens would share his commitment to education, abolitionism, evangelical religion and temperance”.

According to Clark, “one of North’s earliest actions was to found Northfield’s first civic organization, the Northfield Lyceum Society”. The purpose of the Society was to create “an association for the purpose of establishing a Reading Room, Circulating Library, and Debating Society”.

So for those who complain of Northfield’s tendencies toward education, human rights, moral activism and spirited debate, you’re in the wrong town. Those aspects of our community have been part of this town from its very beginnings — intentionally.