Northfield Downtown Development Corporation

The front page story in Sunday’s Strib continued an emerging theme, that arts-based development to attract the creative class may be the key to our economic development future. As I mentioned recently, this has always been a guiding concept at the NDDC. With all the recent attention to this topic, however, it is time to move forward, and quickly, putting words into action.

The Strib article, Building on the Arts, written by one of my heroes, Linda Mack (my meeting of her at a cocktail party about 10 years ago was literally one of the high points of my cultural life) and an old friend, Kristin Tillotson (she once read stories to my young daughters at a garden party at my house one summer…yes, in Northfield), focuses largely on the marketing power of the new cultural spaces created in Minneapolis. The spaces listed are the Guthrie Theater, the Walker Art Center, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Children’s Theater Company, and the Minneapolis Central Library (yes, the library). The article discusses the national attention that these new spaces have earned for Minneapolis, and Minnesota, and the potential attraction of economic development that they may stimulate.

Of particular interest to me, and perhaps a more finely grained exploration of the topic, was the the potential contribution to recruiting efforts that these developments may bring. Former State Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Economic Trade and Development, Rebecca Yanisch, said that the members of the creative economy “are drawn to the quality of Minnesota’s cultural attractions”. Director of Corporate Compensation and Benefits for Cargill, Jill Schulz, said that the arts scene “clearly plays a role in recruiting”. Steve Sanger, Chairman and Chief Executive at General Mills, concluded that the arts “are important assets that we emphasize when recuriting talent from outside our region”.

With the NDDC long advocating that Northfield’s economic future may be found in innovations of the creative class and TIP Strategies suggesting that retaining and returning Carleton and St. Olaf graduates be one of our three economic development priorities, the expansion (and/or enhancement) of the Public Library (downtown, of course) appears to be rich in potential returns for the wise investors. So let’s keep this ball rolling, agree on the possibilities, potentialities and priorities, and conceive, plan and build a library expansion that markets Northfield within the region and catches the attention of the emerging leaders of the creative class.

I attended Don Tarr’s funeral today. Don is pictured here, two weeks ago today, doing the Locally Grown podcast, raising the issue of Workforce Housing in Northfield. Three weeks ago today, Don was touring the site of the Building for Creative Professionals with the State of Minnesota. It’s hard to believe he’s gone; it’s even harder to believe we’re going to have to do it all without him.

As reported in a variety of outlets, Don played big roles in the Northfield Arts Guild, the American Friends of the Asian Rural Institute, the United Church of Christ, the Northfield Area Foundation, the Northfield Housing and Redevelopment Authority, the Manger Inn, the Community Land Trust, and Health Finders. Don didn’t just show up to meetings, Don actually worked.

Northfield runs on volunteer efforts. At the NDDC, I’m blessed with 12 board members and at least an equal number of community advisors who do quite a bit of work. In fact, as part of a grant application, I once figured out how many hours a week the NDDC gets from volunteers. I didn’t just pull a number out of the sky, I totalled up all the meetings, projects and gatherings and it was pretty clear that we get about 50 hours a week of volunteer work.

I ran the same calculation for Don. Those of you who knew him well realized that he worked seven days a week. I’ll bet he put in about 70 hours a week in volunteer work for Northfield, maybe more.

So, to try to fill Don’s shoes, we’ll need 10 hours for the NAG, 10 hours for the ARI, 10 hours for the UCC, 10 hours for NAF, 10 hours for the HRA, 10 hours for the Manger Inn, 10 hours for the CLT, and 10 hours for Health FInders, per week.

So please, step up to help fill Don’s shoes. Another challenge will be to do so with Don’s genuine joy of giving and providing service to others. Perhaps the greatest challenge will be to do so with his unflagging sense of humor that made it such a pleasure to work with him.

Tim Sellars, owner of Tiny’s Dogs All Day, has caught the fever. Even though he knows little more about the Global Game than I do…and that’s next to nothing…he’s decided to join in all the excitement and broadcast both games live, one in each of the two dining areas of his place. Tim believes that Tiny’s is the only non-alcohol, non-smoking World Cup watching venue on earth.

At great personal sacifice, I decided to study this phenomena more closely. I repeatedly swung into Tiny’s yesterday to take note of the action.

At 10 am, it was a banker, a developer and a shrubber (hey Leif, is that the official title or can’t you believe everything you hear on Monty Python?) sitting at the counter trying to figure out the rules of the game. At 2 pm, there were at least 8 high school soccer players, who not only knew the rules but the players’ stats. At 4 pm (pictured here), it was three college students who seemed to be appreciating the air conditioned atmosphere and chilled root beer as much as the soccer games.

Tiny’s will serve fans of all persuasions, even those of Brazil and Germany. However, Tim told me that Tiny’s officially backs the Netherlands.

Maybe there’s a special for those wearing orange…

Last night Griff Wigley and I met at the Cow to discuss high-speed internet and economic development but the place was a rockin’ so there was no talkin’…

(…except during the breaks.)

Jellystone Yogi (Peter Diggins on guitar, Joel Cooper on bass and George Marich on drums) was laying down the grooves and about twenty spanish teachers at a program at Carleton College were putting up the moves.

The 40-something musicians and dancers were creating such energy that they attracted the attention of some Northfield High School students, who watched in amazement from the pedestrian bridge.

There’s more excitement tonight, when Peter and Joel return to the Cow with the Prairie Creek Group, one of the most buzzed about groups on the local scene.

Come on down(town) and check them out.

Late morning update: Prairie Creek Group’s “Celebrate the Summer” gig–”full sound” 5 member band playing an eclectic mix of styles, from country to rock (Alisa Leonard lead vocals and keys, Tom Leonard drums, Peter Diggins guitar and vocals, Bo Aylin guitar and vocals, Joel Cooper bass and backup vocals).

In my previous blog entry on the NDDC’s recent Library Forum, I mentioned the presentation of Carleton Librarian Sam Demas. I had promised to share more of Sam’s remarks with you.

Sam had recently travelled the world studying libraries. He found some pretty cool concepts. I would like to share three of them with you.

First, there was the Quarter House in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Quarter House was a five-story, historic factory structure that was converted into a library. The library also included office spaces for creative professionals and a sidewalk cafe, bringing some of these not obviously but clearly related uses together. It indicated to me that although reusing our historic library and a multiple level library could be challenging, the Quarter House makes clear that it can be done.

Second, there was the Library 10 in Helsinki, Finland. This library was specifically marketed to young males, if I remember correctly, between the ages of 25 and 35. In addition to having musical insturments and recording equipment available on site, this library turned into a music club at night. It made me think that perhaps the library could help us meet one of our economic development challenges, attracting and retaining workers in that particular age group.

Third, there was the library in Vancouver. It, like the new library in downtown Minneapolis, has an atrium. According to the designers, atriums give the libary a mall feel that encourages people to use the space for community gathering. In addition to making me think of a place for Bridge Square Band Concerts in February, the atrium seemed like the perfect approach to “crossing 3rd Street” with the library structure to connect it with expanded space and structured parking to the south.

Sam’s presentation really helped me “think outside the box”. That’s what I think we need to do in order to keep this important anchor in our downtown.

The next opportunity for discussing the future of the Northfield Public Library is at the League of Woman’s Voters Fourth Monday Forum this Monday (6/26) night, 7 pm, at the downtown library.